Youngest 200
by CristaeEpisode 200
Past midnight.
Knock, knock.
Someone rapped at my door. Sleep wouldn’t come, so I rose from bed and flung the door open.
“You.”
Khalid stood outside, his sleek eyebrows knotted in a mess.
“What’s wrong? Did something not go as planned?”
Did the straw mage not behave as he wished?
“Hazel said she locked him securely…”
A little uneasy, I asked. Khalid let out a low sigh.
“Don’t you know better than to open your door without checking who it is?”
“Huh?”
“At this hour, especially. It’s dangerous…”
I tilted my head.
“I knew it was you, obviously, that’s why.”
And I was just a little happy to see you.
“Are you dangerous? Hm? Are you going to attack me, or something?”
I nudged him playfully as I asked, but discomforting silence hung in the air.
“…You never know.”
“Wow.”
What’s this? Is becoming a swordsman making him competitive everywhere?
“Anyway… Let me come in.”
Khalid, the back of his neck slightly flushed, strode into my room. He draped the large robe he was holding over me with a quiet gesture.
He’s always eager to give me his clothes for some reason.
“As expected, the carrier pigeon was sent.”
He knelt by the fireplace, stoking the embers, and began.
“Hazel gave him a room with a balcony at the back of the house. After eating a big dinner and taking a bath, he seemed to relax when he found no guards around, and then made a move.”
I took the letter that Khalid handed me.
“What direction did the carrier pigeon take?”
He curled his lips in a slight smile.
“The imperial palace.”
“As expected, he’s making contact with the King of Kasalia.”
I read the letter Khalid intercepted.
Expose that the Lady of the Zevert family is a mage tomorrow. It must be before the Emperor of Babylon and the nobility.
I will appear at the appropriate moment, so prepare the potion for confirming parentage in advance. Even if I do not appear, it is best to throw the stone regardless.
If you simply follow these instructions, the alliance between Kasalia and Arcadia will be forever solid.
A cold smile crept across my lips. How could this adhere so perfectly to my expectations?
There was further instruction appended:
The important thing is to emphasize that the lady is not an ordinary mage, but a high-ranking mage of Arcadia and the Mage King’s ‘seventh child.’
I fell into reverie, imagining it.
The King of Kasalia, appearing at my coming-of-age ceremony, acting exactly as the letter directed.
“It was the Zevert Lady all along that led us to this confrontation with the Mage Kingdom!”
Wouldn’t he shout something like that?
“A child who was virtually the Mage King’s own was stolen away and hidden all this time! Who truly kindled the flames of war on this continent?”
The Babylonian nobles would reel in shock, the hall would plunge into a silence that presages a storm.
“And is that all? The frequent appearances of magical beasts across the continent—aren’t those also her doing? With mages out in full force, how are we supposed to resist? Even Kasalia has suffered for it!”
And, slyly, justifying his own collusion.
No doubt this is when the mage himself would appear, carrying a rigged potion to confirm parentage.
“This mage is the Lady’s true father! I will prove that she carries a mage’s blood! House Zevert cannot evade responsibility for this!”
‘I—’
I crumpled the letter in my grip.
‘I was Zevert’s weakness.’
A mage of an enemy nation, hiding in secret.
If one wanted, I was all too easy to use.
“My coming-of-age ceremony nearly became a complete disaster, right?”
“Ruby.”
I tried to sound nonchalant, but the voice that came from behind was thick with anger.
Kal, who’d been reading the letter with me from over the sofa’s backrest, spoke quietly. He was faintly smiling, but his mood was twisted beyond words.
“Shall I go kill them right now?”
How does he know me so well?
“Give me permission.”
His lips begged while his eyes blazed.
I turned around on the sofa, kneeling so I could face him, and reached out lightly. He instinctively bent at the waist.
Bonk. I tapped Kal lightly on the crown of his head.
“No rash moves.”
Tempting though it was.
“For now, how about we catch that potato king first?”
