◆ Memorize Status
: Beginner–Intermediate Psychokinesis (17%)
┏Beginner Firepower Control
┣Beginner Fluid Manipulation
┗Metal Enhancement (Progress 67%)
Late dawn.
In the annex, I inspected the magical branches of 「Psychokinesis」 that appeared through 「Six Eyes」. The quality of my mana had been upgraded, but applying and controlling power that had amplified in an instant was no easy task.
“······.”
I closed my eyes gently and activated 「Psychokinesis」.
A single piece of woodsteel floated up with a whoosh.
Today’s objective was to manipulate electromagnetic waves through the ‘resonance of metal’ via 「Psychokinesis」.
Until now, the quality of my mana had been too poor to even attempt it, but now that I had risen to Grade 4, it was more than worth trying.
Ziiiiiiing—
The most basic application of this advanced technique was ‘invisibility.’ It was a technique that dispersed and refracted visible light through the resonance of metal, blurring and concealing the form of the woodsteel.
———Thud!
The theory sounded plausible, but the woodsteel that had been vibrating in place shot upward. It smashed through the ceiling, fell back down, and struck my shoulder.
It was my thirty-eighth failure.
“Difficult.”
Massaging my stiff shoulder, I sat down in a chair. My entire body was covered in wounds from trying to control this mechanism, and most of my mana had been exhausted.
Though the quality of my mana had risen, this body’s ordinary talent remained unchanged, so it seemed it would take quite some time.
“Talent, is it······.”
Suddenly, I recalled what I had said to Sylvia yesterday.
—Are even the hardships of a genius superior to those of the mediocre? No. You, who need no teaching, do not know those who cannot grow without it······.
Thinking back on it now, it had been envy and jealousy. This emotion called an ‘inferiority complex’ was likely the common denominator between Deculein and Kim Woojin.
Deculein had been consumed by inferiority and became a villain, while Kim Woojin had resigned himself to inferiority and remained a lacking man.
Neither of them had overcome it.
I gave a self-deprecating smile.
“How absurd.”
However, what I said to Sylvia yesterday was by no means a lie.
Sylvia’s growth would take place on the Floating Island. In that place, where numerous events and quests awaited, she would surpass Deculein.
Someday, to face ‘Archmage Sylvia’ in the flow of the main quest, it was the most correct choice.
That was the Floating Island.
“······.”
After straightening my clothes, I went outside. Butler Roy was waiting. It was exactly seven in the morning.
“Have Ren and Enen left?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
I nodded. The siblings had departed on a business trip to establish the ‘Information Office.’ When they returned, they would likely bring a few suitable people with them.
Roy said,
“And Lady Yeriel has arrived.”
······.
Yeriel was seated in the tea room of the Yukline mansion. The two cups of black tea she had brought gave off a sharp, fragrant aroma.
“We’re holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Will you come?”
She asked me while sipping her tea.
“For the opening of the underground passage.”
The underground passage was originally supposed to be a route that would be opened by Marik and then completed much later.
Here, ‘much later’ meant at least a year after Marik’s opening, when the continued casualties would make Yeriel come up with a business idea.
In other words, it had been built a year early.
“Do you have the blueprints?”
“I have a video.”
Yeriel took out a crystal ball. When she infused it with mana, an image rose with a hum.
“The passage first connects our territory’s northern village, ‘Seojakbi,’ to the entrance of Marik. About eighty kilometers. What do you think?”
The underground passage shown in the image was no mere dirt tunnel. Its width and height were comfortably spacious, and the tiles and outer walls were clean and modern.
“Also, this isn’t just a simple passage. Look. It’s too exhausting to go straight back after finishing work in Marik, right? So I made a shopping district too.”
The crystal ball then showed an underground shopping district.
It was literally an underground shopping district. It would be easy to think of a modern subway station.
“It’s empty right now, but we’re waiting for tenants. Restaurants, shops, hotels, and so on will move in. That way, we can earn additional revenue beyond just the toll. Adventurers will spend money to their hearts’ content underground.”
Yeriel said that and crossed her arms. Her triumphant expression was indeed worthy of a clever one.
“When I give you one task, you do ten.”
“······Well. That’s just how I am.”
A stiff neck and shoulders that looked ready to soar.
Yeriel puffed herself up, barely holding back a smile.
“Good. I have invested in many shops lately, so I’ll have them open branches inside.”
