A bizarre scene could be seen in a room with a boy and a girl present.
If one looked closely at the boy, they would notice bandages all over his body except for his face.
He was almost looking like a mummy.
The boy was sitting on the bed with his back against a pillow, which was acting as a cushion between him and the wall.
The girl could be seen holding a plate of apples and feeding him.
"You do know that I could eat on my own," Akeru asked for the nth time.
Though he didn't mind the treatment, it was getting too much even for his thick skin.
"Are you embarrassed?" the girl giggled.
Her one question shut the boy up.
He was not going to accept that fact.
"Anyway, I am finally going to get discharged from this place today," Akeru changed the topic.
"Despite that, you are not supposed to remove those bandages or do any strenuous activity for the next three months," she reminded him.
"Yeah, yeah, I would be learning healing magic from you in that span anyway," Akeru reminded her.
'My level of simulating things mentally has reached decent levels. Even if I don't do any mana-related things physically, as long as I simulate frequently, I won't experience any technique decline,' Akeru thought with a smirk.
Soon, Owen came into the room and told him the steps for the next three months—getting regularly checked by a healer and coming to him immediately if they found anything odd.
Though Mimosa could barely be considered a healer at this point, she had enough skill to facilitate that. That was also one of the reasons Owen had decided to discharge him with this much freedom.
Owen left the room.
"Finally, I am free," Akeru said while getting up from the bed.
No, more like floating.
In his mana zone, he could freely control his mana, so flying like this was more convenient and easy.
This was also the reason for him previously saying that he could eat on his own.
"So, are we going to the same magic zone or a different one?" Akeru asked.
He had met with Leopold and Fuegoleon yesterday.
So, they could directly go to the magic zone.
"Are you sure it would be fine for us to go to a grand magic zone like this?"
"Though I might not be at my best, I could defeat a Vice-Captain level individual in a few minutes. If we want any guard, we might need a Captain-level individual," Akeru said with a deadpan expression.
He was not even lying. Even a year ago, when he was 14, he might have had no way to defeat a Vice-Captain, but neither would the other party have had any way to defeat him.
Mana Zone was just that much of a cheat.
Currently, though he couldn't use Orion's Mischief, he could enhance his water projectiles with lightning, increasing their speed. Though it wouldn't catch a Vice-Captain off-guard, it would be enough to pressure them with a barrage for a few minutes.
"Well, I guess we can't get those. Let's go to the same one. There was an investigation team camped there, which led to a larger number of magic knights passing through that area."
Akeru hummed.
They left for that grand magic zone.
"This is ridiculous," Mimosa said while looking at Akeru.
"I know, right?" Akeru didn't deny it.
He was also shocked at the results.
Currently, he was standing without any bandages on his body.
However, that was not the reason for their surprise.
It was the blue glow on Akeru's hands that surprised them.
"It took you three months to learn healing magic," Mimosa didn't hide her bafflement.
"Technically four months, as I did spend nearly one month analyzing Owen's magic."
"I knew that focus spell of yours was broken, but this is still ridiculous," Mimosa ignored his point.
"Yeah, yeah. Though I am still far away from reaching your level, at least I've learned brute-force methods," Akeru said with a shrug.
In the last three months, he was not the only one who gained something.
Mimosa's skill in healing had also improved drastically.
Mimosa would cast a spell, and Akeru would ask questions.
This cycle repeated until they reached this point.
Initially, Mimosa could answer all his queries, but soon, as more time passed, she had to delve into books to answer them, along with some experimentation by herself.
They had just arrived at the Vermillion Estate a few seconds ago, as Akeru's initial goal was accomplished, and so was Mimosa's.
"Which squad are you going to join?" Mimosa asked.
"You will know with time," Akeru said with a mysterious smile.
They parted ways, and Akeru met with the siblings and had lunch with them.
"So, have you decided which squad to join?" Leopold asked.
"Well..." Akeru forgot how to break this point to them.
Though he was officially considered a royal now, to most royals he could still be considered a peasant.
And to commoners, he would be considered a royal.
He was in a weird position and couldn't use this as a proper excuse.
Though he was not going to announce himself as a royal to everyone, some people were bound to know.
"Yami already told us in the last meeting," Fuegoleon decided to intervene.
"He did?" Akeru said. However, his question was more about whether Fuegoleon was fine with it or not.
"Do you really want to take that path?" Fuegoleon asked instead.
Though he didn't think Akeru would be forced to join that squad by Yami, he asked just in case.
"Yeah, I had initial plans to join the Black Bulls even before I met him," Akeru said.
"That's good. It's not really necessary for all people of our estate to go into the Crimson Lions. There are several other examples, like Kirsch. As long as it's your decision, we will support you."
Though Fuegoleon didn't say it directly, he did consider Akeru a member of House Vermillion.
"Thanks!" Akeru said gratefully while bowing.
He thought it was the least he could do in this situation.
"Just wait. I will catch up with you soon, my rival," Leopold said.
Akeru just grinned. "I'll be waiting for that, then."
"That reminds me, this magic stone was given to one of our ancestors by an outsider when they saved our ancestor. It was a symbol to repay that gratitude to someone else. Though you are not considered an outsider now, I think it's appropriate for you to hold on to this stone," Fuegoleon handed a stone to Akeru.
The stone was triangular in shape, and red in colour, with a pattern of a circle above a crescent with four spades connected.
"Very well," Akeru accepted the stone with a graceful expression. However, internally he was anything but graceful.
'Fuck, won't this make me the target of the Eye of Midnight Sun instead? Though I won't wear it like I wear my grimoire, does that group have a way to track all the stones? Then I'm cooked,' Akeru thought, wondering what to do with the stone.
They had a decent lunch, and Akeru left the royal capital.
Before leaving the capital, he spent one hour engraving a lot of seals on the storage artifact, which would prevent it from being detected.
However time would only tell whether they were effective measures or not.
'Maybe I should find a way to make the Spade Kingdom act soon. That might make the Eye of Midnight Sun help too. Plus, Julius won't be crippled, so he could at least take on one member of the Dark Triad on his own, right?' Akeru entertained a dangerous thought.
'Though this could lead to everything going downhill if the Eye of Midnight Sun decided to use that conflict as an opportunity for their plans,' Akeru sighed.
To make that decision properly, he would have to consider multiple factors, including those he wasn't aware of due to the butterfly effect.
'I wonder if the mid-level devil coming into this world is because of me. The only change I can think of is some of the magic knight forces trying to find me when I was mistaken as a spy. Does this mean that if that didn't happen, someone would have found this nefarious operation earlier? What if I hadn't transmigrated? Would this body already be dead, sacrificed, or something? Did my interaction with Mereoleona cause a ripple effect I didn't notice?'
Akeru had too many questions with no definite answers.
'Anyway, time to head toward the Black Bulls base.'
Purple lightning enveloped Akeru, and he disappeared in a flash.
***
A/n- The most awaited scene of the fic is going to come up soon, are you guys excited?
***
Join my Patreon to support me and get up to 20 advanced chapters:
- DESIRE96
(search it up)
Check out my other works too.