Chapter 125

Bang! Bang!

One animal, from the flocks of birds that fluttered to the sound that crossed the sky, fell to the floor.

Reynold didn’t hesitate to aim straight at his next prey. He placed a magic stone with thunder attribute for fun on a weapon he took from the warehouse.

Uninspired by the dead birds, he flew off a bald eagle he often used as a scavenger. Soon the eagle began to frantically devour the flesh of the dead birds. After hunting, animal corpses were bound to appear, so cleaning was necessary.

Bald eagles had superior strength and speed when compared to a crow, so it was fun to watch them eat prey. Next time he would love to bring a big eagle.

Last time, a crow that was used for the same purpose in his hunting hobby was sent away as a carrier bird, and it was said that it died in an accident. Palos reported that Viscount Theo had sent him this one as a gift of apology.

‘Besides, he sent information about the Black Wall.’

At that moment, the light of the communication port that had been thrown somewhere flickered.

I’ve told them several times not to interrupt me while hunting.

But he felt that he enjoyed it enough, and it was time to go back. Reynold reluctantly turned on the communicator.

―Your Highness. Her Highness Princess Claudia is demanding the right to speak at the next national meeting.

“…… So, what does His Majesty the Emperor say?”

Reynold who heard the news from Palos asked with a cold face.

―His Majesty’s permission was given because he wanted to hear what the reason was. But the ministers are still against it.

“I see. Tell them to let it go. I also wonder was she had to say.”

The biggest topic that swept the Imperial Palace as well as the recent state affairs meetings was the arranged marriage of the princess. Since she was desperate, Reynold wondered if she had devised some kind of ruse, but he quickly calmed down.

‘What would the naive and foolish Claudia be able to do?….’

The old house of the Hills family, who were her maternal grandparents, was self-conscious but silent about the situation, so it was unlikely that they would help Claudia.

Lately, they have been quite suspicious of me, but some of the ministers have already agreed to support me.

Even if the Princess speaks that she is against the marriage, it would be difficult for her to overturn the wishes of the ministers.

Above all, whether Claudia is married or not, there is no way to break the imperial rule that she cannot become heir to the throne unless she was born as a man.

Recalling an obvious and unchanging fact, Reynold eyes lit up as he stroked the eagle’s head as it returned from the meal.

* * *

Gillard wanted to deliver the finished wand quickly, so as soon as he saw the window of the house, he ran to it.

tock tock.

Luciel woke up to the sound of something knocking on the window of the villa.

Maybe it was because she woke up too early in the morning, after talking with Cicline she fell asleep without realizing it.

Seeing the long branches swaying through the window, Luciel got out of bed and ran with her bare feet.

“……branch? Oh, Grandpa!”

It was Gillard who woke her up from a good nap. Luciel opened the window wide and looked down to see him while smiling brightly.

“Luciel, I tapped to see if you were still sleeping, but I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

It seemed that the sound of knocking on the window was done by magically moving a branch.

“No. I was about to get up.”

Luciel immediately took the round stool, stepped on it, and climbed up to the window.

“……Have you been to the Night’s Forge?”

To him who appeared empty-handed, Luciel deliberately did not ask about her wand.

“Oh, this grandfather is very late, isn’t he?”

“No.”

“Would you like me to drop you off?”

“Yes. Wait a minute.”

Luciel quickly went to find her shoes and put them on.

Gillard used a grow spell to make the branch of the tree long. The tree trunk, which reached the window where Luciel was, rolled up as if hugging Luciel’s waist and carefully lowered her down.

Before her feet could touch the ground, Gillard safely picked up Luciel and lowered her himself.

“You pea-sized child, when will you grow up? Luciel, aren’t you wondering what happened to your wand?”

Gillard playfully asked while raising one eyebrow. Luciel was deliberately trying not to expect nor to be disappointed. But she didn’t seem to be able to pretend she wasn’t curious. Finally, pricking her ears, Luciel asked.

“……Grandpa, did my wand survive?”

“……The way you say it, makes it seem like the wand can breath, right? As you can see, it is unharmed.”

Gilead pulled the wand from a deep pocket inside his robe.

“Oh! How did this long wand get out of there?”

“Well, the pockets of this robe are enchanted. Come on, Luciel. Your wand is here.”

Luciel, who received her wand, opened her mouth on its own. At the top of its body, surprisingly, four jewels were tightly intertwined.

Is it because of the magic craft? The sparkle became more glamorous, leaving an afterimage of light just by holding and swinging the wand around.

“Hey, Grandpa. Is this really my wand?”

As Gillard nodded, Luciel looked back, squinted, grew her eyes wide, and looked over and over again in disbelief that the wand she was holding was truly hers. It looked like a completely different wand from before.

Ddorong! 

In the meantime, Luciel, who made an emerald with emotions, was startled and looked around in a hurry, Gillard spread out his robe to cover Luciel.

“Fortunately, no one passed by.”

