Things They Didn't Say Out Loud

Chapter 6: The Same Intention

"Your Majesty, Master Lucas is asking for an audience with you, would you accept?"

It was a rare occasion for the young warlock to request a face-to-face meeting with him except for the advanced magic study supervision. Usually, he always delegated a lower-ranked magician to deliver his reports or finished works. So, he assumed that it might be something very important.

"Alright. Let him in,"

Shortly after, Lucas entered his office, bowed to him as per Obelian custom.

"Blessing and Glory upon Obelia. Good morning, Your Majesty,"

Claude quickly nodded, acknowledging his greetings.

"Is there something urgent you need to talk about?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. Actually, I wanted to discuss Princess Athanasia's condition and also, my plan to leave my position as Royal Magician for a while,"

Upon hearing his daughter's name, his back straightened. Lucas had his attention now that if the matter was related to Athanasia.

"What about Athanasia? Elaborate,"

And so, Lucas explained to him about the incident that happened on the day of debutante ball. Of course, he spared the details about witnessing the princess being sad in the middle of the event. The Princess didn't even bring it up when he visited her afterward, so it wasn't his place to tell her Father. He also mentioned the fact that the Princess' mana was growing quite difficult to handle these days. Apparently, according to Lucas, the constant maintenance that he regularly performed might turn ineffective one day, and they need to prepare how to mitigate the risk of Athanasia's sudden mana storm, or at least prepare a few steps ahead if the worst was taking place.

"Regarding this new development of the Princess' condition, I want to propose several actions plans. The first one is to closely track her mana activity, in order to gain insight into what might trigger her abnormal mana production. I hypothesize that there's a connection between the princess' mood or psychological state and her mana. This might require a supporting magical device to be attached on her in some way, and I will only do it if both Your Majesty and the Princess allow me,"

"The second action is related to my plan about leaving the Palace... You might remember that last year I mentioned my plan to set on the journey to find the World Tree of the Sacred Land. From what I've learned, the World Tree would bear its fruit around this year. The fruit and the parts of World Tree itself were believed to be a panacea for any physical or magical illness... So that might be one of the solutions we should seek to permanently stabilize the Princess' mana.

'Beside also being beneficial for my mana replenishment, of course,'

However, if Your Majesty grants my request to leave, we need someone to take my role in supervising the princess' condition and perform necessary maintenance from time to time.

Pardon me for my impudence, Your Majesty; but after evaluating all the magicians of the tower, I hadn't found any suitable candidate. It required a complex set of skills and adequate mana. Therefore, in my humble judgment, the only person who's going to be able to be my substitute for controlling the princess' mana might be... you," Lucas finally ended the long speech.

Emperor Claude was looking intently as the young magician explained the situation to him. A familiar sense of fear suddenly gripped his heart. All these times, he thought that as long as the magician was staying by her side, her mana would always be under control... But suddenly, the threat of her dangerous mana surfaced once again.