Chapter 9

【Chapter Three】

My body feels unusually heavy.

As I think this, I try to get up from the sofa and realize that I’m covered with many blankets.

“……”

Even at the end of autumn, with this many blankets, I definitely won’t catch a cold. They’re so fluffy and warm.

There’s only one person in the world who would cover a sleeping Claudia with blankets.

“Noah?”

I call out his name, but there’s no response.

Of course, I already knew that. After all, I can’t sense the presence of Noah’s magic in the room.

(—It happened sooner than I thought.)

I always expected that he would eventually run away. The fact that it happened now is all I can think about calmly.

“Hmm”

As I stand up, petals gently fall to the ground.

“?”

At some point, a small flower had been placed in my hair.

It seems to be a small white flower that was picked from the vase in the room. It has a faint, sweet fragrance.

(…A gift of blankets and flowers, this is a first.)

I gently remove the flower from my hair and hold it up to the light from the window, examining it.

Then Claudia chants several spells.

＊＊＊

Once, in a country located in the south of the continent, there was a first prince who lacked magical power.

Despite being born to parents with strong magic, the prince could only use magic on par with commoners. The first prince vented his humiliation on his half-brother, the second prince.

The second prince, born to a commoner mother, inherited all of his father’s talents and became an exceptional magic user.

The first prince thoroughly tormented the second prince.

‘You’re just the offspring of a lowly woman!! No matter how excellent you are, I am still above you.’

‘I don’t care if you die. After all, I will be the king of this country!!’

The second prince was nearly killed multiple times and hovered between life and death.

When their father died and the first prince ascended the throne, the second prince’s treatment became even worse.

The second prince eventually decided to take revenge on his half-brother.

He chose to do so when his half-brother had a second child and was at the peak of his happiness.

‘Stop it!! How dare a bastard like you show your fangs to me… ugh, aahh!!’

He killed his half-brother and his wife in one swift move.

For him, it was a failure driven by passion.

That’s why, as the new king, he began to take revenge on his half-brother’s children, his nieces and nephews.

He kept his newborn niece under house arrest.

—And he threatened his young nephew, who was only four years old at the time, saying, ‘If you want to protect your sister, do as I say,’ and forced him into a magical slave contract.

＊＊＊

“…h…h…”

The boy named ‘Noah’ let out a small breath.

His heart was pounding from running non-stop. He was out of breath, sweating, and tasted blood at the back of his throat. He sat down in the shadow of a pillar and caught his breath several times.

(Finally, I made it this far…)

From the nearby corridor, he heard hurried footsteps.

“Search, search!! The king has ordered us to capture and drag out the former prince Leonhardt!”

“If the world learns that the son of the former king is still alive, it will affect the king’s authority…! We must mobilize all our forces to find Leonhardt!”

The mages are searching for me. Even though this is the castle where I was born and raised, it is now enemy territory.

(Calm down.)

He lowered his head and thought.

(I’ve broken through all the barriers. The king is in the throne room ahead.)

He learned this method from Claudia, a young girl who claimed to be the reincarnation of the witch Ardelheit.

Not only that, but she also taught him the method to teleport here. While helping her with her ‘cleaning,’ Noah learned and mastered the technique, making it his own.

(With Claudia’s magic, breaking through would be easy. …But)

He pressed his left hand against his chest and gripped his shirt tightly.

“…”

Noah took a deep breath, stood up from the floor, and grabbed the ice sword he had leaned against.

‘Your magic is specialized for attack.’

He remembered Claudia saying this this morning.

‘Your attack power is top-notch. However, you’re not good at activating it instantly or changing its shape flexibly.’

‘Then what should I do?’

‘It’s simple. Don’t you think it’s better to keep it active during combat and not change its shape? For example, create a magical sword and use it to fight.’

The young girl smiled softly.

‘But this is only when you use your own magic.’

‘…So, if I use your magic…’

‘That’s right. You won’t have any weaknesses. You can instantly and flexibly cast the most powerful attack spells!’

The battle in Claudia’s tower was practically easy.

Noah used his sword to break the barriers, and Claudia’s magic to widen the gaps. He deflected the mages’ spells with his sword and extinguished the flames with waves of ice magic.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t exhilarated by such power.

(…What a sweet deal. After being saved by her, I pretended to obey and betrayed her to escape.)

Claudia’s magic was necessary to break the castle’s barriers.

However, when Noah, as her familiar, used magic, the backlash would return to her.

He had used only his own magic from entering the castle to reaching the top floor.

But even the borrowed magic for the initial teleportation and barrier-breaking would have put a strain on Claudia, who was left in the tower.

(I can’t use any more of her magic.)

He slowly opened his eyes and ran towards the throne room.

The layout was etched in his mind. This was the castle where he had lived for the first four years of his life.

“There he is! That black-haired child, it’s definitely Prince Leonhardt!”

“Be careful, over ten first-class mages have already been taken out!! Use binding spells… gah!!”

