Genius Seventh Prince

He was already a day"s travel away from the capital and only had one last piece of forest to pa.s.s through. As he ran by using Air Steps, he continually raced with Lucius for fun and stopped to meditate along the way. He could feel that his mana was close to breaking through, so he knew that he shouldn"t let up his practice just because he was not in school.

...

Deep in the forest, two figures burst through the trees but suddenly stopped on a large tree"s branch.

"Hey, Lu, should we take a short break here? It feels like this place is filled with the elements. I want to take a look around to see if there is something special that is causing mana to gather here."

"Yeah, we should definitely take a look! I can feel that this place has something special about it."

These two figures were Lucius and Greyson who were only a half day"s journey away from the capital. They were running through a small local forest and when they reached the middle the concentration of mana shot up. Feeling shocked by this sudden change, they decided to stop and look around to see if they could find what was causing the elements to be attracted here.

Following the flow of mana, Greyson soon reached the center of the attraction. In the middle lay a beautiful rock that glowed with the colors of four of the elements: water, fire, earth, and wind. Knowing that this rock must be something amazing, Greyson reached forward to pick it up. Once his hand touched the surface, he could feel a connection to the rock that resonated with his elements. After observing for a little longer and trying to inject his mana into the it, Greyson could not figure out what it was or what it could be used for. Thinking about it, he decided to put it inside his spatial bag. Spatial bags were the cheapest form of spatial containers since they were the largest so it took less work to create a s.p.a.ce within it, however, they were still rare objects. The Head Teachers had come together and gifted it to him as their first meeting present for being their student. It was not too big, around the s.p.a.ce of half his bedroom inside. The rock was large, but he could fit it inside fairly easily. Quickly storing the rock away, Greyson could feel that the mana collected here was starting to disperse, so he quickly sat down and began to meditate. Pulling the mana inside him before it dispersed, he drew closer and closer to the fifth stage.

When he finally awoke from his meditative state, the mana had dispersed but he did not break through to the fifth stage. Slightly disappointed, he understood that it was because although this area was full of four of his elements he had to absorb more of the other three elements before he could breakthrough. He started to finally understand why Lucius said that his elements could slow him down. It was not a complete advantage without drawbacks. He looked beside him at Lucius who had also awoken from his meditation.

"What, disappointed? I told you it would be harder for you because you have to keep your elements in balance." Lucius smirked looking smug.

"Whatever." Greyson rolled his eyes. "But, Lu, do you know what the rock is?"

"Do I look like a rock encyclopedia to you? I don"t know everything. You have to understand that I might have lived longer than you and my mother taught me some things, but I still lived most of life inside that desolate forest near your town. Maybe we can ask one of your teachers when we get back, or look it up in a book at the capital. I would just say that you should keep it hidden until you are in a safe area because it"s definitely something special that others would covet." Greyson was a little shocked by the usually narcissistic cat"s words. But after he thought about it, he realized that he had seen Lucius as an all-knowing being. Only, when they first met, Greyson knew absolutely nothing so of course Lucius seemed that way but this cat also came from the desolate countryside of Snow Country so Lucius couldn"t know that much either other than basic stuff. Agreeing with Lucius"s words, Greyson decided to ask his teachers unless he found a good opportunity to look up the rock"s origins in the capital.

...

Approaching the end of the forest, Greyson felt excited because he knew he was only a little distance away from his destination. He slowed down as he came to the end of the treeline when Lucius suddenly perked up his ear and lifted his head from Greyson"s shoulder.

"Grey, there are people surrounding us." Lucius"s voice resounded in Greyson"s head. Imperceptibly nodding, Greyson continued acting as normal as if he hadn"t noticed and before long three figures appeared before him. They were all middle-aged men with the one in front being the oldest and the leader. Once those three showed themselves, the rest of the men in the surroundings popped out as well. Greyson took a quick mental count and he found there were about 30 men in total. Coming across this situation all too often, Greyson and Lucius both knew that these men were bandits. Going off the calculating look of the leader, they both also had a feeling they knew what their aim was.

"Hmm... a pretty little girl like this would sell good on the market. Any of those n.o.bles would pay good money for a slave like this. Plus, the way she was running earlier she must have some magic too." The leader licked his lips maliciously as he gave Greyson the once over. Hearing his words, Greyson and Lucius looked at each other wordlessly before they both let loose a long sigh. They knew it. Greyson always made the effort to dress humbly although he could afford better clothes because he didn"t want to be targeted for money. However, it looks like he should first change his looks before making the effort with his clothes. These bandits were all of one mind. Every single one of them wished to sell him. He was starting to pity any weak pretty young girls who came across bandits because it seems that they were the preferred target.

"We must sell really well like they say because I am always targeted like this." Greyson couldn"t help but shake his head with frustration.

"Hahahaha well who asked you to be born with these looks. I really wonder who your parents were, they must have been good-looking pair." Lucius laughed with a look of taking joy in other"s misfortunes. They had been communicating mentally so the bandits hadn"t heard their thoughts so they just thought that the two had been frozen with terror.

