My Childhood Friend Is An Archmage Chapter 61
Translated by d6y (ko-fi)
Chapter 61
"Hold on, Lancer. What are the pyjamas for?"
"I'm going to have dinner at your house and stay overnight.”
"The dinner invitation doesn't include a night's stay."
The clueless Lancer doesn't understand my euphemistic refusal. "Then why don't you include it?"
"Why do you insist on sleeping in someone else's house?"
"You slept over at my house last time, Skyla. So now it's my turn."
"No." I flatly refuse. "There are people sent by the Crown Prince in the Kaerun Duchy right now. If you sleep there, what will they think of your relationship with me?"
"Best-”
"If you say best friends, I'm not giving you a ride."
Lancer keeps his mouth shut until we're in the carriage bound for the Kaerun Duchy.
* * *
After departing from Soli Duchy, Lancer and I arrived not long after.
"Here we are- huh?”
Ticef opens the carriage door for us when he suddenly begins to sniff.
"What's wrong, Ticef?"
"My lady, don't you smell something burning?"
"Burning?" At his words, I sniff the air around me. He's right, there is a faint smell of fire. "Is there a fire somewhere?"
"I'll go check," Lancer says, getting out of the carriage first and escorting me out.
Then he's suddenly gone.
"Woah!" Not having seen Lancer using magic, Ticef jumps in surprise. “Where'd he go?"
"He said he was going to see where the fire was." I huff.
I'm already accustomed to Lancer's unnecessary use of advanced magic, so I'm no longer surprised when it happens again. On the other hand, Ticef is a different story.
"Wow, did Lord Lancer just use teleportation magic? Isn't that supposed to be difficult for even imperial mages to use- Oh my god!"
"I'm back."
Lancer returns.
Startled by his reappearance in the blink of an eye, Ticef let out an involuntary scream. I greet Lancer with an unperturbed expression. "So, what was the problem?"
"Your parents were setting a bonfire outside."
Starting a fire? If they want to play with fire, they can sit at home in front of the fireplace….
"Where?"
"In the garden. I caught a glimpse of it from the air, so I'm not exactly sure."
"Wow, in the air….” Ticef, who has been listening to our conversation, exclaims. Ticef looks at him with twinkles in his eyes as Lancer stares at him, as if he's strange.
"Lord Lancer."
"Huh?"
"I was just wondering… since you're an archmage, you can do any kind of magic, right?"
"Yes."
"Then can you also do magic that controls people?"
Ticef’s inner thoughts are like this: ‘Even if you're the Lord Lancer, you can't do legendary magic like controlling people into your servants, can you?’
Perhaps he's giving Lancer too much credit.
“....” Lancer stares at him for a moment. Then, "Yes, I can." A response came out of Ticef's lips, not Lancer's.
Thump!
Having experienced magic first-hand from his own mouth, Ticef faints on the spot.
I leave him to others and walk away with Lancer towards the mansion. The nearer we get, the stronger the smell of burning becomes.
Normally, I don't care what my parents are doing; they're always so lost in their own world. But this time, I'm genuinely curious about what exactly they're doing.
"Can we see my parents first?”
"Sure. I think I'd better say hello, too."
After asking for Lancer's understanding, I head into the garden with him in search of my parents. It's not difficult to find them, now that the sun has set and it's quite dark, I can see the fire burning brightly in the distance.
And as Lancer said, my parents were sitting by the fire.
Sensing my presence, they turn their heads towards me, breaking into grins.
"Oh my goodness, look who it is! Our beautiful daughter Skyla. What should we do? We thought you were coming home late today so we had dinner first."
"It's okay."
"Oh, by the way, Lancer is here too! Are you two officially together now?"
"What are you doing here?" I ask, ignoring the latter question.
My mother lowers the wooden stick in her hand and laughs. "Oh, you mean this? I'm spending some quality time with your father after a long while. Whoo."
After a long while? That's not something I'd hear from my parents, who spend 25 hours a day dating.
"Haha. Actually, when we were dating, we used to roast marshmallows over a little fire. Hehe, it was so cute to watch your mom panic when she roasted marshmallows for the first time….”
"I wasn't wondering that."
