Two-Pronged Approach (Part 1)

Mission residence, reception hall

The attendant who came to deliver the imperial decree kept looking out of the hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of the figure he had been waiting for so long. However, each glimmer of hope was followed by another of disappointment, shattering the attendant's fragile heart. Just as he was about to leave empty-handed, a hearty laugh reached his ears.

"Haha! It took me a little longer to recover from my injuries, thank you for keeping me waiting!"

The attendant looked in the direction of the sound, but what he saw was not the large silkworm cocoon from yesterday, but a valiant general dressed in silver armor.

"Who are you...?"

"Haha! Your Excellency, weren't you just eager to see me? Why don't you recognize me now that you've seen me?"

The attendant stared wide-eyed at the valiant general before him and said incredulously, "Your Excellency, are you perhaps the peace ambassador?"

"That is indeed me!"

"Can..."

"Oh! That's right. Yesterday, I took a magical potion that healed all my injuries, so I've returned to my original appearance."

The attendant circled Sordil repeatedly, trying to confirm his identity. Only when he saw Sordil's distinctive silver eyes did he relax. Having confirmed Sordil's identity, the attendant dared not delay any longer and hurriedly said to Sordil, "Now that Your Excellency has recovered from your injuries, please come with me to the palace to meet Her Majesty the Queen!"

Having successfully traveled to Fostadu, resolved his doubts, and returned safely to Dragunov, Sordil had no reason to refuse any longer. Therefore, he readily replied, "Rest assured, Your Excellency, I will accompany you to the palace to meet Queen Irene."

Sordil turned to bid farewell to Diphiya and the other person, instructing them to take good care of the delegation, and then he followed his attendants toward the palace.

Following behind the attendants, walking along the palace road, Sordil noticed something was amiss, because the road they were on did not lead to the council hall.

"Your Excellency, didn't Her Majesty Irene have something to discuss with me?"

"Yes!"

"But the path we're on isn't leading to the Council Hall, is it?"

"Oh! It's like this, His Majesty has some special matters to discuss with His Excellency the Ambassador, so it has been decided at the last minute to hold the meeting at the martial arts training ground."

"Discussing matters in the training grounds? Don't be ridiculous! Perhaps Goddess Irene didn't get enough of beating people up yesterday and wants to continue now?"

Sordil cursed inwardly, but what could he do? He needed their help and had foolishly offended them! So even though he knew he was going to get a beating, he had to grit his teeth and take it! Sordil followed the servant cautiously, step by step, toward his 'beating ground'.

Martial Arts Arena

"You brat, how dare you stand me up! I'll show you why the flowers are so red!"

Just as Irene was squatting in the training ground, drawing circles and cursing Sordil, our Miss Sordil finally made her appearance.

"Um?"

Seeing Sordil restored to his original appearance, Irene, like the servant before her, stood frozen in place. However, Irene was, after all, a queen, and with her vast experience, she quickly guessed that Sordil must have used some kind of magical magic or taken some magical potion to recover from all his injuries overnight. A moment later, Sordil appeared before Irene, and looking at this despicable fellow, Irene couldn't help but utter a sarcastic remark.

"Your Excellency truly loves learning magic! You even healed your injuries specifically for today's lesson. Very well! Today I will go all out and teach you Augmented Magic in earnest."

"Oh no! I'm probably going to have to go home in bed again today!"

After mourning for himself for three minutes, Sordil said with a smile, "It is my greatest honor to receive guidance from Her Majesty Irene, so I must adjust myself to the best condition so as not to waste Her Majesty's efforts!"

Flattery never fails, and that's absolutely true! Just look at Irene, who was initially furious, her mood improved considerably after Sordil's shower of compliments. She no longer found Sordil as repulsive as before. However, the accusation of publicly breaking off an engagement wasn't so easily cleared, so Irene simply decided to go easy on him when she punched him later.

"Alright! Enough with the chit-chat, let's begin explaining the Augmented Magic."

Hearing that Irene was about to begin her lesson, Sordil pulled a parchment from his pocket, preparing to record what he would be teaching. Seeing Sordil's earnest attitude, Irene was deeply moved and decided to seriously teach him some knowledge of Augmented Magic. Of course, knowledge isn't given for nothing; it remained to be seen whether the boy could hold out until then.

"As we discussed yesterday, Augmented Magic involves altering the internal molecular structure of an object, thereby endowing it with special properties. For example, Augmented Magic can make a wooden stick harder than an iron sword, or Augmented Magic can make ice soft. Now I'll demonstrate it for you again, so watch carefully!"

After saying this, Irene began to add a magical element to a wooden stick in her hand. Fifteen minutes later, Irene finished adding the element and then threw an iron sword to Sordil.

"You hold the iron sword and place it flat against your chest. I'll use a wooden stick to strike the iron sword and see which one breaks!"

"I don't know which of the two will break, but I do know that there's a very high chance my sternum will break!"

Although Sordil kept cursing Irene's teaching methods in his mind, in order to learn the Augmented Magic, Sordil had no choice but to frown, close his eyes, grit his teeth, and endure the risk of breaking his sternum as he held the iron sword to his chest. The whistling wind rang in Sordil's ears, followed by the sound of metal clashing against metal from his chest.

Clang!

Sordil felt the iron sword in his hand suddenly become lighter, and then he felt something bump into his chest, but the expected pain did not come. Sordil opened his eyes and saw Irene holding a wooden stick and looking at him triumphantly. For a moment, Sordil was confused as to whether she had shown mercy or whether he had received help from a master.

Irene was also confused. Looking at Sordil, who had taken a blow from her but didn't cry out in pain or show any sign of suffering, Irene couldn't figure out if she had been too lenient or Sordil was just pretending to be relaxed in order to learn Augmented Magic.

"Uh-huh"

Irene cleared her throat twice to compose herself, then continued, "You saw the results of the experiment just now; this is the effect of using Augmented Magic. However, I must tell you that this method is only a simple application of Augmented Magic. Now I'm going to teach you some advanced applications of Augmented Magic. For example, we can add the sharpness of an iron sword to a wooden stick. The specific method is..."

During the ensuing lessons, Irene, under the guise of magical experiments, constantly created opportunities to torment Sordil, and continuously increased the force of her attacks. However, no matter how much Irene attacked, Sordil never cried out in pain, nor did his expression change. Watching Sordil diligently taking notes, seemingly oblivious to his own suffering, Irene's impression of Sordil improved considerably. But when she thought about how this fool had refused to marry her in order to Augmented Magic, any remaining goodwill Irene Sordil instantly.

Sordil was unaware of Irene's thoughts, and even if he had, he wouldn't have cared, for he was currently immersed in boundless joy. Through a full day of experiments, Sordil knew that Irene hadn't held back, nor had he received any expert's help; rather, Irene's attacks couldn't harm him. This gave Sordil hope of surviving and completing his training in Augmented Magic, and how could he not be overjoyed?