The Royal Palace Banquet #2
“Huh…….”
I couldn’t close my mouth from sheer absurdity.
I had known Is Krauser was the sort who surprisingly disliked cumbersome formalities. Even so, I had never imagined he would simply skip the succession ceremony itself with such breezy thoroughness.
“Surprising, right? I was surprised too. Father’s always been quick to decide, but this was just too sudden.”
“That’s not quick decision-making—that’s freeloading…….”
As of today, Helena had become the Duke of Krauser in every real sense. Of course I was happy, yet the happiness was almost drowned by the uncanny feeling of having been the unwitting star of some hidden-camera prank. Perhaps it was simply because there had been no proper ceremony at all.
“Anyway, we can’t exactly cancel her becoming duke now… so let’s think about what’s next.”
Helena’s ascension was an unchangeable fact. What remained was to sort out the next task: how to get through the King of Soter’s birthday party.
“The king’s birthday? Just shove some gift at him and be done with it, right?”
Like father, like daughter—Helena, too, was thinking only of skating through the party. Maybe every Krauser caught a disease of wanting to simplify everything the moment they became duke. And from the way she never elevated him to “Your Majesty” even in private, one could guess her loyalty to the crown was not exactly burning. Her father Is had been quite respectful of the king; she seemed less touched by that influence.
“I’d like to do that too… but it’s my first time going to the palace. If I half-ass my first appearance, it won’t leave a good impression, will it?”
“Impression, huh. As long as Zion looks at me kindly, that’s enough for me…….”
Helena pressed her head against my thigh and let out a long sigh. With only her upper body lying down, she looked rather uncomfortable—at least to my eyes. Whether she herself felt that way was another matter.
The tickle of her black hair against my thigh was pleasant. The faint fragrance rising from her whole body was pleasant. I wondered if this was what it would feel like to fall asleep cradling an armful of flowers.
“…Haah. But I can’t really do that. What would the king like?”
“Hmm. A magic item would be safe, wouldn’t it?”
“That’s true. Jewelry set with gems might also work… the problem is there are too many options.”
Since it was the king’s birthday, something fairly expensive was required. One only needed to prepare according to one’s means without overdoing it—yet a duke’s wealth made the list of possibilities balloon absurdly. That was the real headache.
“Lady Helena. Are you there?”
A knock interrupted our fretting. Andy was outside the door. He had probably gone first to Helena’s rooms, found them empty, and come looking for her here.
“Ah—yes! Come in!”
Helena sprang upright and smoothed her clothes in the brief instant before Andy opened the door. The motion was so swift I half expected her to pull off some circus stunt next.
“I thought I’d find you here.”
“I came to discuss something for a moment. But what brings you…?”
Andy the Krauser butler often arrived bearing work for the duke. Though her father still assisted with official business, Andy handled a considerable share himself. And if Andy had come, it was clearly at Is’s behest.
Helena asked out of curiosity, but instead of answering, Andy held out the object in his hand for her to see: a single sword studded with dazzling jewels, more ornament than weapon.
“Lord Is asked me to deliver this. He forgot to mention it earlier, but he also said to present this sword to His Majesty.”
“He prepared it in advance?”
“Indeed. And he said to present it as if Lady Helena herself had prepared it. He remarked that you would prepare a sword like this as a gift.”
Even if Is could not fully read Helena’s heart, he thoroughly proved that a father is a father. Otherwise Andy would never have arrived with the king’s gift at so perfect a moment.
“Thank you. He read my mind perfectly. Please tell Father I appreciate it.”
“Of course. Then, I’ll take my leave…….”
Andy delivered the sword and departed, clearly off to his next task. As the one who managed the estate and gardens, he was probably going to make sure the servants were working properly.
With Is having prepared the gift, a major worry was lifted. Now all that remained was to attend the party and quietly blend in. Yet the thought kept sliding through my mind: could we really pass quietly?
In truth, quietly blending in was impossible. Helena had never shown her face except for knight training or gatherings of the same faction, and she had never attended a social salon in her life. If such a person appeared, that alone would be enough of a scandal. Add the fact that her looks had already been rumored to the ends of the earth, and nothing more needed saying.
“With this, as long as we leave on time, from now on it’s free time, right?”
But the person in question simply smiled brightly, as if such thoughts had never crossed her mind.
The capital Soter was ringed by massive outer walls, and the inner castle where the king resided was solid beyond description. There was even a joke that if only the conditions for a siege were met, one could hold the walls until death. Looking at the gray ramparts that felt solid at a glance, I decided the joke was not entirely nonsense. With the knight order stationed there and a handful of mages always on duty, the place seemed even more impregnable. With a little exaggeration, it was viciously solid.
I handed the treasured sword prepared by Is to the chamberlain—the practical head who oversaw the palace’s daily affairs. There were still about two days until the party, yet delivering the gift early was perfectly acceptable. Gifts were not presented directly in the banquet hall. The king could have received each noble face to face, but that would have condemned everyone to endless, tedious hours. Factor in the nobles who would inevitably sharpen their edges and engage in power struggles, and the whole prospect became exhausting. Therefore a rule had been established: all gifts were collected and stored at once, to be examined later. That way the party could be enjoyed, and the king could inspect the presents at leisure—two birds with one stone.
For the record, I had already delivered the jewel necklace prepared by House Altram. Chess, prioritizing Is Krauser, had used a convenient illness as an excuse not to attend.
