"His Highness is busy all the time with studying, he might not even notice we're preparing him a birthday party," Julius said with a soft smile as he watched the servants busing themselves while preparing a small banquet in the Court Magician's tower. "Master, did you make sure he'll stay in his room?"
"No worries, I gave him enough homework to last him a month and then locked the door," Sofia said as she also oversaw the proceedings with a doting smile.
Julius looked at the Court Magician. He wasn't sure whether the elderly woman was joking or not. Thinking of something else, he asked, "Master, when will you finally teach Mordred Saint ranked magic?"
"Don't hurry me, Julius. It will be soon enough. I was only waiting for his 5th birthday," Sofia said matter-of-factly.
Julius gently smiled. "This means you will leave the tower?"
Saint ranked Magic, no matter which spell it was, affects a huge area and has devastating consequences; it could never be performed inside the city.
"Why would I not leave it if I had a reason?"
Sofia dismissed it as if it was nothing, but Julius secretly chuckled. He knew that the Court Magician had not left her tower for years.
Julius even suspected that Sofia had been procrastinating teaching His Highness Saint ranked Magic exactly for that reason, otherwise Mordred might have already become famous as a 4-year old Saint ranked Magician prodigy.
Noticing a smug glint in the eyes of his disciple, Sofia glared at him. She said, "You should better focus on your own Saint ranked Magic, Julius. Did you grasp it yet?"
Julius heard this and let out a sigh. "Sigh. I have already given up on it. I might be able to cast a Saint-ranked spell with a proper staff and more training, but there is no point in it. Recently I fully focused on my swordsmanship and practical skills as a Magic Swordsman."
Hearing this, Sofia was silent. It was a reasonable approach. In small scale battles and direct confrontations, Saint-ranked Magic has no use, while another mediocre Saint rank Magician appearing in this world would make no difference.
Because she had Mordred as her main student, she let Julius do as she saw fit. The reason she had accepted Julius as a disciple was not because of his talent for Magic, but because she shared history with his grandfather, as the two participated in the same war years ago.
At this moment, Charlotte walked into the room while carrying a package, speaking absentmindedly, "There's another gift. It's from the 5th Prince."
"The 5th Prince, eh?..." Sofia lazily glanced at the package. She had no idea who the 5th Prince was nor did she care.
Julius softly smiled and explained, "The 5th Prince, Stevio Kingdragon, is also from a major noble family like the 1st Prince. He has shown to be talented at scholarly subjects and the family behind him has some hopes. The 1st Prince and 5th Prince are the two most likely future candidates for the throne."
Although the king was still fairly young, it did not stop the various factions behind the royal children from competing among each other over influence as they set up a stage for the future.
And to decide the future king, the 16th Prince – Mordred Kingdragon, a Magic Power Miko and the Court Magician's direct disciple, was certainly a very important chess piece. If he were to become the next Court Magician, which was nearly guaranteed to happen, whom he'd support in the future would have a major impact on the political scene.
Julius added casually, "Of course, there is still the 12th Princess from the Silverscale family. The kingdom prefers male rulers, but women also have a chance, after all."
The 12th Princess had also already sent Morded a birthday gift.
Or rather saying that she was the one who sent it, it was surely the faction behind her that had picked the gift and sent it because the Princess herself was still just a child. Even if it was not to help the princess become the next Queen, their family forging relations with Mordred ahead of time was still something valuable.
"Hmph, political nonsense. I'll have to lecture the boy to not get involved in that dogcrap."
Julius softly smiled. "There might be no need for it. It seems there's nothing that interests Prince Mordred more than studying Magic. Besides that, I think His Highness would thrive on the political scene."
Sofia snorted. "What political scene? Pointless bickering among buffoons. What could be more important than studying Magic?"
Julius went silent and chose to not argue.
But while Sofia didn't want Mordred to get involved in politics, Julius thought the opposite. Although Prince Mordred had no rights to succession due to his lowly birth, that was now; who's to say what would happen in the future if he continued displaying extraordinary talent? He was still a son of the king.
…
Later that day.
Mordred had two rooms in the Magician's tower all for himself. One was his study room and bedroom, meanwhile the other was his training and Magic practice room with little furniture and mostly stone all around.
Although the Court Magician's residence was called a 'tower', each floor was essentially the size of a large flat. There were few people living in it currently, so there was no problem at all with giving Mordred two rooms, and with his nursing mother living in a separate adjacent room.
Currently, Mordred sat at a desk in his study room. He practiced drawing a Magic Circle of Advanced rank Healing Magic using special ink; homework assigned to him by Sofia. He could not slack off here and go through the motions because a single mistake would make the circle not work.
In the middle of his work, there was a knock on his door, then a person entered.
"Nanny Charlotte?"
"Prince Mordred… Please stop your studies for a moment, there's something I need to show you," Charlotte said with a suspicious smile.
Mordred faked ignorance, raising his eyebrows. "Something? I have a lot of homework…"
"You can return to it later, it's something important. Grandmaster Sofia is on it as well." Charlotte insisted.
"Oh… Well, if it's important..." Mordred slowly got up from his desk as if finally convinced. He said, "I wonder what's this about…"
Hearing this, Charlotte let out a chuckle. "You'll see!"
What was this about?
It was surely not related to how Julius just a few days ago had indirectly asked him about what kind of gifts he'd like.
It was surely not related to all the hustling and bustling that was happening in the tower today.
Surely not related to how he was essentially locked up in his room.
Not related at all to his 5th birthday which probably half the royal palace knew of yet he had somehow forgotten about despite being the so-called genius.
