The Prince and the Princes (2)
The Fifth Prince of the Argentia Empire, Valtoria V, had four wives and nine children.
No — more precisely, he had had them.
Five princes and four princesses, born between those four wives.
Even at a glance, that was more than enough imperial grandchildren to kindle the fires of a succession war. And indeed, in the world of Luminor Academy, that power struggle was alive and well.
Of course, even a man with four wives was bound to have an official consort and a legitimate heir, so under normal circumstances there would have been no reason for the rivalry to spill over into the children's generation, no matter how poorly the wives got along.
After all, until only a few years earlier, the very existence of the First Prince, Philipson — born of Valtoria V's first wife and official consort — had been holding that crack shut.
Handing the throne to a legitimate heir risked seating a weak ruler, so candidates were hardly given a free pass; there was still a verification process. But the imperial qualification exam itself was nothing more than a formality that any child of the imperial house could comfortably clear.
And if multiple scions passed the exam, the throne went, as a matter of course, to the eldest legitimate heir — regardless of how much better anyone else's scores might have been.
Philipson had passed by the skin of his teeth, but pass he did, and with it he secured his claim to the throne.
Needless to say, from the perspective of a game's storyline, such an uneventful inheritance would have been unbearably boring. Above all, it would have made it impossible to elevate Seraphin — the main heroine — to empress.
And so in Luminor Academy, the eldest legitimate heir Philipson and his mother, the first wife, were assassinated midway through Part One — and with that curtain-raiser, a vicious war for the imperial succession ignited among the grandchildren.
They were all imperial children with their own ambitions, great and small, to begin with, so an all-out power struggle was simply unavoidable.
Which meant that of the eight remaining children, every one of them except the youngest princess — still far too small — had been dragged into the succession contest whether they liked it or not.
Of those, exactly four were currently reacting to the succession war with the sharpest sensitivity.
The Second Prince, the First Princess, the Third Prince, and the Third Princess.
The Third Princess among them was Seraphin, the main heroine of Luminor Academy, and the only member of the imperial family who aided the protagonist both materially and politically.
So of the seven imperial children who should have entered the contest, what were the other three doing?
What do you think they were doing? Living their lives exactly as before, as if they'd never given the succession a single thought in the first place.
The Second Princess, Luchetia. The Fourth Prince, McHart. And the Fifth Prince, Antonio.
In the original work, these three had no interest whatsoever in fighting for the throne. More precisely, they were the type who were simply content being royalty — satisfied with the life itself.
McHart, who coasted through life on his face and his family name, squiring noble ladies through one debauchery after another, goes without saying.
Luchetia, Seraphin's full elder sister by the same mother, cared for nothing beyond a life of luxury.
And then Antonio — among the youngest of the contenders, but fundamentally devoid of any ambition for the throne at all.
Overcoming the obstruction of the remaining three and installing Seraphin as empress was, in itself, one of the work's central storylines.
…So, you're wondering why I just recited the entire imperial family tree out of nowhere?
Obviously, it's because I need to talk about Antonio — the man of the hour at today's banquet.
In the original story, the Fifth Prince, Antonio Robert Valtoria, had almost no bearing on the succession struggle whatsoever — a prince who, for all his blood, did nothing of note in the entire work.
In fact, today too, he was meant to be nothing more than the host of the banquet; I had no particular intention of seeking him out for a private conversation.
But thanks to the utterly absurd stunt he had just pulled, I found myself unavoidably entangled with Antonio as well.
"I fell in love with you the very first moment I saw you at the imperial palace two years ago! So please, I beg of you — grant me a promise of marriage!"
"……"
"……"
"……"
Stunned into silence by Prince Antonio's banquet-clearing declaration, Ethan and I simply stared at the scene in open disbelief.
Even Seraphin and Gehmajoshigi-gwat, who had been chatting some distance away, were looking over at the spectacle as if they couldn't believe their eyes — which told me they were every bit as flustered by the situation as we were.
Then there were the roused noble scions all around us, and even the servants bustling about the hall.
Everyone in the room was waiting for one thing: the answer of the person Antonio's sudden public confession had been addressed to.
…Just to be clear, that person was not me.
For a moment I genuinely mistook this prince's out-of-nowhere confession for one aimed at me, but his gaze was unmistakably fixed on the other young lady standing beside me — anyone could see it.
Even now, listening to the name that had tumbled out of his mouth, I honestly half-wondered whether I hadn't simply fallen asleep and started dreaming.
"Please accept my feelings, Lady Agnes Elizabeth Blaze!"
"……What?"
…If this is a dream, then it is without question a damn good one.
About an hour before Prince Antonio decided to confess his love to Agnes in front of the entire hall, the celebration of his birth had been flowing along in a thoroughly unremarkable manner.
Early in the evening, McHart had approached me once before drifting away again, and after that, nothing happened — no second encounter, no fresh argument between us.
The hall was spacious enough that, unless someone was deliberately seeking you out, a chance meeting was a little hard to come by. Besides, for some reason, I kept getting the feeling that McHart was purposely avoiding my side of the room.
Our group was certainly doing its own part to keep our routes from crossing with his, but apparently he had no great desire to run into me again either.
Maybe it was because I'd managed to brand myself in his mind as a troublesome woman, unlike the other noble ladies.
If that was the reason, it worked out wonderfully for me in every respect. It meant, in effect, that McHart had lost his reason to come anywhere near me.
Getting tangled up with a character scheduled for ruin is nothing but a headache for yours truly.
"Thank you all, sincerely, for attending my birthday banquet tonight. Though I am young in years, I too stand before you as a prince of the Argentia Empire…"
After that, Ethan and I kept to one side of the room, making pleasant small talk while listening to Prince Antonio's speech, which reeked of having been ghostwritten.
