8 It wasn't intentional

"Lady Herena, aren't i already your personal knight?" William asks confused.

"My father did permit your stay in our residence as a knight but you're yet to be my personal knight since i've delayed my coming age for 3 years."

Helena coming-of-age or so-called debutante should've been held 3 years ago, when she was 15 years old. But because of the weight of the rumors going around, even the emperor allowed her coming of age to be halted at the moment.

"Coming of age huh? so that's why the residence has gotten noisy lately." William grunts. "Are you sure about this lady Helena? even though the rumors have subsided, there's no saying that the nobles in the Abuneian empire wouldn't criticize your family."

Helena smirks. "Who says there are only Abuneian nobles attending my debutante?"

William's eyes widened as he looked at his master's facial expression. "What?! my lady? you also invited mages from the tower?!"

"Why? can't i?"

"My lady.." William exhaustedly cries. "then what was the purpose for waiting all these years to let the rumors subside?"

Helena laughs. "Rumors is also another way to gain fame, it's fine as long it is controllable. Seeing that people haven't touched our family in these 6 years just means that people are more inclined to believe the emperor than the false rumors that the tower aimed towards us. But of course, i also know that doesn't limit to people that could harm me as soon as i enter the academy or make my debut in the empire."

Helena places her palm above her chest "I've been too ignorant towards my enemies' intentions in the past. In this lifetime i will never let them harm me again."

William felt astonished towards his master's attitude and way of thinking, carefully reading her facial expression as if it wasn't from a 18 year old Lady from a ducal house.

"William"

William was caught off guard, looking away. "My lady?"

"Since you'll be my personal knight in a few weeks, i expect great results from your squadron in the upcoming winter hunt. I've already asked Sir Galahad to make your squadron representatives of our Enilde residence." Helena looks seriously at William, in return he kneels and obeys the order.

"Yes my lady."

In William's thought, he already thought of a hundred ways to train his own squadron, a hell experience flashed through his mind. 'i can't fail Lady Helena!' he thought before running back towards Sir Galahad to meet his squadron.

As Helena walks away, she felt a sudden gush of pain around her body. 'Damn, i've already bought 2 magic stones to contain my magic.' she thought.

After going back in time, there are a lot of things she realised. Including her tremendous amount of mana that she inherited before she traveled back in time. Unfortunately, because of her small body, the mana couldn't be contained well and it made her frail and sickly in those 6 years.

'let's endure, i've done this in the past until i became the archmage, who says i can't endure it again?' she thought.

The reason why she was ridiculed in the tower was because Helena couldn't control her magic in her early childhood years, resulting in her continuous losses against Ophelia. It took her years to control a speck of magic, and a decade to master it. But even though she did control her magic, her tremendous amount of mana that was residing in her body was still too much, that's why her magic leaks out from time to time, making her sickly.

Helena, loses her strength and kneels on the ground exhaustedly. 'endure it! contain your magic!' She strongly thought.

The 2 magic stones cracks, making her gasped in horror.

'damn i need to use large amounts of magic- that's right. Spatial magic!' she thought, realizing that using spatial magic could reduce her magic, and the amount would vary according to the distance of the spatial magic.

The farther the better.

As her magic started to leak, she uses that moment to cast spatial magic to the farthest location she marked before. Because of her uncontrollable magic, she was unable to exactly pinpoint her destination. But she was sure that her spatial magic would take her to the farthest place she marked before.

As she travels away due to magic, she noticed large amounts of her mana depletes rapidly.

She expected it to go down, but for her mana to drain 3/4 of her mana is another unexpected occurrence that never happened before.

And to her dismay, her spatial magic led her to the chambers of the crown prince.

"W-Why are you here?" She says in shock, seeing the crown prince in front of her.

The crown prince's eyes widened in return, walking towards her. He swiftly locks her movements by knocking her by the door. "This is my room, how dare you come here." he said angrily.

The crown prince's chambers was a heavily guarded room with 3 layers of barriers, when he saw Helena was able to enter easily, he thought that 3 barriers was a small amount that could've not even rival the archmage's powers.

