“Isn’t it about time you told me?”
Ruan came to Rayrn with a confident expression.
‘She’s definitely gotten stronger since we last met.’
The depth of mana he felt from her had increased.
In addition, she held several sheets of paper filled with formulas in her hand. That explained why she was so confident.
“Did you develop a new formula?”
“No. Instead, I managed to interpret it. Would you like to see?”
“If you’ll show me.”
“But you have to pay a price…”
There was a brief, ridiculous standoff.
Ruan figured Rayrn, being a mage, would covet formulas. For an ordinary mage, the knowledge was certainly tempting. But.
‘The one who’s lacking isn’t me.’
For Rayrn, it wasn’t.
“Then forget it.”
“……You jerk.”
There was no way for her to win against Rayrn.
“Are you saying that out loud now?”
“Shut up. Here, take it.”
She shoved the paper with the formulas into Rayrn’s hand rather roughly.
Rayrn didn’t mind and looked at the formulas.
‘Oh, there’s definitely effort put in.’
He understood them immediately.
There was nothing difficult. It was like someone on a high mountain could easily see what was below.
“What? Aren’t you going to look more?”
He had looked too quickly.
Ruan’s eyes widened. She had expected Rayrn to focus on it for at least a few days.
While he was focused for those days, she planned to demand something new. Now that he understood the formulas, she wanted to say the deal was over.
But.
“I understood it all. You did a decent job, though.”
“……Decent?”
“Yes. Decent.”
Instead of crumbling, Rayrn’s thick face had only grown thicker during their time apart.
“Gah!”
For Ruan, who had thought she would finally land a blow on that face for the first time, this was infuriating.
But.
‘The first time is hard, but once we make a deal, from then on, she’s basically my prey.’
For Rayrn, even her behavior had been long expected.
Instead of soothing her anger, Rayrn pulled out several sheets of paper he had brought from his subspace. “…No way.”
Her eyes turned half-expectant, half-excited.
She wasn’t stupid. By now, she could guess what Rayrn’s actions meant!
Whenever he handed over documents like this, new knowledge that didn’t exist before always came out.
“Hehe.”
“Give it here.”
“What about the price?”
The situation had reversed completely from before.
“Hmm.”
Unlike Rayrn, who had easily dismissed Ruan’s offer, she was now forced to think!
As she was deep in thought, Rayrn hammered the nail.
“How about we renew our contract soon?”
“……Devil.”
Needless to say, Ruan’s title for Rayrn had been upgraded.
Talent was ultimately relative. She was called a genius at the Magic Tower, but the gap between her and Rayrn, who already held several memories, was significant.
Moreover, the figures in those memories were all masters in their own right.
‘If the memories of the Black Mage and the new mage had fully merged, the story would have been different.’
If she knew that Rayrn still had room to grow, even Ruan might despair at the gap.
Rayrn began to show that gap without hesitation.
“Still don’t understand?”
“……No.”
The problem was that Ruan was having trouble keeping up, contrary to his expectations.
In fact, the fact that she had even grasped the basics of formations using the diagrams he gave her was almost a miracle.
Because she was learning new concepts that never existed before.
The problem was that just as she thought she understood the basics, he was teaching her how to run!
‘And it’s only the beginning.’
To Rayrn, it was just baby steps, which made matters worse!
“You have to understand this quickly so you can teach the mages at the Magic Tower. That way, I can use them more!”
“Don’t you think you’re being too shameless?”
“With knowledge like this, it’s okay to be a little shameless!”
“Guh.”
She tried to resist Rayrn’s shamelessness, but she was utterly defeated again.
‘I need to educate her thoroughly this time.’
She had briefly dreamed of landing a blow on Rayrn, but now she couldn’t even think about it. She could only follow his teachings.
“So this is about the mana flow itself… Huh?”
“What?”
“Wait here and look at this for a moment.”
Even for the sake of making her work in the future. While passionately educating Ruan, Rayrn sensed a presence.
The presence wasn’t hidden. On the contrary, it was deliberately spreading energy as if telling him to notice.
‘Interesting.’
Had an assassin come in?
Rayrn was at the heart of Machinery Castle, the deepest part of the Academy. An assassin coming in there?
‘That’s ridiculous.’
He had that thought for a moment, but it was indeed nonsense.
Except for the mercenaries outside.
Inside this place alone, there were over a hundred Iron Fist members, led by Sian, lying in wait.
Furthermore, in the training grounds around the core, Gajei and Hoden were training the Iron Fist.
In addition, there were knights.
The knights, who half-recognized the Iron Fist as Rayrn’s appendages, had been coming here for training recently.
And magic was applied all over the place.
For someone below Rayrn’s level, infiltration itself was impossible.
“So they came with permission. Let’s see.”
Rayrn quickly turned and moved toward where the energy was subtly being emitted.
Passing his office and reception room, he reached the entrance to the core.
“……Long time no see.”
