"...W-Well, then."
Faced with the princess, who had made quite the shocking first impression, Ermes could only choke on his words.
But he couldn't very well stay silent, so he tried to establish communication first.
"Um... Princess Liliana?"
"Call me Lili. It's cuter that way."
The princess declared this with her small arms crossed and her lips pursed in a pout.
...Was that really the first thing she felt she needed to point out?
"Then, Lady Lili. I'm sure you've already heard, but I am—"
"I know. You're the new tutor."
Before he could so much as introduce himself, Liliana cut him off preemptively. Without missing a beat, she continued—
"Yurugen told me all about you. Apparently, you're the hero who defeated the disaster that attacked the Magic Academy the other day."
"It wasn't my strength alone, but... I won't deny that I contributed."
When Ermes gave a nod, Liliana's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
"And? From what I hear, you possess some outrageous ability called 'Magic Copying.'"
"That's right."
"Which lets you wield any Bloodline Magic, no matter how many there are."
"In theory, yes."
"And on top of that, you can supposedly combine multiple Bloodline Magic into something even more powerful."
"..."
"...Allow me to say my piece."
Having declared as much, she pointed her fingers toward Ermes and Yurugen, drew a deep breath—
"—How much?! For anything and everything?! You're exaggerating way too much!!"
...Right, indeed, went the thought.
A small, wry murmur reached them from Leila. ...Well, yeah, anyone would react like that hearing it for the first time.
Liliana pressed on.
"Yurugen! I can appreciate your effort to get my hopes up, but even so, there has to be a limit! Do you really think I'd fall for such tall tales just because I'm a child?!"
"Well, it's all true, you know..."
"There you go saying that again!"
Whether indignant at being treated like a child or not, Liliana huffed and puffed out her cheeks.
Addressing her once more, Ermes spoke.
"Lili."
"What is it now?! You too are going to start spouting nonsense—"
"No. As for that matter, no matter how you look at it, the Duke explained it poorly, so let's set it aside."
Ermes, too, understood that his magic was something difficult to believe by the common sense of the kingdom.
Now it made sense... but when he had returned to the Royal Capital on that first day and spoken of his magic at the ducal estate, it was Yurugen who had grasped and believed it all in one go — and that was the truly abnormal one.
Perhaps his thinking had been somewhat flexible due to his connection with Rose. ...The result of expecting that same flexibility from others was this. Well, naturally it would turn out this way.
So setting that matter aside for the moment, Ermes raised the question he had been wanting to ask. ...Something important he had heard earlier.
"Your Highness, just now you stated that you 'have no intention of becoming king.' That contradicts what I had heard... Could you explain?"
"...Oh, is that what this is about."
Perhaps relieved to have returned to a topic she could actually discuss, Liliana answered in a comparatively calm voice.
"I don't know what Yurugen told you, but... I simply"
"agreed to lend"
"him my name."
"That's all there was to it."
"Lend... your name?"
"Yes. It seems Yurugen has something he wishes to accomplish by taking advantage of this dispute. To that end, he apparently wants to use my name — belonging as I do to royalty, however tenuously — as a seal of authority to back his claims. ...Not that I think my name carries enough weight for that."
...I see.
Yurugen's goal, taken to its extreme, was nothing less than to change the very values of the kingdom.
To achieve that... it wasn't necessarily essential to install his preferred candidate on the throne. That would be the fastest route, certainly, but it wasn't the only one.
Questions remained about the specifics — what exactly he planned to do, and how much impact Liliana's name would actually have, as she'd said... but those were matters to raise with Yurugen later.
"So you have no intention of taking the throne."
"That's right. ...Or rather, perhaps I should say I have no intention of competing in the succession dispute."
"Why is that?"
At the straightforward question, Liliana lowered her gaze slightly and spoke in a subdued voice.
"Because... fighting with one's own family is just... foolish, isn't it?"
"——"
That was...
...truly a childish reason, but a pure and entirely understandable motivation.
"Besides... if my brother and my sister are truly prepared to fight each other in earnest, I wouldn't be able to step in between them."
Then, she spoke in a quiet murmur.
But what mattered were the words before that. As Ermes somewhat understood her perspective, Liliana — perhaps sensing the shift in atmosphere — raised her voice in an attempt to deflect.
"I-I, for one, am quite fond of peace! I'm perfectly content to go on living leisurely in the castle as I always have, enjoying the occasional pastry! That's all I need!"
"That may be so, but I question how befitting that is for royalty..."
"Y-You're so noisy! Regardless, that's just how it is! I have no intention of becoming queen, which means my magical education is simply a waste of time! That is my final answer — do you have any objections?!"
Ermes considered Liliana's attempt to forcibly shut down the conversation.
...He had come to understand, in various ways. And given that this was what she herself wanted, it would have been perfectly acceptable for Ermes to simply say, "Very well, then," and take his leave. In fact, not long ago, he might have done exactly that.
...But.
He had come to know emotions. He had learned to reach out to others.
And above all... perhaps it was because, in so many ways, she reminded him of someone he knew well.
To put it simply... he was interested. It wasn't just what he had said a moment ago — he sensed that there was something about her.
And so, he declared.
"Even so, I have been entrusted with this task by the Duke. I can't simply walk away, and honestly, I don't want to either."
