Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Talented Scoundrel (2)
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He slipped the book he had been pretending to read back onto the shelf.
A presence stirred behind him. Before he knew it, an old man in a brown robe was leaning against the wall.
"Old timer. Got a lot of time on your hands?"
He tossed out the words indifferently, but it was impossible not to be bothered by the old man who kept popping up behind him out of nowhere.
"When you get old, all you've got left is time."
The old man grinned as he replied.
Raymond turned his head for a quick glance, let out a short sigh, shook his head, and started walking away.
The secret room holding the grimoire of Spear of Sacrifice was off-limits to anyone but royalty anyway.
The 'protagonist' had used some method to break the entry seal, but the old man trailing him now—Azure Tower Lord Risefield Dior—had no idea about that.
"If you've got that much time, why don't you teach me how to handle mana instead of wasting it?"
"What did you just say?"
The voice was stiff, but there was no displeasure or annoyance in it.
He was simply startled by the unexpected words from the Fifth Prince.
'That wastrel Fifth Prince is asking me to teach him mana? Are the rumors true?'
Shock, fear, and confusion danced in the old man's eyes.
Raymond sighed again and shook his head. He should have been used to reactions like this from those around him by now, but it wasn't easy.
'Just how much of a scoundrel was I supposed to have been...'
A wave of fatigue suddenly washed over him.
'No answer, huh.'
Asking to learn mana had just been a casual throwaway line.
Unlike other spells, Spear of Sacrifice didn't consume mana. There was no real need to learn it.
He'd been spending a lot of time in the vault lately, but the grimoire wasn't in plain sight.
He couldn't rummage through the place 24 hours a day, so he'd tossed out the idea to make use of his spare time. It didn't matter if the old man refused.
'Of course the Azure Tower Lord wouldn't open the path of mana for a wastrel.'
No response. Just as he decided to give up cleanly and keep walking—
"How did you know I'm a mage, Your Highness the Fifth Prince?"
The voice was quite serious.
"You used stealth magic when we first met."
What, asking the obvious? Raymond made a tired face.
"I could have been an assassin skilled in stealth arts."
'Oops, didn't expect that.'
Raymond racked his brains at full speed before coming up with an excuse and opening his mouth.
"I smelled mana."
At Raymond's answer, the old man widened his eyes and gaped. He looked extremely shocked.
"If I may be so bold, Your Highness... I understand you've never walked the path of mana, yet you're saying you smelled it from my stealth spell?"
"Yeah."
'Obviously a lie, but let's bluff for now.'
"Didn't you say you didn't know who I was, Your Highness?"
"Do I need to?"
"That you had no interest in me?"
"Do I need to? You're clearly high-level mage material, so you could probably open the path of mana for me..."
The old man's face grew grave.
Raymond forced an awkward smile and tried to play it cool, but...
'Did I mess up somehow?'
An uneasy thought crept up. Had his bluff been called? But the response he heard was different from what he'd expected.
"I will personally open the path of mana before Your Highness the Fifth Prince."
The old man's voice, speaking with a serious face, carried a sense of grim resolve.
Raymond was the one who ended up flustered.
'What's with this old guy all of a sudden?'
He couldn't figure out the reason.
"Uh, sure. Thanks."
"Shall we begin right away?"
"I was just thinking of taking a break, so teaching me now would be perfect."
The old man nodded with a smile spreading across his lips as Raymond replied.
"Don't grin like that, old timer. I'm only planning to learn the basics for now."
He had no desire yet to dive into advanced studies and walk the mage's path.
Finding the Spear of Sacrifice grimoire came first. For mana-related stuff, learning the basics in his spare time was enough.
"As you wish."
The old man grinned and replied. And from that day, lessons to awaken to mana began.
Mages were rare, but opening the path to mana itself wasn't difficult.
However,
No one—not the old man, not even Raymond—expected him to awaken to mana just five minutes into the session.
"Hmm... Old timer, is this mana?"
When he spread his hand, something rippled and danced like a flame. Faintly blue, it was unmistakably mana.
'Heh, what do you think? This should shatter the wastrel image.'
That's what Raymond thought. But the old man's reaction went far beyond that.
"Y-Your Highness...!"
"Yeah?"
"D-Did you just... manifest mana?!"
Something was off. The old man was convulsing like he was about to have a fit.
"This?"
He waved his hand, and the blue mana danced. Seeing it, the old man trembled as if he might foam at the mouth and collapse.
"Old timer?"
But it wasn't a fit. You could tell from his face. He was smiling.
"Your Highness the Fifth Prince! You already knew how to manipulate mana?!"
"N-No... I've never learned anything like that..."
He answered honestly.
The Emperor had once tried assigning him magic and swordsmanship tutors, but the Fifth Prince had refused them all. So he truly didn't know.
"Arrrgh!"
In the end, the old man did have his fit. With trembling hands, he tore open a pocket dimension and pulled out his staff.
'Sea Heart. He's drawing the Azure Tower Lord's symbol—does that mean he's revealing his identity?'
"My name is Risefield Dior. As you can see from this, I am the Azure Tower Lord."
"Didn't expect the Azure Tower Lord..."
It was awkward acting like he'd read it from a textbook, but Risefield had no spare attention to notice.
"I only intended to open the path of mana for you, but this old man has grown greedy."
"Greedy how?"
"Become my disciple."
'Out of nowhere?'
"What's in it for me?"
"I and the Azure Tower will stand behind Your Highness the Fifth Prince."
The Azure Tower Lord getting greedy? That confirmed it. The Fifth Prince, Raymond, was a prodigy.
'I and the Azure Tower will stand behind Your Highness the Fifth Prince.'
Back at the Fifth Prince's Palace, Raymond mulled over Risefield's parting words.
