Chapter 232 - Gaining Enlightenment (1/2)
XXXX Continent, Seraph Kingdom, Arcana Tower.
”To be honest, I would like to meet up with the Ninth Prince,” Erea responded to her mentor's question, acceding to his request as she let out a light giggle. She then pondered over something for a bit before asking Dane, ”Also, I have a lot of questions I would like to ask the prince. Would that be fine, Teacher?”
”Would that be fine…?” Dane repeated Erea's words in a muttering fashion before going ahead and closing his eyes. He then started to mutter a few unintelligible incantations for a short while before opening his eyes once more and looking at Erea. He then nodded at her before answering her question, saying, ”I've just gotten in contact with the Ninth Prince and asked him if it was fine. He told me that it was fine, seeing as you're a member of his team anyway.”
”I'm glad to hear that,” Erea replied to her mentor's response before letting out a slight grin. She then went ahead and asked him, ”So…when are we going to meet the Ninth Prince?”
Although she was quite eager to meet the Ninth Prince right now so she could get the meeting over with and remove all of the doubts in her mind regarding the war for the throne, which she only joined due to her mentor asking her to join, the time at which she and her mentor would go to where the Ninth Prince was would still be up to her mentor since she did not have any authority to go in the palace of the kingdom, unlike her mentor.
A week of wait time was fine for her, a month even. With this in mind, she followed up on her question, saying, ”It's fine if it'll be a week from now or a month from now, Teacher. I know you're incredibly busy and all that…”
”Eh?” Listening to his student's words, Dane could not help but look at her with a slightly confused expression. It took a few seconds of processing in his mind for him to understand why she would say such words, letting out a light chuckle not long after. He then went ahead and told her, ”We're going to meet the Ninth Prince right now.”
”Right now?” Hearing her mentor's response, Erea was inwardly elated since she would get the meeting over with, but at the same time, she could not help but become a bit worried since she had a feeling that her mentor was postponing all of the work he needed to do today just so she could meet up with the prince. ”Teacher, you don't have to force the meeting to be today. Aren't you really busy today?”
”Busy?” Dane laughed at Erea's question, but still felt the concern from it. He went ahead and patted Erea's head before saying, ”Normally, I would be incredibly busy, but I've already finished all of the work I needed to do for this week, so I'm more or less free for the whole week.”
Dane said this to let Erea be at ease, letting her know that she wasn't consuming his time at all. In fact, what he said was true. Since he was more or less the advisor of the Ninth Prince, he made it a habit to finish all of his work related to the Arcana Tower as fast as possible, allowing him to use his free time however he wanted, may it be studying new types of magic, creating new types of magic, helping out the Ninth Prince in some of his matters, or even…having a pleasurable time.
'Note to self: Make sure to check whether or not Erea wants to see me before engaging in those activities again,' Dane reminded himself in his mind, slightly feeling embarrassed that he was caught in the act.
Having the feeling that he was not lying in a way, Erea decided to trust her mentor's words, saying, ”If you say so, Teacher.”
”How are we going to head to the palace, Teacher?” she soon asked Dane before adding, ”Even if we rely on movement boosting spells, as well as flight spells, it would take us about 3 hours or so to get there due to the distance between the tower and the palace. By then, the sun would be setting, and we wouldn't be able to enter the palace until the next day.”
”You shouldn't have to worry about that,” Dane replied to Erea's words with a slight grin on his face. He then told Erea, ”Hold onto my robe. Make sure to hold onto it very tight.”
”Er…” Although Erea was a bit skeptical as to why her mentor decided to ask her to hold onto his robe all of a sudden, she still followed her mentor's orders, using both of her hands to grasp on his red robe tightly. She then asked him, ”What's next, Teacher?”
”Hehehe.” Dane let out a light chuckle after hearing Erea's question. ”Although I'm your teacher in this tower, I haven't shown you my full power that often, right?”
”What's with the question, Teacher?” Erea asked in response to Dane's question, not knowing what her mentor's train of thought was. Nevertheless, she responded to his question after that, saying, ”But that is true. You've only shown your full power a few times in front of me, Teacher.”
”Now what if I told you…” Dane said to Erea after that in a mysterious tone, making Erea quite curious.
”That those times, I wasn't even serious about going all out?”
”Huh? What does that have to do with—” Listening to her mentor's words, Erea could not help but think that her mentor was just exaggerating the amount of power he held, only for her to shut up as she felt a great wave of energy radiating out of her mentor's body. The intensity of this wave felt like a tsunami for her. If she was not grasping onto her mentor's robe tightly, she had a feeling that she would probably fall unconscious.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
A few seconds later, a great number of black particles manifested inside Dane's room, almost making it seem like the room was pitch-black. These black particles then went ahead and congregated towards Dane's body, and not long after, Erea's body as well.
”What the…Space energy particles?” At the very instant the black particles congregated around Erea's body, she instantly felt the immense energy of space radiating from them, even though she had no inclination towards the Space element. As for Dane, hearing Erea's surprised shout, he let out a chuckle and said, ”This spell is something I can only use as long as it's important. Don't you think this is an important time?”
Just as Erea was about to say that she would be fine with traveling to the palace through the usage of flight and movement boosting spells, Dane left her no time to do so as he shouted, ”5th Circle!”
”[Greater Teleport]!”
Fwoosh!
At the very instant Dane was finished saying the name of the spell, the two of them had disappeared from his room not long after. As for the Space energy particles that manifested inside his room, they all disappeared at the instant the two were gone as well, making it seem like the two weren't in here in the first place.
…
Fwoosh!
A few seconds after the two of them had teleported out of Dane's room, the two of them appeared in front of the gates that led to the royal palace of the Seraph Kingdom, instantly making the guards, which vigilantly guarded the gates of the palace, become more vigilant as they moved into a battle stance, pointing the halberds they were holding a while ago towards Dane and Erea.
”Who goes there?! State your name and purpose!” One of the guards shouted towards the two of them, to which Dane responded by looking at the person who shouted after he dusted off his robe. Snapping his fingers to reveal the golden leaves on his robe, he then cleared his throat before saying, ”I haven't done this before the last time I came here, so I would like to apologize to the guards.”
”Dane Grossezauber, Rank 4 High Mage, Educator and Battle Mage of the Arcana Tower,” Dane said not long after that before going ahead and pointing at Erea, who was slightly afraid of the halberds pointed at them. ”As for the young woman beside me, she's Erea Magimillia, a newly advanced Rank 3 mage.”
”We've come here to meet up with the Ninth Prince. Would you allow us to do so?” Dane then asked the guards surrounding them with a smile, eliciting a slightly awkward response from the guards as they slowly retracted their halberds, realizing that they were pointing their halberds at someone who had a high position in the Arcana Tower.