Chapter 267
Chapter 267
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 267
Chapter Title: The Kazra Kingdom (4)
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Shirone opened the window and looked around.
They were in a deep forest, and only the torch mounted on the coachman's seat illuminated the road ahead. Eerie tree shadows raced past in the opposite direction of their travel. Fortunately, there was a full moon. But clouds drifted in from somewhere and covered even that.
Shirone's worries deepened.
At some point, the carriage began to slow down before coming to a complete stop.
The snorting of the horses echoed in the silent night air.
The coachman opened the door and spoke in a whisper.
“Lady Reina, we've arrived at the rendezvous point.”
Reina pulled on her hooded cloak. The others did the same, covering their faces with their hoods as they stepped out of the carriage.
They had arrived in a vast wasteland where the horizon was visible. Shirone pictured a map in his head and guessed they were somewhere on the Dawn Plateau, north of Tormia.
He thought it was certainly a thorough plan. In a wasteland open on all sides, an assassination attempt would be extremely difficult.
Of course, one could dig tunnels if they were determined enough, but such lines of thought were endless.
The meeting point was 300 meters from where they stood, and in the distance, they could see the silhouette of the escort party from the Kazra Kingdom.
Louis, the butler of the Ogent family, sent a hand signal.
Only after Reina exchanged codes in the same manner did the two groups meet at the midpoint.
Louis approached with a torch and bowed to Shirone's party.
“Welcome. We've been waiting for you.”
“You've worked hard. I heard the entry procedures are proceeding without any issues.”
“Yes. We haven't detected any suspicious movements. But we cannot let our guard down. Please, get in. I'll explain on the way.”
Shirone and his companions followed Louis. A massive carriage, like the one he had seen at Alpheas Magic Academy, was waiting for them.
A man named Godin, the captain of the guard, introduced himself.
“I am Rujen Godin, and I will be escorting Sir Shirone, the candidate for first prince. I know you must be anxious, given the circumstances, but there is no need to worry. We have assembled an escort of the kingdom's finest. You will arrive at the royal castle safely. Now, please, step inside.”
A soldier with a silver sword opened the carriage door.
Shirone was surprised before he even stepped inside. A crystal orb emitting light was attached to the ceiling, making the carriage's interior as bright as day. Furthermore, it was equipped not only with beds but also with everything needed for a meal.
“It may not be up to the standards of such esteemed individuals, but please bear with it for a little while. We will have you at the royal castle shortly.”
As soon as Shirone boarded the carriage, he tried lying down on the bed. It was a bed he lay on every day, but the fact that it was inside a carriage made it feel unfamiliar.
“Haha! Amy, this is really interesting.”
Amy smiled as she sat on the opposite bed.
“It's called a house carriage. It even has a shock-absorbing system, so it can handle a journey of about ten hours without any trouble. I heard the maintenance costs are astronomical. Royalty really is on another level.”
Reina said.
“But its travel speed is bound to be slower. It might have been safer to arrive quickly. In any case, we should be fully prepared on our end.”
Amy raised her hand.
“I'll stand watch. Mages can stay awake for a day without any problem.”
Shirone shook his head.
“No, let's take turns.”
“It's fine. You'll be busy the moment we arrive, so you should rest now while you can.”
Even with an escort, they couldn't be complacent. Someone had to watch over the group. Amy thought she was the right person for the job. And it made no sense for Shirone's parents to stay up all night.
Reina frowned, displeased.
“What, are you looking down on me? I can use Schema too, you know! I used to pull all-nighters for days during my apprenticeship. Let's just have the three of us take turns. We don't know the situation at the castle, so it wouldn't be good for one person to get exhausted first.”
Amy thought that made sense, so she agreed without complaint. Vincent and Olina asked to be included, but ordinary people couldn't stay up all night during a 24-hour carriage ride.
“Please get some rest. It'll be worse if you're already tired.”
Vincent and Olina had no choice but to lie down on the beds. But exhaustion is a powerful foe, and they soon fell asleep.
The three of them decided to take turns using the remaining bed.
Reina and Amy could sleep together, but Shirone couldn't share a bed with the women, so he leaned against the wall to sleep.
How much time had passed?
He had fallen asleep watching Reina stand guard, but before he knew it, Amy was waking him up.
“Shirone, if you're tired, I can stay on watch a little longer.”
Shirone's eyes snapped open without any preliminary movement. His turn meant that four hours had passed.
His mind was clearer than ever, and his body didn't feel tired. He could see why nobles paid a fortune for luxurious carriages.
“No, it's fine. You should get some more sleep. Nothing happened, right?”
“Yeah. It's unsettlingly quiet. I thought I might overhear the soldiers talking, but they haven't said a word, probably wary of Schema.”
Shirone nodded and moved to the center of the carriage.
“Alright. Thanks, Amy.”
“Don't mention it.”
Amy crawled over next to Reina to get at least a little sleep.
Then, something occurred to her, and she turned to look back at Shirone from her prone position.
Shirone couldn't help but smile at her cat-like posture.
“What is it? Can't sleep?”
“Uh, yeah, that's part of it…”
Amy trailed off.
Ever since the envoy from the Kazra Kingdom had visited, there was something that had been weighing on her mind.
“Shirone, if you become royalty…”
Amy asked, as if she had made up her mind.
“You won't study magic anymore, will you?”
“Huh?”
“It makes sense, right? From then on, you'll be the first prince. You'll have to take lessons to be the heir, and you won't have time to study magic.”
Shirone let out a small laugh.
Had she been thinking about that all this time?
Then again, he had been so busy with his own affairs lately that he hadn't had the chance to consider what others were thinking.
“Amy, I'm not going to become a prince.”
