NOVEL NEXT Chapter 44: Personal Property
I held the book in my hand, raised it up, and called Alex's attention-- hoping that somehow he would soon recognize what I am holding right now.
"Uh, Alex? I think I have found what you are looking for." I declared.
At first, he was not able to even notice what I said. But as soon as he finally spent some time walking towards here and giving notice to the book in my hand, I saw his jaw almost dropped and his eyes went round upon seeing it at this hour.
"What did I say about touching that?!" Alex said angrily before reaching for something in his pocket.
Later on, I found out that he was pulling some red cloth from there, spread it a little, and went towards me with the cloth in hand as he reached for the book from my grasp.
"This is an anti-magic cloth. You use this for safety precautions in case things that you are about to hold contain magic seals such as this thing." The lad then explained to me the purpose of that red cloth now wrapped around the book before I could even ask.
"It is a good thing that you did not suffer from seizures or being electrocuted upon touching this. You are one lucky girl, indeed." he quickly added.
"Hmmm… is that because I moved into my wizard ranking?" I presumed.
We are now walking towards the tables to put this thing on top of it, and the moment I said those words, I saw Alex stopped midway and looked at me.
"I don't know about that, about your wizard ranking after the magic skills test." He paused for a moment and carefully thought of what to say next.
"But I must say, I am impressed with your performance. You did not fail, nor disappoint me at all by being able to execute all spells needed. And I commend you for that."
It was now my turn to pause for a moment and be stunned by the things that I have heard from the grumpy captain of the magic army himself. All this time, I was being anxious and worried about it and overthinking whether I will be able to pass the test or not because of an almost mistake that I have committed onstage.
But hearing these things coming out from his mouth eases my troubled heart and drives all my worries away. This means so much to me right now.
And for that, I plastered my most sincere smile on him.
"Thank you, Alex," I said. "That means a lot to me."
I swear I have seen him for at least a couple of seconds before he purposely turned away and finally went near a table and placed the said book on top.
"So, what kind of book is that?" I asked to change the topic and mood around here.
Earlier when I first held the book in my hands, I was surprised to read the words: 'Personal Property of Prince Arthur Spellman.' so I knew right away that this is the book that Alex is looking for.
"This is not a book…but the prince's personal diary." Alex corrected.
My mind was literally blown by what I heard just now. No wonder the prince needs to set a magic seal in it.
"Since the diary contains a magic seal, can you somehow break it and see if there is helpful information inside that will lead us in knowing his location?"
"Did you think I haven't thought of doing that before?" Alex asked, now pissed with my question that I did not think can offend him.
"God knows how much effort I tried in utilizing all the possible resources that I could gather just to find him."
At this point, the lad paused for a moment and tried to calm himself down. He then looked at me apologetically for losing his temper for a while before proceeding.
"Yet this is the prince we are talking about. That lad sure loves to play games, and his mere absence is like one big mystery game where we need to find some clues in order for us to know his whereabouts. But one year has passed and we still have had no luck in solving it."
After his statement, I think he added some words like "Such a pain in my neck." at the end but he said it more to himself than me.
He now decides to focus his gaze on the prince's diary and thought of ways how to open it once again.
"If I could just open this goddamn notebook," he cursed under his breath while he squints his eyes at the red notebook laid in front of him
Regarding magic seals, I think I remember Mr. Pumpkin discussing to us something about them, their functions, and ways how to break them. My mind then wandered back to the time when I heard my adviser tackled that topic as I try to remember the things he said about magic seals.
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-FLASHBACK-
"A magic seal refers to a symbolic representation of the wizard's power where it serves as a barrier to a thing or a place that the user wants to protect or conceal from other people. Like the rest of the spells, magic seals also have their own ranks or degrees according to power. Later on, I will show you how it is done because this is also a practical and essential skill that a wizard must possess."
Mr. Pumpkin starts to scribble down the things he said on the board which I faithfully take down in my notebook for future reference.
"The only thing that you need to remember about magic seals is the way you need to break them. There are magic seals that can only be broken down by a single user, some require a pair, while the level S magic seals require either the user himself, a person from his lineage, and a pair or group of wizards with the same level in order for them to break it."
-FLASHBACK ENDS-
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If I am not mistaken, the magic seal that this notebook contains is a level S type of seal because of the incredible magical power that the prince possesses. If that is the case, then the ways of breaking it are either a person of his lineage… which I highly doubt if we could ever find one right now, or a pair and/or a group of wizards with the same level.
"Have you tried contacting others regarding breaking the seal?" I asked once again that caused the lad to turn to look at me once more.
"I haven't, because I made an oath to the prince that I will never show his personal property to others." Then his eyes bore into mine before continuing."... which I broke just now because of you stalking me at this hour."
"I did not stalk you---!" I decided to shut my eyes to calm myself instead of further arguing with this narrow-minded guy who doesn't want to listen to others and likes to take heed in his own idea.
"Well then, how do you suppose to break the seal if you won't show it to others?" I added as a matter of fact.
"I don't know…"
There was a moment of silence after his last statement. Both of us refrained from talking while we each thought of a way to somehow break the seal and read the diary's contents. I know that whatever is stored in there, it contains a piece of very valuable information that could lead us to the prince's current location.
I was somehow surprised when Alex narrowed his eyes at me, as if thinking of doing something stupid.
"You know, I find it odd to know that nothing has happened to you after touching the diary earlier… for your rank. If I were in your place at that time, I would be electrocuted immediately and have these severe seizures despite my wizard rank."
"Well, I think I am not such a dummy as you claim me to be," I said then smirked at him.
Alex rolled his eyes. "Oh please, don't flatter yourself. You still haven't changed your rank until the awarding ceremony has been done on Monday."
"Hmph!"
"What if we'll try breaking it together right now and see how that works? What do you say?"
That question alone intrigued me, yet I also can't help but wonder why is he suddenly asking me to break the seal along with him? I am not even at the same level as him… or the prince!
I heaved out a sigh. "Fine. I guess, I won't lose anything for trying."
Then the next thing we did is to prepare ourselves mentally for the spell that we need to use. Since this would be my first time doing it, Alex taught me the necessary spell to use, and seeing that I am now ready, we immediately take the plan into action.
Well, I hope this plan works...