- The Uninvited Guest
So that Sunday morning, the two young men sat on a bench in the central garden of Basamiel Academy, waiting for an earthquake.
Mikhail Luce Inehart stood up from the bench where he had been sitting in silence for a while. It was a bit cruel to ask a boy who trained every day to stay still in one place for hours.
The prince slowly began to move his stiff limbs.
“No more specific guess? I mean, I know it’s supposed to be today. But we can’t just wait here all day.”
“If you’re busy, go do something else. I’ll let you know later.”
Flip— Adrian Heather turned a page of the book he was reading, seated comfortably on the garden bench. He continued reading, clearly unfazed by the prince’s irritated complaint.
The prince stared at him silently for a moment, then crossed his arms in frustration. Just as he leaned his back against a marble sculpture in the garden—That’s when it happened.
The moment the prince’s body touched the sculpture, his head jerked up. He felt something. A subtle vibration coursed through his entire body.
Adrian slowly closed the book he’d been reading and stood up from the bench.
“…It’s an earthquake.”
“Yeah.”
Mikhail muttered, eyes fixed on the academy’s main building. Rrrrmm… The ground trembled with a fine vibration. Suddenly, Mikhail sprang into motion as if someone had unpinned him from the ground.
“It’s now! Hurry!”
The prince was the first to dash across the central garden. Adrian watched him run for a moment, hesitating.
Just like I thought yesterday… It really is an earthquake.
The Gold Dragon wore a sour expression. Things going too smoothly was its own kind of problem.
Rrrrrrr—The faint vibrations in the ground grew stronger, as if urging him to run too.
“…Fine.”
Adrian reluctantly pulled his feet off the ground and followed, heading toward wherever was calling them.
Tap, tap. The sound of two pairs of shoes echoed through the narrow stone stairs beneath the ground.
“Do you really think you’ll be able to get that sword back?”
Adrian asked, walking beside the prince. Even if Mikhail managed to find that Salamander by some ridiculous stroke of luck, he would still have to subdue the spirit and force it to cough up the sword.
“It’s my sword. A guy who loses his sword doesn’t deserve to be a knight. I have to make it right.”
Fair enough. Adrian silently agreed. But it was an incredibly reckless and unrealistic stance. There was no detailed plan in that tiny royal brain about how he was going to find the Salamander or make it give up the sword.
Honestly, it’d be faster—and far safer—to just earn 10,000 Tilons and buy the Fellen Deeps’ Sword.
Rrrmm—! The ground shook again, as if urging them to stop talking and get moving.
Descending the stone steps brought them to the basement of the lecture hall they’d followed the alchemy professor to before. Right next to the alchemist’s chamber stood a steel door.
That was the one.
Mikhail placed his hand on the doorknob and glanced back to check on Adrian. The latter gave him a slow nod, as if telling him to hurry up and open it. Confirming this, the prince gripped the handle and flung the metal door open in one motion.
Beyond the door lay a dense forest.
A startled bird, disturbed by the branches swaying as the metal door creaked open, flapped its wings and flew away. Its cheerful chirping filled the silence between Adrian and Mikhail.
“So it’s a forest this time,” Adrian murmured, stepping through the doorway into the thick woods without hesitation.
Mikhail followed, slowly crossing the threshold. Just as the prince was about to step fully through—
“Wait.”
Blocked by a pale hand, the prince gave Adrian a confused look.
“It might be dangerous. The door could disappear just as suddenly as it appeared…”
Adrian shook the small box he had brought from the greenhouse. He always carried it since he used it daily there. Click. Opening the box revealed it was filled with blue dye.
“Let’s leave a marker.”
“Good idea.”
The prince waited as Adrian scooped up a generous amount of the blue dye with his index finger and drew a thick line on the ground just in front of the door—scrape—.
Caw, caw— The ominous cries of crows echoed in the distance. The forest was dense—oppressively so—and something about it sent a chill down the spine. Mikhail narrowed his eyes, gazing far off toward the horizon.
“It’s a forest, sure… but there are mountains way out there. Where even are we?”
“No idea.”
Swipe— After finishing the mark, Adrian casually wiped the leftover dye on his clothes. Straightening up slowly, he turned his eyes in the same direction the prince was looking.
“That’s what we’ll have to figure out.”
Mikhail glanced once more at the line Adrian had drawn on the ground. The door they had come through remained open, and through it, he could still see the alchemist’s chamber at Basamiel Academy.
It was a bizarrely surreal sight.
Hoo—haa…
Mikhail closed his eyes and took in a deep, expansive breath. As he exhaled, his delicate silver lashes stood out against his face. Adrian had already guessed the significance of that breath.
The Gold Dragon had felt it the moment they stepped foot into this place—
“…This is strange.”
“What is?”
Adrian tilted his head slightly, wearing a curious smile, as if prompting him to go on.
“Was the atmosphere always this saturated with mana?”
In an instant, Mikhail’s lashes lifted—his crimson eyes flashing.
“There’s something off about this place.”
The Gold Dragon nodded in agreement. The air here was utterly different from that of Basamiel Academy, where mana was so scarce that only a select few could wield magic. Here, though, mana was abundant—almost overwhelmingly so.
Adrian breathed deeply, refreshed by the mana that tickled his skin. He hadn’t realized how much he missed air like this until now.
The prince was right. Something was off about this forest.
Wait—
Adrian suddenly let out a sharp exhale and bent at the waist. He stared intently at something on the ground.
“…What is it?”
Mikhail stepped closer and asked, noticing the sudden shift.
“Look at this saw-toothed leaf.”
The prince rolled his eyes and snapped his head in the opposite direction.
“Seriously? You’re freaking out over a weed?”
Adrian looked up at him with an unusually grave expression.
“Saw-toothed leaves and roots that surface above the ground… this is Polirep.”
Seeing Adrian so serious, the prince instinctively leaned over to inspect the plant himself. With a sigh, he muttered,
“…And that is?”
He’s not about to start collecting herbs, is he? Mikhail grumbled internally.
Adrian’s eyes remained fixed on the plant.
“Polirep is a mana-consuming plant. It used to grow everywhere, totally common. But these days, it’s rare—almost extinct. With mana so thin in the air now, you won’t find this kind of thing in the wild unless it’s inside a specially cultivated artificial environment. Finding it naturally would be like finding a water spirit in a desert…”
Shit.
Adrian suddenly shot upright. The air, saturated with suspiciously familiar mana. The Polirep growing wild.
I should’ve realized it immediately.
Cursing silently, the Gold Dragon turned toward the door they had entered from.
Fortunately, the basement of Basamiel Academy was still visible through the metal doorway.
“We have to go back. Now.”
Adrian grabbed Mikhail’s arm firmly and yanked him toward the door.
“Why?”
The prince allowed himself to be pulled a few steps despite the irritation of having his arm manhandled. But judging by Adrian’s face, something serious was going on.
And then—
Creeeak—
“…Huh?”
Mikhail froze mid-reach. That sound—it was strange. Like a heavy iron door slowly closing.
CLANG!
The door slammed shut.
“No!”
The prince shouted, startling a few birds into the air with a frantic flutter.
The moment the metal door closed, it vanished—just like that, as if it had never existed.
Mikhail waved his hand through the now-empty space. Of course, he felt no trace of mana.
“This… wasn’t part of the plan.”
Adrian muttered, eyes still fixed where the door had disappeared.
