"Huh? Really? I'm sorry!"
Luna immediately apologized to Lion and bowed her head. Lion didn't seem particularly angry about having her name gotten wrong, but she did appear to be somewhat bothered by it.
Looking troubled, Luna said apologetively,
"I haven't had many chances to meet you, Lady Lion, so..."
— or words to that effect. The three others besides me and Lion found that explanation perfectly reasonable.
When I asked Chris about it, I got an unexpected answer.
"Lion doesn't come to the inner parts of the Royal Castle all that often. The three of them are all set to inherit their family heads someday, but their title is just 'heir apparent' — in reality, the three of them are treated as nobles without peerage. So they can't just freely enter the inner Royal Castle. The exceptions are when they have an invitation, like at the party the other day, or when they come as the current head's
escort
— that's the only way they're allowed in. Albert and Cain get to see Luna more often because Duke Sanga and Marquis Samons visit the Royal Capital frequently. On the other hand, Margrave Haust can't easily leave his domain, so his visits to the Royal Castle have naturally become fewer. It's been... about three years since he last came, I think."
She explained all of that in detail. I was nodding along, thinking "I see..." when a certain question suddenly popped into my head.
"Wait — if even the heir apparent can't easily get an audience with the royal family, isn't it weird that my grandpa and I, commoners, basically have free access?"
That was a fair point. Up until now, I'd been showing my face to the royals pretty regularly, even though I never had any real reason to — just because I was bored, or needed a place to butcher something, or had made new sweets — and yet no one seemed to think twice about it.
Luna was the one who reacted to my words, and she had a very puzzled look on her face.
"But we go visit your house all the time, Big Brother, and Grandpa and Uncle just barge in whenever they feel like it... Dad and Grandma also said 'make sure you get along with Big Brother,' so I don't think there's a problem!"
Now that she mentioned it, she had a point. Those two in particular — I'd look up and find them lounging in the living room without a care in the world.
Just as I was starting to come around to that logic, Chris leaned in and whispered to me, sounding exasperated.
"No, this is something that would normally be unthinkable. I feel bad saying this, but His Majesty's thinking does include a political element. Though I suppose the biggest reason is that you're the son of His Majesty and Lady Maria's dearest friends."
She was right about that. The royals were so easygoing that it was easy to forget, but in my previous life in Japan, it would've been like casually waltzing up to meet the Emperor. Normally, just getting close would've gotten you detained — or killed on the spot, and nobody would've batted an eye.
Only now did I realize just how blessed I'd been. When I thought about it that way, some degree of political usage was probably unavoidable... At most, they could use it as leverage against other factions — something like "Tenma is practically part of the Royalist Faction, you know" — and whenever anyone tried to push too hard, I'd threatened to just leave for another country. On that matter, Lady Maria had been on my side, so it should be fine.
For the record, I don't think it would ever happen, but if they said "We're being attacked by an enemy nation, so please help us," that'd be fine. If it turned into "We're launching a war, so go fight!" though, that'd be out. When that time came, I'd probably either go live in hiding somewhere or leave the country.
"Well, if the King and the others are fine with it, I guess there's no particular need to worry about it."
"Right?"
"They come to my house and eat and drink whatever they want anyway."
"Exactly, exactly."
"Luna even takes the snacks I've pre-made without asking."
"That's right... Wait, what?!"
Luna fell right into my leading question (lol). She didn't seem to realize she'd been found out ages ago. Luna was actually the second person to fall for this leading question (lol). The first was, of course, Aura. She'd been hit with the same suspicion of sneaking food and ended up having to confess right in front of Aina. Aina's scolding that day had been really something...
"Relax, I won't tell Lady Isabella or Lady Maria... as long as you're a good girl, Luna."
Luna nodded her head vigorously. But Luna did share some things in common with Aura... like what was inside her head, and being a people-pleaser...
Anyway, I'd given her the warning, so at least for now,
for a little while,
she'd probably behave herself.
From here on out,
well, it's sad that I can't say the same.
"So, Luna, are you heading back now?"
I asked while glancing at the girls behind Luna, and she shook her head.
It seemed Luna had to wait for Tida, and she'd only come here to see her friends off.
