The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

Sillua threw the stone vigorously.

The stone flew in an arc and knocked over the standing stone.

“Wow! I won!”

Sillua, having won the gravestone tapping game, jumped up and down in glee.

I pretended to be indignant and said.

“Alright! I lost this time but I’ll win next time!”

“Hehehe! What game is next?”

At Sillua’s question, I took out a shuttlecock made of pebbles and cloth.

“Let’s play shuttlecock kicking this time.”

“Okay! How do you play?”

Excited, Sillua looked at the shuttlecock with sparkling eyes, and I gave a simple explanation.

It had already been half a month since I entered this mansion.

As the day I asked Sillua to play was the fifth day staying at the mansion, we played for ten days straight.

Of course, we played, but it’s not like I skipped Geor’s lessons or didn’t practice spirit arts and magic.

I just reduced sleep and concentrated more to end the lessons early, and made time to play with Sillua.

-Your Highness, are you alright? Shouldn’t you sleep a bit more?

Precia infused magic power so only I could hear, not Sillua.

I nodded and vibrated the air in Precia’s ear with Navi’s power.

-It’s fine. I’m taking short naps here and there.

Sillua doesn’t sleep at night.

It’s not that she functionally can’t sleep, but she doesn’t sleep thinking it’s unnecessary.

Accordingly, I also reduced my sleep and spent time with Sillua.

Of course there was a limit to my stamina so I couldn’t do active games like in the day, but I could tell Sillua fairy tales she didn’t know.

“Join us, Elder.”

At my invitation, Geor sat next to Sillua, leaning on his staff.

“Proposing such a strenuous exercise to someone with a cane? What an ill-mannered disciple. I’ll just watch; watching isn’t too bad either.”

At some point, Geor started calling me his disciple.

Perhaps it was around the time the lecture contents went beyond the scope of the magic schools.

We covered a grade per day, and the magic school was a total of 6 years, so it had been over a week since I graduated magic school.

Now, Geor lectured on his independent magic research.

It would be something any mage would envy, but it was quite taxing for me.

Of course, it wasn’t to the extent I couldn’t keep up mentally.

“Then I’ll go first!”

Sillua threw the shuttlecock high and kicked it with all her might.

The shuttlecock that soared high in the sky fell to the ground, pulled by gravity, and Sillua ran to the landing spot and kicked the shuttlecock high again.

It was a strength that didn’t match her appearance of around 10 years old.

After kicking the shuttlecock around five or six times like that, Sillua’s turn ended with it falling on the roof.

“Ah! I could have kicked it more!”

Seeing such Sillua, Geor nonchalantly said.

“Looks like the number of kicks is important in this game, but you kicked it too high. Next time, control your strength.”

“Hing…”

I stroked the head of Sillua, who was making a crying sound, and called Navi.

“Navi. Bring it here.”

-Nyaong!

The shuttlecock floated up on the wind stirred by Navi and landed on my hand.

“Thanks, Navi. Alright, it’s my turn now?”

I lightly threw the shuttlecock and adeptly kicked it up.

“One, two, three, four…”

If it was right when I entered this body, my legs would have trembled after kicking the shuttlecock more than three times.

But now, even if not an adult man, I at least had the stamina of an average girl my age.

It was all thanks to Divet’s nauseating miracle potion.

If it was another body, one bottle would have sufficed, but I don’t know how many bottles I drank.

Seeing the percentage of my ancestor’s legacy engraved on my wrist become 1.005%, I feel a renewed sense of… like hell I do!

After all that suffering, it’s only 1% now?!

This piece of trash body!

As I continuously kicked the shuttlecock that didn’t rise above my head height, Sillua looked at me with sparkling eyes.

“Wow! That’s amazing! Father was right, I shouldn’t kick it high!”

Sillua raised her hand and bounced, saying she’ll try again.

She didn’t see as she was engrossed in the shuttlecock, but Geor looked at his daughter with a gentle gaze.

