How a Wizard Survives (47)
How a Wizard Survives (47)
A beautiful princess who'd slipped off to a private room alone—and the man who followed her there.
For any man, the scene practically demanded a certain lurid imagination.
I had already seen through her façade, so my thoughts ran in a different direction.
Alright, any moment now she'll reveal her true colors... or not.
My expectations were immediately proven wrong.
Princess Alina and the man showed each other genuine warmth.
Could she have a thing for middle-aged men?
I was still reeling from that unexpected possibility when I sensed her make a move.
Fssst...
There it is!
As the princess closed the distance, mana surged from her hand.
She'd worked genuine, unmistakable magic.
Whether she was an Awakened One or a demon, I didn't yet know... but one thing was certain: she wasn't innocent.
I watched intently from the roof as the secret rendezvous continued beneath me.
"Count Everhart. How did the matter I entrusted to you turn out?"
"Everything went exactly as instructed! If there is anything else you require..."
"I see. You did well. In that case, might I ask for something a bit more substantial next time?"
"Certainly! My house and I are at your service, Your Highness."
"Oh, come now. There you should say you belong to His Majesty the King."
Pleased with his reply, the princess smiled and issued new directives to the count.
Contrary to my expectations, most of them concerned finances.
The count nodded again and again, promising to carry them out.
So when exactly does she use the magic? Ah... is she already using it?
Princess Alina's magic wasn't the sort that produced dramatic effects.
At most, it was a stronger-than-normal suggestion.
It wasn't outright controlling the count or anything of the sort.
If she gave an order that went too far, he'd probably resist.
If I had to label it, I'd call it something like Charm Magic.
But given who was using it, even that modest nudge was more than enough.
Princess Alina was exceptionally beautiful and stood at the very top of society.
Add a suggestive nudge like that on top, and the effect was practically indistinguishable from outright mental manipulation.
Once I'd taken my time to grasp the nature of her magic, a belated admiration set in.
She's sharper than she looks. That might actually be better than strong mind control. Right now, the count probably doesn't even realize he's under a spell...
In a place like Reshutal, where Heretic Inquisitors prowled openly, using something like mind control was extremely dangerous.
If an Inquisitor uncovered it, a manhunt would follow, and then... it would all be over.
Not even a princess could slip out of that one.
But with this, even if the magic broke partway through, it wouldn't leave usable evidence.
The victim himself might simply dismiss it as having been briefly bewitched and move on.
Princess Alina was undeniably beautiful.
A man doesn't exactly need to be enchanted to lavish gifts on a woman, after all.
Deceive.
Princess Alina was putting her master's first lesson into practice brilliantly.
A truly exceptional mage must always prepare for the worst-case scenario, even when using magic.
She had deceived even the person being enchanted.
Once she'd finished giving the count his orders, the princess sent him out and stretched her body with a long, languid motion.
The moment her tension eased, her mana rippled in response.
The mana carried an unmistakably alien quality, far too alien to belong to a human. At last, I was certain.
So she really is... a demon!
Granted, I only had myself as a single sample to compare against, but... that was not the mana of an Awakened One.
It was closer to what I'd felt on the Front Lines.
As an Awakened One myself, I could recognize what she truly was on an instinctive level.
I hurried down from the roof and did my best to calm my startled heart.
As my teacher had predicted, she might be a demon, but she did not seem very strong.
Her magic was the same story.
She wasn't a very powerful opponent.
That did not make her any less troublesome.
Knowing what she was did not tell me what to do about her.
No matter what anyone said, she was the sole heir to Reshutal's royal house.
The royal house would protect her with everything it had.
Beyond that, I didn't yet have a single piece of physical evidence, and more to the point... dragging Princess Alina down would shatter my teacher's plan entirely.
The Reshutal royal house was the vital core of that plan.
Without the royal house, even attempting a war against the demons would be impossible.
We could perhaps push ahead even if Princess Alina disappeared, but it would mean a staggering amount of revision.
I can't lay a hand on Princess Alina right now. For the moment, I'll let her be.
As my teacher and I had discussed beforehand, I decided to withdraw.
Except... before I could even return to the hall, a royal attendant caught hold of me.
"Sir Jaeger, Her Highness Princess Alina requests an audience."
"H-Her Highness the Princess, sir?"
Trouble.
Getting caught now, of all times?
She shouldn't have had any chance to give separate instructions to an attendant...
Could she have arranged it before the banquet had even started?
I'd known for some time that Princess Alina was showing interest in me.
Failing to anticipate this was my own oversight.
Still, I never imagined she'd try to plant someone even in the Inquisition branch...
It was an order from a princess in name and in fact.
As a mere squire, I couldn't refuse.
Left with no choice, I followed the attendant.
"Understood."
"You needn't worry. It won't take long. Merely a brief word..."
Seeing me glance toward the banquet hall, the attendant misread my concern and tried to reassure me.
He was probably another victim of the princess's Charm Magic.
I entered the private room with a rigid expression.
She greeted me with a face far brighter than the one she'd shown earlier.
"Sir Jaeger! I startled you by summoning you so suddenly, didn't I?"
"Not at all. If there is something I can assist you with..."
"Something you can assist with? Plenty. To be honest, I'd never in my life seen a swordsman who fights as well as you, Sir Jaeger."
Alina smiled brightly to disarm my wariness while secretly gathering mana.
It was considerably stronger than what she had used on the count... but still nowhere near enough to pierce my Magic Resistance.
Watching her, I sank into deep deliberation.
Should I just pretend she's enchanted me? No. I'm not stupid enough to miss whether my own magic has taken hold. If she starts probing, I'll be found out for sure!
