“Demonstrate your power?”
Having heard Nainiae’s warning, the guard dropped the spear, which had its tip molten away, and looked around.
‘She is a mage?’
He checked how the spear tip was molten. He judged that it must be magic, and he started to slowly step back.
It was to ring the bell behind him.
He thought he could not fight the mage girl in front of him.
‘Uuu… ung?’
The guard was trying to ring the bell near the garden entrance. He felt something solid on his palm and opened his eyes wide.
‘What the?’
The bell could not be pressed.
‘Ice?’
The guard quickly glanced at his back. The bell was frozen solid by gray tinted ice.
‘This… how could this be?’
The guard was panicking because the bell could not be pressed. Nainiae raised her right arm and asked the guard,
“Are you going to step aside or are you going to continue standing there?”
Wharurururuk…
There was a gray flame that was burning on top of Nainiae’s right palm. It was the same color as the ice that covered the bell with ice.
<… Mister.>
At the same time, another flame bloomed next to Nainiae’s face, however… Unlike the gray flame, this one was burning in ordinary red color.
<It would be good for you to get out of the way right now?>
There was a mysterious human who had wings of fire on the back. The being was shorter than a person’s face.
The one that made entrance surrounded in flames was the daughter of the Spirit King, Heliona. She was in charge of looking after Nainiae.
<Nainiae is in seriously… bad mood.>
Heliona emphasized the word ‘seriously’ and glared at the guard who was standing there in panic.
A spirit was able to share the emotion with the being who the spirit was with.
Heliona was giving advice to the guard as if she was worried. However, the look on Heliona was unusually sharp, and this was the reason.
‘Now what is this…’ Read The Lazy Swordmaster on Lightnovelbastion.com (If you're reading this elsewhere, it has been stolen!)
It appeared the guard didn’t know what a summon spirit was. Dumbfounded, the guard just stared vacantly at Heliona. He then realized that he was sweating a lot on his face.
“Huk.”
The flame.
“…”
The flame that Nainiae had on her palm to threaten the guard instantly grew to several ten folds in size. It was burning right in front of the guard.
“T… This is the Duke’s Manor… W… What do you think you are doing now…”
Nainiae asked again.
“Are you going to step aside or are you going to continue standing there?”
Her intensity felt like she might throw the flame and destroy the guard and the door immediately.
“A… All of you… Do you realize what you are doing now? This place is the Duke Philisneon’s!”
Nainiae cut off the guard’s words.
“What of it.”
“…?”
“What of it? How does that matter in this situation?”
Nainiae closed the fingers on the hand that had the flame floated on as she asked. The guard’s shoulders flinched big.
“Because this place is the Duke’s land, we cannot enter, and that’s why you are blocking this place?”
“…”
“This is the final warning. Step aside from there.”
As if things like that didn’t matter, Nainiae looked displeased. The expression on her face was much like how her teacher would look. Nainiae warned the guard for the last time that he will be burned if he refused to step aside.
“… Ugh.”
It was no empty threat. She was being serious.
Her gaze looked deadly. It looked like she would throw the flame if he didn’t yield. The guard was shaking. He started to move aside in undignified steps.
He was facing a mage who could cast such a large flame without reciting the spell, and the mage was not even batting an eye. The guard could not help the situation.
‘I am sorry, but it could not be helped.’
It seemed the guard was choking in fear. The man stepped aside with anxious look on his face. Nainiae apologized to the guard inside as she tightened her right fist.
‘Oh my god…’
Just from tightening her fist, the boulder size flame above her hand disappeared without a trace. The guard was glancing around quietly and gasped for air.
‘She is no ordinary practitioner.’
The guard had met a mage from the Solia Magic Tower once before, and he realized that her skill was extra ordinary.
“Unlock.”
Afterwards, just from that simple mutter, Nainiae instantly unlocked numerous locks on the mansion’s gate. She quickly stepped foot inside and looked back.
“Ms. Sera.”
“… Ah, yes.”
The atmosphere exuded by Nainiae was lethal, which was not something that happened often. Standing on the back, Sera had been holding her breath. She responded half a tempo late by nodding and then followed Nainiae.
* * *
“The incident during the last fall was too huge, so… I am not sure what to do from now on, so I think it will cause headaches.”
“I think we may have to request reinforcements from ally cities.”
“The anxiety among the citizens are soaring to the sky. If we don’t wrap this up soon, the public trust will plummet to the ground.”
“There are even rumors of rebellion.”Read The Lazy Swordmaster on Lightnovelbastion.com (If you're reading this elsewhere, it has been stolen!)
In the banquet hall where the Duke Philisneon family’s banquet was being held, the nobilities each had a glass of wine as they talked about the rebellion by the fanatics which transpired at Solia during the fall.
“Tsk. That accursed Solia Temple! I never liked that place from the start!”
“Please calm down. People are free to believe in a religion or not. Actually, the holy power isn’t for nothing, you know? Many were saved by that power.”
“Still, if an incident like this happen again, then we really won’t be able to contain it.”
“Hm… The Priestess’s absence is a serious problem.”
“Her corpse was… definitely not found, right? Because of this, I heard it is impossible to confirm if she is dead or alive. Is that right?”
“Yes, that’s why we put up a bounty.”
“We need to hear the truth from the Priestess about the incident involving fanatics storming the castle. We definitely need to.”
The nobilities talked about Priesia, the one who might know about the cause of the incident, and sighed.
It was because the Right Solia, the place that they had so much faith in, collapsed first before the Lower Solia, the place that should have crumbled a long time ago.
“The absence of the Holy Temple, absence of the Magic Tower… Ugh… Just why do we even have the Right Solia?”
“I know. As if the Count Stein losing his right arm was not enough, we lost many of the Solia’s mages and Holy Temple priests. The Solia is definitely in serious danger, more than ever before since the establishment of the kingdom.”
