I Became the Dark Wizard Who Rules Over the Heroines

63 – Festival-3

The carriage moved.

‘There is no need for an escort. First of all, it is better to move with the minimum number of people.’

The atmosphere was quite cold, but no one spoke about it openly.

“This place is so amazing. It’s so rattling!”

In the middle of the carriage, Claire was facing me.

“Yes, yes.”

Claire’s power, her power as a ‘dark priest’, is a given.

Her true value from the beginning was, ‘No matter how dangerous the party is, the relationship never gets so bad that they end up stabbing each other.’ They had the same abilities.

“So, what event is it?”

“Is this your first time going to Córdoba?”

Olivia, who was relatively close to her, answered her question.

Although it seemed like she was making a plan for that friendship, there was nothing wrong with me if I stayed close to her anyway.

“Yes!”

“It’s an ordinary local event. Brave people show off their martial arts, wizards use magic to spice up the festival, and we eat wine and meat.”

“Aha…”

“It’s a bit big, but that’s roughly it.”

Lilian smiled slightly.

“It’s fascinating. A human city… I’ve never been to anything else but here.”

“I see.”

Again, silence continued. Claire talked to herself, and the others answered her with a word or two.

I wanted to answer, but I didn’t have the energy left to respond to Claire’s words.

‘…Really, aren’t you coming?’

After entering the academy, it wasn’t just fighting.

I was doing quite a bit of training on my own. The knowledge I learned at the academy was definitely meaningful, but there were quite a few black magics that were inefficient or unsuitable for me to use.

The output is different. The quality of the magical energy that can be emitted is different.

For me, the black magic that could be used by someone with the magic power of a ‘normal academy student’ was extremely inefficient.

I had to make each one myself. I seemed to have some talent in black magic, but compared to the true geniuses, I was shabby.

Handcrafted with great difficulty, black magic for me. I was watching the surroundings through it.

Light magical energy was emitted up to about 500m around the carriage, detecting foreign life forms.

‘…It’s time to come.’

I thought that if they were targeting us, they would be targeting our most vulnerable moments. A moment when you can’t get help from anyone.

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But the variable did not appear. However, it was impossible to stop surveillance once it had started.

‘Hmm…’

“I’m hungry, when do I eat?”

Claire muttered to herself. Now that I think about it, the sun has already set. It seemed dangerous to go any further from here.

“Okay. Let’s get off slowly.”

Perhaps the other people’s thoughts were not much different from Claire’s, so they got off the carriage without saying anything.

A signal was sent to the driver to stop the carriage. I parked the wagon on one side of the road and took out the food I had prepared.

“Wow, can you see this? It’s so luxurious!”

Claire took out the pot and camping gear, took out the food before the coachman, lit a light fire and started cooking.

A stew containing overly salty salted meat and dry bread. It was difficult to say it was delicious food.

“Wow…”

However, at least one smell was fragrant.

“It’s a little different from what I thought, but I wanted to try something like this! Because it’s an academy!”

“I see…”

She was smiling.

“I was just looking forward to it. It was a close question as to whether I would be able to get into the academy or not, and even after I got in, there was a lot of work to do… I’m glad.”

Now that I think about it, I didn’t enjoy life at this academy.

There was a lot of work to be done. The problem continued endlessly.

If I had not paid attention to the tournament at all or had turned a blind eye to the Kazot incident, I would have had a little more leeway. In the first place, it was not an event that students were asked to participate in as freshmen.

I spent the joint class more peacefully, fighting with each other like everyone else did, or I became closer to the people I met during the class.

“Expectations… I guess. When I think about it, I think the academy life I expected was a bit different from this.”

Olivia let out a slight sneer. It felt like he was laughing at her fate, not someone else.

“It’s the same for me too.”

Kelin also, uncharacteristically, agreed with Olivia’s words.

No one knew of Kazot’s existence, and no one noticed my presence in advance.

The ‘academy life’ they expected would have been very different from reality.

“Well, what do you think? I like it better because it’s different!”