I pictured the King of Kasalia, his cheeks sagging like a potato with hangings of spite.
As foreseen, the royal seal of the Mage Kingdom was stamped on the letter.
This was the only way, in writing, for him to prove he was a mage of the Mage Kingdom.
‘The seal is like a magical tool.’
It contained a unique mana, allowing even ordinary people to see the flickering light in the seal—hard to forge or imitate.
“But I’ve got this.”
I hopped off the sofa and opened a drawer.
Inside, all the rune formulas I’d collected were bundled together. By now, it resembled a magical circle encyclopedia.
It had taken years to gather the magic circles scattered across the continent. Plus, with my possession of Vizeiria, forging a seal was a trivial task.
“Heh heh. This sort of trickery is laughable. Heheheheh.”
“You sound like a crime syndicate boss.”
With a fully charged spare battery by my side, I quickly used the magic circle to copy the seal onto the letter—even matching the handwriting.
After a moment’s thought, I wrote an additional letter by hand and handed it to Khalid, pinched between my index and middle finger with exaggerated arrogance.
“Go on, then.”
“Yes, master.”
My underling disappeared in a flash.
‘I must decide.’
The King of Kasalia paced anxiously around the room.
‘I really must decide now.’
In his hand was a letter stamped with the Mage Kingdom’s seal.
A letter from the mage, containing instructions to offer more active support for the Mage Kingdom’s plan.
I require the potion in your possession. I will meet you at the location below at sunrise.
If you simply follow these instructions, the alliance between Kasalia and Arcadia will be forever solid.
He thought perhaps it was a forged letter, but when he compared it to a previous letter from the Mage Kingdom, the seal was identical. Just to be sure, he had the resident mage from the Kasalian outpost inspect it; the result was the same.
Dawn’s red glow peeked over the horizon.
As the sun’s rays began to creep up, the king made up his mind, as if singed by their light.
‘Yes! This is for the greater good!’
It was not betrayal.
It was the best decision to preserve the Kingdom of Kasalia, and perhaps even admirable diplomatic strategy.
‘And if Severena is betrothed to a suitable Babylonian noble this time!’
Even if things went wrong, the Babylonian imperial family would not easily cast him aside.
Things had gone well with the Emperor.
So marrying off Severena and having her settle here did not seem like a bad plan.
“It’s a relief I still have a daughter.”
Her personality was stiff, but at least her looks, inherited from his blood, were beautiful—how fortunate.
‘If I’d raised her myself from childhood, I could’ve made her even more to my tastes.’
That was the fate of royal princesses—reared to marry into foreign lands. The praise for chaste, well-mannered princesses was endless; he considered himself a rather good father.
Clench. His thick fingers closed around the potion.
“Hurry, hurry…”
It was fortunate he had prepared it before coming to Babylon; this too had been at the Mage Kingdom’s direction.
Eyes bloodshot, the king hastily donned a disguise and left his room.
It was still early morning.
Hardly anyone was yet about.
The annex, graciously provided by the Emperor, was vast and grand. With so many attendants brought from Kasalia, within Babylon’s imperial palace, it felt almost like a little Kasalian court.
Covered in a gray robe, the king was unrecognizable.
“Huff, huff!”
He ran with all his strength.
The meeting place was at the seventh ornament in the garden near the northern palace gate.
He’d heard that behind it there was a small path leading to a hole in the palace wall.
‘The wall…’
He paused and realized something.
‘Come to think of it.’
Had he ever left the annex before?
Whenever he had wanted to wander outside, the Emperor would show up and waylay him, or a sudden party would be thrown in the annex, or musicians the Emperor had invited would arrive, or a painting salon would open…
‘J-just my imagination.’
It wasn’t as if anything had prevented him from leaving now.
He pressed the robe low over his brow, pacing near the ornament. When he heard footsteps rustling, he drew the potion from his pocket and turned quickly.
“Mage…!”
Suddenly, something cold pressed to his throat.
His green eyes widened in terror.