When morning came, I hurried towards the magic station where the Mana Motor would arrive at. A loud whistle blew which signaled that it would come any time now. There was a long queue of people waiting excitedly by the station.

I looked up at the magic station. It was basically the same as a maintenance station for trains like back on earth. There was a giant red crystal on top of the building which was absorbing the mana in the atmosphere to power the station.

But since this world was behind with its technology, mages had to circulate the mana manually. There were no wires and stuff after all.

I could see a few mages who worked in that profession as well. They headed inside the station as a group.

‘The duke works fast, huh?’

Duke Rosenberg was the one who built all of this with his own wealth. Charlotte gave everything related to the mana motor’s construction to him for a price.

That was how she was able to buy a villa for herself in the Kion district.

‘I hope everything works out.’

I did many tests in order to prove the curse breaker would work, so I wasn’t worried about that. What worried me was what Charlotte would do if she found out who attempted to murder her mother.

Pina would be free from the curse but would that really make her happy? She was the one responsible for what happened. I understood why she did it but the results were the same.

I had a feeling Charlotte didn’t have it in her to kill Pina. The king would obviously want her dead because of what she did to his beloved wife.

I waited ten more minutes until I heard a steam engine blow. The Mana Motor arrived after a while.

“We will now depart! All those who have tickets please come to this line that formed in front of the door!” A person wearing a uniform stepped out of the train and shouted. The people hurriedly took out their tickets and presented it to him.

I presented mine as well. “A golden crest of the royal family?” The man’s eyes widened. “Please follow me. Roger, take over for me.”

“Yes!” Another man appeared to take his place.

“Where are we going?”

I expected to sit with the rest of the passengers, however, I was led to another compartment.

It was a luxurious suite with exquisite couches, a comfortable atmosphere and mana enhanced heaters. It was the sort of thing you’d expect of royalty.

‘I bet the air I’m breathing is expensive.’

“Please sit anywhere you’d like, your highness.” The man bowed respectfully before leaving.

“Your Highness? I’m not dressed too fancy, am I?” I shrugged it off and put my bags down. I was only wearing a normal robe that the average mage wore. There was no way my clothes made me look like a prince.

“Is it this ticket?” His expression changed when he saw it after all.

“Well, whatever. I haven’t had alone time in a while.” I laid down on the couches. It was soft and smelled so nice.

“Aahhh~~” It wasn’t as soft as the lap pillows Arielle always gave me but it was close enough.

‘I’ve been thinking about her a lot…’

I looked out of the window as the train began moving. After I wrote to her about my marriage to Diane, she hadn’t sent me as many letters as she normally did.

‘Now that I think about it, why did I accept the marriage without thinking things though?’

Maybe it was because I wasn’t married before but I didn‘t think it was a big deal. Was I too selfish to not think about what Arielle would feel?

I’ll do this for my family…

That was probably the thought I had back then.

Look at what earl Mason had done for my family over the past two decades. He gave my parents a home and even gave my father a job. He paid for my full tuition for the next seven years at Graponia Royal Academy which was an extraordinary amount of money. It was probably thousands of gold. I didn’t even need to do anything special.

All I had to do was make sure I always passed with flying colors. Everything was basically served to me on a platter.

Even the money in my pocket was given to me by him.

“Even if he had a motive for helping us out, I can’t hate the guy. Without him, George and Eleanor would’ve become war slaves by now. Heck, I would’ve been one as well.”

‘Although it was a decision I had to make on the spot, I don’t regret it.’

Being the heir of the Bentinck household didn’t change my life that much. My choice of residence was now the earl’s manor. I had to attend parties once my name gets officially changed as well. That was to show that the rumored heir was indeed me.

Although the annoying noble scum of the kingdom would give me headaches, I was willing to do that much for everything he did for me.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Sorry Arielle. I hope you understand.” I looked at the last letter she sent which was two months ago. Usually we’d send letters to each other every month multiple times.

‘I wonder what she’s up to.’

There was a sudden click on the door.

“Hey buddy, I don’t need room service, okay? This handsome prince wants to get some beauty sleep.” I put the pillow on my head.

“Huh? What’s this adventurer-looking dude doing here?” A rough voice spoke when I heard three pairs of footsteps.

“Hm?” I pulled off the pillow and looked at the intruders.

Wasn’t I supposed to be the only one here!? This prince is very angry!

“Marcus….?” I was about to complain but I saw a rather familiar face. The guy’s droopy ears caught my attention first.

“Huh? What the hell are you doing here?” An elf boy with long white hair appeared from behind the door I came through earlier. He was about my size. There were two other people with him.

All three of them were from the special class that Odette signed us up for. It seemed that the three of them were using it to their convenience.

“Well, well. Look at what we have here.” Marcus’ frown turned into a big smile. He shook my hand and chuckled. “Who would’ve thought that we’d meet here like this?”

“Yeah. Isn’t this just perfect, though? I wanted to ask him a question.” The only girl raised her hand.

“You’ve been the talk of the academy lately, you know?” Marcus said. He threw down his bags and sat down. The other two remained standing.

“Huh? Why?”

“For that show you put on for the entire kingdom to see. Hahaha. Even I was taken back by what I saw, you know?”

“Ah….” I remembered what he meant. That was the day I put Nate in his place. It happened three days ago in the district of Zupiart. It was a bitter thing to remember so I shoved it down whenever I thought about it.

“Did you use some kind of artifact? You didn’t steal one of the Great Sage’s magic items, did you?” Marcus asked.

