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This idea occurred to Lucien when the surroundings in the black forest became more and more familiar to him. He remembered that, after he found Fire Wolf dead, he buried his two magic items there.

During the past couple of months, Lucien had gained a better understanding of the inner structures of the two magic items, Fire Weaver Bracelet, and the black iron dagger, called Grimsteel Dagger, and had also become capable of properly using them.

That was why Lucien was being that confident when he was talking to the princess. What was out of his expectation was that, although Aaron was only a level two knight, he was surprisingly cautious, and his carefulness forced Lucien to spend more time on killing him. Also, Lucien did not expect that Natasha would come back within such a short period of time.

Although Lucien was not sure whether Natasha witnessed everything or just a part, he clearly heard Natasha repeat the word "Professor".

...

A little while before Lucien pull out the bracelet.

Natasha gradually started to get an upper hand in this fighting. Although Tod’s body was fully materialized into iron, he felt the great power in each of Natasha’s attacks, and he could tell that the aura surrounding her had changed.

The princess’ movement was becoming more and more aggressive, and her whole will was dedicated to this fight. Her attacks were as fast as raindrops hitting the ground. Even Natasha herself had no idea how many times she wielded her sword.

She did not feel tired anymore. She could not feel it.

The color of her eyes switched back and forth from silver gray to purple, and finally the two colors blended. At the same time, Natasha’s soul and body integrated.

With a sudden shout, the princess burst out great power. Her legs were bent slightly and then fiercely pushed off the ground with her maximum force.

She bounced up high and, at the same time, lifted up her sword with both of her hands.

Tod looked up and decided to fight back, since it seemed his tactic of attrition was not going to work anyway.

He lifted the square shield in front of him and adjusted the angle of his wrist a bit, so his sword would target Natasha’s waist.

However, by the time Tod lifted his sword, Natasha’s figure suddenly became transparent, and the great power of her sword was like from another world, which directly hacked his shield into two halves.

As a matter of fact, what was hacked into halves was more than Tod’s iron shield, but also his own body. The iron shield did not manage to reduce the great momentum of the sword at all.

The astonished look on his face suddenly froze when he was split into halves.

"Bang!"

Tod’s iron skin was still covered by metal when his body fell on the ground, colliding with his sword and making a loud metallic sound.

Natasha landed heavily and quickly rolled over to the side. After gasping a few times for air, she stood up and started to rush back for Lucien.

When she arrived, Natasha ran into the scene where Lucien was kneeling on the ground, looking rather weak, and the dark knight was about to stab his dagger toward Lucien’s back.

At that moment when Natasha was about to jump out to rescue Lucien, she saw that Lucien activated his magic shield again, and then, Lucien pulled out a scarlet bracelet from the dirt.

She heard the dark knight calling Lucien... Professor.

Natasha’s mind suddenly buzzed.

She recalled that the Church did mention a dark red bracelet missing in the case related to Professor.

The potion that helped Lucien with activating his Blessing... the missing heretic who was following Lucien from Argent Horn... Lucien’s great interest in the ancient books... and his great memory... and the fact that Lucien suddenly showed up tonight from the magic lock.

"Professor...?!"

Natasha could not find any excuse to lie to herself.

...

Lucien could tell the mixed emotions in Natasha’s beautiful eyes, in which there was astonishment, pain, sadness and anger.

Grabbing the bracelet tightly in his hand, Lucien was ready to activate it at any time, although he clearly knew that, facing a level five grand knight, these spells would not really work.

At the same time, there was a voice in Lucien’s mind telling him that he might still be able to lie to the princess again, to make another garbled story.

When Lucien was about to talk, Natasha said to him first, in a deep and low voice, "Go to Holm, then."

"...?" Lucien did not really get it. And he noticed that the color of Natasha’s eyes had changed. Instead of dream-like purple or silver gray, now her eyes looked purplish gray, which was a mysterious but also pure color.

"You should go to Holm. The headquarter of the Congress of Magic is there. If you want to become a great sorcerer like Silvia, you should go there, Lucien." Natasha repeated, then she squinted her eyes a bit and slightly lifted her chin, "Or should I call you Professor... No one is a better actor than you, do you know that?"

"I never meant to hurt you." Lucien relaxed a bit seeing that Natasha was not planning on killing him, "I admit that I lied to you many times, but I had no other choice."

"You’re not the only one who was lying to me all the time, and I’m used to it already." The corner of Natasha’s lips slightly curled up in a sad way, "But I could tell, when you were playing Pathetique... I could tell the pain and stress that you were suffering. After all, Aalto is not a good place to study magic."

"You don’t hate me... as a sorcerer?" asked Lucien. Although he knew that in the past, Natasha’s attitude toward sorcerers was actually relatively mild compared with the Church and other nobles, after Silvia’s betrayal, Lucien was not sure about the princess’s standpoint now.

