Chapter 8 : Celia’s Awakening

However, as I walked towards my bed, I suddenly stopped in my tracks as I accidentally sniffed my shirt.

"Ugrh… This smell…"I sniffed my shirt for a few more times. "Tsk, I smell like shit."

For that reason, I made the decision to take a shower before heading to bed.

I mean, how am I supposed to sleep with this shitty smell constantly surrounding me? There's no way I would be able to sleep with it.

So anyways, I walked into the luxury bathroom inside my own room and turned on the water to fill up the bathtub.

As I waited for it to fill up, I made my way out of the bathroom towards my bedroom.

"Let's see… Where did this bastard put it?" I mumbled.

I looked around the room, hoping to find something akin to a safe in my previous world, but more medieval ones. I think it's called… A chest? I'm not quite sure.

Nonetheless, I was trying to find something like that. I needed to take out some golds from it. After all, I'm travelling to the capital tomorrow. How can I travel to the capital without any money?

"Tsk, where did he hide it?" I whined with frustration as I collapsed onto the chair at a table, which was located in front of my bed.

Despite searching my entire room for almost 20 minutes, I did not find the chest that I've been looking for.

The only thing I found was a small coffer, placed on the table where I now sat. However, that coffer was already empty. I had previously removed all the gold coins from it before heading to the Black Market.

"This son of a bi-" I tried to speak out loud to express my frustration.

But as I spoke, I suddenly heard the sound of water flowing onto the ground and splattering. The sudden appearance of the sound cut my sentence off.

I didn't know what the sound was, however, all I know was that it was coming from the bathroom.

"…Oh, right! The bathtub!"

The thought came back into my mind as I accidentally sniffed the smell of my shirt once again.

As such, I promptly ran back into the bathroom and turned the water off to prevent further overflow of water from the bathtub.

Following that, I immediately hopped into the bathtub for the sake of washing myself in the hot and comfortable water.

Feeling thoroughly exhausted, the bath provided an exceptional comfort. The warmth of the water eased the fatigue from my body, while the soap cleansed away the germs on my body. It felt incredibly satisfying.

But anyways, after the amazing bath, I headed back into my bedroom and hopped onto my bed as soon as I could. My body was extremely tired. I could barely even move properly at that point.

However, I wasn't just physically exhausted; I was mentally drained too. The rigorous training sessions with Winston and the inhumane treatment of the slaves in the Black Market took a toll on my mentality.

As a result, I fell instantly asleep after I laying onto my bed. It hasn't even been a minute since I laid down, but I was already sleeping like a log.

And with this, my day was finally over. My preparations for the Academy was near its completion. Now, I just had to wait for the departure to the capital at tomorrow's morning.

"Prince! Prince!!" Wallace yelled as he knocked loudly onto my door.

My sleep was immediately interrupted by it. Though I don't exactly know the time currently, but what I do know was that I'm still extremely tired. After all, I slept quite late yesterday, at around 2 a.m.

"What?" I yelled. "Don't interrupt me! Let me sleep!"

I scolded Wallace, who was the one knocking on the door. I didn't know about the time, so I just assumed that it was still early.

"Prince… I'm not trying to ruin your mood but… We're late…" Wallace informed me.

"Huh…? Late…? Late for what?" I asked with a drowsy tone.

"Prince, it's already 12 in the afternoon…"

"…What?!"

My exhaustion vanished instantly as soon as I heard the time. I was extremely late. The time we had planned to depart at was 10 in the morning, not 12 in the afternoon.

"Fuck! Tsk, Wallace, come in!" I permitted.

As Wallace opened the door, I jumped out of my bed and immediately ran into the bathroom.

"Wallace, prepare me some clothes." I yelled, instructing Wallace.

Simultaneously, I was washing my face and doing the daily routine for the morning.

"…There's no toothbrush and toothpaste in this world…" I whined silently.

My breath was quite smelly if you ask. It felt weird, not brushing my teeth for two days.

But currently, there's nothing I can do about it anyway. So, I decided to just wash my mouth for now.

"Prince, here! Your clothes!"

Wallace ran towards me and extended both his hand with a set of fancy outfit on it. He was giving me an outfit he picked up from my closet.

"Yeah, yeah. Wait for me outside. Let me change." I urged Wallace out of the bathroom, taking the outfit away from his hands.

"Yes, prince."

