Vol. 11 Ch. 1: Hey, Boys~!

The Ridill Kingdom had designated the day after the winter solstice as New Year's Day, and the New Year's Ceremony was to be held at the castle for a week starting that day.

The New Year's Ceremony began with a ceremony attended by the court nobles on the first day, followed by a week of banquets. Nobles from throughout the kingdom would visit in turn to greet the king... That was the usual arrangement.

However, this year, with the king bedridden, both the ceremony and the banquets would apparently be held on a reduced scale.

Since the king was unable to appear in public, the First Prince would oversee the ceremony, while the Second Prince would oversee the banquets. Even here, however, the nobles of the First Prince's faction and those of the Second Prince's faction were glaring at one another. Perhaps because of that, the atmosphere in the royal palace was more strained than usual.

As one of the Seven Sages, Monica had to attend everything from the ceremony on the first day of the New Year through the banquets that continued for the following week.

Last year, she had nearly missed the ceremony after becoming absorbed in developing a magic formula, but this year she had arrived at the castle with plenty of time to spare.

On the night of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, the Dark Spirit King Eldiora fell asleep, and with the sunrise following the winter solstice, the Light Spirit King Selendine awoke.

On the morning of New Year's Day, also called Selendine's Awakening, Monica awoke with the sunrise in her guest room at the castle and finished getting ready with plenty of time to spare.

The guest room prepared for the Seven Sages was extremely luxurious, and Monica could not help feeling nervous no matter how many times she visited. She had left her small amount of luggage beside the pillow and used almost none of the furniture besides the bed.

Monica took a formal robe out of the luggage bag beside her pillow...