The Northern Grand Duke’s Crazy Son-in-Law Chapter 21

21. School ties

“I’ve decided!”

Galahad frowned at Gwen’s sudden shout.

“Private! Tom!”

“It’s nothing, go back to sleep.”

“all right!”

Tom fell asleep again. Gwen grabbed him and apologized. She shook him, saying she was sorry for waking him up.

‘······It’s evil?’

Galahad smiled faintly.

“What on earth have you decided?”

“I will become a very strong wizard.”

It was a blessing that Gwen was learning magic. That was also the reason why she was included in the special forces.

but-.

“Being an incredibly strong wizard is a rather abstract goal. It’s better to have a clear goal.”

“······Huh? Really?”

“Let’s set a clear goal first.”

Gwen, who had been blinking, suddenly pointed.

Galahad squinted at the calloused finger pointing at him.

“Is that what I want to be?”

“Yes! I want to become a powerful wizard like Galahad!”

Gwen’s answer was thunderous. Tom jumped up and sat down again.

“That’s impossible.”

“why!”

“It’s a difference of temperament. I prefer the quick and efficient way. The clean way that blows your head off or pokes a hole in your heart.”

“The neat and tidy way?”

Gwen’s eyes widened.

“You are too kind for that.”

“thank you?”

“That’s not a compliment. You’re saying that you can’t be as efficient a wizard as I am. Can you drill a hole in my head?”

“No!”

“I knew it. You, the weak-hearted one, must completely obliterate your opponent with a massive magic spell, leaving no trace of his form.”

“······Huh?! Annihilation?!”

Tom must have given up on sleep because he pulled out the leather that was lying next to him. Then he started sewing the leather with thick thread. It seemed like he was making a coat.

“Remember, to protect someone, you have to kill someone.”

Galahad spoke in a humorless voice.

Tom nodded. The coat was taking shape.

At that moment, Damien got up. Tom handed over the meat he had kept beside him. Damien started eating again.

“······I know that too.”

Gwen bowed her head. Galahad didn’t bother to urge her.

I opened the window next to me slightly. It was a hole for smoking cigarettes, made at Tom’s suggestion. The cold, slightly moist air of dawn circulated.

The scenery beyond was the same. Tall, dry trees and white snow between them. It’s so boring, I can’t stand it. Galahad grumbled softly.

“······Then! I’ll become a wizard who only makes trouble for bad guys!”

“A mess. Despite your innocent appearance, you have a cruel side.”

“Huh?! No-.”

“So you want to learn magic?”

“yes!”

Gwen nodded with a seed-like face next to the knight.

“You are extremely talented as a wizard. With your huge mana channel and excellent mana sensitivity, you could almost be called a genius.”

“lol.”

Gwen scratched the back of her head and smiled shyly, seeming weak to compliments.

“Okay, let’s start with something simple. This is just a fire spell. It’s a very simple spell, level 1. Follow along.”

Gwen’s eyes became slightly hazy. Then, fire appeared on Gwen’s fingers.

‘That’s amazing.’

Galahad was purely amazed. It was not easy to follow along just by watching.

‘As expected, he’s a genius.’

He was the first genius that Galahad had acknowledged, aside from the one in the Twilight Tower.

“Okay, next, focus on that fire. Try to compress your mana as if you were pressing it.”

“Compression?”

“Think of it as pressing hard.”

Gwen’s eyes widened. She concentrated so hard that her fingers trembled, but surprisingly, there was no response.

“I don’t know?”

“Imagine pressing hard. There’s an invisible muscle there, and you can think of it as pulling on it.”

“I don’t know because there are no invisible muscles!”

“···If that doesn’t work, try bending your finger first.”

Galahad, who absolutely hated being compressed physically, couldn’t help it since he couldn’t get the hang of it.

The problem was that it still didn’t work.

When you create magic, you can’t help but feel the mana. When you feel the mana, most of you quickly realize the principle of compression.

You can’t even do that basic thing?

‘ah.’

Galahad sighed softly at her innocent eyes.

“There is one problem.”

“What’s the problem?”

“You are stupid.”

“······yes?”

“You are stupid.”

“i know!”

Gwen nodded. She was quick to admit it.

“So, is there a problem?”

When asked what was wrong with being stupid, Galahad shook his head. There was nothing wrong with it.

“I see. You don’t necessarily need to seek the truth of magic. Just watch my magic and follow it.”

“Ah! Yes! That’s fortunate!”