******

Gilbert swung his sword surrounded by lizardman-shaped dolls, the Lizard series, that moved swiftly.

He was frantic from the strong tentacle-like tongue shooting out from all directions, but he calmly minimized his movements to dodge and cut off the tongues of the Lizard series.

The tongues he cut off wriggled on the floor, and just the length cut off so far seemed to be hundreds of meters.

“Hey! Why doesn’t the range keep decreasing even if I cut off the tongues?!”

At Gilbert’s shout, Zillian No. 56, who was recording the battle on video from a distance, answered.

“Searching the archive for the answer to Gilbert’s question, ‘Hey! Why doesn’t the range keep decreasing even if I cut off the tongues?!’. …Search result, the Lizard series have spare tongues stored in their bellies. That concludes the answer.”

“No! That’s weird! Real lizardmen wouldn’t do that!”

At Gilbert’s scream, Zillian No. 56 nodded.

“Affirmative. Real lizardmen do not store spare tongues. However, the Master said…”

“Dolls must be stronger than real monsters?!”

“Affirmative. That’s correct.”

At the Zillian series’ affirmation, Gilbert screamed.

“Uwaaaaah! I’m dying!”

Gilbert began to get pummeled, buried under 120 Lizard series doll.

Zillian No. 56 shook its head at that scream.

“Negative. Based on the combat records so far, Gilbert will no longer die from this level.”

“Uwaaaaah!!”

Magic power exploded from Gilbert’s body, blowing away the dolls clinging to him.

“I’ll kill you all!”

At that sight, Zillian No. 56 nodded.

“Informing you it is as this doll predicted.”

Saying so, Zillian No. 56 looked up overhead.

Above, Precia was fiercely battling the named individuals ‘Bluebird’, ‘Purple Falcon’, ‘Zillian Original’, ‘Zolokia’, and ‘Haraphan’ while moving between trees.

On her arms were a magic power meter and a gravity-increasing magic tool.

******

The yellow forsythias blooming in the yard announced the entrance of spring.

As I spent each day busily, I felt time pass quickly, and before I knew it, about a month had passed since I began staying here.

Even without Geor, the plan was to spend time here as going to Bastille before winter ended was truly a suicidal act, but I never thought I’d actually greet spring here.

“Concentrate.”

At Geor’s scolding, I drew up magic power and constructed the magic formula.

“Yes, I understand.”

I attended Geor’s magic lectures in the evening and practiced spirit arts and magic at night.

Sillua, who always watched from afar when I learned from Geor, at some point began sitting next to me and Geor and observing the lectures.

“The last magic power seam is wrong, again.”

At Geor’s firm point, I sat down and gathered the magic power I consumed.

As my magic power vessel was small, it filled up quickly even if consumed.

After filling magic power, I stood up again, drew up magic power, and unfolded magic in the air.

“The last seam is wrong this time too. Again.”

I gritted my teeth and gathered magic power and constructed magic once more.

But Geor clicked his tongue, unsatisfied.

“You absorb theories like a sponge but can’t apply them.”

“Forget the difficulty of magic; my total magic power is lacking.”

I could somehow manifest the contents of magic school even with my measly magic power, but not Geor’s research.

“Tsk, good head but the body is no good.”

I agree. This body is done for.

“At this rate, you’re just a Vanit who barely peeled off the Enter sticker.”

The Enter and Vanit Geor mentioned referred to the nine ranks dividing mages.

Enter Mage literally meant a beginner who “Entered”.

“I can use the magic school contents without difficulty, so shouldn’t I at least be Realize?”

Usually, when graduating from magic school, one is bestowed the 7th rank.

The 7th rank was the rank most mages belonged to.

At my words, Geor snorted.

“Saying such things is exactly being a ‘Vanit’ Mage.”

The mage ranks are divided in order from the beginner stage, Enter, to Vanit (vanity/conceited), Realize (enlightened), Skilled, Sage (wise), Master, Honorable, and Supreme.