Without delay, Wallace dashed out of the bathroom, allowing me to change my clothes.

However, as I was changing my clothes, I suddenly noticed something suspicious in the walls of the bathroom.

A small part of the bathroom walls has a darker colour than the others. The darker part was extremely small, it was about the size of my pinky.

"Eh? What? How did I not see it?" I questioned. "Is it because I enjoyed the shower too much…?"

Nonetheless, it was suspicious. And for that reason, I made my way towards that part of the wall immediately after I finished changing my clothes.

"What's… This? I don't remember it being in the novel…" I whispered to myself.

This mysterious wall wasn't mentioned anywhere in the novel, but that was to be expected. There's no way that the novel would talk about every single detail in this world.

"Should I… Press it?" I hesitated.

The incident in the library to the hidden chamber made me hesitate about these suspicious things.

"…Fuck it. Who knows? Maybe there's a treasure behind it."I decided.

Thus, I stretched my arm out and used my pinky to press into the wall.

Click!

Upon applying pressure onto the wall, the darker part of the wall was pressed in.

After that, another part below the switch of some sort, moved. It was slowly opening into some kind of different room.

"…Not again." I whined.

This current situation looked exactly like the library incident. And it gave me trauma. The corpses and that monster… They were both traumatising.

However, upon seeing the objects behind the wall, inside the room, I instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

The room was small and tight, unlike the hidden chamber. The space in the room was just big enough to fit one object, a chest. There was a chest placed in the centre of it.

"Wait… This… Don't tell me?"

I walked towards the wooden chest. Following that, I extended my left hand onto the chest and opened the chest.

"So this is where you were!" I exclaimed.

The chest was filled with gold. Though it wasn't completely filled up, it was filled up to at least half of space inside the chest.

This was the item that I was trying to find yesterday. The 'safe' where the original Emrys kept all of his money in.

Consequently, I ran back into my bedroom and took a space pouch that I bought from the Black Market.

I filled the space pouch with around half the amount of gold inside the chest before closing the wall and shutting the room away from the bathroom.

Afterwards, I exited the bathroom and walked to my room's door. As I opened the door, I spoke.

"Wallace, where's the siblings at?"

"Prince, I'm not sure…" Wallace told me.

"Right. Then, bring me down."

"Yes, prince."

Immediately, Wallace started walking towards the stairs to head down to the first floor.

I followed Wallace footsteps as I wanted to head down too. We're departing soon after all.

Upon reaching the first floor, I was greeted with Winston standing by the stairs, waiting for me.

Simultaneously, I was also met with a red haired boy with green eyes, Asher, who was sitting on the couch in the centre of the room.

"Asher, where's your sister?" I inquired, walking towards him.

"I think she's in the library." Asher responded.

"Oh? Wait. How did she get in?"

I was confused. The library wasn't open to just anyone. The library was a place only the royalties and some individuals with high authority could enter.

"Some… Girl with green hair brought her there. She was visiting you in the morning, but you didn't wake up."

"Eh? Green hair...?" I murmured, trying to recall the person with green hair. "Livia…?"

The only person in the palace was Livia, and her mother, the royal alchemist of the palace.

But there's no way her mother would visit me. She's an extremely busy woman. So, the only conclusion that I got was that Livia visited me.

"…Go prepare the carriage now. I'll go find Celia." I commanded, rushing out of my mansion towards the library.

I had to rush there as Livia wouldn't just visit me for no reason. There must be something that caused her to visit me. And not just that, I had to call for Celia too.

"Here! My card. Give it back later."

I threw my identity card to the library's gatekeeper and rushed into the library.

Surprisingly, the gatekeeper did not bother to stop me. He just moved aside when I threw my card to him. Maybe he still remembers me…? Who knows? But I didn't care much about that.

After entering the library, I was greeted by the librarian.

"Welcome, your highness. May I know what you need?" She queried.

"Did you see my sister, Livia?" I responded in a hurry.

"Eh? Princess Livia? I think she just left…"

"…What about another green haired girl but with yellow eyes instead?" I asked about Celia.

"I think she's still here. Come with me, your highness."

The librarian gestured me to follow her as she stood up from her seat.

Right away, she started to walk deeper into the library. It was a familiar trip, a place I've been to before, The Magic Category.

"Here, your highness. She's here."