"Don"t worry, as long as you don"t resist, we won"t hurt you. I can"t say anything about your future owner, but your life shouldn"t be too bad with those looks." The bandits snickered after hearing their leader"s words.

"Why don"t you all just run away now so I don"t have to waste my effort to chase you all away?" Greyson finally spoke out.

"What did you just say, kid? Us, run away? From a little girl like you? Looks like we caught a crazy one boss. A shame because the stupid ones don"t sell as well." One of the two guys behind the leader spoke out. The bandits all laughed again at his words while Greyson just shook his head knowing that they wouldn"t listen to him. Looks like it was the hard way then.

"Hmph! You guys just grab her and let"s go." The leader paid no attention to Greyson"s words and quickly order his men to move in. Seeing them start to move towards himself, Greyson was about to activate his magic when another voice rang out.

"Halt, you evil-doers!"

Hearing the line, Greyson almost laughed but managed to hold it in. Who says those kinds of cheesy lines? Following the voice, a body flew out from the trees. When the bandits got a good look at the person, they all had the temptation to just fall down with laughter right then. The voice belonged to girl who looked around Greyson"s age who was dressed like an adventurer or mercenary. Although the girl looked valiant, she was so young that it all seemed like a joke.

"Hey, look boss, another one joined the fray. We could sell her too!"

"But she"s not as pretty... Would she still sell well?"

"You"re only saying that because the other one is too pretty. This one"s not too bad."

They weren"t wrong in their description. The girl was not the prettiest, but she had a good temperament that made people look twice at her. She held herself with confidence like a war general.

The girl ignored the bandits and quickly approached Greyson before looking him once over with concern.

"Little girl, are you alright? Don"t worry, this young lady here will definitely beat them all up for you!"

Greyson was about to thank her for her help, although it wouldn"t be necessary, but then he heard her words. Little? They looked like they were the same age! His eye twitching after her words he couldn"t help but feel that he was suddenly like those damsels in distress who get rescued by the hero in fairy tales. Not knowing whether to get angry or not, he looked over and saw the Lucius was trying his best to hold in his laughter. Glaring at the cat, he looked back over at the girl.

"I"m fine..." He manage to squeeze out. He couldn"t get angry because he knew this girl had good intentions.

"Well, that"s good then! Watch me then!" She then bravely faced the bandits.

"Hmph! Little girl, you underestimate use!" Just as the leader said that, his mana finally burst out. Intermediate level stage three! Even Greyson was shocked. Looked like the bandits near the capital were at a different level. He was about to stop the girl before she got hurt but to his surprise her expression had not changed at all. Instead, she drew the sword by her side and made one swing. Along that swing, he could see the patterns on her sword light up green. Huge wind slashes followed as the bandits were cut down with only one cut. So powerful!

"Grey, don"t underestimate this girl. Although she looks around your age, she is not that simple. Her strength is around the same level as me." Hearing Lucius"s voice in his head, Greyson was shocked yet again.

But...

After the shock was gone, he finally realized that she had killed all the bandits with that swing. He looked around at the corpses all cut up in different places and felt sick. He turned around and ran to one of the trees before puking.

"Little girl, you should toughen up! Don"t wait around for men to save you and become strong yourself! I can sense that you have a good amount of mana so you must also be talented." Hearing her words, Greyson didn"t know how to answer. He had never even seen someone get killed let alone kill someone himself so he had felt overwhelmed by the scene. Wasn"t this girl too nonchalant? It sent a s.h.i.+ver down his spine.

"Who are you?" He whispered.

"I"m Aria! How about you?"

"Greyson."

"Nice to meet you, Gre... Greyson? Are you a boy?!"

"...Yes..."

"And you"re all weak like this? That"s no good, weak men are super unattractive." She said shaking her head and looking at him with pity.

Greyson suddenly felt speechless and just scratched his head. He WAS weaker than her so what could he say?

"Well, where are you headed, Greyson?" She asked with her eyes lighting up.

"I"m headed to the capital."

"The capital?"

"Yeah, Dalia City. It"s really close to here, didn"t you know?"

"Well I only was just able to run a... run out from my home. So, I"m not really sure where I am right now." Looking at her a little suspiciously, Greyson decided to ignore her pause in between words.

"Well, anyways, thank you, Aria, for stepping out to save me. I"ll be on my way now."

"Wait! Let me come along! I want to experience this capital city." She spoke out and stopped him.

"Even if you don"t want me to, I"ll follow you anyways so just be good and listen." Feeling a headache coming on from her forceful att.i.tude, Greyson just nodded and let her come along. She wasn"t a bad person and she was strong so it wasn"t like she was a burden.

"Haha okay! Let"s go then! Hurry!" She grabbed his hand and started rus.h.i.+ng him along. Sighing, he nodded and started rus.h.i.+ng again with his Air Steps. Aria followed along as well using some kind of wind magic spell that helped her travel quickly as well. Lucius smiled looking at Greyson helpless face and followed behind.

Three figures then sped off leaving what was left of the bandits behind.