Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Maid

‘This is the Northern Wall.’

Galahad purely admired the white wall that spread endlessly as if dividing the world.

“My friend said that if I go to the North I must see the Northern Wall, and it is really amazing.”

“······Talking about the Northern Wall like some famous attraction.”

“That means it is that amazing.”

“Because it is the final defense line of humanity against the demon race.”

Gilbert’s eyes narrowed. At that shameless answer Galahad laughed softly.

“The direction the ballista is pointing is this way?”

“Just in case.”

Gilbert laughed deeply.

“Yes, just in case.”

Then, the furry man took out a huge horn. The furry man who wiped his mouth noisily while making chup chup sounds blew the horn.

Puuuuu—!

The horn sound resounded loudly with the momentum to wake the world.

Silver things appeared on top of the castle wall. Because the distance was far it was not properly visible, but seeing the silver it seemed to be soldiers. All clad in iron—. Galahad stuck out his tongue.

Soldiers who came up one by one filled the top of the castle wall.

Puuuuu—!

When the horn sounded again, the center of the white castle wall split with a heavy sound.

Thickly piled snow fell away and a huge iron lattice gate appeared. Creak, the iron lattice slowly rose and snowflakes fluttered roughly.

Exactly like a snow mountain collapsing, large snow clumps fell.

Galahad narrowed his eyes and watched it.

Thud! Drum sounds were heard from afar. Soldiers simultaneously raised spears upward. A knife group dance, no a spear group dance. The pointed spears shone in the sunlight. The spears that had risen high stamped the ground. A heavy sound spread as if an earthquake had occurred. Snowflakes fluttered roughly.

Creak—. The iron lattice soon reached the end. Thud! The drum sound that spread again and the spears stamping down—.

‘Like a well-made musical.’

Galahad purely admired. It was an amazing grandeur, but honestly because of the snowstorm it was not properly visible.

Puuuuu—! The horn and drum sounds heard again. The spears stamping down in time with that—.

“Did they practice for me?”

“······It just matched the time slot.”

Seeing Gilbert’s cough, it seemed correct.

“This is quite moving.”

“···It is what they originally do.”

Thud!!!

Then, the castle gate fully opened. The scenery inside was similar to other cities at a glance, but also completely different.

People wore thick fur clothes so from afar they looked like animals, and they all carried one thing like harpoons or ballistas on their backs.

Along with that the circulating supplies were all things that seemed to be used for war.

‘They are preparing for war.’

Then, the furry man pointed at Galahad with the horn and shouted.

“The mage of the empire has arrived!!”

At the pouring sharp gazes and jeers Galahad clicked his tongue softly.

He waved his hand in time with the flashy introduction, but there was no cheer. Rather the jeers became rougher.

It was eyes full of hostility opposite to the envious gazes one received in the capital if one said mage.

The furry man laughed as if satisfied. It was a childish obstruction.

‘I heard Northern guys are such real men, but it seems not necessarily so.’

Galahad clicked his tongue softly and called the furry guy. The furry guy grinned.

“From next time introduce me as a competent mage. If you introduce just as a mage it is a bit insufficient, isn’t it.”

The furry man’s laughter stopped. It was eyes of ‘What kind of guy is this?’

“Or an outstanding mage is also fine. I shouldn’t say it with my own mouth, but my performance is quite good.”

The furry man shouted something incomprehensible and then disappeared thumping.

“What did that man just say?”

“The cursed byproduct leftover of the demon race bastard dares to act up. Even the appearance is unappetizing—. Why do you provoke?”

“I said the truth, but provocation. But did he really say the appearance is unappetizing?”

Gilbert slightly turned his head. He didn’t. At the vulgar jealousy Galahad squinted his eyes.

‘Finally arrived.’

Galahad muttered while looking at the inner castle visible far away.

He had crossed the continent by carriage.

Quite romantic, isn’t it.

Of course, beneath that there is a vulgar political fight—.

‘Now I will be able to see that famous wife of mine.’

***

He could not see her.

The place Galahad who passed the castle gate arrived at was a huge annex. Galahad was put into the largest room among them.

Gilbert warned several times that contact would go separately so absolutely do not come out until then, and then disappeared.

And in front of that door, fierce-looking men were guarding. They did not use the imperial language, so words did not communicate.

They just blocked the door and prevented Gilbert from coming out. When he tried to go out stealthily, they even thrust an axe with a blue blade.

‘Trapped.’

Having run half the continent, to be locked in an annex as soon as he came—. It was absurd, but it was one of the possibilities Galahad had thought. Among them the worst situation.

‘Thinking of drying him to death.’

The room was large and desolate. There were only necessary things like a bed. Among them the peculiar thing was—.

