Return of The 8th Class Mage Chapter 20:
The Coming of the Crown Prince (5)
*Rooaaarrr… . . *
The fire sphere moved through the floor of the gymnasium .
Cecelia knew the spell very well .
Due to its slow flight speed it normally isn’t used for duels .
Instead, its power was extreme .
She had to jump away to avoid it .
‘If I don’t, I will die’ .
The problem was the barrier that she was casting to protect her from the ice shards .
While casting the barrier, she couldn’t move .
She had two choices .
Choose to die, or risk her body for a small chance of survival .
Cecelia chose, of course, the second choice .
She didn’t want to die like this .
“Cancel . ”
The barrier that was nearly wrecked collapsed .
As she became free to move, she used her legs to jump as far as she could to avoid the area of effect of the fire sphere .
*Pkkkkht! Pkht! Pkkht!*
The ice shards stabbed her mercilessly .
It penetrated her defenseless exposed body .
*Argh… . . !*
She couldn’t help screaming .
From shoulder, side body, arm and thigh .
Not just the feeling of being stabbed, but the feeling of being penetrated struck her whole body .
It was an extreme pain that a normal person wouldn’t be able to bear .
‘I survived . ’
Nevertheless, Cecelia was sure that she made it .
Ice shards didn’t stab her vital points .
She avoided the area of effect of the fire sphere .
*BOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!*
The noise of an enormous explosion shook the whole province castle .
The fire sphere which Cecelia avoided had destroyed the outer wall of the province castle .
“Mana Barrier……!”
Cecelia rolled on the floor .
Then she re-cast the mana barrier .
Now Ice shards in the sky no longer threatened her .
“Pant! Pant! Pant……”
Her wounded body spewed out blood .
It covered the whole floor where she laid .
But everything was fine for her . People would come soon .
They would heal Cecelia .
‘There is no proof . ’
She was satisfied that she survived .
There was no proof . The proof of her real identity . She had no idea how that kid knew everything, but she bet that he had no proof . She was so sure about it . She always acted thoroughly . She didn’t leave any trails .
‘And people would be more likely to believe me . ’
She was a 3rd class mage of the ivory tower .
She sneaked into the tower and pretended to be devoted to them for 11 years .
She wouldn’t be suspected by the boy’s proofless claim .
‘After I recover from my wounds, then later I will…… . ’
While Cecelia was making her plan for the future,
“Hew!”
Ian came closer to her and sat down .
There was an empty bottle where he had stood .
‘It was indeed, half elixir . ’
The half elixir that Ledio gave to him as a gift .
Ledio said it would work as soon as he drank it, so Ian had drank it before confronting Cecelia . The result was satisfying . Cecelia was defeated and laid on the floor with a **** body .
‘There would be some side effect, though . ’
His mana was still beating strongly .
“I would take some credit this time . ”
After Ian managed to calm down his heart, he spoke quietly .
“By arresting you . ”
“Haha, can you?”
“Of course . ”
“Where is the proof? I am quite sure there is nothing I left behind . ”
“You are right . The previous time, you didn’t leave any clues . ”
“Previous time?”
“You won’t understand . ”
Previous time? Was he bluffing?
Cecelia was caught in an unspeakable fear .
“The proof even you guys, Coldwalkers, don’t know . ”
“Are you kidding me……!”
“Calm down . You will see it soon . ”
Later on the situation went as they both expected .
“What happened… . . ”
“The wall, what… . ?”
Many crowds who were enjoying the party gathered . They were shocked twice . Once by the shattered wall of the province castle, and another time by the bleeding Cecelia .
“Cecelia?”
The other two mages who had come with her ran urgently .
With a single look, she had severe wounds .
“What happened? This wound… . by magic?”
Suddenly two mages looked at each other .
There were five mages in the Mogrian province .
Including those two mages with Cecelia, and the conducted mage, Marco .
And Marco was absent for tower lord’s mission .
That meant . .
