Linley Bart thought to himself that he was finished. He desperately hoped that he could acquire an invisibility spell now and be able to hide.
Unfortunately, there were no treasure chests around. Thus, he had to think of other ways.
While he was thinking, the other party's footsteps were getting closer and closer. If he didn't hide immediately, the outcome would definitely be terrible.
Linley Bart looked around and found that there was a large wardrobe in the room that could fit a person.
Linley Bart had no choice but to quickly open the wardrobe and hide inside.
He then left a small opening on the door of the closet to observe the situation outside.
After the door to the room clicked open, a little girl walked in. She looked to be about 16 or 17 years old and was wearing a pink dress.
This girl was called Alice. She was a princess of a kingdom.
There were many kingdoms and princesses on the continent, but Alice was different.
Her father managed to become a king despite not being a noble.
Almost all the kings on the continent were descendants of their ancestors' bloodlines and each royal family had at least a thousand years of history.
Only people that came from such families could become kings or nobles.
Commoners would not gain the approval of the other kings even if they wanted to become kings. If such a situation happened, they would attack the king together with the excuse that he was not a noble.
Therefore, the nobles on the continent were all related by blood. These blood relations were stabilized through generations of inter-marriages across different families.
Alice's father, on the other hand, became the king through his own strength and army.
Her father's name was Jolon. He used to be the leader of a mercenary group and fought for the other kings.
There were often wars on the continent. Thus, it was very common for kings to hire mercenaries to fight for them.
However, even the king's treasury could not handle the long years of war. There were many cases where kingdoms suffered continuous losses and debts which caused mercenaries to defect.
Jolon was a legendary mercenary. His battle achievements were unrivaled on the continent. As the number one mercenary group on the continent, he had served many kings.
He kept his word and thus hated those kings who didn't keep to their word and refused to pay.
Faced with such a king, he only had one choice, and that was to conquer his territory and get back the money.
As a result, Jolon took over a territory and proclaimed himself king.
Although he was not recognized by the nobles, he was much stronger than some of the kings from smaller kingdoms.
Moreover, he had an extremely powerful army.
The emperor himself also wanted to make use of this unique "Mercenary King" and thus tacitly allowed him to call himself a king.
Alice was Jolon's daughter. Her father had sent her to the sorcery academy.
As she did not come from a noble family, she was not recognized as a princess. However, she cared very much about other people's opinions.
Alice had been practicing magic and was hoping to prove herself through her efforts.
However, the harder she tried, the more the girls around her looked down on her and often mocked her for being a "mercenary princess".
This made Alice feel extremely humiliated. She felt that no matter what she did, she could not change the opinions of others.
She was bullied in class again today.
A group of people had dirtied her dress using magic, making her extremely furious. She then started a fight with them.
Although she was stopped by her teacher, her teacher was not on her side.
They thought that Alice had made the first move, so they asked Alice to apologize to them.
Alice didn't apologize. She skipped class in a fit of rage and returned to her dormitory.
Now, her clothes were still dirty. Those hateful girls used magic to create black ink and poured it on Alice's pink dress.
Alice was very angry, but there was nothing she could do.
She could only change out of her dirty clothes for now.
She walked towards the wardrobe step by step, wanting to change into a new set of clothes.
But the moment she pulled open the closet, Alice found a man hiding in her closet.
Alice was so frightened that she wanted to scream.
Linley didn't expect Alice to open the wardrobe as soon as she returned. He had been discovered!
He definitely couldn't let her shout or else it would attract more people.
"Spiritual Control!"
Linley Bart immediately used the magic he had just acquired from the treasure chest. He could only try to control Alice's mind for now.
However, he didn't expect that Alice merely became a little dazed and did not become under his control.
Linley Bart felt that controlling her was a bit strenuous. This was because he was currently only a Trainee Apprentice Sorcerer. Furthermore, he had already used many spells today. Using an S-rank spell was already very difficult and draining for him.
Not to mention that Alice was an Intermediate Sorcerer. Her strength was already very powerful and she had a resistance to spiritual magic.
Linley Bart was unable to completely control her and he had discovered that Alice seemed to have a piece of magical equipment protecting her.
If he forcibly controlled Alice, it would definitely cause a reaction from the magic equipment. There seemed to be a mysterious person controlling the magic equipment.
Linley Bart didn't dare to act rashly. All he could do was temporarily make Alice lose focus and forget about this part of her memories. Only then would he be able to escape.
"Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Forget everything." Linley Bart said.
When Alice heard this voice, she immediately felt drowsy. She did not know what had happened. It was as if she was having a dream.
Something terrible seemed to have happened in her dream.
A man was actually in her own closet! This gave her a huge scare.
But when Alice woke up again and opened the closet to check, she realized that there was no one inside.
This was indeed a dream. However, Alice felt a lingering fear.
This dream was way too real, but thankfully it was just a dream.
Alice felt that this might be because she had been too nervous recently. However, she could not give up. As long as she could participate in the sorcery competition and prove herself and as long as she became the champion, no one would laugh at her for being the "princess of mercenaries" anymore.
At that time, she would be called the "champion of the sorcery competition" and the "best sorcerer on the continent".
Not only herself, but even her father would be gratified.
Thinking of this, Alice worked harder to practice magic.
Linley Bart, who had escaped from the girl's room, also quietly left the female dormitory. However, when using the spiritual control skill, he had gotten hold of some of Alice's memories.
This gave Linley Bart some impression of Alice. She was a girl who worked hard to prove herself and thus wondered if he could help her in any way.