Law of Space and Time

Chapter 5-1: Apology (1)

“I don't know what came over me, but just now, I really did want to kill him,” Lana said as she hung her head in shame.

Jeff's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.
“Why is that? I took a close look at him earlier, and he's nothing more than an intermediate magician.”

Lana shook her head in response.
She couldn't understand why, either.

“Alright, go home for now.” Jeff patted Lana on the shoulders, then went back to Finnley.

Lana looked on with furrowed brows as the horse-drawn carriage trundled away into the distance.

Prince Lazaar's manor.

“What were you thinking? I've only been back in the capital for a few days and you're already causing so much trouble for me!” Prince Lazaar slammed a hand down onto his desk with a furious expression.

“It's all my fault, Father.
Lana didn't do anything wrong.
Those rascals were speaking inappropriately to her, and I wanted to teach them a lesson, so I instigated the fight,” Jeff hurriedly said at the sight of Prince Lazaar's livid expression, pinning all of the blame onto himself.

“I already heard about everything that happened.
If they were asking for a beating, then you should've given them just that! Why did you have to try and kill someone in public? Are you trying to tell the entire city of Sarus that our Lazaar Family is a bunch of bloodthirsty tyrants?” It was clear that Prince Lazaar's words were aimed at Lana.

“I'm the one at fault here, and I'm willing to accept my punishment,” Lana said in a dejected manner.

“Hmph!” Prince Lazaar was still very displeased.
“I've spoiled you too much.
Look at what you're doing! You're not even using your brain anymore!”

“I understand.
The king is already wary of your power, so this is a very sensitive time for our family.
I shouldn't have been so wilful and drawn negative attention to our family at a time like this,” Lana said in an ashamed voice.

“That's only one side of it.
During the past few years, we've always been stationed in Burmen, and we rarely get the opportunity to return to the capital.
His Majesty ordered me to return to the capital city to deliver a report, and this was supposed to be a good opportunity for us to establish relations with the other nobles in the city.
I haven't even had a chance to do that yet, and you two have already ended up almost killing a count's son! How am I supposed to approach any of the nobles in the city now?” Prince Lazaar grumbled.

“Surely it's not that serious.
He's just a count, isn't he? Surely the nobles in the city wouldn't refuse the chance to establish relations with our family over an incident like this,” Jeff said with a wry smile.

“You don't know anything! Count Friar isn't just some average count.
He grew up with His Majesty and was a war hero during his youth, saving His Majesty's life on many occasions during battle.
He may not be doing much now, but whenever he goes to visit the barracks outside the city, there are still many soldiers who would bow to him as a gesture of respect,” Prince Lazaar said.

“Then why was he only given the title of count?” Jeff asked with a puzzled expression.

“I don't actually know the reasons behind that myself.
In fact, as far as I know, no one knows exactly what happened.
All we know is that Count Friar and His Majesty grew apart at some point,” Prince Lazaar replied with furrowed brows as a reminiscent look appeared in his eyes.
“Don't try and change the subject! Lana, tell me why you felt like you had to kill that Erwin.
From what I heard, Count Friar's son only arrived at the scene after the fight broke out, so he wasn't even present during the original incident that started everything.”

Jeff was actually quite curious about the answer to this question as well.
It was clearly the other two who had hit on her, so it made no sense for her to lash out so viciously at Erwin.
If it were solely because Erwin had looked at her with lust-filled eyes, then she would've had countless ways to torture him, and she certainly wasn't so violent and bloodthirsty that she would take someone's life over something like this.

“I held back in the end, didn't I? If I wanted to kill him, then he would already be dead,” Lana protested.

“He's just an intermediate magician! There was no need to use the finishing technique that was taught to you by your teacher on someone like that.
I recall that your teacher told me that your powers have already reached the magic mentor level,” Prince Lazaar said as he looked directly at Lana, waiting for an explanation from her.

“Honestly, I don't know why I did that myself,” Lana said as she thought back to the battle from the day before.
“At the time, he suddenly appeared in front of me.
I've never seen a magician capable of tearing through space like he did, and the sword array was the only spell that I could use to end the battle in a short time.”

Prince Lazaar's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.
He was well aware of just how powerful his own daughter was, and if her judgment had told her that she would've only been able to win that battle if she used her sword array, then she would've definitely been correct in her assessment.

“What do you mean by tear through space? Are you saying that he moved so fast that your eyes couldn't keep up? He's just a magician, how fast can he possibly be?” Jeff asked with a befuddled expression.

“It's not a matter of speed of movement.
If I had to explain it, then I would say that he moved from one coordinate to another within the same instant to time,” Lana explained with furrowed brows.
“Also, I saw him use this technique twice yesterday, so it looks like he has full control over this magic and is able to use it at will.”