Normally, Luna had apparently intended to walk them a bit further, but she parted ways here while apologizing to the girls. She looked ready and eager to tag along with us.
"See ya~ I'll come visit next time~ ...Shall we get going?"
Luna waved goodbye to the girls and tried to take the lead at the front of our group. Lion looked a bit displeased at the sight. Probably because Luna being here meant Tida would be joining us shortly, and she was worried that her little scheme would be exposed, giving the Royal Family a bad impression of the Border Count's household.
But the King and the others wouldn't let something like that sour their impression. After all, the Haust Border Count household held an important position even within the Royalist Faction, and having them get along with me was beneficial for the Royal Family too.
I was about to tell her that, when Cain suddenly turned around, held a finger to his lips, and winked. He was probably saying, "Keep it quiet — this looks like it'll be fun." And he was right; it would be more entertaining that way, so I quietly gave a thumbs-up to signal my agreement.
"Come on, Lion, you're slowing down. We need to get to the Headmaster's office quickly. So with that in mind, Lady Luna, I'm sorry, but before we head to Tida's classroom, could you please come to the Headmaster's office first?"
"I und... I understand."
Luna was Luna, though — with the three of us watching, she was doing her best to keep up the act. Well, I was pretty sure two of them had already seen through her ages ago, but nobody called her out on it.
The Headmaster's office was on the fifth floor — the top floor of the central building — and the climb up the stairs was exhausting. So I'd started using levitation magic midway to make things easier, but Luna caught me right as I reached the top and gave me an earful about it.
Apparently, the method I used was restricted to non-students only except in special circumstances. So even if Luna had noticed what I was doing halfway up the stairs, she couldn't use my magic without receiving punishment from the academy. There were various types of punishment, but in this case it would likely be a relatively mild one. Still, even mild punishments could add up, and in the worst case, expulsion was possible if the offenses became too frequent, so one had to be careful.
That said, they couldn't very well make guests from outside the academy climb all those stairs. In those cases, the guest would ride on a board enchanted with levitation magic, which a teacher capable of levitation would pull along. Or, for someone like me who could use levitation or flight, a permit to use magic would apparently be granted.
Among the teachers, only about fourteen or fifteen — less than ten percent of the total — could use levitation magic. As for students, it was uncertain whether there were even four or five who could.
For reference, the total student body came to about a thousand each year. Each class had roughly forty students, with four classes each in the Early and Elementary Divisions, eight in the Middle Division, and ten in the Advanced Division.
Classes in the Early and Elementary Divisions were assigned mostly at random, but from the Middle Division onward it became a merit-based system, with students sorted into Classes A, B, C, and so on according to their rankings. Grades included practical assessments and other factors, selected from the top of each category, so even a musclehead with an academic score of one and a physical score of ten could make it into Class A.
Once we arrived at the Headmaster's office, Albert and the others announced their visit and then obtained permission for me, Chris, and Luna to enter.
With permission granted without issue, we took our seats on the sofa we were led to and sat across from the Headmaster.
The Headmaster was a man in his sixties, and apparently a graduate of this very academy. He became a teacher here right after graduation and was now something of a living encyclopedia of the school, with over forty years of service under his belt.
He had originally been the third son of a certain Marquis's household, but since his mother was of commoner descent, it had been decided that he would leave the household upon reaching adulthood. Because of this, he'd had many opportunities to befriend those of commoner origin, and after he started working, he was apparently popular among students and fellow teachers alike as a teacher who understood both nobles and commoners.
This allowed him to advance smoothly through his career, and he became Headmaster just before turning fifty. This appointment was partly due to recommendations from ministers and the Crown Prince — the current King — among many other nobles who had been his former students, but the position was granted to him without any objections.
With the Headmaster wearing such a stern expression, the five of us — myself excluded — looked visibly tense. However, once the Headmaster began speaking, two of them realized the matter had absolutely nothing to do with them, and they started to relax. The topic in question was... an incident that had occurred at a party hosted by the Royal Family — the so-called "Fujoshi Fainting Incident."