‘Why is there a chandelier? Are they telling me to hold a banquet.’

He harbored a question while looking at the splendid chandelier on the ceiling that did not match the desolate room at all. It was clear that a truly nasty guy had done the interior.

Galahad sat on the chair and organized his thoughts.

Will contact come? Galahad shook his head small.

Galahad’s family had influence in the center, but not to the extent of spreading to the North.

Even Galahad was not the eldest but the third. A completely useless status in the North.

At least there was the title of genius mage, but in the North that rejects magic that was rather a minus.

That is, to the Grand Duke Galahad had no advantages at all.

In contrast the Grand Duke’s eldest daughter Adrianne was the hero of the North. She was continuously establishing achievements on the battlefield as the youngest Sword Master.

The Grand Duke might check Adrianne, but that possibility was significantly low. Because the Grand Duke’s love for Adrianne was famous.

Galahad assumed he was the Grand Duke and picked through the situation.

He did not know what power struggle there was, but the Grand Duke could not refuse the marriage with the third son of a count.

‘Of course he would not like it.’

Sending one slit-eyed guy as escort and guide and coachman was the evidence. If it was a welcome marriage he would not have sent only one person.

The North was in decline, and its enemy the demon race was still intact. In this situation if they fell out with the empire, the barren North was finished. So for now they let Galahad into the castle.

‘But they have no thought of really marrying.’

They will lock him in the room and delay the marriage while making various excuses. Dragging time like that and if a method to cancel the marriage appears···.

‘They will discard him.’

Galahad swallowed the bitter saliva.

With that much they would be satisfied. From the beginning there was no benefit the empire would gain by marrying the Grand Duke’s eldest daughter and Galahad.

They would want about the level of mutual face-saving.

Then the one who takes the loss is—.

‘Me.’

From the beginning it was unknown why he was selected. Galahad swallowed the bitter saliva.

Knock knock. Someone knocked on the door. When he opened the door, a black-haired beauty wearing maid clothes was looking up with a face full of fear.

“I······ I am Gwen who has come to attend Lord Galahad!”

The woman who introduced herself as Gwen muttered in a voice that was crawling in. A woman with an appearance of large pupils exactly like a dog hit by rain.

She was clearly a beauty, but the gloomy atmosphere that seemed about to cry at any moment was strong.

At Gwen’s greatly intimidated attitude Galahad squinted his eyes.

“I don’t need attendance.”

“That··· That is, the chamber pot also has to be emptied and meals also have to be served···.”

“Aha, it was the sound of not taking even one step out.”

At Galahad’s words the woman creaked her head and greatly shrank.

Armed men were visible behind Gwen. All had drawn their weapons.

They are diligently doing their work. He waved his hand to greet, but the returning reaction was cold.

‘These guys don’t do hand greetings?’

The door closed roughly.

Gwen screamed and fell flat. How on earth can one fall flat like a big character? Galahad felt novelty and raised Gwen.

“Tha··· Thank you.”

Galahad held Gwen and put mana in to check her. It was a kind of occupational disease.

‘She has a lot of mana.’

Of course, even if not a mage most had some degree of mana. However, Gwen’s mana was excessively much to pass it off as that degree.

“Are you a mage?”

Galahad’s eyes narrowed. Putting a mage maid to Galahad, the intention was clear—.

Gwen instantly became a crying face. Exactly like a reaction of having heard one’s parents cursed.

“······Nooo. I am not a mage.”

Gwen replied in a voice mixed with tears.

“You mean you are not a mage?”

“······I absolutely am not a cursed filth of the demon race like a mage. I don’t know anything! Really! Please believe me!”

At Gwen who suddenly clung to his leg and wailed, the ‘cursed filth of the demon race mage’ Galahad scratched his chin.

He had heard that the perception of mages in the North is bad, but this much? Isn’t this almost the reaction from the old witch era.

Galahad who had excitedly advertised as a mage at the main gate scratched his cheek. It will become tiring. Perhaps he could be hit by a hate crime. This is why mages are tiring.

Anyway, with that degree of reaction it was likely she really was not a mage. Then that mana tank is purely talent—.

Then, whether she misunderstood Galahad’s gaze looking at the mana tank, Gwen tried to take off her clothes. Galahad hastily stopped her. He could not become the guy who stripped a maid’s clothes from the first day.

“I understand, you are not a mage.”

Gwen thanked him for believing her and shed tears again profusely. She was a woman with quite a lot of tears.

‘Then was that mana tank made because of the mana concentration?’

Anyway what is important now is not Gwen.

‘They really intend to lock me up.’

They even attached a maid. It was the sound of not coming out at all.