Once a decent stretch of time had passed, Agnes, too, came sidling over to my side.
"……"
"Oh my, Lady Agnes. Have you finished saying hello to all your friends?"
"…Yeah."
One look at her told me the story: once the banquet proper had begun, Seraphin had grown busy trading words with one noble after another, and Agnes had quietly slipped away.
If their closeness had recovered to even a normal level, she would surely have been glued to the Hero's side instead of mine. The fact that she'd come to me instead meant even that much wasn't going well.
No doubt the Nathalie incident from before was still keeping things awkward between the Hero's party and Agnes.
After graduating from the Academy, she'd be spending years with them in the demon-slaying corps, so it was hardly an encouraging sign.
She'll have to join the Hero's party one way or another because of the Elizabeth family matter regardless.
Still, if she was going to join anyway, it was better that she do it on good terms. Things too awkward, and their coordination in real combat would suffer.
That said, if they got too close, there was a risk of Agnes falling head over heels for the Hero — so maintaining just the right distance was important.
Anyway. From our very first meeting onward, she'd been the kind of friend who needlessly worked my nerves.
"What are you drinking? Alcohol?"
"Ah, no. Just a light cocktail, actually."
"…Light? Really?"
"Just so you know, Lady Agnes, you'd best not drink. It's nothing more than my instinct, but I have a feeling you're the type who can't hold her liquor."
"……I know."
For someone whose personality suggested she'd dig her heels in out of pure stubbornness, she was surprisingly quick to admit that her alcohol tolerance left something to be desired.
Probably because the Nathalie incident had raised her guard around drinking. She might even have secretly tried a drink or two alone, somewhere out of everyone's sight.
Unlike Nathalie, Agnes — thanks to that sharp head of hers — tended to carry vivid memories of whatever happened while she was drunk.
Winter break was long, after all. If she had ever gotten tipsy somewhere I didn't know about, she wouldn't even dream of letting alcohol touch her lips at a public event like this.
"Lady Blaze, come to think of it, you're taking several classes with Lily again this term, aren't you?"
"…Lily? Oh, ah… you mean Lilith? Yeah. Understood."
"Could you tell me how Lily is during class? I do share a couple of classes with her myself, but both of them are more physical than theoretical. I find myself curious what she's like in the lecture hall."
"…Perfectly normal. Listens hard, takes diligent notes. Sometimes dozes off a little in the Monday afternoon lectures when she's tired."
"That would be because the morning lecture is Magical Swordsmanship, I imagine. Her dagger work improves with every passing day, after all. These days she's skilled enough that I can occasionally spar with her for practice. Though I do handicap myself somewhat…"
"…Tell me more. How is she in Magical Swordsmanship?"
"…Is there truly a need for the two of you to have this conversation with the subject standing right here?"
The two of them went on chatting with a strange, almost uncanny rapport — not awkward in the slightest. Though I couldn't shake the feeling that nearly every topic of their conversation was skewed suspiciously in one direction.
Ethan, fine — he'd adored me since we were children. But what I couldn't for the life of me figure out was why Agnes had suddenly taken such an interest in my private life.
Perhaps she was still grateful that I'd helped her contract a fire spirit as her first?
And so, right up until that moment, I assumed Prince Antonio's birthday banquet would simply wind down after a suitable amount of polite mingling.
Then the incident that would turn the hall upside down arrived, with truly zero warning.
"Ah, here you are. I've finally found you, my mademoiselle."
"…Huh?"
"…Excuse me?"
"……"
Prince Antonio had materialized before the three of us — me, Ethan, and Agnes — mid-conversation, before any of us had noticed him coming.
After the whole McHart affair, Ethan's reaction carried a noticeably sharper edge of wariness, but courtesy to a prince came first.
…If he blurted out another string of curses to the man's face the way he had with McHart, the atmosphere was bound to turn ugly all over again.
"Your Highness Prince Antonio. I am Lilith Blackwood Rosewood, eldest daughter of the Rosewood family."
"…Ethan Richard Blackwood, eldest son of Duke Blackwood. Also Lilith's fiancé."
Right after my introduction, Ethan inserted his own — pointedly emphasizing his house and our engagement, lest my mere baronetcy-grade standing stand out for the wrong reasons.
Secretly grateful for his consideration, I braced myself over how on earth one was supposed to handle this prince — the same prince who had, at first meeting, spouted greasy nonsense about my mademoiselle. But to my surprise, Antonio responded to our greetings with perfect composure.
"Ah, yes. A pleasure to meet you, Lady Lilith. Lord Ethan."
"Ah — the pleasure is mine, truly…"
"…The honor is mine, Your Highness Prince Antonio."
"Now then… I'm afraid I have not yet heard the name of this lovely young lady here…"
"……?!"
"……?!"
At the sight of Prince Antonio calling Agnes a lovely young lady with me standing right beside him, Ethan and I both whipped our heads around toward her in perfect sync.
Though of course, the most shocked person of all was Agnes herself — the one who'd heard it directly from his mouth.
"……Me?"
"Yes. My mademoiselle."
"I… I'm Agnes Elizabeth Blaze…"
"Ah, how could even your name be so beautiful…!"
…No it isn't? It's a perfectly ordinary name?
Antonio had become such a completely different character from the original work that I nearly mistook him for someone else entirely.
Given the hairstyle and eye color, it was definitely him, though.
While I was racking my brain, desperately trying to work out where exactly the timeline had derailed this time, Antonio's confession to Agnes rolled on ahead of me.
"I fell in love with you the very first moment I saw you at the imperial palace two years ago! So please, I beg of you — grant me a promise of marriage!"
"……"
"……"
"……"
"Please accept my feelings, Lady Agnes Elizabeth Blaze!"
…And so, the story returns to where it began.