Roland took in a deep breath of the cool evening air as he left the room. Contrary to his emotions when entering the room, he was feeling very proud of himself right now.
It seemed that his suggestion was quite well received by that excellent sister of his.
Perhaps he was truly fated to do this?
Or perhaps being a king was not too as difficult as he thought after all!
As he thought about it, he started looking forward to a future in which he continued solving more problems for the kingdom.
It was truly an addictive feeling to have all the answers to other people's problems!
Just as he was lost in his daydream, Roland suddenly felt a powerful surge of mana that originated from within the palace.
Roland narrowed his eyes and immediately turned to make eye contact with Rose, who shook her head to express her ignorance of the matter.
"Let us go take a look," seeing that Rose did not have the answers for him, Roland promptly headed towards the source of the mana surge.
Without anyone tagging along to slow them down, the duo were extremely quick on their feet, reaching their destination in less than a minute despite the size of the palace.
Yet during this minute, they could feel that there were more instances of mana surges that came from the same location, and this only served to pique their curiosity further.
As they got closer, realisation quickly dawned on them and their steps naturally slowed to a regular walk as a result.
The source of the mana surge was within Prince Timothy's courtyard.
Considering that the prince was a young magic genius, it was likely that he was simply practising his magic casting. That was the reason why Roland and Rose relaxed upon recognising the source.
Timothy was not tall, but that was natural considering that he was still in his early teens. He had a slim build, which was also understandable since he had not begun training his body much for fear of affecting his skeletal growth.
As a boy in his early teens, his body was still in its growing phase after all!
At this moment, Timothy was standing in his courtyard, holding onto a magic staff which was taller than him when placed in an upright position.
He stood facing a huge mirror which was positioned around fifty metres away, and was panting heavily at the moment, apparently exhausted from exerting himself.
Not far from him, Princess Annabelle was seated at a small wooden table, calmly sipping on tea prepared by Jasmine as she watched her brother's practice.
The courtyard was covered with lush grass and flowers, and Annabelle was seated at the only table in the courtyard, aesthetically situated beside a large pond brimming with fish.
If one could remove the panting Timothy, it would have been a picturesque scene.
"Your Majesty!" Timothy's personal maid, Camellia, was the first to notice Roland's entrance.
"Your Majesty!" the others hurriedly stood up to greet as well upon realising.
"Looks like you are working hard, Timothy!" Roland gave a wave of his hand to signal them to be at ease.
"Ah! Yes!" Timothy nodded before stealing a glance at Rose. "After seeing Rose's performance earlier today, I realised that I really have to keep working harder so that I do not fall too far behind!"
"I see," Roland nodded after giving Rose a meaningful look. "Why don't you show me how far you have progressed?"
"Ah! Okay!" Timothy immediately readied his staff and faced the mirror once again.
It was called the Mirror of Self-Assessment. But even though it was called a mirror, the image reflected within was actually nothing similar to it was facing.
Within the world of the mirror was nothing but a wooden puppet standing atop an empty grassland. It was naturally not an ordinary mirror, but a product that was the fruit of years of magical research, made to withstand and nullify attack spells.
With how devastating magic spells could get, its main usage was to provide a convenient means for magic users to practice their spell casting without causing great damage to their surroundings.
However, this Mirror of Self-Assessment had a downside to it. In order the Mirror of Self-Assessment to work, a magic user would have to first infuse mana into the mirror to synchronise with it.
Thus each individual mirror could only be used by one person. When that fact was coupled with the high cost of making one, the mirror could be considered as quite a luxury item.
But of course, the cost was still considered affordable to the prince of a kingdom like Timothy.
Roland watched from the side as Timothy channelled the mana within him, concentrating it at the tip of his staff.
[Glacier Bomb]!
Upon the activation of the spell, ice instantly formed into the shape of a ball at the tip of the staff.
It was not a solid ball of ice. Rather, small bits and pieces of ice spun around at high speed, appearing to take on the shape of a ball.
Without warning, the ball of ice burst forward towards the Mirror of Self-Assessment, threatening to smash it into pieces.
However when the ball of ice came into contact with the mirror surface, it actually passed straight through, instead entering the world within the mirror.
There was no sound of collision, only a slight rippling effect on the mirror surface. If one had not seen the ball of ice originating from the Timothy's staff, it would have seemed as though the ball of ice had always been in the mirror to begin with.
But even after entering the world of the mirror, the speed of the ball of ice did not slow down the least, charging straight towards the wooden puppet.
Bang-!
The ice ball exploded as it struck the wooden puppet, completely obliterating it into dust.
That was not the end of it either.
The explosion of the ice ball resulted in thousands of small ice fragments erupting outwards with the collision as the centre, smashing into the surroundings within the mirror world.
Multiple other explosions sounded out as the fragments struck the empty grassland, causing craters all around. It was a good thing that Timothy was using the Mirror of Self-Assessment, otherwise it was not difficult to imagine what would have happened to his courtyard in face of such a strong magical power.
