“Wait! What did you do!?”

“No idea,” I said, smirking.

The scene around us was chaotic. Knights lay sprawled across the ground, unable to move, while mages stood frozen, their spells rendered useless. Though the scene looked like a battlefield, nobody was actually hurt. I had no intention of explaining how we caused all this, especially since one of the mages managed to activate Ice Bind earlier. Impressive, but now it was time to strengthen the magic disruption field.

The mages tried casting more spells, but as expected, they all fizzled out. Strengthening the disruption field seemed to have done the trick.

“My magic… It won’t work!?”

“Damn it… I can’t move!”

The magic disruption field was proving incredibly useful, though it did consume an absurd amount of mana. I realized it could be improved. If the field only activated upon detecting a surge of magical energy, instead of running constantly, it would conserve mana significantly.

“Hey, Shu, weren’t we leaving?”

“Oh, right. I’ll save the experiments for later.”

As we passed by a fallen knight, I glanced back over my shoulder.

“Tobil, we’ll be back in two days. Please take care of the arrangements.”

“A-Alright…”

Tobil’s nervous laugh was enough of a response. With no one listening to us otherwise, scheduling our next visit seemed like the most straightforward approach.

“By the way, Tobil, the Third Princess isn’t out of the castle, is she?”

“I haven’t heard of her leaving, but if she went incognito, I wouldn’t necessarily know about it.”

“Got it. Thanks for letting us know.”

If she had left the castle, it likely wasn’t frequent. As the castle gate supervisor, Tobil seemed trustworthy enough about such details.

“Wait!”

One of the knights who had avoided the magnetic field stepped toward us, only for his sword to fall to the ground as it was pulled into the field. Startled, he let go of the hilt and stepped back hastily.

“Damn it, what’s going on!?”

Leaving behind the knights stuck to the ground and the powerless mages, we headed toward the exit. Even the gathered onlookers had vanished—seeing knights sprawled helplessly was apparently too much for casual spectators.

Without further interference, Rio and I left the castle.

“Man, I’m exhausted.”

The gate guards didn’t bother stopping us as we left. If they had, it would have been another tiresome ordeal.

“We went there just to scout things out, but everything spiraled out of control.”

At the very least, our message was clear: we’d be back in two days to meet with Lilia Arclight, the Third Princess.

“Huh?”

As we crossed the bridge leading away from the castle, a familiar voice caught my attention. Enhancing my hearing, I pinpointed the source—a group of seven crossing the bridge into the castle grounds. When I strengthened my vision, their faces became unmistakably clear.

“Our classmates?”

“What?”

Rio followed my gaze toward the group of seven. As soon as she recognized them, she ducked behind me for cover—though I was smaller than her, so her attempt at hiding wasn’t exactly effective.

“Seriously…”

“I can’t believe we were called back,” Shimizu Masayoshi muttered, clearly annoyed. “We were making good progress with the dungeon.”

“Come on, isn’t it better this way? No more dark, dreary places. Now we can enjoy some sunshine and good food,” Nagai Mei replied cheerfully.

I noted that all seven of them wore matching chokers. Perhaps they were magical items—sold as accessories but imbued with some kind of effect.

“They don’t seem to have noticed us,” Rio whispered.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

We watched them disappear into the less crowded nobles' entrance.

“Well, if nothing else, it’s only a matter of time before they find out we’re here.”

“True… I guess we’ll just have to be ready when that happens.”

Rio seemed to steel herself, but honestly, I wasn’t too concerned.

“They’re not as strong as I expected. I scanned their mana—it’s not that impressive, even though they supposedly have classes like Great Sage and Grand Mage.”

“Now that you mention it, their mana levels don’t match up to those titles at all.”

“Still, no room for complacency.”

“Right.”

Titles like Great Sage and Grand Mage probably came with unique skills. We’d have to be careful.

“But first… I’m starving.”

Rio rubbed her stomach, which growled audibly. The encounter at the castle had wasted more time than expected, and it was well past noon.

“Ha! That was an adorable sound. Let’s grab something good to eat on the way back.”

“Hey!”

Her cheeks flushed as she playfully smacked my back. Smiling, I turned my focus to the road ahead.

We returned to the city, had a hearty lunch, and spent the rest of the day in peace.