Chapter 72

“His Majesty has requested your presence at dinner. Please prepare to depart.”

The moment I received the dinner invitation from the Emperor, I couldn’t help but think….perhaps I should have just returned to the dormitory when I had the chance.

Was declining not even an option? Or was it simply impossible to refuse in the first place?

Before I could even take the time to figure that out, the man had already made it clear that attending was mandatory. With no choice but to comply, I quickly changed out of my current clothes and back into the attire I had worn at the banquet.

Just as I was stepping outside—

“Oh my, Sir Theo! Where are you off to?”

I ran into Estelle.

“Ah, Estelle. His Majesty has invited me to dinner, so I’m on my way there now. You must have received an invitation as well, right? After all, you are the Saintess.”

As if it was unthinkable that the Saintess of an allied country wouldn’t be invited, the man visibly flinched before hastily offering an explanation.

“Ah, well, I’m not entirely sure, but… perhaps His Majesty has already sent someone to inform the Saintess? Haha… Or maybe this particular dinner is meant to be a private gathering for the people of Ermunt, so no separate invitation was sent.”

He was trying to come up with a plausible excuse, but if that were the case, there was still one more card to play.

“Oh, if it’s just for Ermunt, then that means Her Highness the Crown Princess must be attending as well, correct?”

“Uh… um, well, probably…?”

As the man hesitated, still looking flustered, Estelle who had been silently observing the situation smiled.

“In that case, I’ll go get Iris. Iris~!”

Since Iris’s room was right next door, it took only a second for Estelle to call out to her.

“Yes? What is it?”

When Iris stepped outside, she first spotted me and greeted me with a bright expression only for her face to immediately harden the moment she noticed the man who had come to escort me.

“What exactly is going on here?”

“Sir Theo has received an invitation to eat with His Majesty. And since you’re the Crown Princess of Ermunt, it would only be natural for you to attend as well, wouldn’t it?”

“…….”

It was clear without a doubt, Iris had not been invited.

This gathering itself must have been orchestrated by the Emperor in an attempt to win me over.

“Of course, I should be present as well. I’ll get ready and be out shortly, so wait here.”

“Ah, well… um, Your Highness, His Majesty requested that we come quickly, so—”

“Wait.”

“Y-Yes…”

After firmly instructing him to wait, Iris disappeared inside. About ten minutes later, she reemerged.

The dress she now wore, something she hadn’t even put on for the party, suited her exceptionally well.

“Let’s go.”

“Y-Yes…”

The man looked to be utterly at a loss and had no choice but to lead both of us to the dinner banquet.

“Welcome—huh? Iris?”

The Emperor who had been greeting me with a bright expression immediately frowned the moment he saw Iris.

“What are you doing here?”

“I heard that this is a celebratory banquet for Her Majesty the Empress. As the Crown Princess, I couldn’t possibly be absent, so I decided to attend.”

A celebratory banquet for the Empress?

Wasn’t this just a dinner banquet?

“…Well, since you’re already here, have a seat.”

“It seems you weren’t exactly hoping for me to come.”

“O-Oh, haha… Of course not. You’re my daughter. Naturally, you should be here.”

The Empress’s expression was even more telling.

She was glaring at Iris with an open look of utter distaste, as if she had just bitten into something foul.

Seriously, these people…

Shouldn’t those in high positions at least try to conceal their expressions better?

“And you, welcome as well. You’re Theo, correct?”

“Ah, yes, Your Majesty. Thank you for inviting me to the banquet.”

“Think nothing of it. Come, have a seat.”

Once everyone had taken their seats, a heavy tension filled the banquet hall.

“Theo, it’s nice to have dinner together like this.”

“Oh, uh… yes, it is. It would have been even better if Estelle were here too.”

“That’s right. This is a banquet to celebrate Her Majesty the Empress’s pregnancy, after all. I wonder if the Saintess, now an ally, might find it unfortunate that she couldn’t attend.”

There wasn’t a single person at the table who failed to notice the sharp edge in Iris’s words.

“I do have many things I’d like to ask the Saintess as well, but wouldn’t it also be necessary to have a gathering just for Ermunt?”

The response, though carefully squeezed out, was rather inadequate.

“Well, anyway. Theo. I’ve heard that you’re skilled in both swordsmanship and magic.”

“You flatter me. I’m still just a student with much to learn.”

There was no need to outright lie, but there was even less reason to boast about my abilities in front of the Emperor.

