The True Weapon
The True Weapon
Inside the classroom echoing with a light voice, sagak-sagak, chalk scraped heavily against the blackboard.
『The Lord Protector's gaze covers the entire imperial palace like a spiderweb. Any attempt to contact the outside is censored, and everyone entering or leaving the imperial castle is also under the Lord Protector's control. Obtaining information through normal channels is close to impossible.』
Andrew's fingertips paused after pressing down hard to mark the final period.
Impossible.
To break through this suffocatingly dense surveillance of the Lord Protector to forge my sword—and furthermore, to find the Lord Protector's weakness—there was not a single thing I could use.
If it couldn't be done inside the imperial palace, I would have no choice but to do it outside, but outside there was even less of a possibility.
I am someone who has spent ten years trapped inside the imperial palace. The only person I can speak to comfortably is now barely Andrew alone.
The Gate Grand Duke cannot help, nor should I ask him to help.
There is no way to send a message to Margrave Chrysoricos.
Whether it were me or Andrew, if either of us tried to send him a letter, nine times out of ten it would be intercepted by the Lord Protector.
......Is there really nothing? Is there truly no breakthrough?
"Ah, damn it! I don't wanna do this! I wanna play now!!"
In these ten years, I haven't relaxed my shoulders for even a single day.
My nerves were always pulled taut like a bowstring, and above all, the fact that there was nowhere to relax that tension even for a moment was eating away at me.
If it were my past life, I'd at least read manga or novels while.......
......Manga or novels?
My hand, which was about to write something down, comes to a sudden halt.
A realization flashed through my mind like an electric current.
Come to think of it, this was a Rofan world—a world inside a romance fantasy.
A fantasy world.
Why hadn't I realized that? Living inside the imperial palace, there are times I forget whether this is a fantasy world or an actual medieval imperial palace.
However, if this is indeed a Rofan world, and if that Rofan was one that actually followed clichés well.
My frozen hand suddenly began to move without hesitation.
『Information brokers. Somewhere in the imperial capital, there must be a gathering of rats.』
If this world at least claimed to be a fantasy world, there was an organization that couldn't possibly be missing. The Information Guild.
Andrew's eyes widened momentarily as he read through the writing.
『I have heard such rumors. But Your Majesty, how do you...?』
I couldn't answer that question properly.
I couldn't exactly say, "Well, because it's a cliché in fantasy works from my past life," now could I?
Instead of answering that question, I began writing down what Andrew had to do.
『Andrew, Sir Andrew must also have at least one quick-witted and tight-lipped confidant. Through that confidant, scour the darkest streets of the imperial capital and find information brokers, the Information Guild, or whatever bastards know something.』
Andrew, who had been staring intently at where I wrote for a moment, pondered deeply over something before soon writing carefully on the blackboard.
『Moving my servant directly poses too big a risk. I am already effectively sitting inside Maximilian's maw as it is. If I make a suspicious move, he will tear out my throat immediately. I would rather leave this to a colleague of mine. There is someone who knows well about this kind of work.』
That was true. Right now, the only connection I had to the outside world was Andrew, but that wasn't the case for Andrew himself.
In that case, there was no need for Andrew to do it alone.
I agreed with Andrew's opinion and had him proceed with his way.
A few days passed after ordering Andrew to find the Information Guild.
A few lessons passed, and a few rest days passed.
If there was anything new, it was about the fact that Narea now occasionally joined the daily tea time I had with Mother.
As the days went by, after the court etiquette and history lessons ended, the magic lesson hour returned.
The teacher of the magic class was a typical noble wizard of the Lord Protector faction.
Oswald Raimund von Erdenwald.
He was the head of the Erdenwald Magic Count family and, according to the maidservants, a man who had no real skill yet did nothing but put on airs.
They said a truly skilled person would serve as an academy professor, not act high-and-mighty playing teacher in a place like this.
However, regardless of his personality, magic class was quite fascinating to me, having come from a world without magic.
I even felt it was a pity that, like mathematics, it was only held once a week.
Yet this thing called magic required far more mathematical knowledge than expected.
Especially when drawing magic circles, he would explain things like equations, giving the impression that he was boasting of his own knowledge rather than speaking so a child could understand.
The magic of this world meant first learning how to draw a magic circle, and then drawing it inside one's Mana Furnace.
Once accurately drawn, mana was channeled into it to activate it.
It seemed that the magic flowing from a properly activated magic circle would be guided through the Mana Furnace, designating coordinates for where it should trigger or sending it out through an exit like one's hand or a staff.
Of course, I had never actually tried it.
It was something I had heard frequently while living in the imperial palace, but within this imperial palace, one allegedly could not use magic at all.
Thanks to that, every day I could hear the maids' complaints everywhere, whining, 'If only we could use magic.'
