The Prince Of Magic

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"Okay, so –"

*CLANG*

"– it's just a –"

*CLANG*

"– dream?" Kieran asked, almost breathless, but his brows met as he stared incredulously at his master.

"I'm not sure." Was his master's calm reply.

"What'dya mean 'not sure'?" Kieran asked, raising one brow.

"It feels like a dream, but not at the same time." Hadrian answered calmly, causing the retainer to shake his head.

"Sounds like something you need to discuss with your gramps again, boss." Kieran grunted.

Topics that require deep thinking was not the amber eyed retainer's forte, after all.

Kieran preferred simple things, such as video games, food, and maiming goody-two shoes and wanna-be allies of justice.

"Hmm… I suppose…"

With a slight huff, Hadrian frowned as he focused on delivering a strike upon the servant's torso, only to be block by the dagger that the servant was fond of using.

The retainer and his master were currently engaged in a spar, which the retainer seemed to be winning, much to the young mage's consternation.

Earlier, after spending a few minutes mulling on what his dream would mean, Hadrian didn't waste any time in going through his morning routine.

Once finished with breakfast and a bit of small talk with the Flamel couple, the young mage asked his retainers to spar with him down at the side of the beach.

It had already been a week since he and the others had arrived in this world, and they had just finished settling in.

While his retainers took to the Flamel couple's hospitality, often entertaining the ancient couple with their usual antics and clashing personalities to no end, Hadrian busied himself with gathering information on everything that he could get his hands on in the ancient couple's private library.

The Flamels were kind and generous, enough to give him permission to peruse their collection to his heart's content.

Their relaxed and friendly attitudes had caught Hadrian flatfooted at times, but nonetheless, he was grateful for their kind hospitality to him, the twin maids and his retainers.

Hadrian resolved to try not to rely on the couple too much, which led him to being a bit reserved and, sometimes, distant. The couple surely noticed his behavior, but made no mention of it, only a quiet understanding to his situation.

So far, Hadrian's routine mostly consisted of conditioning his body, sparring with his retainers (when he was finally confident enough that he wouldn't collapse again), doing a bit of research and reading in the Flamel's library while maintaining his studies on magecraft and true magic, spending some time with Yuuki and Yuuri, his familiars and his retainers, dinner, study a bit some more, sleep and repeat.

Although, his latter side can't exactly be helped, considering as requiring knowledge in this world was more important to him than to strengthened connections at the moment.

There were those times he spent with them in the morning and afternoons, but they were few and their discussion contained mostly about their respective plans, mostly to revise them for any possible failures and loopholes. Regardless of the reasons, the Flamels are friends of his grandfather, and it wouldn't hurt for him to get to know them a bit better.

'I suppose I can spend some time with them later on. Mayhaps I should ask them of their opinions on what my dream could mean…'

With a slight shake of his head, Hadrian emptied his thoughts and directed his attention into the spar.

With a quick inhale, the young mage went on the offense.

For the past few days, Hadrian spent most of his time training his body to a better condition.

He was very displeased when he realized that it was weaker than the average human's. There was no problem with casting magic, but even that had to be limited. In his current condition, the best that he could do with magic were to cast spells that required low magical energy.

His summoned weapons through the Armiger were, fortunately, unburdened, despite his weak body. It might become a different story if he were to try to fully use the true potential of his familiy's power.

Withdrawing objects and weapons from the Moon Cell's spatial vault had no problems with him whatsoever. The automaton seemed to be the one managing the cost in magical energy for him to freely use its incredible ability, to the point that Hadrian could barely feel the drain in his own reserves, which was fortunate in his current situation.

Summoning portals of the Gate of Babylon, on the other hand, was a different story.

While he was elated that the gift that the old king had given him was still there, despite changing into a different body, conjuring more than ten portals was his limit. When he tried to push for more, his magic circuits would suddenly seize up, causing a reaction similar to nerves being electrocuted in a quick and harsh manner.

Such a reaction could only mean that the body was too weak to fully contain the amount of magical energy that his magic circuits can make in a split second.

While the body was a perfect fit for his soul, it was still physically weak and untrained to the magical arts.

It was an issue, but one that can be remedied by time and effort.

At the very least, after a few days of doing hardcore exercises and brutal laps around the private beach, his body was strong enough to handle being reinforced via spells. The fact that he can also summon the chains of heaven, Enkido, still had helped assuaged Hadrian's worries in case he gets into future skirmishes.

Still, being rendered into such a state was embarrassing.

His kingly pride had taken a bit of a hit when one of his retainers literally had to give him a piggyback ride just to help him climb the stairs that leads to the Flamel's private estate.

