Chương 108: Chapter 102: To the Academy

Lira woke up early the following morning. After a quick breakfast, she headed to the servant baths, with one of her best dresses on hand. She wanted to make sure she looked respectable enough for someone escorting a prince, so her usual maid uniform wouldn't cut it that day. She settled on her most expensive servant dress. It was a dark navy set she had purchased after her promotion. She donned an ornate white apron to highlight her station, but left her headdress behind.

Once inside the library, she headed to one of the mana obfuscation fields she had secretly placed around the library before using her Hair Manipulation spell.

"Pika. Cavira. Frushum." A few minutes later, her normally loose hairstyle was arranged into a complicated pattern of intertwined braids, wrapped around the back of her head in a style that vaguely resembled a crown. It wasn't as complicated as what she had seen noblewomen do, but it was the best she could do with her visualization skill. She wasn't a hair stylist, after all. Still, it was appropriate for her station.

"Good enough," she said after looking at her reflection through the broken shard of mirror she kept near her desk. Not long afterward, Prince Lyth entered the library accompanied by Sir Henry. Lira almost didn't recognize him. The prince wasn't wearing his usual expensive but comfortable clothing. Instead, he had been dressed in a much more formal outfit, complete with polished shoes and a properly fitted coat. But it was his hair that made Lira raise an eyebrow.

It had been carefully brushed and oiled, with the front combed neatly to one side. He finally looked like the young prince he was, rather than the curious boy who normally haunted her library.

"Miss Lira, are you ready?"

"Almost." She bent over her desk and picked up her personal journal that was beside the stack of books she had prepared for the noble youths, just in case they showed up. Of course, the journal itself wasn't particularly interesting. This was, after all, her mundane journal with shelves in inventory, not her hidden journal with magical annotations. No, the important part was the bookmark resting between its pages.

The old but ornate paper contained the runes for both her Mana Obfuscation and Mana Stabilization enchantments hidden behind its folds. Though those runes would be inactive for now. She didn't know if her trump card spell would be detected within the academy. But having it was better than not taking it, just in case she needed to hide some quick book absorption spells. She slipped the journal into her satchel.

"What is that?" Lira looked up. Lyth was staring at the journal.

"My personal journal."

"What do you write in it?"

"Library information, my thoughts, and mostly things I want to remember later." Lyth considered that for a moment.

"I should get one as well."

"You probably should." Lira smiled, then reached toward one of the nearby shelves behind her desk and pulled out a fresh notebook.

"You can have one of mine."

"Really?"

"Of course." Lyth accepted it with both hands. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"Thank you!" He immediately began flipping through the blank pages. That's when another thought occurred to her. She reached back toward the shelf once again and pulled down an old poetry collection. The cover was worn, but the gold lettering was still visible. The Collected Poems of Edgar Rivara. She picked up this book for two reasons. First, it contained a dedication from the author to the former Queen Dowager Mirabelle. Second... Lira used it to hide one of her active mana obfuscation bookmarks.

It allowed her to cast spells behind her desk even when the library was crowded without anyone being the wiser. She opened the book and carefully removed the folded piece of paper. She looked at Lyth.

"Here. You can take this too." The prince blinked.

"What's that?"

"It's a bookmark," Lira smiled.

"It was inside a book that belonged to your great-grandmother Mirabelle." Technically true, Lira herself put it there. Lyth's eyes widened.

"My great-grandmother?"

"Yes." Lira reached over her own journal and showed him the similar bookmark resting between its pages.

"Now we match." He stared at the two bookmarks before carefully accepting it.

"Thank you."

"Make sure you don't lose it," Lira warned.

"That piece of paper is older than your father." The paper is older, not the bookmark.

"I won't." Lyth immediately tucked the bookmark into his new notebook as carefully as though it were some priceless royal heirloom and not an older letter that Lira had transformed into an enchantment. More importantly, as long as she was near Lyth, she should be able to safely cast spells without being noticed. But if, for some reason, someone noticed a strange magical effect around the prince, it could be explained as an enchanted personal item.

After all, a prince possessing magical protections was hardly unusual. It was certainly better than activating her own enchantment openly in the middle of the academy. Sir Henry cleared his throat. Lira glanced toward him. The knight didn't seem particularly interested in the journals. At least he didn't seem to detect anything strange about the bookmark. Maybe she was just being paranoid, and her mana obfuscation spell was truly undetectable. Either way, Lira had one less problem to worry about.

"Are we ready?" the bodyguard asked.

"Yes," Lira nodded.

"Let's go." They left the library together. Lira walked on Lyth's left while Sir Henry walked on his right. They headed directly to the stable, where four royal guards were already waiting. The sight made Lira pause for half a second. Maturing as part of a crime syndicate, the sight made her wary. They wore armor reminiscent of the palace guard, that was itself an upgrade on what the city guard wore.

While fancy, their armor was practical, and their posture indicated that they were experienced, at least from what Lira's untrained eyes could tell. She briefly considered using Mana Sight to see if they had enchantments or active magic spells, but then decided against it. There was no reason to risk detection to satiate her curiosity. While her magic use was obfuscated with a bookmark hidden inside Lyth's journal, a hearing spell could detect her whispered spell incantation. Behind the guard stood Steward Berem.

Tall and lean, he stood next to an ornate carriage made with walnut wood, gilded with silver. Four horses were already saddled, and a young driver was at the reins. Berem bowed low when he saw the prince.

"Your Highness, the carriage is ready."

"Thank you, Steward," Lyth smiled before he climbed into the waiting carriage first. Lira followed. Sir Henry entered last, while two of the guards climbed on top of the carriage and the other two mounted horses. The moment the horses began moving, Lyth leaned toward the window.

"Do you think the academy has more books than the royal library?"

"Almost certainly." Lyth grinned, then turned to his bodyguard.

"You have been to the Royal Academy before. How is it?"

"It's grand," said the knight, "but full of snotty scholars who think they have everything figured out." The prince laughed. As they traveled, the prince kept asking questions while Henry and Lira tried to answer him. Five minutes into the ride, they exited the city wall, the academy being its own estate outside the capital. The prince was glued to the window, not used to traveling outside the castle, but after another five minutes of riding across wineries and grape orchards, the excitement ran out.

"Are we there yet?"

"Almost," said Henry. Lira considered the logistics of sneaking into the academy on her own. It would take 15 minutes by carriage, so it would take at least forty to do it on foot. Added to it the return trip and the time she needed to scale the wall, it was doable, if not tedious. Maybe she should have stolen some healers' records first. Oh well. She would consider sneaking into the place after she finished scouting it. She shook her head.

She needed to concentrate and act like the perfect servant and librarian, not a thief ready to case her next target.