Mordred thought this jokingly while following Charlotte out of the room with an ignorant expression.
After passing the corridor, the two went upstairs to a higher floor and eventually reached the doors of one of the largest rooms in the tower. Mordred knew that it was a banquet hall which was rarely used.
Mordred showed a confused expression, causing Charlotte to form a mysterious smile.
Knock, knock, knock.
Charlotte slowly knocked on the door thrice, then opened it.
As Mordred looked inside, he saw a number of familiar faces alongside a decorated room with a large wooden table, which was packed with various kinds of extravagant-looking food and one especially eye-catching large chocolate cake.
Bang! Baang!
The moment he laid his eyes on the inside of the room, sparklers shot out from the hands of several people with a bang, filling the room with colorful lights which sparkled like magic dust; must be a Magic Tool.
"""Happy birthday!"""
Following the bangs and the sparklers, several people called out in unison, including Charlotte.
Sofia, Julius and butler Samuel were there, along with the maids working in the tower. There was also a young man with a sword at his hip that seemed to be Charlotte's son.
But that was just it.
Mordred's teachers were not here. A 5-year-old birthday is not as important as a 10-year-old one, which would often house a large party, and is usually just a family gathering.
"Aah, birthday?" Mordred showed a stunned look as if he had forgotten; it was a great test of his acting skills which he surely needed to polish.
Julius smiled and said, "We thought Your Highness was so busy with your studies that you might not have noticed, but today is your 5th birthday. Congratulations!"
This seemed to at least fool Julius; he was too easy.
"Congratulations, Prince Mordred."
"Congratulations!"
Sofia approached Mordred and placed her hand on her shoulder. "Boy! You're already 5! But still do grow up faster, or this old lady might not live up to seeing you become an adult!"
Mordred smiled. "I will try."
"Good… With this out of the way, let's not delay things. Let's start with the most exciting part and get it over with, the presents!" said Sofia.
Hearing this, Mordred was actually moved. After all, it was a fantasy world and he was quite a character in a royal palace of a powerful nation. Just what kind of gifts would he receive?
"I'll give you my gift later, so I'll step down for now," Sofia looked at Mordred mysteriously and then stepped away, arms behind her back.
With this hint, a person spoke up, "Then I shall be first. Your Highness…"
Mordred saw that it was an unfamiliar person. He was a dignified-looking man and he wore meticulous embroidered clothes of a high-ranking official.
The man made a noble greeting while addressing Mordred. "I'm someone sent out to personally deliver His Majesty's gift to Prince Mordred. The King thinks highly of the 16th Prince's future. After hearing of your accomplishment of mastering Advanced rank Magic still before the age of 3, he decided to bring out a valuable present to celebrate your 5th birthday and to reward your hard work!"
Mordred faintly raised his eyebrows. 'Mm? A gift from the King?'
Although the King himself was not present, Mordred's talent still seemed to be valued by the crown, as it should. A gift from the King would certainly be the most valuable of the things he'd receive today!
It would at least be an A-rank staff. And that's only if the King was being stingy.
In fact, among the presents at the side Mordred had indeed already noticed something that looked like a wrapped-up Magician's Staff.
But Mordred had higher hopes for the King's gift; it's more likely that the staff came from Sofia.
When Julius recently asked him for what he'd like, Mordred described a certain Magic Item type. The thing that he said he wanted the most was a storage treasure! A Magic Item similar to an Interspatial Ring.
The man's prideful speech made him have some expectations, but he wasn't sure if he could get something so useful.
In this world there is no spatial Magic, no wide-spread Interspatial Rings use and no Inventory Space, so all goods have to be transported physically. Adventurers have to carry their supplies on their person or they use a mount for it - a mount which is almost always far slower than a Saint rank warrior. Having this kind of Magic Item would be incredibly useful for Mordred's future travels.
But naturally, something like an Interspatial Ring or a Storage Bracelet would be a very rare and valuable item. Because nothing like Space Magic existed, the royal treasury might not even have something like this.
Mordred wasn't sure. While studying up on Magic Items, he discovered that things are quite suspicious about them. Rather than receiving random effects inside Labyrinths, it more appears that they receive random effects from a pool of possibilities designed beforehand, like in a game.
In many areas, this world resembled an RPG game with a cookie-cutter design.
Because of this game-like design, it was not entirely impossible for storage treasures to exist.
The official continued, "After consulting with Mr. Frostguard, His Majesty had brought out a gift from the Royal Treasury that Prince Mordred should find quite handy."
After speaking, the man took out an item wrapped up in red silk. In front of everyone's eyes, he slowly pulled away the silk.
Soon enough the gift's appearance was revealed.
It was… a leather pouch!
Seeing this, Mordred was moved. Could it be?...
"This pouch is a rare Magic Item," the official explained. "It has a very special function. The space inside expands when items are placed in it, expanding up to a hundred times its original size!"
'Let's GOOOOO!' When Mordred heard it, he was hyped. As he thought, this bag was a storage treasure!
Although a storage pouch was not as extravagant and convenient as a Storage Ring, and it was also quite small, it was still something great and cool to have.
The official smiled when he saw Mordred's amazed expression. He continued, "Regardless of the objects placed inside, the weight of the pouch never changes. Your Highness should find this Magic Item useful for storing all kinds of materials, books and Magic Crystals."
Mordred slowly received the brown-colored leather pouch into his eyes, his eyes glinting. He couldn't wait to test it.
After the king's gift, Julius stepped out with a gentle smile. "My present is not as extravagant as His Majesty's, but I think Your Highness will still find it useful."