Chapter 10: CHAPTER 10
Ever since that hostage-taking incident in the castle, my fellow Dragon Sage look at me with a smile. My brave yet underhanded way of resolving the crisis made rumors among the communities in the library for being smart and idiotic at the same time.
I was considered smart for tricking the hostage-taker to let go of the princess. However, I was considered an idiot for accepting a 5-credit service emergency quest and got shot in the process.
Sadly, my reputation for being a handsome gentleman is now taken as a joke.
"Oh, it's the handsome Dragon Sage! Hahaha!" Some maids and fellow Dragon Sage would greet me with sarcasm. Narcissistic as I am, I would go with the flow. I would brush my hair and smile at my fake fans.
There is only one person who is not happy nor taking me as a joke. It's Duke Peterson, that old guy who tried to stop me from taking that emergency quest.
I stumbled upon him while gathering some books in the main library, three days after the hostage-taking incident.
"Oh! G-Good morning! Nice day for studying, isn't it? Hu-ha!"
"..."
Every time I would see him, I try to smile to give some good vibes, but he would just treat me like air. I know he's an aristocrat with numerous achievements, but he must have felt hurt due to my shallow speech and actions. I don't think I shamed him though, but the cold presence around him makes me think otherwise.
I really can't understand how nobles of his age think.
However, the next day, I was surprised by the news.
My morning routine started normally. After having breakfast with my family, I went to grab a cup of creamy cappuccino from the Library's café and then went straight to the front desk to time myself in.
The front desk officer started a morning conversation with me.
"Sage Corasell, is it true? Is it true that Sage Duke Peterson is dead?"
"What?"
The front desk officer used the controls of the board to scroll through the articles of a popular news site. And then I saw a big headline.
"Dragon Sage Duke Peterson found dead in his manor. Culprit not found."
"That's the second Dragon Sage dead for this month already!" The front desk officer said.
I felt a chill not only in my spine but all through my bones. Duke Peterson may be cold, but his achievements are respectable. He won a lot of awards in his study of magic. I'm pretty sure he passed the Dragon Sage Entrance Exam with flying colors with such a genius mind. But he got assassinated!
What will happen if I'm next? I'm weak! I don't think I'll even last a second!
"H-Hey, do you think the assassin will target a handsome Sage like me?" I said with a wry smile.
"Hmmm, Dragon Sage Wilhelm and Dragon Sage Peterson are all old aristocrats who are not that good looking, but they got assassinated. I think handsome Dragon Sages are safe." The front desk officer smiled. "I don't think you're handsome as you proclaim it to be, so you better watch out."
I didn't expect the front desk officer to ride my joke and answer me seriously, so I just went on my way defeated.
I went to the fifth level of the library and checked for a Dragon Sage Thesis that has been bothering me ever since that hostage crisis. I got myself the book of Fifth Prince Adonis Viridescia, who is a three-star Dragon Sage who quit working in the Library for unknown reasons. That prince is also the brother of the twelfth princess Amaryllis Viridescia.
I also grabbed some grimoires about Time Magic that would help my thesis. After getting the books I need, I went to a nearby table and read the curious case I'd been longing to see.
Dragon Sage Thesis of Fifth Prince Adonis Viridescia
Title: Alchemic Resurrection Conversion using Machina and Magical Beast Cells
To summarize the thesis; it is about the study of mechanical and animal cells injected into dead humans. There are fifty human subjects, of which thirty are long-dead children corpses, ten cadavers of dead children with body parts well-preserved, and ten children who were freshly killed during the experiment. All test subjects did not resurrect as the study suggested, except for two children with these names: Moby and Remy.
Moby and Remy belong to the "freshly killed children during the experiment" section. The thesis concludes that the Alchemic Resurrection Conversion can only be successful if the subjects are used with such magic within the first five minutes of their death. However, the subjects will no longer retain their human mind and they will live as a zombie until the spell has been stopped.
The appendix section of the thesis contains gruesome pictures of corpses that are mangled with mechanical apparatus and animal limbs such as bear arms, octopus tentacles, huge crab pincers, and hawk's wings.
"Urp!"
I held my mouth, trying to resist not to puke. My stomach feels like a volcano filled with boiling lava, ready to explode any moment.
"This thesis is nuts!" I said to myself. "At least Frankenstein's monster still looks human. But these... But these things! Who in the right mind would do this to poor kids!?"
No wonder why that hostage-taker Elros Wingate wanted revenge for his children. Even though he has killed Prince Adonis himself, he wants to inflict more pain on the royal family by killing all other princes and princesses he could get his hands to.
I laid back and closed the book. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to refresh my mind.
"I wonder if I would become a twisted Dragon Sage like that prince," I muttered to myself.
All of a sudden, the chilling atmosphere I had while reading the twisted thesis was evaporated by the warm greeting of a beautiful woman with red eyes and long dark-blue hair. She's hugging a portfolio, a book, and a sealed letter close to her big breasts.
"I'm sorry I'm late, Uly." Yehanna bowed. "I overslept and noticed that it's already ten in the morning already."
"No, it's okay," I said. Then I shifted my eyes to the things she was carrying. "What's that?"
"Oh, this?" Yehanna laid down the portfolio on the table first. "It's the report about the two Dragon Sages in this Library that got assassinated. The Librarian said that our Dragon Sages should receive these documents."
As I scanned the documents about the incident of the assassinations, Yehanna sat beside me. She was sitting so close that I can smell her lavender shampoo and perfume. She even bumped her shoulder to mine in a sweet manner.
"Hey, you can read those sad documents later. Let's read the fun stuff first~"
Yehanna jollily said as she opened a letter that is sealed with red dried wax. Judging from the crown logo on the stamp, it came from the royal family. Right after the beautiful Dragonoid tore the edge of the letter, a fancy golden-coated paper with beautiful handwriting peeped out.
"It's..." Yehanna was stunned.
"... A letter from the twelfth princess?" I tilted my head.
Yehanna carefully unfolded the letter and she read out loud.
"Dear Lord-of-Ugly Useless Carousel..."
"Seriously?"
"Kidding~" Yehanna chuckled. "Ahem! Dear Lord Ulysses Corasell, I would like to invite you to my eighteenth birthday in the Royal Palace tonight. I also want to bestow upon you the honor to be one of my eighteen knights who would be my first eighteen dances."
"Well, it looks like the princess is a woman of her word. She even took the trouble to write this letter to a handsome man like myself." I said.
"Maybe that's why the princess wrote a letter because she does not want to see your not-handsome face~" Yehanna grinned. "And maybe she's hesitating to invite you because your face might ruin the party."
"Hey, you don't know me! Back in my teenage days, I have a black belt in partying! They call me: Ulysses the Party Animal!"
"I-I hope you're joking about that last one," Yehanna muttered.
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