Chapter 232 - Gaining Enlightenment

XXXX Continent, Seraph Kingdom, Arcana Tower.

"To be honest, I would like to meet up with the Ninth Prince," Erea responded to her mentor's question, acceding to his request as she let out a light giggle. She then pondered over something for a bit before asking Dane, "Also, I have a lot of questions I would like to ask the prince. Would that be fine, Teacher?"

"Would that be fine…?" Dane repeated Erea's words in a muttering fashion before going ahead and closing his eyes. He then started to mutter a few unintelligible incantations for a short while before opening his eyes once more and looking at Erea. He then nodded at her before answering her question, saying, "I've just gotten in contact with the Ninth Prince and asked him if it was fine. He told me that it was fine, seeing as you're a member of his team anyway."

"I'm glad to hear that," Erea replied to her mentor's response before letting out a slight grin. She then went ahead and asked him, "So…when are we going to meet the Ninth Prince?"

Although she was quite eager to meet the Ninth Prince right now so she could get the meeting over with and remove all of the doubts in her mind regarding the war for the throne, which she only joined due to her mentor asking her to join, the time at which she and her mentor would go to where the Ninth Prince was would still be up to her mentor since she did not have any authority to go in the palace of the kingdom, unlike her mentor.

A week of wait time was fine for her, a month even. With this in mind, she followed up on her question, saying, "It's fine if it'll be a week from now or a month from now, Teacher. I know you're incredibly busy and all that…"

"Eh?" Listening to his student's words, Dane could not help but look at her with a slightly confused expression. It took a few seconds of processing in his mind for him to understand why she would say such words, letting out a light chuckle not long after. He then went ahead and told her, "We're going to meet the Ninth Prince right now."

"Right now?" Hearing her mentor's response, Erea was inwardly elated since she would get the meeting over with, but at the same time, she could not help but become a bit worried since she had a feeling that her mentor was postponing all of the work he needed to do today just so she could meet up with the prince. "Teacher, you don't have to force the meeting to be today. Aren't you really busy today?"

"Busy?" Dane laughed at Erea's question, but still felt the concern from it. He went ahead and patted Erea's head before saying, "Normally, I would be incredibly busy, but I've already finished all of the work I needed to do for this week, so I'm more or less free for the whole week."

Dane said this to let Erea be at ease, letting her know that she wasn't consuming his time at all. In fact, what he said was true. Since he was more or less the advisor of the Ninth Prince, he made it a habit to finish all of his work related to the Arcana Tower as fast as possible, allowing him to use his free time however he wanted, may it be studying new types of magic, creating new types of magic, helping out the Ninth Prince in some of his matters, or even…having a pleasurable time.

'Note to self: Make sure to check whether or not Erea wants to see me before engaging in those activities again,' Dane reminded himself in his mind, slightly feeling embarrassed that he was caught in the act.

Having the feeling that he was not lying in a way, Erea decided to trust her mentor's words, saying, "If you say so, Teacher."

"How are we going to head to the palace, Teacher?" she soon asked Dane before adding, "Even if we rely on movement boosting spells, as well as flight spells, it would take us about 3 hours or so to get there due to the distance between the tower and the palace. By then, the sun would be setting, and we wouldn't be able to enter the palace until the next day."

"You shouldn't have to worry about that," Dane replied to Erea's words with a slight grin on his face. He then told Erea, "Hold onto my robe. Make sure to hold onto it very tight."

"Er…" Although Erea was a bit skeptical as to why her mentor decided to ask her to hold onto his robe all of a sudden, she still followed her mentor's orders, using both of her hands to grasp on his red robe tightly. She then asked him, "What's next, Teacher?"

"Hehehe." Dane let out a light chuckle after hearing Erea's question. "Although I'm your teacher in this tower, I haven't shown you my full power that often, right?"

"What's with the question, Teacher?" Erea asked in response to Dane's question, not knowing what her mentor's train of thought was. Nevertheless, she responded to his question after that, saying, "But that is true. You've only shown your full power a few times in front of me, Teacher."

"Now what if I told you…" Dane said to Erea after that in a mysterious tone, making Erea quite curious.

"That those times, I wasn't even serious about going all out?"

"Huh? What does that have to do with—" Listening to her mentor's words, Erea could not help but think that her mentor was just exaggerating the amount of power he held, only for her to shut up as she felt a great wave of energy radiating out of her mentor's body. The intensity of this wave felt like a tsunami for her. If she was not grasping onto her mentor's robe tightly, she had a feeling that she would probably fall unconscious.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

A few seconds later, a great number of black particles manifested inside Dane's room, almost making it seem like the room was pitch-black. These black particles then went ahead and congregated towards Dane's body, and not long after, Erea's body as well.