Apparently, several inquiries had been made because the young ladies who had been escorted out shared certain things in common — they were close in age, they were graduates of the academy, and they had been staring intently at Albert and the others. People were asking whether the three of them might be involved somehow.
The Headmaster had initially tried to keep things vague, but in the end, when the guardians wouldn't accept his explanation, he had no choice but to reveal the young ladies' peculiar habit.
The guardians were reportedly left speechless at this, and some even harbored anger toward the three of them. However, the Headmaster insisted that the three bore absolutely no responsibility in this matter — it was an unfortunate accident caused by the young ladies' side. He warned that if any harm were to befall the three because of this incident, he would have no choice but to release all information to the Royal Family and everyone involved in the investigation. Through this half-threat, he managed to coerce the guardians into acceptance. For that reason, he had called the three to the academy as a precautionary measure, to urge them to be careful.
That said, there were other reasons for calling them in as well. Apparently, part of it was to maintain the appearance that the academy itself had issued a warning to the three, with the additional hope that this might ease the guardians' frustration to some degree.
Once the warnings were concluded, the Headmaster brought up wanting to enroll me in the academy.
Apparently, in this academy where nobles were the majority, there were those who looked down on commoners with arrogant attitudes. From their perspective, they were born noble and thus chosen ones, while those of lower birth existed to serve them.
While the degree varied, there were quite a few noble students who harbored such thinking.
So the idea was to enroll me — someone who wasn't noble but had earned fame through his own power — and use me as a living example to inspire the commoner students, while teaching the noble students that a person's talent has nothing to do with birth. And if any noble student were to harbor ill intentions and try to act on them, they wouldn't be able to accomplish anything through force, and as for political power, with the Royal Family backing them, there'd be no way to meddle — making it the perfect arrangement.
Since this was framed as an official request, the offer included a tuition waiver, coverage of living expenses and supplies, and even payment of a reward. But it all sounded incredibly troublesome no matter how I looked at it, so I turned it down immediately.
The Headmaster looked very disappointed, but it seemed he'd only been making a long-shot attempt, so he quietly accepted my refusal.
Once our business was concluded, the Headmaster seeing us off, we left the Headmaster's office to go pick up Tida, hurrying to the meeting place under Luna's guidance.
The meeting point was Tida's classroom, on the third floor of the Elementary Division building, located a short distance from the central building.
Right next to the Elementary Division building was the Preschool Division building, and combined, the two seemed to occupy roughly the grounds of a small high school. Yet even this was said to be less than half the size of the Middle and High Division campuses.
As we received this explanation, our group walked through the Elementary Division building. The teachers we occasionally passed were smiling warmly, so it seemed the matter had already been communicated to them.
However, the students apparently hadn't been informed. Whether it was because outsiders were a rare sight, several of them stopped and stared our way. To their credit, they didn't approach and strike up random conversations, but a few children who seemed to be acquaintances of Luna gathered around and asked about us, their eyes lighting up.
The commotion apparently spread from there, and just before we reached Tida's class, we were nearly surrounded. But the teachers who noticed the commotion managed to calm things down.
"Big Brother, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
"You're late... wait, Tenma-san?"
Tida had been chatting with several classmates when she turned at Luna's voice — and that was when she noticed me standing behind her.
She then spotted Chris and Albert, exchanged brief greetings, and after we explained the situation, Luna's request to accompany me as a guide was approved, which settled Tida's participation as well.
Tida instructed Chris to wait with the carriage.
"Then let's head out. The Elementary and Middle Divisions probably wouldn't be that interesting to see, so let's tour the High Division and the academy's facilities."
Lion, who had been nervous at first about what Tida might say, started eagerly leading the way. It seemed he realized there wasn't a problem, as he picked up on Tida and Luna's attitudes and didn't feel like he'd made a bad impression. Tida appeared to believe I had come to the academy as a guest of Albert and the others, so he had no issue with Lion taking the lead. However, Luna seemed a little dissatisfied that Lion wasn't offering to show her around the places she was studying.
Of course, Lion was never going to notice Luna's attitude, and he promptly led them out of the Elementary Division building.
