You wanted another chapter? Here have it! Hope you enjoy.

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It seems I wasn’t the only one surprised at the king’s order as the older prince and the princess seemed to be as well. The third prince didn’t seem to care and was just excited about choosing a teacher. I was a bit annoyed honestly. He had ordered me as if he owns me already. If he is only keeping me here to punish me for not bending the knee earlier then I am going to be quite mad. With the gods unable to stop me I no longer need to hide anything. Not my power. Not my aura. Nothing. The only possible threat to me are the champions but they would be a joke. Even if they transport me to the domain *cough*prison*cough* of the gods that is no longer their domain. It is mine. They won’t be able to hurt me there.

And if it is indeed true that they can’t break my barrier then they can’t trap me in one either. No matter how complex they make it unless it would cause something like the destruction of the world if I force it I can always just break it. Even if they can make something like that it would require a lot of time and preparations and even after that I will have all of eternity to figure out the barrier piece by piece and come back. Of course I will be careful. I will still hide most of my abilities simply because I have no need of them and having a trump card is always good. But if they decide that bossing me around is a good idea I would have to prove them otherwise.

The king sat down and waited for the princes and Aren to leave the room with the other candidates. Or rather seeing my treatment here “other” might be unnecessary. When they left the room the king finally addressed me.

“I apologize for that. I needed you for another task.” (King)

Oh so he didn’t just keep me here because I offended him. I see. It seems he realizes that an Archmage is not someone to mess with even if you are the king of a country. But more importantly.

“And what might that task be?”

The king nodded at the old mage and he chanted, setting up a sound barrier around the throne room. The princess seemed confused still but the queen must have known what was going on. Either that or she had one hell of a poker face.

“I am in need of a teacher. Not for my son but for someone else.” (King)

Someone else? Something finally clicked.

“I see. I had wondered why you couldn’t just have the court mage or a commander from the army train your son. They were busy with that other person.”

The king nodded affirming my conclusion. So wouldn’t that mean that if I take over then those guys from earlier would be unneeded?... Heh. I suddenly want to do this.

“It is impressive that you deducted that so quickly. Certainly just as Elrond said you seem to be an intelligent and powerful man. May I ask for your name, honorable mage?” (King)

I was honestly impressed with the king. He didn’t look down on me because I had no background and was respectful to me as he seems to have heard of my prowess. Elrond… is probably that old man next to him.

“My name is simply End. May I get yours in return?”

He seemed a bit surprised. He must have thought I knew his as he is the king.

“Ah yes. Excuse me. My name is Terion Seloran. As you know I am the king of Helia.” (Terion)

He proceeded to introduce his wife, Miria Seloran and his daughter Erina Seloran. The old mage was introduced as the court mage, which I sort of guessed already seeing his position, as well as a personal advisor to the king. What was left was to talk about this other student of mine.

“About the one I will be teaching.”

“Ah yes of course. As you have probably already guessed I wanted you to be her teacher in secret if at all possible. You see she cannot read and she can only speak our language due to a magical necklace we have her wearing which translates for her. So if possible we wanted you to include all sorts of education. You seem qualified based on your intelligence.” (Terion)

This sounded fishy but to me it wasn’t really that big of a deal. I could sense no lies in his voice. He wasn’t trying to trick me. He was really just looking for a teacher for this girl he is talking about.

“And in return?”

Of course I couldn’t agree unless he met my requirements. I also thought of something interesting to annoy those nobles from earlier and I might have some fun while I’m at it. Well… it was something necessary anyway.

“Of course. We can give you pay for your services.” (Terion)

“I am not interested in money.”

Of course I wasn’t. I’m a machine for infinite amounts of any material in existence. Why would I need a few coins?

“Then what is it you desire?” (Terion)

Asked the king seemingly hopeful that it is not too ridiculous.

“I don’t desire much. I have but two requests.”

Terion nodded, waiting for me to speak.

“The first is that I want somebody found. Five years ago I encountered a human girl who I was separated from and I have reason to believe she is in this country. I need her found.”

