Chapter 6: At the wizard tower.

“Ah… My body is aching… My back… My legs…”

A groan like an old man’s automatically popped out.

It was a sound that didn’t suit a twelve-year-old boy at all, but I was actually almost at the age of an old man. If you add the age of my second life and the age of my third life, I should have just been a middle-aged man mentally.

Only ‘mental age’ would have been that way in its original form.

When I was living as Thermis, I had seen so many magicians who were easily over a hundred years old but still acted like children, and now I felt like I knew why.

As expected, the mind seemed to be greatly affected by the body.

Before I knew it, I wanted to be a brat, I wanted to be stubborn, and I wanted to eat sweet snacks.

‘Speaking of snacks…’

I really liked them even when I was the well-built Thermis. It was the same now. Come to think of it, I don’t know why I became so addicted to sweets as soon as I became a woman.

But I wasn’t interested at all when I was an ‘office worker’.

And that taste was being maintained even after crossing one life.

Right now, I was holding bags of cookies that were said to have been made by a famous confectionery store in Kipol in both of my hands. A very good scent was wafting from inside the bag.

It was something that I had given a tip to a errand boy residing in the inn and asked them to get it for me.

If you pay an additional fee, you can also attach something like a daily maid,

but I didn’t really need even that, and I always hated being served too much, so I refused.

It seemed that the Three Lamps Inn was still running well.

I could be sure from the professional customer service attitude that the receptionist in the lobby showed me.

Originally, the ‘Three Lamps Inn’ was the base accommodation of the ‘Three Lamps Trading Company’.

It was a place created because the management level of the trading company needed a place to stay while touring the cities and territories that were their trading partners.

There was no way that such middle classes could be invited to the guest rooms of the lords at any time,

and it was not appropriate for them to stay at a local inn.

There were practical reasons as well as things like pride.

Such inns often didn’t have a place to park the terribly large wagons and pack animals that merchants usually drove around.

It was I who originally recommended investing in that base where the trading company and its trading partners stayed.

I suggested that they create a luxury accommodation that would be perfect for ‘ambiguous classes’ like you to stay in.

And this business model worked quite well.

In addition, thorough bedding laundry, strict check-in and check-out times, room service reservations, laundry service, resident errand boys and employable maids, etc. were all systems that I had suggested to the chairman of the trading company.

It guaranteed service and rooms that were clearly differentiated from ordinary inns, a restaurant and bar with good food and a good atmosphere, and the interior was the same.

Well, as business usually goes, it was much more difficult to execute the idea and coordinate it to run well than to come up with the idea.

It was easy to give instructions and just move your mouth about what you should do.

And the chairman of the trading company had sublimated it well in the practical field.

I just passed on what I heard somewhere, and that friend did everything.

I wonder what he’s doing now. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him.

“Because I died…”

It was a reason that was ridiculous to say.

While crunching on cookies filled with nuts while thinking of the past, I realized something strange.

“Why does this taste the same as the one Aina bought…?”

…No, this is exactly the same thing. Was she buying it from here?

I was definitely a bit picky about the snacks, but to think that she was going all the way to Kipol to buy them for me.

As I was mulling over that, I suddenly started to feel like a huge piece of trash.

Did she go to the next city just to buy a few bags of cookies? Always?

Because of a kid (me) who was always complaining that the snacks were not tasty?

‘…I… I really have to say thank you when I meet her again.’

She’s already overworked from managing the mansion, which is on the verge of collapse on her own. I had added a trivial task to that.

If she was really at her level, she could easily work at other good territories, so why is she working at the likes of Irendel?

The world is really unpredictable.

At times like this, I couldn’t help but miss the influence I had when I was the eldest daughter of the Ducal family.

I would be able to help my sister Minon and her live better lives.

‘Well, I’ve lost everything.’

My status, reputation, connections, trained body.

When I think about it, there were also powerful magical blessings that I was wearing when I was the owner of the Knight Order,

and there were also the two self-aware holy swords that were my main weapons, but I didn’t really miss those.

To talk about those blessings for a moment, they were really terribly burdensome on the body.

In some ways, it was closer to bearing a curse than a blessing.

The magician of the Knight Order, Princess ‘Ilesha’, happened to be a person who was well-versed in body-strengthening magic.

She bestowed various body-strengthening magic on me, such as enhancing my cardio strength and reflexes.

Well, those spells had quite grandiose names like the Dragon’s Heart and the Eye of Insight, but they were usually just used to abuse my body.

Anyway, it was too many blessings to contain in the body of just one person,

and my body was always in a state where it wouldn’t be strange for it to collapse at any time.

In addition, what my younger sister (who was) Yukomis had bestowed on me last was the magic of forced healing.

Among the magic schools that she handled, her specialty was the healing school.

In fact, it was correct to say that she had single-handedly compiled that school, which had only been full of theories, into one.

Although she didn’t seem like someone who was suitable for such a holy magic at all.

The magic that she wielded was so disgusting and grotesque that it would look like that if the concepts of death and corruption manifested.

‘Above all… that amount.’

The magical power that had gathered so savagely in less than a minute was…

Something that Manya couldn’t handle at all.

A dizzying and obvious difference in class.

The Last Knight Order, the Best Knight Order… a member of the very Wyvern Knight Order.

The greatest magician in imperial history, Yukomis. Could I deal with such her?

Manya may have been arrogant, but she wasn’t crazy.

Manya was a person who was close to a scholar far from actual combat, and that was 당연히 impossible.

‘…She’s not actually using magic? Why?’

Why doesn’t she materialize the magic power beyond that?

I’m the only one here who can see it. If she wanted to threaten the soldiers as well, it would be better to do that…?

Whatever the case, I couldn’t just be arrested quietly.

The imprisonment facilities for magicians were very notorious for being atrocious.

Moreover, being imprisoned in such a place meant that all the achievements and bases that she had built would be confiscated.

Power, followers, expensive alcohol, excellent bands, and above all…

‘What should I do…!?

That research. Only one piece of the puzzle remained until my wish and long dream bloomed.

I’ve been tenaciously raising research funds for that.

To leave that like this…

Spending years in a cage, I don’t even know how many years. It was something that she couldn’t bear at all.

Squeak.

While everyone’s eyes were nailed to her, Manya saw that the door to the conference room, located behind Yukomis and Karat, had opened very slightly.

And through that small gap, a few round things rolled in.

Manya, who noticed that something was about to happen, quickly bent down and lowered her head.

And as soon as Manya bent down, a huge explosion filled the conference room.

Kuaaaaang! Bang!!

Explosions, fragments, and smoke filled the hall, and the screams of soldiers were heard.

“Kyaak!”

“Mistress!”

Among them, there was also a scream of indescribable satisfaction mixed in.

While taking advantage of the uproar, Manya crawled to the entrance of the hall, and someone pulled her sleeve urgently from beyond the door.

“Kati? Is that you?”

“Yeah. Manya. What happened?”

Kati, one of the three co-rulers of the city. It was her.

“Yukomis. That bi*ch from the Ducal family came with a warrant from the imperial family.”

“…Is that so.”

The other witch, who was called Kati, replied indifferently.

“I’ll explain later, Kati. We have to run away quickly.”

“Okay.”

The other witch, who had a blank expression, took out a few more dirty spheres from her bosom.

“You didn’t inhale a lot of smoke, did you?”

“Yeah!”

“Then keep covering your nose.”

And threw it further into the hall.

Then, it began to emit ominous gas with a hissing sound.

“What did you throw this time?”

“A dizzy and vomiting grenade. It’ll buy us more time.”

“I like it.”

With a satisfied smile, the two left the place leisurely.