Axel pressed down on the small dust ball that had died heroically with his sword. Then, the dust, which was thought to be dead, began to split into dozens of pieces.
Strange identical clumps rolled towards Axel and the Knight Order, spitting at their feet with insignificant force.
‘Spitting?!’
Hailey rubbed her eyes several times at the unbelievable and absurd scene she had never seen before.
Kieran, Hailey’s escort knight and the only combat mage in the Knight Order, urgently shouted as if he had realized something.
“No! That’s–! The more you kill it—!”
“Ugh! What is this!”
“… I was going to say it increases.”
But Axel was not one to listen to anyone’s words.
Axel, who acted first, was already cutting down the dust clumps wildly. The clumps increased from dozens to hundreds in an instant.
In fact, they weren’t aggressive enough to inflict critical damage. Axel was just annoyed.
“You dare, as inanimate objects.”
Some knights tripped over the increasingly numerous clumps, and actual dust flew from them, covering everyone in dust.
Some spat out strange liquid that looked like spit, while others seemed to jump around the knights’ feet as if they were excited.
“Put me down!”
“No. It’s dangerous.”
“No! It’s not dangerous. Put me down. I want to go down!”
Theo, who was watching the scene with curious eyes while being held by Hailey, wanted to join the chaos. It looked so fun to play with moving toy dolls.
Full of curiosity, Theo began to whine at Hailey to put him down. When Hailey didn’t put him down, saying it was dangerous, he twisted his body, making it difficult for Hailey.
While Theo was moving too much, the clumps invaded near Hailey’s feet.
Hailey, who thought she might fall backward with Theo, eventually put him down for a moment.
At that moment, Theo smiled brightly and ran into the chaos.
“Theo! No!”
He seemed to be chasing after the clumps, laughing excitedly.
‘Oh my God.’
Hailey jumped into the chaos to rescue Theo from the dust pit.
It was not easy to chase a small child through thick fog and covered in dust, coughing.
“Stop!”
Kieran shouted loudly, raising his hand and chanting a spell. Then the clumps stopped and floated in the air.
These were artificial creatures created as a joke by children just starting to learn magic. Of course, they weren’t actually ‘creatures’; their main body was a lump of mud.
Although it was just basic magic, the characteristic of these things was that they could infinitely divide. So, you should never deal with them; you just had to find the person who cast the spell and make them stop the spell.
At Kieran’s shout, everyone in the chaos, including Axel, Khalid, and Hailey, stopped.
“Caught it!… Not! Mommy Hailey! It’s gone! Did you see? It’s gone!”
Of course, only Theo, who succeeded in catching a tail, smiled brightly and grabbed the floating clump, but the clumps floating in the air disappeared with a pop in an instant.
Theo, with his eyes wide open in surprise, ran to Hailey.
Kieran sighed and got rid of all the clumps.
“Is it a golem?”
“They’re not even golems. It’s basic magic, the game most played by children who just started learning magic. It seems like the village children played a prank, but they’ve already run away.”
“What a nasty initiation.”
Axel, covered in dust, spoke irritably, looking around.
Among the big knights, Axel found Hailey dusting off Theo’s hat and approached her with long strides.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes. It doesn’t look like he’s hurt. Theo just got a lot of dust on him.”
“No, Hailey, I mean you.”
Their eyes met, both covered in dust in the dust pit, so it wasn’t a particularly sentimental situation, but Hailey’s face turned red as soon as she heard those words.
“Yes. I-I’m fine.”
Axel nodded and brushed off the dust on Hailey’s head and shoulders with his hand.
His seemingly indifferent and careless touch strangely felt kind.
‘Why is he doing this?’
Hailey was very flustered trying to pull herself together.
While Axel, who was more covered in dust, brushed off the large dust on Hailey, they saw a carriage approaching from afar, and Axel ground his teeth.
“That damn old man.”