The king nodded once again, pointing to the fact that he had accepted my request.

“I would need more information about the girl but we can talk about that later. What about the other?” (Terion)

“The second is access to the royal library.”

He seemed to hesitate this time.

“Why would you need access to the royal library.” (Terion)

“If you think it is because of your military secrets then you would be very wrong. I love books. Simple as that. I want to read the books in the royal library. From magic to history. If you really don’t want me looking at some military secrets or whatever you have locked away in there then I suggest you put them away somewhere and I won’t mess with them.”

"That's not what I..." (Terion)

Then what?... Oh wait. Right.

"I'm not blind. I wear this to practise sensing mana."

I had forgotten about the blindfold already as it isn't an inconvenience. I hadn't even thought about it in the last two days.

“I... see… In that case I can grant you full access to every level except the second underground one.” (Terion)

He said slightly reluctantly but also with a hint of relief.

“That is acceptable.”

I nod affirming that I would agree to that. The second underground level was probably where the secrets of the country were locked away and I didn’t need access to those in order to find them out.

“Is that truly all you require? If it is only that then I don’t mind granting one more.” (Terion)

“Mmm… In that case a position as your court mage and permission for me and my two companions to live in the palace would be good. This would be good for both you and I after all.”

In truth I had already decided to ask him that since the beginning. I hadn’t included it in the requests because I had predicted that the conversation would probably move in this direction. If it hadn’t I could have included it separately. Not as a request but something that would benefit the king.

“Yes. I understand that it would be suspicious to have an unnamed mage be visiting the royal palace every day. If you are a mage accepted by me personally and you live in the palace there would be less of a problem. But I do not know of your two companions.” (Terion)

I was glad to hear so. In that case I wouldn’t even have had to bring it up if he hadn’t mentioned a third request. It also meant the king himself was quite intelligent. But… my companions huh?

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“Yes… well that might be the difficult part.”

“Do they not have any talents so that we may hire them as well?”

“Oh no. Both of them are incredibly talented. One is an accomplished swordswoman while the other is a mage close to becoming an Archmage. With both being my apprentices. It is the fact that neither of them are elves that will be difficult.”

“I see… that will indeed be… difficult.”

At this point I looked at the rest of the people of the room. The princess was looking at me with a face of confusion while the queen and the old man were waiting patiently for us to finish negotiations.

“If they are your apprentices then it cannot be helped. They will be allowed into the palace and will each have a room here. But… I will be unable to grant them any privileges beyond that.” (Terion)

“That is fine. They will simply be here as my apprentices. Nothing more, nothing less.”

The king nodded.

“In that case I would like to introduce you to your student.” (Terion)

He said as he stood up. I nodded and started climbing the stairs. The queen stood up and together with old man Elrond and the princess we left the throne room through the door Aren came in through before separating in the hallway as the two women took off in the opposite direction. In truth I already had an idea of who my new student might be. If I hadn’t I wouldn’t have accepted so easily and would have wanted information first.

Now me and the king were walking together with Elrond through the hallways. Unlike the throne room the Hallways were painted white while the ceiling was still yellow. The floor was made of a white stone. Different from marble, it was completely white. There were all kinds of decorations on the wall paintings, swords. I had also noticed how the interior of the palace was never cold and had amounted that to the runes which were invisible to normal people, positioned around the place. I didn’t know the rune though which was interesting to me. The rune for warmth was in my knowledge but this one was different. While I was thinking Elrond spoke up to me.

“Congratulations on your new position friend.” (Elrond)

“You were the one to make this happen were you not?”

“It seems you have me all figured out.” (Elrond)

He said with a slight smirk. He seemed like quite the energetic old man.

“I have to ask. Why were you at the examination that day? I’m quite sure you had better stuff to do as a court mage and advisor to the king.”

The king was of course listening to our conversation as he was right in front of us.

