Episode 3: First Meeting – Chapter 13.2
Alan looked at the statue of Sispanian and the palace once more, before turning to look back at the prince’s face.
“How did you follow me?” Alan asked.
Perhaps this meeting wasn’t serendipitous at all, given that Calian, who seemed desperate for Alan’s help, came at exactly the right time. Calian wanted to try hide the fact he was sick before Alan asked him about it.
Calian pondered what to say for a moment. He couldn’t say, “I’m from the future and I knew you’d be here.” But Alan could probably see through a lie as well.
“I was pa.s.sing by on horseback when I heard the guards’ conversation. That’s why I came running,” Calian replied.
He could swear that what he said now was not a lie at all. He may have slightly twisted his words, but it was an honest answer.
“Why did you run?” Alan asked, his deep gaze peering into Calian’s eyes.
“Because you ran.”
At that response Alan chuckled. The boy finally said an answer that was suited for his age, but it still had a tinge of a grudge.
“Then why were you looking for me?” Alan asked again, already knowing that the boy was sick.
If the mage already knew that he couldn’t use mana, why bother asking? Calian did not answer immediately. Alan waited for an answer that wasn’t coming.
“You’re asking why,” Calian started.
The reason why he waited for Alan without even looking for a healer. The reason why he left the palace even though he knew he would cause a commotion when he would return. It was obvious.
Calian straightened himself against Raven.
“Alan Mana.s.sil. I need you by my side.”
A small sigh flowed out of Calian’s mouth once again. Again, what he said wasn’t a lie.
“I think it’s going to be very windy soon.”
He was talking about the day of the a.s.sa.s.sination, but he couldn’t say anymore about it. It was better if it was understood as a quarrel among the princes.
Alan scratched his forehead slightly with his finger.
“I see.”
It wasn’t that Alan didn’t know who the prince in front of him was. He knew quite well who was holding the sword in the Kailis Palace, and he could understand why Calian needed his support.
“Do you wish to block the wind or quiet it down?”
As Calian expected, Alan interpreted Calian’s words as a battle for the prince’s seat.
Calian stared at Alan without speaking. Could he really trust this man? It was the mage’s gaze that confirmed it. The same light flashed in Alan’s eyes when he faced him.
A moment later, Calian delivered his answer in a calm voice.
“I want to stop the wind now, and I do not want the throne. But if it’s the throne that’s needed, then I will consider quieting it down.”
Dismissing the throne was quite arrogant coming from a boy with a dying body and nothing in his hands. Alan’s lips curved up in a smile again.
This was already fun.
How much more fun it would be in the future.
Alan made a decision.
“Then.”
He raised his finger and looked at Kailis Palace.
“Give me an invitation, please.”
Not a three-day invitation to attend the king’s birthday celebration, but the right reason to help him.
Calian smiled, and then stopped.
His sharply glowing red eyes turned away from Alan as he bowed his head and bent his knees.
– Sarak…
His white cape briefly swelled up and hovered in the air, and soon drifted like a feather to the ground. Alan stared down at the head of the kneeling figure before him.
“Calian Rein Kailis,” Calian said gently. “I welcome my master.”
The boy had eyes that didn’t fit his age.
His figure was quite small.
Alan replied to his pupil for the first time.
“I accept the invitation.”
Yes, him.
He would save him.