The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

“Ugh… Where am I?”

Gilbert regained consciousness and looked around with drowsy eyes.

I closed Lisbeth’s Spirit Book that I was reading and checked Gilbert’s condition.

“You’re awake? How’s your body?”

“Ah…! Your Highness, ouch!”

As soon as he saw me, Gilbert tried to get up with all his might but screamed in pain and shed a few tears due to muscle aches and bruises.

I tossed a restorative potion to him.

“Take this. It’s a medicine made by old man Divet.”

Basically, it’s a supplement that helps muscles settle in place and enhances natural recovery.

It’s especially effective in muscle recovery, he said.

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

Gilbert swallowed the medicine and looked around, surveying his surroundings.

“But where are we?”

“Here? It’s the house of the owner of the dolls you fought to death. The owner said we could stay for a while, so we decided to stay for a few days.”

The room we’re in now was originally a guest room intended to be given to Count Wisel and Abasael when they visited.

It was actually used only once, during Jaeolin’s funeral, but the room was spotless without a speck of dust.

Precia decided to stay in the room of the lady of the house, Jaeolin.

Geor showed a longing expression, saying his wife would have gladly given her room to the guests.

“You look tired, so get more sleep. The owner, Mr. Geor, said he’ll help with your training, so you’ll have to fight dolls tomorrow too.”

At my playful words, Gilbert buried his face in the pillow and groaned.

“What, you don’t want to?”

Gilbert, who had been groaning, immediately sat up.

“No. I don’t dislike it.”

Then he clenched his fist and spoke with a gloomy expression.

“To be honest, it’s embarrassing to say, but I felt powerless while fighting the dolls. If it were a real battle, I’m sure I would have regretted it. Because as your escort knight, I shouldn’t be in a situation where I feel powerless.”

At those words, I smiled.

“Yes. You feeling powerless is directly linked to my death. As long as you know that fact, it’s enough.”

He was already feeling it to the bone without me having to nag him.

That’s good enough.

The moon was already up outside the window.

“It’s late. Sleep. You can express your gratitude to Mr. Geor in the morning and receive training.”

“Yes! Good night!”

Gilbert, who answered vigorously, lay down on the bed and fell asleep immediately.

Ah, I made sandwiches for him to eat when he woke up because he would be hungry, but I didn’t even have a chance to give them to him.

Well, that just shows how tired he was.

“Should I have this as my late-night snack?”

I took the basket of sandwiches and went outside.

“No need to come out. You should rest well for tomorrow too.”

At my words, Precia’s voice came from the room with Jaeolin’s nameplate.

“…Yes, understood.”

As expected, she was sensing my presence.

It’s good that she’s flawless as an escort knight, but it’s a bit scary.

Of course, assassins targeting me came, and there was an attack, so I understood.

I also value my life, so I had no intention of saying anything.

I went to the front yard, unfolded Aquila’s grimoire in the air, and used magic.

This place was filled with mana and had various spells layered, making it a good place to learn magic.

Although I hadn’t gone beyond the beginner stage yet, the more means I had to protect myself, the better.

Especially as I develop Aquila’s mana circuits, it becomes easier to handle spirits.

As I was practicing simple magic while eating my late-night snack, I saw white hair behind the storage building.

White hair, is it Silua?

“Don’t hide and peek, come out.”

At my words, Silua slowly revealed her head and looked at me with her unique violet eyes.

“Do you have something to say?”

When I asked with the friendliest smile possible, Silua hesitated and approached me.

“Um… Are you a mage, mister?”

At Silua’s question, I shook my head.

“No. I’m learning magic, but if I call myself a mage, your father will probably get angry.”

Although Geor had greatly weakened compared to his prime, he was still a mage who had reached the level of a sage.

There was no way he would acknowledge me, who was just imitating.

“Is that so?”

At my answer, Silua became gloomy.

“But why do you ask?”

At my question, Silua carefully spoke.