“I did . ”
Everyone’s eye focused on Ian .
The boy admitted that he destroyed the wall, and wounded Cecelia .
There was a short silence .
“Tell us the details . ”
The heavy low voice ended the silence .
The owner of voice was the second royal knight captain, Oliver Raywood .
“What happened here?”
“Coincidently, I saw something that the lady over there… . ”
Ian paused and looked at Cecelia .
Cecelia made a curious face .
What kind of nonsense was he about to say?
“She was talking to a masked man . ”
“Huh?”
By Ian’s word, Cecelia sneered .
So he chose to speak a lie .
There was no proof nor witness . There was no support .
It made her sneer .
“Go on . ”
“Whenever she saw me, she tried to kill me . ”
“So you wounded her like that?”
“Otherwise, I would have died . ”
It was a story that he couldn’t believe .
Cecelia was the official 3rd class mage of Ivory tower .
And did this boy beat her?
He heard enough about the rumors of Ian .
In the royal palace, and northern territory . Everyone was talking about Ian .
He was a genius like the First Mage .
He cast magics without learning .
He rescued the great landlord, and guaranteed as Eternal Guest for the northern territory .
But still, he couldn’t simply believe it .
“Can you prove it?”
The story that even captain Oliver couldn’t believe .
He questioned as formalities, rather than he sincerely believed the story .
“It seemed they were trying to check something . ”
“Check?”
“Some kind of sign on their body… . ”
As Ian paused intentionally,
“Check her . ”
Captain Oliver ordered straightly .
He ordered to check not a just normal person, but Cecelia .
“Hey captain! Enough insulting!”
“Did you forget we are the mages of the Ivory tower?”
Of course, the mages of the Ivory tower complained . Most of the knights would not dare to go against two 3rd class mages . However, Oliver Raywood was different .
*Sururung!*
Rather, he drew his sword and pointed it at the mages .
Other knights would not dare to act like that .
“Y, You dare……!”
“DARE?”
The old mage’s word upset the captain Oliver .
He spoke to them anxiously .
“Our highness is here . And such a threatening situation just happened here . And one of the mages of the Ivory tower is included, so it is my duty to find out what happened here exactly . And you said ‘dare? DID YOU JUST SAY DARE?”
“T, that is…”
These mages couldn’t reply at all .
Although they were mages in high rank, they were lower than royal blood .
Regardless what they think inside, It was the rule and order of the empire .
“The let us heal her first… . ”
“Do it later after we finish our job here . ”
Oliver reordered .
Considering Cecelia’s gender, he ordered maids to search her body .
‘Here I met this scary guy again . ’
While looking at face of the captain, Ian recalled his former life .
The sword master of the empire, actually, ‘the sword master of the continent’, Oliver Raywood .
The loyal knight who served the crown prince until the last .
‘He was killed by mages of Ragnar . ’
At the final battle to protect the crown prince, it was him against the current tower lord and his mages, and he killed five men . And all of them were higher than 2nd class mages .
‘In history, he was just recorded as a traitor, though . ’
The man who reached to the top of top as a knight .
At least, Ian remembered him as it .
He must already have achieved a very high level as a swordsman .
Even mages couldn’t dare to go against him easily .
“Did you find anything?”
The captain asked the maids .
“S, sorry sir . we couldn’t find out anything . ”
“Are you sure about that?”
“We checked her several times, but… . ”
There were no signs, nothing .
Then the two mages raised their angry voices .
“What did I just tell you! Did you really suspect one of us?”
“We better start to heal her! Right now!”
However, Oliver didn’t listen .
He just looked at Ian and asked again .
“Did you lie?”
“No, sir . ”
After Ian shortly replied, he approached to Cecelia .
While people were wondering his action,
“Yikes!”
“W, what… . . ”
Ian’s action stunned everyone in there .
Men turned their head away, and women didn’t know what to do .
Not just the maids but the great landlord’s wife and even Margaret .
