I promptly bought the [Intelligence Bureau (E)].
This time, there was no need to designate a separate location.
The Intelligence Bureau settled itself in the basement of the Grand Duke's manor.
Then again, a secret organization meant to covertly gather information about the continent could hardly hang up a sign out in the middle of an open field.
[Thanks to the effect of 'Intelligence Bureau (E),' you can now determine the cycle of the Monster Waves!]
Oh, wow.
Not content with being free, it even threw in a useful effect.
I wanted Justitia to come as soon as possible.
After all, I'd developed a burning desire to squeeze money out of that woman and offer it up to the [Shop].
"Wh-What on earth is this......!"
Johannes was astonished at the Intelligence Bureau that had appeared in an underground space that hadn't even existed until now, but only for a moment.
"Ooh......!"
His eyes lit up as he began inspecting the inside of the Intelligence Bureau this way and that.
I, too, followed Johannes and looked around the interior a little.
'I have no idea what any of this is.'
Instruments of unknown purpose.
My interest cooled quickly.
Johannes, on the other hand, let out exclamations every time he moved his gaze.
'Is it that great?'
The middle-aged knight had turned back into a boy full of childlike wonder.
Back when he was attending the academy, Johannes must surely have been an honor student with a great thirst for learning.
"How about it? Can you properly dig into Justitia Violet's background?"
"It is more than enough! Bar—kasir—taaan!!!"
He seemed truly delighted.
So much so that he combined the old words for expressing the highest sentiments.
'Justitia Violet's visit is in a week, she said.'
I had no intention of just sitting around until then.
"Should I check the ledgers first?"
To seize the initiative in the deal a week from now, I went over the North's financial records.
As I wrestled with unfamiliar documents, the sun set in no time, and drowsiness swept over me.
In the end, I fell asleep slumped over the desk.
Smack!
......My sleep didn't last long.
I raised my head at the sensation of something smacking the back of my skull.
The clock came into my blurry vision.
Exactly 2 hours had passed since I fell asleep.
Just then, a rabbit's noggin came into view.
"Kyu....... At your level, you can afford to sleep, contractor?"
Ignis's wake-up time was much earlier than I'd thought.
I could almost see a drill instructor's bright red cap on top of the little guy's head.
Goddammit.
***
4:12 AM.
That was the time I came out to the back garden of the Grand Duke's manor.
"Kyu kyu, starting today, we will begin the curriculum for my contractor."
Ignis said, folding his arms.
"......Do we really have to do this at dawn? Isn't this when everyone else is asleep?"
"What are you talking about? There are people over the~re who aren't sleeping."
Ignis pointed at the wall.
The silhouettes of the knights standing night watch were faintly visible.
"Haah....... Fine. Let's do it, then!"
"How nice and obedient, kyu."
Getting stronger was something I wanted too, anyway.
After all, just stabilizing the North would only go so far in protecting my own safety.
I needed martial might of my own as well.
......Still, I hadn't expected it to start before the sun was even up, though.
"So? What should I start with?"
"There's something to address first. From what I can see, you have no idea at all about the power you have right now."
"Right."
I admitted it readily.
I kindled a flame in my hand.
"Honestly, I still don't understand how I'm using magic."
"Kyu, that's the problem."
Ignis flapped his ears.
"Because you try to understand it like the ordinary types do, you can't figure out what kind of being you are."
The tips of Ignis's two ears burned red.
Two circles made of fire were drawn in the air.
"What do you creatures of the earth call those who use magic?"
"We call them mages."
"But you stop classifying there. Use aura, and you're a knight. Use magic, and you're a mage. You only try to classify things in two."
Images symbolizing the sword and magic appeared in each circle.
"......You mean like red mages, black mages, that sort of thing?"
"Kyu! Wrong. Those are just the same mages pointlessly splitting into factions under the name of schools of thought."
Ignis wiggled his front paws.
The two circles split, making four half-circles.
"There are exactly four types in this world who handle power. Those who use magic are divided into Sorcerers and Wizards, and those who handle aura are divided into Jaders and Warriors."
"What's the difference?"
"Were they born carrying that power by nature, or did they seize it later on?"
One of the split half-circles drifted toward me.
On it, 'Sorcerer' was inscribed in spirit script.
Was it thanks to the effect of forming a contract with Ignis?
Even though it was a script I'd never learned, I could decipher it.
"You were born carrying magic by nature. That's the makings of a Sorcerer."
"That's...... the first I've heard of it."
"I find it strange too. It's the first time I've seen a human born with the vessel of a Sorcerer."
"Really?"
"Usually, 'Sorcerer' refers to spirits like me...... or those overgrown lizard bastards who're always busy acting high and mighty."
Overgrown lizard. There was only one kind of being on this continent that could be called that.
A race said to have held a god-like standing until it went extinct.
Dragons.