"What the…Space energy particles?" At the very instant the black particles congregated around Erea's body, she instantly felt the immense energy of space radiating from them, even though she had no inclination towards the Space element. As for Dane, hearing Erea's surprised shout, he let out a chuckle and said, "This spell is something I can only use as long as it's important. Don't you think this is an important time?"

Just as Erea was about to say that she would be fine with traveling to the palace through the usage of flight and movement boosting spells, Dane left her no time to do so as he shouted, "5th Circle!"

"[Greater Teleport]!"

Fwoosh!

At the very instant Dane was finished saying the name of the spell, the two of them had disappeared from his room not long after. As for the Space energy particles that manifested inside his room, they all disappeared at the instant the two were gone as well, making it seem like the two weren't in here in the first place.

…

Fwoosh!

A few seconds after the two of them had teleported out of Dane's room, the two of them appeared in front of the gates that led to the royal palace of the Seraph Kingdom, instantly making the guards, which vigilantly guarded the gates of the palace, become more vigilant as they moved into a battle stance, pointing the halberds they were holding a while ago towards Dane and Erea.

"Who goes there?! State your name and purpose!" One of the guards shouted towards the two of them, to which Dane responded by looking at the person who shouted after he dusted off his robe. Snapping his fingers to reveal the golden leaves on his robe, he then cleared his throat before saying, "I haven't done this before the last time I came here, so I would like to apologize to the guards."

"Dane Grossezauber, Rank 4 High Mage, Educator and Battle Mage of the Arcana Tower," Dane said not long after that before going ahead and pointing at Erea, who was slightly afraid of the halberds pointed at them. "As for the young woman beside me, she's Erea Magimillia, a newly advanced Rank 3 mage."

"We've come here to meet up with the Ninth Prince. Would you allow us to do so?" Dane then asked the guards surrounding them with a smile, eliciting a slightly awkward response from the guards as they slowly retracted their halberds, realizing that they were pointing their halberds at someone who had a high position in the Arcana Tower.

As for the guard who shouted at them a while ago, he scratched his face before letting out an awkward chuckle, responding to Dane's words by saying, "I apologize for pointing our halberds at you, Sir Grossezauber. It's just that we haven't been informed of your sudden arrival."

"I understand. You guys are just doing your jobs." Dane smiled in response to the guard's words. "So…could we enter the palace?"

"Please give me a second, Sir," the guard responded to Dane's question as he closed his eyes for a bit, muttering a few unintelligible incantations in the process. At the very instant the guard opened his eyes, a light smile was plastered on his face as he responded, "We've obtained clearance from the Ninth Prince. You two can head inside. We truly apologize for the inconvenience."

"No worries, no worries." Dane let out a light chuckle after hearing the guard apologize to him one more time. Telling Erea to follow him, the two of them eventually went inside the royal palace through the gates, which were hastily opened by the guards after confirming their intent.

Crash!

At the very instant the two of them were able to enter the palace, the large palace gates behind them were instantly closed, slightly startling Erea as she took in the beautiful surroundings of the palace as she followed behind Dane, gradually making their way towards where the Ninth Prince was.

As they walked along the official paths of the palace, Erea could not help but hasten her steps to be beside her mentor, before going ahead and asking him, "Teacher, I've just noticed something. Why aren't the guards escorting us to where the Ninth Prince is? Isn't that their jobs?"

"Normally, that would be the case, Erea," Dane instantly replied to his student's question before adding, "I don't know whether or not you're going to ask that question to the Ninth Prince, but either way, it'll be a secret for now."

"I see…" Erea muttered to herself as she listened to her mentor's words. After that, they silently made their way towards the place where the Ninth Prince was residing, a pavilion that was quite a distance away from the main palace, taking around half an hour to do so.

"Hah! Hah!" As they had arrived in front of the pavilion, the two of them could see a man assiduously slashing down a blade that exuded a terrifying aura of Wind. This man currently had no clothes covering his upper torso, allowing the two to see the streamlined muscles outlining his body, while the man's face, which had an earnest yet serious expression, could not help but radiate magnanimity as the man's jet-black hair and his yellow irises showed that he was a part of the Seraph Kingdom's royalty.

