Chapter 80

Chapter 80. The Princess’s Awakening Ceremony (2)

The king looked younger than I had expected.

When I heard that his two sons were aiming for the next throne and were about to clash, I had thought he would be a decrepit old man. But from afar, he looked only like someone just crossing from middle age into old age.

However, when I infused mana into my eyes and examined him, I could clearly sense the sickly color on his face.

‘It seems he really is ill. Is it some kind of medicine effect?’

I could feel mana flowing from the king all the way here. It was mana that was not properly organized, but had been forcibly pushed into him and was simply overflowing.

‘He really does not seem to have much time left.’

It was visible that he was forcibly holding on with mana. At that level, his body had to be close to its limit.

Since he was the king and a powerful ability user, he would still endure longer with that body, but in truth, it was only a matter of extending his time a little.

‘Well, that is not something I need to worry about.’

Queen Ria was following half a step behind the king. Unlike when I had seen her before, her face was stiff now.

Behind the king and queen, two young men were walking.

At a glance, I could tell that they were the princes.

The First Prince looked to be in his late twenties, and the Second Prince looked to be in his early twenties.

Those two were the ones closest to becoming the next king.

To me, who had somehow been classified as part of the princess’s faction, they were close to enemies. Of course, the other side did not know anything about me at all.

Behind the two princes, young Princess Aisha was walking after them. A ten-year-old child, more than ten years younger than the Second Prince, followed behind the king with a tense face.

Seeing her reminded me of my own Awakening Ceremony in the past.

I remembered my previous life, and because of my repeated lives, my mental age was far higher than my physical age. Even so, I had been extremely nervous during my Awakening Ceremony.

Judging from Princess Aisha’s pale face, she seemed very nervous as well. Still, she appeared to be enduring it well for her age.

‘A child too intelligent for her age might be a phrase that suits the princess more than me.’

Behind the princess, knights and priests were walking.

It was definitely true that this was an internal royal event. Only the king’s direct family attended the Awakening Ceremony.

However, among the people standing at a distance with me and watching the Awakening Ceremony, I could not see any great nobles.

Of course, nobles who possessed territories found it difficult to come to the capital.

However, they could at least have sent representatives, and there were also quite a few nobles staying in the capital.

Yet among the nobles around me right now, I could not see a single person of that position.

‘I suppose this tells me the princess’s current position.’

Although she was the daughter of the current living queen, there was too large an age gap between her and her two older brothers.

The king was openly showing how unwell he was, and the princes had already built their factions.

There was no way many nobles would attend the princess’s Awakening Ceremony and invite unnecessary misunderstandings.

The academy students considered me impressive for watching this event, but those who properly understood the situation might mock me instead.

Well, it did not seem that different from my own position.

Unlike the burial chamber behind the ducal house’s mansion, the burial chamber of the royal castle was far more majestic and splendid.

The king’s party walked between the statues of previous kings and entered the burial chamber.

We waited for the king’s party to come back out.

Time passed.

The king’s party could not be seen, but all the people waiting remained quiet.

A little while later—

FWOOOSH.

I felt mana ripple inside the burial chamber.

The princess had finally awakened.

People whispered softly, wondering what inherited ability she had obtained.

Before long, the king and his party walked out of the burial chamber again.

The expressions of those walking out were varied.

The king was clicking his tongue with a pale face.

Both princes looked satisfied, while the knights and priests looked somewhat regretful.

The Queen’s expression had not changed much from when she went in, and the princess also had a calm face.

‘But it does not seem like she is simply calm……. It feels as though she is strangely pleased too.’

I felt it was difficult to determine the result from the expressions of those who came out, but then I heard Katrine speak beside me.

“It seems to have gone well.”

I turned my head and looked at Katrine.

Her face was filled with a smile.

---

After the Awakening Ceremony ended, the people dispersed immediately.

Contrary to my expectations, the gathered people scattered at once, and Katrine and I headed to the Queen’s palace at her summons.

In the large drawing room where I had met her before, Katrine and I met the princess and the Queen.

WOOOONG.

A wall of mana surrounded the room.

It was a wall of mana different from the soundproofing wall I had made with mana.

“All external gazes have been blocked.”

An elderly maid lowered her head to the Queen.

Although she was wearing a maid uniform, there was no way a maid attending the Queen was an ordinary woman.

At the very least, she was certainly a noble of some renown.

The wall of mana she had created was surely her inherited ability.

“Aisha, you may relax your expression now.”

“Phew, that was difficult.”

At the Queen’s words, the princess let out a deep sigh.

She relaxed her stiff face and smiled brightly.

Katrine also smiled at the princess.

“You worked hard. Fortunately, it seems no one noticed.”

“Yes, it was thanks to you, Katrine.”

At the princess’s bright answer, Katrine shook her head.

“Alex’s help was greater than mine.”

“Thank you as well, Lord Alex.”

“No, I do not think I did anything worthy of thanks.”

The princess’s gratitude only made me feel awkward.

The problem had started from the moment they put me in this room and formed a mana wall around it.

Seeing that they had placed a mana wall around the room, it was clear that they were about to discuss a secret that only the Queen, the princess, and Katrine should know.

I had no idea why I was included in that!

I did not know why the princess was happy either, nor did I know why she was thanking me.

I wish someone would tell me the reason!

“Hoho, it seems we should explain things to Young Master Alex first.”

Seeing how helpless I looked, the Queen laughed softly and opened her mouth.