'So...... I have the same aptitude as spirits and dragons?'
I was dumbfounded.
It was a story of such a different caliber that it didn't feel real.
"No, wait a minute. Then why didn't the Jewel of the White Dragon recognize my aptitude?"
"Kyu? What's that?"
I explained the Imperial Household's heirloom, the Jewel of the White Dragon.
Having heard the explanation, Ignis snorted.
"Simple. It's the Jewel of the White Dragon in name only."
The question was resolved far too easily.
"I don't know who made this Jewel thing, but it can't have been a dragon, at least. If it had really belonged to a dragon, it wouldn't have reacted to anyone but you."
"Then my being judged to have no aptitude at all......."
"Kyu, it just wasn't a talent some measly marble could judge. It probably stopped at recognizing a 'Wizard's' talent, don't you think?"
I felt deflated.
At the same time, relief washed over me.
'If...... the Jewel of the White Dragon had rated my talent highly.'
Cassandra wouldn't have left me alive.
I had been deposed from the position of crown prince, but I still had the name of the Emperor's eldest son.
From the standpoint of Cassandra, who dreamed of absolute power, I was no different from a thorn in her eye.
But because my talent was terrible, Cassandra chose to brand me the 'incompetent deposed crown prince' and keep me under watch rather than kill me.
After all, no matter how you looked at it, killing the First Prince would have carried a considerable risk even for Cassandra.
'Somehow, it ended up as if I'd hidden my power and kept my head down.'
Was this what you'd call fate?
I slyly raised the corners of my mouth.
My fatigue vanished completely.
I felt like I could gladly carry out whatever training Ignis proposed.
"Kyu kyu, a splendid expression."
Ignis flew up.
Then he raised his tiny front paw.
"Now run."
"......Huh?"
I asked back on reflex.
"I said run?"
But Ignis was firm.
"......Is this some kind of mental discipline thing?"
"Didn't I tell you? A Sorcerer is a being born carrying magic by nature. Kyuu....... Right, you could even say a being made of mana itself."
Ignis slowly descended.
"You're human, so it'll be a little different, but you're a Sorcerer all the same, so the basic gist should be the same."
"Wh-What does that have to do with running—"
"If the body is mana itself, what change would happen when you train the body?"
It was a question I really didn't want to get right.
"......The quality of the mana also rises?"
"Kyu! Not just that. Total mana....... No, everything related to magic rises. Because the body, your magic reactor core, grows. Which means?"
"Which means shut up and run, Goddammit!"
An inescapable reality.
Screaming, I dashed forward vigorously.
"Kyu kyu, nice that we understand each other, kyu."
The rabbit's grinning face hovered in my vision.
I had thought I'd have nothing to do with exercise ever since my Aura Heart broke.
Who knew I'd end up running across a snowfield after becoming a mage?
You never know what lies ahead in life.
......Anyway, my thighs felt like they were going to burst.
***
Time flowed quickly.
To be precise, I didn't even have time to notice it passing.
My day began with running 100 laps around the back garden of the Grand Duke's manor.
If you asked whether someone who had lived his life completely cut off from exercise could finish that.
I'd answer that it was possible.
All you had to do was reach the realm where you could run while unconscious, damn it all.
"Splendid. You've already figured out how to control your body with magic power. You've got talent, kyu."
Once the damn light warm-up was over, the strength training began.
Push-ups.
Sit-ups.
Squats.
I wondered why this bunny knew so much about human strength training.
"Hurk!"
The second day.
I began the morning by throwing up.
Even so, I was on my 50th lap around the garden.
"Hack....... C-Can't I pay to win the training?"
[Tip: Only when money and effort are combined can you advance down the right path.]
My ass. It was telling me to just run hard.
Not that I had any gold to spend in the first place.
The third day.
Ignis had me meditate.
He said that a Sorcerer, unlike a Wizard, had no need for an understanding of magic, mental images, or convictions.
But apparently there was nothing better than closing your eyes and breathing deeply for learning how to stabilize your exhausted bones with magic power.
"Kyu kyu, you pick things up fast, as expected."
Drawing the North's freezing chill deep into my lungs, I learned how to breathe with magic power.
I named it 'Qi Circulation.'
For some reason, it made me feel like a martial-world master.
The fourth day.
This time, I checked my total mana.
"Fire away to your limit, kyu! Don't even worry about magic power deficiency, kyu!"
The method was truly tough.
All there was to it was firing flames like crazy.
I repeated it until the sun rose and the moon set.
I experienced the sensation of my whole body's magic power being completely drained more than twenty times.
Thanks to that, I was able to grasp my total mana.
My mana pool was huge, so huge it couldn't be considered that of someone who had just learned magic. It was even growing in real time.
There'd be no more floundering in magic power deficiency from now on.
If I did, I'd be an idiot.
