Chapter 15

I headed back into the library and checked out another magic book.

I could read it right there, but considering the risk of running into other members of the imperial family and dealing with a headache, taking it back to my room was the better call.

As a nominal member of the imperial bloodline, I was free to take most books out of the building.

The offensive magic spell I chose was Thunder.

It boasted a fast attack speed and high destructive power.

If I had to name its drawbacks, they would be its lower versatility compared to Fire or Ice, and the relatively high level requirement needed to learn higher-rank spells of the same attribute.

Since Rasta lacked natural talent, worrying about those fine details was less of a priority than learning a spell that was simply easy to use.

Besides, in the original game, there really wasn’t any major advantage to sticking exclusively to a single element.

As long as you could acquire the “Elemental Mastery” title, that was all that mattered.

Once I learned Thunder, I naturally wanted to practice using it, but that brought up a major problem.

If I wanted to successfully escape from the empire in the future, I preferred to keep my growing strength hidden from the surrounding people if at all possible.

As long as I was just seen reading magic books, people would merely write it off as “a hopeless prince with zero talent harboring delusions of grandeur about magic.”

However, actually getting caught practicing and casting spells would be a bit of a disaster.

Those guys looked down on me, but that wasn’t some roundabout form of tough love meant to fire me up.

I couldn’t read my father, the Emperor, but for everyone else, keeping me utterly incompetent was far more convenient.

With that in mind, I decided to consult Gina.

“Do you happen to know a good, secluded spot where I can practice magic without anyone prying?”

Since she was a maid assigned directly to my personal service, there was a good chance she knew of places I was completely unaware of.

If I were playing as the main protagonist, I’d have a lot more knowledge at my disposal, but since Rasta was just a minor early-game villain with almost no backstory fleshed out… well, this was what I had to work with.

“If you don’t mind, how about my personal quarters?”

Gina’s unexpected proposal completely caught me off guard.

“Weren’t your quarters located a fair distance away from my room?”

In the empire, it was standard practice for a servant’s quarters to be situated close to their master’s.

“No one ever goes near there, so I believe it would be an ideal location.”

Gina said it with complete seriousness.

“If I practice magic there, the room is going to get wrecked, you know?”

Once you got good at it, that might change, but for a complete beginner, accidentally blasting the ceiling or walls was pretty much a given.

Unfortunately, with my current level of power, I probably couldn’t pull off anything destructive enough to blow up a wall or ceiling anyway!

“As long as it serves my lord, there is no issue whatsoever. Besides, I only use that room to sleep.”

Gina spoke with an expression of absolute earnestness.

Her fierce determination—willing to let her own bedroom get trashed as long as it helped me out—came through loud and clear.

“Got it. Let’s do that.”

Since I couldn’t think of any better alternatives, I decided to take her up on the offer.