Looking at how focused the man was slashing his blade, Erea could not help but look at Dane beside him and ask him in a slightly hushed voice, "Teacher, is that…"

"Mhm." Dane nodded his head in response to her question before saying, "That's the Ninth Prince of the Seraph Kingdom. Vanadir Seraph."

"Ah." Fortunately, just as Vanadir was about to continue slashing the blade he was wielding for a longer time, he noticed both Erea and Dane through his peripheral vision, prompting him to stop his training for now as he grabbed the towel that was hanging on a nearby tree, wiping off the sweat that covered his body. With a grin now plastered on his face, he directly looked at the two before saying, "I apologize for not welcoming you two into my pavilion properly. Please head inside for now. I'll just and go rinse the dirt off my body."

"Also, Dane." He then focused his vision towards Dane before asking him, "Could you brew the finest tea I have in the pavilion? Wouldn't want her to have a bad first impression of me."

In response to his request, Dane let out a light chuckle as he responded, "Alright, Your Highness. I'll go ahead and follow your orders."

Nodding his head as he listened to Dane's reply, he then focused his vision towards Erea before giving a slightly apologetic look, saying, "I'm sorry you had to see me like this. I'll go and rinse off as fast as possible, okay?"

Since it was the first time Erea was meeting up with someone from the Seraph Kingdom's royalty, plus the aura she felt from the Ninth Prince was slightly intimidating, she responded to the prince's words with her head down while slightly stuttering, saying, "G-go ahead, Your Highness."

Whoosh!

Hearing Erea's response, Vanadir unhesitatingly went off into the deeper parts of the pavilion to do what he needed to do, while Dane looked at Erea and said, "Let's go inside." After that, they then went ahead and entered the quarters of the pavilion that was meant for greeting guests, with Erea sitting on one of the chairs in this room as Dane went ahead and moved to the kitchen in the pavilion to brew some tea, just like the prince requested.

A few minutes after Dane was finished brewing the tea, the Ninth Prince finally came to the quarters where Dane and Erea were at, wearing a long-sleeved shirt and some stretchable pants, which did not seem like clothes that someone from the royalty would wear.

Sitting down on the chair opposite Erea and Dane, Vanadir went ahead and grabbed the cup of tea on the table on the center, unhesitatingly taking a sip out of it as he looked at Dane and said, "Dane, you truly brew the best tea."

"I appreciate the compliment, Your Highness," Dane responded to Vanadir's words, taking a sip out of his cup of tea not long after. After drinking around half of the content inside that cup, Vanadir went ahead and placed his cup of tea down on the table before going ahead and looking at Erea, who was looking at him with a slightly afraid and shy gaze as she grasped on her cup of tea in a somewhat tight manner.

"Is this your first time meeting someone from the royal family?" Knowing that Erea was probably incredibly nervous, Vanadir asked her question. In response, Erea timidly nodded as she replied in a soft voice, "Yes…Your Highness."

"Dane told me that you were eager to ask me questions a while ago. Where did your confidence go?" Vanadir said to her not long after, letting out a light chuckle. Choosing her words carefully, she replied, "It's just that…I have a feeling that some of my questions…might offend…Your Highness."

"Offend me?" Vanadir chuckled as he repeated that string of words. "I've gone through worse already, so how could a question that would offend me be any worse than that?"

"We're inside my pavilion, Erea. I would've told you to choose your words wisely if we were at the royal palace, but feel free to say whatever you want in here," Vanadir said not long after. "Of course, take your time. I'm not forcing you to try and become accustomed easily. Even Dane was like that the first time we met."

"Your Highness, did you really have to say that?" Dane could not help but say after hearing the Ninth Prince's last words, feeling like he was wronged. In response, Vanadir let out a light chuckle before saying, "My bad, my bad. Just wanted to reduce the tension, that's all."

Surprisingly, through what Vanadir did, the tense feeling Erea had was lessened, giving her a bit more confidence to ask the questions she had in mind when she met the Ninth Prince. Noticing that the Ninth Prince was looking at her with a smile as he sipped on his cup of tea, while her mentor was looking at her with a gaze that shouted 'Good luck!'

Taking in a deep breath, then letting it out soon after, she then looked at the Ninth Prince in the eyes before asking him a question, albeit there was still a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Although I joined Your Highness's team due to Teacher asking me to do so, I still have no clue what the war for the throne is," Erea said to Vanadir, her voice slightly gaining confidence as she continued. "This would be the first time I'm joining in such a large event like this, so could Your Highness tell me what the war for the throne is all about?"

"I see," Vanadir muttered as he listened to Erea's question. "An explanation for the war for the throne, huh."

"Where should I start…?"