Arlun

All movement in the tent-room immediately stopped. The only sound was that of the grass swaying with the wind outside the confines of the tent-room. Arlun could feel the tension in the room building, like a bucket of water was being poured down an extremely narrow tube.

Besides him, he felt Carmil shift as he took a more combative stance. If he had not been here, then perhaps the situation would have been different, Carmil would likely have either run off or started killing his way out by now. That was what he did in that camp all those years ago.

But Arlun was not in any shape to run, he was barely in shape in fact. But, it was not as if he could tell what was happening in his body. A few minutes ago, every movement hurt. Now, it did not hurt to even walk. The only explanation was that this notification had something to do with it

Stats Gained

Aura Force +3

But Arlun could not tell you what it meant. Three stats were good, but they did not make this much of a difference. This was not a time to be thinking of this, however. It was time for Arlun to answer the prince’s question.

“Lord Belveri of the Rousten House, your highness” Arlun said, skirting the boundaries of truth. Lord Belveri was on the list of people he wanted to kill, he just wasn’t high up on it. What he was however, was a staunch opposer to the royal family that they had been trying to crush for years.

Hopefully, this would be enough to satisfy the prince. Perhaps- “And”The prince suddenly said, gesturing for Arlun to continue. And the hope was lost.

“Your highness,-” Arlun began, but stopped after seeing the prince’s blank stare that seemed to be telling him- “Do it, Do tell another half truth or lie, see how well that goes for you.”

Sighing, Arlun said, “I do not know, the noble never gave his name or house. They wore yellow house colours however.” Arlun, expected to see shock or alarm on the prince's face, yellow was the Ducal colour after all, reserved only for the heirs of the Dukes and the Dukes themselves.

Instead, all he got was a nod.”So…you are here completely by coincidence?” The prince asked

“Yes, your highness” Arlun answered, hoping that the prince would not pry further.And he didn’t, instead opting to say, “So, how much do you really know about magic?”

The change surprised Arlun, he had not been expecting the prince to not pry. In his experience, nobles always wanted to know everything. But then again, a normal noble wouldn’t have let him live, or even care about Carmil enough to try healing him.

When he’d woken up he had not known how he had been healed, but now he did. The prince had sent prodigious amounts of mana into his system, mana that behaved weirdly.

Unlike any mana he had encountered, and he had encountered many while on the run, the mana was a set of twirling threads. Instead of dominating his mana, it supported it, boosted it to levels he had never reached. It was humbling to see it run through his entire body, nudging it to do things naturally at a pace far far beyond the norm.

And now the person who wielded such mana asked him what he knew about mana. The answer could only be one thing, “Compared to you, your highness, I suspect very little.” Arlun said

This caused the prince to raise his eyebrows, seemingly evaluating him again.

“Perhaps then you could tell me what you know, I will fill in the gaps.” The prince said.

It went against everything Arlun had ever learned to reveal his secrets to the prince. But, he also knew that this would likely be the only chance he would ever have. Nobles, as a rule, never let the secrets of mana out.

If he refused now, he would ever learn what he would likely need to know if he were to ever hope to kill that man. Never would Carmil be granted the justice he so deserved.

Taking a deep breath, Arlun began listing the various things he had learnt.

Arianna Arlford(Meemauy)

Arianna was worried. Very very worried. It was her own fault after all, she should have known better than to let the little brat go in without warning him. But she had hoped that perhaps he would choose one of the illusory realms. Oe perhaps one of the less dangerous ones. The Administration Trial would have been perfect.

But no. The little brat had chosen one of the most dangerous in the entire middle land. It was a special realm formed when an imperial soldier had activated the Realmwatch.

A cunning little thing, that artifact. Not only did it have two grade 5 elements, it also had control over three Grade 4 elements. Few that ventured into its realm survived, and none had one yet. Even with the realm being capped at Primal Grade, it was extremely hard for a child below the age of three to survive in that environment.

At this stage, Arianna could only hope that the baby’s experience from his past life would allow him to at least survive. If there was one thing she knew, it was that the baby knew war.

Especially those three years. The baby may have suppressed all recollection of it, but things like that were never forgotten. If anything, the fact that he had chosen Alforien as his name showed that.

As Arianna twirled her engagement ring, she wondered how that woman would feel about this. After all, wasn’t she the one who had given the brat’s past self this name?

Carmil, the eunuch.

Carmil found himself conflicted over the events of the last few hours. On one hand, Arlun had woken up. On the other, a prince of all things had discovered their secret. Even if Arlun felt that the prince could be trusted based on him healing him. Carmil was still doubtful.

The prince could have easily been manipulating them. After all, he’d been in a very bad state when Arlun was…in that state. The image still brought pain to him. Every inch of his being rebelled against the notion of Arlun being injured so heavily.

And yet when the time had come for him to protect Arlun he had failed his duty. Arlun had been fighting an imperial soldier when he was attacked from the side. Immediately, Carmil had jumped to save Arnul…and undershot, landing face first on the ground while Arlun got himself an unhealthy dose of sword to the side

Seeing the sword cut into Arlun’s beautiful body was pure torture. Even now Carmil could picture it - “Carmil?” Arlun suddenly interrupted Carmil’s internal monologue.

“Ah, sorry. I got distracted” Carmil said, shaking the thoughts away.

“I was asking, Carmil , if you had tried to learn Magic?” The prince said, likely irritated at Carmil's inattention. Well, it was not as if hearing them talk magic was particularly entertaining.

“Yes, your highness. All of my attempts to force mana out of my body have failed.” Carmil said, his tone meek. It had been that way since the…incident. Every time Carmil tried to raise his voice, he would find himself unable to, his tone would naturally turn meek. It didn’t help that his voice had never turned deep and thus even suited him.

“Force. Out. Mana.” The prince said, bringing his attention back to the present. Carmil noted the odd stress on the words. “You know what? It is useless to try to make sense of whatever stupid stuff was taught to you. I am just going to have to teach it all to you.”