Amy's eyes widened.
“What are you talking about? Don't tell me you're planning to run away.”
“If that's the last resort, then I'll have to. But I'm going to convince them so it doesn't come to that. Even if they're the ones who gave birth to me, I only have two parents. The reason I'm going to the royal castle isn't to become the heir. It's to convey my intentions. I will come back home, and I will attend the magic academy. And…”
Shirone hesitated for a moment before mustering his courage to speak.
“I'll be sure to keep the promise I made to you.”
“Shirone…”
Amy was touched, but at the same time, she was worried.
Until now, Shirone had navigated life according to his own convictions, and it had worked out. But this time, his opponent was different.
Royalty wasn't as rational as Shirone thought, nor were they swayed by emotion.
Royalty are intuitive beings.
Those who hold the world in their hands only think in terms of simple decisions—to do something or not to do it.
But at the level of a king, even that evolves into something exceptional, and those simple choices can advance or regress history.
It was utterly impossible to change such a person's way of thinking with words.
Despite this, Amy said nothing.
She wanted to keep the lingering feeling of Shirone's last words trapped inside the carriage for as long as possible.
“See you later, Shirone.”
Amy lay down next to Reina and tried to get some brief sleep.
***
Reina woke everyone with a whisper.
“Wake up. I think we've arrived at the royal castle.”
Amy rubbed her sleepy eyes and sat up. Peeking through a crack in the window, she saw it was still before dawn.
But the carriage was no longer shaking, and the sound of horse hooves was clear, as if they were traveling on a paved stone road.
Shirone opened the window and looked outside. It was too dark to see clearly, but buildings were passing by. They had entered the city. But not a single house had its lights on.
A soldier on horseback approached and spoke to Shirone.
“My apologies. You are not permitted to look outside during the night watch. I will be closing the window.”
The guard closed the window with a sharp click.
Shirone pursed his lips and looked back. Reina and Amy also looked dumbfounded.
Amy pouted.
“Hmph! His attitude changed the second we entered the castle grounds.”
“We can't jump to conclusions. That's the first time that man has spoken to us. We need to judge the situation carefully.”
Shirone agreed with Reina's way of thinking.
From now on, it was like walking a tightrope. A minor misunderstanding or misjudgment could put them all in danger.
By the time they entered the inner castle, dawn was breaking. A soldier from the escort knocked on the carriage and informed them they could look around as they pleased.
Shirone felt the strangeness of a foreign country. It seemed that not only going out at night but even peeking outside was forbidden.
‘It's certainly more rigid than Tormia. I'll have to keep that in mind.’
The carriage crossed the large moat surrounding the royal castle and entered the inner fortress.
The Kazra Royal Castle wasn't as beautiful as a heavenly palace, but its scale was immense.
As they were about halfway across the bridge, a fanfare rang out.
A military band appeared, and all the lower-ranking officials of the castle came out to greet them with applause.
Surprised by the unexpected welcome, Shirone looked back at Reina.
“What's going on?”
“I know. I didn't expect them to give us such an open welcome.”
Reina also thought it was certainly strange.
For the Kazra Kingdom, which had grown under the protection of Theraze, Shirone's existence should have been a thorn in the side of the empress's faction.
‘And yet, there were no assassination attempts, not even any minor incidents. And now, a welcome of this magnitude…’
Realistically, there were two possibilities.
Either Orcamp's side was staking everything on Shirone's arrival, or Theraze's side couldn't care less.
Both the former and the latter were possible, so she couldn't determine which was more likely.
She glanced at Shirone's expression, but he was calm.
He should have been more nervous than anyone, yet as soon as they arrived at the castle, the anxiety he'd felt at their departure seemed to have completely vanished. This, too, was one of Shirone's strengths that Reina admired.
It had been the same at the Ogent estate. Normally, he was an innocent boy like any other his age, but when faced with danger, he became unbelievably calm.
‘Well… he is the kingdom's top aspiring mage now.’
Shirone's essence was the same, but everything that constituted him was different from before. After reading the article about Shirone in *Spirit Magazine*, Reina had asked a mage she knew what an 'Unlocker' was.
They said it was the most profound state of mind a human could reach.
Knowing that, she could no longer see Shirone as just a child, like she used to.
Kazra Castle was a sprawling structure with a resident population of roughly 1,000.
Its design was more martial than ornate, and perhaps for that reason, its entrance was narrower than that of other castles.
But once inside, a grand hall unfolded before them, so vast that it immediately felt like a royal castle.
Past a red carpet where high-ranking officials stood in order of seniority, a throne sat atop a flight of stairs, and on it was Orcamp IV.
It was impolite to look directly at the king's face, but Shirone's party couldn't take their eyes off him.
He had the same blond hair as Shirone and a refined appearance that was hard to believe belonged to the ruler of a nation. But the aura emanating from him was anything but ordinary.
Even a king was just another person under the heavens, but a man who held the lives of millions in his hands was certainly different.
‘That man…’
If one were to place Orcamp and Shirone side by side, it would be easy to believe they were father and son.
They weren't carbon copies, but one had to consider the difference in their environments, having been separated for eighteen years.
Shirone's party performed the ceremonial greetings according to protocol.
But Orcamp didn't even react, his gaze fixed solely on Shirone's face.
“Raise your head.”
Shirone met Orcamp's eyes.
The king's gaze seemed to pull him in, shaking him to his core. It was the aura of a monarch, something he had never felt from a swordsman or a mage.
But he quickly gathered his wits and returned to a state of calm. It was the state of an unyielding mind, unshaken by the will of others.
At that, Orcamp's eyes glinted with surprise.
‘Indeed… my son.’