Chapter 97: Voice CrystalsWhile the winter in the kingdom was still ongoing, the king called me for a meeting where he showed me a list of contenders to become the next mayor of End Town.

    When the king asked me what qualities we were looking for, I said I needed someone who was hardworking and kind.

    End Town was not a place where nobles could mingle with each other, and while we did have some luxuries that other towns didn’t, it also meant a noble’s decline of their social life in high society. S~ea??h the N?velFire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    We had received a few noble visitors in the past who traveled to the town to try the bathhouse and eat our local food, so we had some potential to become a tourist attraction.

    Nevertheless, the mayor of the town needed to be someone who wouldn’t consider themselves above the others just because they were nobles.

    When I started reading the list, I couldn’t recognize any of the nobles’ names. Even when the king told me that I had met these people at the princess’s birthday party, I couldn’t even remember their faces.

    However, there was one name that I did recognize. "Triana Sephyr."

    Triana was the princess’s cousin and the daughter of Duke Gale Sephyr from Glorya. Coincidentally, she was also the first Sephyr family member that I met.

    The king explained that while Triana never showed much interest in learning magic, she always studied to become a politician, reassuring me that she was one of the best choices on the list.

    But it’s not like the king needed to convince me since I had already made up my mind. If her name was on the list, it was because she had offered her help, so we might as well take it.

    Once we decided, the king told me he would send Triana a letter to inform her of her new position that would become effective after winter.

    "How about the second week of spring? After the kingdom’s festival?" the king asked.

    "Whatever works best for you. Melina and I can pretty much teleport to any city of the kingdom, so we shouldn’t worry about travel times too much..." I replied casually, making the butler who stood on the side of the room glare at me with a scary expression.

    "It’s alright. Ichiro is my friend, so don’t worry about honorifics too much..." the king said to the butler, waving his hand calmly.

    ’Ah, so he was mad because I was speaking casually to the king... Oh well...’ I thought, shrugging it off since I wouldn’t change my way of speaking and act all fake. That just sounded tiring.

    As the king and I kept having a friendly chat, he showed interest in checking my information since he hadn’t seen it in a while.

    "You don’t have to show me if you don’t want to. But, you mention that you can teleport anywhere in the kingdom now certainly makes me curious!" he said.

    The king already knew about my true nature since I had to show all my secrets to them when the princess first came with me.

    It was an understandable measure. If I had been in their shoes, I wouldn’t have sent my daughter with some guy who refused to identify themselves. I don’t think any good parent would.

    Besides, now that my mind was much clearer than when I first met the royal family, I realized I was acting with the king the same way I did with my father-in-law from my past life.

    In my past life, both of my in-laws were incredibly nice to me. They knew I didn’t have a family, so they always treated me like their real son.

    When I first met the queen and showed her my information, the way she spoke reminded me a lot of them. And while the king didn’t treat me like a son, he still treated me like a friend, which was good enough for me.

    "Alright then, take a look..." I said, opening my information window with nothing censored for him to dissect.

    Name: Ichiro

    Age: 16

    Skills: Kobudo, Martial Arts, Blacksmithing.

    MP: 45,000

    Titles: Child of Phelena, Master Alchemist, Master Craftsman, Chocolatier, Master Hunter, Professor, Sage.

    The king widened his eyes and did a spit take of his tea as he inspected the information.

    "Why are you so surprised? Melina has even more MP than me, you know?" I asked the king, thinking that he was acting surprised because of the MP amount.

    "I get that, and 45,000 is not a small number. But that’s not what I’m looking at here..." the king muttered.

    "Ichiro, when did you become a professor and a sage!?" he exclaimed, letting the butler who stood on the side of the room listen and act just as surprised.

    I explained to the king that I had gotten the title of "professor" during my time in End Forest after Reinar became a Master Alchemist.

    "I see. That’s quite impressive..." he muttered.

    Then I told him about the "sage" title, which I had recently gotten mere days before, and elaborated on the new sound magic I had developed.

    Pulling out the voice crystals, I showed the king how they worked, telling him that he would be able to send his voice to the other crystal, no matter how far apart the stones were.

    Of course, I asked him to keep it a secret since it was still a surprise for Melina, but the king was highly interested in the crystals.

    "Do you understand how much easier this would make our job? I could simply send a voice message to any royal official in other towns without having to send an informant that would take days traveling..." he said.

    I nodded in approval since that was my plan from the beginning.

    Of course, the first pair was created for me and Melina, but I did want to make a lot more so that every city and town in the Sephyr Kingdom could send their voices anywhere.

    I was already working on making more of the voice crystals, so I promised the king to give him some after I gave Melina her present, and he happily agreed.

    __________

    By the time winter was already coming to an end, Melina and I were walking around one of the gardens in the castle and stopped under a gazebo that we had enchanted with fire magic to produce heat.

    Even when it was snowing outside the gazebo, the inside was warm and cozy, so we stood there for some time and admired the snow falling on the garden for a few minutes.

    "I’ll be going to the academy soon..." Melina muttered with a hint of sadness.

    "Are you nervous?" I asked.

    "Not really... I guess I’m just a little upset," she replied, pouting and leaning her arms and head on the rails of the gazebo.

    "Why? I thought you would be more excited..."

    "I’m sure I’ll have fun. But I won’t get to see you that often anymore..." Melina replied.

    But before I could say anything, she continued.

    "I’ll try my best to visit End Town whenever I can..."

    With a slight smile, I placed my hand on her shoulder and told her that she was always welcome to stop by, and realistically, she could teleport to End Town and back without much trouble.

    Melina chuckled. "I guess you are right. Thanks to you, I can use my magic to visit whenever I want."

    "Not only that, but we can talk to each other any time we want to," I said, pulling out the voice crystals and showing them to her.

    Melina inspected the crystal in her hands for a moment, noticing that it had similar magic to the stone from her music box. However, she could tell that it worked differently.

    After explaining to her that we could send voice messages to each other, I teleported away to my room for a moment, activated the crystal, making it shine as a sign that it was recording, and spoke.

    [Hey, Mel.] I said, ending the message and instantly teleporting back to the gazebo.

    When I arrived, Melina held the crystal with a confused expression as it was flickering a red light, which meant that a message had been received.

    Once the princess poured a little magic into the crystal, the message I recorded sounded loud and clear, making her blush and turning her gaze away from me.

    "What!?" I asked, noticing her overreaction.

    "Nothing, nothing! I was just surprised that you called me Mel. That’s all..." she replied, as I noticed that I spoke without thinking and ended up calling her by the nickname I used to call her in our previous life.

    With her cheeks somewhat flushed and a delicate smile, she gripped the crystal closer to her and locked eyes with me.

    "Is this what you were doing all this time?" she asked with a slight sneer.

    "Umm... Yes." I replied.

    "Hmmm. Could it be that you REALLY want to talk to me?" she asked teasingly with a sarcastic tone and a smile as she approached me.

    "Ah, sorry. I should have known not to bother a princess. If you don’t want the crystal, I can take it -..." I said, returning her sarcastic teasing to her and extending my hand as if I was going to take the crystal from her.

    "No!" she replied, slapping my hand away and holding the stone tighter.

    For a moment, we stared into each other’s eyes and started laughing out loud, catching the attention of a few servants walking around.

    Melina leaned towards me without unlocking her gaze and gave me a soft kiss on the lips before thanking me for the laughter. But the truth was that it was my absolute pleasure seeing her smile.