“…Because you laughed…”

“What did you say?”

When I asked back at her mumbling voice, Silua shouted as if yelling.

“Father, Father laughed when he saw you!”

Then, startled by herself, she covered her mouth with her hands and looked towards Geor’s room.

She seemed to be worried that her father might wake up because of her shouting.

But laughed? Geor?

When did he… Ah! Is she referring to the expression he showed when we bet on whether Precia would win or Geor’s named dolls would win tomorrow?

If you put it into words, you could say he laughed, but can you really call that laughing?

If that’s laughing, then tears from yawning are also crying.

“…I thought maybe Father laughed because you’re a mage… It’s the first time he laughed since Mother passed away…”

Seeing Silua’s expression that looked like she was about to cry, I patted her head.

“So you came to ask me to teach you magic?”

“…Yes.”

As Silua nodded hesitantly, I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“Ahahaha!”

When I laughed holding my stomach, Silua shouted with a flushed face, perhaps out of embarrassment.

“Why, why are you laughing?!”

“Ahaha! No, it’s just… It’s strange for you to ask someone like me when there’s someone next to you who has reached the pinnacle of mages.”

At my answer, Silua made a pouty face.

“But! Father doesn’t teach me magic!”

At Silua’s words, I patted her head again.

“If there’s a reason your father doesn’t teach you magic, it’s probably because he doesn’t need to teach you.”

“Because he doesn’t need to teach me?”

“Yes.”

Silua looked at me with an uncomprehending face. I smiled brightly at her.

“Anyway, I can’t teach you magic. If I somehow end up teaching you, your father will get angry at me.”

“Is that so…?”

Disappointed, Silua hung her head low. To comfort her, I whispered in her ear.

“Remember. Your father doesn’t teach you magic because he doesn’t need to. As long as you remember that…”

Hearing my comforting words, Silua still nodded with an uncomprehending face and went inside the house with heavy footsteps.

About a minute after Silua went inside, I spoke, looking towards the small pond next to the yard.

“Please reveal yourself now.”

At my words, the air rippled, and Geor appeared out of thin air.

The father and daughter really resemble each other in their love for peeking.

“How did you know?”

“It’s not easy to escape my eyes.”

If it were Geor in his prime, it would have been fully possible, but the current Geor couldn’t do it.

That’s how much Geor was dying.

Hearing my answer, Geor pondered for a moment and then spoke.

“Your magic level or senses couldn’t have noticed it, so this feeling is from spirits?”

“Correct.”

As soon as I affirmed, Navi and Nuni blocked Geor as if protecting me.

“A wind spirit in the form of a cat and a lightning spirit in the form of a bird. They’re not ordinary spirits.”

“Is that so? I’ve only seen these two spirits, so I don’t know.”

Come to think of it, Divet also said that Nuni was different from the spirits he knew when she was summoned.

Are they that unique?

“Spirit users are extremely rare, and I don’t know much about spirits either, but it is said that spirits all have their own unique appearances.”

Then isn’t it normal for Navi to have the appearance of a cat and Nuni to have the appearance of a snowy owl?

“However, that’s only their appearance in the spirit world, and when they manifest in the world we live in, they take on standardized forms.”

“Forms, you say?”

“The most common and universal form that all spirits share is a small spherical shape. Other than that, they follow the prevailing image of spirits according to each era.”

“Are you referring to the prevailing image?”

“For example, in the case of water spirits, they follow the form of fish, mermaids, seahorses, etc. depending on the era.”

At Geor’s explanation, I clapped my hands.

“Aha! In other words, they follow the image held by society as a whole, regardless of whether that society is based on a small local community or a global society.”

For instance, let’s assume we’re summoning a mushroom spirit.

Mushrooms come in various shapes, such as the lace-like appearance of oyster mushrooms and the slender bundle shape of enoki mushrooms.

However, the appearance of the summoned mushroom spirit will be the form that the majority of people imagine – a mushroom cap-shaped head with a thick and elongated stem.