He slashed the mages with his sword and ran down the corridor, crouching low. A rope-like light stretched from behind and wrapped around Noah’s right ankle.

“Gah…!!”

A creaking sound was heard.

He cut it with his ice sword, twisted his body, and immediately regained his stance.

(Just a little more…!!)

At the end of the corridor, the heavy door of the throne room was visible.

Unlike before, he hadn’t cast any body-strengthening spells. Every reckless move caused pain in various parts of his body.

Still, he was almost there.

The moment he thought this, something exploded inside the door.

“…!!”

A scorching heat wave, almost like an explosion, passed through with a loud noise.

Noah managed to avoid being burned by quickly casting a barrier. The mages behind him were screaming, holding their faces and arms.

“You’re still alive, Leonhardt.”

“…”

The man who appeared was the one who had made Noah, the son of his half-brother, a slave and treated him worse than a dog.

He had golden hair, different from Noah and his father, but the same pitch-black irises as Noah.

The current king of the country, with flames in his hand, looked down at Noah.

Noah gripped his transparent sword and glared straight at the man.

“…Give me my sister back.”

“Hmm?”

The current king smirked and stroked his chin.

“Don’t tell me you don’t understand what happened to Anna?”

“…”

“No, that’s not it. It seems you understood, which is why you broke out of your doghouse and ran away.”

He chuckled and narrowed his eyes.

“What a disappointment, Leonhardt. If you looked more like your brother, I would have been much more entertained! But your face resembles your mother.”

“…”

“I’ve told you many times, haven’t I? I’ve always admired your mother. That’s why, even while making you take revenge on my brother, I couldn’t help but be lenient with you.”

Noah had never felt any leniency in the treatment he received from this man.

But everything that had happened to him didn’t matter at all.

“…Give me my sister.”

Noah repeated slowly.

The current king just kept smirking.

“Good idea. Since you’ve come back, let’s burn your face this time.”

“…”

“Then I can torment you to my heart’s content! What do you think?”

The flames in the current king’s right hand grew larger.

“I think it’s a brilliant idea…!!”

“…”

The flames rushed towards Noah, billowing black smoke.

He calmly, carefully, and accurately gauged the flow. He raised his ice sword and swung it down forcefully.

“Gah…!!”

The flow of flames split into two and passed by Noah’s sides.

His sword was almost knocked away, and he struggled to hold it with all his might. It felt more like resisting a massive flow of water than flames.

“Haha. You have a magical power that surpasses even your brother’s!! But it’s rough, immature, and too sweet!!”

The ice sword shattered, and Noah quickly cast a barrier in front of him.

But it wasn’t enough.

He avoided the heat of the flames but was thrown back and hit the floor with his back.

“Hah…hah…”

The shock to his lungs made it hard to breathe.

He coughed, quickly got up, and adjusted his stance. He summoned another ice sword, but it wouldn’t be enough to reach the man.

(Stand your ground. …Don’t be overwhelmed by that man. No matter what happens.)

“Give up. After all, you are destined to atone for what your father did to me.”

The current king looked down at Noah with genuine amusement.

“You will live your life being toyed with by me, as a substitute for your father.”

“…”

Noah glared straight at the man.

“…I choose how I live.”

“What?”

Noah’s words made the current king’s eyes narrow.

“I was told by my benefactor to choose how I live, not how I die. …Even if I die here, I will take back Anna’s remains from you.”

“…Hmph…!!”

With a vulgar snort, the current king was enveloped in flames again.

“You actually came back, knowing that Anna is dead! How foolish…”

“I couldn’t protect her while she was alive. I won’t leave her alone even in death.”

But that hope would likely never be fulfilled.

He had already felt the overwhelming power difference between them before he even arrived.

Using Claudia’s magic might have given him a chance to win, but he never intended to choose that option.

(…I betrayed Claudia and borrowed her power to get this far.)

He steadied his breathing and gripped the sword handle tightly.

(I won’t burden her any further.)

“…Even with a slave collar around your neck, you’ve always looked at me with those unpleasant eyes.”

The next blow would be the end.

“Burning your face isn’t enough. If I catch you again, I’ll burn your eyes too!!”

“…!!”

At the moment he resolved himself to the approaching flames,

“—What an absurd idea.”

A soft, milk tea-colored hair swayed beside him.

“Wh…?”

A slender but fully grown hand was placed on Noah’s right shoulder.

Looking up, he saw a beautiful girl, about sixteen years old, standing there with a bright smile.

“A fool wouldn’t understand how beautiful this boy’s obsidian-like eyes are.”

“Could it be…?”

“Right? Noah.”

He felt a sense of disbelief.

But it was undoubtedly the girl he had betrayed and left behind.

“Why are you here?”

“Fufu.”

The grown-up Claudia faced the flames with her palm outstretched.

“—‘Eliminate’”

“!!”

At that moment, a thunderous boom echoed, and the flames were deflected.