"Can you keep watch for me while I absorb this? Should not take a few minutes."
"Your highness, I don't think you should do that here. It's not safe."
Despite hearing his words, Laurene ignored them and sat down before opening up the small pouch on her waist and pulling out about a dozen similarly sized stones.
"Why? I trust you would protect me from anything dangerous."
"You really should not place that much trust in me, your highness."
Laurene washed the stones with water magic and grabbed one in her palm before turning her gaze to Arnold and replying with a smile.
"You know, saying that only makes me wanna trust you more for some reason.
Don't let me down, would you?"
Immediately afterwards, she closed her eyes, all expressions fading from her face as the stone in her hand cracked.
Seeing the magic leaking out of the magic stone in Laurene's hands get absorbed into her body, Arnold heaved a sigh and spread out his aura to detect any presence within a hundred-metre radius.
Perhaps sensing the aura, the corners of Laurene's lips curled up momentarily before returning to normal as she continued absorbing the energy contained within the magic stones.
Meanwhile, Arnold calmly stared at the young hero in front of him in silence, however, his thoughts were not as calm as his face was.
'She's suspicious of me.'
That was the conclusion that the teenager had come to after watching Laurene's behaviour towards him in the past few weeks.
She had suddenly said that she wanted to come over to the Nepte Province, one of the provinces within the Eris Dukedom, a province that Arnold was going to eventually take control of when he came of age, saying that one of the materials for her magic catalyst was located there.
It was no secret in the capital city that the princess seemed to have developed a strange fascination for magic and was planning on creating some sort of magic artifact, given that she had been buying out various materials and recruiting skilled alchemists from all over the country.
As for what she was trying to create, no one knew as all those involved were compelled to sign confidentiality magic contracts so they could not say even if they wanted to.
So, when she suddenly said she wanted to come over to the Nepte province to search for her desired material, Arnold initially thought that was all she really wanted to do.
However, ever since she came, the way she had been acting was causing alarm bells to ring around in Arnold's head.
This was even more so when he received a letter from her brother, Richard, a few days after she arrived.
In the entire letter, there was just one line that stood out to him.
['I think Laurene knows.']
'Richard wouldn't send me such a message if he really didn't think that way, and now, she just activated her mystic eyes right in front of me, trying to gauge my reaction.
She knows I know something about her mystic eyes but she's probably not sure. Then again, that's not really a problem, but if she finds out about the 'hero Killers', that's where the issue lies.
If she asks me directly, there's nothing I can do to avoid it since she can literally see through any lie I can come up with.
Avoiding the question too would also be suspicious so either way, she'd figure out I know something and she'd definitely want to find out.
She's always been a curious girl after all.'
He sighed as he remembered the younger Laurene from a few years ago who always followed him and Richard around, sticking her nose into every matter she found even remotely interesting.
If something managed to pique her curiosity, she always strived to find out more about that thing.
'With her mystic eyes, there a few things that can remain hidden from her anymore so her childish curiosity had died down. But now that there's something she can't find out easily, it has been reignited.'
**CCRACKK!
The sound of another magic stone shattering brought him out of his thoughts as he turned his gaze to the girl who was done absorbing the magic stones and was now trying to stabilize the energy in her body.
For some reason, this made him remember how he ended up on the outskirts of Lento City with Laurene.
He had only been taking a walk in his family mansion, thinking about how he could deal with the task his father had assigned him when he felt a gaze on him.
Looking up, he was met with the sight of his country's one and only royal princess jumping out of one of the windows of the mansion's servant residence and landing right in front of him.
She then grabbed his hand and applied some sort of invisibility magic before dragging him out through the nearby exit of the mansion's outer compound.
Normally, it was not so easy to leave the compound, but since she was with him, the son of the duke, the defensive magic on the exit let the duo pass through without restriction.
As it was an exit for servants only, one that was in the outer compound that had lesser security than the inner compound, the two only had to pass by half a dozen low-ranked knights who barely noticed something wrong.
It was only after dragging him out did Laurene explain where she was going and why she pulled him along with her.
'What do you mean [You're fishy so I pulled you along]?!'
"Done!!"
The princess shouted out as she jumped off the ground and stretched her legs.
"I really needed that, now my body's energy has been stabilized, and I even got an extra level!"
She walked up to Arnold and her eyes seemed to glow a bit before a frown appeared on her face.
"I still have a long way to catch up to you, huh?
I've only recently become a master-level existence but I don't see myself beating you in a fight."
Laurene's words made Arnold frown for various reasons.
Firstly;
"Princess, you're just thirteen years old. Being a master-level existence at thirteen is already something only heard of in fairy tales.
Even I only became one at 15, and I'm already considered a freakish genius."
Secondly;
'Why do you want to beat me in a fight?!'
Of course, he could not voice the second question out loud.
Laurene on the other hand only titled her head in question as she replied.
"So I'm the rare 'one in thousand years genius' they usually talk about in novels?"
"...Yes."
The young princess nodded to herself as she opened up her status board and looked at her stats.
|Name- Laurene Hayes
Race- Human
Gender-Female
Age - 13
Level- 106
Existence Level - Master
Titles- Princess of the Great Western Empire, Fourth of the Seven Heroes, Wielder of Mystic Eyes, Loved By Mana, Seeker of Truth.
Class - Myriad Mage
Health – D+
Energy – C
Strength – C-
Agility – C-
Durability – D+
Intelligence- C-
Condition- Slightly Amused.
Magic Tiers- Lightning Tier 2, Fire Tier 2, Wind Tier 1, Earth Tier 2, Water Tier 1, Dark Tier 0.
Skills- Full Appraisal, Lie Detection, Magic Control, Magic Amplification, Lightning Magic (High), Chant Revocation, Mental Block, Language Comprehension.
Unique Skills- Mystic Eyes of Truth (1), Myriad Casting. |
"106, huh? I needed to be at least 100 to use Venus and 105 to be sure it'd work."
Laurene had also been doing her own share in terms of her hard work to level up and get stronger, even more so than Evan, given the fact that she did not have his extra levelling boost, nor did she go to any dungeons that gave double experience or battle powerful enemies like Xakon.
Despite that, she had still passed the level 100 barrier and had become a master-level existence on her own.
Of course, the same way Evan's game memories helped him, the memories of the previous fourth that she possessed also helped her quite a bit.
In fact, the 'Venus' she had been speaking about, was something that belonged to the previous fourth.
It was the magic catalyst that was used by the previous fourth a thousand years ago, a catalyst that was undeniably the most powerful all-round magic catalyst in all of Aidos.
It was better than any wand or staff or any casting aiding device you could find.
That was the reason she was currently in the deserted Lento city outskirts with Arnold.
She was looking for the final material to complete 'Venus', the thing she had been trying to recreate and the reason she had been hiring skilled alchemist and magi technicians from all over the country.
The previous 'fourth' of the 'seven heroes' was a near transcendent level archmage and all her knowledge of magic was stuck inside Laurene's head.
When the previous seven heroes made the plan to reincarnate, all of them made special private plans for each of themselves, on how they would regain their previous weapons and magic.
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