The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

The quiet forest.

The scarecrow walked through the forest today as well, leaning on a staff with a lantern containing ghostly fire.

How much longer must this loneliness last before it disappears?

With a sorrowful heart, he looked up at the sky.

However, in the forest surrounded by dark, black fog, the sky could not be seen.

The only things visible were the leaves shining blue, reflecting the blue light emitted by the burning ghostly fire, and the shadows of the forest flickering along with the dancing ghostly fire.

Whenever the scarecrow felt lonely, he would take out an old ocarina from his bosom and blow it.

When a cheerful melody flowed through the quiet forest, precious memories would come to mind.

A nostalgic song that the scarecrow could not possibly hear reached his ears.

Raise your glasses high! O valiant warriors!

Even if we fall, bleeding! We shall march on!

Drink up and empty your glasses! For the age of glory!

Even if the burden on our shoulders is heavy! We have our comrades!

The song in his memory was not a song he sang well.

Sometimes he thought the husky voice, not a beautiful one, was grating.

But to the scarecrow, it was a voice he missed so dearly.

As one song ended, the dark forest regained its silence.

The scarecrow, having soothed his mood, picked up the staff with the lantern again and wandered through the forest.

******

“Yaaawn~!”

Having woken up late, I rubbed my eyes and crawled out of the sleeping bag.

Gilbert, who seemed to have finished his morning physical training and was washing his face, noticed me coming out of the tent and greeted me.

“Did you sleep well? Shall I prepare breakfast for you?”

It seemed that everyone except me had already finished their breakfast, as they had woken up at the crack of dawn and were each doing their own training or research.

Thanks to me telling them beforehand to eat first without waiting for me if I woke up late, there was nothing to feel sorry about, and it was nice.

“Oh, yes please.”

Breakfast was a stew I had made last night, hard bread, and a chunk of meat wrapped in lotus leaves and buried under the extinguished campfire.

The meat, which had been slowly cooked with indirect heat while I slept, was very tender.

“Ah, you’re awake?”

While I was having breakfast, Jade, who was studying the Fallen Angel’Horn together with Sophia, approached me and sat next to me.

“How is it? Did you find anything special from the Fallen Angel’Horn?”

At my question, Jade shook his head.

“No. Perhaps because I don’t understand the mechanism of holy power well, there are no immediate results. Ah, that meat cooking method was quite unique. Simple and delicious. Seems like a good cooking method for traveling.”

At that, I swallowed the meat and answered.

“No, this needs to be done with fresh meat, and it takes a long time to cook, so it’s not that suitable for traveling. Hunting isn’t easy either, right?”

I could make this dish because I had the ingredient warehouse, a rare subspace magical tool dedicated to storing ingredients, but it’s not for nothing that preserved food exists.

Besides, even if you could overlook salt or spices, people don’t usually carry ingredients like lotus leaves, do they?

“Aha! Indeed, now that I think about it, that’s true.”

Jade, having understood, nodded his head.

“But you seemed to stay up late last night reading something like a grimoire. What book is it?”

“Ah, this?”

I took out Billy’s necromancy book.

The book, in which the legendary necromancer had compiled all his knowledge, was a powerful magical tool in itself.

“There’s a magic I need to learn before entering that forest.”

I drew a simple magic circle in the air with my finger and conjured up a blue will-o’-the-wisp.

It was a basic necromancy spell, with the characteristic of the fire being cold rather than hot.

“It’s a fire kindled with mana from the negative dimension. It’s called ghostly fire, right?”

As expected of an excellent magician, he recognized it at a glance.

Ordinary fire did not last long and quickly went out in the forest.

However, ghostly fire would rather feed on the forest’s mana and burn for a long time.

Just as I finished my meal, I gathered the party members while doing the dishes with the power of Rami.

“Before we enter that forest, let me tell you some precautions. That forest basically doesn’t allow mana to be released well. To be precise, even if you release mana, it quickly disperses.”

