Chapter 65.

Arriving at the space set up for her at the rear of the banquet hall, Arelia took off her magic school uniform and changed into a showy dress. After fixing her makeup, she had to stand in front of people as Arelia, the Third Princess of the Empire, not a student of the magic school named Aria.

It was an all too familiar event. But why did it feel so uncomfortable?

The corset she wore under the dress suddenly felt tight today. Unlike the uniform, this dress with a lot of embellishments felt cumbersome. But she didn't think of it as a hindrance as she felt this should be natural. This was a duty for the rights she had enjoyed so far, so she would go out dignified to the banquet hall. But before that, she wanted to take a breather for a while.

When Arelia's makeup was fixed, she headed to the terrace connected to the space that was prepared for her.

"Your Imperial Highness, where are you going?” asked the maid, who was busy selecting jewelry for the princess.

Arelia looked at the clock hanging on the wall and said, "I'm going to the terrace to get some air. We still have a lot of time left, right?"

The maid had served her the longest and was also her nanny. "I can't allow you to be away for too long because I have to fix your hair again," she said with an apologetic face.

Arelia smiled in response. "I know. I can't be a baby on a day like this."

The maids began to move busily again as Arelia went out to the terrace. The nanny understood Arelia, so she stopped a young maid from following after Arelia. Arelia was not even going far, so a small concession could be made.

A grateful Arelia breathed in the clear air. It was still late summer, but it felt a little chilly because it was night. Looking from the terrace railing, the sky was full of bright stars.

Come to think of it, the night sky was full of stars even before the summer began.

Arelia smiled, suddenly recalling the half-white masked gentleman. Arriving like an angel when she was depressed, he gave her some courage and abruptly disappeared. It seemed like that man, whose identity she still didn’t know, might just reappear.

Yes, like that first time they’d met when he’d suddenly appeared as if falling from the sky, and smiled like a villain...

Then, suddenly, a black object dropped from above and landed on the terrace railing. A man with a half-white mask, wearing a luxurious suit, holding a bloody long sword in one hand greeted Arelia while looking at her.

"Oh, it has been a long time, Miss Aria?"

Stunned by Lupin’s abrupt arrival, Arelia was stumped for words.

He came down from the railing, held her hand, and said, "Or shall I call you Arelia?"

How dare he call the imperial princess by name and not even by her full title? No disrespect like this should be allowed!

And yet, Arelia nodded unconsciously.

"All right, Arelia. It’s a bit sudden, but would you like to go on a date with me?"

"Huh?"

Before Lupin heard her reply, he quickly grabbed her waist. "In a moment, you’ll feel like you’re floating. You’ll have to get used to it!"

At the same time, Arelia's body floated slightly. Then, he grabbed her and jumped up.

Sorry, nanny. I'm going to be late.

Arelia inwardly apologized since she couldn't shout out otherwise.

-o-

As I went back to the banquet hall, I pondered over what to do.

In a situation like this, there were a lot of options to choose from. But first, run away!

It was the wisest thing to do. What did it have to do with me whether or not an unknown force was after the princess? I was just a humble citizen. What advantages were there for a civil servant, receiving a proper salary, to go and rescue the princess?

No matter how much I thought about it, leaving the job of saving the princess to a heroic knight was beneficial to my physical self. However, I kept delaying the choice to run away kept being. It's simple to escape on my own, but I was thinking about Pushover and friends who were still at the banquet hall. So then, I should simply take my friends and run away. Realistically, this was the option I must choose.

However, it would take too long to get Alphonso and Flam, who were likely still touring the magic school, and persuade Yuria, Alice, and Lisbon, who would be at the banquet hall, to leave.

As per common sense, if the sound of the explosion was to distract the guards, it would soon be discovered, so the wicked ones would try to hurry to accomplish their objective. In that case, there was a strong possibility that things would happen before I was able to run away. Of course, contrary to my conjectures, there was a possibility that the princess was not the target and that there was a separate agenda in play. A different goal would be unlikely on a day like today when the princess' ball was underway, however. Against my expectations, the objective could be blowing up some facilities of the magic school.

If that was the case, it was more efficient for Uncle to go that way. Of course, it was too much to figure out everything just from what he had said in passing. So I just ran away without telling him the possibility of a diversion.

The last option, which I was very reluctant to choose, was to save the princess. To be exact, it was to rescue her incidentally — through intercepting those that wanted to kidnap Arelia by kidnapping her before the commotion broke out as if nothing had happened. The level of difficulty had suddenly increased, but I couldn't help it.

If there were a disturbance, there was a high probability that Pushover and Yuria would step forward. It was only my guess, but Yuria must know that the princess concealed her identity and became a student. Perhaps, she was even asked by her uncle William to be a secret escort. Since she could use magic, she wouldn't have problems defending herself.