“Ha. I had thought to at least visit on the last day. There were no promising candidates before that you see and I wanted to see Aren and my apprentice beat around some people in over their heads. I am glad I did so out of boredom. I found out how rusty I had gotten. Maybe we could have another match? A mages duel this time.” (Elrond)

“I have already promised Aren a rematch so it would be unfair to refuse yours.”

“Heh. Elrond if I didn’t know any better you seem to be more glad that he’s here than his student was when we made her the offer.” (Terion)

Oh. This was interesting. So the girl actually accepted having a new teacher. Which reminds me. I guess this is as good a time to ask as any.

“I actually had a question.”

“What might that be?” (Terion)

Asked the king, full of curiosity.

“This student of mine. She is not of this world is she?”

The two suddenly stopped walking.

“You… how?” (Terion)

“It is quite simple. Though. It was only a coincidence. Three days ago when I first arrived in a city I saw a curious human girl who had a peculiar skin tone. No human in this world has a skin tone like that. She was also wearing the royal symbol on her clothes. Something that a human shouldn’t be allowed to do. It’s her isn’t it?”

“… Yes…” (Elrond)

“Elrond?” (Terion)

“We… summoned her. We… performed the hero summoning ritual…” (Elrond)

“You seem quite unsatisfied with it.”

“How were we to know it would summon a girl who could not even be called an adult yet? That was… not my desire…” (Terion)

I had put a sound barrier around us which they in their shock had forgotten to do. Elrond seemed to have noticed it and seemed thankful.

“Would that cause… problems?” (Elrond)

“… No… It would not… but I would prefer that the girl is not used for wars.”

I knew of the hero summoning ritual. It was incredibly complex. I had the formation stuck in my head and was cross-referencing it with the vast amount of knowledge of the runic languages in my head but I still could only understand a few of them. Less than ten percent of the ritual was within my understanding. The rest was a mystery not even I could understand.

“Of course… we were planning on using the hero to lead us into battle but now… at most we would ask her to protect our city if it is attacked.” (Terion)

“… In that case I have no objections. Only… you will not need her to protect this city. I am here now after all.”

Both of them seemed taken aback by my declaration but still nodded. In all honesty. I wanted a position of advisor. I liked this country. I didn’t want it to fall. The king was kind. The streets filled with brightness and happiness. I truly wished for this country to stand. If the king were ever to fall I truly wished for the next one to be like him. That prince… If that was the first prince I would have to teach him how to be more like his father.

“Now. Let us go see my new student shall we?”

I finished with a smile. The other two seemed to have brightened up as well seeing as I wouldn’t judge them for their mistake. It was truly not their fault. The hero summoning was a very mysterious magic. You would never know who or what would be summoned. There was no way for them to predict it would be a young girl. I myself… did not wish to see an uninvolved girl not even from this world to fight. Their sincerity told me that neither did they.

“I have only one last question.”

I kept he sound barrier around us as we moved only planning on dispelling it after this final one. Both Terion and Elrond seemed to be listening to me intently without looking at me.

“What caused you to be desperate enough to do it?”

The hero summoning ritual… required a lot of mana. Several high level mages were required. Mages like Elrond. And if the ritual failed… they would die.

“I will tell you about it later. We have arrived.” (Terion)

We stood in front of one of the doors in the hallway. There were quite a few doors, probably leading to rooms of their own. Probably guest rooms from the sheer amount of them. Terion knocked on the door and let me stand in front of it. I heard footsteps from beyond the door getting closer and finally realized something I had not accounted for. Well. Too late for that now. The door opened revealing a girl with long black hair and dark brown, almost black, eyes.

“Hello. My name is End and I will be your new teacher. May I ask your name as well?”

With a gentle smile I introduced myself.

“Airi… my name’s Airi.” (Airi)

Now that I looked at her again… she looked… familiar. I hadn’t seen her before three days ago but… for some reason there was something that seemed familiar to me in her. I wonder what that could be… maybe it was just because she was from the same world as me. Well. No matter. I will teach her. About this world, magic and the sword.