‘It was actually the Rings of Multicasting and Amplification.’

Nate probably didn’t see it during our fight since I was concealing the ring with my gloves after putting it on. I couldn’t just walk with the rings out in the open. They were priceless artifacts that the great Lord Rolath gave to me.

As I had mentioned before in the past, I wasn’t capable of multicasting. What everyone saw was not my own doing. So it was impossible for me to summon so many magic circles at once. I literally struggled to even handle Skyrith.

As a result of summoning so many at once, the ring was close to breaking. I decided to put it away for a while until I find a way to repair it.

Anyway, since I used the ring in that manner, I nearly lost half of my mana. It was those rare few times when I actually experience dizziness from using so much magic.

I had no choice but to use it though. I had to show Nate how pointless it was to fight me.

Although part of it was a lie since it wasn’t my own power. Even I wasn’t capable of magic of that scale.

I used the Ring of Amplification as well. That was how I was able to amplify my spells to that scale.

‘I admit: casting spells of that magnitude was a little showy.’

Whatever everyone was thinking was a big misunderstanding. But I decided to not correct it.

This way no one would mess with me at the academy. Rather, many were scared of even talking to me. I had noticed this when I went to talk with Odette yesterday. The first years would literally tremble when they see me.

Even the professors seemed shaken up. Gula was the only one who still treated me as she usually did. I met her on my way out of the academy.

“It should’ve been an artifact. I’m sure of it! So? Where is it?” Marcus pushed with his questioning.

“Calm down, Marcus. Although, I want to know too! How the hell could you manifest so many formations in such a short period of time!?” The bald guy asked with sparkling eyes.

“Guys, we’re being too pushy here. Look at him. He’s overwhelmed by all the questioning.” The elf girl in their trio said. She had long green hair and a slim bodyline. Her eyes were jade and her skin was fair and unblemished. As with the rest of them, she was also wearing her academy uniform.

“Allow me to introduce myself.” The girl did a bow. “My name is Fiana. As I am your junior, I shall address you as senior. I am elder brother Marcus’ younger sister.”

‘No wonder she resembles him so much.’

The two had the same colored eyes and their crests were both from the same family. I thought they were cousins but it seemed they were actually siblings.

The girl wasn’t like her brother at all.

“This is Larkus. He is the youngest son of our family’s vassal.” The girl turned towards the other guy. He had a bald head and a rough looking face.

“Yo! Heard a lot about you!” He put his arm around my neck and grinned again. “Let’s be friends! Whaddya say?”

“Err…” I smiled wryly. “Sure.”

“Oh right. Since we don’t know each other that well, let’s tell each other what we can do. I’m an earth elemental mage. This is because I have dwarven blood in me. What about you?”

The guy was a little too touchy. I could literally taste his sweat while he was hugging my head.

“Err, I can use space and water magic.” I answered.

“Space?” Fiana seemed to be interested in our conversation. “How far have you gone with spatial magic?”

I almost blurted about Lightborn. “Well, not very far. I can only lift stuff the size of boulders.”

“Really!? I can barely lift a small rock!” The girl’s eyes sparkled. She looked at me in admiration. “Miss Skyrith always forbids me from reading the Elemental Books of the Dryads! If only I can read it then I can improve my magic!”

“Huh? Skyrith? You know that hag?”

“Yup. She was my and elder brother’s teachers in magic.”

“I see…”

‘She doesn’t seem like the kind who teaches though.’

I learned to assimilate better with my arcane core but that was it. I didn’t learn anything great. Perhaps I wouldn’t know unless I was in a life or death situation?

“By the way, Clyde, why are you in this suite?” Marcus asked when we sat down. “Only royalty or those favored by royalty are given the opportunity to ride in this carriage.”

“Ah, so it was like that after all.” I took out my ticket and showed it to them. “Char-Her highness, the second princess gave this to me.”

“Huh?” Marcus looked at the ticket. “I thought she threw you away?”

“That’s rude, elder brother.” Fiana said but Marcus only shrugged.

“She must regret throwing you away so she’s giving you this as a bribe to ease her guilty feelings.” Marcus continued speaking regardless. “See how twisted these royals are? They use people for their material worth before throwing them away. You were left to look for a way to restore your core on your own while she did nothing. Where was she all this time?”

“Haaah…” Fiana sighed.

‘This bastard just keeps running his mouth, huh. You think you’re an all knowing god, bastard?’

But his words didn’t seem to be gibberish. Now that I thought about it, it did look that way…

‘But I already forgave her. What’s there to be sorry for?’

I looked at Fiana, Larkus and Marcus. “So…why are you guys travelling on the mana motor as well?”

“We received an invitation to visit the Elca royal palace. Big sis Miya was the one who invited us.” Fiana answered.

“Big sis?”

“Ah, that’s what I call her. We’ve been friends since we were children so it’s second nature by now. Elder brother also has feelings for her.” Fiana shot a teasing glance at Marcus.

The latter’s face turned red but he managed to turn his head to look out the window. His ears flapped.

That was how elves would express their joy and embarrassment.

‘Please don’t do that. I don’t want to see a guy blush.’

I changed the subject. “Anything special happening that she’s inviting you to the palace?”

I asked Fiana.

“The Dryad’s festival is happening in a few weeks. We celebrate the greatness of the fallen dryad race. What the girls do is a traditional dance while the males hunt. This is the only day of the year when we eat meat. All elves are required to be present to worship our ancestors and the dryads. Even us half elves.” She gestured towards her and her brother.

“Half elves?”