“Even then, that's not anything to be alarmed by.
When martial techniques are honed to a certain level, one can move so fast that they look like they're teleporting.
It's not like you haven't seen your brother do that before.” Prince Lazaar was referring to his eldest son, who was still stationed at Burmen, and he asked, “How does that warrant such a strong reaction from you?”

“I can't explain it well.
In any case, as soon as he approached me and interrupted the casting of my next spell, my first reaction was to kill him,” Lana recounted.
In reality, even now, she still couldn't understand why she had wanted to kill Erwin so badly.
Could it be solely because he had looked up the bottom of her dress a few times?

Prince Lazaar and Jeff exchanged a slightly bemused glance.

“So be it.
What's happened has already happened, and there's no point in thinking about these things.
Lana, go get a few sets of premium winged tiger bones and take them to Count Friar's manor,” Prince Lazaar instructed with a serious expression.
“Make sure that you go in person.”

Lana nodded in response.
She knew that her father wanted her to visit Count Friar to deliver an apology.

After Lana departed from the study, Prince Lazaar turned to Jeff, who was his second-eldest son.
“What do you think?”

“If I had to analyze what Lana just told us, perhaps she felt threatened by Erwin the instant that he passed through space, and that was why she wanted to kill him,” Jeff replied as he thought back to what Lana had just said.
However, a puzzled look then appeared on his face as he asked, “But what threat could an intermediate magician have possibly posed to her?”

However, Prince Lazaar's mind had already wandered back to some rumors that he had heard many years ago, so he wasn't paying attention to Jeff's musings.

…

Lana had thought that she would only be taking a few winged tiger bones with her to issue an apology to Count Friar, but her father had made far more extensive preparations for her.
Aside from an entire carriage full of premium medicinal ingredients, he had also instructed several of the army's doctors to accompany her.
The entire procession took up three whole carriages, and it was certainly quite an ostentatious sight to behold.

Lana knew that her father wanted to attract some attention so that the king and all of the other nobles in the capital would be able to see what he was doing.
After all, they were the party at fault here, and they wanted to be as sincere as possible in their efforts to make amends.

Upon learning that Prince Lazaar's daughter had visited his manor in person to issue an apology, Count Friar's reaction was quite nonchalant.
In his words: “This is a problem between young people, so let them sort it out on their own.
Just take her to see him and accept all of the medicinal ingredients.
As for the doctors, there's no need to trouble them.”

Thus, the butler of Count Friar's manor led Lana to the entrance of Erwin's room before departing.

Erwin had already been informed by a servant that the woman who had almost taken his life the day before was none other than the daughter of Prince Lazaar.

Lana opened the door and made her way into the room before taking a glance at Erwin, who was lying on his bed.
Erwin also looked back at her to find that she was wearing a long indigo dress, outside of which was draped a sheep wool cape.

“There's no need for any apology.
I'm guessing Larwood and the others must've acted quite inappropriately toward you.
I sustained these wounds because I'm not strong enough, it has nothing to do with you,” Erwin said in a cold voice, seemingly unwilling to spend any more time with her than necessary.

“Let me take a look at your injuries.” Lana completely ignored Erwin as she made her way over to his bed, then reached out to pull back his blankets.

“Don't worry about it.
My father already had a look last night, and he says I'm fine,” Erwin said in a cold voice with his gaze diverted away from Lana.

“Why are you pretending to be so cold and unapproachable now? Where was this attitude when you were sneaking glances under my dress?” Lana asked with a disdainful expression.

“I didn't know that my life would come under risk just for looking up your dress!” Erwin countered in a justified voice.

“I didn't know you were so weak!” Lana said as she splayed her hands open in a resigned manner.

Erwin was feeling very offended.

Lana paid no heed to what he was feeling and began to reach out toward Erwin's clothes.

“What are you doing?” A fierce look appeared on Erwin's face as he slapped Lana's hand aside.

Lana was here to apologize, so she restrained her own temper as she rubbed the back of her own hand, which had turned red from Erwin's slap.
“I want to take a look at your wounds.
If you won't let me, then don't blame me if you suffer any aftereffects from the fragments of my magic sword that may have lodged themselves into your internal organs.”

“My wounds are all healed up! What aftereffects could there possibly be?” Erwin asked with an unconvinced expression.
He knew that she was just trying to scare him.

“Well, if there are fragments of my magic swords remaining in your kidneys, then you won't be able to use some organs in the future.” Lana took a subtle glance between Erwin's legs as she spoke, and a mysterious smile appeared on her face before quickly fading away. 

A bewildered look appeared on Erwin's face as he stared at Lana.
He naturally wasn't going to fall for Lana's tricks, but he was stunned by her wild and wilful demeanor.
Her looks, figure, and status were all among the cream of the crop in the entire city of Sarus, yet she was completely different from the restrained and refined noblewomen that Erwin was used to seeing.

As for Lana, she thought that Erwin had actually been frightened by her jibes, and she was quite amused.