Chapter 105
“Something about Big Brother’s movements lately feels off, Sister.”
A lavish reception room where a magnificent chandelier decorated with mana stones cast dazzling light.
On the table, a three-tiered cake and a tea set filled with mana-recovery tea—said to be worth an entire gold bar per drop—had been ostentatiously laid out.
It might have looked like the lavish tea time of a sheltered young lady who knew nothing of the world.
Yet the atmosphere in the room was far from that of a youthful little tea party.
Knights stood in every corner of the room and all around the table.
In that murderous tension, where anyone who coughed seemed liable to draw their sword at once,
Half-siblings sat facing each other.
“Putting aside how noticeably healthier his complexion has looked since the archmage investiture ceremony, he’s been moving with astonishing ferocity, as though trying to make up for all the time he was unable to act.”
The intelligent-looking man tapped the table lightly with his slender fingers.
“The day before yesterday, he observed the Imperial Knights’ training, and yesterday he held a private meeting with that fellow Albert, who is about to take over as commander of the Imperial Mage Corps.”
“Hmm~”
“And today, he set out at dawn, saying he would review the Ministry of Finance’s budget proposal. It’s hard to believe he’s the same person who used to spend more time lying down than standing.”
The Third Prince, Cedric Belhart, gazed calmly at his companion with cool gray eyes visible behind his monocle.
Neat silver hair, an impeccable outfit, and an intellect more extraordinary than anyone else’s.
His habit of approaching everything calculatingly, and of valuing ability over bloodline, had captivated countless intellectual nobles.
Cedric was a prince who almost never left the palace assigned to him unless absolutely necessary.
The fact that he had come in person meant the situation was that serious.
However, the woman seated across from him did not seem to think so.
“So you came all this way just to tell me that?”
She listened quietly to the Third Prince, then set down her teacup and spoke in a soft, sweet voice.
“Did you interrupt my precious tea time for this?”
The First Princess, Isabella Belhart, tilted her head slightly to one side.
Luxuriant platinum hair flowed in waves below her collarbones.
Revealed between the strands were sun-bright eyes that shimmered like flames.
Among the Empire’s three great beauties, she was considered the foremost, possessing an overwhelming beauty that seemed to stop the breath of anyone who saw her.
She had such a noble bearing that anyone would fall in love at first sight, kneel without realizing it, and want to kiss the tops of her feet.
But.
“Our adorable little brother seems eager to die.”
Her personality was simply the worst.
Another nickname attached to Princess Isabella was the Imperial Family’s Mad Dog (though anyone who uttered it in her presence would have their tongue cut out).
She was viciously temperamental, and whenever she wanted something, she could not rest until she had obtained it by whatever means necessary.
She also grew bored quickly, and once she tired of something, she discarded it without mercy.
If anything at all displeased her, she personally punished the offender regardless of their status, making her an unprecedented sadist.
She did not even discriminate among her targets.
She behaved just as viciously toward royalty—her own brothers and sisters—as she did toward high-ranking nobles.
No noble was unaware of the incident years ago when she slapped the Fourth Prince across the face at a social gathering after he had subtly gotten uppity, properly drilling etiquette into him.
The story of how she once caught the young Fifth Prince running through the halls and whipped his tutor on the spot for failing to educate him properly had also spread far and wide by now.
And the incident in which she turned the dressmaker’s entire shop into a heap of ashes after the Second Princess received more attention than she did at a ball one day had been enough to horrify everyone.
Thus, few people in the Belhart Empire could look straight into the eyes of the irredeemably vicious Princess Isabella and speak.
“If you’re after the throne too, wouldn’t Kalian, our eldest brother, be the one who bothers you most?”
Cedric was one of those few people.
“For one thing, Big Brother is the legitimate eldest son. If he invokes his legitimacy, none of us...”
“Ha, legitimacy?”
Princess Isabella snorted.
“What kind of competition could a halfwit who can’t control even a handful of mana possibly be? Even if he gets healthy, a washed-up bastard is still just a washed-up bastard.”
The First Princess glared sidelong at her brother, her bright yellow eyes flashing.
“To me, you, my snake of a brother, are far more irritating.”
“...”
“I’d like to gouge out your eye and make that monocle suit you properly.”
At those words, the knights standing behind Princess Isabella openly radiated murderous intent.
Cedric’s guards, unwilling to be outdone, also placed their hands on their sword hilts.
It was a hair-trigger situation in which it would not have been strange for a sword fight to break out at any moment.
Just as the tense killing intent filled the reception room,
“E-Excuse me, Your Highness.”
A trembling voice came from outside.
“Sir Bellus requests an audience... May we let him in?”
The murderous atmosphere instantly subsided, as though someone had poured water over it.
Princess Isabella brought her teacup to her lips and replied with deliberate elegance.
“Tell him to come in.”
The door to the reception room opened, and a knight clad in full plate armor entered.
He was Bellus, a swordmaster who had turned down even the honor of serving in the Imperial Knights and remained Princess Isabella’s first sword.
He was also one of the few talents the violent princess had cherished for a very long time.
“Well, what is it?”
Princess Isabella’s voice softened slightly.
“Was it urgent enough to interrupt my tea time?”
“My apologies, my lady.”
The knight knelt on one knee before the First Princess, bowed his head, and delivered his report.
