[V16C3] Trial for the Apprentice Mage

Back when they attended Minerva, Louis heard stories about the ‘sickly younger brother’ from First Prince Lionel.

—— “Felix is very frail, so he spends most of his time recuperating at his grandfather’s mansion. I rarely get the chance to see him… I hope I can take him on a horse ride once he gets better.”

—— “When I told him about my sword training, he called me ‘amazing’ with eyes full of wonder. That is why I put my all into training.”

Lionel dreamed of going horseback riding with his brother. He trained with the sword because he wanted to protect his brother.

The idiot had always acted like that, which was why he only improved in swordsmanship and riding instead of magecraft. Louis remembered calling him a muscle-brained gorilla because of it.

Though he sometimes got a bit overbearing, Lionel was a softy at heart. He cared deeply for his siblings.

——Do you have the slightest idea how much this kind gorilla cherished his brother?

This was what Louis wanted to ask the lying bastard, but he could never say it out loud.

Because he knew Lionel would not be happy to see Louis getting angry for him.

Thus, Louis Miller cemented his stance in a different way. He told everyone that he supported the First Prince Faction because he couldn’t stand the Second Prince’s shifty smile.

Louis celebrated when the impostor pretending to be the Second Prince was forced into retirement. If the fool started getting too cocky, then Louis had no qualms about putting him back in his place.

——Isaac Walker.

Louis came across this name during his investigation into the Second Prince’s identity.

The name of a boy who died at the same time as Doctor Author, the man Louis suspected was the caster of the forbidden body manipulation magic.

There was no solid proof, but Louis could tell. Isaac was the fake prince.

And now, for some reason, the man calling himself Isaac Walker showed up with a different face, as the disciple of the Silent Witch.

The Silent Witch was the one who interceded in the Second Prince’s trial to prevent his execution, even though she knew he was an impostor.

Which could only mean one thing. The girl had been swayed by Isaac Walker. She took pity on the heinous criminal and even had the audacity to take him as a disciple.

Louis knew that Monica only cared about numbers and magecraft, so he had assumed that she would not fall for the fake prince’s tricks. That turned out to be a miscalculation.

Isaac Walker was a young man with an intimidating face due to the large scar over his right eye. He looked nothing like the pretty-faced Second Prince.

Louis did not know how he changed his face, but he’d get it out of him soon enough—by force.

There was no point in trying to persuade Monica. The little girl had clearly lost her head over his silver-tongued lies. She would never listen.

＊　＊　＊

“…I would have let you go if you just stayed quiet in your domain.”

The cold aura of hostility radiating from Louis made Monica gasp.

After the incident a few years ago, Louis clearly knew about Second Prince Felix Arc Ridill being an impostor. Monica could tell that much.

But she never expected him to trace down the name of Isaac Walker. She had underestimated his obsession.

“Louis-san…”

Before Monica could finish her sentence, Louis let go of the staff he planted in the ground. The next instant, he closed the distance and threw a punch at Isaac’s stomach.

Isaac quickly stepped back diagonally to dodge the blow, but Louis immediately followed up with a palm strike aimed at his jaw, which Isaac narrowly avoided by twisting further back.

Clang, the sound of Louis’s staff hitting the floor. That brief exchange had occurred over the span of a few seconds.

But Louis was far from done. He stayed close to Isaac and continued throwing his fists without mercy.

Monica panicked and prepared a chantless spell.

(I can’t get a clear shot…!)

There were several ways she could neutralize Louis in this situation. For example, paralyzing him with lightning magic, freezing his feet with ice magic, or even creating a defensive barrier between him and Isaac.

However, Louis’s speed rendered all of those methods impossible.

Monica excelled at precision sniping, but even she had trouble hitting a target constantly in motion. On top of that, the close-range brawl meant that one wrong move could result in her hitting Isaac instead.

(That must be Louis-san’s goal in the first place…!)

Louis deliberately put himself in a location where he could dodge Monica’s spells to make her hit Isaac.

Separating them with a defensive barrier proved difficult too, as Louis kept shifting his position too fast for Monica to stabilize the barrier coordinates.