Looking at Lucien, Natasha answered seriously, "My mom was a very talented sorceress, and she was the most beautiful and nice lady in the world. To me, one being a sorcerer does not mean they must be a vicious person. I don’t judge a person based on his or her identity, but on the person’s behavior."

Then, she smiled gently, "Of course, I’m very angry and sad knowing that you were lying to me all the time, but like you said, you never tried to take advantage of me, or hurt me, instead, you’ve been helping me all the time, and you saved my life tonight, carrying me on your back all the way here."

"I regarded you as my friend all this time, although you’re the honorable princess, and although there were lies between us," said Lucien sincerely.

"I know," said Natasha, and then she slightly shook her head, "Honestly, the moment when I heard that you were the notorious Professor, lots of details flashed across my mind... those details about you that I felt suspicious, but refused to dig into them. Even when I met you earlier, when we were besieged, I was almost certain that you were a sorcerer, and I still believed that you’d be on my side and fight for me. I would never link you to Professor, though, who killed so many night watchers. I think I trusted you even more than I knew."

"I killed them because they wanted to kill me," Lucien confessed sincerely. "I never wished to kill, never, but, again, like I said, I did not have another choice."

Then both of them fell silent.

After a long time, Natasha released a long sigh.

"You know what?" said Natasha, "Although your hands are covered with blood, I still want to be your friend."

Lucien suddenly became speechless.

"Thankfully, you never hurt my royal knights, or I wouldn’t be able to have you as my friend anymore." Natasha started to walk toward Lucien, "But you never, and you never tried to hurt me, so why shall I care?"

A sweet smile appeared on Natasha’s face, as if she had got rid of the negative emotions from the shock. As she stopped in front of Lucien, the princess asked, "Dear Mr. Professor, except your identity, did you ever lie to me about something else...? Say... your love experience? I’ve always felt you’re pretty experienced."

"No... I’m totally not experienced..." Lucien’s face flushed.

Then, Natasha took a small step backward and started to look at Lucien up and down, "Actually your face is quite good-looking. You would be a very beautiful girl if you were a girl."

"Uh?" Lucien was confused. He could not really follow the way Natasha changed the topic.

"I mean... magic is sure wonderful and powerful. Although it’s hard, it’s not impossible to change your gender. I heard that a grand arcanist once made a girdle that could help people do that, and maybe you want to give it a shot?"

Lucien rolled his eyes and said seriously, "That’s not gonna happen. I’m a man."

Noticing that Lucien did not like this kind of joke, Natasha’s sense of propriety made her stop. Then, she said to Lucien seriously, "I have something to give you."

She took off an old ring from her right hand and handed it to Lucien.

"This is..." Lucien took it over.

"You don’t know anything about Holm Crown prize?" said Natasha, "It looks like you never received any formal sorcerer training following a mentor from the congress. If you did, you would certainly recognize this ring."

"I’m pretty much on my own... when it comes to studying magic, unfortunately," Lucien answered.

"Well... I told you that my mom was a very talented sorcerer, and this ring was the award she received for winning the Holm Crown prize in her early twenties... should be twenty three." Natasha explained.

Honestly speaking, Lucien felt this ring was very ordinary, which looked just like a common iron ring people wore for practicing archery.

"I know... it doesn’t look any different, right?" Looking at the ring, Natasha’s voice became softer, and there was a gentle smile on her face, "The ring was a very powerful level seven magic item back in the days, but now it is damaged and is beyond repair. It was once called the finest ring across this continent."

Lucien turned the ring around, and he noticed that there was a small word "Mo" on the surface of the ring, and a small line of letters carved on its inner side, "Year 781. Holm Crown. To Ms. Meredith Hoffenberg."

"Holm Crown prize is the award co-established by Holm Royal Magic Academy and the organization named the Will of Element from the Congress of Magic. The purpose of setting up Holm Crown prize is to acknowledge the great contribution made by the great sorcerers and sorceresses in the Element School."

"So, your mom won the prize at the age of twenty three? That’s... that’s brilliant." Lucien gently rubbed the ring with respect.

"She was really a genius!" said Natasha with great pride, "She was awarded the prize for her finding of a metallic element which is lighter than water by introducing electromagnetics to the field of element study. She named the metallic element ‘Mo’, and so the ring was also named ‘Mo’."

"I never realized that you had this profound knowledge of the world of magic," said Lucien, "You never mentioned."

"We are in Aalto, and I’m the princess. I can’t mention anything about it. Besides, what I just introduced was not profound at all. When you get to Holm, you’ll see a completely different world," said Natasha. "Since the prize was set up, within the past two hundred and seventy years or so, only twenty four sorcerers and sorceresses were qualified for this prize. Now I’m giving this unique ring to you as a keepsake, and also a proof of your identity when you get to the congress."