In the novel Empire of the Dead, the protagonist had only earned the Azure Tower Lord's allegiance after finding the Spear of Sacrifice grimoire.
But thanks to Raymond's own unexpected magical talent, that process had been drastically shortened.
'Still... do I really need to become his disciple?'
Once he found the lost magic of the southern Mage Tower Alliance, Spear of Sacrifice, the Azure Tower's support would come anyway.
Did he need the hassle of being a disciple?
'Yeah, I do.'
Now that he knew about his talent, he had to use it.
What if the wastrel Fifth Prince showed magical talent surpassing the Third Prince's? And on top of that, wielded the southern towers' lost magic, Spear of Sacrifice?
'The tradition-bound Imperial Tower would hold its ground, but the Crimson Tower might make a move.'
If he gained the support of both Azure and Crimson Towers, he could shake and absorb the Third Prince's biggest base.
'This is the best play right now.'
He'd discovered his magical talent. No point letting it rot—he had to exploit it.
'I was planning to learn anyway.'
It was just happening faster. To survive the imperial purge plot, he needed 'power'.
"And to get that, I need to learn magic."
He muttered absentmindedly. Learning magic would make it easier to collect fortuitous encounters and ancient relics.
A satisfied smile spread across Raymond's lips. He walked calmly to the mirror.
As he organized his thoughts, a forgotten detail from Raymond's backstory surfaced from the sea of his memories.
'So he was a genius after all.'
He'd probably hidden it early on due to lack of backing, then deliberately ignored it after his third consort mother died.
It was as if fate itself was now questioning the reawakened Fifth Prince.
"Asking if I can protect it...?"
A smile tugged at his lips.
"Of course I can."
Early morning, Raymond emerged from the Fifth Prince's Palace in a carriage and headed to Imperial Vault 7.
"Your Highness the Fifth Prince? I'll open the door for you."
"You've had a hard shift."
He was now on casual greeting terms with the Imperial Knights guarding the vault entrance.
The heavy door swung open, and Raymond entered alone, leaving his attendants behind.
"You've arrived, Your Highness the Fifth Prince."
No sooner had the door closed than Risefield, in his brown robe, emerged from the shadows.
With a faint smile, he approached Raymond and bowed.
"What will you do?"
The old man, Risefield, asked. Come to think of it, Raymond hadn't yet given his answer about becoming a disciple.
"I'll look around the vault first."
"Understood, Your Highness the Fifth Prince."
Risefield replied calmly. He coveted the Fifth Prince's talent.
With proper guidance, he'd become an exceptional mage.
He desperately wanted to press for a decision, but the other was royalty, last in the line of succession or not. He couldn't be hasty and had to hold back.
'Found it.'
A smile spread across his lips. It wasn't the Spear of Sacrifice.
But he'd found a book inscribed with a magic seal that could locate the secret room.
On the west 12th bookshelf, third shelf up, lay a book recording a magic seal to detect mana leaking from the secret room. Amid blue tomes, a strikingly red one stood out.
Just as described in the novel: the red book on west 12th bookshelf, third shelf.
It would've been useless before learning mana. But now he could wield it.
'If I couldn't handle mana, I'd have used another method.'
This was one of two ways to find the secret room, usable only if one could manipulate mana.
Excitement bubbling, he opened the book, and the magic seal appeared immediately. Simple enough for a beginner.
Pretending to read, Raymond glanced at Risefield. The old high mage was inspecting another shelf.
'Now.'
He infused mana into the seal on the page. By the time Risefield noticed the flow and turned, Raymond was already hurling himself toward the source of the white glow.
'If I can just get inside the secret room!'
The Azure Tower Lord, Risefield, wouldn't be able to follow.
Only royalty could enter. The secret room had been designed that way from the start.
Former Emperor Hansen hadn't wanted non-bloodline imperial members joining the treasure hunt.
The protagonist had used a loophole to enter, but Risefield had no way of knowing it.
That was part of the protagonist's fortune too.
'This is mine!'
He grinned like a child. The secret room lay before him.
A book imbued with the strongest white glow sat there. Pulling it triggered the bookshelf to split aside, revealing a hidden passage—the secret room left by former Emperor Hansen.
Exactly as described in the novel. He pulled the white-glowing book, and the shelf parted, exposing a secret passageway.
'The secret room...'
A smile spread across his lips.
"Your Highness the Fifth Prince!"
Risefield arrived late, dragging his aged body, but Raymond had already crossed the threshold.
Risefield tried to follow, but a powerful mana barrier blocked him.
The barrier set by former Emperor Hansen.
"It won't break?"
The barrier looked crude. He'd thought it would shatter easily, but the moment he analyzed the seal to dispel it, he had to give up.
'Too intricate.'
Even he, bearing the Azure Tower Lord's name, abandoned the attempt.
'How did the infamous wastrel Fifth Prince pass this?'
Risefield's eyes gleamed as he glimpsed Raymond's faint silhouette beyond the barrier.
"H-Hey, old timer. Wait there. I'll bring back the Spear of Sacrifice."
"Y-You even know about the Spear of Sacrifice?"
Azure Tower Lord Risefield felt like his world was spinning.
Overwhelming magical talent worth coveting, and knowledge of the Spear of Sacrifice. Where did the Fifth Prince's depths end?
'Has he been wearing a mask, playing the wastrel all this time?'
If so, the Fifth Prince was truly terrifying.
As Risefield spun wild theories alone, Raymond waved dismissively and walked deep into the passage.
"Your Highness the Fifth Prince!"
Risefield's desperate cry echoed from behind, but he ignored it lightly. Sorry, but he had no intention of sharing the Spear of Sacrifice.
'It's all mine.'
He couldn't hide his exhilarated excitement.