The magic shop Ropopo, the hardware store Rokkan’s Wharf, the restaurant The Pig’s Flower, and so on. There were many shops in which I had invested and acquired shares.
“Ah, that! I was going to bring that up anyway. Seriously, why on earth are you forcing investments?”
Yeriel suddenly furrowed her brow. It was a puzzling reaction to me.
“Forcing?”
“Yeah! I heard you went to shops that said they didn’t need investment and forcibly ripped shares out of them!”
“······.”
I recalled those memories.
Now that I thought about it, some shops had indeed been reluctant to hand over shares. I had chosen every shop that appeared under 「Tycoon’s Wealth」, after all.
“If they had clearly expressed their refusal······.”
As I spoke, I shut my mouth.
Now that I thought about it, for the companies or shops that had dared to express refusal, I had gone to ‘personally’ persuade them.
“······.”
I considered it from their perspective.
A group of nobles showing up out of nowhere to persuade—no, threaten them into selling shares. And the mastermind behind them was none other than Yukline, one of the Empire’s great powers······.
“······I paid them properly.”
“Anyway! Are you planning to keep doing that?”
Yeriel asked. After pondering briefly, I nodded.
“I will.”
There was no particular reason not to. Even if those fellows disliked it for now, in the future, we would all end up in a win-win situation.
As long as the result was good, I did not care about the process. There was not much time left to move sideways while fussing over every little thing.
“Ah, seriously······.”
“Yeriel. Those who refused my investment were also at fault.”
At that, Yeriel let out a deep breath as if in contempt.
“Whatever. Are you coming to the ribbon-cutting ceremony or not?”
“If my schedule permits.”
“Schedule? It’ll probably be next week. What’s on your schedule today?”
“After tutoring His Majesty, I will briefly visit the auction house.”
“You’re going to auction again?! Ah, insane! This is such bullshit!”
Yeriel was shocked again. I shook my head.
“I am the one selling.”
“······Aha~ I almost got angry again. And this.”
Yeriel held out a box that had been placed on the tea table. It was a luxuriously wrapped box.
“This is a gift from the construction company for Yukline’s underground passage. Open it.”
I opened the lid with 「Psychokinesis」.
Inside was, unexpectedly, a familiar object.
“You know what it is, right? Even if it’s a bit unfamiliar.”
A kind of high-class lump of metal, with Yukline’s symbol—the black base and golden pattern—embossed upon it.
A revolver.
“I heard it’s an item currently in fashion among the kingdom’s nobles. They say its close-range killing power is superior to a sword’s? Apparently it’s not bad for self-defense against bandits.”
There were guns in this world too. Ordinary pistols that used gunpowder. Of course, they were not widespread.
As for the detailed reason, well, that was under the settings team’s jurisdiction.
They cannot pierce mana aura, a knight’s dynamic vision surpasses the speed of bullets—simple reasons like that, I suppose.
“What do you think? It’s pretty, isn’t······ it?”
“Yes.”
Even according to 「Aesthetic Sense」, it was quite a fine object, and since it was closer to a craft than a weapon, I was satisfied.
This must be why people give gifts. Just one object was enough to improve my impression of the construction company in my head.
“It is well made. Tell them I will accept it.”
“Ah······ that······ you’re going to keep it? You won’t throw it away?”
Yeriel asked in a subtle tone.
“Yes.”
“······What are you going to use it for? Don’t mages usually hate things like this? I thought you’d throw it away, so I only showed it to you······.”
Yeriel stared at the revolver in my hand. In her eyes, desire, greed, and disappointment flickered.
I waved the revolver left and right. Her large eyes followed it.
“Yeriel. Are you returning immediately?”
I asked as I put the revolver into my inner pocket. Yeriel replied with a sigh.
“I’m going to rest a bit before leaving~ Rest a bit~ I’ve been suffering from heavy work lately~ and I was looking for something to gift myself~”
“Rest comfortably.”
“Ah, damn it, seriously. This is annoying. I feel like a cockroach.”
“Roy?”
Ignoring Yeriel, I called Roy.
“Let us depart.”
“Yes. The vehicle is ready.”
Now it was time to go to the Imperial Palace.
* * *
“Ah, I should’ve just wiped my mouth and eaten it myself. Why did I show him? Why did I show him? Aaaah, you idiot. Why did you show it to him, you stupid moron——”
Meanwhile, having returned to her room, Yeriel kicked her feet on the bed. Her entire body trembled with regret.