At my words, Abassael nodded.

“Judging from the thick negative-dimensional mana felt in that forest, it seems that it fuses with the positive-dimensional mana released by humans and disappears.”

The mana that humans basically dealt with was positive-dimensional mana, while some black magic, including necromancy, used negative-dimensional mana.

Usually, when the two mana gathered, they either repelled each other and exploded, or filled each other’s gaps and disipated.

Due to the environmental and artificial characteristics of the Witch’s Forest, the latter phenomenon mainly occurred.

“But if the mana is that dense, it seems that even magic using negative-dimensional mana cannot be easily used.”

“You observed correctly. The magic that can be used in the forest is the kind that is not released outside the body, or small enough not to go against the flow of mana formed in the forest, or some delicate black magic.”

Places with high mana density were not a good environment for using magic.

Magic is basically an act of resonating one’s own mana with the world to cause miracles.

High mana density meant that self-assertion was strong, and it became difficult to transform it with the magician’s imagination.

At my and Abassael’s words, Sophia raised her hand.

“What about holy power?”

“Even holy power will have limitations unless it’s exceptional. Still, if it’s you, you should be able to use it for healing if you directly touch the injury.”

The same went for sword energy and sword force.

Of course, due to the characteristics of the knights’ training methods that confine mana within the body, Precia and Gilbert would be the ones whose power would be most preserved.

Sophia nodded her head with a serious face at my speculation.

“Even if I can’t use it at all, I can at least protect myself, so don’t worry about me.”

Sophia would be fine as she was learning the sacred martial arts practiced by combat priests called monks.

The Sword Saint and the ‘One Man Army’ often corrected her posture, so she was more skilled in bare-handed fighting than ordinary holy knights.

Of course, she probably wasn’t skilled enough to be called a master.

“As Yuan said, we magicians will be out of commission in terms of power.”

If mana cannot be released, the number of spells that can be used becomes extremely limited.

At Jade’s words, I shrugged my shoulders.

“It’s not to that extent. There are a few ways to use magic in the forest, even if it’s not perfect.”

The black fog in that forest was a kind of giant ‘seal’ created by Arcana.

Naturally, since it was created on purpose with an objective, there were bound to be means to use magic in the forest.

I giggled and added.

“But the problem is that we have to enter the forest for that method. Still, it will be quite a rare experience. Probably.”

The experience of not being able to use magic will be very thrilling.

Naturally, Silua’s puppet army, which was remotely controlled, was also difficult to handle.

“Is there no countermeasure?”

Precia looked at me with eyes that said I would have prepared something if it were me.

“Of course there is. If you learn a few spells that can be used, you should be able to protect yourself.”

Don’t I have a necromancy book that uses negative-dimensional mana in my hand?

I handed the basic necromancy I had organized last night to Abassael.

I even stayed up all night reading the grimoire to make this.

“I’ve organized the spells that seem roughly usable. You can learn them in about an hour, right?”

“Attack and defense spells based on necromancy… The numbers are also quite diverse. 10 minutes will be enough.”

Abassael smiled arrogantly.

As expected of the youngest Supreme Mage, it was an answer befitting a genius.

Jade, Silua, and Yard, who had learned magic, also looked at what I had organized.

“Certainly, with this much, it won’t be difficult.”

“It’s simple!”

Unlike Jade and Silua, Yard looked at the three magicians as if they were monsters.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have enough talent in magic to learn spells from a completely unknown school in an hour.”

As Yard raised his hands, indicating that he was in trouble, I smiled brightly.

“Ah, it’s okay. If you can’t do it, you’ll have to make up for it with your body.”

With that good body, there’s no need to unnecessarily strain your head.

Only someone like me, with a weak body, needs to use my head even if I have to force it.

“Now, let’s prepare to enter the forest. Since it takes more mana than usual to open a subspace inside, take out the things you’ll use often.”

