Reincarnated Princess Stuck in a Door - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

What mage in the world wanted to grunt and struggle cleaning up a botched spell in front of their school’s head mage? It wasn’t like she was giving a demonstration.

“Still no. What if someone walks into the workshop? The Eternal Phase Tower may be a stateless magic tower, but it’s still within the Kingdom of Kailestia. If someone saw the princess in this state, don’t you think they’d get the wrong idea?”

“Then get me out.”

“No. Outside of apprenticeship, every mage is responsible for their own magic.”

“Then leave it alone and please just go away. It’s the middle of the night! Who’s going to come here?”

“Didn’t you also come to the workshop in the middle of the night?”

“I mean, yes, but—!”

Larissa felt like beating her chest. Just leave me alone for a bit. How was she supposed to keep attempting magic knowing she’d fail, with him watching the whole time? It wasn’t just that he was her crush. He was also the master of her workshop. The head of the whole school.

“Cast the spell. I’ll observe your results.”

“You’re just going to watch and not give any advice!”

“That depends on whether the spell you’re casting is worth advising on.”

“Seriously, stop talking like we’re in the middle of some one-on-one tutorial right now!”

“The situation doesn’t matter. If you can’t use the right spell at the right moment, you’re not worthy of being called a mage.”

“Could you at least come around to the front?! Even if the door won’t open, you can just teleport here! Unless you actually want to stare at my a*s!”

Silence from Lukenian. Larissa’s eyes went wide with horror.

‘Wait! Why aren’t you answering?!’

Thankfully, she soon understood why. Voices from the hallway.

“Ugh, seriously, at this hour what…”

It was Jonas. A senior mage from the same workshop. Larissa’s eyes lit up. Saved! Unlike cold-hearted Lukenian, Jonas would definitely help her out.

“Jonas—!”

But her voice didn’t ring through the workshop. Inside the now-empty space, echoes and all sound had vanished. And the entire storage door was gone.

The mage who’d just opened the workshop door stood there, eyes darting around. Needless to say.

* * *

“—nas!”

Larissa’s scream-like cry was swallowed up by the plush tapestries hanging on the walls. She stared in shock at the room around her. Soft lighting. Cozy furnishings. He’d teleported them. In that split second.

Along with the door panel still wrapped around her waist.

Yes. Lukenian had moved the two of them through space in an instant. And still refused to pull her out.

“What is this!”

Larissa thrashed and shouted. The door panel wasn’t even that big. But now it stood tall and firm in the middle of the room, no walls on either side to support it.

Free from the wall’s obstruction, Lukenian slowly walked around to face her.

“Now we can take our time.”

Larissa was so dumbfounded she craned her neck up at him, sore throat be damned. He was tall to begin with. Looking up at him while practically folded over, she felt like a gymnast.

His calm face held a beauty like crystal carved by tiny elven hands. Cold and flawless. She had no desire to admire it.

Did this man have no human heart at all? Wasn’t this too much? Just pulling her out would’ve been infinitely easier than separating the door from the wall at the particle level in one second, displacing it into a higher dimension, and then reconstructing it in this room. Did he really have to go this far just to force independent study on her?

Larissa let her upper body slump down, hands scraping the floor or not.

“Now try. Take your time,” Lukenian said.

“Fine. I’ll accept that you won’t help me. But stopping me from asking someone else for help? Isn’t that a bit much?”

“You must take responsibility for the results of your own magic.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong, but…”

Larissa had completely run out of energy. She mumbled listlessly. If she’d been alone, she would’ve kept struggling, trying anything to get out. But now she just felt deflated. Whatever happens, happens.

A thousand-year crush could die not because the other person did something wrong, but because of your own pathetic state. Not that Lukenian was off the hook. But she’d known he was strange from the start. The crime was hers. She liked him anyway.

Lukenian never compromised when it came to magic, and he didn’t understand other people well. Especially when it came to someone struggling with magic or not grasping a theory. He clearly couldn’t even imagine a state where you’d lost your composure so completely that not a single formula would come to mind.

Lukenian sighed as Larissa lay sprawled out in silence.