Chapter 243: Liqueur’s Way of Identifying Friend or Foe (1)

The Lillian Kingdom’s royal mage, Charcoal, was dumbfounded.

“Sefira’s archer created footholds with mana and is running through the air on them?

Hah

, unbelievable!”

It sounded simple, but any mage knew how difficult that was. Charcoal was even a six-circle mage. Though he had ultimately failed to achieve seven-circle and had given up, he was confident that his understanding of magic was no less than that of a grand mage.

“If it were around five meters above the ground, maybe, but doing that nonsense thousands of meters in the air is impossible.”

Mana was greatly affected by the environment. To put it simply, would water or ice attribute magic work well under the blazing summer sun? Depending on the environment, mana also changed. Even pure mana was no exception. Mages who used mana were fragile beings extremely influenced by their surroundings.

Charcoal took a deep breath. He was ordered to teleport there and was going to go, but the destination was thousands of meters in the sky. Teleportation was a very dangerous spell. Therefore, no one used teleportation casually. It was standard to create a teleportation gate and move safely in both directions.

It’s only possible because it’s me.

Charcoal focused and thought to himself.

If they gave false information just to discipline me, I’ll really resign this time.

Lately, Charcoal felt like he was being treated as an afterthought in the royal palace. There was no solid proof, but he could feel it.

Even the food seems colder than usual, and the gazes toward me feel icy. I must be getting too old.

Idle thoughts were poison to mages, but someone like Charcoal could divide his thoughts in two. One part prepared magic, and the other wandered freely.

The teleportation spell was completed. Orange sparks spun around Charcoal and swallowed him. As soon as he succeeded in teleporting, Charcoal stretched out both arms and cast two spells at once.

“Eagle Wing, Fly.”

Huge, thick wings of mana like those of an eagle came out from his shoulders, and the Fly spell took effect, letting him float in the air. To remain stable thousands of meters above the ground, this was the minimum.

“

Hm

.”

Charcoal squinted and looked around in all directions. Then, he checked beneath his feet as well.

“I don’t see them.”

Charcoal, who had received the order to find Sefira’s group running through the sky and relay the command to descend to the ground, wore a gloomy expression.

“I guess it really was pressure for me to retire...”

Even the wing beats he made to stay aloft looked gloomy. Just as Charcoal lowered his head and let out a deep sigh, a woman passing by encouraged him.

“Cheer up, Grandpa!”

Charcoal reflexively responded, “Thank you, miss.”

Receiving such unexpected encouragement brought tears to his eyes.

“

Haha

, how silly of me to tear up just from one word of encouragement. Right, even though I’m over eighty and failed to surpass the wall of seven-circle, if I can at least help my disciple surpass that wall...

agh—!

”

Forgetting to flap his wings, Charcoal plummeted rapidly. Thanks to the Fly spell, he bought enough time to regain control. Otherwise, he would have died.

With a few strong flaps of his wings, Charcoal returned to his original altitude and looked around. Then, something he hadn’t seen before came into view.

He rubbed his eyes. The crazy people running around thousands of meters high up in the sky really existed. Including the woman who encouraged him, there were six of them in total.

“I-is that really possible?”

Simply watching would cause them to grow farther and farther away, so Charcoal followed and observed them. He had seen their portraits before coming here, so he knew exactly who was who.

Unbelievable. The footholds made of mana between Keter and Decameron are interlocked as though it’s a single source of mana. That means their mana resonance rate is nearly one hundred percent... Moreover, they’re maintaining that not for a moment, but for an entire day? Without even sleeping?

As far as Charcoal knew, Sefira’s group had been doing this since yesterday. In other words, they had been running in the air for over twenty-four hours straight.

Running for twenty-four hours in the distant sky is astonishing enough, but the fact that Keter and Decameron are maintaining that is abnormal. Th-this is something no genius mage in the entire kingdom could accomplish.

With Charcoal’s abundant experience, something else also came into view. If Keter and Decameron wished, they had the ability to carry the other four while letting them sit comfortably. Yet, they deliberately made them run by creating footholds.

“They aren’t simply running to reach the royal palace. This is training! My goodness! Just by running, they’re building endurance, courage, and reflexes all at once!”

So surprised, Charcoal spoke aloud instead of in his mind.

“What kind of place is Sefira to practice such training methods!”

Because he spoke to himself beside Keter, Keter eventually came to a stop.

Halibo, who had been running half-consciously, stretched his foot forward, and when nothing caught his step, he flailed and screamed, “

Ahhhh!

”

Only when Katherine grabbed Halibo by the back of his neck and pulled him back did he finally feel relief.

“A-Are we finally here?” he looked around and asked, but no one answered.

Everyone’s attention was fixed on Charcoal. Excited, Charcoal flapped around and circled Keter.

“Truly remarkable, Lord Keter! Even though you stopped running, the mana alignment of the foothold didn’t waver at all! Which mage tower do you belong to? Tell me the name of your teacher!”

Then, Keter grabbed Charcoal’s wings as if catching a pigeon.

“

Agh!

A-amazing! I can’t believe you touch mana with your bare hands!”

“Old man, who are you and where did you come from?”

“Apologies for the late introduction. I am Charcoal, the royal mage and a mage of the White Tower. Though it was disgraceful to be caught by your hand... Blink!”

Charcoal disappeared from before their eyes and reappeared three meters away. He used Blink, a short-distance teleportation spell. It was considered such a dangerous spell that it was called both a dodging technique and a suicide technique among mages, yet Charcoal performed it easily.

“I am also a six-circle mage.”

He used the spell to intimidate Keter, but Keter silently flicked his finger. Charcoal felt a sharp sensation tap the back of his neck and reached behind, wondering what it was.

“What is...

huh?