Hmm. Galahad sat on the chair again and let out a groan. There was nothing Galahad could do right now.

In this situation getting angry or despairing is not helpful.

Having to be in this room for a few days was a given fact. He had to find what he could do and do it.

‘The concentration of mana is dense.’

The first thing that came to mind was the concentration of mana he had just felt.

Because it is attached to the demon race, the mana concentration here was much denser than the center.

He slowly circulated his mana. The mana was heavy.

There was no mage who records the exact numerical value of mana.

Mana has different standards for each person, and the atmospheric mana concentration also changes every time so accurately recording it is impossible. So to prevent waste most favor magic circles and mana stones.

Because of that the mages here feel close to engineers. That side has better treatment, and there is no reason to jump into muddy water.

Because of that there are more mages than before, but the era where real mages are rather rare.

The solution Galahad thought regarding mana concentration was simple.

Korean-style cramming study, shut up and memorize—.

It was the method he cursed and hated the most in high school, but there was nothing as practical as this.

He repeated the most basic magic, the mana arrow, countless times. He familiarized the sense to the point of unfolding without thinking.

He defined the mana amount based on the magic arrow. Thanks to that Galahad could calculate the concentration based on that if he unfolded the mana arrow once anywhere.

That was when he was six years old.

‘About twice.’

Galahad muttered while looking at the mana arrow that floated on his hand.

Mana concentration twice as high as the center—. An absurd numerical value.

Dense mana concentration is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

Originally magic is a method of binding the atmospheric mana with the mana one possesses and using it, but if the concentration in the atmosphere is dense then when using magic the mana might rather leak out.

For that one has to maintain the mana concentration higher, and that process is compression. Mana is also sensitive so if the compression is too strong, it rather hardens.

The already complicated magic process becomes several times more difficult.

In a word it was absurd dog shit hardship.

Instead, thanks to the high concentration the power would greatly increase—.

‘Good.’

Galahad genuinely smiled.

It was a truly ignorant method, but at the same time effective training.

If he can maintain this high mana concentration, he will be able to raise his own mana concentration further. Along with that the mana sensitivity will also greatly rise—.

‘Training after a long time.’

Galahad deliberately maintained the mana concentration precariously. If he makes even a slight mistake, the mana circuit could be greatly injured.

Thanks to that the tension stood sharply.

Galahad’s spirit gradually sank.

When he unfolded magic, all other thoughts disappeared.

Galahad was a real mage.

***

‘···Smiling in this situation?’

Gwen opened her eyes wide at the sparkling Galahad.

Galahad was in a state no different from being imprisoned.

In a foreign land that is not the empire, in the position of being imprisoned without even seeing the one who will become his wife, yet he is smiling—.

Galahad was wearing a subtle smile. The emotion laced in that expression was a kind of ecstasy close to madness.

It was the first bright face Gwen had seen. What on earth is he doing to like it that much?

At that her gaze naturally headed to Galahad’s hand. Light flashed around Galahad’s hand.

It was clearly magic. At that splendor Gwen could not take her eyes off.

Magic is the dirty and cursed filth of the demon race—. It was the sound Gwen of the mage bloodline had heard until her ears hurt.

Being despised as the child of a dirty mage was ordinary, and she had experienced the threat of death countless times.

The reason Gwen could even do a maid like this was thanks to Adrianne.

Because of that, the one who hates magic more than anyone was Gwen.

It should have been clearly so and it must be so—.

‘Beautiful.’

The crystal formed on Galahad’s hand was too beautiful.

To the point that her eyes stung and tears came out—.

She could not take her eyes off. That brilliance and beauty was to the extent of daring to be compared to Adrianne’s beauty.

She was curious why that man was making that expression.

Gwen moved her finger without realizing it.

A small light stayed at the tip of Gwen’s hand and then disappeared. Even she felt it was very poor, but it was a thrill and sense of liberation Gwen had never experienced in her life.

Gwen laughed out loud for the first time in a really very long time. No, perhaps for the first time—.

Then, the broom Gwen was holding fell and made a loud sound.

Gwen who came to her senses felt extreme self-hatred.

The thing that had pushed her into pain all her life was magic. To unfold with her own hand the magic that had tormented Gwen with dirty bloodline—.

Gwen deeply dug her nails into her forearm to the point blood came out. The spirit that had barely returned was drawn to magic again. Gwen desperately closed her eyes and mopped.

Clang—.

Naturally the bowl broke.

***

Galahad pondered whether what he had just seen was real.

Casting magic just by seeing it—?

‘······A real genius.’

Galahad purely admired.

Was there a name Gwen? It seemed there was—.

‘I want her.’

At Galahad who was licking his lips while looking at her, Gwen tightly closed her eyes.