A large carriage bearing the Grand Duke’s crest was visible.
The carriage, which stopped right in front of Axel, had its door open automatically without anyone opening it.
‘Automatic door?’
Surprised, Hailey’s eyes opened wide, and Khalid, who had recently been acting as Hailey’s live informant, quietly informed her from behind.
“It’s a door that opens with magic.”
Hailey awkwardly smiled and got into the carriage with Theo.
* * *
“Is this… the Grand Duke’s castle?”
Hailey, who got off the carriage, couldn’t help but show her blatant disappointment.
‘How many people are in the family now, and this is the Grand Duke’s castle?’
They said the Grand Duchy had no worries about money, so what on earth was going on? It was not only much smaller than a baron’s castle but also, frankly, ‘shabby’ was a word that suited it too well. There wasn’t even a common garden in sight.
Once again, Khalid, Hailey’s live informant, appeared abruptly.
“It’s too early to be disappointed. The inside of the Grand Duke’s castle is expanded with magic, making it unimaginably spacious. This is a kind of camouflage to prevent enemies from recognizing it as the Grand Duke’s castle from the outside.”
“I know! Camouflage is when a honeybee sits on a yellow candy!”
Theo answered, raising his hand high.
When Khalid gave him a thumbs-up, Theo smiled brightly and placed his tiny thumb on top of Khalid’s.
It was at that moment.
While Khalid and Theo were having a sweet moment and Hailey was marveling at the shabby exterior of the Grand Duke’s castle, Axel, who had taken a crooked path, drew his sword.
Without anyone having time to stop him, he swung the sword emitting a blue aura at the door.
“Young Duke!”
Khalid urgently called out to Axel, who was no longer a prince, and smacked his own forehead.
‘This madman is at it again.’
Axel was no longer a prince. He didn’t even have any property. But Axel had many dependents.
There was the Eligos Knight Order, which had followed Axel to Winchester, and Khalid, who was born as the second son of a prestigious count family and ended up trailing after Axel. And most importantly, there was his wife, whom he had almost half-tricked into marrying him, and her five-year-old nephew, who knew nothing.
They needed to make a good impression on the Grand Duke to somehow settle here, but that reckless twenty-seven-year-old ‘(temporary) Young Duke of Winchester’ was throwing a tantrum because the door wasn’t opening fast enough.
“I won’t let that old geezer get away with this.”
“You must let it go. You need to make a good impression on the Grand Duke. You promised not to act on your impulses no matter what!”
“Step back. I’ll have to do it harder.”
“Young Duke!”
Before coming here, Khalid asked Axel for one thing.
If he felt like doing something, no matter what it was, he should absolutely not do it. There was no need to think twice or listen. Whatever it was, it was bound to anger the Grand Duke.
Axel, telling everyone to step back further, swung his sword with an even greater blue aura, almost breaking the door, and a cracking sound was heard.
“There’s a protective spell on it, so it won’t work!”
I told you it would only make things worse. Why doesn’t this man listen!
Khalid stomped his feet in frustration.
Khalid hated the cold. He was worried that if Axel angered the Grand Duke on this cold northern island, they might be given freezing rooms.
Whether he knew Khalid’s feelings or not, the rogue Axel kept striking the door with his sword.
The force was so brute and strong that despite the protective spell, cracks started to appear on the door.
‘We’re doomed.’
Just as Khalid was about to smack his forehead again, the door, which seemed like it would never open, finally did.
Axel stopped the hand holding the sword.
“Thank you for waiting.”
The person who appeared as the door opened exuded an air of dignity as they respectfully greeted Axel.
It was a woman dressed perfectly in a soft white shirt with a black tie and vest, vertically striped pants, and patent leather shoes, with her hair neatly tied up.
“I apologize for the inconvenience. I am Dora, the butler of the Grand Duke’s castle.”
- ianthe
remember to support the authors everyone~ (๑'ᵕ'๑)⸝*