Sword of the Philosopher

Translator: Roaclaynous
Initial Editing: Roaclaynous
 

Encountering any monsters or mazokus would be bad so I found myself straining my ears; this was in order to find something out before heading towards the prison. There were actually no concerns regarding the events around the king and princess after Eina had made her escape. And so, things shouldn’t be proceeding without me having an understanding of its circ.u.mstances from here on out.

Thereupon, the sound of bars metal clashing against each other could be heard. Afterwards, conversation-like phrases could be heard… lastly, it was followed by sounds of seemingly large steps.

Certainly by now, it seems that they had been imprisoned… I took some time to consider things so I waited a bit more before proceeding. That and how I’ll be managing from here on out. The exit of the secret route underground was inside the prison room but I need to go through a blind spot near the entrance in order to not get discovered but there were no a.s.surance of that since I would get caught if the guard were to ever approach it. There was also the option of taking the guard down with one hit but it would be bad as the mazokus would likely learn of it since that guy would just vanish. Being discovered would at the very least change the scenario… I really wouldn’t want that so it’s better not to.

Sufficiently, I was thinking but nervous… I felt that I need to pay extra attention so I once again strained my ears and confirmed what kind of problematic situations I’ll be in. Afterwards, I slowly proceeded towards the door of the prison room and opened it.

I felt relieved as I entered the prison room from the secret route’s door. I then scattered house cloths for cleaning as footholds. Without these, I wouldn’t be able to precede silently ― I then reached a corner. Upon reaching the T shaped pathways, I pulled out a hand mirror from my breast pocket.

Rather than to peek myself and show my face, I felt that the probability of being discovered would be lower if I were to use this hand mirror to look along the corners. Evidently, I was able to see further into the paths from the corner. From the mirror, I saw however a figure of a dark person with a devil-like physique… it was a `Lesser Demon`.

Depending on their levels, Lesser Demons would change the color of their skin. They were categorized into five types and starting from the bottom, they are as follows: Blue, Black, Green, Red, and Copper. With that in mind, black ranks second from the bottom…If they however were to be compared to the monsters sp.a.w.ning at the early stages of the game, the abilities were always exceedingly high.

Naturally if it was me, I can defeat them with one hit…however, I can only see that demon standing guard from the scope of what I can see. Even after I’ve carefully searched for other presences, the result was still the same. Since I was thinking of doing it methodically, I need to look for anything else I may have missed. Although an existence of this item was not in the game, a tool similar to a role that a surveillance camera provides maybe present… those things were blind spots for the hand mirror so I wouldn’t be able to take a peek at them if there were.

“There’s no helping it…”

No matter what option I chose, the guarantees of it to not turn out ok were the same anyways…Silently, I took a deep breath. Thereafter, I prepared the spell that I would use.

In using spells, certain procedures were needed in reciting an aria. This was absolute but was not limited to things like attachments or enchantments to accessories and the like.

Although around here, it is possible to shorten the aria with practice. So I took advantage of the times I would be using magic during training, and tried my best to omit arias as much as possible… though doing it needed more time instead most of the time, I was able to do it several times till I reached my limit since I was already fighting since my early years. And so concluding from all that, Even more devotion to practice was needed to master magic.

Before long, the spell was complete. The spell I used against the demon was something to put it to sleep. All types of conditional disorders inhibited by magic should still be effective against it so after the spell was applied, it should have fallen asleep.

I then took a peek at the hand mirror after confirming the spell invocation ― and as was expected… The Lesser Demon had all of a sudden, slanted forward. Then from its knee, slowly fell down. If there was indeed a tool for surveillance, this kind of unusual event would have been taken notice of and mazokus or monsters appearing all of a sudden wouldn’t be strange… hmmm, no changes.

After that, I waited for approximately three more minutes ― Incidentally, I already verified the duration of the sleep type spell that I used in advance and confirmed it to last for half a day. Since there were no changes even after five minutes, I decided to proceed towards the prison cell after murmuring a small cheer.

There were no other kinds of guards. This was what I understood since there weren’t any other prisoners in other cells… I lightened up my footsteps to the fullest until the demon lying on the floor was right next to me.

“You are…?”

It was a voice of a man advancing in age. When I turned my head towards the prison cell, in there was―

“Greetings… Luon Madin is what I’m called.”