“Then, like the Saintess, are you also capable of using teleportation magic?”

At the sudden question, I simply looked at the Emperor in silence.

“Oh, it’s nothing serious. I was just curious. Earlier today, there were not one but two instances of teleportation detected coming into the palace.”

One could assume that Estelle had traveled back and forth twice. However, considering that no teleportation had been recorded as leaving the palace, it was more logical to deduce that someone else had also used teleportation magic.

“Yes, that’s correct. I can use teleportation magic as well.”

I had never intended to hide it in the first place.

Since all the students at the academy already knew that I used teleportation magic, there was no way that sly old fox of an emperor was asking without already knowing the answer.

“Oho! So it’s true! Impressive indeed! Skilled in swordsmanship and proficient in magic as well. Actually, I’m working on developing something at the moment. With your help, I believe it could progress significantly.”

He was developing something?

Curious about what it was, I decided to at least hear him out.

“I’m working on a teleportation device that would allow not just mages but ordinary people to use coordinate-based movement through the power of magic stones.”

Creating a teleportation device wasn’t particularly difficult, given that teleportation magic already existed.

However, there were several reasons why such a device had never been properly developed or commercialized.

First, the number of people capable of using teleportation magic was extremely limited.

There had been several known users of teleportation magic, including Estelle, but most of them weren’t affiliated with Ermunt. If the Emperor wanted to bring them in to create the device, he would inevitably have to pay an astronomical sum.

Then there was the issue of using magic stones.

Magic stones served as an alternative energy source and in many cases replaced electricity, water, and gas. But to activate a teleportation device, an immense amount of magic stones would have to be consumed, which made commercialization unfeasible.

There was, however, one way to solve this problem. It was by having someone with an absurdly large mana pool continuously pour their energy into the device until they were completely drained.

“So, since you must be getting bored staying at the academy, why not take part in this project? Honestly, while the academy provides an education, isn’t most of it far too trivial for someone like you? Successfully completing a project like this would be far more beneficial for your career.”

Bringing up my career while offering me a role in the project was just a thinly veiled threat. If I refused, he was implying he could destroy my career entirely.

But a career or not… I didn’t care. I just wanted to settle down and farm. I had no use for any of this.

“I’m sorry. I’m still a student, and there’s so much I have yet to learn… For now, I’d like to focus on my studies at the academy.”

So, I firmly refused.

“Yes, Your Majesty. Theo places great importance on his studies.”

When even Iris chimed in to support me, I caught a fleeting crack in the Emperor’s once-serene expression.

Oh dear. An Emperor, of all people…

Shouldn’t he be better at controlling his expression?

“I… see. Then I will adjust the schedule. Just enough so that it doesn’t interfere with your studies. How about that?”

His desperate attempts to recruit me, someone capable of using teleportation magic, were almost pitiful.

“Ah, I truly apologize, Your Majesty. I have to focus on my studies, and as a first-year student, there’s still so much I’m curious about. I also want to spend time with my friends. Considering all that, I don’t think I’m ready to participate in an imperial project just yet.”

Studying was one thing, but working right after finishing my classes? That was an absolute nightmare. Yet he was seriously trying to push that onto me?

If I were some kind of natural-born workaholic or a scholar obsessed with intellectual pursuits, maybe it would be a different story.

But I wasn’t.

I just wanted to study moderately, make some friends, hang out with them, and have fun.

Then after safely bringing Estelle and Iris together, I planned to graduate, return home, and be a devoted son, living happily with my family.

Of course, with the Emperor going this far, I couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that he might try to interfere with my parents.

I would have to come up with some kind of countermeasure for that.

Moreover, since our farm was also being used as a test site for Iris’s relief measures, I had even more reason to protect it.

“Thank you for the wonderful meal.”

In the end, the dinner ended without any further conversation.

I had been worried he might cling to me persistently, but fortunately, that didn’t happen.

“Shall we head back to our rooms now, Iris?”

“Haa… Sir Theo, you truly are strong.”

“Where did that come from all of a sudden?”

“Well, just the fact that you could turn down His Majesty’s proposal so smoothly…. it’s proof of your strength.”

Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal.

Maybe it was because I still thought of this place as a world inside a game.

It still didn’t feel entirely real to me.

Or maybe it was simply because I had come to recognize my own abilities.

Because, in the end, if you had enough skill, none of it really mattered, right?

No matter what they tried to do, you could just cut them down with sheer power.