“I was going to use it when hunting.”
Having lost the revolver, Yeriel blankly imagined a scene as stylish as some play······.
Creak—
Herself aiming the revolver at a boar. On the silent snowy mountain, there is only the beast and me, and that boar is a monster that has eaten ten woodcutters.
A tense moment where the cold wind scratches at the skin.
—Your future is in my hands.
I close one eye, thoroughly calculate the wind direction and distance, then indifferently pull the trigger.
Bang—!
The fired bullet races forward and pierces the boar. It tears through hide, rips apart muscle, and destroys the heart.
The monster boar dies just like that.
I blow away the heat trailing from the muzzle with my breath.
—Whew······. I caught it.
The retainers who had been watching with bated breath rush out and respond with applause. Amid their cheers, Yeriel gives a faint smile—how laughable.
······That delightful future had been stolen by Deculein.
“Sigh. Why do we resemble each other in things like this too? Is this because we’re blood relatives after all?”
Yeriel sprang up and tidied her disheveled hair. Then she went outside her room. Today, she had a mission. A ‘regular inspection.’
“······.”
Without being seen by the servants, she crept up the stairs and first infiltrated the study.
“Let’s see······.”
Since Deculein had an obsessive need for organization, it was actually easy to predict where he would have placed which documents.
“Found it.”
She found a document titled ‘Investment Status.’ Yeriel’s eyes, which had been scanning its contents worriedly, suddenly widened.
“What the hell is with these numbers? No, this doesn’t make sense!”
As the recent rumors said, Deculein was a big spender investing hundreds of millions of elne, and his profits were in the black day by day. Even the two hundred million elne he had squandered at the last auction had long since been recovered.
“What the hell is that damned brother of mine doing······.”
Goosebumps rose on Yeriel’s arms. Whatever it was, because it was something Deculein had done, it felt extremely suspicious.
“He’s going to make me clean up after him again······.”
Yeriel carefully put the document back. Then she came outside. She stood on the first floor, pretending nothing had happened, when just then, some items were being brought into the living room.
Yeriel asked out of pure curiosity.
“Hey. What are all these?”
“Bandages and medicinal herbs.”
“Bandages? Medicine?”
“Yes. They are items ordered by the Head.”
Bandages. Medicine. Why would Deculein order those? No, even if he did order them, why so many?
Yeriel tilted her head.
“Why did he buy so much?”
“We do not know that either. It concerns what happens in the annex.”
“······The annex, huh.”
Yeriel looked at the annex outside the window. Could he, perhaps, have kidnapped Louina and hidden her there?
At that moment, a servant spoke rather sternly.
“My lady. You must not enter that place. Even if you are Lady Yeriel.”
“I said I’m not going in.”
Though she said that, the servants’ gazes remained suspicious. Receiving high salaries and benefits from Deculein, their loyalty was maxed out.
“I’m not going in. I’ll be in my room, so bring me food in a little while.”
“Yes. I will accompany you upstairs.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“I will only stand in front of the door.”
The servants were firm. In the end, they attached one of the youngest to Yeriel’s side.
“······Just you wait.”
Yeriel growled as she climbed the stairs.
* * *
“I have read all of your book.”
At the Imperial Palace, which I had visited again, Sophien said as she waved my revised edition of [ Understanding Pure Elements ].
I asked calmly,
“How was it?”
“I have mastered it all. Behold.”
Sophien manifested every spell recorded in the revised edition simultaneously. In less than a minute, pure elements hovered everywhere around her.
“Shoddy.”
Without letting it show, I was impressed.
So this was the favor of the heavens, talent surpassing humanity.
“Yes. I have confirmed it.”
I wrote down today’s lesson in the instruction journal I had brought with me. Sophien glanced at my document.
“What is that?”
“It is an instruction journal.”
“You really do all sorts of things.”
I did not answer.
[ Her Majesty Sophien has, in less than two weeks, mastered a grimoire that would take an ordinary mage an entire semester······ ]
As I was writing in the journal, Sophien asked me,
“By the way, your fiancée’s skills were not much to speak of, were they?”
“······.”
My fountain pen came to a dead stop.
I was not angry.
I simply could not understand it.
Julie possessed the talent to one day stand at the pinnacle of knighthood. To say that Julie’s skills were not much to speak of—was an error akin to claiming that 1+1 equaled 3.
“Why? Are you angry that I insulted your fiancée?”
The Emperor gave a faint laugh.
