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Chapter 101.

"Oh! Amazing! Magic?"

"Well, rather than magic, it’s a magic trick with a hand skill."

"What hand skill is that? Can it be done by someone barely capable of using magic like me?"

I pretended to put my handkerchief in my pocket but instead placed it in my pocket space and answered, "It depends how much you practice.”

Saying so, I lightly stuck a coin between my index and middle finger and showed him. Then I quickly increased the number of coins to two, then to three, and then reduced it back to one. As the coins repeatedly increased and decreased in quantity, Flam looked at my hand in astonishment.

I gave a small smile and taught him the principles of the skill. "I hid the coins here in my sleeve, and then I used the snap of my wrist to pull them out."

Of course, the coins were originally placed in my sleeve by taking them out from my pocket space.

It was the end of the year, and New Year’s Day was in a few days, so I tried a magic trick to celebrate the New Year, but the reception was unexpectedly good. Shall I show it again at the boarding house later?

"So that’s how it was done, but it’s still amazing."

As Flam and I were chatting, the civil servant in charge of my probationary training evaluation pointed at Flam. “Be quiet over there.”

“Oh, ok.” After getting put on the spot, Flam shut his mouth with a red face and looked straight ahead.

Currently, Flam and I were at the ceremony department, one of the departments in the imperial palace, for the last probationary training. The training at the Red Magic Tower was kind of just skipped due to the unexpected collapse of the magic tower, which was handled as an unknown cave-in accident.

Fortunately, they used the score that the trainees had received so far, so my grades were lowered. My efforts to try and reduce my score in the first half of the training ended up bearing fruit. Still, it was a close call, as I was still in the top rank, but I couldn’t help it.

After the magic tower, I trained for a week during class in the mercenary alliance. After that, my final training commenced. In the ceremony department where I was currently receiving probationary training, they mainly focused on hosting and supporting national events or welcoming important foreign personnel. It was a pretty important department, and perhaps because they had a large budget, their workplace was large and nice, but I wasn’t exactly sent to this department by chance.

Just like the New Year’s Martial Arts Competition that I was being trained to volunteer at, the New Year’s Festival would feature various events organized by the imperial family. Therefore, most of the trainees were sent to the ceremony department to help cover multiple events during the New Year’s Festival.

To be honest, it felt more like being hired as a day laborer instead of being a trainee. The trainees were given training at an imperial department while simultaneously getting used as a labor force for a short period of time, allowing the Empire to avoid wasting money on acquiring labor. From the Empire’s perspective, it was killing two birds with one stone.

It seems they had a really good head for saving money. Still, this wasn’t bad for me. If it was like this, it was highly likely that they would overlook mistakes I made on purpose. Although I would have to be careful, I decided to slowly get point deductions and lower my score into a safe range.

* * *

Zantes, the crown prince of the Empire, sighed in the carriage.

"Your Royal Highness, the Crown Prince. You are sighing. Is there something causing you discomfort?"

When the servant on standby next to him asked with a worried face, Zantes smiled bitterly. "How could I possibly be uncomfortable? I’m more comfortable than ever, so don’t worry."

The servant bowed his head and said yes.

Zantes was in an environment where he could not feel uncomfortable even if he wanted to. The carriage was plastered with all sorts of magic. The carriage shook so little that he couldn’t even discern whether he was sitting in a carriage or his bedroom.

The chair on which he was resting his arm was an expensive sofa made of precious wood. In addition, if the Crown Prince was thirsty, the carriage had a refrigerator and a magic kettle installed so that he could drink cold beverages and warm tea. If he was bored, he could read a book from the bookshelf in the corner of the carriage.

Yet, all that made Zantes feel uncomfortable. He felt stifled at the sight of the servant rigidly watching his manners as if he was a cog in a machine. Zantes needed to maintain strict discipline and tradition as the next emperor, but he was too young to uphold all that.

He enjoyed learning the sword more than how to fulfill government affairs, and instead of reading the writings of the old scholars in the library, he preferred to read the autobiographies of adventurers secretly.

Passion and enthusiasm. Those two words were the words used to describe Zantes. However, in reality, his appearance displayed the state of his passion, bottled up and trapped. And most of all, the person he was going to meet now made Zantes the most uncomfortable.

"Your Highness, we have arrived."

Hearing the knight’s voice from outside, Zantes rid himself of his sighs and gloom, rising from his seat with a bright display of confidence.

"Here you are, Your Highness." As soon as Zantes got up from his seat, a competent servant immediately came prepared with a cane before he said anything.

The cane was a symbol of a gentleman. It was somewhat incomprehensible to the young Zantes, but it would have been rude to the guest not to hold a cane during formal situations. Just like going in a fancy suit, shoes and white socks. Strange things seemed to be considered rude, but that was just naturally the law in the world of nobles.

The crown prince confidently stepped out of the carriage with the cane. High-ranking knights stood guard on the left and right sides of the carriage door. In front of Zantes, there was a stone statue of a goddess that looked sacred, and behind that, a huge temple was showing off its majesty.

"Welcome to the Great Temple, Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince." Fernando, the cardinal of the Great Temple, approached Zantes with a cane. Fernando wasn’t holding the ceremonial wand and instead was using a cane to support himself.

