Chapter 109
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 109
Chapter Title: The Archmage Who Went on a House Call (5)
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Just before Prince Valerius's sword cleaved Lunaris's body in half.
Meteors rained down from the starry night sky.
Each streak of light was a lump of mana carrying physical destructive power.
“Urk?!”
-Thud thud thud thud!!
With the sound of metal being hammered, Prince Valerius's body slid backward.
The mana-clad blade failed to touch even a single strand of silver hair, slicing only empty air.
“Ha, hahaha...! Looks like you've finally got the urge to fight for real!”
Blood refluxed and trickled from between his lips, but the prince roughly wiped it away with the back of his hand and burst into mad laughter.
Pain meant nothing to him. It was drowned out by his intoxication anyway.
That sharp sensation only fueled the Second Prince's battle lust.
In his eyes burned only one thing—the figure right before him. Lunaris Evermoon.
“...”
Rather than respond to the prince's words, Lunaris indifferently flicked her finger.
-Hum.
The space around the Second Prince warped with a crunch.
Invisible giant hands clamped down on his arms and legs.
The coercive force of space itself crumpling and folding.
His muscles swelled to the bursting point before tearing apart, every joint in his bones screaming.
A magic derived from telekinesis magic—one that manipulated space coordinates themselves.
One of the spells Lunaris had favored long before earning the title of Archmage.
“Urgh... This... this kind of magic...!”
Even amid the crushing pressure on his limbs, Prince Valerius gritted his teeth.
Blood vessels burst in his manic eyes, dyeing them crimson.
“It won't work anymore! Hahaha!!”
Mana exploded from Prince Valerius's body like a burst.
The Second Prince then swung his sword in a massive arc from his position.
Forcibly ripping apart the power pinning him down and the twisted space.
“Do you know how many times I've replayed that day—the inauguration ceremony?!”
Like a beast, he launched himself forward, body hugging the ground.
His gaze locked onto Lunaris.
Those serene eyes. That insufferably arrogant expression.
The leisure only a genius who had scaled the wall could wear.
I want to wear that expression too.
I want to catch up somehow.
I want to see the view beyond the wall.
That burning aspiration dominated Prince Valerius's mind and body.
“Your magic! I've replayed it hundreds—no, thousands of times, even in my dreams!”
-Clang! Clang!
The Second Prince swung his sword like a madman.
“It felt like I'd taken a step forward! And yet I still couldn't cross the wall! Do you know how agonizing that was...!”
The barriers Lunaris deployed tore apart one by one.
“Why! Why didn't you come sooner?”
Soon, the Second Prince's sword surged toward Lunaris's neck.
“If you meant to drive me crazy, to make me burn with frustration... Yes. You succeeded perfectly, Lunaris Evermoon!!”
The close-quarters clash continued.
Mana erupted everywhere, swords cleaved the air.
A brutal melee that hardly looked like a duel between mage and swordsman.
On this continent, only Lunaris could match one of the empire's top swordsmen at such proximity.
Sparks flew where sword met mana barrier.
Valerius thrust his blade close and glared into Lunaris's eyes from inches away.
In those calm pupils reflected his own thoroughly frustrated self.
That stark disparity filled Prince Valerius with self-loathing.
He gnashed his teeth—then suddenly noticed.
Floating serenely behind Lunaris: the pure white staff, Arke.
“Come to think of it... why aren't you using your staff?”
“...Using this would make the duel end too boring.”
Her tone dripped with condescension, as if pitying him.
Flames ignited in Prince Valerius's eyes.
“Do I look like a joke to you? I told you to fight properly—with your full power!”
“No... the issue isn't that, Your Highness. You'll die.”
“I told you already, didn't I? My life means nothing!”
Prince Valerius regripped his sword.
“A stagnant life, trudging in place! A rotting life that can't glimpse beyond the wall—it's worse than death!!”
A pathological obsession with transcending limits.
She'd thought it wasn't ordinary madness, but she hadn't realized it festered this deeply.
“Haa...”
A small sigh escaped Lunaris's lips.
Before she knew it, she had put some distance between herself and Prince Valerius.
“This won't do. Why don't we cool your head first and think it over?”
Lunaris spread her palm wide.
Giant ice crystal flowers began blooming one by one high in the night sky.
-Saa.
The temperature in the darkened space plummeted below freezing in an instant.
A chill that could freeze one's alveoli just from exhaling.
“Urgh...!”
Prince Valerius's movements noticeably slowed.
His skin was freezing over, blackening with rot, but the Second Prince remained oblivious.
His mind fixed solely on reaching the wall before him—on Lunaris.
Moments later, house-sized ice chunks began pouring down like a hailstorm.
The very magic that had subdued a horde of wyverns controlled by black mages in one fell swoop.
Prince Valerius let out a silent roar as he slashed at the ice masses hurtling toward him.
He managed the first few, cleaving and shattering them, but the endless barrage of freezing projectiles soon rooted him in place.
Frost gradually settled over Prince Valerius's body.
