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HELHEIM SCANS
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Chapter 157
That look in her eyes, as if she’s so much more mature and understands everything!
I may still be inexperienced in dealing with people, but I was never the type to hesitate when facing someone.
I will shatter Luna’s arrogant attitude.
Fueled by my anger, I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward me.
Her eyes widened in surprise.
I reached out, cupped both of her cheeks, and pressed my forehead against hers.
Kissing her lips still felt too advanced, so at the very least, I would conquer this much.
After the warmth and softness passed, I stumbled back.
I hadn’t planned to go this far, but I had crossed the line far too easily.
“Uh…”
Now that I had actually done it, I felt my head flush with even more heat.
I took a step back, then another.
How would Luna react?
As I raised my head to look at her,
“A… Ahh…”
Her expression showed slight shock.
The same woman who flirted effortlessly and expressed affection as naturally as breathing had suddenly lost strength in her legs and collapsed on the spot.
Her face was flushed red like a ripe persimmon, her trembling hands unable to find their place, hugging herself.
…Was she a glass cannon?
In other words, the type who fires flirtation like cannonballs at their partner but shatters like glass when the situation is reversed.
I had heard of cases like this before.
I considered testing it further, but honestly, I wasn’t confident I could handle it either.
In the end, all I could do was flee the scene.
“Oh my, oh my…”
“Oh my, how sweet…”
As I hurried away, I noticed some passing maids watching us from the shadows, their hands covering their mouths as their eyes sparkled with excitement.
I shot them a quick glare, making them scatter, then quickly left.
* * *
The aftereffects of my ambush on Luna lingered in my mind, making it hard to concentrate.
“Hey! Are you even paying attention?!”
Melissa’s sharp voice snapped me out of my thoughts as she swung her sword fiercely at me.
A crushing aura of energy radiated from her, pressing down on everything around us as her blade struck toward me with deadly precision.
She was clearly wielding a real sword and swinging it at me with the intent to kill.
Meanwhile, I was fending her off with nothing more than a stick I picked up nearby.
“Relax your left leg. Even an idiot would get a feel for it by now.”
Melissa had overwhelming talent compared to me.
I had only gotten this far by throwing in endless hours of effort.
And that made it even more satisfying to push her—someone naturally gifted—using my own abilities.
Smack!
“Argh!!”
The pain momentarily disrupted Melissa’s aura, but she quickly regained her composure.
It was starting to take effect.
Right now, Melissa had broken through to the mid-expert level.
The only reason my previous opponents had seemed so strong was that they were complete monsters.
In reality, reaching mid-expert at her age put her among the rarest geniuses on the continent.
Still, I didn’t go easy on her.
The more talented she was, the harsher my training became.
“If you’re gonna fight like that, just quit. You wouldn’t even kill an ant.”
“Hmph!!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Heavy impacts clashed as sparks flew from our blows.
For a stick and a real sword to collide like this and produce such results was shocking, but Melissa didn’t stop her assault.
She used to be overly cautious, barely able to decide to attack.
“You’ve improved.”
“I’ve gotten used to you. It won’t be so easy anymore.”
“Heh…”
“You must be jealous. Guess I really do have some talent, since we’re related.”
“Hahahaha!!”
I was still holding back, but she was indeed getting better.
However, there were many ways to raise the difficulty.
“Hey! What’s so funny?!”
“Then let’s do this.”
I adjusted my grip on the stick.
Then, I swiftly pulled out a hidden flash artifact from my pocket and tossed it.
She had been blinded by these enough times before to instinctively close one eye and react quickly.
She didn’t lose sight of me despite the distraction—a praiseworthy reaction.
But the flash artifact wasn’t the real trick.
A blueish energy began to flow through my stick, different from my usual aura.
[Azure Dragon Sword Technique]
“Huh? What… Why is your sword changing…?”
Melissa collapsed to the ground in less than ten seconds.
* * *
The Margrave of Cascadia.
Melissa Cascadia was leading an incredibly busy life, even from an outsider’s perspective.
Managing her territory, dealing with external matters, and preparing to return to the academy—she had too much on her plate.
So whenever I had free time, I helped with her work.
It was the only way she’d have any time to visit Arsha.
Things were hectic for now, but they would settle down eventually.
As I sorted through documents to assess the current political situation, most of them contained nothing of real concern.
Then, one particular document caught my eye.
It was a letter on elegant, old-fashioned stationery.
At a glance, it looked like a love letter.
Judging by its format and feel, it seemed to come from a noble family of significant standing in a foreign country.
My eyes widened as I examined it.
“Is this for Melissa?”
Well, she was of age now, so it wasn’t strange for marriage proposals to start arriving.
Most of them were probably after the privileges that came with her title as a Margrave.
But if this was from a foreign country, things might be different.