I took out a doppelganger-type puppet from the subspace.

This was also basically remotely controlled, but still, it had the mana circuits of a monster who had become a Supreme Mage through black magic transplanted into it, so it would be easier to control in the forest compared to other puppets.

In addition to the doppelganger-type puppet, I took out various items and armed myself.

“Young master, I’ve never seen this before. What is it?”

When Gilbert asked about the object hanging from my waist, I grinned.

“Ah, this? It’s something fun.”

It’s not just fun, it’s a very, very fun item.

It was an item I had made in preparation for the Constellation Labyrinth, but unfortunately, the timing to use it never came, so I couldn’t use it.

As we finished cleaning up the campsite and preparing to enter the forest, I stuck close to Precia and Gilbert, who would be the safest, and said,

“There are probably shadow monsters roaming around in the forest, so be careful.”

By the way, the shadow monsters were not monsters created by Arcana.

The lantern flickered with a bluish ghostly fire, scattering cold light.

We entered the Witch’s Forest.

*******

“Arcana 09, The Hermit,” Osmond, who wore a mask and a hooded cloak covering his entire body, struck the end of his magic staff on the ground.

-Grrrrr…!

As mana waves spread out from Osmond’s magic staff, the black shadow beasts that had been growling as if surrounding them from all sides slightly lowered their heads and staggered.

As the charging speed of the shadow beasts affected by the status ailment slowed down, “The Hanged Man” spread a defensive barrier to block them.

-Kweng!

-Kying!

Due to their slowed speed, the shadow beasts couldn’t even break through the defensive barrier weakened by the forest’s mana and stumbled after headbutting it.

At that moment, the thin and sturdy mana threads extending from Javan’s hands tightly bound the forest’s trees and the shadow beasts.

“O beings born from darkness, O cursed beasts. Disperse that form!”

Rouerfel Jeffries, the nephew and disciple of the great doctor and curse master Malecob Jeffries, invoked a curse-breaking technique and made the shadow beasts disappear like smoke.

The shadow beasts roaming the forest were curses with form, released into the forest by a certain ‘witch’ located in the center of the forest.

“Phew… I already miss Uncle.”

Rouerfel missed Malecob, who had died in the Bastille Mountains not long ago.

The reason he, who considered himself still inexperienced, came to such a treacherous place was because he was the next best curse master in Arcana after Malecob.

If Malecob were still alive, he would never have come to such a dangerous place.

“Well… I have nothing to say to that. May he rest in peace.”

“The Hanged Man” scratched the back of her head.

Malecob’s death was also significantly her fault.

Although the soul doppelganger dispatched at that time had ended up in a demon’s stomach and could only experience a very small part of it, she felt a bit sorry.

At that moment, Osmond sat down on the spot as if exhausted.

“Very tired.”

On Osmond’s forearm, as he leaned on his magic staff as if clinging to it, was a white bracelet reflecting the blue light of the ghostly fire.

It was a magical tool that allowed them to use magic in a space that Arcana had artificially filled with negative-dimensional mana.

Even with a dedicated magical tool, they quickly grew tired because using magic required more than 20 percent more mana compared to when they normally used magic.

“Are we really not getting any manpower support?”

At Rouerfel’s question, “The Hanged Man” smiled ambiguously.

“Well, there may or may not be, so I can’t say for sure.”

At “The Hanged Man”‘s answer, Javan spoke in a somewhat resolute voice.

“Support is not important right now. If we don’t quickly reach a safe zone, we’ll encounter that ‘monster’ guarding the forest.”

A faint impatience was felt in his voice, which was always leisurely.

In Javan’s bosom was a black gem emitting a ghostly light, and he stroked the gem with a mixture of affection and sorrow.

“Now, let’s move quickly.”

TN: Is the gem Arisa? We haven’t heard about her in a while, so I’m concerned. (Also, I’m not reading ahead, I’m reading at the translation pace, so genuine question.)