“Thank you, Grandpa. I will try the wand.”

Luciel was as excited as when she first received the Innocence.

‘……Now I can finally cast attribute magic!’

Luciel hurried to the magic training center.

She was smiling all the time, unable to hide her joy, enough to forget that she had suffered because she had no attributes.

“First, you have to redo the mana pairing that connects mana to the wand. The magic written on it remains as it is, so there is no need to repeat it.”

“Yes!”

Clutching the wand, Luciel closed her eyes and felt the magical energy gathering in her heart.

Luciel’s magical energy, swirling with the light air, permeated the four jewels embedded in the staff, and her heart resonated with a thumping beating.

As soon as the sound of the wand was heard, Luciel opened her eyes.

‘The mana is stronger than before, and the moving speed is also faster.’

“Ah, Luciel. In fact, during crafting, High-Grade mana stones kept breaking, so I used your jewels instead of magic stones.”

“My jewel? Still, I’m glad it was a success.”

Luciel stroked the wand which had been crafted with difficulty, in a gesture that showed how precious it was. Then she sang a spell while holding it in her hands.

“Fire bolt!”

Whoops!

“Ice arrow!”

Shoo!

In the meantime, she used various elemental spells that she wanted to cast on her own.

Thanks to this, the straw dolls and the training center suffered tons of hardships in an instant. They burned, were frozen, were torn……

Of course, restoration magic was applied everywhere in the training center, so it was restored to its original state immediately.

Even though it was simple magic, Luciel was excited by the formidable power. Perhaps thanks to the upgraded wand, the spell activation speed was fast, and the delay time until casting the next spell seemed to have been cut in half.

“I must concentrate more on my practice for the time being. I also must learn new spells.”

“Yes, work hard.”

“Yes, Grandpa!”

With a smile on her face in response to the lively answer, Gillard told Luciel.

“Rupdell said that the wand and the jewels each have great potential, so they are expected to grow. I think so, too. Besides, Luciel, when it meets your great and pure mana, I think it will not be long before the wand grows stronger.”

“Thank you. Grandpa made it possible for me to do elemental magic.”

“Luciel, it was possible because it was you. I just set the pedestal so you can jump higher.”

His wrinkled eyes curled. Luciel’s heart fluttered at Gillard’s remarks that boosted her confidence.

Torolong, torolong!

While making topaz, Luciel hugged Gillard in a big hug.

“Oh, did you hear about it, Grandpa?”

Luciel asked with a slightly worried face.

“You mean that Louivid and Soliaphe went out to subdue monsters?”

“Yes.”

“It’s common, so don’t worry about it. Don’t keep your heart heavy and focus on training magic.”

“Yes.”

Luciel felt anxious because her heart was beating fast for some reason, but listening to her grandfather’s words, she struggled to suppress the anxiety.

She was immersed in her magic practice until the evening. Because she wanted to become strong as soon as possible.

After finishing practice, Luciel, returning to her room in the private residence, looked at the letter on her desk and thought of Claudia.

‘By the way, I wonder if Princess Claudia is doing well……?’

Luciel wrote to Claudia things that would give her strength. It was all thanks to the help of the Duke, Eva, and Ellington.

She’ll need a lot of things to fight alone.

‘Princess Claudia, be strong.’

* * *

At the national meeting held the next day, the Prince and the Princess were given equal rights to speak.

The Tyra Empire used to convey its conclusions about political marriages after discussing it on the agenda of national meetings between the Emperor and ministers.

Because the national interest came first, she could not refuse without justification. Therefore, even if Princess Claudia simply did not want to marry, but did not change the opinions of the emperor and ministers, she would have no choice but to proceed with the marriage.

Entering the conference hall first, Reynold smiled at Claudia.

“I can’t wait to see what Sister will say.”

When she saw Reynold smiling as if he was seeing a good spectacle, Claudia smiled back without losing.

“Yes, look forward to it.”

The letter from Luciel was a ray of light for Claudia. At first, she was very surprised. Even if she had the help of adults, they were unbelievable advice written by a ten-year-old child.

But they were of great help to Claudia.

[Dear Princess Claudia.

First of all, I’m very happy. You already made a step forward since the Princess decided not to marry.

These are important things we need to talk about face to face, but since the matter is urgent, I will write a letter instead.

All of this was written with the help of many people. I’ll explain more later.

The Duchy of Bellstein, including myself, plan to support Princess Claudia. I hope that what I am going to tell you from now on will be helpful to you.

We must prove how pointless it is to discuss this political marriage and its conditions.

You said that there were no official marriage proposals, spoken promises that are not notarized on paper are often broke, are they not?

First of all, bring out the story of the Laurel Oath of the first monarch of the empire.]

‘Laurel Oath. I overlooked that it was there……. It’s a good excuse for conservative ministers who follow tradition and the rules of the imperial family.’

Claudia entered the conference hall confidently, contemplating Luciel’s letter again.