21st Century Archmage

‘Wait, why did that lady invite me when she’s never even seen me before?’

On the Kallian continent, the Haildrian Empire was called the Ice Empire. There, snow fell for over half the year, and it was the home of special monsters like Ice Trolls and Ice Ogres. That area, which produced an infinite amount of valuable resources like gems and more magic crystals than there were on Kallian combined, had always been like a mysterious land of fantasy for the people of the continent. The Tsarina of such a place had invited me to come visit.

‘Jeez, they all want a piece of me…’

I’d long since flung any and all humility far into the distance. I found myself pretty satisfied by the Tsarina who had invited me from the other side of the ocean—she had an eye for people.

“If you refuse the invitation, the Tsarina said that the transaction of magic crystals would end. Not just for you, but also for my kingdom.”

Chrisia’s calm voice startled me awake from my self-appreciation spree. 

‘Geh! What’s this now?’

“Just where is this coming from? Why would she invite me when she’s never even seen me?”

“Hoho, I wonder why?”

At my perplexed question, Chrisia flashed me a brief smile as she stared right at me.

‘I’m not some fortune teller, so how do you expect me to know that?’

All I knew about the Haildrian the Ice Empire was that the ruler of the empire was a fairly young tsarina, and that it was a closed-off place without much interaction with the continent.

‘It is a place I want to visit once…’

I was suspicious about the Tsarina’s invitation, but I did have some interest in visiting an unknown continent. The people on the Kallian continent called it the Continent of Dreams. If things had been stable in Nerman, I would have gone there long ago. That was a place with magic crystals and gold galore, and it was even rumored that there wasn’t a single woman who wasn’t a beauty there. Any man with big dreams would definitely want to visit once. 

“When will you go?” Chrisia asked, seeing that I was silent and contemplative.

‘We need those magic crystals…’

If my relationship with the magic towers was good, we could probably acquire magic crystals through less appealing means. However, it wasn’t just the magic towers who had turned their backs on me, but also nearly every merchant group and empire. On the continent, acquiring trade-restricted items was as difficult as picking a star out of the sky. Moreover, the new castle in the middle of construction, the forts in the territory, and various construction sites absolutely required magic crystals.

‘Without any magic crystals, we can’t even finish ⅓ of what I’ve planned.’

I was well aware that Laviter would not back off like this. In addition, there was the threat of Bajran’s gangster emperor, who treated alliances like trash on the street. Nerman had to be fortified with perfect fortresses before those guys did anything.

“How long would it take? I’m not sure if you know, but it is not an easy matter for me to be absent considering Nerman’s current condition.”

Simply going and meeting the Tsarina for the sake of Nerman’s development was no problem at all. I was suspicious of her intended purpose, but the one having a difficult time was not the Tsarina, but me.

“I know that Nerman is still facing multiple crises. In consideration of that fact, I plan on providing you with the fastest sea route.”

‘A high-speed boat would’ve been ideal.’

I knew zilch about the sea. I simply longed for the high-speed boats so common in the 21st century right now, when my time was as valuable as gold, no, diamonds.

“If we are able to catch the wind of Sharikna in full, it would take around two weeks with wyverns on board. If we didn’t have wyverns, we could use a boat with many sails, and the journey would take ten days.”

‘Ten days? That’s too long…’

She was saying ten days now, but I didn’t know how long I would stay there, and once you added in the time it took to get back, there was no doubt that the whole trip would take nearly one month. In addition, if Bebeto wasn’t around, my life would be like pizza without tomato sauce, panties without elastic. But if we used wyvern carriers, the time necessary would shoot way over one month. That was more than enough time for someone to make mincemeat out of Nerman.

“Impossible. I cannot spare that much time.”

The harmonious atmosphere between us grew stiff at once. The loss of magic crystals was a shame, but I couldn’t abandon Nerman. Even now, there were definitely spies reporting everything about me and Nerman. If the fact that I had left was made known, Nerman would become a house without an owner. Our wyvern numbers had grown, but that level of military power was still not on the same level as a kingdom.

“Haah… I know that as well. However, you must go without fail. The Tsarina is furious at the moment.”

‘Furious? Why the hell?’

“I don’t understand. The Haildrian Empire and my territory have no correlation, so how can the Tsarina be furious?”

It wasn’t the time to joke around—I’d already made this continent’s empires my enemies, but now, even the empire on the other side of the ocean was about to become one too.

“It’s all because of you, Lord Kyre,” Chrisia complained, looking at me with an embarrassed gaze.

“Wait, what do you me—”

“Do you remember? I’m talking about Tiavel, who came with me in late autumn last year.”

‘Tiavel?’

Of course I remembered the ice beauty with pure white, gleaming hair that was a rare sight on Kallian. How could I forget the lady who had laughed with such enjoyment at my stupid sparrow joke?

“Yes, I remember her.”

