Chapter 7

Episode 7

"Your Majesty."

"..."

"My men are highly skilled."

"But your men are ranked C in the Black Moon Guild."

"..."

Rank C. It sounded like a low rank, but that was by no means the case. However, her anxiety didn't go away.

"They have secret weapons that have nothing to do with ranking. If you're going to mock my men any further..."

"Oh, I'm just concerned. If you're really confident..."

She smiled a little when she stopped talking, proving her to be just as dreary as Shari.

"Davey, you can block any of if that's not the case, you'll have to pay for it."

"I'll keep that in mind."

She smiled at my words and savored the tea as if there was nothing else to say.

"It doesn't taste good." Liness, murmuring quietly, handed the teacup to Shari.

"Let's go back."

"Yes."

"Perhaps I'll have to get rid of the disobedient dog."

"When the time comes, just let me know." There was no emotion in Shari's face as she answered quietly.

"Are you... Prince Davey? Why in the world are you here?"

I stood at the place with the most weeds inside the palace. Amy inquired carefully after following me to one side of the garden. A maid wasn't supposed to ask such questions haphazardly, but it meant that my efforts were worth it, considering she asked such a question.

A person could and should ask questions. That was how I thought. She undeniably thought that way as well because she wasn't familiar with the world. Of course, I asked her to do it because she knew her boundaries.

I cleared the grass, cleaned it up, and went inside despite her question, leaving the abandoned garden as wild as I found it. It was funny. Nobody was bothered to do anything despite there being a space like that inside the palace.

"You should go back. Let me know if anyone looks for me."

"Sure."

"Don't tell anyone that I'm here."

Amy nodded several times, implying she knew what I meant.

"Now... Let's get started."

I pulled at the uniform that I was wearing and slowly sat cross-legged comfortably in the middle of the grassy field. It didn't matter if I lay down, but I didn't want to lie on overgrown weeds. It was a pretty messy place, after all. It wasn't until one couldn't move for a while that they could steadily see the world surrounding them.

I closed my eyes and put down my glasses without saying anything. I then uttered the magic words quietly.

"Operation Field."

Consequently, my mana began to assimilate slowly with the surroundings, all in conjunction with my will. The particular mana around me was a bit tricky, unlike the sacred power carved in my soul and my command mana, which had grown well. I took special measures since we wouldn't be able to escape from mana shortage for several years if I didn't take any action against it.

Mana naturally gathered the most at that place. Wandering around me, it slowly flocked into my body when I conjured my weak mana and created a unique locus for it connected to the surrounding area. Mana entered my body and circulated out again, leaving behind only the pure version of it that I needed.

It was a groundbreaking breathing method for collecting mana, or, to be exact, a miracle. There were a lot of benefits to having a body without mana that disrupted magic applications, considering it ultimately left the pure mana that maximized magic in the body. Considering the skill of the continental wizards I knew, they would be surprised and ready to kill to understand the principle when they saw the mana breathing method invented by Odin, an ancient hero called the revolutionary wizard.

It would only take me a few days to gather the mana others would take months to collect. Of course, although I had no intention of revealing the method to the public, very few people could use it even if I told them. Consequently, it meant that it was a breathing method only talented people could utilize.

'You think I'm being cocky? If you think it's unfair, you should have been born with talent! Hm!'

I felt Odin's aftermath a great deal when it came to magic, which surprised me in turn. While reflecting on myself, I repeatedly inhaled and exhaled mana. Even though it seemed extremely slow compared to the way one would just take and stack mana, it built up at a tremendous speed since there was little waste.

Trying to catch all the mana that came in when breathing was what basic magic common sense was. The ability to break up such knowledge and create a breathing method in reverse was frankly admirable, regardless of personality. It was so slow that no one would have thought such an excellent outcome would follow. I couldn't ask her if she created this method by researching about it for a long time without doing anything else or if she was just a genius in her lifetime.

