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Return of The 8th Class Mage (Web Novel) - Chapter 149 Need for Chance (3)
Chapter 149 Need for Chance (3)
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
“Oh, teacher!”
Princess Haileyy Greenriver’s face brightened when she discovered Ian, and her already luminous beauty became even lovelier.
“Why is your highness here? You only had to ask first.”
“I- I had a question about the foundation. You’re next door, so…”
“Isn’t the Page Foundation completely under your highness and my mother’s jurisdiction? I don’t know whether I can give you sufficient answers.”
“I’m only helping. The official people in charge are you and Mrs. Page on paper.”
Ian felt the will to talk from the princess and wondered what she had to speak.
“Please sit down.”
Ian asked while he also pulled a chair, and Haileyy sat on the opposite side to stare at him. Her face was closer than Ian had expected.
“I’m all ears.”
“Yes?”
“To what you have to say.”
“Ah!”
Princess Haileyy looked tense, and she placed her tightly fisted hands on her lap.
“I first want to discuss the foundation’s budget…”
What the princess had to say was trivial because she did not need much advice or approval. She went on to talk about general issues regarding the foundation and small incidents that happened here and there.
Haileyy seemed to have come to talk with Ian rather than asking him questions. She had to lead the conversation nine out of ten times.
“…and that happened. While my maids are like my friends, they can be very peculiar sometimes.”
“So, you did.”
The princess initiated the conversation, and her biggest motivation and obstacle was Ian Page’s indifferent response. Of course, Ian did not want to act like this, but he just did not know how to respond. He had no idea what a person should do or answer to carry on a conversation about daily life.
‘I have zero experience.’
Serious discussions, meetings, conversations in the process of achieving specific goals should not be counted. Conversations without any gravity, under a heavy atmosphere, and certain aims were a strange phenomenon for Ian. Moreover, he was talking with the princess, who was barely comfortable to him.
“……”
“……”
The result of his dry response, which hid the fact he had no idea what to do was ‘severance’ as expected. When the princess stopped her struggle to lead the conversation, they immediately became silent.
“Have you achieved anything new with your magic?”
Ian gathered his courage to say something, and the only topic he could think of was magic, which had formed the teacher-student relationship between them.
“Your talents will exceed the fifth-class level.”
“You overestimate me. Fifth class already?! It’s a level that senior magicians have not achieved yet…”
“Magic and experience are not related. Look at me.”
“But…”
The atmosphere became lighter as the conversation steered to magic, and they talked on smoothly.
“Are you taking the private lessons from the Ivory Tower? I should look after you once in a while, but there wasn’t any time.”
“I’m working hard as I have been late, and Ronan compliments me the most. He tells me I’m faster in learning the history of the Ivory Tower and other theories than you.”
“Faster than me?”
“Yes!”
Ian had perfectly memorized subjects that needed memory prowess, such as the history of the Ivory Tower and theories in his past life. In other words, his studies have been like having answer sheets in his head this life, but Ronan was saying the princess’s pace was faster than him.
‘Ronan, that cad.’
Archmage Ronan knew how to get in line since he already began to flatter the princess already.
‘He did not appear once when I was taking the lessons…’
Ronan despised Ian during his stay. Was not he who had been the loudest in shouting that Ian should be collared? A man like that was now trying to build a relationship not only with Ian but with Ian’s acquaintances. It seemed that Ronan’s true talent was not magic.
‘His getting in line is ninth class.” Ian faintly smiled and continued to speak.
“You’re amazing. I wasn’t so slow myself.”
“I seem to have inherited my father’s brains.”
“That’s disappointing for the crown prince.”
“Yes? That’s too harsh…”
Ian’s jokes were almost treason against the royal family, and the princess tried to soothe things down once she realized that it was a joke.
“My brother is working hard. While he had strayed for some time, he is becoming a better man now. I believe that he will be a king who will be hailed as a better ruler than my father.”
The princess spoke in a quiet voice, and her tone implied that she completely trusted her brother, the crown prince Hayden.
“Of course, I also believe that. I saw the crown prince during my walk, and he was reading a difficult political treatise. While books are not enough, they will build the foundation to becoming a sage king. I had not been able to greet him because he was so immersed in his reading.”
“You did not greet him?”
“I saw no reason to bother him while he was concentrating…”
“…He must have been disappointed.”
“Disappointed?”
“My brother would have been.”
Why would the crown prince have been disappointed? On what part?
