Chapter 62

It was the weekend, the day everyone had gathered to head to the imperial palace.

“I’m so excited!”

While Iris and Estelle both didn’t look particularly thrilled, there was one person who couldn’t hide their excitement.

“Anyway… I’ve gotten permission for all of us. Mancy, Velia, and Brandy included.”

It was Mancy.

Somehow, the conversation about visiting the imperial palace on the weekend had come up, and it naturally turned into a situation where not only Mancy, who had always been curious about the palace but also Velia and Brandy would join as well.

“Wow! Thank you so much, Iris!”

Of course, ever since the recent incident, Velia seemed to have reverted to being fairly quiet and introverted, so she didn’t look overly excited. Brandy, on the other hand, seemed more upbeat than usual, but she was holding herself back as she focused on looking after Velia.

“Today, I have an audience with His Majesty scheduled for about an hour. During that time, you’re free to go anywhere you’d like, except for the main palace and the Empress’s palace. Please feel free to explore. And Estelle, I’ll be relying on you to look after Sier Theo.”

Iris specifically pointed out Estelle, asking her to take care of me.

“Sure, well… I wasn’t expecting this, but I’ll manage.”

Estelle responded reluctantly, though she still agreed.

Wait, hold on. Why does someone need to “take care” of me? I’m not a child.

I was the same age as everyone else. I was twenty years old. And if you added my past life, I was probably years older than all of them combined. Seriously.

Iris was just overly worried, as usual.

“Alright, we’ll be heading out now. I’ll take Iris, Mancy, and Velia with me. Sir Theo, can I ask you to take Brandy?”

There were six of us, so it made sense to split into two groups, but instead of evenly dividing into three and three, we were split into four and two. It seemed obvious that the reasoning behind this division was to split us into a “girls’ team” and a “boys’ team”.

Besides, Velia was still uncomfortable around me, so it made sense to group her with Iris.

“Alright, Brandy. Let’s go.”

“Wow, Theo, can you really use teleportation magic?”

Brandy looked at me with a curious and amazed expression.

“Yeah, somehow I managed to learn it thanks to a great teacher.”

“Ahem! I’m that great teacher, of course.”

Estelle didn’t miss the chance and puffed up her chest proudly.

“Whoa, that’s amazing! But Theo, didn’t you say you haven’t been learning magic for very long? You can already teleport all the way to the imperial palace?”

“Well, I don’t see why not. I’ve teleported all the way to the Holy Empire before, so this should be doable.”

If it had been before my trip to the Holy Empire, I would have certainly spent a lot of time wondering whether I could manage a teleportation of that scale.

However, this was the capital of Ermunt, and the capital, by definition, meant the location of the imperial palace.

Having traveled to a faraway foreign land like the Holy Empire, I thought there was no reason I couldn’t cover a much shorter distance like this. That thought gave me a little more confidence.

“The Holy Empire?! That’s seriously incredible…! How is that even possible? I guess all those rumors about you weren’t lies after all.”

“What kind of rumors are going around about me, anyway? I’m honestly curious.”

I couldn’t help but wonder just how far the rumors about me had spread. Every time something came up, someone always commented about the truth behind the rumors.

“Well, there are tons of rumors about you, Theo. Like how you’re a reclusive genius swordsman or how your magic is on par with an archmage’s level.”

A reclusive genius swordsman? An archmage? Sure, I might have more mana than average, and I did put in a lot of effort to learn swordsmanship, but wasn’t that exaggerating things a bit?

I was still only a first-year student. Among the first-years, I might be considered skilled, but that’s about it.

Besides, as time went on and everyone continued learning and growing, there would definitely be people who would surpass me in no time.

For instance, someone like Iris.

Given her protagonist-like position, it was clear that she would eventually overtake me and reach the pinnacle.

Until then, people might keep calling me things like a reclusive genius or an archmage, but those rumors would naturally fade away with time.

Honestly, that’s partly why I didn’t bother trying to refute them.

Even if I went out of my way to deny it and say, “That’s not true,” no one would believe me anyway.

If anything, they’d just say something like, “Wow, Theo’s humble too!” and start spreading even more rumors, just like Estelle and Iris did.

“Alright, I’ll start the teleportation!”

Estelle spoke first, and after she teleported, I grabbed Brandy and moved us to the predetermined coordinates as well.

“Wow, we moved in the blink of an eye. I heard teleportation magic usually causes some motion sickness, but Theo, your magic doesn’t have any of that. It’s amazing!”

Brandy spoke with sparkling eyes.