“We could not tell you because we did not know how the awakening result would turn out. Fortunately, the result is good, so I will tell you.”

Katrine continued after the Queen.

It seemed I would finally hear what I had been curious about.

To be honest, I would have preferred not to hear it…….

However, judging from the expressions of the Queen, the princess, and Katrine, it seemed I was already too late.

In their minds, I was already on the same team as them.

I had come too far to say I would rather not listen.

“Ah, first, tell him again what inherited ability you obtained, just as you said during the Awakening Ceremony.”

At the Queen’s words, the princess spoke.

“Invisible sword aura. I said that I obtained the inherited ability of House Ratenhamar, my maternal family.”

She lifted a small spoon placed before her. It was a spoon meant for stirring tea, but when she held it in her hand, the tip of the spoon began to ripple.

Indeed, I had seen that rippling energy before.

It was the ability Katrine had used in the dungeon.

And I could also use that ability when I held the dagger obtained in the dungeon. Honestly, when ambushing a person, it was the finest ability.

Ah, now I understood the expressions of the king and the princes.

The ability the princess obtained was an extremely excellent and useful ability, but it was not the royal house’s ability.

On top of that, since the two princes possessed [Mana Sensitivity], the so-called kingly ability, it would now be difficult for the princess, who had obtained her mother’s side’s ability, to compete with the two princes.

That was why the king’s expression had been poor, while the two princes’ expressions had been bright.

But the expressions of the Queen and the princess had not been bad, had they? In fact, they were smiling right now.

As I looked at the princess while thinking, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

Right. Just now, the princess’s words had been somewhat strange.

She had not said, ‘I obtained the inherited ability.’ She had said, ‘I said that I obtained the inherited ability.’

Do not tell me she obtained a different ability and said that she had obtained the count’s house’s inherited ability?

However, before my eyes, I could still see the tip of the spoon rippling.

“Did you perhaps obtain a different ability in truth?”

At the words I spoke just in case, the princess shook her head, and the Queen and Katrine smiled.

“You must not lie during the royal family’s Awakening Ceremony. The princess certainly obtained the ability ‘invisible sword aura.’”

The Queen added to the princess’s answer.

Then Katrine explained why the Queen and the princess were pleased.

“It is fortunate. I had been worried. Since it is not a royal house ability, the two princes’ attention will move away from the princess.”

Ah, I see. The princess was not very different from me.

If the princess had obtained the royal house’s ability, especially [Mana Sensitivity], there was no way the two princes would have stayed still.

Right now, the two princes were waiting only for the starting signal with blades aimed at each other. If the princess appeared in addition to that, it was obvious where the two princes’ blades would turn first.

However, the Queen and the princess did not look like people who had barely saved their lives by avoiding the princes’ blades.

The Queen opened her mouth.

“The princes and princess of this generation have too much of the ancestor’s blood. According to the priests, they are the generation with the strongest blood in history.”

Could priests even know such a thing? From healing arts to contracts, and even determining the concentration of royal blood, the abilities of priests seemed unexpectedly versatile.

In any case, the Queen continued speaking.

“Naturally, those words were kept a secret known only to the royals, and the princes all obtained [Mana Sensitivity] as expected.”

It seemed that having all one’s children possess excellent abilities was not simply a good thing.

“According to the priest, Aisha also had a high possibility of obtaining [Mana Sensitivity].”

“So we had to find a way for the princess not to obtain [Mana Sensitivity]. That was also one of the reasons I traveled around as a mercenary.”

“And we found a method.”

Katrine pointed at me.

“Ah, surely not.”

The princess took a dagger out from her sleeve.

It was the dagger I had lent to Katrine a few days earlier.

Instead of the spoon she had been holding, she gripped the dagger. The tip of the dagger rippled.

“After seeing you obtain our house’s inherited ability through the relic found in the dungeon, we discovered a way to guide the awakening.”

According to what followed, after returning from the dungeon, Katrine had immediately called me to the capital and gathered the house’s relics for the princess to touch.

Unfortunately, those relics had shown no reaction with the princess. The only one that had produced even a slight sensation was the shield obtained from the dungeon.

As a final measure, Katrine and the Queen borrowed my dagger and had the princess touch it.

Then, the dagger reacted.

“I heard a voice in my head. It said, [Do you desire power?]”

Damn it, to think I had to hear those childish words again.

“We had the princess participate in the Awakening Ceremony with the dagger hidden on her body. It was a small dagger, so no one recognized it. In the end, just as we expected, she obtained the inherited ability of her maternal family.”

Because of that dagger, she obtained the count’s house’s inherited ability instead of the royal house’s ability?

But was that such a good thing? They had avoided the immediate crisis, but was it truly all right?

Perhaps because she saw my frowning face, the Queen shook her head.

“No. We obtained a far better result than expected. Aisha.”

At the Queen’s words, the princess put strength into her body.

WOOOOONG.

A faint light began to pour from the princess’s entire body.

Good heavens. That was not ‘invisible sword aura.’ It was a completely different ability.

Bwoong. Crackle.

Small flames appeared in the air, and sparks appeared between her strands of hair before vanishing.

“The princess did not obtain another ability instead of the royal house’s ability during the Awakening Ceremony. She obtained both the royal house’s ability and her maternal family’s ability.”

It was exactly as the Queen said.

The orderly mana pouring from the princess’s body was the royal house’s inherited ability.

It was mana created through [Mana Sensitivity].

The princess smiled brightly while wearing [Mana Sensitivity] around her body and holding the rippling dagger.