While they didn't have to carry water, starting fires and the like required fairly primitive methods.
The exact reason for this could be heard during the very first hour of magic class.
It was allegedly due to a barrier created by the First Emperor who founded this empire through a contract with a dragon back then.
So, although this was the class I had actually been looking forward to the most, it couldn't be helped.
"So you're saying we can't use magic here?!"
"Yes. That is correct, Your Majesty. Magic cannot be used inside the imperial palace, so practical practice is virtually impossible."
"What do you mean by that?! Isn't it just that you can't use it?!"
When I grimaced severely and uttered those words, Count Erdenwald hastily opened his mouth.
"W-What are you saying! While practical training is impossible, I can show you how magic is nullified!"
When I looked at Count Erdenwald with an expression asking what on earth he meant, he returned to his smug expression once more and spread open his hands.
"Now, please watch closely from here on out. This is not something just anyone can do. It is something only an elite of my stature can barely accomplish."
It was the moment he lightly opened both palms and showed an appearance of concentrating on something.
The air hovering around him suddenly shifted its texture.
A bizarre wave swept chillily across the skin, even though the temperature hadn't changed.
A foreign sensation like a massive water pressure pulling one down into the deep sea filled the space.
Even while hearing explanations about the imperial palace barrier, and even while learning in class that magic existed, I had not yet seen that thing called mana with my own eyes.
Amidst the swirling of this unfamiliar sensation, something opaque on his left palm began to creepingly move and trace out a certain trajectory.
Honestly, I had been disregarding him.
I wondered what he could possibly show me even if he claimed to, but I saw something unexpected.
The Mana Furnace, where mana gathers and magic circles are drawn, was said to be like an invisible organ.
While it exists within a person, it is not an organ that physically exists in the body like visceral organs.
Much like a soul, one knows it is inside one's body, but does not know where exactly it is located.
To make it visible for another person to see oneself drawing a magic circle onto such a thing of unknown location—I hadn't even imagined such a thing was possible in the first place.
It felt like saying, 'My soul looks like this,' and showing off one's soul.
No matter how inferior his skills were compared to a real professor, it seemed that the name of his house and his rise to head of the family weren't entirely baseless after all.
The opaque magic circle he was slowly drawing soon took on a complete magic circle form, and then mana moved perceptibly even to me.
The magical reaction of the Mana Furnace that started near his left palm slowly flowed along his body and moved to his right palm.
And just like that, it showed signs of his magic about to activate from his right palm──
──and vanished just like that.
There was no sound, no reaction of any kind, nothing.
As if magic had never been used from the very beginning.
Cleanly.
"As you have seen, moving mana to construct a magic circle and activating that magic from the Mana Furnace can be done, but the moment it comes outside bearing a physical phenomenon, it is destroyed along with the magic circle formed in the Mana Furnace by the barrier."
He spoke like that and let out a small sigh, hyu.
"Originally, this is not something that can be shown to others in this manner. Normally, one cannot know the movement of mana or whether a magic circle is being created."
He squared his shoulders proudly.
"Magic that manifests a phenomenon externally like this disappears along with the magic circle drawn in the Mana Furnace the moment it steps outside, as you saw. Due to the barrier's rejection reaction, all mana both inside and outside the body gets dispersed."
This time, he changed his open hands into fists.
"If you ask whether reinforcement-type magic that manifests phenomena strictly internally rather than externally is fine, the answer is identical."
He repeated the exact same act he had done moments prior.
A magic circle slightly different from before faintly emerged, and the mana flowing from the completed magic circle headed toward his heart, then vanished just like that.
"The barrier created by a dragon living since ancient times cannot be deciphered by us at present. We could only ascertain that this barrier rejects the very phenomenon created by mana itself. While it is possible to circulate mana internally, it cannot be released outside."
He repeatedly assured me that it wasn't that he couldn't use it, but that the barrier made it so.
Perhaps because he knew that while being unable to use magic was natural to them, to a young child he might seem like an incompetent fool unable to cast, he was quite desperate.
His shoulders, raised high the whole time even while failing to wipe the sweat running down his forehead, told just how earnest he was.
Observing my reaction, he cleared his throat with a humm-humm and ended the lesson, saying that today's class ended here.
And night fell.
In the emperor's bedchamber draped in dark silence, sitting upon that bed, I chewed over the scene I had witnessed during the day over and over again.
Magic.
If I could use something like that, a great deal would change.
I would obtain a secret weapon, or perhaps I could communicate with distant places using magic.
Of course, if I could do such a thing, it meant others could as well, and if so, the Lord Protector would have monitored my every single move right into this room.
Out of lingering regret, with the feeling of poking at a sour grape I couldn't eat anyway, I clumsily tried to imitate the sight I saw during the day.
