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TL:SummerPeanut
I know I said I will use the word in the brackets as translation but I will make an exception for labyrinth overflow (labyrinths). I doubt anyone would understand ‘labyrinths’ is referring to dungeon/labyrinth monster overflow.
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“Sir Zeke! I got a letter from Mars!”
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I immediately reacted to those words.
I couldn't believe that I had received a letter from Mars who had gone inside the walls of the first level of Irgusia labyrinth two months earlier.
We had thought he was definitely somewhere in the labyrinth and we kept searching the labyrinth thoroughly.
Van tactfully gave the crystal to Mars but we didn't think he had gone outside the labyrinth.
I had assumed that the crystal had broken inside the walls and thus the crystal was unresponsive.
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As soon as I got the letter from Van, I went to the study to check the envelope.
The sender's name was Mars Bryant.
When I tried to cut the wax seal with a paper-knife, it felt strange.
It seemed that the envelope had been opened once. There were subtle traces of having been opened.
There were a total of six letters inside the envelope.
Three of the letters were from Mars, and the other three were from different people.
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I read Mars's letter.
To my surprise, Mars had been teleported to a city called Grantham, located at the eastern end of the Kingdom of Zarkham.
How could he have been teleported to an enemy country and during the war at that?
But there was nothing tragic in Mars's letter.
However, there was something strange about it.
I kept this feeling of discomfort in my mind and continued reading the letter.
He said that he had made friends with the people of the town and was being protected by Count Beetle, the lord of the city.
It also said that this letter had been delivered by the courtesy of Count Beetle.
It also said that he would leave for Irgusia a week after sending this letter by fast horseback.
All the expenses would be paid by Count Beetle.
I thanked Count Beetle from the bottom of my heart.
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Then I read the second letter. It was a letter from Count Beetle.
It told me that Mars was in love with a girl named Clarice and so was she towards him.
And the letter said that the girl Clarice was not able to stay in Grantham in safety due to certain reasons and that she might accompany Mars to Irgusia, in which case he would be grateful for my cooperation.
He also wrote about Mars's return path from Grantham to Irgusia if he chose to go back.
In doing so, he also wrote that he had planned a path that avoid passing through dangerous places and that he had given Mars a letter from the Count himself so that Mars could stay at an inn even at the age of six.
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I felt a strange sense of uncomfortableness with Mars's letter but I also felt uncomfortable with this letter from Count Beetle.
But for now, my priority was to tell Maria, Ike, and Leena rather than to figure out what the discomfort was about.
I immediately called everyone and told them about the letter, and we were all happy that Mars was safe.
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Maria and Ike also asked me to let them read Mars's letter so I showed it to them as well.
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“These drawings weren't done by Mars, were they?”
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When Ike said this, I noticed something strange about the letter. It was a drawing of fire, similar to that of a bonfire, on a section of the letter.
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“Yes, that's right. I see the same picture on the Count's letter.”
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Mars is not the kind of person who takes the trouble to draw pictures on important letters.
Count Beetle does not seem to be such a person.
What could be the meaning of this picture?
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In the end, the day ended with a big party to let the members of Azure Fang and the other adventurers who were searching for Mars know that he was safe.
During the party, everyone was passing around Mars's letter, and each person was happy to read the letter.
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The next day, Ike returned from the Irgusia Labyrinth with the members of Azure Fang.
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“Father, something funny is going on with Mars's letter...”
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Ike said, and when he looked at Mars's letter, he saw that there seemed to be some words on the back of the letter.
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“What is this? How do the letters come out?”
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I say and try to read the faint letters floating in the air, but I can't read them because the writing is not clear.
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“Do you see any change in the letter from Count Beetle?”
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Ike asked so I checked the letter from the Count and found nothing has changed.
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“No, nothing has changed in the letter from the Count…maybe if we have a party the letters will come to life?”
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“Maybe so but perhaps this bonfire-like drawing means we should roast it over a fire? Why don't we try searing the edges of the letter to test it out?”
