219: Turned In 219: Turned In According to the plan, I turned myself in.
Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out the way I expected.
‘How’d they make the bars so strong?
And the walls are quite hard too…’ A situation reminding of the setting of my third ever Contract, I was imprisoned.
‘I an, it is better than that damp cave.
Still dark though, but that’s not a problem.’ Tugging on the thick tal bars, they didn’t seem to budge the slightest, even with the passive enhancent of my body through magic.
The sa was true for the stone walls on every side, but that was no wonder, considering the fact I was deep underground.
Drifting through my mind was a wonder of if either of the Indestructible swords would be able to cut through them, but there was no need for to test that out, so I quickly dismissed it.
“Hm…
I’m not gonna be here for long, right…?” Despite the abruptness of the situation, I didn’t panic.
This was also part of the plan, after all.
Just, Joádin seed to have forgotten to tell so details about it, is all.
Mhm.
Like I already agreed to, once the week of hiding with the help of his magic concealnt was up, I went and turned myself into the Imperial Knights.
I didn’t wear the Villain’s Vizard of course because I didn’t really see a need to when they already knew my identity, and I also was under the impression that I would be brought straight to Lucretia after that.
However, instead, I was simply brought to this cell and left here without a word.
‘I’m sure it was just a miscommunication.
She’ll probably be here soon to let out.’ There was nothing to worry about, because even if no one else was, at least those guys were on my side.
“Haa.
Might as well get so more practice in, I guess…” Leaving the bars alone, I took a seat on the crude bed at the end of the cell and closed my eyes.
Having had quite literally nothing else to do over the past week while stuck in that room with just the familiar Cael to watch over , I spent almost the entire ti continuing the training I was put on by Joádin.
Well, I say “training”.
It’s more like hardcore morisation and ntal imagery exercise.
By studying all the countless different paths that my blood takes to travel around my body, and by extension my magic energy, I wasn’t really accomplishing anything just by having that visualisation itself ingrained into , but rather, it was sothing that should allow to take the next step in magic body enhancent.
At least, that’s what I was told.
Although you cannot control the blood that flows through you, the sa was not true for magic energy.
However, despite my magic energy flowing alongside and within my blood, Joádin claid it should still be possible to control it to an extent.
Albeit self-proclaid, he was still a “genius magician” of the Mage’s Tower, so even though what he said did sound dubious, I was inclined to believe him.
Especially because, well, there was no reason for him to lie.
Of course, I did think it was a bizarre idea, the primary reason being that, if I were to control the magic energy being transported through my blood, wouldn’t that in turn an I was controlling my blood?
Frankly speaking, that sounded dangerous.
I wasn’t a dical expert by any ans, but even I knew that being able to manipulate soone’s blood or change its circulation was one hell of a risky move, even if it was just my own.
No, more so if it only affected .
Because I would only use it on enemies otherwise anyway.
I’m pretty sure it ant I would need to cut off or disrupt my own blood circulation in so way if I wanted to enhance a specific area of my body with magic energy, and although it was true I wanted to get stronger, I wasn’t so confident that this thod was wise.
Of course, I was going to learn and try it anyway, but it was just a consideration I had.
‘I an, I guess it probably doesn’t matter too much.
I already got a passive enhancent, so even if the special enhancent only works for a second or two, that’s all the ti you need in a fight for things to end.’ Assuming I could use that ti effectively, anyway.
In any case, I felt like I made pretty good progress so far.
It’s not like I was in a rush, and bearing in mind how new to it I was, it could be going a lot worse.
The only issue was…
“Ahh, gh, ow…
Hold on, I need a break…” Since it all revolved around using my head to visualise in great detail and do a lot of work, the training was very quick to result in a stabbing headache and a reluctance to push my brain any further.
That limit of mine had been the main limiting factor for this past week, but…
Well, so long as I was making slow but steady progress, I would eventually succeed.
‘Still, it’s frustrating…’ Sighing, I leaned back against the wall beside the cell bed.
Glancing around, I wasn’t sure how to waste ti, and it probably would have ordinarily been quite hard to tell how much ti had passed in this quiet underground dungeon with no light and no windows.
Fortunately, I had Heightened Senses to help out in that regard.
‘About a couple of hours…?’ I first turned myself in around morning, so it should be nearing noon soon enough.
‘Hopefully Lucretia will pull out for lunch.’ Of course, I still had a bit of leftover food in Storage that wouldn’t spoil, but I would prefer to save it if possible.
I already had to use a lot of it when I was recovering in the backstreets, so in case I ended up in a situation like that again, I needed to make sure I didn’t run out.
Spending so ti thinking to myself like that, eventually, I heard a noise.
“…!” ‘Soone’s here.
Finally.’ The lock of a door echoed throughout the dungeon, followed by so heavy footsteps, causing a slight frown to form on my face.
‘It doesn’t sound like Lucretia…
Oh, maybe she just sent a knight to go fetch .
That’s probably it.’ Nodding to myself, I erased the frown and replaced it with a smile.
At that mont, a flickering light appeared dancing on the walls of the corridor on the other side of the tal bars.
A few seconds later, a single Imperial Knight in the sa white-gold armour as the rest arrived, seeming to carry sothing with the frantic orange light emanating from a lantern hanging on his waist.
“Hey.
Why’d you guys leave down here so long?” Putting on a friendly voice, I asked the knight, to which he remained firmly silent.
Not minding it, I watched with a raised brow as he crouched and pushed sothing through a small slit at the bottom of the cell door.
A wooden tray with mulch-like slop in a small bowl.
“?
What’s that for?” Again, there was no reply.
Silently, the knight pushed that tray through the slit into my cell before standing back up and turning the way he ca.
“Huh?
Hey, where are you going?
Aren’t you gonna let out?
Hey…!” Jumping from the cell bed, I rushed over to the bars just to watch the back of the knight slowly disappear down the corridor, the soft orange light gradually flickering into nonexistence behind him.
Before long, both had vanished, followed shortly by the echoing ‘ka-chunk’ of a heavy iron door being locked tight resounding once again throughout the darkness.
“…” Standing there with my mouth hanging open, I didn’t even know what to say.
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