Back then, I definitely felt mana. I revived the sensation I felt back then.
I learned the theory.
I also saw it done in practice.
Even if my soul did not belong to this world, this body belonged to this world.
If so, I should be able to do it too.
And finally, I found the Mana Furnace located somewhere inside my body.
It was a strange sensation. Something was clearly there, yet there was nothing.
It was felt, yet it wasn't there.
I slowly channeled mana into that Mana Furnace and drew a magic circle.
A magic circle was engraved upon the invisible Mana Furnace. Slowly, intricately.
It was such a basic spell that there wasn't even anything to memorize.
A magic circle composed only of very simple geometric shapes was completed in the Mana Furnace, and the magic flowing from there moved to find an exit.
I regulated that flow of magic and guided it between my cupped hands.
A very basic spell.
A very simple spell used to determine whether a young child could use magic or not.
Scintilla.
In that instant.
A spark like golden dust bloomed between my hands and then vanished.
The spell had been activated.
Far from blocking my magic, the barrier moved as if parting the way for it.
On the bed where magic vanished and darkness settled once more, I received a shock akin to a thrill and stared blankly at the spot where the magic had been cast.
It took time to comprehend what had just happened.
I had just used magic.
And at that, inside the emperor's bedchamber within the imperial palace where magic ought to be impossible to use.
Was it a lie that magic couldn't be used in the imperial palace? No, I saw the sweat running down Count Erdenwald's forehead that he couldn't hide.
I heard the voice of the maid complaining back when I was an infant, saying, 'If only we could use magic.'
If so...... what came to mind was what the magic teacher had said during magic class.
He said the barrier was created through a contract between the First Emperor who founded the empire and a dragon.
Could it be that the contract wasn't merely casting a barrier over the imperial palace that rendered magic unusable?
It wasn't an absurd story.
Rendering magic entirely unusable could serve as a shield to protect oneself, but it could also become a sword to slay oneself.
If so, was it the bloodline of the Emperor?
No, most high nobles around the rank of Grand Duke inevitably shared blood with the imperial family for political reasons. Yet none of them could use magic inside the imperial palace either.
............Was it the Emperor himself?
Only the Emperor can use magic in the imperial palace.
If it was a barrier created to protect the Emperor and serve as the Emperor's weapon, one couldn't imagine anything other than that.
And if that was the truth.......
Me, whom not a single person existing in the imperial palace recognized as the Emperor.
This barrier.
Is recognizing me... as the Emperor?
As questions spread uncontrollably, a single fact that I had completely forgotten while intoxicated with success suddenly flashed through my mind.
......The light.
A chilling cold crept up my spine.
I held my breath and turned toward the door.
......I don't think it was a light strong enough to leak out.
But did truly nothing leak outside?
I moved my body as carefully as possible without making a sound and walked up to the door.
And to check if the knights had noticed, I strained my ears to listen to the outside sounds as best as I could.
It was a place originally used as the emperor's bedchamber.
The soundproofing itself was excellent, and there were no spots from which one could aim from the outside.
However, this very door was made so that the guards outside could hear sounds and enter at any time.
Therefore, pressing my ear against the cold oak door, I ignored the noisy pounding of my heart that felt like it would pierce my eardrums and began focusing intensely on the sounds outside.
Outside, no rustling sounds or busy movements were heard.
Only the loud snoring of two knights echoed like a duet.
The scene of me casting magic was seen by no one.
As if a thread pulled taut had suddenly snapped with a tuk, my legs went weak.
Forcing myself to hold up my body, which was about to collapse onto the floor, I returned to the bed step by quiet step.
No light had leaked past the door.
Even if light had been visible, those bastards were merely sleeping soundly anyway.
Having spent ten years with them, I knew all too well that they were not competent enough knights to put on such meticulous acting.
There was no space from which the bedchamber could be viewed from the outside either.
I climbed onto the bed and pulled the thick blanket completely over my head.
In the dark space where all four sides were completely covered, where nothing could be seen and not a single speck of light entered, I cupped my hands once more and reproduced the spell I had just used.
It bloomed. It went out. It bloomed again.
Over and over again.
It was a small ember that seemed unlikely to even burn a feather properly.
It was an ember of laughable size that wouldn't leave a single smudge of soot even if thrown at a person.
Yet it was unleashed in this imperial palace, in my hands. The air inside the narrow blanket vanished in an instant under my breath, which was quickened by excitement.
Even amidst that stifling air, I simply could not stop the corners of my mouth from tearing upward into a wide grin.
My magic, cast right through that absolute barrier inside this imperial palace where no one can use magic. My wild card. My weapon.
Though it was merely a tiny ember right now.
I had finally obtained it.
A sword.