The Third Prince Of Darkness

Chapter 18: The Wolf

I've spent nearly a full day focusing all my time on understanding the element of darkness, aside from short breaks for necessities, and I've finally learned a few things. The first spell I learned was one that allows me to hide objects in darkness. Right now, I've hidden many daggers and a sword in my own shadow.

Unfortunately, I couldn't hide living beings in the Darkness, which dashed my hopes of camouflaging myself in Darkness. However, maybe I could achieve this in the future when I get stronger. It felt as if I was throwing objects into some kind of space-time void, and I didn't think anyone could find the items I hid in the darkness.

Objects seemed to disappear not only visually but also material from the world. Yet, whenever I wanted to retrieve them, I could pull them out of any desired dark spot. For instance, if I placed something in my shadow in a bright place and then moved to a dark area, I could extract the object from any chosen dark spot. The Darkness, seemed to work as a single entity or a unified body.

For now, even the ability to hide objects in the dark, unseen by anyone, was incredibly useful. It functioned like a kind of storage ring, but with a drawback. If it was bright everywhere, I could only hide things in my shadow. Additionally, if the object I wanted to hide was larger than my shadow, the spell would fail.

One day, to better understand the spell, I tried to hide an object larger than my shadow in the darkness, but as I expected, it didn't work.

Although I wasn't fully versed in this world's magical doctrine, I knew how magic worked. The Kaizer power our bodies produce occurs thanks to the air we breathe, which then transforms into Mana. To cast a spell, you spend Mana according to the Kaizer power, meaning magic can't happen without energy. But the dark element magic didn't seem to work this way.

When I used my dark power, either it consumed so little Mana that I didn't feel it or I didn't feel it because I didn't consume any mana. Maybe I wasn't using much Mana because I hadn't put many things into the darkness yet.

Since I'm currently in a room that gets checked every few hours, I can't use my power to hide something like a chair or a cabinet in the darkness. If I did, someone might suspect me and discover that I'm using the dark element, which is the last thing I want. So, for now, I have to postpone my experiments.

This experiment would undoubtedly help me understand the boundaries of the spell better. However, the advantages of the hiding spell provided by the dark element were undeniable.

At night, in places where no one could see, I could hide my valuable possessions. This increased my chances of survival in dangerous situations. Still, I had concerns about protecting myself from assassins. If an assassin attacked in the morning, my chances of survival would be significantly reduced.

Luckily, I doubted any assassin would be crazy enough to attack the palace of the Asina Kingdom during the day. However, I knew I always needed to be on guard. An assassin could be anywhere at any time, and I should never underestimate how cunning they could be.

In any case, I think I've prepared enough for now. If I fail, I can immediately escape to Emilia, who is staying in the room next door. While escaping, I can also activate a trap I set by the door using the dark element, which would slow down any assassin chasing me.

But if I can't capture the assassin alive, everything will fall apart, and I'll miss my only chance to weaken Fiona's power in the palace. I'd have to come up with even riskier plans later, which I'd rather avoid. For now, I have no choice but to rely on the traps I've set and my dark element, and I hope I don't die at just six years old in this new life.

-----

[Third-Person POV]

On a beautiful night with a crescent moon, a short man was on a rooftop. If his lady hadn't helped him, he would never have gotten into this palace. The palace's security was excellent, and he was aware that the slightest mistake could cost him his life. Fortunately, his target was just a spoiled six-year-old brat, and since he was under house arrest, there was no one to protect him.

The only guard was a beautiful girl, likely hired just for her looks. Frankly, he couldn't understand why his lord had given him such a simple task.

As the man moved quietly across the roof, many thoughts swirled in his mind. Why had his lord chosen such a simple target? And why didn't he reveal his identity? A young child, locked in a room with almost no protection. This was too easy. However, a voice inside him told him to be cautious.

After a while, he reached the window of the target room. He gently touched the windowsill and tried to look inside. The room was dimly lit, and no one was visible. The man quietly opened the window and slipped inside. The room looked like an ordinary child's room. There was a toy box in the corner, and a few children's drawings on the wall.

However, what caught his attention was a large shadow in one corner of the room.

This shadow was extremely intense, even though it was not far from the only light source in the room. As the man tried to understand what the shadow was, he suddenly felt movement. When he quickly turned, a dagger emerged from the dense shadow and came rapidly towards him.

The man reflexively pulled back, but the dagger grazed him slightly. "So, it wasn't going to be that easy," he muttered.

The dagger vanished as it hit the floor. The man focused on the direction the dagger had come from, anticipating more weapons emerging from the shadows. Meanwhile, he heard a whisper from the other corner of the room.

"What kind of magic is this? Is it demonic magic? Interesting." The man moved towards the source of the whisper. In the dim light of the room, he saw the small child hiding behind a chair. The child was performing a spell with slight hand movements.

As the man approached the child, he saw fear in the child's eyes. "Got you," said the man, reaching out his hand towards the child. At that moment, he felt an unbearable pain in his feet, and if it weren't for the rigorous training he had undergone since childhood, he would have screamed like a woman.

However, the sharp object that had pierced his foot was probably a dagger, and despite being a trained assassin, he lost his balance for a moment. When he looked at the child, he saw the child smiling at him.

This smile was like the expression of a person looking at an insect. When the child quickly raised a finger, the man realized that a dagger had also pierced his remaining foot. He shed tears of pain and suppressed his scream, causing blood to spread in his eyes. Despite all his efforts, he couldn't help but moan in pain and lost his balance, falling to the ground.

"Uuhhhh!"

At that moment, he realized he had underestimated the child. At first he had only thought that daggers were coming out of the dense shadow he had seen, but in fact it was a trap designed to make him interpret it that way.

The child could produce daggers from all darkness, but if he had known this earlier, his advanced reflexes might have allowed him to evade even these daggers emerging from under his feet.

"Huh. I didn't expect Fiona to send such a stupid assassin. I haven't even used all my traps yet." said the child, with a disappointed look on his face as if he was genuinely deprived of an important amusement.

As the child looked at him with a crazed grin, two more daggers pierced his back, and through the bloody tears, he recalled what his master had always told him.

"Never underestimate your opponent, child. You'd be surprised how many wolves in sheep's clothing I've seen in my long life."