The librarian pointed towards Celia, who sat on the ground in a half-lotus stance, her eyes closed in deep concentration. Her hands were stacked, with her thumb on top and the rest of her fingers at the bottom, forming a horizontal oval shape at her stomach level.

"That's… A cultivating stance…?" I whispered to myself in confusion.

She was so immersed into cultivating at that moment, she didn't even felt us approaching her.

"We shouldn't disturb her first." The librarian informed me.

"Yes, I know. Let's just wait here." I replied, agreeing to her decision.

Soon, the shelves began to shake furiously, some books flip opened and their pages started to flip rapidly. The air around Celia stirred, picking up pace and swirling around her.

"This is… An awakening, isn't it?" I mumbled.

"Yes… Your highness. It is." The librarian responded with a shocked expression.

After awakening, Celia slowly opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings and her own body.

"Is this… Mana?" She questioned herself.

She felt a new, but strange sensation around her own body and inside it. A feeling that made her more powerful, a feeling that made her surpass her previous self.

"Congratulations, Celia. You can use mana now, you know?" I spoke, making my way towards her while the librarian remained frozen in shock.

"Y-Your highness?!" Celia replied, with a surprised tone and expression. "Why are you here?"

"First, congratulations on your awakening. But we're departing now. Let's go."I informed her as I slowly walked towards the librarian.

"Thank you, your highness. But please give me a second."

Celia immediately started to pick up the books she was reading and put them back to the shelves.

On the other hand, I stopped beside the librarian and told her, "Please help me clean this place up. I'm sorry for the trouble."

"Don't worry, your highness. I'll clean it up." She regained her composure before responding to me.

"Your highness, may I take a few books for the journey?" Celia asked, holding five books that she previously took from the other sections.

However, I wasn't the librarian, so I couldn't reply to her question. Thus, I turned my head to face the actual librarian and silently asked for her approval.

Thankfully, she permitted Celia to borrow those books for the journey. So I turned back to Celia and nodded as a response to her question.

After that, I headed out of the library along with Celia, and the librarian started to tidy up the messy place that was caused Celia's awakening.

As I walked back to the carriage, where Asher, Winston, and Wallace were waiting at, Celia suddenly spoke again.

"Your highness, your sister Livia told me to give you this."

She took out a green coloured potion and stretched out her hand to give me to me.

"She said this is a healing potion. Though it's not as good as the ones her mother makes." Celia told me about Livia's words.

"Right. Then, thanks."

I took the potion away from her hand and kept it into my space pouch.

"Anyways, let's go faster. The others are waiting." I urged, picking up my pace.

And without a word, Celia quickened her steps to match mine, understanding the urgency as we were already running late.

Consequently, we arrived back at my mansion in a mere few minutes. It only took around 3 minutes of walking.

Upon my arrival back at the mansion, I noticed that the carriage was already fully prepared for departure.

Asher was standing right beside the carriage, while Wallace and Winston was on their respective horses. A brown one and a black one.

"Prince! You're back! We can depart now." Wallace informed me as he opened the carriage door for me.

"Then, let's go." I declared, hopping onto the carriage.

"Prince, where do I sit?" Asher inquired.

"Oh, right! I forgot to say, but both of you are sitting with me."

I turned around to look at Asher, then turning to look at Celia afterwards.

"What? How can a servant sit with the prince?" Asher asked me in shock.

"Because I allowed you to. Now, come up. We're already late."

I extended my hand out of the carriage, as a gesture of inviting them up to the carriage with me.

"Yes, prince… I'll come now."

Asher held onto my hand and hopped onto the carriage.

After that, Asher extended his hand, mirroring my gesture earlier, and assisted Celia onto the carriage.

Subsequently, I closed the carriage's door after both of them had gotten on. However, as I was closing the door, Winston suddenly asked about something that I had completely forgotten.

"My lord. Where are we going? Why are we departing so much earlier?"

"Oh right! I forgot about that. We're going to the Gale Garden first. So that"s why we need to depart earlier." I announced to everyone, including the carriage's driver.

"The… What?! The Gale Garden?!"

My response caught both Winston and Wallace off guard.

"Yeah, that place. So let's go now."

"…Yes, my lord." Winston regained his composure, while Wallace remained shocked by my response.

Soon after that, Winston instructed the carriage's driver to start moving towards my destination. And thus, my first journey in this new life finally began.