The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

Jade entered the hut and immediately headed to the underground area, where the seal was located.

In the morning, he had heard from Yuan that there was an invasion by enemies targeting the seal.

His master would be tending to the seal around this time.

Although Jade had never been directly attacked by Arcana, he had heard things from Yekatrice.

As he stood in front of the door to the basement where the seal was located after passing through dozens of barriers, he suddenly felt scared.

Yekatrice had said this attack might be the cause of her death.

As someone who occasionally became a great fortune-teller, they were words that could never be ignored.

If he opened this door, could his master be dead?

His hands trembled in fear, although he didn’t show it while with Yuan’s party.

“It’ll be alright. Yuan said he made countermeasures. Yes, let’s trust Yuan. Let’s trust Master.”

But before trusting, wouldn’t a drink or two be okay?

Yes, it should be fine. Didn’t Yuan say it? This is a potion of courage.

With that thought, there would be no problem.

Jade took a deep breath, took out the alcohol Yuan had given him from his subspace, and opened the cork.

Pop~!

Just as he was about to pour the alcohol into a glass, the door to the basement opened.

“What are you doing not coming in from outside…?”

“Ah…!”

Jade, meeting eyes with his master, hurriedly closed the bottle and put it back into his subspace.

“You…”

“I’m glad you’re safe! Master!”

Seeing her disciple acting as if nothing happened, Yekatrice thought for a moment and then smirked.

“Let’s have a celebratory drink together after we close the hole to the other world. For now, help me a bit with suturing the cracks.”

Behind Yekatrice, a cracked seal could be seen.

The scale of the cracks was several times larger than what his master had mentioned before.

To block the hole to the other world, groundwork was needed, but at this rate, the seal seemed like it would be released before preparations could be made.

Seeing Jade’s surprise, Yekatrice smiled bitterly.

“It’s a long story to tell, but to put it shortly, we were caught off guard. One of the top executives who normally ‘can’t’ move much snuck in and caused cracks.”

She inwardly muttered that she had prioritized her own safety too much, but she didn’t regret it.

The moment the mana stones of sealing entered the barrier, she realized all the mana stones had been gathered, so the seal no longer mattered.

“I understand. Shall we layer Heaven’s Chains on top?”

As Jade took out his magic staff, Yekatrice shook her head.

“No, that takes too long, so let’s simply do the Seven Stars Seal.”

In any case, they just needed to buy time for the groundwork. There was no need to perfectly suture the seal.

The two disciples stood facing each other with the seal between them. As they used sealing magic in silence, they opened their mouths simultaneously.

“Master.”

“Jade.”

“Ah, you go first.”

“No. You go first.”

Again, an awkward silence hung, and this time Jade spoke first.

“That… it’s late but I’m sorry. I said harsh words to you that I didn’t mean. Words once uttered can’t be taken back, but that’s why I need to atone even more.”

At his apology, Yekatrice’s awkward expression loosened and she smiled.

“I’m glad you know, I accept your apology. …And I’m sorry too. I didn’t say anything for your sake, but after hearing your words, I realized it was all selfishness for my own sake.”

The two people who apologized to each other fell silent again. But unlike the previous silence, the uncomfortable feeling had disappeared like snow melting.

Having been together for a long time, they knew each other’s caring hearts well even without lengthy words.

“Uh… Yu-Yuan said he’s going to summon spirits! Let’s finish quickly and go see!”

“Th-that’s right! I’m looking forward to it!”

But the awkwardness after a fight was inevitable.

*****

After diligently finishing the spirit summoning preparations and about to summon the spirit, I felt a burdensome gaze behind me.

“To the west are the symbols of dusk and dawn.”

“To the east are the verses of light and rebirth.”

Yekatrice and Jade analyzed the summoning magic circle I drew with sparkling eyes.

“Yuan oppa! The magic circles installed around seem unrelated to the summoning magic, why did you include them?”

Silua went a step further and asked me.

“Ah! I’m also curious about something. The dimensional interference technique in the center…”

“I’m curious too. It’s quite different from the spirit summoning magic circle I know…”

As Silua asked questions, Yekatrice and Jade also started asking.

Faced with the continuous barrage of questions, I clapped my hands loudly, imbuing mana.

Clap-!

“If the timing is late, we’ll have to wait until dawn, so I’ll take questions slowly later.”

At my words, everyone closed their mouths. The ‘spirit of light’ I was summoning this time was quite important in terms of summoning time, unlike other spirits.

To be precise, rather than time, the environmental condition of having both the sun and moon in the sky was important.

But that wasn’t an environment I could create, so I had no choice but to wait for the right time.

I activated the magic circles installed around me and filled the surroundings with light.

According to Lisbeth’s spirit book, if this summoning magic circle is filled with light, a spirit of light is summoned, and if filled with darkness, a spirit of darkness is summoned.

Therefore, right after dawn was better for summoning a spirit of light than right before nightfall.

However, light could be replaced with magic, so it didn’t matter.

“Everyone be careful not to go blind from the light.”

As I drank the spirit affinity enhancer made by Old Man Divet and warned them, I infused mana into the summoning magic circle and chanted a spell.

“O single ray of light that cleaves the darkness! O burst of commotion that heralds the genesis! At times like descending salvation, at times like striking judgment, descend upon this land! O Lord of Radiance!”

Endlessly devouring my mana and absorbing the light installed around, it turned the surroundings into a pitch-black darkness.