“He wanted to show you that he was reading difficult books, and that was why he brought the hardest one from the library.”
“……”
Ian had thought that Hayden turned the pages with some extraneous force. He probably had started to read with more noise after seeing Ian approach him, and Ian had just passed him by regardless of Hayden’s intentions.
“Ah! Please do not misunderstand that he had brought a book he cannot read. While he has not finished yet, my brother spends all night reading the book. Even my father is worried.”
The princess quickly added some words, and her story was not something she made up.
“He even requested Father to survey the lands before it’s late and wants the trip to be a secret. My brother said he would take only Sir Oliver.”
That question was praiseworthy since books and reports will not let the crown prince know the principles of the ruler.
“That’s a good idea.”
“I also think so, and his safety would be assured with Sir Oliver along.”
“That’s true.”
Her confidence was plausible since Oliver was a swordsman who beat the weakened King of Gargoyles, who had been an ancient predator.
‘There are almost no magicians who could beat Sir Oliver now.’
An individual like that was protecting the crown prince with all his might. Hayden did not have to worry about going anywhere unless it was the middle of the battlefield.
“I do hope that Father would be healthy and rule over us as long as possible. I think that as a daughter, and also as an ideal situation for this empire and its people. However, people cannot go against the natural flow, and my brother’s era will start soon enough.”
The princess continued with what she had to say, which almost sounded like slander against the crown prince.
“I promised myself that I would grow to be a magician for the imperial family, someone would protect my father and brother. However, my willpower often wavered whenever I saw my brother stray off the path.”
“I understand.”
“While my brother has changed, and is changing now, I cannot be certain whether he will become a ruler like Father. Actually, I believe it impossible.”
Terry Greenriver was the current emperor and the princess’s father, and also a wise ruler who would leave his name in human history. It would be impossible for the crown prince to follow in his footsteps on his own. Hayden’s capacity as a ruler would never match his father’s.
“However, my brother is surrounded by people. My father stated that he had not been able to bring people of talent when he had been desperate for them, but my brother brought people in just by breathing…”
The crown prince was born with two things. One was his handsome appearance, and the other was the gift of gathering people together. While most of them had been connected through Ian, Oliver alone was a ‘blessing.’
“My father also mentioned that a true ruler had to have the blessing to pull suitable people in and the eye to use them at the right time and place, rather than having the individual talent to be a perfect sovereign.”
The emperor was correct, and the ruling foundations of the crown prince’s era would change in many places. The affairs of the state would not rely on the decisions of the ruler but would be managed like clockwork by many officials. It would be much more difficult than an individual rule.
Actually, it definitely would be difficult since human beings cannot be controlled.
“Maybe because of his words, I feel some anticipation along with worry. How would my brother rule, and what era would he make? Aren’t you curious?”
Ian was silent for a long time at the princess’s question. It was not a negative one, but Ian just imagined that day.
A world where all unstable factors were solved and the idiot crown prince became a wise king that would leave his name in history. A world where Ian’s people would live comfortable lives, and Ian would share their happiness together.
‘Me.’ Ian Page. Ian thought of himself, and it was a sight that filled his heart.
“……”
Ian’s fists inside his sleeves shook. What was the reason he lived for, what was the reason he fought for, and what was the reason he had to win?
All questions were now answered. Ian’s condition now hit its peak with the motivation he had received before.
“I also want to see.”
Ian carefully opened his mouth to answer the princess’s question.
“That world.”
Ian’s tone became more ‘powerful,’ and another name for it was ‘sincerity.’
***
Some hours passed after Ian’s amusing conversation with Princess Haileyy ended. The world turned dark again.
In the hours when everyone in the manor would be asleep, Ian began to scribble letters on yellow parchment. It was a classic way of drawing up a document by using feather pens and ink without any magic.
[Fran, I request by letter because I am worried about the dragon watching over me for surveillance purposes. I have urgent issues about our future plans, so please let me know a way I can reach you without the Black Dragon knowing.]
The content of the document was for Fran only. He had appeared in front of Ian just by a call. There was a possibility he would be able to read this document.
[If you cannot find a way to avoid the dragon, at least appear. It’s urgent.]
Ian’s letter continued, and he kept writing again and again. His feather pen stopped only after several pages.
‘It’s this.’
The ends of Ian’s lips lifted in a smile.
‘His surveillance had its limits.’
Ian finally found a way to escape from Fran’s eyes.
