C6: Parade

3 days later…

It's an important day for the people of Muri.

The March of Muri, as they call it.

The entire city is bustling with screaming people and everyone in the city is playing guitars, singing songs, and getting drunk in the alleys. The city is louder than usual, and half of the Guards inside the castle had to move outside of there because of the parade of the king.

Surrounded by a long line of Magi Knights, the king's vessel is taking a stroll through the alleys of Muri.

It's a tradition for the castle of Muri. They do this every March, hence why it's called the March of Muri.

The last time I visited the castle, it was bustling with more knights than the elven knights in the Elderwood, my home. I had no chance of winning against all those knights.

This was the very first princess I was targeting too. I could not lose my life in the very first challenge.

So, I went back to the City and walked around, brewing up another plot – until I saw a flier being handed out by the Magic Knights in the City.

"March of Muri."

The king of Muri, along with the castle's princess and the royal family shall take a parade around the City of Muri as a tradition, to every part of the city. Accompanying the King is a march of hundreds of Magi Knights, making it impossible to even think about assassinating any of the royal family.

However, this has given me a chance.

Most of the castle's knights would engage in the duty for the March, which will allow me to deliver the letter to the princess without any inconveniences from the colossal number of knights that stroll the alleys of the castle.

For the past few days, I've been adding up my stat points and training with my stealth on the roads, stealing from shops and panties from clotheslines like a pervert.

The women chase you even further than the shop owners when you steal their panties from a clothesline in Muri. So, my stealth has been much refined.

The King's parade has already traveled half of the city. I have about one and a half hours to deliver the letter to the princess and escape the castle.

Once again, I find myself where I left off two days ago.

I stand at the peak of the castle wall beside a knight that stays frozen like a statue. I'm invisible, he can't spot me.

I gently leap off the top of the wall into the castle.

The magi drones could catch me. If I bump into a knight, I'm busted. If the mana dragon spots me, I'm dead. The challenge is still difficult, but not nearly impossible.

'Why does this castle have so many knights on duty? And how do they have so many magi knights?' I ponder as I land in an alleyway within the castle walls. 'Not that it matters to me – but normally, there aren't security forces that can be this huge.'

Magi drones float above me and a few knights pass by.

I escape through the small gap between the two six-foot-tall knights engaged in a conversation. Swift, not a sound.

'Fuck this,' I curse from within, seeing the many guards walking around right before me. I take cover behind a dark alley and let the magi drones come.

"Frost blast!" I freeze the magi drone, right when it comes toward the alley.

Swish! I catch it before it has time to fall to the ground. By applying mana to my fingertips, the frozen magi drone turns invisible.

When I apply mana to an object, the effect of the invisible potion also applies to that object.

The guards do not notice the slight inconvenience. I do it all so swiftly. Not a single eye spots me.

Not a single ear catches the sound of my steps.

Continuing in this manner, I sneak along the valley, freezing one bot and another until I reach the end of the road.

"Hey, Colin. When does the parade end? We need to get a break, man." One of the guards in the valley calls out to his friend.

"Yeah, Fenrir. I'm getting tired… imagine being one of those wall guards," he chuckles.

I take cover behind a wall, not moving an inch. Another drone is approaching me from a distance. My heart skips a beat.

But I remain calm, not a breath of fear from the outside.

"Call the dragon here, let's go meet Larry." The first one says, raising his magic sword into the air.

"Summon Morgana." He chants.

RWARRRR!

"Dude, that's risky! What if the boss figures out that we summoned Morgana just to go talk to Larry."

"Nah, it'll be fine."

The two guards walk away from the alley, and a greater presence enters the valley instead. I freeze blasts the coming drone, instantly catching it before it hits the ground and shatters to pieces.

A dragon created from mana is approaching me from the very end of the alley now, and I stand in the middle of it, not making another move. It slithers across the air gradually, directing its eyes into all the dark valleys that surround it.

I place the frozen drone within my cloak and take out my dagger.

My dagger is not cloaked with mana, but it is a metal that can cut through any substance. I raise my hand towards the incoming dragon and whisper, "Mana domain: Bubble."

A massive mana shield that looks like a bubble seals the dragon and me within this alley, along with all the magi bots within it. The houses are silent, not a single person comes outside. No windows are open.

They've all gone to see the King's Parade.

"RWARRR!"

The dragon rages forth, right towards me.

The mana bubble triggers it instantly, but it can't take the mana bubble out without touching it.

The barrier of mana is too massive. There's a greater distance to the edge of the bubble than the distance between me and the dragon.

To remove my [Mana Domain: Bubble], the trick is to touch the very edge of it with negation magic. It covers the entire alley, and gladly, there are no guards nearby.

And of course, the dragon is a mere culmination of mana that only has one objective.

Removing the intruders.

Its target is me, and that gives me just enough time to turn the tables.

"Frost Storm," I clasp my hands together, chanting an S-tier spell.

A strong wind mixed with frozen dust covers the entire valley, spinning around like a brewing storm. Suddenly, it seizes, freezing all magi drones in the alley and everything within the mana bubble.

However, the dragon isn't affected one bit. It's a being made of mana negation. It cannot be affected by magic.

But my target isn't him – it's the magi drones that survey the alley.

"RWAR!" It charges at me with its jaws open. I leap into the air, grasping an edge in one of the building walls.

The jaws miss me by an inch.

"Here you bastard!" I throw my knife to the dragon's head and it slashes one of its eyes right away.

"RWARRRR!" It becomes furious.

With that, I could get to my final move.

"Wind Mount." I mount the wind once more and thrust myself into the sky toward the edge of the mana bubble. The dragon's chasing me, at magnificent speed from behind.

But I have the higher ground.

It has no flesh. It's a lump of negation magic. I cannot kill it using magic, but this can.

I fly right out of the mana bubble. The moment my entire body exits the bubble, I clasp my hands once again.

PLOP!

The bubble of mana surrounding the alley blows up like a balloon stung with a needle, and the dragon below me disappears into thin air.

I gradually float down to the empty alley.

There's no longer any ice covering the roads, or any drones lying in the ground. I sense not even the slightest bit of mana from the colossal mana dragon that has been summoned here only moments before.

The Mana Bubble not only traps all beings with mana within it, but it also removes every drop of mana within it when it blows up, leaving not the even slightest bit of things that have been touched by mana.

In other words, it negates all the things touched by mana within the bubble. Hence why the magi drones disappeared also.

The dragon was not flesh.

It was a mere culmination of the mana negation magic that had been trapped within a dragon's shape and a fake soul. So, once it blows within the Mana Bubble, it dies.