The reason it’s called nine ranks despite being eight in total is because eight ‘Sages’ reign above all mages.

By the way, while other ranks have no limit to the number of people, the Sage position is different.

To ascend to the Eight Sages of Magic, one must either have the preceding Sage mage retire or surpass them in the realm of magic.

Therefore, Sages are the pinnacle of all mages.

“Gee, you really make people speechless in embarrassment.”

Conceitedly (Vanit) claiming to be around 7th rank myself despite not even half a year into learning magic, it was truly as he said.

As I meekly admitted, Geor sighed.

“For now, we must somehow deal with that measly magic power to take the next step. Your magic circuits…”

Geor suddenly shut his mouth and grabbed his chest, breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Elder?”

“…It’s earlier than I thought. Just, just a bit more time…!”

Saying so, Geor collapsed while vomiting blood.

“Elder! Pull yourself together!”

“Father! Zillian No. 79! Move Father to the recovery room! Issuing emergency protocol! Issuer, Sillua Philip!”

At Sillua’s shout, Zillian No. 79 ran into the mansion, carrying Geor.

The recovery room was a space filled with all sorts of healing magic Geor created for the sickly Jaeolin.

“Activating emergency protocol by the order of issuer Sillua Philip. As per emergency protocol procedure, disconnecting magic power of all dolls except Zillian Original, then mobilizing all magic power to the recovery room.”

Zillian No. 79 laid Geor on the bed in the recovery room and activated the magic circle under the bed.

Simultaneously as the magic circles filling the floor, walls, and ceiling glowed, Zillian No. 79’s movements stopped and it collapsed.

As the recovery room filled with magic power, Geor’s complexion rapidly improved.

“Ahh, thank goodness.”

Sillua let out a sigh of relief, but I couldn’t.

Geor’s body had long passed its limit.

No matter how much a Sage personally created it, there’s no way this recovery room could extend his life.

“Umm… is this the recovery room?”

Geor, who had fainted, regained consciousness and turned his head.

Seeing the motionless Zillian No. 79, Geor furrowed his brows.

“Did you issue the emergency protocol? How long was I unconscious?”

Geor’s breathing was rough.

“Just over 1 minute.”

“I see. Cough! Cough!”

Geor, breathing rough heavy breaths and coughing, vomited blood.

“Father!”

At Sillua’s worried voice, Geor caressed his daughter’s cheek.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say that, Father. I, I’ll be a daughter. I’ll be even more of a daughter, so…”

At Sillua’s words, Geor’s expression distorted further.

“Don’t say that, Sillua.”

That distorted expression was sorrow, lingering attachment, and worry.

However, Sillua lowered her head as if unable to read that expression.

“Yuan, my incompetent disciple.”

“Speak.”

The words he would say from now on would become his will.

“You followed along better than I thought. I taught you all the theories that form the backbone of the research I poured my life into. If I had a bit more time, I would have helped increase your magic power too, it’s a shame.”

“I feel the same.”

“I put the things I didn’t manage to teach you in my room’s desk drawer. Since you understand the backbone, learn it yourself.”

It was an unreasonable request.

No matter how much one understood the theoretical backbone, there’s no way one could learn the research a Sage poured his life into alone.

But I nodded.

“I understand.”

“The reason my death came earlier than I thought is probably because I came to trust you. Thanks to that, I don’t think I’ll become an undead out of lingering attachment.”

Geor joked with an uncharacteristic smile.

An undead Sage, it was a joke I can’t laugh at.

“Please take good care of Sillua.”

“……”

Even though I didn’t answer, Geor smiled.

“Sillua, I’m sorry.”

“Father…”

“Having you, I could endure that long time. Because you were there… I could be not unhappy.”

Geor’s eyes lost focus and his hand that had been caressing Sillua’s cheek fell.

“My daughter… Sillua…”

Calling his daughter’s name, Geor put a period on the great grimoire called life.

In his smile, not a shred of regret or lingering attachment remained.

On a spring day after enduring a fierce winter, at the age of 79.