However, I was worried about that Lisbon. I reckoned he couldn’t control his pushover-ness and would attack without considering the fact that he was unarmed. Also, my tranquil life could be ruined if I stepped forward openly.

Damn it! This is why you have to choose friends carefully!

This was why I was reluctant to be friends with that Pushover. But there was nothing I could do. We were already friends now. I felt like I wanted to cut my head off. With a sigh, I opened my pocket space and took out a mana stone as big as two fingers and the eyes of the Demon Horus.

Tsk, it's a little wasteful to use it in a place like this.

Demon Horus was a flying demon that was difficult to deal with even for the warriors who roamed the Olympus Forest like their own home. As such, Horus' eyes were deemed as precious magic materials even in the village where they were overflowing with demon by-products. It was a precious catalyst that if sold to the magic tower, one could buy a mansion as big as a royal palace and still had money left over.

Even so, I was glad to have some extra space in the pocket space. Well, Elder Mirpa’s warehouse was as empty as my full inventory, but it would be fine.

Before running away from home, I raided Elder Mirpa’s private warehouse. However, I know not if he had noticed by now. He was good at passing chores on to his students, so there was a chance he didn't know about it yet.

Treat me to a meal later, Pushover!

Feeling a bit wasteful, I used clairvoyance magic that utilized Horus’ eyes as a catalyst. Usually, clairvoyance magic was just called clairvoyance but it was actually just a telescope substitute. However, if Horus' eyes were used as a catalyst, one could observe from the top like a satellite.

I calmly closed my eyes and looked through every corner of the magic school like using Google Maps. Divided into three groups, the black-masked people were located at the explosion site, the rear gate, and the roof of the magic school. At first glance, there was a disturbance team, a kidnapping team, and a retreat team. A group of black-masked people, who seemed to have caused the disturbance, just met with Uncle Bloody.

I canceled the magic and flew up to the roof of the magic school.

"Hectopascal kick!"

The masked man, who managed to respond to my unexpected ambush, blocked by crossing his arms.

Kkeuok!

But it seemed his ribs and both arms couldn’t handle my rage coupled with the precious catalyst and were crushed. Although he looked dead, his weak groaning could be heard, so he was definitely not dead.

All right, we're approaching the strength control master.

I didn't know if that guy I just attacked had a tenacious vitality like a cockroach, but let’s be positive for now.

“Three!"

"How dare he do that to Eagle Three!"

What are you? The five eagle siblings? There's a lot of people for that?

There were 10 black-masked people, including the fallen one.

The black-masked people pulled out their swords and swung them at me. As I ducked at a sword swung sideways at my neck, another one came at my leg. I leaped horizontally into the air as if I were lying on the ground, not touching the sword-swinging overhead.

Then, yet another black-masked man, finding the gap between the two swords, above and below me, stabbed his sword towards my body.

At the continuous attacks, I paused my breath and used all my might twisted my body in mid-air to narrowly dodge the sword. As I twisted, I kicked the side of a black-masked man. With the counterforce, I spun my body in the air in the opposite direction and kicked the back of the head of the black-masked man who aimed at my neck to send him into the ground.

"Ugh!"

Kwang!

The masked person I kicked in the ribs held his sides tightly and struggled to breathe. The man that was smashed into the roof with his head embedded laid out flaccid without even a scream. It was unknown whether he had fainted or died.

Phew~ That's a relief! It seemed the experience of avoiding Kuzuryusen from my brother back in the village was still in me.[1] Unlike the battle with my brother, I was able to avoid it without magic since I was only attacked from three places at the same time.[2]

For a magician, he was pretty good with a sword. To think that I would see such rare magic swordsmen here. But I felt something different from the magic that was used.

Isn't it normal magic? But I felt like I'd felt it somewhere before. Anyway, if the opponent became cool-headed, they would become difficult to deal with. I was worrying over how to make a good provocation...

"You...! That mask!"

A masked man shook his finger at me and pointed out my mask as if he had just realized something.

Have I perhaps met these guys before?

1. A sword move from Rurouni Kenshin (a manga/anime).

2. The sword move from 1* consists of attacking 9 locations simultaneously.

"Eight! Are you all right?"

No answer. It seemed like an ordinary corpse.

"You bastard!”

The guy with the head on the roof must be No.8.

Despite being enraged, the black-masked men did not attack rashly. Instead, the septet surrounded me.

Excluding the two sprawled-out ones, there should be eight. Where's the other one?

Looking around through the corner of my eye, the masked man who was hit in the side was applying healing magic on No.3, the guy I took down first. Considering the level of injury, it wouldn’t be strange if he were to cross over the Jordan River. So, it seemed first aid was being administered.[ref]Aka, it wouldn’t be strange for him to die.