The dusky sunset in the sky, the sky-colored moon, and the dog bowl stars all lost their light, and the darkness continued for several minutes.

Then suddenly, a radiance that seemed like it would burst into flames erupted from the center of the summoning circle.

Although the sky had turned to night and become dark, the surroundings brightened like midday, giving the feeling that light had descended upon this land.

No, it wasn’t a wrong expression, as light had actually descended upon this land.

The light all around gradually reduced its range and returned to the same appearance as before the spirit summoning.

The only difference was that on top of the summoning magic circle, a beautiful palm-sized fish made of light was swimming in the air.

I took out a spirit stone from my pocket and drew the attention of the Lord of Radiance.

Drawn by the spirit stone, the spirit of light approached me, creating waves of light.

“Do you want it?”

At my question, the spirit of light stared at me blankly.

As its whole body was made of light, it couldn’t be distinguished with the eyes whether it was looking at me, but it felt that way.

“Then let’s make a contract.”

At my suggestion, the spirit of light swam around me as if exploring, circling round and round.

I was enveloped in waves of light like a cocoon.

After circling for a while, the spirit seemed to take a liking to me, circled near my head, approached my hand, and swallowed the spirit stone.

And at the same time, a connection with the spirit was established.

“I see, you’re a spirit that swam in the Milky Way. Your name is Eunha. Please take care of me from now on.”

Having finished the contract, Eunha rubbed its body against my cheek and then hid its light, disappearing from sight.

Its presence was definitely felt, so it would probably come out right away if I called.

Quite a shy one, unexpectedly.

As the spirit summoning ended, the three mages bombarded me with questions, their eyes sparkling.

Perplexed by the barrage of questions, I said,

“For now, let’s eat. I’m hungry.”

****

Precia and Gilbert went outside for evening training.

Jade headed to where the seal was located to do the groundwork for closing the hole to the other world.

Silua swore she absolutely wouldn’t touch it recklessly and received permission from Yekatrice, and followed Jade to watch his preparations.

Thus, Yekatrice and I were left alone to leisurely drink tea.

“Is it alright for you to not directly lend a hand in the groundwork?”

At my question, Yekatrice answered with a smile.

“I’m tired from dealing with the cracks in the seal. Jade has also grown enough to inherit my position at any time, so I should trust and entrust him with this now.”

She laughed self-deprecatingly, saying she couldn’t shelter and care for him forever.

“I really can’t thank my benefactor enough no matter how many times I express my gratitude. Not only for gathering the mana stones of sealing, but also for giving me a life-changing realization… and for distorting my fate.”

“Has the fate of death disappeared?”

Jade would be delighted to hear that.

At my question, Yekatrice made an ambiguous expression.

“Well, I’m not sure yet. To be precise, it feels like it’s overlapping.”

“Could it be that you let Malecob Jeffries escape?”

If the Disease Master, one of the masters of the Poison Institute, was alive, it would certainly be difficult to see it as having definitively avoided death.

At my concern, she shook her head and took out a frozen corpse from her subspace.

“I killed him for sure, as my benefactor instructed. The moment I killed him, my power of foresight whispered to me. That this man was my death.”

As I predicted, it seemed Jeffries was the one who drove her to death.

In that case, it meant that if the disease was treated when the symptoms were still mild, death could be completely avoided.

Yekatrice handed me a small wooden box.

“I was able to live thanks to the valuable item my benefactor lent me. Thank you.”

The box she returned to me contained a rosary emitting a faint holy power.

It was a sacred object that blocked various poisons and curses, which I had brought just before leaving the royal palace.

Originally, I was going to have Precia carry this and beat the great magic beast ‘Iron Armor’ to death.

In the meantime, upon hearing that Yekatrice was afflicted with a disease, giving it to her turned out to be the right answer.

“I’m glad it was helpful.”

But even though Yekatrice had definitively dealt with the one who tried to kill her, she didn’t look happy.

No, rather, a sense of sorrow was even felt.

“But did something happen?”

At my question, she hesitated for a moment and then told me about what happened when the Arcana executives invaded. To summarize her words, it was like this:

“You’re saying you killed this man’s lover a long time ago.”

“Yes, back then, I wasn’t as gentle as I am now. When enemies came, I was quite merciless.”

“So do you regret it?”

The word regret contained various complex meanings.

Do you regret killing Jeffries’ lover in the past?

Or do you regret letting Jeffries escape in the past?

Perhaps she regretted killing him for sure this time without giving him more chances for revenge.

At my question, she shook her head.

“No. I don’t regret it. If I had felt it was wrong, I wouldn’t have done it in the first place.”

“But you do feel guilt.”

Yekatrice nodded.

“It’s strange, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s normal for humans to feel multiple emotions simultaneously. It’s stranger to feel only one emotion from one event.”

At my answer, she looked at me with surprised eyes.

“Did you hear it from Lady Precia?”

“Pardon? Hear what?”

She waved her hand, blushing slightly.

“Ah, no. I must have been mistaken.”

I don’t know what she misunderstood, but it probably wasn’t anything important.

“Emotions are free. Be mindful of them, but just don’t get too immersed. Rather, no one transcends resentful relationships while living in this world. Everyone becomes someone’s loved one and also someone’s bastard.”

If Yekatrice was Jeffries’ bastard, Jeffries was Divet’s bastard.

Because it was the Disease Master, Malecob Jeffries, who killed his daughter and son-in-law.

Perhaps even I, who has been in this world for only a few months, may already be someone’s bastard.

Well, isn’t that just life?