Because that’s the socially conventional shape of a mushroom.

“That’s right. For beings from another world like spirits, especially when the essence is more important than the form, they need a vessel to contain their power in order to cross the boundary of the world. To save energy in forming that vessel, they utilize surplus notions, which…”

Geor started giving a lecture, listing difficult magic terms and definitions that were hard to understand just by listening, perhaps because he saw something magically fresh after a long time.

Even if I skipped over the unfamiliar terms, it was quite useful content for me who dealt with spirits.

It seemed that the contents of Lisbeth’s Spirit Book were not common knowledge.

“…Therefore, if you see a spirit that doesn’t take on a standardized form, there are two possibilities. Either the mage who summoned the spirit is an extraordinary being, or the spirit itself is an existence on par with a natural disaster.”

Interpreting Geor’s gaze at me, it meant that I didn’t seem like such a great spirit mage, so Navi and Nuni must be remarkable spirits.

Of course, I also agreed with his gaze.

“In that sense, considering that such spirits have made contracts with you despite your meager mana, your spirit affinity can be said to be a heaven-sent talent. The reason why spirit users are so few in the first place is because that spirit affinity is an extremely rare innate talent.”

At Geor’s words, I felt like crying.

To think this damned body had a talent!

“Of course, with that level of mana, you won’t be able to bring out their full potential.”

This time, I felt like crying for a different reason.

This ruined body was eating away at the only talent it had.

Geor, who had been talking for a while, seemed to realize that spirits weren’t the important matter and frowned.

“The important thing isn’t this kind of talk.”

“It was quite important and beneficial to me though.”

“Not to me.”

Speaking firmly, Geor glared at me.

“What did you mean by what you said to Silua?”

“What I said to Silua… You mean when I said you don’t need to teach Silua magic?”

“Yes.”

At Geor’s affirmation, I chuckled.

“It means exactly that. In fact, you don’t need to teach her, do you?”

At my answer, Geor’s frown deepened as if he was more displeased.

“What do you know?”

“I don’t know that much. It was just a simple deduction.”

“Deduction?”

I nodded.

“Silua said this. It’s the first time Father laughed since Mother passed away. But it hasn’t been more than 10 years since your wife passed away, right?”

Abasael lost his magic 10 years ago.

Since he said Abasael attended the funeral, Jaeolin’s death would be even earlier.

“…”

Geor closed his mouth. But I continued.

“However, Silua’s appearance is definitely not over 10 years old. People usually don’t have memories right after birth. Yet Silua spoke as if remembering Jaeolin’s death. To be precise, it should be expressed as remembering your laughter.”

“…”

“Then there’s only one thing that can be deduced. Silua is your, and perhaps your wife’s, ‘doll’.”

At the word doll, Geor’s composure broke.

“Silua is…!”

“Yes, not an ordinary doll. She’s the embodiment of all the essence of you and your wife… Truly a child, one could say.”

Silua is the legacy of Geor and Jaeolin.

And the worst weapon that I must destroy before it falls into the hands of the enemy.

“To be precise, should I say ‘second daughter’?”

My words seemed to have touched Geor’s nerves, as he became enraged.

“You bastard!”

At his anger, the mana in this area began to boil.

As expected of a sage.

It’s amazing that he can make the world tremble with a body that could die at any moment.

Seeing him like that, I spoke leisurely.

“Geor Philip, the Sage of Ten Thousand Soldiers. I know a way to fulfill your last wish.”

In an instant, the trembling world stopped.

“My last wish? Do you even know what that is?”

At his question, I shrugged.

“You are dying, so it’s not difficult to deduce. Your last wish is…”

At my whispered words, his eyes widened.

“…What do you want?”

At Geor’s question, I smiled brightly.

“Please be my mentor while I stay here.”

At my request, Geor clicked his tongue and soon nodded.

To have a mage who was a sage as a mentor, it was exceedingly luxurious.