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Translator: Vine
Chapter Title: The Unexpected Guest
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Before the entrance to the Demonic Palace of Jerion Academy.
A young nobleman with long silver hair tied up stood there.
His name was Nia Cynthia.
He was a promising future talent of the Empire, an active Magic Knight, even designated as the successor to the Yellow Magic Tower Lord.
As Nia approached the entrance of the Demonic Palace, the Demonic Palace guards, who had been informed in advance, saluted him.
"You've worked hard."
Nia acknowledged their salute and stepped forward towards the entrance.
Then, he raised his hand and extended it into the entrance.
Crackle—
At that moment, a spark erupted from Nia's fingertip, and he was pushed back.
Just as he thought.
Though it was a place he frequently entered during his Jerion Academy days,
the Demonic Palace no longer permitted Nia's entry.
If he tried to force his way in, his body would surely be scorched black, resulting in instant death.
Nia clicked his tongue and touched his slightly burned fingertips.
His magical prowess had advanced by leaps and bounds since his Jerion Academy days.
Yet, he couldn't even slightly breach the barrier set by the Evil Lord.
'What a nasty fellow.'
Nia's expression showed clear disgust.
He sets up such a barrier, then summons only children who can't reach him, making them fight the Apostles.
It was truly despicable.
And that's why he had come here this time, to test his magic.
To avoid leaving everything to the children any longer,
he had come to the Demonic Palace.
This was also the primary reason Nia had sided with the First Prince.
The First Prince was a reform-minded individual.
He actively invested in reforming flawed systems and experimenting with new possibilities.
This was a stark contrast to the Third Princess's faction.
The Third Princess's faction always said this when observing the First Prince's faction:
Reforms are harder than revolutions.
Ironically, this point also became the First Prince's motivation to focus on gathering existing vested interests rather than future powers.
"Gathering only new talents to advocate for reform is meaningless.
Vested interests always fear their rights being infringed upon.
Therefore, when new talents propose reforms, they first try to block them."
The First Prince seemed stubborn at times, but he was always a deeply thoughtful individual.
"That's why the first ones to persuade are not new talents, but the vested interests.
Reforms undertaken without respecting vested interests don't solve problems; they cause even more serious ones.
We prioritize the present, which is the foundational work for creating a brilliant future."
To realize the ideal empire he envisioned,
the First Prince was a person who seized the present to advance towards the future.
Nia was inspired by such a First Prince.
The First Prince was certainly worthy of being an emperor who could idealize the empire.
"Nia Cynthia, I want you to be my future."
He would seize the present.
Therefore, he asked Nia to become his future.
As a subject, there were no words more inspiring than these.
Nia willingly accepted the First Prince's proposal.
And he resolved to make him emperor.
'What I need to accomplish today…'
…is one step towards the First Prince's future.
Nia began sprinkling reagents on the floor.
Then, he drew a magic circle using the reagents with the staff he pulled from his waist.
After drawing for a long time and completing the magic circle,
Nia firmly struck the staff onto the magic circle.
Mana began to surge within Nia's body.
Magic was an act that defied the rules of the world.
And a wizard's skill was measured by how much they could obscure the world's gaze and bend those rules.
Nia possessed an innate talent for evading the world's gaze.
The magic circle inscribed beneath Nia's feet began to emit light.
From his lips flowed the incantation to deceive the world.
The moment the magic circle poured out its full light,
Nia's figure vanished into the light.
Step—
A moment later, what walked out from the light was a young boy.
The boy, now around his mid-teens, was wearing the Magic Knight uniform Nia originally wore.
His appearance was that of Nia from his younger days.
Nia clenched and unclenched his hands.
He felt his body was slightly smaller than before.
His face and skin also felt considerably younger.
'It's still difficult to precisely control the age.'
He had intended for late teens, but it turned out to be mid-teens.
This was proof that the magic was still incomplete.
Moreover, the amount of mana in his body had significantly decreased, unlike when he was in his original form.
As mentioned earlier, magic was an act of deceiving the world.
Therefore, to succeed in the magic, Nia's inherent mana also had to be forcibly reduced.
If he could return to his original form, he would likely recover.
However, in this form, there was a limit to the mana he could exert.
'This must be why age-reversing magic isn't widely used even now.'
If one could become younger while retaining their original power, it would be different, but becoming this weak made it difficult to be effective in the Demonic Palace.
Furthermore, individuals capable of wielding age-reversing magic to this extent were rare.
It was only possible for a Magic Knight with Nia's level of talent and skill.
Ordinary mages wouldn't even dare attempt such magic.
This was due to the risk that, in the process of deceiving the world, one's own body might transform into something else entirely.
'Moreover, for now, it's not a magic that can be cast on others, except for myself.'
A magic with many aspects to improve in many ways.
However, Nia was determined to complete this magic.
If he could complete it, he could even engage in a direct confrontation with the Evil Lord.
'Well then,'
it was time to test if he had properly met the conditions for passing through the Demonic Palace entrance.
Nia extended his hand towards the entrance once more.
This time, unlike before, Nia's hand passed through without a spark.
Nia's eyes widened at the sight.
It worked.
He could really enter the Demonic Palace.
"Lord Nia Cynthia, you've succeeded."
The Demonic Palace guards looked astonished, unable to suppress their admiration.
This success indicated a step forward in conquering the Demonic Palace.
"Yes, I'll be back shortly."
