Around that time, on the Crown Prince’s side:
“El-sama, look at that! The mountains look so far away!”
During this year’s Magic Academy freshman Knight Order training observation, a girl riding in Crown Prince Elvan’s carriage, who was tasked with supervising the freshmen, turned around with a beaming smile.
“Y-yes, they do…”
Elvan’s face subtly twitched at the girl’s words and actions as she knelt on the cushioned seat like a child, gazing out the window while making small talk.
The freshman tour of national facilities is an annual event. Upper-middle class nobles, excluding lower nobles, are eligible to participate so that the next heads of noble families with territories, and their future wives, can learn what is important for the nation’s administration and how taxes are used for it.
Within the Kingdom of Claydale, including knighted nobles, there are over six thousand noble families. If you include the 589 middle-class noble families and the 35 upper-class noble families, there are over sixty students per grade just from the children of middle-class noble families and above. Moving such a large number of noble children is a major undertaking, so the second-year Crown Prince was assigned to supervise. However, when the time came, only about 60% of the students participated.
Unlike regular tours of important facilities in the Royal Capital, when it comes to Knight Order training away from the Royal Capital, female students who are not interested in managing territories tend to decline. In fact, only five female students are participating this time.
For trips like this that take three days by carriage, the students travel in groups to some extent. Most of them travel with other children of upper-class nobles, but when there are few female students like this time, it is an unspoken rule that the daughters of upper-class nobles, who can bring attendants even if there is only one of them, take the daughters of middle-class nobles into their carriages regardless of region.
However, the only daughters of upper-class noble families or higher participating this time are Princess Elena and Countess Carla. No one wanted to travel with Carla, and two of the remaining three middle-class noble daughters are riding in the Princess’s carriage.
And the last female student, that girl, refused to ride in a carriage full of female students because of her experience being bullied by other orphaned girls at the Orphanage. Even if she were to ride in a carriage with other children of nobles, they couldn’t let her ride alone in a carriage full of male students without a maid. In the end, she requested to ride in the carriage of the heir of Melrose House, her patron.
Thump!
Rookwell, the heir of the Margrave of Dandole, who was riding in the carriage as a close aide to the Crown Prince, silently kicked the leg of Mikhail, the heir of the Margrave of Melrose, who was sitting next to him and was also his friend.
“(What are you doing, Rookwell?)”
“(That girl’s family is your client, right? Shut her up quickly.)”
“(You’re accompanying the Crown Prince as his exclusive guard, aren’t you? Get her away from El quickly.)”
“(I don’t want to. That girl is a pain. Besides, I’m here to guard him in case of danger.)”
“(I don’t want to either. She doesn’t listen to anything I say…)”
“Mikhail-sama, Well-sama, let’s talk together over here!”
The two, who were quietly passing the buck, were suddenly called out by the girl—Alicia Melsys—and simultaneously held their breath. In the corner of their vision, Elvan, who seemed to have passed the responsibility onto them, secretly exhaled in relief.
“Ah… Alicia-jou?”
“What is it, Mikhail-sama! Please don’t call me so formally, call me ‘Licia,’ we’re relatives after all!”
“…Where did you hear that?”
Mikhail’s eyes narrowed at Alicia’s statement. Although it was an open secret among noble families with a certain level of information that she was a princess from the Melrose House direct line, it was not something that middle-class noble families could know.
The Melsys family, who adopted her, and the apprentice knight from the Shadow Unit assigned to protect her, should not be foolish enough to leak that information to her.
If so, who told her? Mikhail, as one of the upper-class noble families who controlled the Shadow Unit, lowered his voice. Alicia, however, didn’t seem to mind and tilted her head slightly, placing her fingertip on her lips in a natural gesture.
It was as if someone had cut out a “single image” that “someone” had seen, and combined with her lovely appearance, even those who had no interest in her couldn’t help but hold their breath.
Alicia Melsys. She was a girl with a mysterious atmosphere.
She was the only daughter born in the city to a Melrose House lady who had eloped with an apprentice knight. After losing her parents in a tragic accident, she spent her childhood in a terrible Orphanage. Mikhail’s grandfather, the current Margrave Melrose, found and protected her.
Because her education as a noble was not sufficient, she was adopted into a viscount family instead of an upper-class noble family, but in reality, it was to determine whether she truly had Melrose House blood.
She does not have the “pink hair,” which is proof of the Melrose House direct line.
She does not resemble the portrait of the eloped lady left in the Melrose House.
That alone was reason enough for Mikhail to doubt this “Alicia.” But behind that thought, Mikhail had admired the dignified figure of that lady depicted in the portrait since he was a child.
Mikhail had heard that his aunt, that lady, was skilled in martial arts and horsemanship as a member of the family that controlled the Shadow Unit, and he actively learned them. He had always held admiration and ideals for her and her only daughter.
But when Mikhail actually saw the girl who was his aunt’s daughter, he felt a “sense of discomfort.”
The girl, who did not feel the dignity or strength of the Melrose House and seemed to have been born only to be loved, was different from the “Alicia” that Mikhail had imagined.
Mikhail understood that he was just imposing his selfish ideals. But even so, what came to his mind every time he thought about it was the adventurer girl he met in the Royal Capital, who had become the Princess’s guard.