“We have just received word that the First Prince collapsed while attending to state affairs.”
“...!”
Cedric’s eyes widened for the first time.
Princess Isabella, on the other hand, merely smiled brightly, as though she found it interesting.
“Oh my.”
The princess gave her brother a slight jerk of her chin.
“See? I told you Big Brother wasn’t even competition. He was bound to die before his time. Ahahaha!”
“...Sister.”
Cedric’s eyes narrowed.
“Surely you haven’t already made a move?”
“Oh, come now~ Surely not. Even I’m not such a rotten piece of trash, little brother.”
Princess Isabella shrugged.
“I want to enjoy myself a little longer.”
She pointed the tip of her fork at Prince Cedric and twisted up the corners of her mouth.
“If anything, I’m more suspicious of you.”
“...What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Why~ This is your specialty, isn’t it? Slipping poison in from the behind the scenes, disguising it as an accident, and pulling all sorts of dirty tricks.”
Princess Isabella made a gesture as though drawing a finger across her own throat.
“Celestina, that adorable little thing, fleeing in fright to Elterion Academy was all your doing too, wasn’t it?”
“Haha. That’s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding.”
Prince Cedric shook his head with a bitter smile.
“Besides, I don’t make such a blatant, noisy mess of things.”
“Hmm.”
“If I had done it, I would have slowly killed him in secret, without anyone noticing.”
Collapsing in the middle of state affairs with so many eyes watching? Wasn’t that too contrived and conspicuous?
Seeing her brother shrug, Princess Isabella let out a short laugh.
“Yeah~ Of course.”
The First Princess put a piece of cake into her mouth and muttered with interest,
“When you look at it, you and I really aren’t so different, are we?”
*
“Long time no see.”
I had just finished looking around the theater club and was about to return to Linea Hall.
“This is the first time we’ve seen each other since the investiture ceremony, right?”
No sooner had I stepped outside the building than Senior Miriel blocked my path.
I was exhausted from finally getting some outdoor activity and racking my brain over one thing after another, so I had no idea what this senior was trying to do now.
“Still, you and I are both valedictorians representing our respective years, so perhaps we should see each other more often and socialize a little...”
“Get to the point.”
I was so tired that a sharp tone escaped me before I realized it.
“I told you I’m tired.”
“Ah, I get it! Honestly, your personality...”
Senior Miriel flinched as though startled, then let out a deep sigh.
Come to think of it, there wasn’t a single other student behind her today.
It seemed she had also set aside her haughty air as the academy’s hostess for once.
“Actually, ever since the archmage investiture ceremony, the Second Prince has been pressuring me nonstop. He keeps asking when I’m going to arrange a meeting.”
“And?”
“W-What do you mean, ‘and’...!”
Senior Miriel bit her lip and took a step toward me.
“P-Please.”
“...?”
“Just once. Meet the Second Prince just once.”
Her voice was trembling just as it had when we were in the imperial palace.
“If there’s anything you want, just say the word. I’ll do anything for you in the name of House Adrian. What do you want? Money? Mana stones? Or...”
“There’s nothing I particularly want.”
If I wanted anything, it would probably be time.
Yes. Time to sleep as long as I wanted without anyone disturbing me.
“Besides, I already met the Second Prince once on the day of the investiture ceremony.”
“Y-Yes, but you didn’t really have a proper conversation then...”
“And it’s obvious this won’t end with just one meeting.”
Finding this annoying, I turned away to walk around her, but Senior Miriel hurriedly blocked my path again.
“Haaah...”
She rubbed her face as though frustrated and lowered her head.
“Actually, I should have taken you to the imperial palace long ago.”
“...?”
“The prince’s demands were getting intense, but until now, I’d somehow managed to hold him off.”
But now she had reached her limit.
Senior Miriel looked utterly worn out as she said this.
“If we drag this out any longer, the prince will come to the academy himself.”
Uh... that sounded like it would be extremely annoying.
“You got a glimpse of his personality, so you know what he’s like. Whatever you do, he’ll keep pestering you without end.”
Senior Miriel raised her head and looked at me.
Her eyes, usually full of confidence, were desperately wavering at that moment.
“Wouldn’t it be better to come with me rather than let things become even more troublesome?”
“...”
“Once you see him today, I’ll hold him off for a while longer. Please? If only for my sake.”
Her earnestness swayed me a little—just a little.
I truly had not known that she had been holding the Second Prince back all this time.
...But that wasn’t my problem, was it?
Troublesome was troublesome.
I was just about to say no and turn her down when,
“Ah! There you are, Miss Lunaris!”
A familiar voice suddenly rang out above my head.
-BOOM!
A moment later, dust billowed up with a heavy crash.
Senior Miriel and I both flinched and stepped back.
I summoned wind with nature mana and scattered the cloud of dust, revealing a familiar face.
“...Vice Commander Albert?”
Why had this person fallen from the sky?
No, more importantly, this was the academy.
“What brings you here? Did a dark mage appear?”
“There’s no time to explain.”
Vice Commander Albert approached me with an ashen face, his usual sly manner nowhere to be seen.
“You need to come with me to the imperial palace for a moment. Right now.”
“What? Why all of a sudden...”
When I tilted my head in confusion, the vice commander said in a trembling voice,
“The First Prince... His Highness Prince Kalian has collapsed.”