Galahad lit the fire again, and the flames rose to Gwen’s fingers.

“I’ll try it alone this time.”

Gwen looked down at her fingers, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, but sadly there was no response.

“Didn’t you do well on your own when you were a demon?”

“I was in a hurry back then-. I’m not sure now.”

I had a guess as to what the cause was. It seemed to be a subconscious aversion to magic.

The way to overcome this was simple.

It was repetitive learning.

There was no problem that couldn’t be solved with that.

“Okay, focus.”

Galahad’s fingers were on fire. Gwen’s fingers were also on fire. They were getting smaller. So they were getting smaller.

“Okay, good job. Then again-”

The light came on. It got smaller, then bigger. Then it went off.

“You did well this time too. Okay, then again-”

“again-.”

“again.”

Even though I repeated it quite a lot, Gwen followed along without complaining.

How many times did it have to be repeated?

By the time Tom finished his coat and Damian patted his belly and closed his eyes again-.

“Burn! Fire! Alright… Alright!! Alright!”

Gwen’s fingers were on fire.

‘It takes forty repetitions to load.’

If you compare the time it takes to learn mana, memorize the principles and spells of magic, and analyze concentrations to the time it takes to learn and use magic-.

‘Overwhelmingly fast.’

It was incomparable speed.

“Good.”

Gwen smiled subtly.

Born to a gambler’s son, he suffered all his life because of his parents’ gambling, but his face looked like the moment he realized he had a natural talent for gambling.

“It’s okay, you can get what’s your parents’ too.”

“······yes?”

“Okay, next is the 4th tier magic explosion crater.”

“It was just level 1! Didn’t it suddenly go up too much?!”

“It’s okay. You probably don’t understand the principles anyway. It would be better to learn higher-ranking magic.”

Gwen nodded after thinking for a moment.

Gilbert looked at Damien, who had come to the stable.

The two walked for a while in silence.

****

“Each battalion on the northern front has its own base.”

Gilbert said, pointing ahead. There were soldiers gathered in groups of three or four, warming themselves by the fire. It looked like a checkpoint.

“You look like a nobleman.”

“Yes, it’s similar. The power will be stronger than the nobility. After all, it’s the military.”

“It’s not for nothing that they call it a principality.”

There was white snow piled up on his shoulders. I didn’t expect it to snow this much in the North-. Galahad muttered softly and shook his shoulders.

“stop!”

One of the soldiers looked this way and shouted. They pulled out their spears in a frenzy.

“The 5th Battalion Commander is a bit of a floating figure among the commanders.”

“Are you being rejected?”

“Yes, originally they were different, but recently there have been rumors that they are raising wizards, and they are being ostracized.”

At that moment, the soldiers came right up to us.

The spears the soldiers held had quite a large tip. They looked like whale-catching harpoons.

“Please state your affiliation.”

The soldier held the spear up to Galahad as if it were a microphone.

“My name is Galahad, the captain of the special forces.”

The soldier frowned thickly.

“Special Forces? Have you heard of it?”

“No, this is the first time I’ve heard of it.”

The soldiers’ conversation went in a different direction than expected.

“Please show me your identification.”

At the soldier’s question, Galahad looked at Gilverton. Haven’t you ever received any kind of identification badge?

“Since the badge uses the bones of a monster, it takes time to make.”

It wasn’t something I couldn’t understand. In the first place, even the capital was a world where things were done slowly. How much worse must it have been in the north.

“First, show me your identification badge. Don’t you still have the 1st Battalion identification badge?”

“doesn’t exist.”

“Why isn’t it there? Wasn’t it the 1st Battalion until recently?”

“Because it’s not the 1st Battalion.”

“You’re more honest than I thought. What were you planning on doing if you got stopped?”

“The 1st Battalion is not normally subject to inspection.”

“Isn’t this the 1st Battalion now?”

“Identity tag!”

The soldier shouted. Galahad clicked his tongue slightly and searched his inner pocket.

“Now, here is His Highness the Grand Duke’s letter of appointment.”

Galahad took out the letter of appointment. It was a document that had been passed around in the council of captains.

the problem is-.

“I don’t know how to write!”

“I don’t know either!”

“How suspicious of you to show me the writing!”

The soldiers were blind.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense. It was because I showed him the writing. How on earth do you read an identification card?

Gilbert grabbed the hilt of the knife.

“You can go in after getting beaten up a little. Didn’t you have a promise with the captain anyway?”