I looked at the Emperor.
Sophien never lied. Because she loathed the very act of lying.
Yet precisely because that was Sophien’s nature, my doubts only grew.
“I believe I require a more detailed explanation. Knight Julie is, among all the knights I know, the most—”
“I mean exactly what I said. Her skills are lacking. Of course, she is an excellent knight, but she was somewhat different from the public’s appraisal.”
“······”
That made no sense.
I recalled the story and the settings. I remembered how Julie had appeared in the game I played, and the story surrounding her. That scene where Julie, having reached the pinnacle of knighthood, killed Deculein······.
“In our last lesson, you said this. ‘─If Your Majesty learns magic sufficiently, to the point where I can no longer offer Your Majesty any further meaning, then you may seek that “other meaning” at that time.’ Was it?”
Sophien imitated my voice.
“Now then, are you prepared to receive Our questions?”
A deep smile appeared at her lips. Her slender, curved pupils of crimson flame were as magical as a serpent’s.
I looked at her and shook my head.
“There is still a lesson remaining.”
“······A lesson remains, you say.”
“The second lesson.”
“Cease speaking. We have just manifested every spell more perfectly than anyone else.”
“Today is a test of basic magic.”
“No, you damned bastard! What could you possibly still have to teach Us!”
Bang──!
Sophien struck the desk. Her brow was terrifyingly rigid. Her enraged mana rose in the form of an aura.
For the ennui-stricken Emperor, patience did not exist.
“Stop spouting nonsense and open those eyes wide! Is Our magic not superior to yours?!”
She was right.
In terms of magical ability, the Emperor was superior to me. No, if she so desired, she was a divinity who could lightly surpass any mage in this world.
However.
There was ‘one single spell’ with which I could overwhelm her.
“The foundation is important in all things. Just as physical stamina is important in everything.”
I spoke indifferently and lifted my fountain pen with 「Telekinesis」.
“「Telekinesis」. It is a basic spell suitable for beginning the manipulation category. Of course, telekinesis is also divided into basic, elementary, intermediate, and advanced—”
“Pointless.”
The Emperor cut me off. She glared fiercely into my eyes and muttered,
“Deculein. Do you know how many mages have passed through Our hands until now?”
“I do not.”
“Thirty-three. Among them were Rohakan, and Belladomen as well.”
Rohakan needed no explanation, and Belladomen was also an Ether-rank mage.
Both were colossal figures.
“Even they did not speak to Us of something so trivial as basic magic. Because that ‘foundation’ of Ours is superior to anyone else’s.”
This, too, was correct.
If an ordinary mage’s 「Telekinesis」 output was 10, and a manipulation-type mage’s 「Telekinesis」 output was 20, then the Emperor alone was ten times that—‘100.’
Since she could wield basic magic at tenfold strength, it was only natural that the gap widened as she progressed to higher magic.
Thus, even when casting the same spell, the Emperor inevitably stood above others.
Her basic physical capacity itself was already at a superhuman level.
“Is that so. However, it does not matter. I am not Rohakan.”
“······What? Deculein, has your brain burst?”
The magic circle of my 「Telekinesis」 filled my entire body.
It would not be wrong to say that my body itself was 「Telekinesis」, and numerically speaking, it was fifty times that of an ordinary mage.
It was five times superior even to Sophien’s.
“It is simple. You need only seize this fountain pen within thirty minutes.”
“What is wrong with this fellow? Hey. Have you gone mad?”
At least with this 「Telekinesis」, the Emperor could not defeat me.
Her ennui would be blocked by the wall that was my 「Telekinesis」······.
“Of course, it may be difficult at first. However, if you set your goal and strive diligently without laziness, you will one day be able to win.”
“······Are you insulting Us right now?”
Sophien’s expression hardened stiffly. I continued in a tranquil tone.
“We shall begin. If you defeat me, then no matter what question you ask, I will answer all of them honestly.”
The fountain pen floating with 「Telekinesis」 stopped right before Sophien’s nose.
“······I no longer need questions.”
Sophien glared at me and asked. The aura that had been surging had already settled coldly. That stillness was, rather, proof of her fury.
“Can you wager your neck?”
Her words were sincere. They were also proof that my provocation had worked.
“Yes. Of course.”
I, too, was sincere, and so I smiled. I was composed.
“Please, try taking it.”
To bestow upon Sophien emotions in their rawest form.
That was the purpose of my instruction.