"First up is the cafeteria ahead. I'd really like to show you the dormitories over there too, but entry is generally restricted to authorized personnel only. The cafeteria is behind the Central Building where the Headmaster's office is."
Lion explained that the cafeteria was on the second floor of the two-story building behind the Central Building. The first floor below it apparently housed shops and a lounge.
The dormitories, where entry was restricted, formed a long, vertical T-shape when viewed from above. The bottom part of the T contained the entrance and waiting room, the left and right sides were the boys' and girls' dorms respectively, and the top part held the dining hall and bathhouse.
During his explanation, Chris was grinning and watching Lion as he mentioned the bathhouse. Lion started to obviously change the subject when he realized something was up. Well, they could save that fun for later. He didn't even need to ask; Chris would be happy to talk about it.
The cafeteria was quite spacious, reportedly able to accommodate six hundred people at once without issue. However, priority seating was predetermined: a hundred seats each for the Elementary and Junior Divisions, and two hundred each for the Senior and High Divisions. It seemed that sitting in a seat reserved for another division was considered a breach of manners and would be criticized, and in particularly bad cases, one could even be punished.
"The food is decent, and the prices are very cheap. Plus, since it's a school facility, it's open quite late, so many students and teachers who don't live in the dorms use it as a stand-in for dinner. The menu is limited, though, and it changes day by day."
The most common pattern was two bread rolls, soup, and one main dish, with salad sometimes included. This cost fifty G, making it popular not just with students but teachers as well.
"Other than here, you could buy bread at the shop downstairs, prepare your own meal, or bring something in from outside. Going outside early in the morning is the only way to do that, though. Most of the users are commoner students who commute from home."
What Cain called "early morning" referred to the fact that student comings and goings were forbidden outside of school arrival and dismissal times. For those living in the dorms, the only options were to slip out while the gates were open to go buy something or to ask a commuting friend to bring it for them.
Today was a holiday, so the cafeteria wasn't operating, but they decided to try buying food from the shop instead.
They sold hard black bread, unsweetened jam, dried meat, and chicken or fish preserved in oil. Since it was also a holiday, only items with a long shelf life were available.
Lion ordered jam and the oil-preserved chicken and fish, and they were surprisingly good.
There were two kinds of jam—apple and citrus—and while they contained almost no sugar, they had the natural sweetness and tartness of the fruit. The oil-preserved dish was essentially *ajillo*; the chopped chicken had a garlic fragrance and the kick of spices that stimulated the appetite. The fish wasn't as strongly salted as the chicken, but it had quite a nice flavor. It seemed to be a type of sardine, and they used salt-preserved ones that had been transported here.
Still, that alone wasn't quite filling enough, so he took out the items stored in his bag for everyone to share.
Their bellies now full, they headed for the High Division building, but along the way, Cain was in such an unnervingly good mood that it was creepy. He was humming and looked like he might even start skipping.
Lion looked at Albert to see if he knew anything, but he seemed equally clueless.
"Hey, Cain. Why are you in such a fantastic mood?"
He asked the person who couldn't read the air at all.
The Man
asked Cain directly, but all Cain did was go "ehehe~" and laugh without giving an answer.
Still puzzled by such a Cain,
wondering about his strange mood,
I heard the sound of footsteps coming from somewhere. It was barely audible even to my ears, but it sounded like someone was running this way.
Turning toward the source of the sound, I saw a familiar girl closing in fast. She was barely five meters away.
"Shaaaa!"
I caught the girl as she lunged at me with full force and threw her without killing her momentum. She spun through the air several times before landing.
"Tenma, found you!"
It was Amour. Her sudden appearance left everyone frozen in shock. The only one besides me who could move was Chris—she had stepped in front of Tida and Luna, shielding them as she drew her sword. After confirming who it was, she quietly sheathed her blade.
"Amour, what are you doing here?"
"I came with everyone. They'll be here soon."
At her words "with everyone," we tilted our heads in confusion and all turned to look in the direction Amour was pointing.
From that direction, we heard voices calling Amour's name. They were all very familiar voices.
"She's here!"
"Primera, Amour is over here!"
"Over there! She's over there! ...Wait, Tenma's here too!"
"Huh? Tenma too?"