As Gilbert proposed a northern-style negotiation, the carriage door flew open.

“Oh, just in case, I made a temporary ID card.”

Tom held out a rough wooden badge. The soldiers checked him and let him pass. It seemed they were only checking the pattern on the badge.

“Tom, you are really capable.”

“Haha, thank you for just saying that.”

Tom smiled awkwardly and picked up the wooden pawn. Galahad stared at Gilverton at his humble appearance.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“······No.”

Galahad glanced away at Gilbert’s blunt question.

The 5th Battalion base was larger than I had thought. There was a long, thick wooden fence, and there were sharp wooden barricades here and there along the path between them.

The barricade was covered in rotten flesh of unknown shape. The snow piled up on top of it, giving it quite a charm.

The fence was thicker and higher than it looked from a distance. It almost felt like a castle. There were also crossbows between them.

As I entered, a musty smell greeted me.

‘A real army.’

Galahad put the tobacco in his mouth. The lemon flavor pushed away the musty smell.

“The unit is better than I thought.”

“Is that any good?”

“Yes, the soldiers’ health is good, and their armament is good. The finances of the 5th Battalion seem to be better than expected.”

When I looked back after hearing that story, I saw that the headquarters was slightly different. The soldiers were clean. Of course, it was by northern standards.

There were quite a few people dressed in imperial attire. Some of them appeared to be merchants, while others were soldiers manning carts.

‘It feels like we’re on the border between the Empire and the North.’

In some ways, it was more active than the headquarters. There was a smell of magic everywhere.

At that moment, a young woman greeted Galahad. It was the woman he had seen at the conference hall.

“My name is Lumian, the aide to 5th Battalion Captain Mark.”

The building the woman took Galahad to was a large building between the barracks. It was heavily guarded.

Galahad habitually observed the structure and personnel arrangements. It was an occupational disease.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

Lumian opened the door and stepped aside.

The captain of the 5th battalion, Mark, was a man with a tired look on his face. Seeing Galahad, Mark stood up and held out his hand.

“You’re here earlier than I expected. Did you find something?”

Mark greeted me briefly and then immediately asked a question.

“Why do you think so?”

“Adrianna is a man of principle. She would probably finish by going around all the watchtowers, but there is not enough time for that. Unless she found something and caught him, she wouldn’t be here this quickly.”

He was a man whose thinking was quicker than I thought. Perhaps because of that, he also spoke quickly.

“That’s right, on the way here I killed one mid-level demon, two wizards, and sixteen earthlings. I was late because Adrianna was late.”

Mark narrowed his eyes for a moment, as if trying to discern her true meaning.

“You have no reason to lie, so you must be telling the truth.”

Mark believed surprisingly quickly.

“There is a reason His Highness entrusted you with the unit. Hmm-.”

Mark tapped the table with his fingers.

“Are you thinking of setting up headquarters at my battalion base?”

The topic has changed again.

“It’s located in the center of the 1st Battalion and the headquarters where Adriana is, so it’s a good location. Isn’t that why you came here right away? Of course, it was a bit of a leap of faith-.”

Galahad nodded obediently.

“I see. It’s not that difficult to give up a place, but there are a few problems.”

smart.

The door opened at the same time as the knock. It was a robed figure. A man with a goatee.

He had no weapon. It meant he was not a soldier.

“That’s great. This is Corton, an external advisor to our unit.”

Mark greeted me with a raised lip.

A goatee named Corton held out his hand with a merchant’s smile.

“Nice to meet you.”

Galahad clasped his hands together and habitually poured mana into them.

‘The mana is considerable-,’

It was typical evidence of the Warlocks’ Association. They had a lot of mana, as they did not hesitate to do anything to increase their mana.

“You can come next time if there are any guests.”

“No, it’s Captain Galahad you were wondering about.”

Corton sat down close to Mark.

‘Things are going interestingly.’

It wasn’t that hard to catch a black magician. It was a problem that could be solved by finding out where he lived, drilling a hole in his head, and reporting it.

Galahad expected that this would work out that way this time too.

But things took a different turn.

“Cortene is a very kind person who has improved the poor conditions of the 5th Battalion.”

Mark introduces the bald man, and his voice is quite warm.

‘I guess that’s the problem Mark was talking about.’

The relationship between the two seemed quite good.

Perhaps the wizard has already established himself and is therefore difficult to accept.

“Are you by any chance Galahad?”