At this rate, his body would freeze solid before his head cooled.
But for the severely bullheaded Second Prince, this was just right.
Judging he'd finally listen, Lunaris made an abrupt proposal.
“I'll help Your Highness surpass that wall.”
His body jolted to a halt at the voice drifting from beyond the ice storm.
A proposal that struck at his most primal desire.
“Help... me?”
“Yes. But there are conditions.”
Lunaris held up her fingers.
“First, don't summon me to the palace anymore. And no harassing Senior Miriel.”
Not persuasion—an ultimatum.
“There's a proper place for learning, isn't there? Come to Elterion Academy.”
“Ha! As if location matters... Fine, I could just move my residence to that damn academy dorm!”
No trace of hesitation in his response.
The comforts of the palace had never factored in.
“Second. We'll limit duels to once per semester.”
This was already a huge concession on Lunaris's part.
If Miriel—another of her heroines—hadn't been acting all menhera in a way so unlike her usual self, she wouldn't have given a damn about the Second Prince.
If Kyle were around, she could've just dumped him on the guy with instructions to treat him decently.
This guy... when the hell is he enrolling...!
Of course, the Second Prince found even a semester unacceptable.
“What? Half a year? You're joking! It's barely enough if we spar every day...”
“Enlightenment doesn't come from blindly abusing your body.”
Lunaris cut off the rampaging prince.
“You need time to digest what you've learned. And above all... why should I indulge Your Highness's tantrums?”
A venomous tone unbecoming when addressing royalty.
But Lunaris didn't care.
Etiquette was for fellow humans—for a deranged beast, firmness was necessary.
“Urk...!”
“If you can't accept that, how about a bet?”
“...A bet?”
“Use any means necessary. If you beat me, do whatever you want.”
“Ha... now that sounds fun...?”
His eyes gleamed serpent-like at the words.
“If I win, you're mine.”
“...”
“Only then would it be worth my while.”
Lunaris grimaced in disgust, but Valerius grinned undeterred.
“Why? If you hate it, forget—”
“Well, doesn't matter to me.”
Lunaris nodded as if annoyed.
Truth be told, the conditions didn't matter.
She just didn't like his attitude.
“But if I win, you accept my terms and be a good student. Got it?”
“Hahaha... Perfect! I love it!”
Prince Valerius licked his lips.
Imagining what he'd do after claiming this world's haughtiest, most aloof Archmage sent dopamine surging through his brain.
The chill enveloping him turned to euphoria amid the sense he'd already scaled the wall.
“This includes not just today's duel, but all future ones too!!”
-Boom!!
The explosion shattered the ice chunks strewn everywhere.
For this very moment. For that decisive strike.
Prince Valerius burned through his life force, squeezing out every ounce of potential.
Mana surged explosively from his body.
Enveloped in the mana vortex.
Gripping his greatsword with both hands, the Second Prince charged at Lunaris with full power.
Even he had never unleashed his true full strength before.
If he'd truly resolved to spare no means.
For a prince who could discard his life like trash, burning his remaining years into mana was trivial.
This time, it reaches.
I can see that arrogant little mage's face twist.
She never expected me to hide this much power!
His strike, brimming with certainty, swung for her neck—
“...?”
Time halted, centered on Prince Valerius.
More precisely, space halted.
A pressure as if some colossal force crushed down from above.
His body trembled violently as he rolled his eyes toward Lunaris.
The Archmage's slender hand had gripped the staff floating behind her.
Arke, clutched tightly.
“I did tell you.”
Her voice, right there before his eyes, echoed as if from a vast distance.
“Holding this would end it boringly.”
With those words, five magic circles of varying sizes unfurled in sequence above Prince Valerius's body.
Halting muscle movement, mana flow—even breathing.
An absolute binding that forcibly stopped all biological functions.
Valerius screamed inwardly, trying to detonate his entire body's mana.
His suppressed muscles twisted, veins burst.
Yet his body didn't so much as twitch.
Blood streamed from his eyes, nose, and between his lips.
The overwhelming gap sank in.
Watching from afar, he'd thought he could tiptoe over if he just stretched a bit.
Now he saw the wall stretched to the heavens, impossibly high.
“I'll try to hold back as much as possible, but...”
Lunaris traced a large circle in the air with Arke's tip.
“Roughly half a year... no, let's say a full year to be safe? Bed rest to cool that head.”
Soon, a massive magic circle materialized above her head, at the heart of the night sky.
“Once you're healed and back at the academy, maybe I'll spar with you again.”
Lunaris swung Arke downward.
A magic circle drawn by a mage who loathed the hassle—after a long time.
A spell chanted by a mage who rarely voiced incantations.
"[Star Caller.]"
⟨ Meteor Fall ⟩
-Rumble rumble rumble!!
A colossal, red-hot meteor tore through the starry sky, slowly descending.
At that overwhelming magic, the madness drained from Prince Valerius's eyes, turning them stark white.
“Urk... Aca...!”
Today's memory looked set to linger as trauma for quite some time.