kscans

Chapter 69 - The Foreign Prince and Little One

"Your feet! Put your focus into your toes!"

"It’s cramping! My leg is cramping up!"

"Endure it with willpower. It’s all about getting used to it."

"Are you a demon?!"

Mimicking Chihaya, who walked as if gliding, Marrow desperately tried to keep up. But after walking for half an hour, his knees began to buckle.

"You have a solid core. Do you practice any martial arts?"

Offering a hand to the seated Marrow, Chihaya smiled his charming smile. Deceived by it, Marrow puffed out his chest proudly.

"Well, I’m proficient with the sword and spear."

"I see. In that case, think of it as a sliding step. Try to kill your speed and move slowly."

A sliding step?

With the familiar words in his mind, he took a step forward. His foot moved more smoothly than before.

"Oh!"

Marrow walked with fluid movements. Chihaya nodded and corrected his posture.

"Tuck your chin. Don’t move your chin, feel like you’re pulling your head back… Yes, that’s it. Now, imagine a string pulling you up from the top of your head and stretch your body."

The other students quietly watched the twins diligently teaching, their faces filled with curiosity.

"Um? Hiro? What is going on?"

It was Fatima who asked timidly.

They were in the advanced class classroom.

Suddenly bringing Marrow with them, the twins were explaining the lesson to him in a way he could understand.

"I asked the teacher if he could join, and he said it was fine."

Little One looked up with a blank, cute expression. At her words, the three royals turned to look at the teacher. The teacher shrugged and said, ‘I just said it was fine for him to observe,’ as he quietly sipped his tea.

"It’s faster to learn this kind of thing from someone skilled, nyo. Do your best, Marrow."

Practicing with others at the same level wasn’t bad, but getting beaten down by an expert made for much faster growth. However, with people who were easily discouraged, it could backfire and make them timid, so it was a method that had to be used carefully. In that respect, this Marrow was as tough as they come. Despite being treated so coldly by Little One, he had the persistent mentality to charge in every day. From that, Little One judged that Marrow was someone who could be forged through hard work.

"Come on, come on, keep up the walking practice. This is essential, with applications in escorting and dancing, you know."

Leaving Marrow to Chihaya, Little One also attended the class on the side. When Little One was done, Chihaya would return to the lesson, and as the two took turns rigorously training Marrow, the time for the advanced class passed.

"Alright! Next is magic, nyo!"

The twins loudly dragged Marrow around. Since he was learning in an upper, level class, the teachers of Marrow’s own classes silently saw them off.

"Hey, let me take a break!"

His two school friends watched with concern as Marrow was led away by Little One’s hand.

"Time is limited! If you don’t do all you can, you’ll regret it!"

Pulling the prince, who was more than a head taller than Chihaya, the two thoroughly taught him his weak subjects.

"I think you have magic power. That hair and eye color."

Marrow had also received baptism before enrolling and had obtained a sword decoration of the flame attribute. The fact that the needle crystal had transformed meant he should have a decent amount of magic power. It might be a latent ability that hadn’t blossomed yet, but if he had been in Frontier for two years, he should have been able to master life magic like Prince Marcello.

"Don’t you feel something warm circulating through your body like this?"

Magic power is constantly being released from the body. Rather than letting it all leak out, manipulating it to circulate around the body improves the activation of spells.

"For now, this is about all I can do…"

Marrow lit a fire on the tip of his index finger. A flame about three centimeters tall flickered like a candle.

"So you can manifest it. Now it’s a matter of power and application. Hmm…?"

Little One’s eyes widened at Marrow’s hands. The flame that had been on his index finger had spread to his middle, ring, and little fingers, and soon, flames were lit on all his fingers. Furthermore, the flames began to dance, rotating in Marrow’s hand as if being juggled.

"What is that?"

As Little One stared intently, Marrow let out a casual mutter, filled with a sigh, like disappointment.

"All I can produce are these tiny fires."

"Are you an idiot?!"

At the little girl’s sudden shout, Marrow jumped, and the flames on his hands vanished.

"Manifesting multiple spells and controlling them freely is something even Romel can’t do!"

"Huh?"

That was right. Magic power and spells, which seemed omnipotent at first glance, were not. When one spell was active, another could not be cast. Compound spells like lightning and ice were kneaded inside the body before being cast. Even if they were small flames, manifesting multiple and controlling each independently was a feat even for Little One. A big boom was easier and more convenient.

"I get it. Your magic power is being channeled into magic manipulation. You’re unconsciously putting a limit on yourself, so you can only manifest small spells."

There is an upper limit to the amount of magic power one can contain. Therefore, when about half is used, most people’s bodies automatically put on the brakes. This is because their instincts fear that they will collapse otherwise. It was a story Romel had painstakingly explained to Little One, who, unaware of this, had once poured her magic power into a magic stone and fainted. Since Marrow was a person who had been empty and was then filled with magic power, his body must have started putting on the brakes when he crossed that borderline. Unaware that the tap was still turned down and not knowing how to release it, he continued to use magic with the trickling magic power, and only his magic manipulation improved.

And delicate magic manipulation uses a surprising amount of magic power. The magic power inside Marrow’s body was probably fluctuating around that borderline. His tireless efforts in practicing magic every day were backfiring.

"You are forbidden from using magic today!! Save up your magic power until tomorrow!!"

"O, okay."

Having come to learn magic only to be forbidden from using it, Marrow, with nothing to do, simply watched everyone else practice.

He watched in amazement as Little One raised a pillar of water and froze it from below, unconsciously tracing the spell formula and imitating it.

If I could do that, I could counter floods.

Donautil, which reaped the bounty of fertile land from river floods. But on the other hand, it was also prone to major flood damage. All such damage fell upon the common people. Even if the army mobilized for rescue, the lives of the people lost would not return.

If only there was just one magician like in the fairy tales…!

The young Marrow had prayed to the gods many times.

Amidst this, he heard that magic had been revived in the neighboring country of Flowers, and he had an audience with Prince Marcello and had him show him his magic. With a bitter smile, saying it was still just a little, Prince Marcello created a wall of earth. A wall about three meters high and ten meters wide. It was also about twenty centimeters thick and had sufficient strength as an outer wall.

With this, he could build a defensive wall around the city. It required no manpower or funds, and no long construction period.

After prying into how he had obtained magic, Marrow learned that Frontier, located further south, across Flowers, was involved. Although Donautil was now self, sufficient, he had heard that in the lost age of the past, it had been saved by food aid from Frontier. No, he had heard that the whole world had been saved. That abundantly magical nation was famous even in Donautil, and Marrow, who was interested in magic, knew of it.

Taking the story of Prince Marcello, who said he had mastered magic by studying abroad in Frontier, back to his own country, he brushed aside his opposing family and came to Frontier as if running away.

Later, an envoy came from Donautil again and delivered a letter from his father, the king, to Marrow, which indirectly told him to do as he pleased.

And so he had enrolled in Frontier’s noble academy.

I will master magic, no matter what. Absolutely.

Little One, seeing Marrow unconsciously tracing the spell formula, smiled with a curve in her eyes.

Just before the height of summer, the uninvited goodwill ambassador arrived.

It was also a sign of a new pilgrimage.