If I asked the question, she would have hit me on my head with her cane, saying, "Don't be distracted."

I began to concentrate again by shaking off small memories from the past.

Obviously, the time needed to accumulate the mana in my body would be worthwhile. I wasn't only building it up but waking up my sleeping mana as well, after all.

* * *

The results were quick! There was a certain amount of mana, divine power, and command mana that had already begun to flow in my body in the past few days. Those who knew the concept of mana might call me a nut who was going to die, considering divine power and mana were separate energy that opposed each other.

That was why priests couldn't use arcane magic and wizards couldn't use sacred magic. However, I had done all three.

How did I do that? I inherited the work of two maniacs and two nerds who studied head-to-head.

The foul-mouthed, alcohol-loving saint, [Daphne]. The bad-tempered wizard who swung her cane like a blunt instrument and went nuts, burning everything when you made fun of her, [Odin]. The necromancer called Deathlord, a woman with a kind heart who often made me wonder if she was actually a real saint, [Rolas]. Lastly, the god known for her work on dissecting almost every part of the human body, [Hippocrates].

I was the outcome of the miracle created by those four crazy women. We all spent time together at the Hall of Heroes, a place where many heroes arrived, and only the best in each field remained. Even if they were enemies in life, they became close after spending a lot of time together.

Perhaps they interacted with each other because they were lonely. In fact, the saint, Daphne, and the archer, Apollo, were just like that. The two were heroes of the same century. Still, Apollo was the sworn nemesis of Daphne, who often roared to kill Apollo. Perhaps the two grew affection from hatred over time even though they argued and fought a lot.

Of course, I didn't want to be involved with Apollo, who was annoying. Daphne used to tell stories about her life when I drank with her, which made me think that their relationship was ridiculous.

One day, while learning command magic and curses from Rolas, I remembered the day when I was drinking with Daphne because she visited my place in the middle of the night and attacked Apollo, trampling on his middle leg.

"What? Did you touch Rolas? What the fuck! I told you that you're dead if you act like a slut. Isn't it enough that you screwed me in your life, you fucking bastard?!"

All I knew was that Daphne had a very foul mouth. Ironically, however, she didn't evoke the sense of being offended. She was tough on the outside but soft on the inside. As a matter of fact, although Daphne used to curse at me like that, she bought me drinks often. Of course, Apollo was an exception.

'Ha.'

My laughter had disrupted the process, but I went back to concentrating on absorbing mana immediately. The resisting mana escaped from my body after wandering through, leaving only pure mana behind once more.

* * *

As soon as I gathered all the mana, the circle began to be made, and the growth rate began to accelerate. Time flew by instantly once I began focusing on making the circle.

As opposed to novels, circles couldn't be completed in a short time. Oh, of course, most wizards would rush it. However, in their case, growth was bound to be very slow.

"Whoa..."

I took a deep breath as I slowly moved the pure mana with my eyes closed. Mediocre wizards made circles in the heart and rotated them. However, in that way, it was impossible to endure a clash between the divine power and the commanding mana.

I would be lucky if I didn't explode right away if I used such a method. In that sense, my body was currently in a pretty dangerous state. If the amount increased a little, I would die because I wouldn't withstand my strength. Such a method was called Blood-Point Circling.

What did I mean by that?

Within the whole body, the blood point circulated. With that, they created an intricate circle following its way around the blood. Even though it was insanely dangerous because it would instantly kill anyone if something were off even a tiny bit, it was just a matter of reopening its process after succeeding through the same method before.

I was still worried even though I told Amy not to come near me even if someone approached me.

For the time being, I had someone who was after me. They would hide and watch me because they couldn't observe openly. They, unfortunately, wouldn't be able to know what I was doing exactly because of the weeds around me. That alone gave me plenty of room for suspicions.

When I slowly applied the ultimate Qigong technique to the mana, my whole body began to be filled with subtle vibrations. Since I was able to make simple movements, I held my body firmly, trying not to let myself be distracted from it.