Alex explained the problem to Eric, who had his arms crossed, though everyone could see the dissatisfaction on his face. When he was done, Eric said in a slightly raised tone, "So our little dear prince wants you guys to sort this out? Why doesn't he step in himself?" Eric furrowed his brow. "He has more manpower and influence than all of us combined."
This time Cornelius replied, "He just said his hands are full with other matters. I assume it's about the fight for the imperial throne~" Eric scoffed upon hearing that, "Heh. That spoiled prince is preparing for something like that? Not surprising at all. No matter where you go, members of the monarch are always self-centered and do whatever the fuck they want." Dianne, Alex, and Silvia were stunned after Eric openly badmouthed a member of the imperial family, while Cornelius laughed heartily.
"Ahahaha~! You've really changed, Eric! I never expected you to say something like that!" Alex cleared his throat to change the subject, "A-ahem. Anyway, I think His Highness Frederick did that because he didn't want his faction to get suspicious." Silvia nodded in understanding at Alex's words, "Ah, I see. That makes sense if we look at it from His Highness's perspective."
Dianne was still confused and raised her voice. "Wait, you two. Don't leave me out! What does that mean?" Cornelius patted Dianne on the shoulder, "Let me explain, dear Dianne~" She grumbled and swatted his hand away when he teased her. "As you all know, every member of the imperial family has their own faction of supporters. In the case of His Highness Frederick, the majority of his supporters come from the nobles."
"Even though I don't fully trust him, I can say that he genuinely wants this conflict between the nobles and the commoners to end peacefully." Cornelius looked at everyone present one by one. "If he were to intervene directly, then some nobles—no, I'm sure most of the noble factions—would question his decision and ultimately withdraw their support for him."
Dianne clicked her tongue, "Yeah, knowing some uptight nobles going on and on about 'pure noble blood' or something like that, they absolutely don't want anything to do with anything related to commoners, even if a member of the imperial family is helping them in the name of justice."
"Losing support and favor in the midst of a power struggle within high society is extremely disadvantageous," Alex commented on Dianne and Cornelius's explanation. "Precisely. But at the same time, His Highness also doesn't want to lose the support of the commoners. I still remember very clearly that, out of the entire imperial family, he was the one who seemed quite comfortable with the idea of the commoners' prosperity."
Silvia chimed in on Cornelius's latest remark. "Indeed. I remember he was the first to propose increasing the scholarship quota for commoners seeking admission to our Academy. Although, unfortunately, his proposal was scrapped due to overwhelming opposition from the nobles in his faction."
Eric nodded, tucking his hands into his pockets. "Now I understand. He wants to play it safe—that is, play both sides. If we fix this mess, we'll get our Academy life back." He paused, then continued in an annoyed tone. "Meanwhile, he'll still maintain his support from both commoners and nobles, and not only that, his popularity will rise. Two birds with one stone."
Cornelius agreed with Eric. "Of course, I also believe he'll honor his own words. But if we look at the results, in the end, he's the one who massively gained more benefits than we do."
"Is there any chance that all of this is a dirty scheme he fabricated himself?" Silvia calmly rebuked Eric's earlier words. "Eric, stop your baseless accusations." Dianne chimed in thoughtfully, "Wait, it does make sense if His Highness is stirring up this commotion to benefit himself." Suddenly Cornelius clapped his hands repeatedly, "Okay, okay~ That's enough! Keep speculating won't get us anywhere, you know~ Back to our original question: will you help us, Eric?"
With his hands on his hips, Eric asked in return, "What makes you think I can help you guys—or even turn this situation around?" Alex, Cornelius, and Silvia turned to look at Dianne. She fidgeted slightly as she explained, a bit nervously. "It's my idea… w-well, I thought you could help us with your strange power…" Eric asked, tilting his head slightly, "What strange power are you talking about?"
"Th-that power! The power you used when you weirdly shaped those lunatic worshippers back then! M-maybe you could use it to interrogate the people we think are suspicious!?" Dianne explained nervously, surprising Alex, who replied, "You have a power like that…?" Eric dismissed him, "Nah. I've lost that power."
