Youngest 181
by CristaeEpisode 181
Seriously, did they really have to contact Dad too…?
“What on earth is going on here?”
“I’m fine…”
“I heard you had a massive nosebleed in the middle of the Imperial Palace.”
Huh? Maybe the rumors are a bit exaggerated.
“…? Who said that? It was just one nostril. Barely.”
I pressed my index finger and thumb together to emphasize just how little, but it seemed that Dad’s ears weren’t listening at all.
“Borvel.”
Dad dropped whatever he’d been carrying on his shoulder with a thud. It was Borvel, clutching a fork and spoon in each hand.
Had she been eating cream stew? It must have been delicious.
Just as Borvel, licking her lips, regained her composure and started to get up, the sound of someone wailing drew rapidly closer.
“Ruuuby!”
That voice…
“Waaah, Ruby, waaah. Move aside! Let me see my little sister! Waaah!”
“A grown man, crying like that? What’s with him?”
“They said you suddenly coughed up blood in the palace!”
“…”
What?
“How are these rumors even spreading?”
“Waaaaaaah. Borvel, save my sister! Just take all my blood and give it to Ruby!”
Is he really planning to kill me?
Just as Mom tried to block Void and beg him to calm down—
Crash!
The door blasted clean off its hinges.
My vision blurred. This routine felt eerily familiar. Could it be…?
“Booger! Where’s my big, soft royal booger?!”
Probably in my nose, right?
I stared wide-eyed at the giant figure thundering toward me.
“Grandfather! But—but you weren’t supposed to arrive for a few more days!”
I looked at Dad, my question clear. He, the unfilial son, shifted his gaze awkwardly. Hmph, he always knows everything about Mom, but this…!
The old lord, still robust as ever in the North, threw his head back and laughed heartily.
“Pah-hah-hah! My little booger finally made the prince’s nose bleed?!”
“…”
What in the world had Grandfather heard?
After an episode of pandemonium passed.
Borvel examined me thoroughly, then pronounced it nothing more than simple fatigue—a thoroughly ordinary diagnosis, prescribing nothing more than sufficient rest.
“Miss Borvel, enjoy your cream stew…”
“Yes, yes, miss. Now rest. Get some real sleep.”
“Okay.”
The door closed behind them, and Dad let out a long sigh.
“See? I told you it was nothing…”
“You…”
There was something oddly rigid in his gaze that made me flinch without knowing why. Like a wooden puppet, I moved obediently and burrowed myself into the bed.
Void and Liam were banished for interfering with my rest. Grandfather, upon learning that it was me— not the prince—who’d suffered the nosebleed, was so shocked he hurried off somewhere with Mom, talking about preparing some restorative food.
“So what are you doing at night that you’re so exhausted?”
In the end, I was left alone with Dad, who sounded a little angry…
“I mean, I was refining the magic circles…”
“Refining them.”
“Drafting new magitech designs, reading self-improvement books, practicing for the festival play, worrying about Khalid, deciphering ancient texts, and, well…”
“…”
“So that’s how it happened…”
Dad let out yet another long sigh.
As if holding back a torrent of emotions, his solid Adam’s apple bobbed repeatedly. At last, a cool, firm hand settled gently on my forehead.
His voice was thick with concern as he murmured,
“I asked you to become an adult, not to drive yourself into the ground.”
“I know…”
“For now, no research, no studying, no going out.”
“No way, I’m too busy!”
“Exactly. All those busy things: forbidden.”
“Ugh… That’s unfair.”
I am an adult. I’m not a child.
But I bit back the words before they escaped.
I’d just noticed how utterly rumpled Dad’s hair and clothes were. Even loose, he’d never looked this put-together-yet-unkempt before.
‘He must have rushed over, panicked.’
Well, if I’d heard Dad was bleeding, I’d have rushed here in a panic too.
I shut my eyes tight, thinking I couldn’t worry my family any further.
“If you’re sleepy, sleep. I’ll bring some medicine.”
I buried my nose in the pillow and nodded, and Dad kissed my forehead before stepping away.
The bedroom door closed quietly. Finally alone, I slowly opened my eyes, staring blankly up at the ceiling.
“I asked you to become an adult, not to drive yourself into the ground.”
‘I know. I do.’
Then why am I so uneasy?
If I loosened my grip, even a little…
It felt as if something deep inside me would come crashing down before I even realized.