"Anyway, your mom used to keep smearing marshmallows around her mouth when she ate them, and I would wipe them off with a handkerchief. Then one day, your mom suddenly kissed me on the cheek-”
"Goodbye."
I wave to my parents with a disinterested face, and take Lancer's hand to walk into the mansion.
"Skyla, shall we roast marshmallows later?"
"F*ck off."
We head straight into the dining room.
"Please prepare a table for two."
The servants glance at Lancer and nod before swiftly setting the table for us.
"You have returned, my lady."
"Ah, Austin." When Austin came to greet me, I thought it was the right time to ask him, "Can you gather up the invitations to upcoming gatherings and put them in my room?"
For a moment, bewilderment flashes across Austin's face. "Invitations to… gatherings?"
"Yeah.”
"Well. I'm so sorry, my lady… but all the invitations addressed to you have been burned."
What?
I blink slowly at his unexpected reply.
Burned? Why would the invitations be burned?
"I don't know if you saw it on your way to the manor, but… the Duke and Duchess thought they could have a bonfire with the letters."
“...Did he mean to use all the invitations for me as firewood to roast marshmallows?"
"Yes, he did."
‘How nice would it have been if you had taken a look at them when I told you each time….’
I can hear Austin lamenting in his mind.
This is giving me a headache.
"So we're not going to a gathering then?" Lancer asks, unbothered.
“...For now." How the hell are we gonna go to a gathering with burnt invitations?
My plans to show Lancer my invitation after dinner went up in smoke. Unlike me, who's sighing for most of the meal, Lancer happily enjoys the raspberry tart for dessert.
"Do you want me to bring you the invitations that others got?"
"Please, do me a favour and stop trying to use magic to commit crimes.”
I have to report to the Crown Prince on the progress we've made tomorrow. What do I even say to him?
Tonight, I have a nightmare. In my dream, a giant, half-burnt invitation appears.
‘Kekeke, you didn't value socialising….’ With a truly villainous laugh, it set itself on fire.
"No, no!" I wake up with a scream.
The sun has risen on a new day. It's Saturday. Today's the day I meet the crown prince.
I'm screwed.
I don't even have any information to report to him.
Although I'd been able to get Prince Cade to tell me a lot about the late Princess Bliss, it's not enough. Prince Cade was adamant that I keep the fact that I had discovered his identity a secret, His Highness wasn't an exception.
So this week, I would end up looking like I'd done nothing at all.
Damn.
Behind the crown prince is the emperor. And the latter is not going to be happy with a report that says, "I've been doing research this week, but nothing has been achieved yet!”
What if the emperor changes his mind and sends Lancer back to the north after he sees that I'm making no progress?
As my mind races, I become impatient.
Should I ask my mother again….
For a woman who was named the Social Slaughter back in her days, I'm sure my mother still holds her footing. The last time I went to a ball, she even compiled a list of the major figures for me.
But I don't want her to know that me and Lancer want to attend a gathering.
I'm sure she'll conspire with Phoebe to force me to wear that busted blue dress….
Apart from that, I'm still angry that my parents had dared to burn gathering invitations sent to me.
Of course, after hearing about it, they apologised to me. Still, I'm furious that they had disposed of my things without telling me.
…For now, I'll tell His Highness the truth as it is.
With a heavy heart, I climb into the carriage heading for the palace.
When I meet the crown prince, I explain the situation to him:
In addition to Lancer, I also gathered information on Princess Bliss, another archmage who existed recently. And how it was important for Lancer to meet others besides me in order to improve his ability to control his emotions.
"However, due to some circumstances, we have not yet decided on a gathering for him to attend," I conclude my brief report.
Silently listening to me, the crown prince slowly speaks. "Now that I recall it, I never saw Lord Lancer show his face anywhere."
"Yes. He's very reclusive."
"Then let us do this. I agree with everything you've told me so far. Lord Lancer must realise that there are people in this world besides you."
"That's exactly what I'm saying." I nod my head vigorously. The crown prince lets out a light chuckle before continuing,
"It's soon my little sister, Princess Julia's birthday. She will be nine years old. I shall invite you and Lord Lancer to her birthday party."