To them, Cascadia was practically the countryside—it held little appeal.
So if they were still sending love letters…
Had she fallen for someone without me knowing?
“Hmmm…”
I pondered deeply.
A man who would court Melissa…
“Whoever he is, he's terribly unlucky. Should I save him as a fellow human being…?”
Thinking that, I checked the sealing wax to confirm the emblem of the letter.
And at that moment, my hand froze.
“The Imperial Family?”
The letter was from the Imperial Family of the Pascalia Empire.
Why would the Imperial Family send a love letter to Melissa?
Feeling puzzled, I glanced around to check my surroundings.
Ah, could she have had a romantic encounter when she visited the Berner Count's territory?
Melissa was currently watching over Arsha, who was asleep after entrusting me with a task.
I would just take a quick look and put it back in its place.
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Whoever the recipient was, I needed to know in order to decide whether to save him or not.
So, I opened the letter and secretly checked its contents.
And then, I realized I had made a major misunderstanding.
The love letter wasn't for Melissa.
Because Melissa knew that Luna and I were lovers, she had set it aside separately, and I had mistaken it for a letter addressed to her.
The sender was none other than the Imperial Princess of the Empire.
Eilena Lu Pascalia.
The contents were simple.
It started with inquiring about my well-being, then politely asked if I could visit the Empire and have tea with her if I was available.
Among nobles, including such content in a love letter didn’t mean they were just inviting you for tea.
It meant they were determined to sink their teeth into the matter and push for some progress.
With the difference in status, if the other party was the Imperial Family, they could practically commit an act close to coercion without any real consequences.
“What?”
“Ahh!!”
I was so focused on the letter that I hadn’t even noticed Luna had silently approached me, startling me out of my wits.
“Hmm… That little girl?”
Luna quickly caught on to who the sender was and nodded her head knowingly.
“Uh… yeah. Seems like it.”
“Good?”
“What do you mean, good?”
“She’s pretty. Isn’t that a good thing?”
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
At some point, she had started to show signs of jealousy.
“No matter what, I’m going to reject it. She mistook her feelings for love because I saved her in a dangerous situation, but that kind of relationship isn’t good for either of us.”
Even as I tried to explain, Luna’s gaze remained unchanged.
Come to think of it, she seemed to be teasing me right now.
For a moment, I considered counterattacking, but I quickly dismissed the idea.
What was there to gain from winning this?
Fortunately, the letter was from the Imperial Princess personally, not an official imperial communication.
I promptly prepared a sheet of stationery and wrote a polite refusal.
If she was the Imperial Princess Eilena, she must have already heard that I had called off my engagement with Mielephon.
That was probably why she had sent this letter.
However, just because I had broken off my engagement didn’t mean I could give her any false hope.
That would be disrespectful to Luna, above all else.
After stamping the Cascadia seal, I summoned a steward and handed over the letter.
“Send this to the trading company. The destination is the Pascalia Imperial Family.”
“Understood, Young Master.”
Once I sent off the steward and wrapped things up, the only thing left was to inspect the mining development site.
Fortunately, there wasn’t much to worry about regarding the Paradise Artifact project I had entrusted to Aurora.
“I’m heading to the mines. Want to come?”
“I should probably keep an eye on Arsha for now.”
Though she seemed reluctant to stay behind, it was hard to tell her to shirk her responsibility when it came to Arsha.
“All right. I’ll leave it to you, then.”
Immediately, I circulated elemental mana and activated a teleportation spell.
In terms of difficulty, teleportation magic was actually simpler than the shadow transfer used in necromancy.
On the other hand, it did carry some risks, but nothing too concerning.
In an instant, the scenery around me shifted, revealing a bustling mine filled with workers and ongoing development.
As I walked further in, I saw laborers and undead carrying supplies.
“Oh! Young Master.”
“Long time no see, Verus.”
“Hah! It hasn’t been that long, but since you’ve been so busy, it does feel like ages. Here for an inspection?”
Verus, the dwarven craftsman, who had been giving orders to both workers and undead from the mine's management post, stood up as soon as he saw me.
“Yeah, I figured I’d check on things.”
“I had quite a bit to report anyway.”
“There aren’t any issues, right?”
“Well, thanks to these undead that never need rest, the work itself is going smoothly, but we ran into a bit of trouble with a newly discovered underground vein.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
Dwarves had many mining experts.
Especially Master Verus, who had worked in the mining industry even back in his homeland, so his experience was more extensive than one might expect.
“What do you think? Is there potential?”
“Potential? That goes without saying.”
After a moment of contemplation, he spoke up.
“You see, these newly discovered tunnels… there are some environmental issues that require a mage to handle.”
“A mage? Can’t we handle most things with artifacts?”
Artifacts were generally sufficient to deal with most problems, so summoning a high-ranking mage was usually unnecessary.
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