Chapter 110
“What? Say that again.”
First Princess Isabella Belhart frowned and asked again.
The nobleman bowing before her trembled and repeated his report.
“Th-that... Prince Kalian has resumed his state affairs... and P-Prince Valerius has collapsed.”
“Huh? Doesn't it sound like the order got switched?”
“N-no. First Prince Kalian woke up, and Second Prince Valerius collapsed.”
“I don't think I'm stupid enough to confuse the names of my older and younger brothers.”
Isabella turned her head and looked at the knight Belus standing guard beside her.
“When you reported to me this morning, didn't you say my older brother had collapsed?”
“That's right, Your Highness. When I checked, Prince Kalian was in critical condition.”
Belus answered in a courteous voice.
Isabella smacked her lips and let out a coquettish hum through her nose.
“Hmm~ How did this happen? Before half a day had even passed, the corpse who was supposedly dying got up and went about his schedule, while the perfectly healthy mad dog collapsed instead.”
The First Princess's golden eyes turned back toward the nobleman.
“What do you suppose the reason is?”
“According to our investigation... it happened after someone named Lunaris Evermoon met with the two princes in succession.”
“Huh? Lunaris Evermoon?”
First Princess Isabella tilted her head as though the name were unfamiliar.
The princess's gaze shifted back to Belus.
“Who is she? I've never heard that name before.”
“She was recently invested as an archmage by the imperial family. She also made headlines as the youngest archmage in the Empire.”
“Really? I was unaware of such a talent?”
“When I reported it at the time, Your Highness said, ‘I have no interest in some bitch's name,’ so I wasn't able to finish the report.”
At Belus's words, First Princess Isabella burst into cheerful laughter—“Ahahaha!”
“Well, I suppose I might have said that.”
All the attendants and guards serving First Princess Isabella were men.
Even most of the people she kept close were men.
The only women she spoke to at all were other members of the imperial family, or the other young ladies often mentioned alongside her as some of the Empire's three great beauties.
That was only natural, since one of the princess's hobbies was collecting men and keeping them at her beck and call.
“So what exactly did that archmage, whatever her name is, do?”
In response to First Princess Isabella's question, the nobleman explained everything that had happened over the course of the day.
In short, Lunaris had cured the First Prince's illness and then sparred with the Second Prince, but she had apparently gone a little too far, leaving him severely injured.
“Prince Valerius's condition is apparently quite serious. Not only were all the muscles and bones throughout his body crushed, but his mana circuits were completely burned out from the overload.”
“...Yaaawn.”
“According to the imperial court physician, it's a miracle that he's still alive...”
While the nobleman rambled on, First Princess Isabella yawned as though bored.
The hand she had been using to pick at her ear suddenly reached beneath the sofa.
-Thwack!
She took off one of her shoes and abruptly hurled it at the nobleman.
Blood streamed down from his split forehead.
“There, have you finished?”
“Y-yes, Your Highness...”
“Honestly, you talk too much. It's not as though your voice is even pleasant.”
“...”
“Listening to you was making me feel as though my ears were rotting.”
Isabella said irritably, wiggling her bare foot.
“Still, the information was useful, so I'll spare your life.”
“Th-thank you, Your Highness...!”
The nobleman bowed his head, unable even to think of wiping the blood from his forehead.
First Princess Isabella looked down at him with a chilly gaze.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and fetch my shoe.”
The princess abruptly extended her white foot.
The nobleman hurriedly picked up the high heel, its heel battered and ragged.
Then, with trembling hands, he put the shoe back onto his mistress's foot.
His obsequious movements were painfully cautious, as though he were terrified his hand might brush above her ankle.
“Speaking of which, my older brother isn't ordinarily such a daring man, either.”
Brushing the cheek of the nobleman kneeling before her with the instep of her foot, First Princess Isabella muttered with her chin propped on one hand.
“To have the archmage he just brought into his faction beat his younger brother down the instant he got better. What's gotten into that stuffy personality of his?”
“...Your Highness. May I venture a word?”
Belus, who had been standing silently, slowly opened his mouth.
