Chapter 87
Chapter 87
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: The Third Prince's Selection
-----------------------------------------------------------------
* * *
Lucius von Eldraon, the third prince of the Eldraon Empire.
On his way back to the capital after completing his mission, he stopped by Linkroft and headed straight for the White Magic Tower.
This was an unprecedented move, skipping even the customary greeting with the market lord who always welcomed him first whenever he visited the city.
"It's an honor to meet you. I am Morgan Fried, Vice Tower Master of the White Magic Tower."
Yet, despite the unexpectedly early visit, the White Magic Tower was fully prepared to receive him.
However, as he looked at Morgan, who had come out to represent the tower, Lucius furrowed his brow slightly.
"The Tower Master didn't come out?"
"The Tower Master is currently occupied with ongoing research... Please understand."
"Hmph."
He wasn't just any imperial family member—he was the empire's third prince.
Even so, the Tower Master Luke's failure to appear personally for his first visit to the tower seemed to irk Lucius considerably.
"Fine, I understand."
But he nodded as if to say he was magnanimous enough to let it slide.
'Good thing he let it pass quietly.'
Morgan inwardly breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Lucius.
He had heard that the third prince had a prickly personality and worried he might make an issue out of the Tower Master's absence.
'Lord Luke can't step forward anyway.'
Ironically, the reason Luke didn't appear even for the prince's visit was precisely because he was the Tower Master and a grand mage.
He wasn't involved in politics at the moment.
But if he ever stepped into politics and backed someone, it could massively sway the succession struggle. That was why the first and second princes' factions had been trying to meet him quite persistently.
However, Luke's resolve to stay out of politics was firm, and the White Magic Tower, which wanted to avoid political entanglements, respected his decision.
"Thank you for your understanding."
Still, it was true that Lucius had graciously overlooked what could have been an uncomfortable point for him.
So Morgan bowed deeply to express his gratitude.
"I didn't come to see the Tower Master anyway, so it doesn't matter. Where am I staying?"
Lucius waved off Morgan's gesture dismissively, as if uninterested, and urged him to show the way.
"Wouldn't you like to tour the tower first?"
"Not interested. I'll request to see what I want separately, so just guide me to my quarters."
"Understood."
At Lucius's insistence, Morgan led him directly to the guest quarters without detours.
And upon arriving at the guest room door...
"The rest of you, stay out. Vice Tower Master, was it? Just you come in."
Lucius waved off the crowd from the White Magic Tower trailing behind him as if they were a nuisance, allowing only Morgan to enter.
"Understood. But... what about this gentleman?"
However, it wasn't just Lucius and Morgan entering the guest room.
A short man who had been sticking close to him since his arrival at the White Magic Tower was naturally trying to follow them in.
'I thought he was just an attendant handling chores...'
But now it seemed he was someone Lucius held in high regard.
After all, even the prince's guardian knights weren't following in, yet he was.
"Don't worry. He's practically my brain."
When asked about the man's identity, Lucius introduced him as his brain.
"I wasn't concerned. Please, come in."
Morgan entered the guest room with the two men.
Even so, his gaze subtly drifted toward the short man.
'That man is... the third prince's brain?'
But he sensed no special aura from him.
To a 6th Circle mage like Morgan, the absence of any special energy meant he definitely wasn't a mage.
Of course, given the third prince's disinterest in magic, he could be a knight instead.
'Doesn't seem like a knight either.'
Knights could gauge each other, mages could gauge mages.
But even a mage could tell if someone was a knight or not.
You might not sense their aura, but you could see the signs of training with your eyes.
Yet the short man showed no traces of such training.
In other words, he was close to an ordinary person who hadn't trained in mana or aura.
'Maybe he really is just a genius with brains.'
If he stayed by the prince's side solely through his exceptional intellect, that might make him even more remarkable.
"Hm, not bad."
Anyway, upon entering the guest room, Lucius plopped down on the sofa in the prime seat among the luxurious ones arranged along one wall.
The short man stood rigidly behind him.
With three people in the room and two already seated that way...
Naturally, it fell to Morgan to handle the chores.
"I'll prepare some tea."
Sure enough, Morgan naturally brewed tea from the guest room's supplies and handed it to Lucius.
It might bruise the pride of the tower's second-in-command, but Morgan wasn't the type to care about that.
Of course, Lucius wasn't the type to consider the other party's feelings either.
"Do you know why I came to the White Magic Tower?"
After taking a sip of the tea Morgan offered and setting it down, Lucius looked straight at Morgan and asked.
"To be honest, I don't."
The third prince had announced his visit without stating any reason.
And despite coming all this way, he skipped the tower tour and went straight to the guest room.
Guessing his purpose with that little information was impossible without mind-reading.
"No particular reason. I just heard there are a lot of promising talents in the White Magic Tower these days."
He came because he heard there were many talents.
Morgan suddenly felt something suspicious but hid it and responded.
"We're grateful for your high evaluation of our tower. Recently, the artifacts we've produced have been receiving rave reviews. Those artifacts..."