”

What was stuck to the back of his neck had the shape of an arrow. When Keter bent his finger, the arrow pressed harder into Charcoal’s neck.

H-he anticipated that I would dodge with Blink, and placed an Aura Arrow beforehand?!

Charcoal’s complexion turned pale. Then, Keter curled a finger on his right hand, not the left hand that controlled the arrow. Charcoal immediately understood what that meant.

Charcoal was flung back toward Keter, and Keter grabbed his wings just as before.

“Now I know who you are and where you’re from. What’s your purpose?”

Charcoal couldn’t speak.

How insolent! I have come under the crown prince’s command to explain the additional rule regarding the Path of Glory. From this point on, traveling through the air is forbidden. Head of Sefira, Hissop, I command that you immediately descend to the ground.

That was what he should have said sternly, but instead he asked, “Excuse me, but could we please go down to the ground first?”

After meeting Keter in person, Charcoal couldn’t help but speak politely.

***

Clang!

A white sword and a black sword locked together, and then the black sword shot up into the sky. The one holding the white sword was beautiful, though her skin was unusually dark and her appearance was exotic.

She spoke fluent common tongue.

“Prince, you have improved a lot.”

The blond young man called prince plopped onto the ground and grumbled, “Riri, when will I ever be able to beat you?”

“You already win in bed, Your Highness. Is that not enough for you?”

“That’s not winning in swordsmanship. And don’t call me ‘Your Highness,’ call me Rakan.”

“I cannot carelessly speak your given name, Your Highness.”

“But you do in bed,” Rakan grumbled as he got up and brushed his backside.

At that moment, a knight appeared in the training arena with heavy footsteps. His size was unbelievably huge, being about three meters tall. The armor’s thickness alone appeared to be more than thirty centimeters. Even from the helmet that covered his entire face, fierce red light poured out, so he didn’t seem human at all.

Steam burst from the knight’s torso as he arrived before Rakan, and then his armor split open left and right without warning. From inside came out a boy. The child, who looked barely 160 centimeters tall, stepped down from the armor and bowed before Rakan.

“Your Highness. Crown Prince Rukan has used the royal mage.”

“Jix, can’t you stop going around in that armor inside the palace? Your footsteps are way too loud.”

“I will conduct research to see whether there is a method to reduce the noise.”

“People of the Baen Kingdom always do research,

huh?

Anyway, what does my weak older brother want this time?”

“It seems to be because of Sefira.”

“Sefira? The Masters of Archery, Sefira?”

Rakan had learned of Sefira only about a month ago. He had overheard news that a Sefira won the Sword of the South Tournament and became the Bow of the South.

“I heard some illegitimate child named Keter has been rampaging quite a bit. Was it to the extent that it annoyed my brother?”

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“Apparently, they flew through the air, so I heard His Highness the Crown Prince intends to forbid traveling through the air.”

“They flew without tools or a mount? With magic?”

“It was and wasn’t magic. They said he created footholds solely from mana and ran through the air, stepping on those footholds.”

“Is that so hard to do? Sounds easy.”

“It is difficult. Even the Baen Kingdom also has mechanical devices that allow flight, but there are no inventions that allow someone to travel thousands of meters high for twenty-four hours.”

“I see, and Sefira managed that? But they’re Masters of Archery. When did they become Masters of Magic?”

“Shall I look into Sefira?”

“No, it’s fine. Even if you look into them, it’s obvious that only useless information will come out. That’s what my intuition tells me.”

Seemingly losing interest in the sparring, Rakan hung his sword at his waist and snapped. Then a large sofa appeared right beside him. Riri naturally sat beside Rakan, who had plopped down onto the sofa, and Jix continued his report.

“Judging from His Highness the Crown Prince’s reaction, Sefira does not seem to support him.”

“Sefira had been just a hard loaf of bread. Neither my brother nor I had any real interest.”

“Recently, Sefira’s reputation has been rising day by day ever since they won the tournament. It is said they have even formed acquaintances with Krona, Lord of the West, and Princess Iris.”

“

Wow

, what’s happening with Sefira?” Rakan’s eyes widened slightly.

“It seems to be due to the influence of Keter, whom you also mentioned, Your Highness.”

“Are you saying one person revived an entire family?”

“I also found it hard to believe...” Jix briefly organized and combined the information in his mind, then nodded. “Sefira was revived because of that illegitimate child, Keter.”

“I see...”

Jix was a knight, but also an engineer. He never spoke with certainty about something unsure. Thus, for Jix to say that Sefira was revived thanks to Keter, it meant it had to be true.

Rakan’s eyes sparkled, and he rested his chin on his hand. Riri looked at Rakan and smiled. Rakan resting his chin meant he was interested. In other words, Rakan had become interested in Sefira and in Keter.

Riri said the words Rakan wanted to hear. “Shall we recruit them?”

In response, Rakan jumped up from the sofa.

“No! Leave them be. If we recruit Sefira right now, it’ll be boring.”

“Pardon?”

“My brother has decided to interfere with Sefira, right? So how would Keter get through that? I want to know.”

“

Ah...

” Jix nodded.

“If Keter completes the Path of Glory despite my brother’s intervention and arrives at the palace, then we shall meet him.”

“Excuse me, Your Highness. However, if the crown prince truly intends to obstruct Sefira, Sefira will never reach the palace. Even if they somehow manage to reach the palace, wouldn’t the crown prince try to recruit Keter first?”

Jix stated a perfectly realistic opinion, but Rakan shook his head.

“No. My intuition tells me that Keter will arrive at the palace and that he will join hands with me.”

“That statement has no basis.”

“There doesn’t need to be. It’s intuition.” Rakan tapped his own head with his finger and smiled. “There’s this thing where crazy people understand each other.”