“Young Master!”
Familiar to Rayrn.
She waved at him, looking very delighted, as if she had brought something good!
“Miss Arne, it’s been a while?”
“I have things that are worth a high price.”
She had deliberately spread her energy to test Rayrn.
‘She was gauging how fast I’d notice. She got me.’
Ruan and the administrative officers were easy to deal with, but Arne was sharp.
It wasn’t for nothing that she held a high position in the Information Guild at such a young age.
Come to think of it, she was the only one who had successfully gotten one over on him—and even extracted money from him.
“How high of a price are we talking?”
“The center of Malexia. And several others.”
“Hmm……”
Look at that. She brought something quite impressive.
‘The center means the Royal Court. And the others… I can’t even guess. Father’s side information? And where else would there be?’
Even Rayrn had to admit she had brought something very tempting for bargaining.
“Normally, we wouldn’t deliver information in person, but you’re a regular customer, Young Master. Hehe.”
“……So it’s a customized service.”
“Bingo! Now, shall we go inside?”
“Sorry, but no entry here even for business!”
Rayrn wasn’t just going to let her in. Typical of him.
“Tch!”
There was no way he would show the core of the Academy, which wasn’t allowed just to anyone.
Even Rayrn had no intention of showing her this place, which was hard for even him to breach.
If she saw this place, the Information Guild would gain new information.
With hungry wolves desperate for information on Machinery Castle, Rayrn wasn’t about to make the mistake of feeding them easily.
“Let’s go outside. Don’t try to subtly get free information.”
“Can’t win against you. Fine, let’s go. Go.”
He dragged her away, even as she kept trying to take in the sight of the core with her eyes.
‘What kind of information is it?’
By the time he finished hearing her story, he had a strong premonition that he would become as busy as when he built the fortress. Why?
Even before Arne’s news was delivered.
The Royal Court was secretly manipulating the Royalist Faction. At the center was Marquis Visque, the pillar of the Royalist Faction.
The Royalist nobles were the ones who kept even their fellow nobles in check.
Two perspectives always coexisted at Royalist meetings: the nobles’ concerns and the anxiety about the outcomes of their movements.
Lately, there had been a lot of dissatisfaction.
With Rayrn’s activities, the authority of the Royal Court had slightly crumbled.
In that situation, the Royalist Faction lit a fire.
Under the guise of a royal command, they had monopolized the magic weapons produced at Merchant Castle.
Rayrn had let it pass as an incident.
But from the perspective of the nobles in the Royal Capital, no matter how powerful the Royal Court was, this was a serious transgression.
The new magic weapons were practically strategic weapons. Monopolizing them was as good as directly cutting down the nobles’ military power!
Because that wonderful Malexia Magic Tower had made all the magic weapons explode, the Royalist Faction gained nothing.
But the nobles, as if glad for the excuse, clamored every day.
In Malexia, where royal authority was strong, petitions of protest were sent to the king multiple times.
The Neutral Faction nobles were in an uproar.
Given the circumstances, this kind of meeting made even the Royalist Faction very cautious.
Especially.
“We have to succeed in one go. You know what happens if this is discovered.”
“Both you and I, Marquis, would suffer.”
This incident, in particular, went beyond that.
It wasn’t about indirectly checking the Noble Faction; it was a matter that could bring down several of them.
‘His Majesty must be deeply worried.’
Normally, there would be no reason to go this far.
But the issue was the succession.
The prince factions had split into three. The factions centered around the First Prince, the Fourth Prince, and the Ninth Prince were significant. Even the Royalist Faction was nearing the point where they had to choose sides.
In this situation, Rayrn’s solo march made even the king, who had strong authority, feel a sense of crisis.
So they took a risk.
Though it was something that should never be done.
“Once you move to Mite, you can consider it the land of barbarians. Be careful.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
“Fortunately, that side is also in turmoil because of this incident. If we coordinate well, it should be manageable.”
“……Yes.”
The Royalist Faction began to move faithfully according to the king’s commands.
Having received so much from the king, they couldn’t back out now.
“Then I wish you good luck. I have to move to the west… I won’t see you for a long time.”
“I wish you good luck as well, Marquis.”
Marquis Visque, the tool of the Royalist Faction, and his agents began to move outward.
Their destination was outside the Kingdom of Malexia.
‘It could be a humiliation. If it goes further, it could be a bad move.’
Toward the enemy nation that was eyeing Malexia.
Whether things would go as they planned was still unknown.
But the problem for the Royalist Faction was…
“Miss Arne, if my prediction is right, this is going to get interesting, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. But you can’t ignore it, can you? They have a weapon.”
“That damn royal command as a pretext.”
“If I go and tell the Royal Court that, it’ll be trouble. That Rayrn called the king a damn bastard.”
“You wouldn’t actually deliver that anyway. At this rate… I need to think about it.”
For them, Rayrn, who should have known nothing about this matter, was already predicting their movements from afar.