As I finished introducing the two items to Iguan, she silently gazed at them before lifting her head and glancing at me, prompting me to faintly smile. With a gulp, Iguan grabbed the mana crystal. "Thank you, Count Alex; whether this will help, but the thought is appreciated."
Hearing her choice of words, I wryly smiled; clearly, she was just letting me down nicely. The mana crystal with pure space mana didn't seem like it would be of much help to her. 'Tsk, dammit, I can't leave without helping her at least a little.' Inwardly cursing, Iguan cautiously grabbed the stack of papers, though now, I didn't have much hope for it.
'Wouldn't it just be like a study guide from school? That's not that helpful.' Sighing in defeat, I rubbed my face while Iguan skimmed through it, flipping a page every couple of seconds before finally raising her head and looking at me.
"T-This is truly your life's work?" It was less a question and more a confirmation as Iguan looked at me, prompting a soft sigh and a nod. "Haa, yes. It's not much, a little over two decades of work, nothing compared to other mages, but I hope it can help you if even a little."
I was a little downcast that my efforts didn't amount to much, though I didn't know what I was expecting. 'I should've gotten Lazuli's help as well.' Shaking my head, disappointed in myself, Iguan took a deep breath before standing up and deeply bowing, causing me to suddenly freeze in confusion.
"Thank you, Count Alexander. You. You genuinely don't know how much this means to me. With this, I-I can escape my fate of being married off. Thank you truly, from the bottom of my heart." I had been silently staring at Iguan the entire time. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes, and when she finished speaking, all I could muster was a confused groan.
"Huh?" As I gazed at Iguan in confusion, I regained my composure and aggressively shook my head, stood up, and forced her to stand upright; a princess couldn't be bowing to me, not in her own Kingdom.
"P-Princess, excuse my lack of knowledge, but how could that be of much help? It's just words." Gently holding her shoulders, it was now her turn to look at me in confusion. "W-What do you mean, Count? D-Do you perhaps not understand the value of these papers?" Widening her eyes in shock, Iguan stared at me in disbelief, causing me to awkwardly cough.
"I-I mean, sort of, I did write it after all." Iguan just silently stared at me, only to suddenly burst into laughter, her melodic voice echoing off the walls of her room as tears streamed down her face, and she plopped back into her seat.
Seeing her like that, I shifted my gaze to the maid who had been silently standing behind Iguan, though she just shrugged her shoulders, causing me to rub the bridge of my nose. Thankfully, Iguan must've remembered she was a princess as she regained her bearings rather quickly, sitting upright and wiping her tears, though her smile, which now seemed more radiant than before, remained.
"Do you truly not know the worth of these papers, Count?" Groaning, I folded my arms and shook my head; evidently, I didn't know the worth of my own papers I'd written. "These papers contain your life's work of space mana; everything you've learned, discovered, felt, sensed, and even based on your instincts. Even if I somehow managed to get a teacher, I would be lucky if they taught me even a quarter of this."
I raised an eyebrow in surprise at her words, finding it a little hard to believe that a teacher should teach everything to their student; however, I quickly remembered that her teacher would've been merely a temporary one, paid for by money. 'Yeah, now I understand what she means.'
"You really flatter me, Princess." Iguan promptly shook her head. "It's not flattery, Count, but the truth. To mages, mana and magic are their life; it's their source of pride, it's what they live for. They wouldn't easily give all their work to some random princess." "Ah, well, I suppose you're lucky I'm not a mage then. Those papers don't mean much to me; the most value I see in them isn't the contents of them, but the fact that it took a long time to write."
It took several hours quietly sitting at my desk, writing, to finish that stack of paper; I wasn't really keen to do that again.
Iguan faintly smiled before lowering her head. "You're new to the world of politics, but when you said you'd help me at the banquet, I assumed it was just lip service. It happens frequently; someone will smile to your face, but secretly they're plotting your downfall. It's all too common… So seeing you actually live up to your promise, it surprised me."
I silently stared and listened to Iguan, sighing at yet another child robbed of their innocence; Iguan should be playing and laughing with children her age, but she was instead worrying about being married off to some crusty man triple her age.
"A-Anyway, l-let me not further keep you. As you said, you had some significant personal matters to attend to." Shaking her head, Iguan cleared her throat and stood up, prompting me to do the same, stretching a little.
Walking to the door, I was about to open it, but Iguan stopped me and grabbed my hand, causing me to look at her as she rose to her tippy-toes, prompting me to press a hand against her face. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm not really comfortable receiving a kiss on the cheek from someone so young."
Gently removing my hand from hers, Iguan's eyes widened slightly while a deep, almost pink blush graced her face; the contrast between her red skin and scales was rather cute.
Seeing her just stand there in embarrassment, not knowing how to react, I placed a hand atop her head, causing her to look up at me. "Maybe in a few years, when you're older… Also, can I do this? I won't be executed for rubbing the princess's head?"
Raising an eyebrow in concern, Iguan softly laughs while I remove my hand. "No. No, you won't, Count." "That's good to know. Oh, by the way, you can just call me Alexander, I'm fine with that." As I opened the door, stepping out into the hallway, I looked back at Iguan.
"You may call me Iguan. Only when we're alone, of course." "Of course. Farewell, princess. Until next time." Smirking, I bowed slightly before walking down the hall, though when I turned right, leaving her sight, my smile vanished as I groaned.
"Ugh, why the fuck did I say that? 'Maybe in a few years'? The hell was I thinking? Now it sounds like I'm grooming her!" The walk from the hallway to outside the royal grounds was spent with me constantly rubbing my face while feeling like a creep.
When I finally stepped out onto the main street, I faced the sky. 'Goddess Eywa, what have I become?' 'Muu, you're being excessive, Master! I look just like that girl's age, but you don't mind when I kiss your cheek.' My face couldn't help but twitch at Trina's words. Sure, she looked the same age as Iguan, but one, a several-thousand-year-old sword spirit.
'Zartha, tell Trina to shut up.' Cutting my connection with those two, I walked down the main street, heading to the mage guild, where I used the teleporter to travel across the continent, leaving the north and arriving in the western region.
The whole process didn't even take an hour to travel across the continent; the perks of having a powerful Master. 'Granted, she passed away 15 years ago, but hey, no one really knows that.' With the intention of abusing Master's connections until the day I die, I exited the mage guild in the most western city, Narfey.
As I walked around, I did notice that the demons here were a bit higher in number compared to up north, where we lived. It was hard to find one single race that stood out more than others; humans were probably the most common, but the margin was small.
'Oh, a succubus?' Although I had a relatively high resistance to succubus, her beauty and figure still took most of my attention as I walked past her. 'You have six wives, Master.' "Tch, I was just enjoying the view, I wasn't going to do anything."
Grumbling at Zartha', I continued through the city until leaving from the western gate, where I looked off into the distance. "Ha, well now, from here on, it's on foot." I've gotten as close as I could to the western edge of the continent with the help of the mage guild, now it was time to cover the final distance myself.
"Let's try to get to a port city in a few days." Cracking my neck, I used [Strength Augment] and [Speed Augment] alongside the use of neutral mana to enhance my body before sprinting off into the horizon.