"w-wait! i didn't come here intentionally!" She said flustered at the distance of their bodies. "Can you let me explain first?!"

Fortunately, the crown princes finally lets go, cleaning his sleeves due to touching the archmage's clothes.

'Hmph, who told you to come near me.' Helena grunts at his behavior.

"You got 5 minutes." He says, sitting on his table.

"well.. my mana got uncontrollable so i used spatial magic to go to the farthest marked location, and it led me here." She says bluntly.

The crown prince looks at her suspiciously.

"What? i told you the truth, that's all there is."

He sighs. "Waste of time."

Helena's fist balled in anger. 'ugh i want to punch his royal face.' she thought.

"Lady Helena, i know it's been 6 years, but if you needed to meet me, you should send a letter first, this is very disrespectful." He smirks.

"W-What?! i just told you it's unintentional!" Helena turning into a color of potato from frustration.

He sighs once again. "Then regardless of reason, i ask you to return to your residence, i am in need of rest."

'Hmph who wants to stay here with you?!' she thought.

Then a sudden realization hit her.

"Um.. do you perhaps.. i mean how many layers of barrier is imbedded in this room?" she asks.

"Three, all of them broke after you came." He raises an eyebrow.

'That's why my mana got so depleted! if i count how many barriers i just broke.. ugh it could be more than ten because of the imperial palace's security. just why did i have to travel here of all places, i just don't understand!' she thought extensively.

As she contemplated how she came to the prince's chambers. The crown prince chuckled at how fast her facial expression kept changing as she thought things through. For some reason, he wasn't totally angered by her presence or felt disgusted as it did before. The only word that he could describe her was a 'mysterious individual.

"Ah.. you see. i can't travel back .. yet." Helena sighs.

"and why is that?"

"My mana is depleted. i can't use spatial magic." She replied.

The Crown prince chuckles. "Is this another method of seducing me, lady Helena?"

"Give me an hour! that would be enough to use spatial magic again." She added, completely unfazed by his remark.

'An hour? spatial magic consumes a large amount of mana for mages, considering the distance of the palace to Portcour Heights, a mage can't replenish that huge amount of mana for the second time, much less for an hour? Her title as Archmage gives her justice.' He thought.

"Thinking about it.." The crown prince stood up, and strided towards Helena.

He picks a bundle from her hair and suddenly grabs her hair from the behind, forcing her to look at his eyes closely. "Since you can replenish that much in an hour, why don't you repair the amount of damage you've made in the palace?"

Helena glares at him, grunting in pain, she tries to hit his face but due to her frail body, the crown prince was able to stop her easily.

"You're really just a jerk." She hissed.

"and you're just a murderer until you prove me wrong." He lets go of her, Helena falls to the ground.

Facing the ground, she felt angered by the prince's choice of words.

'damn it!' she thought in frustration.

A knock was suddenly heard behind her, yet she was still unwilling to get up and face the prince. She stayed in that position even if the person behind the door started speaking.

"Your Highness! it's urgent! the palace's barriers all went down! shall we notify the emperor-"

"No. there's no need. It's just a routine security procedure by a.. " He looks at her. "Mage."

"has anyone been notified by this procedure?"

"No. You shall inform everyone to appease the chaos." He orders.

"Sir? can i come in?"

"No."

And that where the conversation ended, as if the servant already know what the crown prince wanted to say in the long run. The room was quickly surrounded by silence as Helena stayed at her position, her hair covering her face, waiting for her mana to replenish.

He sits on his bed. "How long are you planning to sit there shamefully?"

".."

He sighs. "You don't want to speak to me?"

".."

"Lady Helena."

".."

"Then.. Archmage?"

".."

The crown prince, feeling irked, said. "Murderer?"

Helena flinches.

She begans to shake in anger.

'Did i anger her too much?' He thought as he noticed her shaking and balled fist.

He stands up and hesitantly approaches her, kneeling to match her level, he reaches out to uncover her face.

"Hey. You alive-" He was cut off when he realized that the Archmage was holding her tears, even though it was continuously falling. "ah." he lets go.

'damn why is she crying this much?' he thought as he felt guilty all of a sudden.