Roland smiled in acknowledgement.
Magic spells were divided into different tiers, from the most common Level 1 all the way to the legendary Level 10, each additional level signifying a significant increase in magical prowess.
But of course, each increase in level also brought along an exponential increase in difficulty for the magic user.
In addition to spell levels, a person's mastery of a spell also affected the power of the spell. A person who had completely mastered a Level 1 spell could use it to exhibit strength equal to or even greater than that of a Level 2 spell.
[Glacier Bomb] was a Level 4 spell, capable of wreaking havoc when cast into a group of opponents. Simply being able to wield Level 4 spells in his arsenal would already make Timothy one of the strongest magic users in the kingdom.
To put it into perspective, the [Fireball] that Roland had used against his opponent outside Windfall Inn yesterday was only a Level 2 spell!
Of course, it was not as though Roland was unable to cast high level spells, but simply because he judged that a Level 2 spell would be sufficient in overcoming his opponent.
On top of that, Roland's spell mastery had already reached an extremely frightening level, such that his Level 2 spells could no longer be considered to be on the same level as others'.
"Very well done, Timothy! I see that your spell mastery had improved to an even higher level than before!"
"Ah! Thank you, Your Majesty! I will try to work harder so as to not fall behind!" Timothy grinned happily despite the obvious exhaustion that was evident on his face.
"It is good to strive for success, but do take things slow and steady. Do not overexert yourself in rash pursuit of fast results. Otherwise, you might end up harming yourself instead!"
Since young, Timothy had always had a flair for understanding magic configurations and manipulation, allowing him to easily pick up and master new magic spells. However, even the greatest genius would fall behind others if he lacked practice.
Though unintended, it was a good thing that Rose's earlier performance was able to spur him on to continue striving for higher attainments in the magical field.
But even so, Roland did not wish for his brother to become overly obsessed with the results of training.
"Ah! I understand, and that was why I asked Annabelle to come help me!" Timothy turned to look at his sister who had only continued sipping her tea after Roland waved for them to be at ease.
Annabelle was in her late teens, and was thus the closest to Timothy in terms of age. In all honesty, Roland knew very little about her aside from the fact that she usually did things that were out of the ordinary because of her obsession with the supernatural.
"Annabelle is here to help you?" Roland turned to look at her. "In what way does she do that?"
"Ah! It is no wonder that Your Majesty is unaware, because Annabelle usually does not talk about herself much. But she is able to keep me going during practice with her ability!" Timothy explained.
"An ability to keep you going? Annabelle, show me how you do so," Roland was feeling a little sceptical but decided to see for himself before coming to a conclusion.
"Okay." Annabelle obediently stood up and looked at Timothy before starting to mutter words at a speed that was almost incomprehensibly fast. "From above the clouds of strife, spread your wings and grant us life, your divine light is without end, here I beseech you to lend us a hand."
As she verbalised those words, a surge of magical power seemed to condense around her, creating a pressure that sent everyone's clothes fluttering violently in the wind. As the magical power surged in volume, an illusion of a phoenix seemed to appear above her head.
"Blessing of the Divine Phoenix."
The illusion of the phoenix rushed forth towards Timothy upon those words, threatening to devour the teenage boy. However, upon contact, the phoenix broke apart into thousands of tiny fragments, like a fragile vase that broke upon being dropped onto the floor.
These thousands of fragments lingered in the air for less than a second, then simultaneously rushed straight at Timothy, dissipating upon contact with his skin.
As soon as the fragments dissipated, the mana within Timothy quickly recovered at an incredible pace. Not just that, but he was no longer out of breath, and the colour on his face quickly returned to a vibrant pink.
Roland opened his eyes wide in disbelief as he witnessed the entire process.
What did Annabelle just do?
This was no longer ordinary magic! This was true celestial magic!
Unlike ordinary magic spells that required mana to cast, celestial magic was a completely different class that tapped on the power of faith, and thus required the caster to have gained the recognition of the gods themselves!
In normal circumstances, only priests of the different religions would be able to call upon the power of their respective gods, but Annabelle was able to do so as well?
Roland was shocked speechless at the moment.
He thought that Annabelle was just dabbling with the supernatural as a hobby, but who knew that she had actually managed to reach such a high level of attainment?
"Thank you, Annabelle!" Timothy grinned gleefully as he felt his strength return to him.
Annabelle then turned towards Roland, "Is this okay?"
"Y-Yeah," Roland regained his senses upon being asked. "Does Erin know that you are able to do this?"
"No." Annabelle shook her head briefly.
"I see, I guess you would not have much of a chance to show this in front of her either," Roland sighed helplessly. "If you can help it, try not to do this in front of any outsiders in the future. It might get tricky if other people get to know about this ability of yours."
"Okay." Annabelle nodded and sat back down at the table, apparently unaware of what an incredible feat it was to accomplish what she just did.