"Hmph."
"So I would ask that you reconsider... What would it take for you to accept me?"
"So you intend to stand firm no matter what. ...You'll regret it, you know."
Liliana looked at Ermes, and her gaze sharpened.
Yet when she realized he would not back down — she smiled faintly.
"...Very well. Then I shall put you to the test."
"A test?"
"To put it plainly, it's a test. If you can clear the conditions I set from here on, then I may very well reconsider."
"...Hmm."
He supposed that was reasonable. Sooner or later, he'd have to prove himself — this was as good an opportunity as any.
"So, what exactly does this test involve?"
"Fufufu. Don't be too shocked when you hear it."
At his question, Lilliana flashed a self-satisfied smile, walked to the far side of the room for reasons he couldn't fathom, and — just as he noticed her open the window — turned back to face him once more.
"—It's 'tag.' You're going to catch me."
"...Excuse me?"
Ermes's eyes went blank with confusion, and Lilliana's smile only deepened.
"Ah, you just underestimated me, didn't you? Thinking, 'Oh, that should be easy enough.' Well, don't make up your mind until you've seen this!"
She placed both hands on the window frame — and without a moment's hesitation, threw herself out the window.
"!?"
Shock. No — panic. Because this was the princess's chamber, which meant—
the castle's
nearly
top floor.
It was.
Ermes scrambled to lean out after her, but—
"...She's gone?"
"—Over here."
Lilianus was nowhere to be seen — Ermes looked around, scanning for her, when a voice drifted down from above and to the side…
"…What the—"
His shock only deepened.
Lilianus was there — on the balcony of a nearby room.
Except… it was a room "a full two rooms away and an entire floor up."
Could she really have crossed that distance by *jumping*?
In plain terms… this was a level of physical ability that no child, no — not even an ordinary adult — no, not even an ordinary magic user who could bolster their strength with magic power could possibly achieve.
The implications were crystal clear.
It was nothing less than proof that this girl possessed magical ability far exceeding the ordinary scale by an extraordinary margin.
"Still think I'm some sheltered little princess to be mocked? My deepest apologies — but I *am* royalty, you know."
Lilianus's voice echoed from afar.
She was laughing — with a hint of sadistic pleasure, as if taunting him.
"So, here are the rules. Simple enough, really: from now on, I'm going to run wild through the castle grounds, and if you catch me even once, you win. A teacher who can't even catch a student skipping class has no business teaching, wouldn't you agree?"
The royal family — apex of a kingdom built on magical supremacy, a nation where status was determined by magic.
Flexing those abilities without restraint, she remained utterly arrogant.
"Rest assured, I won't be using Bloodline Magic. I'll be running purely on my normal magical ability."
"You—"
"Oh, and of course, *you're* free to use Bloodline Magic. Show me the full extent of that legendary power of yours — the one said to handle any magic under the sun — and try to corner me. If you can, that is."
It was an insult so brazen it bordered on contempt.
But as though she had read his thoughts, Lilianus declared with imperious authority.
"By the way. I did refer to you as the 'new tutor,' didn't I?"
"Wh—"
"Which is to say, there was an 'old tutor' before you as well. Oh, quite a few of them."
She paused there for emphasis, looking down at him with contempt.
"And — the old tutors who came before me...
Every. Single. One.
Lost.
To me. Under these very conditions."
"!"
"They threw everything at me, even resorting to Bloodline Magic, yet they couldn't so much as touch my shadow. …Yes, it was truly, utterly pathetic."
The princess giggled softly — lovely and cold all at once.
Ermes was somewhat unsettled by this sudden change in demeanor, so unlike her age, but Lilianus had already turned back to face him.
"I told you that from the start too, didn't I? 'There is nothing you can teach me.'"
"…I see."
"And with that, my goodwill advice ends here. I strongly recommend you come at me with everything you have from the very start. After all, if you truly are the hero Yurugen said you are, catching little old me should be a piece of cake, wouldn't you say?"
The implied "Though I'm sure it's hopeless anyway" needed no words — her demeanor said it all.
With that same air of superiority, she opened her mouth once more.
"Go ahead and chase me. You must have received plenty of praise up until now, yes? I'll shatter that pride of yours by making you lose to a little girl like me. Everything you've ever built will come crashing down, and you'll be left crawling on the ground in utter wretchedness…"
Finally, she drew a breath.
All traces of her smile vanished, replaced by a cold expression and a dark voice.
"—Then you shall learn this. That in this world, there truly exist things that cannot be helped."
But that, too, lasted only an instant — in the next moment she had already regained her usual adorable expression.
"That is all. The game of tag with your fate on the line — starts now!"
With that declaration, she vaulted over the balcony with terrifying speed and effortless grace, vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.
"...Well, well."
Ermes murmured.
...It was vague, but somehow—
He felt as though he was beginning to make out the outline of that little princess.
She was definitely carrying something.
He couldn't quite deduce what just yet, though...
"...A game of tag, huh. That takes me back."
Perhaps that was something he could only come to understand through this game.
The moment that intuition struck, all hesitation and confusion vanished.
To give chase after Liliana, he too — returning to the heart of a child — kicked off from the balcony.
Can he teach this rebellious student a lesson?
The face-to-face confrontation reaches its climax next time — look forward to it!