“She says she wants to see you.”

“WHAT!!!”

My heart dropped at that. I had interacted with her warmly purely out of courtesy, but it seemed that situation had created a misunderstanding. 

“T-That aside, what does Miss Tiavel wanting to see me have anything to do with the fact that the Tsarina is furious? Does that mean Miss Tiavel is imperial royalty?”

“Yes… she is.”

“……”

‘Dammit!’

When I asked, I didn’t even think it could be true—why in the world would royalty from the Haildrian Empire, a land of secrets, come to Nerman, a dangerous place with nothing to see? But the question I asked out of utter confusion was answered in the affirmative. My face hardened over like a rock.

“In addition, she is the one and only princess of the empire, the next ruler of the Haildrian Empire.”

“Cough!”

The Haildrian Empire maintained a tradition of matriarchal succession. The one and only person slated to become the next tsarina was… 

* * *

‘No fucking way!’ I screamed inside my heart. This wasn’t some joke of fate, how could the heir to the Haildrian Empire’s throne possibly want to see me?

“Because of this issue, our kingdom has also been put into a difficult position. Excluding Nerman, the Haildrian Empire is essentially our only ally, so if they were to turn their backs on us, the operation of the kingdom will face significant difficulty. Kesmire does not have a single place that produces magic crystals,” said Chrisia with a troubled expression.

“Why did Miss, I mean, Princess Tiavel, come to Nerman? She’s the next in line for the throne…”

I still couldn’t believe it, so I asked another question to confirm.

“Sigh! It’s all due to my carelessness. Princess Tiavel and I have been close since we were kids, and because of that closeness, she often comes to the kingdom to play. She happened to come just as I was getting ready to visit Nerman, so she ended up coming all the way here.”

‘Fuck…’ The pieces were quickly slotting into place. It looked like my foot was already in the bear trap, and there was no going back. 

‘B-But what did she see in me to want to see me again? And if your daughter is being like that, you should persuade her out of it instead of asking me to come.’

My brows furrowed deeper and deeper. I did feel happy that a beautiful woman like Tiavel wanted to see me, but the fact that her feelings would force me to bid farewell to the Haildrian as well was depressing as hell.

“It is not as if there’s no way to reduce the time. If things go well, you could come back within ten days.”

“What do you mean now…”

Chrisia, the woman who had come and suddenly shoved me into a pit of chaos, made my ears perk up again at the sound of ten days. From my viewpoint as someone who needed to get magic crystals by all means, I didn’t have the luxury to be picky.

“There’s a method that we use in our kingdom only in very urgent situations. It is, however, very dangerous.”

‘Are you joking with me right now? Giving me the disease and now you’re dangling the cure in front of me, you must be having fun.’

I was resentful of Chrisia for making my already difficult life even harder out of the blue. She was clearly tempting me to use the very dangerous method.

“You might be wishing right now that you could cross the sea on a wyvern. But if your wyvern ever falls into the sea while flying, that is the day you will be instantly delivered into God’s embrace via the jaws of the huge sea monsters and demon beasts parasitizing the ocean blue.”

Chrisia pinpointed my thoughts with a grin.

‘Damn.’ I felt bitter. It was dirty and unfair, but since the Tsarina of Haildrian, who had Nerman’s fate in her hands, was ordering me to come, I had no choice. 

‘For a man, this level of crisis is nothing!’ I thought, viciously making up my mind. My paradise would be finished with just a little more effort and time.

“I’d like to hear what kind of method it is.”

“It’s very dangerous, are you sure?”

The grinning Chrisia asked a second time.

“Haha, of course. Please don’t worry and simply tell me the method.”

I straightened my shoulders and put on a hearty expression.

“Hoho, I knew you would say so.”

“…..”

‘You fire fox.’

My bright smile turned rigid. Thinking about it, this whole crisis happened because of that fire fox, Chrisia.

‘Sigh, I’ll endure it because you’re pretty.’

“We must make preparations of our own. Because we must provide aid this time on a national level, we will need approximately one month.”

Instead of coughing up the method, Chrisia said she would need a month. That was good for me. Until the time came to send back the Laviter Empire’s troops, I had to make full use of the prisoners for the territory’s development.

“I will prepare the holy water we could not provide last winter at once.”

“Thank you for your consideration. I also brought some magic crystals just in case you needed them.”

‘I really can’t bring myself to hate her.’

She was definitely a fox, but she had smarts in addition to beauty. She was the culprit behind the current situation, but her actions certainly merited praise. The help of the Haildrian Empire was urgently required for Nerman’s long-term development anyway. Like the proverb ‘take a rest after falling down,’ I wanted to look at it positively, with the mindset of turning a crisis into an opportunity. It was an admirable mindset that only an archmage from the 21st century could have.

And well, I say this a lot, but if it didn’t work out? That was fine too…