Magic Apprentice

What a surprise; the princess was a student of Crazy!

But it didn’t look as if she herself had been subjected to the ‘special education’ of Crazy.

Curious beyond curious; why didn’t the princess take apprenticeship under the Archmagister Naga? Archmagister Naga was a figure that many respected. In fact, Naga held the coveted position of being a national magus of the Sovereign Kingdom. There was no reason why the princess should ask the deranged Crazy as a master instead of Naga.

“Whatever it is, it can wait until supper. I’ve a few more experiments to be completed.” Crazy whirled around to walk back into her room.

For the remaining half of that day, Kite never left the princess’ side even once. Was this perhaps the results of his upbringing as a knight? 

And of course, there was no way Jerry would miss up on this opportunity to curry favor with the princess; given him being the son of a merchant and all. This was the mission he had been entrusted to from his father. 

Even his elder brother who was a knight hadn’t such an opportunity to get close to a member of royalty. 

Perhaps. Just perhaps, Jerry would be the son capable of herding their family into the ranks of nobility.

Elric and Belladonna on the other hand, were not as enthusiastic as the first two. Elric felt that the members of royalty lived in a completely different world than he did, so he didn’t care as much.

Belladonna was brought up in a very spiritualistic background and didn’t quite care for the secular positions of the world. In other words, she didn’t care either.

But either way, the princess felt a great deal of admiration for Belladonna. It wasn’t because of her ability in magic.

Rather, the princess was more admiring of Belladonna’s ability in cooking.

When supper came around, the two girls had already become close friends at heart. The two of them had even begun to call each other with nicknames; the princess would call Belladonna ‘Bella’, and Belladonna would call the princess ‘Nia’. Of course, only she and Belladonna would call each other those nicknames.

No one else would dare even call the princess by her proper name of ‘Flania’. 

Once supper began, Crazy finally decided to listen to the princess’ request. 

From what the princess said, everyone managed to learn that the strongest nation on the continent, the Karth Empire was in an unsteady situation. 

Prime Minister Roth, the prime minister who once helped lead the Empire for more than thirty years by now, had passed away. Having this chance to seize power, the hard-liner faction in the empire began to gather their forces. In such actions, an attempt to try and conquer the surrounding kingdoms was a very likely situation.

In response to such an event, the king of the Sovereign Kingdom decided to make use of the national holiday in the kingdom to dispatch his son and daughter to Karth as emissaries. It was his hope that the two could possibly convince the current ruling head, Hecaris III, for a potential alliance.

But Crazy refused to comment even after listening to the princess’ story.

“Teacher, I beg you. This is the request of not only I, but my brother and our father. Your older brother. We are here today to request our aunt for help.”

Straight away, the four trainees listening in to the story turned pale in fright.

Crazy was a member of the royal family? 

She was the sister to the king? 

She was a princess?

This deranged, arrogant, but powerful witch had actually the blood of royalty flowing through her veins? 

Actually, she had the strict upbringing of a princess? Since when?

A chilling thought ran up Kite’s spine. Having Crazy as a princess meant that she was third in the line of succession to the throne. Kite wasn’t worried about Crazy assassinating the king for the throne, but if the prince or princess were to be killed or imprisoned. There was also the fear if the king would be mysteriously bedridden or come across some sort of unexpected accident. 

This would leave Crazy open to the throne; and from his own personal experiences, the thought of having Crazy lead the kingdom gave Kite no small dread about the future.

For the sake of his motherland, home, and himself, Kite would do whatever it took for Crazy to help the princess.

“Yes! Yes! Only a great and almighty magus is capable of saving our kingd--no--saving our world! Who else but the genius magus, Crazy?” 

For the sake of everyone, Kite would throw away the noble dignity of a knight and adopt the best weapon Jerry had in his arsenal--flattery.

Either Kite’s flattery was nowhere good enough, or Crazy was just far too use to Jerry’s flattery already, but whatever it was, it wasn’t enough. 

If anything, Crazy became even more disinclined to help now.