"Hack....... But is it normal for a Sorcerer to feel a little rush of elation every time I use magic?"
"Kyu? That's the first I've heard of it. Hmm....... Maybe it's a trait unique to human Sorcerers? After all, you're a race that feels joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure more strongly than spirits or dragons. A good thing is a good thing, kyu. Emotions are intuitively linked to magic, after all."
"So you don't know the details either?"
"Find out yourself, kyu. If you're a mage, you should be able to figure out your own peculiarities, kyu."
The fifth day.
A girl came to see me.
Her name was Anna.
After I asked Freyja's permission and opened up the Grand Duke's manor to the territory residents.
She was one of those who had come to stay in the manor.
As an aside, Anna and I had a connection.
-What in the world is going on!? I did not sense their presence!
The old woman who had been holding a spear in village chief Graive's village.
Anna was that old woman's granddaughter.
Anna grinned as she came up to me.
The spot where her front teeth should have been was empty.
She was just at the age to be losing her baby teeth.
"Hi, Pwince!"
Perhaps because of that, Anna's pronunciation was a little lispy.
"Hi, Anna."
"Uh-huh!"
"Are you bringing me lunch again today?"
Anna had been bringing me my meals since the third day.
Apparently she had stubbornly insisted that she wanted to do it.
"Here it ith!"
Anna held out a wooden bowl.
It was tree-bark soup, which I'd now miss if I didn't eat it.
That's a lie.
Just looking at it made my throat feel clogged.
Slurp.
But I had to eat it.
After all, I needed to fill up on calories.
The one saving grace was that, unlike the first time I ate it, the coarse fibers now slid smoothly down my esophagus.
It was thanks to the brutal curriculum.
......That made me sad.
"Pwince."
Anna was looking up at me with her chin propped on her hands like a flower's calyx.
Was it because of the freckles on Anna's cheeks? Or because the sunlight was especially bright today?
It felt like looking at a sunflower that had bloomed on a snowfield.
"I heard fwom Gwanny. Thhe thaid if Pwince ith here, the Nowth will change. Tho, you know."
"Hm?"
"Can you make flowerth bloom too?"
"Flowers? Why flowers?"
"Anna's dream is to be a flower seller!"
Perhaps because she was talking about her own hopes, those words alone came out without a lisp.
Anyway, a flower seller, huh.
Don't people usually say their dream is to open a flower shop?
Anna was a Northerner after all. Unusually tough.
"I'd be happy if Pwince could make flowerth bloom!"
Justitia would be coming soon.
If I traded with her, I'd earn quite a lot of gold.
But I couldn't make flowers bloom with that money.
After all, flowers had no practical use.
Making a flower garden to admire, giving a bouquet to a lover you're fond of.
Flowers were something consumed for sentiment or romance.
They weren't something the North, scrambling just to survive, needed right now.
"I'm sure I can make them bloom."
But I couldn't cruelly trample on a child's hopes.
"It'll take some time, but I promise. In return, there's something you have to promise me too, Anna."
"Huh? Whath that?!"
"Dream big. Not a flower seller, but opening a flower shop all your own."
"A fwower thop!?"
"Yeah. Can you do that?"
"Uh-huh! No! I want to!"
"If you dream big, Anna, then even if it takes time, I'll keep my promise for sure."
"Okay! Pwomith!"
Anna held out her pinky finger.
I chuckled and hooked my finger firmly around it.
"If you bweak the pwomith, you get your head chopped with an axe!"
But she let slip an incantation as bloodcurdling as could be.
I learned the lesson that you shouldn't make promises lightly in the North.
'Well, even so.......'
It wasn't bad.
If the North truly gained enough leeway to make flowers bloom, it would be proof that I hadn't just stabilized the North, but transformed it into a city with the power to sustain life.
The more motives and reasons you have for heading toward a goal, the better.
That's the only way to find more strength.
So, I thought I'd add one more motive.
"Anna."
"Huh?"
"When you open your flower shop someday, will you sell baby's breath?"
"Baby'th bweath? Ith it pwetty?"
Anna's innocent question.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
There was a garden.
The figure of a woman with the same dark red hair as mine.
She smiled, looking at me warmly.
Beautiful golden eyes curved gently.
"Yeah, it's pretty."
"Then I'll thell it! No! Becauthe it'th a pwomith with Pwince...... I'll make it my flower thop'th thignature flower!"
"Oh~! You know some pretty hard words, huh?"
"Gwanny thaid I'm a geniuth!"
It seemed doting on granddaughters was standard among Northerners.
"Yeah, you sound like a genius."
I set down the emptied wooden bowl.
Anna picked up the bowl, smiled brightly, and waved her little hand vigorously.
"Good wowk today too, Pwince!"
I waved back at her and got my legs moving again.
And so, six days, seven days.
A week passed.
At last, it was the day of Justitia Violet's visit.