He tried to steer the conversation elsewhere.
But Lucius was faster.
"Never mind that. I want to see those talents myself."
"Yourself... you mean?"
For the first time facing Lucius, Morgan's voice trembled slightly.
But whether Lucius noticed or cared, he drained his tea in one gulp.
Then, dangling the empty cup by its handle with his fingers, he tapped it and said to Morgan,
"Bring all the recent entrants to the tower with good grades or exceptional talent before me."
What kind of existence is a prince in the empire?
First off, even ordinary imperial family members with their signature golden hair and golden eyes enjoy immense rights and authority without holding any official post.
But princes, at the pinnacle of that family, operate on another level entirely.
Especially now, with the emperor in his twilight years, the imperial family's power was at its peak outside the founding emperor's era.
They could command dozens or hundreds of guardian knights and mages for life.
If there was a reason, they could request troops from nobles, who couldn't refuse without just cause.
They could even arrest and bring mid-tier nobles to trial on their own judgment.
Yet, unless it was a crime gravely affecting the nation, they couldn't be punished without the emperor's direct order.
Princes also occasionally acted as the emperor's proxies, patrolling the empire.
They were veritable "little emperors" without exaggeration.
'...So that's why he gathered us all like this?'
Jeon, dragged into the guest room by Lucius's guardian knight Alfonso, looked around the interior with a somewhat bewildered expression.
The room was filled with the White Magic Tower's promising prospects at Lucius's request.
"Jeon...!"
And among those prospects was even Lena, who had entered the tower not long ago.
'One word from that guy, and so many people suffer.'
Despite it being their first meeting, Jeon's first impression of Lucius wasn't good.
So he turned his gaze toward where Lucius sat.
Unlike Lucian, his overall impression was sharp and edgy.
With his golden hair slicked back to expose his neck and a body full of training marks, he gave the feel of a razor-sharp sword.
'But those golden eyes are a bit... yellowish.'
Unlike Lucian's deep golden eyes, Lucius's seemed more yellowish than golden.
Like tarnished, hazy gold.
"Is that the last one?"
Once Jeon arrived,
Lucius, who had been lounging motionless against the sofa back, peeled himself forward.
He scanned the faces before him once.
"Hm."
Thud.
He leaned back again.
But this time, it wasn't just to relax.
As Lucius leaned back, the short man standing behind him began whispering something into his ear.
'...What's that about?'
Jeon's gaze naturally shifted to the short man.
The robed man with his hood up was even shorter than Jeon.
Maybe around 150cm?
But the facial outline peeking from under the hood suggested he was at least in his thirties.
'Why is the third prince listening to that guy?'
Judging purely by appearance and aura, Jeon's assessment matched Morgan's.
Not a knight, not a mage.
Yet the prince was heeding his words, so he clearly wasn't ordinary.
"Got it."
Lucius nodded to the whispering man and turned his eyes to the room's occupants.
Then he pointed at exactly one person with his finger.
"Everyone except you can leave."
The one Lucius pointed at was none other than Jeon.
'...What?'
The situation was so bewildering that Jeon nearly blurted out a question despite being before the prince.
Of course, he quickly composed himself and swallowed the words.
But the confusion remained.
"Hey, Vice Tower Master. You leave too."
"Me as well, Your Highness?"
"Don't worry. I'm not going to harm him. So take everyone and go out."
He was even sending Morgan out.
'...Do princes all want private talks with me the moment they see me?'
Lucian had wanted a private meeting too.
Seeing Lucius do the same made Jeon wonder if he had some magnetic charm that drew princes in.
But there was one difference from Lucian.
Lucius was keeping his short confidant behind.
"...Understood."
At Lucius's request, Morgan bowed briefly and led everyone else out.
A brief silence settled in the guest room with only three left.
'What a mess.'
He didn't know why the prince had gathered the tower's prospects.
Or why he sent everyone but Jeon out after all that.
But one thing was clear: the third prince's personality was anything but ordinary.
'Feels just like someone I know.'
Of course, none of the prince's requests so far were unreasonable given his status.
Still, dragging people in and out arbitrarily without explanation screamed of someone who looked down on and disregarded others.
"So, what's your name?"
The silence broke with Lucius's question.
"Jeon, Your Highness."
"What, a commoner?"
"Yes."
"Hm."
Normally, as a commoner, Jeon should have averted his eyes and prostrated like when he first met Lucian.
But Jeon was an apprentice mage officially recognized by the White Magic Tower.
He didn't need to be that subservient.
Lucius seemed lost in thought briefly after asking his status, but not for that reason.
"Good. Actually, no family background means fewer complications—makes it easier."
Lucius nodded as if he'd made up his mind.
But unable to grasp the implication, Jeon cautiously asked,
"...May I ask what you mean by that?"
"Nothing much. I just want to take you as my subordinate."
Lucius's response was utterly unexpected.
And at the same time...
'Hm?'
A faint glint began to rise in the eyes of the short, hooded man standing silently behind Lucius.