Corton said with wide eyes, a disgusted blush creeping over his face.

‘That Galahad-.’

It was a name I hadn’t heard in a long time.

“That’s Galahad.”

“That Galahad?”

“Ah, he is famous among magicians for graduating at the top of his class at the Capital Academy at the youngest age.”

“Corton said with a voice that contained his true feelings. Mark’s eyes widened slightly.

“Are you from the Academy?”

“Yes, actually, I saw it at the Academy.”

“okay?”

The guy’s reaction was a bit subtle. It felt like he was in a bad mood.

“Yes, you came in when I was a senior, so you graduated before me.”

“You’ve been in your senior year for four years?”

It took Galahad exactly three years from the time he entered the Academy to when he graduated. That meant the man had been in the graduating class for at least four years.

Looking at the bastard’s crumpled face, Galahad realized that his guess was correct.

“Usually, it’s around that level.”

The bastard’s eyes turned ominous.

‘It’s an inferiority complex.’

It was a familiar look to Galahad.

It was an eye that had followed me ever since I entered the academy as the youngest student.

If you scratch those guys with those eyes, something will come out.

“I don’t know about that because I was only in my senior year for half a year. Sorry.”

The bastard’s eyes narrowed. Galahad raised the corners of his mouth.

“Oh, did it take more than four years?”

As if that was a sore spot, the bastard’s face turned red.

“I didn’t know that Galahad was such a famous person. There must be a reason why the Empire sent Galahad.”

Mark spoke with a strange look in his eyes. His eyes seemed to be calculating something.

Who benefits more – he was a smart man.

When Mark praised her, the response was immediate.

“What does it matter when you graduated? What matters is what you did after graduation. I haven’t heard anything about that Galahad after graduation. What on earth did you do?”

The fact that no word was heard was a testament to how excellent an agent Galahad was.

Compliments in front of me? – Galahad answered, scratching his cheek for no reason.

“I’ve been busy with various things.”

“Oh, you’ve been busy.”

Mark intervened again. Then Corton laughed.

“Oh, I heard the news. You managed to survive.”

If you hear the rumor that the Count’s third son is marrying off the Archduke’s eldest daughter, you would naturally react like that.

You’ll think I’m sending you to die for a cause.

Originally, the Archduke had intended to put Galahad in the dungeon, so it wasn’t a wrong story.

“Cotton, why but.”

“It’s nice to see my academy classmates here.”

The guy smirked at Mark’s intervention. Mark seemed to be playing the role of the sister-in-law who was trying to stop him.

“I am also glad to see you here in this far north.”

The bastard ground his teeth at Galahad’s meaningful answer.

“Unlike you, I came here on business. Rather, to me, the North is a land of opportunity.”

“Oh, a business in the magical wasteland of the North—that’s great.”

The bastard’s eyebrows furrowed further at Galahad’s voice.

“Ha! There are three recently discovered magic stone quarries. You know how valuable they are.”

I only pressed it lightly, but the guy who couldn’t overcome his inferiority complex started talking.

He was a guy who had even entered the Dark Magic Academy. He was a twisted guy even among wizards, so it wasn’t surprising that he reacted so violently.

“This is a business with Captain Mark. I wish you could join us, but-. Isn’t he such a capable person? He can’t work under a loser like me. What a shame!”

The guy smiled mockingly.

‘Because I’m a poor student.’

It was like what I said. I was quite sensitive during my academy days.

“There’s no way our talented Galahad, the youngest graduate of the Academy, the pride of the Academy, would work under me, a low-level student. Right?”

He held out his hand as he spoke, clearly convinced that Galahad would not accept his offer.

That was an obvious taunt from him.

Mark’s eyes met mine. Those damned calculating eyes seemed to ask, which of the two would benefit him more?

Galahad chuckled.

“Good, this is the same class.”

When I quickly grabbed his hand, his eyes widened as if they were going to tear apart.

Mark raised the corners of his mouth slightly as if he had seen something funny.

Although Corton tried to pull his hand away, Galahad did not let go.

Three magic stone mills. Even if you only had one, you could earn as much as the lord of a decent castle.

It wasn’t just a question of money. Having a lot of magic stones made it easier to teach Gwen. If you ran out of mana, you could just use magic stones.

If you have a magic stone there, you can add various options when building the special forces headquarters.

in other words-.

“Okay, where should I go to work?”

It was Nodaji.

They’re giving me three magic stones.

School ties were this important.

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Fantasy, Fusion,