Under the ferocious assault, Isaac could not keep dodging forever. Louis eventually landed a clean hit, sinking his fist into Isaac’s side. Isaac grunted and staggered back, so Louis took advantage of the opening to grab Isaac’s throat.

Isaac tried to claw off the hand strangling him, but Louis’s iron grip did not budge one bit.

“I see you have been busy seducing the Silent Witch and cozying up to the leaders of the Mage Association. What are you plotting this time?”

Louis’s words caused Monica to go pale. He was furious because he thought Isaac was plotting something.

“Louis-san, Ike isn’t plotting anything…”

“How can you say that with such certainty? Can you prove that he won’t use you or the Mage Association to stage a coup?”

While strangling Isaac, Louis moved his thumb to press down on his Adam’s apple. Isaac’s face twisted in further pain as he wheezed out a choked breath.

“All he needs to do is assassinate the First and Third Princes. Then, there will be no shortage of people petitioning to restore the Second Prince’s right of succession.”

Monica could not counter that argument, because Louis was correct. If anything, she was the one acting inappropriately.

With Monica silenced, Louis looked down on Isaac with a cold sneer. However, Isaac met his gaze with a strange calmness in his eyes, even while trying to tear off the hand strangling him.

This annoyed Louis to no end.

“Tch. You have been granted the chance to live the rest of your days in peace, but that is all. Zip your mouth shut and stop stirring up trouble.”

Louis released his grip on Isaac’s neck, but not to set him free. He was going to deliver the final blow.

“I’ll make sure you can never show your face in public again.”

Louis aimed a punch at his face. Isaac managed to guard with his arms at the last second, but the force of the blow knocked him off balance.

This was normally where Isaac would try for a leg sweep to turn the tables, but instead of going on the offensive, he jumped backwards to distance himself from Louis.

Monica didn’t miss the opportunity. She quickly deployed a defensive barrier around Isaac.

However, Louis seemed to have anticipated that as well. He used a shortened incantation to create a small and extremely durable barrier around his right fist, which he used to punch Monica’s barrier.

“Ora!”

He shattered Monica’s barrier in a single hit.

She redeployed her barrier immediately, but Louis simply smashed through it again with his shielded fist.

This was one of the countermeasures Louis came up with to handle Monica’s chantless magic.

Punching didn’t require any incantation either. Simple, but effective.

Louis jumped up and aimed a roundhouse kick at Isaac’s temple.

Isaac dodged it, but Louis went on to deliver a barrage of punches right after landing, with unbelievable agility. Isaac was forced to evade or redirect each blow.

“You are free to retaliate, you know?” Louis said.

“Fighting back will give you the justification to eliminate me.”

Isaac replied in a flat tone, to which Louis revealed his fangs in a vicious grin.

“You are certainly quick on the uptake.”

Louis engaged Isaac in close-quarter combat again, and he moved too quickly for Monica to intervene. Hitting him with a spell was harder than shooting a dragon between the eyes.

As he threw punch after punch, Louis spoke to Monica.

“Unfortunately, my fellow sage, you become far weaker when there is someone you need to protect.”

He was right. The greatest merit of Monica’s chantless magic was that she could always strike first. She lost this advantage the moment she was put on the defensive.

(Even so…)

Monica used a remote formula to cast an ice spell at Louis’s feet. She was going to freeze his boots to the ground and prevent him from moving.

However, Louis evaded it with elegant footwork, as if performing a dance.

(Ike, please hang in there… just a little longer…)

Monica touched the wall with her fingers. A thin tendril of ice extended from her fingertips, crawling along the wall.

Isaac noticed this and positioned himself to shield Monica with his body, so Louis wouldn’t be able to see it.

(Now!)

The icy tendril slid quietly from the wall to the floor, aiming for Louis’s right foot. But suddenly, Louis used his left foot to kick something in the way. It was the staff he had dropped earlier. The spell ended up freezing his staff instead of his foot.

Louis prodded the frozen staff with the tip of his shoe.

“Well, that was a close one… It seems you two are more coordinated than I expected.”

“Because he’s my disciple,” Monica answered.

Louis said that Monica was weak when she had someone to protect.

However, Isaac was no longer just a prince to be protected. He was a disciple fighting alongside his master.