Claire, who was cooking, smiled brightly.

“It’s different from what I expected, but it’s better than that. I met some nice people… And they were all kind.”

Kelin bit her lip nervously. Considering what she did, it would be unreasonable to call herself a ‘good person’.

“So, things will go well in the future!”

It was just a hope without basis, an optimism without reason.

Nevertheless, her smile provided some comfort. Just a little bit.

/////

“Waaa…”

The streets covered with colorful fabrics hinted that a festival would soon be held here.

The atmosphere is bright. People are laughing.

“Hey, I think they sell delicious food over there!”

“Yes. The smell comes all the way from here.”

The meat stew that Claire had high expectations for tasted exactly as expected.

Hers wasn’t that disgusting to my taste, but the taste would have made Kellyn, who had a more refined taste, grimace her face after one bite.

Even Claire and Lilian, who aren’t picky eaters, couldn’t enjoy the menu at the academy’s cafeteria after getting used to it.

“Let’s go into the castle first. It will be waiting for us.”

“Yes!”

The carriage moved on. After going through appropriate screening, I entered the building.

As soon as we got off the carriage, the maids and butlers quickly moved our luggage.

“Thank you for your hard work on the long journey. A banquet has been prepared, so please enjoy it comfortably and relieve your travel fatigue.”

“…I understand.”

At least at this moment, my knowledge was meaningless.

The event in Cordoba that I know of was simply an event where you attend a banquet and enjoy a little food and drinks. It’s not an event where your party takes the lead.

We had to consider that it was almost impossible to attract this much attention for a first-year party.

Even if you took the ‘speedrun’ route in that way, there was no reason to leisurely participate in the event under those circumstances.

‘Still, nothing special will happen.’

I am strong. Moreover, he was in a position where he was under the protection of the academy.

There was no reason for the castle lord to show a hostile attitude towards us, and even if he did, he would not show it outwardly.

When I entered the banquet hall, I could see the lord sitting at the head table.

“Nice to meet you. Enjoy yourselves. People from the Academy praised your heroism.”

“Thank you.”

There was a big smile on Claire’s lips.

She always liked to eat. She had no reason not to be happy with such a feast ahead of her.

As I sat down, I noticed that the lord was watching us.

‘Why?’

In fact, there was no need to ask why. Because there were countless.

First of all, I am strong. If you are a noble who wants peace in your territory, there is no reason to welcome me like that.

On the other hand, it is the same even if the princess or Catherine came. Of course, since he is a noble of the empire, he can happily accept the princess’s visit if he has something he wants or needs to do, but there is no way he would be happy for a powerful man of that level to visit his territory.

“There are many dishes prepared, so please savor them slowly.”

However, the lord also did not try to show his caution right away. The meal has begun.

It was delicious. There were fresh and delicious meat dishes and good quality wine.

In particular, the wine was excellent. The taste was such that it would not be awkward for the people of Cordoba to hold a festival to show off the taste and aroma of this drink.

“If you don’t mind, could you tell me your story? Listening to the story from afar, no matter how much I think about it, there are a lot of strange things.”

The attitude toward a first-year academy student was a bit overly polite.

“It wasn’t anything special. I was just lucky to defeat Kazot, and so was winning the tournament.”

“If anyone were lucky enough to achieve that achievement, there would be a lot of tournament winners in the Academy by now.”

The lord’s complexion was not good. I was desperately trying to get information.

‘As expected, I don’t believe everything.’

Although I was clearly aware that an incident had occurred, I did not seem to have been informed of the scale or development of the incident.

It’s not a strange thing. The Academy was an open space, but if the upper echelons of the empire planned and controlled it, they could distort or suppress rumors coming out of it.

“There were a lot of strange rumors. Even if you heard them, you couldn’t believe them.”

“For example?”

The lord slowly opened his mouth in a cold voice.

“Is it true that the dark priest is in here?”

Claire hiccuped and looked at the lord.

“Yes.”

I nodded slowly.