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I decided to take Ike's suggestion. I prepared water just in case and Ike slowly seared the letter with Fire magic.
Then the letters emerged from the reverse side. Ike slowly seared the entire letter, making all the letters emerge.
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“Thank you, Ike. But to think that there would be such a good trick. Could you give me a minute? If it's something I can tell you, I'll let you know.”
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Ike nodded and left the room. He's a very understanding son which I can’t be thankful enough for.
I quickly turned my attention to the letter.
The letter read something like this
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Thank you for noticing. I am the Count of Beetle, Raoul Grace.
I write in the hope that it is Lord Bryant who is reading this.
Why did I do something as elaborate as this? There are three main reasons.
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First, this letter has probably been checked in the Kingdom of Zarkham.
That is because I am under suspicion. This matter is deeply related to the third reason. You can read it later on the back of my letter.
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The second reason is the abnormality of Mars and Clarice.
Mars's fighting ability is extremely high, so much so that it is hard to believe that he is six years old; perhaps not up to par with B-class adventurers but he is at the very least in the upper C-class. He might not be giving his all in front of me so he may actually be in the B-class.
Mars has thwarted the labyrinth overflow’s waves of the Grantham many times and helped me conquer the labyrinth of the Grantham and stop the labyrinth overflow.
If this were noticed by the royal family or other upper nobilities, they might receive an imperial order to keep Mars within Zarkham Kingdom. So I couldn't even write a thank-you note where others might see it.
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Clarice, the girl who might accompany him, could use Holy magic.
As stated in my surface letter, the reason why Clarice cannot live in Grantham is that the inhabitants and other adventurers know that Clarice can use Holy magic.
As Lord Bryant might understand, if people found out that Clarice could use Holy magic, there would be a high probability of unwanted conflict. That is why I entrusted her to Mars.
*TL: back to Zeke’s POV
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On the back of Mars's letter, he wrote mainly about Mars and a girl named Clarice.
How could they send a child who could use Holy magic to an enemy country…?
This was very puzzling. If the Count is so smart, he should somehow keep Clarice with him and use her in a useful way for himself...
But if there is a more useful use... for example, if he thinks there will be some benefit for himself by having Clarice work with Mars...
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Thoughtfully, I seared the back of Count Beetle's letter over the fire and read it.
There was something incredible written there.
It clearly shows why the Kingdom of Zarkham had secretly censored the Count's letter.
Count Beetle is someone that withholds a too dangerous opinion to the Kingdom of Zarkham.
But if his thought is sincere, I can at least understand his point of view…but it is too dangerous to advocate support for.
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The letter also contained a request from the Count regardless of whether I sympathized or not with the idea.
One thing he requested is that I do not tell anyone in the Kingdom of Zarkham about this.
This is not something that can be communicated to the people of the Kingdom of Zarkham as well as the Kingdom of Balkus.
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Second, he asked that Mars and Clarice be admitted to the Lister Imperial School in the Confederacy of Lister. The Imperial School is a remnant of the time when the Lister Confederacy was still an empire.
The Lister Imperial School only admits children who are competent in both literary and military arts. And since race is not a factor, it is said that demons, dwarves, elves, etc. can also be admitted if they are capable enough.
As for the tuition fee, Clarice was given two white gold coins.
That amount is to be the three years of tuition and lodging for the two of them.
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The reason for this was that they wanted these two very talented students to see and feel more of the world.
I definitely agree with this.
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I thought it was necessary to find out immediately from the letter to what extent the girl named Clarice was following Count Beetle's intentions.
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I absolutely must go and get Mars and the girl.
And I must return this favor as much as possible for helping Mars.
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“Maria, Ike, listen to me.”
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I told them that I was going to pick up Mars and the girl and that I will be aiming to be promoted to the rank of count, something I had never really been interested in.
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Author’s note:
I will explain why Zeke's goal of being promoted later.
If you think it's even a little interesting and you're curious about the continuation please consider giving ★★★★★ and a bookmark</u>, as it will be my source of motivation. Thank you for your cooperation. m (__) m