“Now that you mentioned it, I had been forgetting about the Count Stein’s arm. I heard that the successor of the family had been decided? Definitely…”
“I heard Lloyd, the second born, became the successor.”
“Huh? I thought Ryan, the first born, would definitely be the successor?”’
“About that Ryan… The rumor is that he drew sword at Count Stein when he didn’t become the successor.”
“Huh…”
“Well, it looks like he got kicked out, but… Count Stein probably choose the second born because he was aware of Ryan’s character.”
“Now that you mentioned the Iphalleta Family’s successor, I must mention the following too.”
“Um?”
“At that place, Princess Reutrina was there as well.”
“P… Princes Reutrina?”
“Really? Wasn’t she supposedly a vegetable like the youngest of the Iphalleta Family?”
“Apparently not. In fact, she was incredibly beautiful.”
“Huh…”
“I am curious what kind of beauty she is.”
“Now that I think about it, even though this is the banquet held at Duke Philisneon’s Family, I can’t even get a glimpse of the Princess.”
“Mysticism… perhaps it is something like that? Anyway, that is not important.”
The conversation was going off the tangent. The nobilities redirected it back to the discussion regarding how to overcome the danger that befell on Solia.
“Not only should we seek assistance from ally cities, we should try every method. Lately, Ansyrium’s movement had been very suspicious.”
“You must be talking about that mercenary.”
“He is no different from a mad dog. It doesn’t look like he is making his move based on countries either.”
“That means even we can hire him with money… That’s how it is.”
“He is the mercenary that tore off Count Stein’s arm. We need to get him.”
Holy Temple’s fanatics, Priestess’ unknown whereabout, Princess Reutrina who is not making appearance on the banquet, mercenary who is said to be ridiculously strong… and other stories could be heard.
‘Boring…’Read The Lazy Swordmaster on Lightnovelbastion.com (If you're reading this elsewhere, it has been stolen!)
Meanwhile… The Princess, who was the talk of the banquet, was walking around the banquet hall with a fan hiding her face. Reutrina’s face was filled with boredom.
‘They are all uninteresting stories.’
It seemed she realized there was nothing to gain from walking around further. She sat at a corner of the banquet hall where it was away from the people’s eyes and sighed big.
Boredom, repetitiveness, and disappointment…
Because of those emotions mixed in, she looked down. It looked like she was muttering ‘this is the least interesting banquet ever.’
‘Ugh.’
Although none of the conversations were fun, she walked around the banquet hall in high heels for one reason. It was to find where the Young Master of a Count family who she personally wrote the invitation letter to was.
‘In the end, he didn’t come?’
Although he was nowhere to be seen, Reutrina was thinking about when she met him at the Iphalleta mansion for the prospective marriage meeting. Back then… Young Master Riley had uninterested look on his face despite having her sit in front of him.
‘Well. Considering his personality, I figured he would not come, but…’
It’s such a bother.
I rather take an afternoon nap.
I rather read one more letter on a book.
“Puup.”
Reutrina thought about her prospective marriage candidate who did not come to the banquet using various excuses. She vacantly held her head by the palm and laughed briefly.
‘Really, he is an interesting person.’
Riley was definitely different from Young Masters of other nobility families.
‘He didn’t seem interested at all.’
A boy of his age would have his eyes instantly drawn to the dress with fully exposed cleavage. However… Riley’s response indicated he didn’t have even the slightest interest in a woman’s bare skin.
‘Moreover, that’s how he was really feeling.’
Not only that Riley was really not interested in such, he was truly thinking that it was such a bother as well. To Reutrina… those facts are the reason why she was interested in him.
“… Um?”
Reutrina was snickering as she thought about Riley. However, she found a servant who was looking all over the banquet hall in search of someone. She tapped at the table and let the servant know that she was there.
“Ah!”
Philisneon Family’s servant found Reutrina because of the tapping sound. Glancing around at other nobilities, the servant carefully approached Reutrina.
“Princess, something big happened.”
“Something big?”
“That is… Uninvited guests showed.”
“Uninvited guests?”
Reutrina put up bored face again and looked at the servant. The servant nodded and said,
“Yes. They said… they are from Iphalleta Family. The uninvited guests are now…”
Having heard the word ‘Iphalleta,’ Reutrina got up immediately.
“Iphalleta?!”
“Pardon? Ah, yes…”
Because Reutrina shouted, other nobilities who were engaged in conversations opened their eyes big and started to stare at her.
“These people… Where are they now?”
Not caring at all about other nobilities staring at her, it seemed Reutrina was only interested in the uninvited guests. She had sparkles in her eyes as she asked.
“Pardon? Ah, yes… One of them were ill, so we gave them a guest room with a bed. Why do you ask?”
“A guest room? You said a guest room, right?”
Reutrina looked like she was about to go over there right now. The servant reached for the Princess to stop her and shouted,
“P… Please wait, Princess!”
The servant uttered the title of Princess. The nobilities who were looking at her started to mumble.
“Did you hear that just now? That servant called her Princess?”
“That means, that woman is?”
“Oh my god, she is a beauty like that?”
“Just who spread rumors about her being ugly…”
Having noticed the nobilities mumbling amongst themselves and staring, Reutrina furrowed her brows and glared at the servant.
“About the responsibility for this incident, I’ll ask you later.”
The servant flinched after hearing there will be punishment for this mistake, but regardless, the servant delivered the message that the servant didn’t get to finish explaining.
“Princess, you will need to be careful.”
“…?”
“I heard that a skilled mage is with these uninvited guests. Go with at least one of your designated guard…”
Before the servant could finish talking, Reutrina headed toward the guest room where the uninvited guests were said to be at.
“P… Princess! Princess!