Reborn with a Necromancer System
Chapter 136: The Young Prince

Chapter 136: The Young Prince

The lesson continued, even with their new spectators. The practice yard had been cleared for their session, with dummies Kai had made from rudimentary magic to manipulate the soil and then bake it with fire magic. He created several of these humanoid targets and set them up along the far stone wall.

Kai stood at the centre, arms folded, watching Naia as she crouched over a small metal nail, her fingers glowing faintly with concentrated gravitational energy.

Across from him, the prince of the realm, barely twelve, dressed in fine noblewear with tailored gloves and a thin circlet resting above his brow, observed with hawk-like precision. A pair of palace guards and the brutish woman stood behind him, silent, but their hands never strayed far from their weapons.

Kai did his best to ignore their presence. He wasn’t here to impress soldiers. Just teach a girl to weaponise gravity.

Naia flicked her hand.

The nail lifted into the air and crushed into a dense, tiny sphere. Then, with a dramatic flourish, she launched it. The shot curved slightly mid-air and clipped the edge of the training dummy’s shoulder, leaving a deep gouge.

"Almost centre mass," Kai said. "But you’re leaning too far forward. Keep your axis aligned or the trajectory curves."

She nodded, already crouching to prep another nail.

The prince stepped forward, arms behind his back. "Master..."

"Oh, my name? Alex. Alex Trunsdale."

"Right, Master Trunsdale," he said, his voice carrying more weight than his age should allow. "Where did you come up with the idea for that?"

’Master? That’s not bad.’

Kai raised a brow. "The nail-shot technique?"

The prince nodded. "I’ve seen spells that pierce, and spells that crush. But this... the speed, the pressure—it looks like it could rip through steel. How did you develop it?"

Kai hesitated a moment. His first instinct had been to explain its similarities to firearms, projectiles launched with explosive force, but the world didn’t need that kind of advancement just yet. Not here. Not with tensions already smoldering across regions.

"Partly inspiration, partly experimentation," he said instead. "I once saw an arcane creature. A hedgehog-like beast with crystalline spines. It could launch them with enough force to break through shields. It used a blend of kinetic magic and gravity manipulation. That gave me the idea: mimicking that for human use."

The prince’s eyes lit up, intrigued. "You could make an entire style of magic around that."

Kai nodded. "Theoretically. Defensive and offensive variants. A mage could surround themselves with dense metallic spindles to act as a deterrent. If they had the power and control, they could launch them in response to attacks, create barriers mid-air, even form temporary minefields."

The prince turned his head slightly. "Like a hedgehog of blades."

"Exactly."

"And armour?" the prince asked, glancing back at the still-gouged dummy. "If those can punch through steel..."

Kai smiled faintly. "That’s the balance. The same magic that launches them can also be used to manipulate weight. Gravity-enhanced armour might absorb or redirect the force. But only if the user knows what they’re doing."

The two of them fell into a deeper discussion. The prince offered theories, clever ones, and asked pointed questions about application in warfare, countermeasures, and integration into elite units. It became clear, quickly, that he was no average royal. He had the mind of a tactician, trained by people who had bled on battlefields.

Kai chose his words carefully. He was cautious not to sow the seeds of a magical arms race.

Still, he took note of the way the prince’s mind worked. Calculated. Ambitious. Someone he could get along with.

While they spoke, Naia prepared another shot. This time, she crushed the nail into a sphere even smaller than before, brow furrowed in concentration. She adjusted her stance, lined up the trajectory, and loosed it.

The sphere shot forward like a cannonball.

It missed the target entirely.

Instead, it slammed into the reinforced stone wall at the edge of the estate, separating the royal palace from the noble district. The sound echoed like thunder.

Dust exploded outward. A long, deep crack spidered from the impact point. The projectile hadn’t just hit the wall, it had embedded itself nearly a meter into solid stone.

For a moment, there was silence.

"...Hells," Kai muttered.

The prince stared, wide-eyed. Then he burst out laughing.

"That was amazing," he said, pointing. "You saw that, right? That nearly broke through to the other side."

Kai nodded slowly, his thoughts racing. The force behind that projectile shouldn’t have been possible, not with the energy Naia had summoned. Not unless she was amplifying her power somehow.

Maybe her control was slipping. Or maybe she was growing faster than expected.

Before he could investigate, one of the guards stepped forward, bending to whisper into the prince’s ear.

The boy’s smile faded a little. He nodded solemnly and turned to Kai.

"Duty calls," he said. "But I’ll be keeping an eye on this. I’d like to hear more of your thoughts on hybrid gravity magic-use. Perhaps at court."

With that, he turned and left, flanked by guards.

Kai exhaled once the boy was gone, brushing dust from his sleeves. He turned to Naia, who was still staring at the damaged wall.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"Don’t be," Kai said, walking over to inspect the crater. "That was impressive. Terrifying, but impressive. And it’s not my wall."

She kicked the dirt. "He’s gonna want to use that someday, isn’t he?"

Kai looked back at her. "The prince?"

She nodded. "He always gets what he wants. That’s what the other kids say. Doesn’t matter what it is. If he wants it, he gets it. No one tells him no. Not even the queen."

Kai paused. Twelve years old, and already surrounded by war-hardened mentors. A mind like a blade. Magic that could bend space.

It wasn’t good for any child to grow up like that.

"I know," he said. "But that just means we have to be careful. Guide him the right way."

Naia gave him a skeptical look. "You plan on guiding the prince yourself?"

Kai smiled. "I mean, he seems intrigued by me and my lessons. I’ll be here with you for up to three months, and if I can’t bestow anything upon him by then, it’s no real loss. Besides... if he really can use spatial magic, I’d rather have him as a friend than an enemy."

"That’s just like you. Saying you’ll befriend members of the royals."

"It is?"

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.