Practically pleading to his companions, Kite winked to the other ‘ingratiating’ merchant in the group so that the two of them could completely overwhelm Crazy with their orthodoxical flattery.

The only change to see was the princess’ eyebrows furrowing together. It didn’t seem as if she thought there’d actually be people who’d be so brazen and shameless as these two.

But then Crazy began to giggle in her shrill voice.

That was when everyone knew their flattery had actually worked.

“Wellll, if you put it that way.” She spoke in glee. “I’ll accept.

“But. I’ve a few conditions. I wish to concentrate on my experiments and don’t wish to be involved in politics. Kite. You’re a noble and a knight, aren’t you? I’ll entrust the task of protecting the princess to you then. You’ve learned plenty under my care in any case. 

“Of course, I won’t send you out there alone. Elric, you’ve better not forgotten that I own you, okay? I’ll send you on a mission to help protect the princess with Kite. No problems there, I hope?

“And Belladonna! You’ve plenty of clothes left unwashed! You can forget that and go with them.

“And then there’s Jerry….Jerry….hm….” Crazy tapped her chin with a finger. What was there to say to Jerry?

“Jerry, you’re a companion to them, so you may as well share a journey with them! But leave your money behind.”

And so with a snap of her fingers, a barrier erected itself over the entire dinner table. At the same time, everyone felt their lips come snapping shut so that no sound may come out.

They didn’t have a choice in the matter it seemed.

Supper was finished in silence that night.

Crazy retired to her room relatively early that night, leaving the four trainees alone with their new guest. As the sub-host, Belladonna took initiative to bring the princess to her chambers, leaving the three males behind to head to their own rooms. Due to his fatigue, Jerry collapsed backwards onto his own bed, Elric was left seated on the edge of it his due to his headache, and Kite was pacing around his room in anxiety.

“It’s over….It’s over! Goodbye life! This is a suicide mission for sure! Why else would the royal family ask such a crazy woman for help?” Sobbed Jerry. Due to his despair, Jerry began to break the biggest taboo there was; insulting Crazy. 

“You were worried about that, you coward? Don’t go then! Our kingdom is in danger, and yet you…” Kite started in anger, but whatever came out of his mouth next, Elric didn’t manage to hear it.

Ever since he learned that Crazy was in fact a princess, Elric’s head was sent into a downward spiral of confusion. He thought about his own position first, what actions and pains Crazy had inflicted onto him, and then how he was forced into a pact because of her. He was Crazy’s personal property. Should he be happy about this? Or should he be scared?

The troubles everyone was thinking about were different, but there was one thing they all had in common.

Tomorrow would be the start of a new journey.

In time, night gave way to day, and the three burdened males crawled out from their beds. Packing up their things, they quietly stepped towards the outdoors of their residence. Ever since they first arrived here in this laboratory four months ago, Elric had never stepped back out even once. Kite was the same.

So the two of them were left speechless at the beauty that was the outside scenery.

Jerry found a place to sit down.

“How beautiful!” Kite praised. They were looking at a forest, but the ring of mountains around them felt as if they were standing up at the center of a lotus flower.

“Did you know? This was the final battle ground in the Glorious War. The Gods launched their ultimate magic in this one spot to eradicate all of the demons here. That’s how this basin was formed.” Jerry explained to the other two.

Judging from how awestruck Kite was, Elric had no doubts that Kite would charge straight towards a dragon if there was one. Even Jerry knew that Kite didn’t see this upcoming journey as an unfavorable thing.

Kite’s usual enthusiastic honor as a knight was an unfavorable trait in this current moment.

And so, the two of them were dragged back to the laboratory despite how unwilling they were.

When they got back, it was just in time for the two females Belladonna and Flania to finish plating today’s breakfast.

Embarrassed by how late she was to breakfast, Crazy urged everyone else to hurry up and get out onto the road as she ate.

Thus, the group of five were sent off with an incomplete breakfast by deliverance of a magical array. Beamed up into the ceiling, they all disappeared in a brilliant flash of light and an equally loud explosion of light.