“The room is really… spacious.”
We stepped into one of the countless rooms in the palace. It stood one floor above the corridor where guest chambers lined up like a hotel hallway—clearly a suite arranged for special treatment. The number of rooms in this wing could be counted on one hand.
“Yeah. It’s truly extravagant…….”
The spacious chamber with its lavish furnishings and even an attached bath was of the highest order. Its sheer gorgeousness alone made it a place where spending a few hundred for a single night’s sleep would be laughable—essentially no different from a work of art.
“Will we even be able to sleep properly in a place like this?”
“I don’t know… but it’s so flashy that falling asleep looks hard for sure.”
Helena voiced a feeling close to my own and shook her head. Every guest room ran soundproofing magic so that no noise leaked out; she spoke with her shoulders relaxed, and so did I.
“I’m glad we arrived early. If we had come on the day itself, we might have drawn unnecessary eyes.”
Helena spoke toward my back while I focused on unpacking. I was arranging a black uniform that sparkled without a speck of dust. Though Helena was not a member of the Central Knight Order, she had received the uniform as an honorary knight for training them. She had decided to wear this instead of a dress, yet just in case I had also packed a gown. It might never be needed, as before—but preparing never hurt.
“By the way, they said we can’t bring weapons into the banquet hall?”
“Yeah. Officially it’s so no one creates a bloodthirsty atmosphere, but the real purpose is probably to stop any mischief.”
I thought the latter would have been a perfectly fine public reason, yet since the king had said otherwise, it was simpler to accept it and move on. It wasn’t as if I could crawl inside the king’s head and climb back out.
“Ah. Since we’ve come this far, want to look around the palace? Right now we can keep the attention to a minimum.”
A few other nobles had arrived early like us, but their numbers were vanishingly small. If we didn’t go now, there would clearly be no time for a leisurely tour of the royal castle. I suggested it with the light heart of a tourist who had stumbled onto a famous landmark, yet Helena shook her head and declined.
“I’ll pass. I don’t particularly want to know the structure of the royal castle.”
“Really? Then I’ll stop too.”
If Helena had no desire to go out, wandering around alone felt awkward as well. So I cut off the lingering wish without hesitation and sat on a chair near the bed. My attachment had lessened compared to before, but this was not something worth enduring anxiety over.
Helena, however, sat on the edge of the bed and took my hand. Her somewhat gloomy expression seemed to say, Don’t do that.
“If Zion wants to see it, go ahead and look. I just need to rest quietly in the room.”
“But… you said you have no such intention?”
“That’s true for me… but learning the structure of the royal castle in advance isn’t a bad thing, is it? And since it’s a place we only visit about once a year, I fully understand wanting to look around calmly.”
For those words to come from Helena’s mouth was truly remarkable progress. Inwardly moved, I unconsciously squeezed her hand. My chest swelled at her considerate attitude—was this really the same woman who once tried to control even my bathroom schedule?
Right. Since she was saying this much, simply staying put would be improper.
I met her eyes, left a promise that I would return soon, and left at once. As a servant, going off to play alone looked undignified, so I rationalized it under the pretext of mapping the royal castle’s layout. Should anything happen, there was a vast difference between knowing the geography and not knowing it.
“Oh. The Altram boy. Well, since Lady Helena is coming, of course you’d come too.”
While walking and stuffing the castle’s structure into my head as thoroughly as possible, a very familiar voice reached me. It was Randal, vice-commander of the Royal Knights—the man who came to the Krauser territory for training whenever the mood struck him.
“Ah, Sir Randal. It’s been a while. Have you been well?”
“I’m always healthy. Though it’s annoying that my swordsmanship isn’t improving much…….”
I cheerfully exchanged greetings with the man who was on patrol for the safety of the royal family and nobles. We still had a few months until the next knight training, yet the pleasure of meeting him was undiminished. He was also the one who had worked hard so my poison could be treated even a little sooner.
“Indeed. There seem to be so many difficult things in the world.”
“Haha! You’re still so mature. The way you talk like an old man even though you’re only fifteen hasn’t changed a bit. But you’re not wrong. Swordsmanship, politics, socializing, making a living… nothing is easy.”
He lamented that the walls only grew higher with age. It was absurd that he himself, still in the prime of youth, was spouting such spiritless complaints so freely. Every time I saw this side of him I realized anew that age-related grumbling was not the exclusive privilege of the elderly.
“…Hmm. That was fun. I’ll make time later to visit Lady Helena separately. Then, excuse me first.”
“Yes. Take care.”
Right after seeing Randal off, I quickened my pace a little along the corridor. The conversation had delayed me, so I tried to make up the time. That did not mean I skimped on surveying the layout—after all, mapping the palace was the entire point.
“This is… the rose garden?”
A rose garden in the rear courtyard. Seasonally it was not strange for roses to be blooming. Even so, seeing them flowering so profusely was freshly surprising. The Krauser estate had a fairly well-kept garden of its own, but nothing on this scale. Dazzling beauty that seized the eyes, and a dense, sweet floral fragrance so thick it seemed to clog the nose—truly a garden that belonged in a fairy tale.
“Hmm? What’s a servant who’s not even a gardener doing in a place like this?”
While I was fully absorbed in sightseeing, I came face to face with a woman who arrogantly tilted her chin upward, arms folded across her chest.