Appearing around the corner were the always-energetic triplets Lily, Milly, and Nelly, along with Primera, who looked somewhat tired.
"What a coincidence. Running into each other in a place like this."
I held back Amour, who was trying to cling to me, and called out to the four who had come running over.
"Listen, listen! Primera got permission to visit the academy and invited us to go! We invited Amour too, but the moment we walked through the gate, she went 'I sense something...' and took off running! And then—"
"Stop! When all three of you talk at once, I can't understand a word!"
In truth, the three of them had been so perfectly in sync that I could more or less follow what they were saying, but they were all pressing forward at once, so I told them to stop just to calm things down.
"So, why are you all here?"
"Oh, um... Big brother? You're all here too! Wait—Lord Tida! Lady Luna!"
Primera had been distracted by the triplets and hadn't noticed Albert standing beside me, so she was startled when he spoke to her. She glanced around and spotted Tida and Luna, then hurriedly dropped to one knee to bow in a formal salute.
"Oh, at the academy we agreed there'd be none of that. Please, stand up."
"That's right. This is the academy, and Primera is our senior here."
As always, Tida gently urged Primera to stand, and Luna spoke to her with a voice that carried an elegance unlike her usual self. Little by little, Luna's ability to play the part of a refined lady was improving. For some reason, looking at Luna now reminded me of the first time I'd met Aura. That one's act had been pretty impressive too...
While I was lost in those thoughts, Primera had apparently been convinced and was explaining the situation to Albert.
It turned out that Primera would have to return to Gunjou City before long. The three sisters had been allowed to accompany her on the condition that they help out with odd jobs during the knights' comings and goings, so they all had to head back together.
Using the last day of the holiday, they had invited her for a tour of the academy, and when the triplets suggested inviting me as well, they'd gone to my estate—only to find I wasn't home.
There, they ran into Amour, who had also come to the estate on a whim and missed me, so they brought her along to the academy. But the moment they passed through the gate, Amour had bolted, and that had led to everything that followed—so the story went.
While listening to Primera's explanation, I was busy keeping up with all four of them. And Lion, watching me the whole time, was making a strangely frustrated face. To make matters worse, Cain was teasing Lion about it.
"Alright, alright, everyone settle down for a moment. There are other students here—you're being a disturbance."
When things had gotten sufficiently noisy, Chris clapped her hands and called for order.
"You're right, Senior Chris. In that case, let's get back to the tour. Let's head to the upperclassmen's wing already."
For some reason, Cain was in high spirits and took charge, striding off toward the upperclassmen's wing without delay. The rest of them were pulled along and followed after him.
"Hey, hey, Albert. Why is Cain so fired up all of a sudden?"
"Don't ask me — I have no idea."
Albert answered bluntly to Lion's question. If even these two couldn't figure it out, the rest of them probably wouldn't come up with a reason at all... or so I thought, when—
"Wait, wasn't Cain's younger brother not a student at the academy? Maybe he's looking forward to seeing him..."
Primera chimed in hesitantly. Hearing that, I thought it might be the case, but Albert and Lion immediately shot it down.
"That's not it."
"Yeah, right... The brothers aren't on terrible terms or anything, but they're not exactly on good terms either, and Cain was pretty ticked off about what his brother pulled..."
Lion glanced at me as he said "what his brother pulled."
"Oh, that? I'm not really bothered by it anymore, you know. It's all in the past."
What Lion was referring to was the
quarrel
with Gary in Seigen.
"Wait, hold on. Could it be that Cain plans to tease Gary about Tenma?"
When Albert blurted that out, we couldn't help but...
"That's totally possible!"
We all said in unison, nodding in agreement. Luna didn't seem to understand, but Tida muttered "There's no way..." without finishing the sentence. She was probably starting to grasp Cain's true nature little by little.
Does Marquis Samons know about Cain's true nature? Or does he know but figure it's not a problem?
Well, apparently there are plenty of nobles out there who have their fair share of unspeakable peculiarities but still manage to govern their territories properly, so maybe that much falls within the acceptable range...
Watching Cain begin to move like a character in a musical, I quietly tucked away the question that had surfaced in my mind.