I wanted to sleep, but sleep wouldn’t come. So I simply kept doing what I’d been doing all afternoon.
“Delmon is dead.”
“Huh? Sir Leon… What did you say?”
“Delmon died during this magical beast subjugation.”
When I squeezed my eyes shut, that voice circled through my head with just the names changed.
Liam is dead.
Void died during the magical beast subjugation.
His Excellency… Lady Rosetta… The old lord…
I curled into a tight ball, wrapping myself in the blanket like a cocoon. Sniff. I breathed in the now-stilled remnants of my nosebleed for no reason at all.
Slowly, my mood sank. When I was with others during the day, I could manage—but at night, when left alone, it was always so much worse.
“A tunnel…”
Let me just go dig myself a tunnel for a while…
Come to think of it, there used to be a friend who would always be there to listen to my worries at times like these.
The one who’d quietly listen, that characteristic impassive face, even to the things I couldn’t bring myself to tell my family.
‘Maybe what I need most right now is him.’
Hurry up and come, mutt.
I think I’m a little down these days.
The kingdom of mages, Arcadia.
A beautiful king with long silver hair lounged on the throne.
He was the Mage King, who, after years of seclusion, had at last recovered his lost magic power.
Where once the royal palace brimmed with mystical mists, now it was filled only with filthy black smoke. Somewhere, screams sounded ceaselessly, the crackling clashes of magic flaring up and fading away again.
“The final formula.”
The man spoke in a voice boiling with heat. Near him, the Mage King’s “First” bowed, cloaked in the palace robes.
“Have you found the key to the final formula?”
“I am still studying it. Still, we have succeeded in bringing over all the formulas housed in those Delcan Ruins. So, if you would just wait a little longer…”
“The ‘Seventh’… What is my daughter doing? Has she come of age? Her father ought to bestow her a kiss of blessing!”
First fixed his twitching lips and replied with careful courtesy.
“That day is close at hand.”
“The King of Kasalia?”
The Mage King demanded abruptly.
“He is carefully cooperating, watching Babylon’s stance. Please, do not worry. After all, they are the ones who need magic—they would never dare betray us.”
First’s smile was thin.
“So long as King Kasalia keeps turning a blind eye… He will remain unaware that our mages are crossing the continent.”
There were two ways for Arcadian mages to reach the continent.
“Either by boarding a ship outfitted with magitech, or using the gate portal.”
They mostly chose the latter.
Of course, the gate portal could not be activated unless someone on the other side operated its mechanisms. It couldn’t be opened unilaterally.
All nations, Babylon included, had naturally closed those portals.
And now, with Arcadia shrouded in hundreds of wards, the sea route was unusable. Babylon’s patrol ships made it impossible anyway.
In his search for a solution, First had approached the King of Kasalia before anyone else.
Kasalia, a desert kingdom, was highly dependent on outpost mages and magitech due to its harsh surrounding environment.
“The King of Kasalia had allowed the Delcan Ruins to be explored before.”
When Babylon brought forth the motion to declare the Mage Kingdom an enemy of the Allied Forces—
Kasalia had hesitated, then cast his vote in favor at the last possible moment, or so he heard.
“Decisions made with lingering doubts can easily be overturned.”
“Grant us use of Kasalia’s portal to the continent. If not, our king will kill every outpost mage in Kasalia. Naturally, the supply of magitech will cease.”
He chose the simplest method: blackmail. Thus, the Mage Kingdom gained a secret route to the continent.
“I hear Kasalia’s king is now traveling to Babylon.”
“Haah… Babylon.”
The Mage King ran a pale hand across his face with a long exhale.
“That’s where my daughter is.”
He still refused to give up on the “Seventh.”
“So, will you go this time?”
At this, First shook his head firmly.
“The same method won’t work twice. Forcing her back… it won’t succeed now.”
“Then?”
“A weakness…”
First murmured.
“Strike at her most vulnerable place. Make her come to you of her own will.”
For the first time, the Mage King’s eyes flashed.
“Watch her movements through Kasalia. When the time is right, send someone. But…”
First paused in thought, then continued,
“This time, make it someone she doesn’t know. Not a palace mage, nor an outpost mage.”
The Mage King embraced him, grinning with delight.
Somewhere, the celebratory waltz of a coming-of-age ceremony began, and the Mage King spun in place, dancing to its rhythm.