Dianne opened her mouth in disbelief, "N-no way… then our trip here was for nothing…" Cornelius crossed his arms, eyeing Eric seriously. "I don't know what happened, but I heard from my contacts that you played a major role in saving Dianne's little brother. Even though you don't have the power Dianne mentioned, you can still help us with the power you have now."
"Nah. Sorry, brats, but don't bother with me. Better luck next time." Eric casually waved as he left the courtyard, leaving the four of them speechless as they watched him go.
"Let them deal with their problem," Eric muttered to himself, fully aware that his current power could actually be a great asset in the current conflict, but he chose to stay out of it since the issue this time didn't directly concern him.
Or so he thought.
…
…
…
Later that night, Eric entered the Academy through the west gate, rather than the main gate to the south, which he usually used. He was returning somewhat late after strolling through downtown and decided to seek a change of scenery by taking a different route. He walked through a dimly lit hallway directly connected to the complex of alchemy laboratories.
He could faintly smell the aroma of herbs and concoctions typical of alchemy along the hallway. When he stepped out, he looked up at the sky and saw the full moon shining brightly in the night sky. As he crossed a small fountain in front of a public administration building, his instincts flared when he stepped on one of the cobblestones.
An invisible wind blade attacked from behind, Eric dodged at the last second, but the magical attack grazed his left cheek. "Come on!" he shouted, addressing the supposed attacker. But no matter how long he waited, the attacker never emerged. Feeling uneasy, Eric slowly backed up and turned around. But after three steps, magical attacks struck again from both his left and right.
"Damn it!" He took a huge leap to avoid both attacks. It didn't stop there, this time an attack came from beneath his feet—a clump of earth suddenly formed around his left foot, partially immobilizing him. Then attacks of wind, fire, and ice came from all directions. Eric blasted the clump of earth on his foot, successfully freeing himself.
He dodged quickly and immediately deployed his Mana around him. At that moment, he noticed something strange. He didn't detect anyone or anything around him. Before he could think any further, the intensity of the magical attacks increased, and loud booms frequently echoed around Eric.
Initially, Eric could see 2–3 attacks at a time, but not a barrage of more than 10 magic attacks coming at him from all directions—whether from above, below, or to his sides. He began to feel overwhelmed and ran, only to be startled when the attacks continued to chase him as if the magic spells were alive. Multiple arrows and spheres made of elemental magic were coming at him. He gritted his teeth, having had enough of this nonsense.
He opened his other eyes. While dodging the incoming attacks, he peered three seconds into the future. With the advantage of knowing the trajectory of every single spell, he managed to avoid them all—though at the cost of some damage to his uniform from a few of the attacks.
Whenever he was at a loss for how to dodge, he would peek into the future to save himself with the help of his divine eyes. After running for quite a while, he was finally far enough away from the scene of the carnage. Of course, the incident had attracted the attention of many people, especially the Academy staff on night patrol.
"Wh-what's that noise!? Y-you!" A middle-aged man in an Academy uniform came upon Eric, who was panting heavily with his shirt torn in several places. "What—what happened!?" Eric held his head, feeling slightly dizzy, looked at the man, then glanced behind him. "I suggest you don't go there." The man's eyes widened as he saw billowing smoke and a severely damaged cobblestone path, as if a fierce battle had just taken place there.
"G-get back to your dorm, please! I... I must report this...!" Eric watched as the man hurriedly ran off. Meanwhile, Eric blinked repeatedly, trying to shake off the fatigue from his eyes.
"I almost overheated my eyes..." he bit his lip in frustration, but resumed his walk back to his dorm. Earlier before he successfully outran the attacks, at the very last moment, he spotted a glowing rune among the cobblestones. A split second later, that rune released a gust of wind in the shape of an arrow aimed at him, but he managed to dodge it.
Eric scowled deeply and finally accepted the reality. The relentless attack just now was clearly directed at him, and he didn't want to assume it was just a mere coincidence. Someone—or some people—was truly intent on harming him fatally, and he absolutely wouldn't let them get away with it.