Only Lars pushed back against the rising tide of impatience, although the others were not inclined to listen.
“But, Your Highness! Was it not the opportunity to study magic techniques that made us go to such pains to come here?! We learn nothing from being in a room without a single magic tool!”
“I agree. Magic is not something you learn from abstract textbook theories. You learn by seeing and doing.”
“The Sorcery Department! I demand to see the Royal Sorcery Department!”
Uh-oh.
The same word bounded through Seiichirou, Zoltan, and Qusta’s minds. The three of them exchanged looks. There was no spell or magic tool for communicating telepathically, but in that moment, their thoughts were indeed aligned.
Zoltan coughed. “W-well then, shall I show you around the Royal Sorcery Department?”
“Are you sure that’s okay?” Lars asked worriedly.
“Oh, yes! Perfectly! You all made such a long trek to be here, and His Highness the Crown Prince has asked that we accommodate your needs as much as possible.” Zoltan was sweating, but he did a good job of hiding it as he gave a dignified response. One had to hand it to the nobility on occasion.
“Excellent. Then I shall go on ahead and prepare the venue for your arriva—”
Qusta tried to stand up, only for Luciano to stop him. “Oh, I have a question about one of those papers you showed earlier. Can I ask about it while I walk with you?”
Uh-oh.
Sadly, they couldn’t refuse the boy. He was a relative to royalty and a formal member of the delegation.
Seiichirou stood up after Qusta threw a look in his direction. “Please accompany the group, Qusta. I will handle the communication.”
“What’s the hurry?” asked Donato. “You can ask an attendant to pass on the message.”
Seiichirou, Zoltan, and Qusta froze for several fractions of a second.
The Royal Sorcery Department performed the kingdom’s most cutting-edge magic research. There were plenty of things they were reluctant to show to people of other nations. The Egorovans understood that well, and they weren’t trying to force their way through. It was natural for them to wonder why a guide had to take it upon himself to pass on a simple message.
But the Romany Kingdom had its own problems to deal with.
“Well, you see… I just happened to remember that there were some documents I forgot to hand over to you all.” The lie came easily to Seiichirou’s lips.
The Egorovans looked at the bundle of documents in Seiichirou’s arms. Okay, so he’s a bit dim-witted, they thought, and left it at that.
“I’ll come with you. You’ve got a lot to carry.” Orjef, secretly Seiichirou’s bodyguard, stood up as well.
Thank goodness he managed to play along. Seiichirou was deeply grateful.
If worst came to worst, they would need to stash him away by force.
Owing to its numerous previous offenses—er, distinguishing results, the Sorcery Department was sequestered away at the very corner of the palace. Seiichirou was slightly out of breath by the time he arrived.
“Please excuse me! It’s Kondou from the Accounting Department! Is Ist here?!”
The court mages were bewildered when Seiichirou flung open the door moments after knocking, but they calmed when they saw it was a familiar face.
“Is something the matter, Kondo?” asked one sorcerer.
“Huh? Weren’t you and Qusta supposed to be guiding the Egorovans around today?” said another.
Seiichirou swept his gaze around the lackadaisical crowd, but did not find Ist among them. He would have cheered if Ist had gone out, but there was still the possibility that the man was buried somewhere in the mess of reference books and magic tools in the room. “Where is Ist, may I ask?”
“He’s in the back research room,” said a familiar high-pitched voice.
Seiichirou’s eyes turned to the boy with dark brown hair. “Oh, Sigma, are you here to observe?”
“Yes. I don’t have school at the church today.”
Sigma was a proper child—he had just turned twelve the other day. He was born in the lower district and once ran a stall selling toys and other trinkets he’d carved himself. His craftsman father had passed away when he was young, and the boy apprenticed as a woodworker to help make ends meet. Seiichirou had reached out to the youth when he spotted something resembling an abacus among his wares. One thing led to another, and now he was attending a private school sponsored by the prince and the Holy Maiden at the church.
Sometime in the near future, the royal family planned to announce him as the first commoner scholarship student, but he already had special permission to enter the Sorcery Department because he was good at communicating with Ist. Plus, he’d always had an interest in magic tools. Although Seiichirou wanted such a smart and efficient boy like Sigma to join the Accounting Department, Ist had gotten to him first.
“So Ist is in the back?” Seiichirou asked, pointing at the very farthest room.
Sigma nodded.
The Royal Sorcery Department was divided into several smaller rooms that could be reached from the main area. Alongside storage spaces for restricted documents and materials, there were rooms for private research. The back room had all kinds of uses: separating oneself from the other sorcerers, containing spell effects to prevent other objects from being altered, or simply focusing deeply on research.
“Okay, I’m blocking it off,” Seiichirou said.
No sooner did the words leave his mouth than he started pushing a large worktable.
“Huh?” Everyone’s eyes widened in shock.
“What are you doing? There’s no time! Orjef, hurry up and bring over that table! Two’s better than one!”
“R-right.” The only other person in the room who understood what was going on obeyed Seiichirou without question.
“What’s going on, Mister? Ist won’t be able to come out if you block the way, right?!” cried Sigma.
“That’s exactly why I’m doing it.”
Ist could easily blow the door away with magic if he so wished, but the idea probably wouldn’t even occur to him if he didn’t know why he was blocked in. Hopefully, his thought process would be “The door’s locked? Well, whatever.”
And so it would be as long as nothing outside piqued his interest. Seiichirou decided that now was the best time to seal it, while Ist was still unaware. The Egorovans would only be in the Sorcery Department for a short time. The barrier just needed to hold until they were gone.
“The Egorovan group will be here in a matter of minutes! Hide anything you don’t want them seeing! Oh, and try to move whatever you can and make this place presentable!”
Seiichirou’s words finally snapped the sorcerers out of their confusion. They jumped in unison.
“The Egorovan diplomats?! Weren’t they supposed to be coming here tomorrow?!”
“Hey, isn’t a member of their royal family part of the group?! Oh crap! He’s gonna see me in this?!”
“What’s with the sudden change of plan?!”
Everyone had cries of surprise on their lips, though they swiftly started packing their written notes and materials. There was a lot to do, given that the whole place looked dreadful.
“Who cares how you look?! The classified information comes first! You don’t want other countries seeing it! And don’t assume they won’t understand what they see. They have a magic tool expert in their party!” Seiichirou shouted, hurrying the sorcerers along.
Even as Orjef watched on in exasperation, he didn’t fail to add to the barricade pile.
“Oh, so you can yell at the top of your lungs…”