Furthermore, even Vanessa, who just came from the dinner hall, was also embarrassed .
“Here . ”
Ian didn’t stop .
Rather, he pulled Cecelia’s top cloth, around her neck, even stronger .
Her **** were revealed .
“I don’t know what you are saying . ”
There was only one .
Oliver looked at it firmly .
He seemed to feel no emotion about it .
“Keep looking at it . ”
Now Ian moved his hand to Cecelia’s body .
This time, Cecelia was also embarrassed .
“Wh, what the **** are you doin… . . !”
She was so sure there were no sign .
It was not others, it was her own body .
If there were some kind of signs, she should have known .
At that moment,
“Around here… . ”
A small amount of mana was injected to Cecelia’s upper body .
Precisely, the mana disappeared after it hung around on her skin .
Then suddenly a sign appeared .
On the upper side of Cecelia’s right breast, where the mana had swept away, something was revealed .
A mysterious pattern that lighted as blue .
People had no idea what that pattern meant .
However, they knew what kind of phenomenon it was .
“Mana… . inscription?”
It was Cecelia who was shocked mostly .
When was the mana inscription tattooed on her body?
The tattoo which meant Coldwalkers .
‘I can’t believe it . ’
She had no such memory .
She never tattooed a mana inscription .
When? Where? How?
“What… . . did you do?
While losing her consciousness, she leered at Ian .
He must have used some kind of dirty trick .
Otherwise how can it be explained?
“I saw she was doing something with her hand . it seemed she was controlling mana . ”
Ian started his lie without any hesitation .
The lie Cecelia sneered at, now it became trustworthy .
‘Of course she didn’t know . ’
Coldwalkers had grown up in a special facility .
This tattoo was some kind of ‘stigma’ which were tattooed in there .
A stigma which helped managers to manage their young spies .
It happened when she was young, so it was natural that she didn’t remember .
‘And I heard it from one of the managers . ’
The manager was quite stubborn .
He was the high rank manager of the Coldwalkers . It took a lot of effort to capture him alive .
He endured painful torture for a year .
Eventually, he talked about it out, though .
“Do you have any idea of what this pattern is?”
Oliver asked to other mages .
As if the cat got their tongue, they just shook their head .
“What about you, Mr . Page?”
Ian shook his head, too .
He would better pretend to know nothing more .
“Hmm . ”
Oliver was caught deep in thought .
He didn’t know the meaning of the stigma .
However, Ian’s words got some support now .
The situation lead Ian’s word to be trusted .
It must be inspected in bigger scale .
“Heal her first . I will interrogate her later . ”
Oliver ordered to his soldiers .
He looked at the two mages, and said .
“Please prepare a Mana Prison for her . ”
“Khmmmm… . !”
Mana Prison was the special magical circle of mages .
A magical circle was an anti magic area that interrupted the flow of mana .
It was necessary to arrest a mage .
“Captain . ”
The vice captain came to Oliver after he finished his order .
“What is it?”
“Why don’t you order to search near the area?”
“You mean we better need to seek the masked man?”
“Yes so… . . ”
“It’s a waste of time . ”
“Huh?”
Oliver rejected the suggestion of the vice captain .
“We should not thin our power for meaningless searching . Rather, we should focus our manpower to protect our highness .
“Uhm… . . ”
“Don’t forget . The reason why we came to the northern territory . ”
It was a completely crown prince-centered decision .
And it was a wise decision as his bodyguard .
The vice captain agreed with his point, and he stepped back .
*Click*
Oliver said to Ian after he sheathed his sword .
“If everything that happened today is true, I will report it to the highness clearly . ”
It was an indirect expression that Ian would receive the reward .
That’s what Ian wanted .
According to the current emperor’s characteristic, he would ask Ian in a straightforward manner what did Ian want .
If it made sense, he would accept Ian’s request .
In such a situation, Ian had some requests in his mind .
‘Very many requests . ’