“Louis-san, please… Please give my disciple a chance to study magic.”

Monica did not want to give up on Isaac Walker. She wanted to teach him magic.

“I will take full responsibility.”

“This is not the same as taking in a stray cat or dog,” Louis replied. “That man is a prince stripped of his claim to the throne. He is allowed to live quietly and die quietly, that is all.”

Louis shattered the ice on his staff with a kick, then picked it up and pointed it at Isaac.

“If you call yourself the Second Prince, then stop shirking your duties and playing around. The title is not supposed to be that convenient.”

Louis spoke in a tone heavy with disgust and contempt. He glared between Monica and Isaac before continuing.

“Or do you think it’s fine for a prince to be making ice cream for all the friends? Well? No wonder the taste was so extravagant, it turns out you even used the imported vanilla beans from Erin. Were you trying to provoke me?”

Monica remembered the gift of ice cream she recently gave to Louis. Apparently, the rich taste was due to being flavored by vanilla beans.

“Um, n-no, it wasn’t meant as a provocation… I-I just wanted you to try it because it was really good…”

Next to the stuttering Monica, Isaac dropped to one knee. He lowered his head and addressed Louis with respect.

“I am honored to be in your presence, Barrier Mage of the Seven Sages, Louis Miller-sama…”

“I don’t care how honored you are. Just let me break both your legs and ship you back to your domain.”

“Please, allow me the chance to learn magic.”

This was the reason Isaac did not fight back. He intended to beg Louis for permission to study magic.

However, Louis was not receptive.

“You can say whatever you please. None of your words carry any weight.”

Louis would only listen to someone with proven skills or actual results. How were they supposed to convince him?

As Monica bit her lip in frustration, the sound of footsteps echoed from behind. Someone had entered the soundproof barrier.

Louis raised his head. Monica and Isaac also turned toward the sound.

It was a woman wearing a beautiful dress covered by a robe, swaying her silver hair as she walked. The country’s foremost prophet, Mary Harvey the Starseer Witch.

“Good day to you all.”

Mary looked at the flustered Monica, the furious Louis, and the kneeling Isaac with a gentle smile. Her expression seemed completely out of place in the tense atmosphere.

Louis’s face turned sour, as though he bit straight into a lemon.

“…Starseer Witch-dono. Just how much do you know?”

“Oh, Louis-chan. They don’t call me the Starseer Witch for no reason.”

That alone said everything. Deep wrinkles formed on Louis’s brow.

“You know,” Mary continued. “Isaac Walker’s application for the Novice Mage Exam has been officially accepted.”

“I see, so even His Majesty is involved… How disgustingly soft of him…”

“Duke Erin has been running his domain well, and he even provided aid to Sazandol after the heavy damage from the Gluttonous Zoe incident. I think it’s fair to say that he is fulfilling his duty as a retired prince.”

“So he should be allowed to dabble in magic as a hobby?” Louis spat out with a scowl. “Can we just put him to death already?”

“N-No, never!”

Monica practically screamed, but Louis paid her no attention. That said, he didn’t sound serious anymore. His thirst for blood had dissipated.

Now that he knew the king was involved in Isaac’s treatment, Louis understood that stirring the pot wasn’t to his benefit.

Even so, he remained unsatisfied. Noticing Louis’s displeasure, Mary made a suggestion.

“In that case, let’s have him prove that it’s not just a hobby.”

Isaac looked up at Mary in surprise. She put a finger on her lips as she spoke with a smile.

“To put it in the words of Bradford-chan… How about we settle this with a bang? Shall we have a magical battle?

“Um, y-you mean a magical battle between Ike and Louis-san…?”

Mary shook her head at Monica’s question.

“Oh no, that would just be bullying the weak, and no one wants that. Let’s make it a magical battle between the disciples of the Seven Sages.”

For a while now, Mary had been proposing an evaluation for the disciples of the Seven Sages, as well as increased interaction between them. This could be helpful in the case of an emergency where the Seven Sages were unavailable.

The Starseer Witch swirled the hem of her robe and stepped in front of Isaac. She spoke in a gentle tone, yet with an undeniable authority.

“Isaac Walker. Join this magical battle and prove your worth as a mage in front of the Seven Sages.”

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