As Zantes noticed this, he was able to deduce that the cardinal’s wide-spread robes were intended to mask Fernando’s uncomfortable movements. Fernando wanted to conceal it as much as he could, but it was not enough to avoid Zantes’s sharp eyes, which were trained from dealing with the old raccoons in the political world.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Cardo Fernando."

"Those are unnecessary words. May God bless you always." Fernando smiled benevolently and drew the cross sign.

The crown prince looked at Fernando with a warm smile and drew the same sign. "May God bless you, too."

Zantes sharply observed Fernando’s complexion as he drew the sign. Fernando was a typical hard-liner in the temple. Most of the temple’s hard-liners did not express their feelings, but they hated the imperial family for having destroyed the temple’s old glory. As such, it would be normal for Fernando to Zantes.

Yet, he couldn’t find any signs of this hatred from Fernando at all. In other words, the cardinal before him was hiding his feelings deep in his heart like a serpent that had been tied up for a thousand years.

Of course, he took into account the possibility that Fernando might be favorable to the imperial family, unlike other hard-liners. Despite this, Zantes leaned towards believing that Fernando was more of a snake than favorable towards the imperial family. This was because Fernando was one of the few people who survived despite rebelling against his grandfather, the Blood Emperor.

Zantes swallowed his saliva as he was guided into the Great Temple, his mouth becoming dry. The reason why the crown prince himself came to the Great Temple was to ask for the attendance of Saintess Hillis at this New Year’s Festival, as she was staying at the Great Temple.

Since New Year’s Day was an important event to welcome the new year, the saintess personally blessing the Empire would not only move the people but was also a good political gesture for the imperial family. As such, Fernando would use whatever method he could think of to refuse.

Having sensed that the cardinal was more of a snake than expected, Zantes judged that the negotiation would be quite difficult and hardened his heart. Then again, Zantes’s thoughts became complicated, noticing the fact that this snake wasn’t able to hide all of his movements.

Zantes wondered if the rumor about the cardinal was true. The rumor stated that the cardinal’s wounds caused from fighting the heretics a few months ago were still not completely healed. He strolled around inside the Great Temple and pondered how to use this knowledge.

* * *

"Ha-ap!"

Chaeng!

Around sunset, I was in the middle of entering the boarding house after work. Yet, hearing the sounds of weapons clashing behind the residence, I turned my feet towards the garden in the back.

Kang! Kang!

There, Lisbon and Alphonso were sparring with a practice sword that lacked a blade. Although I had seen them train together, it was the first time that I had seen the two of them spar with each other.

Thinking that I should watch them for once before heading in, I put my commuting bag on a table in the garden and sat down on a chair. It would have been nice to have a can of beer and chew on dried squid legs while watching, but neither were available in the capital. (1)

Although it would be difficult, it was possible to get dried squid in the capital for a great expense, but canned beer was something that didn’t even exist in the first place. It’s too bad.

The spar between Lisbon and Alphonso was not bad to watch. Alphonso lacked skill but utilized his battle race physique when attacking Lisbon. Lisbon, on the other hand, compensated for his lack of strength with his skills and boldness.

As Alphonso attempted a large diagonal cut upwards, Lisbon quickly retreated three steps. Aiming for the gap caused by Alphonso’s big move, Lisbon quickly charged and targeted Alphonso’s shoulder.

Seeing the sword stabbing towards his right shoulder, Alphonso generated armor with mana. Rather than this being an advanced self-defense technique, it was an instant armor made by pouring mana into the hem of his garment.

Kang!

The bluish mana armor and the blunt sword collided, the sharp sound of iron colliding ringing out. Alphonso’s method just now was what 10-year-olds with good sense would often do back in my hometown. It was a method that I also learned when I was five years old from being thrown in front of a monster.

So other battle races used it too. I didn’t know that.

When his stab was blocked, Lisbon immediately lifted his sword and struck down right away. Alphonso raised his sword to block before he could regain his posture.

Kang!

Alphonso blocked it, unable to position himself properly. Under normal conditions, the other person wouldn’t have been able to block the attack, so it was a victory for Lisbon, but Alphonso was able to stop it with his strong physique and instinctive mana control.

Ssss-Kang!

Lisbon didn’t pull back the blocked sword but instead interlocked with Alphonso’s sword and slid down. Then, he hit Alphonso’s sword guard with a powerful strike.

It was clearly meant to smack down Alphonso’s wrist. Oh my gosh. Was that the Pushover Lisbon that I knew?

It was a quick and bold move without mercy. This time, even Alphonso’s physique was not able to withstand it, and his sword was clearly moved out of position.

When Alphonso grabbed his left wrist with his right hand, Lisbon pulled his sword toward his body then moved it downward.

I was wondering if the spar was about to finish, but Lisbon quickly struck his sword upwards and completely sent Alphonso’s sword flying.

When Alphonso’s sword fell to the ground, Lisbon put his sword in the sheath. Only then did Lisbon start making a fuss while approaching Alphonso.

Notes: 1) Dried squid legs are a popular snack that’s commonly eaten while drinking in Korea.