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"Huh? My hand slipped? I don't believe it. You clearly did that on purpose!" Asta walked up to Bai En and started chattering.
Looking at Asta, who was a head shorter than him, Bai En didn't respond to his words. Instead, he changed the subject: "Asta, you seem to have gotten shorter again. Strange, is it my imagination?"
"Eh? What do you mean I got shorter again? It's clearly you who grew taller, alright?"
"Is that so? I thought you grew wider, which reduced your vertical length."
Asta was instantly provoked by these vicious words, standing still as if petrified, with labels like 'short' and 'grew wider' tightly stuck to him.
Amidst the silent interlude, Gu Sen rolled down the dirt slope like a ball. Unlike Bai En, who maintained physical training for a long time, and Nancy, whose connection to the earth was like an extension of her limbs, Gu Sen didn't control his body's movements well during his slide, resulting in him accidentally tumbling face-first all the way down.
Gu Sen, who appeared comically in everyone's sight, didn't panic. He calmly patted the dust off himself, walked up to Noelle, and with flames woven into a flower by his magic, he said, "Beautiful lady, may I invite you to dinner?"
'Here he goes again.'
Bai En and Nancy almost simultaneously sighed in their hearts.
"Where did this rude person come from?" Noelle looked at Gu Sen with disdain, and as she raised her hand, immense magic surged, and water began to swirl around her palm.
"That's enough, Senior."
"Indeed, you should maintain your composure."
This time, Nancy and Bai En, one on each side, restrained Gu Sen, lifting him away from Noelle and preventing a commotion.
"Enough, Yuno, we've wasted enough time. Don't spend any more time on two low-ranking Magic Knights. Now, let these rude fellows see the gap between them and the top-ranked Magic Knights!"
Klaus adjusted the glasses on his nose, and his swept bangs fluttered backward in the wind: "Mimosa!"
"Okay."
Mimosa responded softly, and her grimoire, glowing green, floated open before her. Vines and flowers wove into a tower. "Plant Creation Magic: Magic Flower's Beacon."
As the plant-formed tower fully appeared before her, she observed and then spoke: "Well~~, I've pretty much understood the structure of this Magic Palace."
"Yuno!"
Klaus commanded, and Yuno, controlling wind magic, once again manifested a wind boat, easily carrying the three of them towards the higher parts of the Magic Palace, gradually moving away from Bai En and his group.
Standing on the wind boat, Klaus couldn't help but recall the muscular idiot he had previously saved, who had declared he would defeat him and conquer the Magic Palace first. He scoffed coldly, "How foolish... How could a group like them ever defeat us?"
"They're all commoners, thinking that joining the Magic Knights can change everything? Ridiculous."
Mimosa softly echoed Klaus: "Exactly."
Yuno turned his head to look at the two behind him: "Senior Klaus, you'd best not underestimate those two. They can be quite troublesome."
"...You commoner from the Hui Wai Realm, I don't care if you have a four-leaf or whatever... In short, I haven't recognized you yet. It'll be good enough if any of them make it out of this Magic Palace alive!"
Klaus's gaze beneath his glasses was somewhat stern: "My only goal is to swiftly conquer the Magic Palace for our kingdom, and... don't do those useless acts of saving people anymore!"
Noelle, left behind, quietly asked Asta beside her, "Hey, hey, hey—short Asta, what should we do? We don't have any search-type magic!"
"Damn it, if that's the case, we'll just comb through all the paths!"
"Are you stupid? If we do that, forget reaching the treasure hall, we'll just get lost!"
Bai En looked up at the top of the Magic Palace. An Anzhi Bird flew down from above and landed on Asta's head, seemingly using his head as a nest.
As he pondered, beside him, Nancy cast a spell. Her brown-glowing grimoire floated open. "Earth Creation Magic: Beacon of the Earth!"
Brown soil solidified into a disc in the air, with several beacons protruding. Then, the entire structure of the Magic Palace was revealed in full view. Without a moment's pause, Nancy cast another spell, and an earth giant appeared beside Bai En and Gu Sen.
The giant lifted Bai En and Gu Sen, leaping into the air and directly entering a hollow in the wall. Inside the dark hole, Gu Sen's flames ignited.
"What is this?"
Bai En looked at the floating beacon platform and asked.
"Exploration magic." Nancy's answer was concise.
'Of course, I know it's exploration magic, but you clearly said yesterday that you couldn't do it? What's going on now?'
As if understanding Bai En's thoughts, Nancy added, "I just learned it recently."
"Hehe..."
Having more grimoire pages certainly makes a difference.
After both teams had moved away, Noelle was somewhat frantic until she saw Nero, the Anzhi Bird on Asta's head, fly to a stone and point with its wing to a nearby passage.
"Eh... Nero?"
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
The three of them, Bai En, Gu Sen, and Nancy, who were heading towards the upper part of the Magic Palace, suddenly stopped. Nancy looked at the stone disc and said, "Currently, there's still some distance to the treasure hall... but a fierce battle seems to be happening on the other side of the protection hall."
"How do we choose?"
Within the range of his magic perception, there was a faint flicker of lightning and a subtle, almost imperceptible gas. Bai En pondered. If he guessed correctly, the battle currently erupting should be between Luck of the Black Bulls and Lotus of the Diamond Kingdom.
"Wait! A battle has also broken out at the treasure vault!" Nancy spoke again.
'A cunning old man is not as easy to deal with as a hot-blooded, pure-hearted youth.'
Bai En suggested, "Go to the treasure vault first?"
Gu Sen pondered for a moment. Although he didn't know who the combatants were, the mission at hand was clearly more important. He nodded affirmingly: "Go to the treasure vault first!"
In the clear flowing water, stepping stones appeared one after another. At the end of the accumulated water was a huge iron gate, five or six meters high, with various strange patterns carved into it. Behind the silently standing, closed iron gate, countless treasures seemed to be hidden.
"This is it! It's truly magnificent!"
Mimosa, standing on the wind boat, gazed at the gate ahead and exclaimed.
"No one's here. It seems the Black Bulls haven't arrived yet."
"Of course not." Klaus snorted, "How could they possibly arrive before us?"
The faint sound of ice flowers condensing was heard. Yuno quickly turned, and the wind wisps in his hand swirled into a wild gale towards Mimosa. Just as Klaus was surprised by Yuno's actions...
Countless diamonds, torn apart by the gale, scattered in the air like snowflakes.
'Trap magic? Yuno detected it so quickly! No... this isn't trap magic. What's going on? If I hadn't reacted...'
"Oh? Interesting. Who is it that blocks my path?"
Crisp footsteps accompanied the questioning voice. Klaus looked to the side. It was a person with a magic stone embedded in his forehead. The emblem on his black feathered cloak was clearly—the Diamond Kingdom's diamond!
...