Her pinkish-gold hair was as if she was loved by the “Moon Rose (Melrose).” Her strength and dignified beauty were exactly what Mikhail had admired and imagined as “Alicia.”
But the “Alicia” in front of him was the opposite.
Her words and actions were strange because her education as a noble was insufficient, but like a noble lady learning etiquette from an instructor, her gestures and demeanor had a “perfect loveliness” as if she had perfectly copied the “most visible perfect model” over many years.
If a child had acquired it intentionally rather than unconsciously, it would be something close to “obsession” that exceeded even motivation.
Her reddish-dark blonde hair swayed softly, and perhaps because of her appearance as a 12-13 year old with low Mana, she looked even more adorable among them, who had grown to be about 16-17 years old. Even Mikhail, who had been doubting her, was momentarily captivated.
“Hmm…”
Alicia, who was tilting her head with that “perfectly lovely gesture,” gave Mikhail a genuine smile with no ulterior motives when their eyes met.
“I don’t know!”
“…Huh?”
Alicia leaned forward as if to surprise Mikhail, who was momentarily taken aback.
“Because nobles are connected by blood somewhere, right? It wouldn’t be strange if I were related to Mikhail-sama, who is my patron.”
“That’s… true.”
Indeed, the Melsys family, which manages the Melrose House’s direct territory, is a branch family of the Melrose House and is connected by blood.
But this “Alicia” is adopted. When did she learn that she had noble blood? It wouldn’t be strange if she knew it from rumors, but Mikhail continued to feel a sense of discomfort somewhere in his heart.
“Well-sama thinks so too, righ- kyaa!”
The carriage shook with a thud, and Alicia, who was about to ask Rookwell for his agreement, let out a small scream and fell into his chest.
“Oops.”
Even so, as expected of the heir of Dandole, a family of martial arts, he lightly reached out and caught the small girl who was falling towards him, and warned her in a gentle tone.
“A lady shouldn’t move around in a carriage. Also, it’s not good for men and women who aren’t close to call each other by nicknames, so I’d appreciate it if you could stop.”
To such a scolding, Alicia wrapped Rookwell’s hand, which was supporting her shoulder, with her small hand and gave him a smile from the front.
“Fufu, if you keep saying things like that, you’ll become a scary noble-sama. We’re still students. There’s no law that says we can’t have fun just because we’re nobles.”
“I see…”
Rookwell maintained his gentle smile, inwardly as bewildered as if he’d encountered a monster for the first time. He gently pushed back the clinging girl’s shoulders, allowing her to stand on her own.
However, the girl’s words sent ripples in a different direction than the two she was facing.
“Having fun is allowed, huh…”
Elvan, who had been observing the three, muttered in a small voice.
The former Marchioness, who had lived freely, raised her own child instead of entrusting him to the royal tutors due to the strictness of queenly education. As a result, Elvan was raised as the next king but never developed the mindset of royalty, yearning for “freedom.”
He had been making efforts in his own way, but his beloved sister had begun to exude royal dignity. The daughters of high-ranking nobles who became his fiancées—whether they were aloof older ladies, constantly stressed and suffocating ladies, or ladies whose appearance and behavior were dangerous—were women he couldn’t understand, given his own middling noble upbringing.
Clara, who was slated to be the Queen Consort, had become mentally weaker after receiving her [Divine Protection], clinging to Elvan and appearing adorable, but it was still suffocating.
If Elvan had been the heir of some viscount family, he would have become a fine lord loved by his people. But he was royalty, destined to lead this country.
The words of the girl who had been raised as a commoner seeped into Elvan’s weary heart like a sweet poison, numbing him.
“You’ll be in danger if you stand. Come over here and sit down. Um… Licia?”
“Yes, Your Highness El!”
Elvan called the middle-noble girl by her given name, and Alicia, noticing this, flew to his side with a beaming smile.
The two who accompanied the Crown Prince as “friends,” “aides,” and “watchdogs” exchanged glances and were about to open their mouths to admonish him when the carriage lurched violently to a halt. A man’s voice, like a roar, was heard from outside.
“Come out of the carriage quietly! If you don’t, we’ll set it on fire!”
“Come out quietly! If you don’t, we’ll set it on—”
At that moment, a massive burst of flames erupted, blowing the carriage door away. The leather-armored man who had been speaking, along with those around him, were instantly burned to ashes before they could even scream.
From a luxurious black carriage that had been traveling about an hour ahead of the Crown Prince and his party, and had been similarly attacked, a girl in a light green dress and a mantle-like uniform appeared.
Her jet-black hair swayed in the flames spreading through the forest. As she swept back her disheveled hair with her fingers, the lady, with dark circles under her eyes and a sickly pale face illuminated by the fire, picked up the charred bones, crushed them with her fingers, and gave a flower-like smile to the bewildered and stunned attackers.
“Did they burn nicely?”
The Crown Prince and his party are attacked. Carla attacks the attackers.
In an event that has gone wildly off course, will the protagonist make it in time?
Announcement.
My work has become busier at the end of the year, so I may not be able to update on weekdays except when I have extra time. Of course, I will continue the regular Sunday updates, so please don’t worry.
Map Update.
I have updated the map with the names and numbers of nobles, as well as the location of the Magic Academy.
Feel free to take a look if you’re interested.