“Go ahead.”
“I rather suspect that archmage may have helped Prince Valerius.”
“Huh? What do you mean? I heard she nearly killed him.”
“Prince Valerius is a swordsman before he is a member of the imperial family. He is the sort of man who will do anything to satisfy his desire for self-improvement.”
“He is the sort of man who pushes his body to the brink of death and runs it into the ground,” Belus added with an impassive expression.
“In other words, it is possible that he ended up in that state because he wanted it himself.”
“Pfft! Kyahahaha!!”
First Princess Isabella clutched her stomach and laughed hysterically.
“That's just total masochism, isn't it? No! If our little brother liked being bullied that much, he should have told me sooner. I would have stomped on him with all my might until his eyes rolled back!”
“...In any case, the fact that he sustained severe injuries but didn't die is proof. Once he recovers, the prince will surely have reached a higher realm than before.”
At Belus's analysis that Valerius might even break through his wall by reflecting on this spar, Isabella's expression turned serious once again.
“Enough about whether my little brother will break through his wall or not. He isn't even a collection piece I can keep beneath me anyway.”
The princess narrowed her eyes and changed the subject.
“More importantly, tell me more about that archmage. What do you think, Belus? Roughly how does she compare to you?”
First Princess Isabella's eyes gleamed as she looked at Belus, one of the few Swordmasters on the continent and her first blade.
“Wouldn't you know, since you haven't fought her?”
“Based on what I saw at the investiture ceremony... I'd say it's about six to four.”
“Hmm—”
Isabella gave a surprised hum.
“You rate her quite highly. They say she's young, too. Are you saying she's strong enough to be about your equal?”
“Your Highness. The six is hers—I'm the four.”
“What?”
First Princess Isabella's eyes widened slightly.
The princess knew Belus's abilities better than anyone.
Seeing one of the Empire's foremost warriors underestimate himself was... something she felt she was witnessing for the first time.
“She's that good? I thought she wouldn't be anything special.”
“Considering her rate of growth, the difference may have widened to seven to three by now.”
Belus gave an uncharacteristically bitter smile.
“I don't know much, but aren't mages no match for knights?”
“She's different. While ordinary mages need time to prepare their magic by working out formulas and reciting spells, she can fire off magic without any significant delay.”
“...Really?”
“Above all, magic that manipates space itself and arbitrarily twists the laws of the world is practically a natural enemy to swordsmen.”
“Hmm... Interesting.”
Isabella's golden eyes gleamed.
A deep fascination, beyond simple curiosity, began to smolder within her.
“I want to see her. A woman who beat our little brother, that reckless bastard, into a pulp... I feel like she and I might get along well.”
“As it happens, she is enrolled at the academy.”
“The academy? You don't mean Elterion, do you?”
“That's right. She's a freshman who entered this year.”
“Then she's only sixteen? She's not even a brat—she's a baby, a baby~”
Isabella's gaze grew clouded with nostalgia.
She looked almost as though she were reminiscing about her own teenage years.
“I understand a magic exchange event is coming up soon. I hear the academy will be open to outsiders that day, so I'll go and take a detailed look.”
“No, let's go together.”
The princess placed a hand on Belus's shoulder and whispered in a seductive voice.
“While we're at it, we could give off a campus-couple vibe at the academy. What do you say?”
“...Your Highness may suit a school campus, but aren't I a little too old for that?”
When Belus lowered his head awkwardly, Isabella gently lifted his chin.
“Why~ A capable new professor and a prima donna on the verge of graduation. Doesn't that make a lovely picture?”
The princess's fingers stroked the knight's rough cheek.
“Besides, you still look like you're in your prime to me.”
A strangely sultry tension filled the space between them.
First Princess Isabella's decadent string of affairs with men was an open secret throughout the imperial palace.
The nobleman, who had been flattened against the floor, tactfully backed out of the room, silencing even his breathing.
Through the door that closed without a sound, breathy moans and heated breathing began to leak out.
In situations like this, you simply had to pretend you hadn't seen or heard anything.