“Oh, really? Teleportation magic usually causes motion sickness?”

Since the first teleportation magic I experienced was Estelle’s, I had thought it was strange that motion sickness would occur with my own teleportation magic.

But hearing that it was a common thing, I started to realize that perhaps my magic was actually impressive in that regard.

Well, it wasn’t so much that I was amazing; it was just that I had made a habit of constantly refining my mana.

“Since I’ve made mana refinement a habit, it definitely reduces the chances of motion sickness when I use teleportation magic. It also makes any spell I cast activate more powerfully.”

“You’ve made mana refinement a habit…? Theo, you’re truly an incredible person.”

“Huh? Doesn’t everyone do that?”

I asked him in confusion since I was only doing something that I thought everyone else also did.

Just as I was asking that, the conversation was interrupted.

“Sir Theo! I’m so glad you arrived safely!”

“Sir Theo~! You’re amazing as always~! You hit the exact coordinates without a single mistake! That level of precision is incredible. I want to learn how to do it!”

From a short distance away, Iris and Estelle came running toward us, practically bursting with excitement.

“Oh, really? Isn’t this how it usually turns out?”

“No way. Even I usually end up a little off the mark, no matter how precisely I set the coordinates. But Sir Theo, you’re truly genius-level, almost legendary.”

“Don’t flatter me too much, Estelle. If you keep doing that, what will happen if I end up becoming a conceited person?”

“Well, if it’s you, Sir Theo, I think it’s okay for you to be a little conceited!”

Honestly, you shouldn’t spoil people like that.

It crossed my mind that while Estelle might make a good mom someday, she probably wouldn’t be the type to handle discipline properly.

Well, Iris would probably take care of that part for her.

Though, now that I think about it, both of them are women, so how would they…? Hmm, well, I suppose they could adopt a child. That’s possible.

It wasn’t as if adoption didn’t exist in this country.

“Anyway, I’ll go see His Majesty now. Please feel free to look around, and let’s meet back here in an hour. Sir Theo, I’ll be off now.”

“Yes, Iris. Show him everything you’ve prepared and negotiate well.”

In any case, without the Emperor’s approval, it wouldn’t be possible to use the imperial budget.

Of course, Iris was planning to use her personal budget if necessary, but in my opinion, given the Holy Empire’s involvement, it was inevitable that the official imperial budget would eventually be used.

But… I feel like there was a similar situation in the game.

There was definitely a storyline where Iris, who was getting along well with Estelle and Lina, suddenly decided to start a relief initiative with Lina leading the charge.

What happened in that storyline?

If I remember correctly, Iris couldn’t even bring up the matter to the Emperor because of interference from the Empress, which ultimately prevented her from carrying out the relief initiative.

Even the budget allocated to her was frozen, making it completely impossible for her to proceed, and it all spiraled into a bad ending. I felt a very unpleasant sense of déjà vu that I couldn’t shake.

“Well, shall we head off now?!”

“Yes!”

“Yes.”

“Yes! Let’s go!”

But it was fine.

A solution to that situation was already prepared, more or less.

In the game, this event had taken place when the subtle tension between Iris and Estelle was still ongoing. A quest would appear, directing you to help the despairing Iris continue with the relief initiative.

From there, you would ask Estelle for help, and the initiative would proceed under the name of the Holy Empire. Eventually, the Emperor who realized how unreasonable it was that even foreign countries were conducting relief efforts while his own empire couldn’t would release the imperial budget. And the situation would be resolved.

Iris, who then owed Estelle a favor, had shown a rather uneasy expression, but since it was their destiny to eventually become one, it later led to other instances where she repaid the debt.

“Sir Theo?”

Hearing my name called by Estelle, I finished organizing my thoughts and nodded my head.

“Yes, let’s go and look around right away.”

So even if this situation was the same as the one in the game, there was no real reason to be anxious about it.

Estelle had already promised to invest the Holy Empire’s capital in the project.

Actually, since the promise was already made, it might even be something Iris could handle on her own without any issues.

If that’s the case, well, it’d be easier for me, and I’d have nothing to complain about.

“Oh, wow, I’m really looking forward to this.”

“I saw the garden before and it was so beautiful. I really wanted to come here with you, Sir Theo.”

Estelle came over to my side, linked her arm with mine, and started walking excitedly.

Normally, Iris would’ve rushed to my other side and linked her arm too, making it completely uncomfortable to walk. But with only one of them hanging on to me, walking wasn’t as inconvenient as I thought.

Maybe I should suggest they take turns linking arms from now on.