While I wrestled with my options inside my head, Princess Alina drew close—dangerously close.
She was perfectly aware that I was a more difficult target than the count.
As an Inquisitor, she must have judged that failing to overwhelm me in a single stroke would spell disaster.
"You are a man too, Sir Jaeger, so you well know what it is I want, don't you?"
"Your Highness? That's..."
"Please don't be so stiff. Princess though I may be, I am still a woman..."
As she spoke, Alina took my hand and pressed her lips to the nape of my neck.
Maximize physical contact, make me 'accept' her, and thereby... minimize my Magic Resistance.
Since contact was essential even when my teacher used his ultimate technique, Ultimate Mimicry, its effectiveness was considerable.
But Alina had made a wrong assumption from the start.
She had no way of knowing, not even in her dreams, that I was a mage.
The Charm Magic Alina wielded was so feeble, so terribly feeble, that it couldn't possibly breach a mage's Magic Resistance.
It barely worked reliably on ordinary people; after lowering its intensity, she had no chance of affecting me.
"Mm?"
The moment Alina sensed something was wrong and stiffened, I acted. I could not delay any longer.
Ultimate Mimicry!
Fssssht!
Alina's Magic Resistance was neutralized in an instant thanks to my technique.
Her face flickered with alarm and she tried to pull away, but it was already too late.
I can't kill the princess here. I have to maintain the status quo, no matter what. In that case...
No other spell suited the situation.
What I activated next was the very thing Alina had just demonstrated.
Charm Magic.
Amplified beyond the level of mere suggestion, the magic slammed into her at the level of outright hypnosis.
Having acted recklessly to contain the immediate crisis, I turned to the next problem.
This isn't perfect either. Reshutal is crawling with Heretic Inquisitors, so the ideal outcome would be to make Princess Alina obey me willingly...
Alina hadn't stuck to such pathetically weak magic all this time for no reason.
Weak magic, by its nature, is far harder to detect.
Standing before her now-dazed expression, I desperately wracked my brain.
"...Alina. You're a demon, aren't you?"
"I am."
Alina confessed it with an expression of utter submission.
But the moment she sensed something was wrong, even that would not last.
I barely managed to come up with a story she might swallow.
"Playing tricks on your own kind. You've got a nasty personality."
"Wh-what? My... my own kind?"
Claiming to be a contractor or a Demon Thrall was out of the question.
I'd come across as far too shabby, and in a tight spot she could even report me.
So those were off the table from the start.
An Awakened One was too dangerous as well.
Awakened Ones had no cooperative relationship with demons at all.
That left only one option: another demon, like herself.
Alina looked briefly bewildered, then nodded.
She already held me in inexplicably high regard, so this route was probably for the best.
Alina sank to both knees and gazed up at me.
True, I had a record of vanquishing other demons, but... she clearly wasn't a demon of particularly high standing.
Judging by the level of her magic, she was Low-Rank at best.
Which was why she was lowering herself like this of her own accord.
"I apologize for failing to recognize an august personage such as yourself. If it would not be an imposition, might I ask your esteemed name...?"
"To casually inquire after the name of a higher-ranking demon. How did a whelp like you end up drifting all the way to Reshutal?"
Fwooosh!
With some effort, I put on an imposing front and released my mana.
She trembled at the mana, thick with murderous intent.
At a glance, it would seem as though my mana reserves far exceeded her own, but... the truth was, I'd just burned through more than half my reserves with that single burst.
Still, putting down a single demon of her caliber would be a trivial task.
Terrified, Alina obediently laid out her circumstances.
"The Grand Duke of Demons, Everhart, is my father!"
"...Lord Everhart?"
"Yes."
The Lust Demon, Everhart.
He might seem a touch underwhelming on the surface, but he was actually counted among the strongest of the High-Rank Demons.
His influence was such that, among the prideful demons, he styled himself a Grand Duke.
"Lord Everhart seduced the Queen of Reshutal, and I am the one born from that union."
"...I see."
A half-blood of demon and human.
That was the true identity of Princess Alina.
Now it all makes sense. Swapping out a kingdom's princess wouldn't have been a simple matter... The King of Reshutal was cuckoo'd from the very start.
To prevent tragedies like a child being secretly exchanged, the births of high-ranking nobles and royalty are conducted publicly.
As the queen's due date approaches, the royal palace is opened so that nobles may attend and witness the birth.
But if she was a demon-human half-blood from the moment of birth, such measures would be entirely useless.
Having learned Princess Alina's secret, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
Everhart probably lay with the queen while disguised as the King of Reshutal.
Poor king.
I mourned his situation even as I brought my conversation with Princess Alina to a close.
At this level, it wouldn't cause any immediate problems.
"If you are Lord Everhart's daughter, then I shall do you no harm. However, you are to interfere with me no further. And see to it that your clumsy little toys stay out of my sight."
"I-I shall take it to heart."
Alina bowed her head again, still trembling.
Inside her eyes, I could sense a powerful, burning ambition.
Pretending not to notice, I left the private room.
Hoooh... hoooh... I survived.
My teacher and Ash's plan had nearly been wrecked beyond repair.
Satisfied that I'd managed to safeguard it, I returned to Katrina and Angelica.
Katrina had noticed my long absence and was about to scold me when Princess Alina returned to her seat.
She raised her glass with a perfectly natural smile.
"I'm so sorry for the delay. I happened to run into Sir Jaeger along the way, and our conversation was so delightful..."
"I-I see."
Alina, her eyes begging forgiveness even as she failed to suppress a smile.
Sensing the exhausting days ahead, I raised my own glass in turn.