Although I was a bit nervous myself, I was still able to procure a proper introduction… Inside the cell were two people. The man I had just talked to had white hair and suitable wrinkles. His beard was also white but despite being inside a prison, a majestic appearance could still be felt as he is cladded in formal red clothing.

Then there was the other person, a female. Her eyes had a very deep dark blue color and her silver colored hair was reaching up to her waist. Having fair white skin and finely defined lines, an appearance that seemingly gave out an endless yet transience atmosphere, it was to a point that there was a brilliance that would not fate would not seem strange at all… the term [peerless] as what I call it was the first thing that came into mind as it was extremely natural to come into that conclusion. Truly, she was beautiful.

Her age, it should be around the same figures as mine. Her appearance right now was someone who was not wearing a dress but instead, a white overcoat similar to those worn when going outside or on a trip. Under that were thick clothes that were were for external activities or use. If I were to remember correctly, Eina along with the princess were outside when the attack took place. It was possible that she was captured and thrown into prison without being given a chance to change.

So, towards the man ― he is the king of this country, Claudius. Then the other person would be his daughter, Princess Sophilia. These two people were my reason for coming here.

“The one that placed the demon to sleep, was that you?”

The king asked. I made a small nod to confirm… I then followed up with words that I had prepared beforehand.

“Through a request from someone around here, I arrived here to rescue you.”

Somehow, I was able to tell him… In a tense situation, tension is also building up in my body but contrary to it, I was calm on the outside.

In accordance to my words, the king tilted his head.

“To me..? Who would have done such a request?”

“The request was someone from the knights of this country.”

― It was a blatant lie but I had the confidence that the king would be convinced if I were to put it that way.

In this country, there was a knight that served as a captain and was feared in the past. Although he was a person pushed into a role of a supporting character, his name was still referenced in the game ― that person was the one who told the king that it was better to prepare against the approaching threat of the Mazokus. The king however dismissed the idea and deemed it unnecessary, the knight mentioned had already retired from his military duties by then. It was established that he then dies naturally due to illness.

The result of the exchange of words from that time― or the event as I call it was where Eina’s story had originated from. I then had the idea that I could make use of it. IF the king was to ever ask me a reason for my actions, I would tell him that it was a dying wish from the old knight. That if ever the country was to be placed into a crisis, I would go and a.s.sist the king. I thought that it would be better if that was provided in case I was asked.

So, that scheme was a success. It seems that the king had remembered that knight through my words and had his eyes wide open.

“I see… now that I consider it, his words were indeed correct.”

“Well… Even if you did prepare for it, there was still the possibility of it not changing anything. Regardless of what was chosen then, we need to reorganize ourselves right now and think only of being able to escape.”

“however…”

The king was hesitant. Surely there was a promise from the mazokus that if they were able to seize the king, they would no longer attack the people of the nation.

That was not true however; the fact that even after the king was seized, the mazokus still attacked the people. And adding into that was the king and the princess dying from starvation… it was too tragic.

Well if I simply free them here and a.s.sist in their escape, I felt that it would turn bad. Therefore, I proceeded to propose one thing.

“Using one of my spell, I will create a double for you.”

“Wha…what?

“The dummy will be very elaborate that it would be able to even the eyes of a mazoku. You will escape and I will make the dummy perform a suicide.”

―I happen to know a spell that would be able to do just that. From an event of a certain protagonist, a comrade magic teacher was killed by one of the mazoku chiefs. However that was only a dummy procured by magic so he was able to live on… that was what happened inside that scenario.

Since I was able to refer the name of the spell that was used, I was able to investigate how it was used. Since the spell used was able to fool someone from a level of a chief, no one should be able to discover that it was a fake here.

“Right now, your existence is yet to be needed in this country…somehow, please.”

“I see…”

The king casted his eyes down once,

“Understood… I shall abide to your words.”

The king gave his consent. Next was the princess but when I met her eyes as I turned towards her, she showed an att.i.tude where she too had agreed.

Perhaps the two of them already had the resolve to die when they were thrown in here. This was an excessively sorrowful decision but if it was for the sake of saving the people of their country, I thought that they had no other choice but to do so.

In any case, the contact with the king and the princess was accomplished and will now manage our escape for the present time… but the plan has yet to end. I started to give a yell inside my head for some boost and began to unlock the prison cell with a spell.