031: Escape Artist

“Everyone, I’m going to do a magic trick!” Al

“Oh! Alfred is up to something!” Villager A

“Will this be interesting?” Villager B

“Good! Let’s see it!” Villager C

My declaration has riled up the villagers. Many already are a bit red in the face from celebrations, a great time for an interesting trick. Celia and Carla come out from the kitchen to see what the noise is about.

Isn’t it fine to have a little excitement? It’s the harvest festival, everyone is having fun and making noise. Let’s release some stress we’ve been accumulating.

“First, I’ll get some soil.” Al

“Soil? What’s that for.” Villager A

“I don’t know, ya never know what Alfred is going to make.” Villager B

The spectators are wondering what I’m up to. I’m planning on using Earth Magic to make a box from the soil, then I’ll enter the box. I think 2 meters in height will give the right gravitas to the box.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting” Al

“What’s that?” Villager A

“Is it a dirt wall?” Villager B

“Is this from Earth Magic?” Villager C

“I couldn’t make this, I’d hit my limit before making two faces of that.” Villager A

The villagers are discussing my earthen box, I’ve manipulated the blocks in a flashy manner to misdirect the audience from the real trick.

“Pay Attention!” Al

The villagers quiet down and start watching. This is nice. I don’t detest the easily amused, and the men of Koriat Village often get into stupid things. I like the fact that they make sure to get the important tasks handled first, they play when they can, but make sure the work gets done. How nice, after I play, I end up needing to rest afterwards.

“From now on, I will show a fascinating magic never seen before! I will enter this solid box made from Earth Magic. Every angle can be seen, there is no hidden back door. You all will count down from ten, then I will no longer be in the box.” Al

“Magic, what kind of magic is that?” Villager A

“Anyway, you’ll escape without breaking the box, right?” Villager B

“How can you do that?” Villager C

Now that everyone has the idea behind the trick, I set up the blocks to make a nice box.

“Oh!” Villager A

“The box is ready” Villager B

“Then everyone, I’ll enter the box. Once the front is in place, please count down from 10!” Al

I wave to the villagers, then enter the box and move the final block into position. Once the box has closed, it’s dark and I can only barely hear the villagers counting down. I’m glad I’m not claustrophobic at this moment.

“Seven… Six… Five…” Crowd

I can hear the counting winding down, as they get closer to the end, the voices are louder. They’re really expecting something interesting.

“Three… two…” Crowd

In order to live up to the expectation, I’ll do real magic with no tricks or gimmicks. As they count down, I’ll Transfer to the kitchen behind the pantry where nobody would notice me. Then when the villagers hit zero, I dissolve the magic box and it falls back into soil.

“It collapsed!” Villager A

“Is Alfred fine?” Roland

“Don’t make a mess in the restaurant!” Celia

The villagers approached the box that collapsed into dirt. Roland and Wester seem the most worried.

“Nothing is here” Wester

“Where did he go?” Roland

While everyone is paying attention to the box collapsing, I left the kitchen and activated a little Fire Magic to draw their attention.

“Oh! What’s behind me?” Villager A

“Back?” Villager B

“Hmm?” Villager C

“He’s there! How did he get out of the box.” Villager A

The villagers noticed me and were surprised. Then someone applauds and the villagers change from surprise to wonderment.

“Thank you very much” Al

I give a polite bow to end my performance, and a second bow or two. I quickly move the soil back outside before Celia gets angry. Then I return to the table where Melna and Yulina are sitting.

Would I reveal my trick? I think that would be taboo. Once the trick is revealed, it’s hard to impress or surprise again. When you reveal the trick, the audience isn’t as interested in other tricks. Magic should create wonder from the first trick to the last, you’d have to astoundingly good to surprise people when they knew the trick’s secret. I wouldn’t consider what I did was magic, there’s no trick or preparation involved, I was literally able to teleport.

Do it again!" Villagers

I wave no, I’m only doing it once today. I could probably make pocket money by turning this into an act. I could be the miracle escape king Alfred! Most of the villagers are arguing over how I managed to escape.

“So how did you do it?” Melna

“I can’t even imagine how you were able to escape the box.” Yulina

Melna and Yulina groan at trying to figure it out.

“Here, fruit water. It’s on the house.” Celia

Celia puts a glass of fruit juice on the table.

“Thanks, Celia.” Al

“Instead of a thank you, I’d prefer to know how you escaped the box.” Celia

“Haha, I can’t tell the secret behind the trick.” Al

“Ah, sorry.” Celia

Celia let that go quicker than I expected. When I take a sip of the fruit juice, it wasn’t cool enough for me. Unless you own an Ice Magic tool, you wouldn’t know the difference. However, I am used to cool drinks, so I used a bit of Ice Magic to drop some ice cubes in my cup.

“You’re full of surprises, you can use Ice Magic?” Melna

“Only other person I’ve heard of with Ice Magic is the Ice Princess in the Royal Capital” Yulina

“Who’s that?” Al

I wonder who that is? Did Rumba mention someone like that? Is that a figurative Ice Princess or a literal one? It’d be cool to see an Ice Princess that lives in an ice castle and wears flashy white dresses that show off her slender legs. Maybe she’ll have glossy black hair and a well-shaped and generous chest. That would be the kind of Ice Princess I’d like to meet.

“Well, that’s what the gossip is.” Melna

Melna’s claim that it’s just gossip likely torpedoed my dream Ice Princess.

“What’s the gossip?” Al

“Supposedly, the third princess of the Misfilt Kingdom. She’s become known as the Ice Princess as her approved nickname.” Melna

“Is there any other information?” Al

“She’s also called the Ice Doll” Yulina

Melna frowns at Yulina’s explanation."

“Calling her a doll is a bit mean…” Melna

“Why is that?” Al

“The third princess, her Royal Highness Leila, sometimes called the Ice Doll, was born lame. The family was disappointed with that, and didn’t pay her much attention. When she grew up enough to use magic, it turned out she could use Ice Magic. At that point, the royal family became more interested in her, but because of the years of missed attention, she became jaded. Humans can be unnecessarily cruel.” Yulina

Well, that’s a story that shows how human nature isn’t that far from animals.

“Anyway, aren’t you well informed about that? Has this become generally known to even commoners?” Al

“Maybe, but I’m not a commoner.” Yulina

“Me neither” Melna

“Huh? If that’s true, why have you chosen to visit this place?” Al

“You don’t need to change your attitude, just keep talking like you were before.” Yulina

Yulina is amused by my sudden face-saving attempt.

“I’m Count Melna and Yulina is a Viscount. We’re friendly with Nord. We’re here to visit Koriat Village incognito. Did you hear about it from Nord?” Melna

After that, I remember what Bartolo had said about some visitors. I didn’t think I would be involved in the greetings much, so I hadn’t paid it enough attention. So it was these two who were keeping Bartolo and the maids busy with preparations this morning.

“Speaking of which, there’s something I wanted to ask.” Yulina

“When you were doing that magic trick, I heard that you’re Nord’s son?” Melna

“Yeah… no, Yes, I’m the second son of the Slowlette family, Alfred.” Al

“Oh, a son of Nord and Elna. You’re really trying to speak politely. I like the casual Alfred more.” Melna

Count Melna heads out of the cafeteria with a laugh.

“Well, are you leaving now?” Yulina

“Where to?” Al

“We’re going to the mansion. My wife should have already arrived. I imagine if you take too long, Nord will be disappointed.” Yulina

Yulina must have a cute wife based on his facial expression when mentioning her.

He left four silver coins on the table, that paid our tab with a generous tip to Celia and Carla.

Translation

Good Job!

Do Better!

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