"Won't it be too dangerous?"
"I've entered the Demonic Palace countless times over three years until I was sick of it.
If I were to be in danger on the first floor, I wouldn't be able to enter the Demonic Palace again in the future."
Nia reassured the guards not to worry and stepped inside.
And soon, the interior of the Demonic Palace began to come into view.
Above his head, the sun created by the Demonic Palace shone down.
It was a time when the Apostles had recently been dealt with.
As such, the Gray Forest remained unchanged, quietly silent.
No trace of the Apostles could be felt anywhere.
This was because it wasn't the time for Apostles to be born.
Nia quietly exhaled.
In the Demonic Palace, which he had entered after a long time, he felt a strange pressure he hadn't perceived before.
Though his possessed mana had decreased,
his honed skills as a wizard remained unchanged.
Perhaps because of this, in the deepest part of the Demonic Palace,
the faint presence of the Evil Lord, residing there, could be felt.
His breath caught in his throat.
What kind of monster was it, to instill such fear even from this distant place?
'At this level, I'm still far from ready.'
Nia clicked his tongue.
He realized that the age-reversing magic still required extensive research.
'Let's go back.'
He knew he could enter.
Just as Nia, considering this a significant achievement, was about to turn back.
Chilling—
Suddenly, a horrifying sensation spread through his body.
The moment Nia's head slowly turned.
Crackle—
There, something black, resembling a human form, tore itself from the Demonic Palace wall.
Black liquid, generated as it emerged from the wall, splattered onto the floor.
At the same time, a long cord connected to the being's abdomen snapped and detached.
Nia's eyes widened at the sight, and he instinctively knew.
An Apostle.
An Apostle had suddenly been born.
'At this time?'
He didn't know why.
The Demonic Palace was a place one could never be certain of, no matter how much it was investigated.
Nothing that happened there would be strange.
It seemed that the Demonic Palace had vaguely sensed Nia, an anomalous presence.
A being that had deceived the world's rules and entered.
In response, the Demonic Palace had sent something.
Nia drew his staff.
The moment he realized his opponent was an Apostle, he had no hesitation.
Though his mana was insufficient, his opponent was a newly born Apostle.
It was when Nia was raising his mana, intending to kill the Apostle before it could fully form.
Fizzle!
At that moment, the mana gathering at the tip of his staff suddenly extinguished.
"What?!"
That wasn't all.
All the mana residing in his body began to be sucked into the staff's center.
A dark crimson light, never before seen, spread from the staff.
"Ugh?!"
With a cry of alarm, Nia tried to release the staff from his hand.
However, the mana extending from the staff greedily constricted Nia's hand.
Nia realized it the moment he saw this.
'This power… could it be the horn of a Monoceros?'
The Mysterious Monoceros.
A strange mystery that pursues and devours the mana of young, unaged beings.
This staff was made by melting down such a Monoceros horn.
The Monoceros was an extremely peculiar being.
Even a highly skilled wizard wouldn't notice its presence until it devoured young mana, as it was a master at concealing itself.
Thus, there was a saying among the populace:
"The Monoceros is a mystery that adults cannot perceive."
That's why Nia, even designated as the Magic Tower Lord's successor,
had not felt the Monoceros horn hidden within the staff at all.
However, the current Nia was in a younger state.
Thus, the Monoceros horn, which hadn't reacted at all despite him using mana until now, had finally begun to exert its power.
A look of dismay spread across Nia's face.
This staff was custom-made for him by a craftsman recommended by a close acquaintance.
For a Monoceros horn to be hidden within such a staff meant…
'A trap.'
Nia realized that his acquaintance had betrayed him.
He didn't even need to think deeply about who was behind it to know.
The Third Princess's faction.
It was clearly a trap set by them.
"Damn it!"
Nia swallowed a curse and struggled desperately to let go of the staff.
However, the Monoceros horn only devoured Nia's mana even more greedily, showing no intention of letting go.
Thump, creak!
Meanwhile, the Apostle was fully formed.
The Apostle, with an outer shell on its back and massive swords hanging from both hands, rolled its eyes around before its gaze finally met Nia's.
Its four eyes rolled grotesquely in a full circle.
"―――――!"
Soon, the Apostle let out a roar.
The Apostle pushed off the ground and charged at Nia like a flash.
Thump-thump-thump-thump!
Without mana, a wizard was an infinitely weak being.
What's more, Nia's body had become younger, and he hadn't fully adapted to it yet.
Nia desperately threw his body to evade, but
the Apostle had already reached right in front of him.
Was he going to die?
Like this?
He hadn't fulfilled the First Prince's will.
He hadn't taken control of the family so that his younger sibling, Nikita, could live without worrying about the family.
He couldn't even keep the promise he made to his deceased mother.
In the fleeting kaleidoscope of his life.
'No!'
The moment Nia, for his last desperate struggle, forced his mana to surge and pulled it up.
Kaaaaaang!
A boy blocked his path.
A black-haired boy, shorter than the younger Nia.
The moment Nia saw the boy, his eyes widened considerably.
"You're…"
Hanon Airey.
He was a boy who, like his younger sibling Nikita, was a member of the student council.
He exhaled in relief, looking at Nia.
"I wasn't too late."
And his red eyes landed on the Apostle.
Hanon, with his hand held like a blade, wore a chilling smile.
"A guest arrived, so they brought out something precious."
Then I'll make sure to chew it up thoroughly.