To add salt to the injury, Kieran, Charles and Astolfo had recorded a short video of him being carried on Yan Qing's back, tired and unresponsive to the many teases thrown in his way.

No doubt, the video would find its way to the handheld devices of his other retainers and friends in the future.

It was this reminder that gave way to Hadrian's desire to emerge victorious in the spar.

Noticing the smirk on Kieran's tanned face when he successfully blocked the overhead strike, the young mage's eyes narrowed as he moved on the offense again.

Today, Hadrian had opted to use one of his ancestors' favored royal arms, the Sword of the Wise.

It was beautifully crafted sword with a thin, short blade. It has a dark, glossy metallic color, adorned with silver details and wings on the side atop of its handle. The grip was of dark smooth metal, engraved with silver diamond patterns all over it and a round silver pommel at the bottom.

Normally, if the royal arm was a normal weapon, Hadrian would be forced to hold it with both hands due to the weapons weight and the size of his body.

But, since the sword was a royal arm, a supremely magical one at that, the young mage had no effort in lifting the sword in one hand.

Two to three strikes from him, Kieran was forced to take a few steps backwards as the force and the speed that Hadrian used took him by surprise.

With his opponent off kilter, Hadrian proceeded to his next step.

Amber eyes widened comically when he sensed three dangerous spells materializing behind him. His head turned just in time as his master cast the spell.

"Air Bullet! Deploy!"

The spell materialized in no less than a second, but it was enough time for Kieran to gather his wits again.

Using his speed as a servant, despite the quality of his origins as Heroic Spirit, Kieran was able to avoid from being pierced by air compressed spells in the shape of tiny transparent marbles.

If the retainer got hit by those, his shoulders and back would have been pierced, possibly causing fatal injuries in the process as the spells explode upon impact.

Case in point, the ground that he stood on earlier has gained deep gauges upon its previously smooth surface.

Kieran sweated.

His master was not playing around.

The retainer's split-second musing turned out to be a grave mistake on his part.

Just as he turned to face his master, the young mage was in front of him, knees slightly bent as he was in process of attacking.

The attack turned out to be a harsh kick to Kieran's middle section, which caused the latter to double in shock and pain, almost thrown on his back.

But, he used the strength in his legs to bear the force of impact, managing himself upright.

Regardless, even that was not enough as his master simply use another air bullet to blast him off his feet, catching him by surprise again as he did without chanting it.

With Kieran down and on the ground, Hadrian wordlessly casted another spell upon the retainer's prone form.

"OooouUH! WHAT THE –"

Kieran groaned in pain, but shouted in surprise when he felt an immediate weight restrained his body to the ground.

It felt as if his body was tied to a couple of invisible anchors, as if gravity itself was pulling him to the ground, almost crushing him and making it hard for him to breathe.

Blinking, he finally noticed the magic circle under him, alight in a blue glow.

"What the? How –" He questioned himself, but was cut off when a pair of shoes stopped near his head.

Looking up, he saw the grinning visage of his master.

Although, his face soured when he heard the giggles and chuckles of his fellow retainers from afar, whom are standing by the shade provided by the trees.

"How is it? The new spell, I mean." Hadrian asked.

"Ugh, fantastic." Kieran wheezed out.

"Do you surrender?"

"Yeah, yeah. Can you please turn it off? It's making it hard to breathe." Kieran wheezed out, doing his best to get air in his lungs.

The young mage blinked, then his mouth formed an 'O' shape as it hit him.

"Ah, apologies." Hadrian said as he cancelled the spell.

The retainer sighed in relief, dropped his head to the sandy ground.

"Whew. That hurt like a mother. Thought I was going to be goner there for a second…" Kieran croaked, looking tired despite being a lot stronger than his master.

"Possibly. If I increased the pressure, you probably would have been turned to a bloody paste." Hadrian mused aloud, almost missing the horrified look the retainer sent him.

"You kiddin' right? Please tell me that you are." Kieran pleaded, almost whispering.

The young mage smiled.

"I jest."

Kieran breathed out a quiet sigh of relief, holding a hand to his chest.

It was short lived though as the young mage made a comment.

"Probably." Hadrian added, his smile pure and untainted.

The smile was so gentle and pleasing that he could even charm a many women, and perhaps even men, to do whatever he bid them to do.

In Kieran's eyes though, the expression alone was similar to the eerie grin of the Cheshire cat.

With deadpan eyes, Kieran threw out a dreaded question.

"Is this revenge for recording you last week or somethin'?"

"Oh, most certainly not. I'm not that petty." Hadrian even waved his hand for effect.

Yep, it was revenge. Plain and simple.

His master was truly related to the Wizard Marshall.

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