The Demon's Name
The automated hunt let out a shrill "Beep!" It had been a while since I'd last seen that ill-mannered firebird spirit. Now that I thought about it, I'd seen it just last month too.
"A message from His Highness the Crown Prince!"
The romance-fantasy male lead doted on the female lead so much. Not that I had any complaints about their relationship.
"Looks like I'll be running around on foot today."
"This is a suspension order. Please continue your discussion at a later time."
A suspension meant halting mail delivery. As a courtesy to the imperial family, whenever a letter from the palace was in transit, all other mail deliveries in the area came to a complete stop. I wondered what would happen if one got dropped at the Academy.
"Aah!! What happened with my thesis approval?!"
"No, my academic records!"
Anyone crossing the Academy grounds would have to sprint straight to another building. The entire workflow would grind to a halt for hours.
"Couldn't they just hold off and only send the important ones?"
That ill-mannered firebird had come all the way out here. Not to the Academy, but to a rural village—and carrying a letter from royalty, no less. What could it be? Given my time at the Academy, there were only two possibilities: the Crown Prince or the Princess. Thinking it over, the Princess seemed far more likely. She had a habit of popping up every week or so to check on my research. She never looked like she understood any of it; she just seemed genuinely interested.
Don't tell me...
Had I been a higher-ranked attachment toy than I thought? Plenty of mages had produced better results than me, so why me of all people?
"Beep!"
I couldn't exactly have a maid receive an imperial letter. I took it myself and confirmed it was from the Princess. Stripping away the usual imperial flourishes, the gist was this:
- I'm sorry.
- I just wanted to get closer to Rii, but I must have been too pushy.
- I know. No one says it out loud in public, but the truth is...
- The truth is...
Why has she turned into a menhera?
The letter was filled with self-reproach. This was already diverging from the original plot. Why?
In the original, wasn't she supposed to end up with the female lead?
The one who resolved the Princess's issues was the original female lead. That was how romance-fantasy stories worked. The heroine quickly won over high-ranking female side characters for an indirect status boost. She would marry the male lead eventually anyway, but by then it would be the ending, which felt unsatisfying. So the meta was to pull that catharsis forward into the early arcs.
In other words, the Princess didn't actually want anything from me. The way she pestered me was simply her natural troublemaking streak. She had always gone around the Academy harassing successful mages. So she could get her salvation from the female lead.
Miroa, who had been watching from the side, didn't look particularly pleased by the news from the capital either.
"Miroa. Relax your face."
"Yes."
Miroa's expression softened ever so slightly. To anyone else she always looked expressionless anyway, but there was no harm in being careful.
Private letters from royalty couldn't be kept too long or thrown in the trash. Instead, I gestured toward the firebird perched arrogantly atop the mailbox.
"Beep!"
Whoosh—
After proving I'd read the contents, I tucked the letter under the firebird's wing and burned it. But the bird didn't budge. Even when I waved it off, it clung stubbornly with what little strength its talons had. I quickly understood why.
"Do you need a reply?"
"Beep."
"Are you not allowed to return until you receive one?"
"Beep..."
They had been ordered to bring back a reply no matter what. A reply, huh...
"I'm not exactly gifted at writing."
Academy mages were thorough science-and-engineering types. They weren't good at humanities-style writing. That was another reason they disliked contact with the imperial family. Letters to the palace required elegant, beautiful prose, which meant spending an entire day flipping through a dictionary. Simply ignoring it was obviously out of the question.
So what could I do? Fortunately, there was a way. I knew the Princess's ability.
As if she were standing right in front of me, I declared into the empty air:
"Princess Anicia. You're interfering with my research."
There was no law against saying a royal's name. In fact, official etiquette required using the full title when first meeting someone. But the Princess was different.
".....!"
The firebird spirit flinched.
"Hic."
Even Miroa flinched for a split second. The Princess's specific ability wasn't public knowledge, but every citizen of the Empire knew the rumors surrounding her name.
'Whoever calls the Princess's name shall receive the demon's curse.'
"Master. If you call Her Highness's name so casually..."
"That's all superstition."
The power tied to the Princess's name wasn't anything like a demon's curse. If anything, it was incredibly convenient. Why would anyone dislike it? No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't understand the romance-fantasy crowd's way of thinking. If someone gave me the same ability, I'd bow in gratitude while accepting it.
From then on, I decided to handle replies with a magic macro.
"Anyway, turn what I just said into something suitably plausible as a reply."
I activated the magic that automatically composed letters. Incidentally, this spell had been developed by Ailiya, the original romance-fantasy heroine. It was one of those devices in the story that showcased how coolly she handled the Crown Prince. She had created it in secret, and I'd borrowed the idea to make something similar.
A window appeared in the air, instantly generating a polished paragraph.
Writing like this really is convenient.
All that remained was copying it onto proper stationery. I figured I might as well enjoy some free labor too.
A woman sat on the railing of the imperial garden, gazing up at the sunset. Her neatly cropped black hair. Her amethyst eyes, the mark of royalty. She possessed the lethal power and beautiful appearance befitting imperial blood, yet no one approached her. Princess Anicia of the Empire. The one who could appear anywhere her name was called. Whoever spoke her name, she could hear the conversation in which she was mentioned. Whoever sought her, she could teleport to that very spot.
In her childhood, Anicia had thought this power was wonderful. She had cheerfully told her brother about it, only to receive a cold response.
- "So you heard everything I said about you."
- "You heard every word spoken in that place as well."
- "That is not magic. It is the power of demons, as I read in a book."
Words left by her brother in his boyhood, when he had just become Crown Prince. Just as he said, Anicia's power was far closer to a demon's than a human's. Even the Empire's mages had failed to provide a proper interpretation. Rumors began to spread that calling the Princess's name would bring a demon's curse. Whether openly or not, everyone found the Princess unsettling.
Thus Anicia had never been allowed to be called by her proper name.
- "Do not speak any further of your ability."
- "Do not utter the Princess's name lightly."
- "Treat her only as the Princess. She must never be called by name."
After growing up like a ghost whom no one acknowledged, she felt hollow inside. She had never had a friend or anyone close. All she could do was smile enigmatically and grate on people's nerves.
Anicia had taken a particular interest in mages. Perhaps the Academy's mages could interpret her power. So she had clung to several of them.
- "Your Highness! Look, a spell that creates a small flame!"
- "This is a spell that plants pink beans to grow pink plants. It's quite popular in high society these days."
She never saw any real magic. Anicia smiled brightly and replied,
- "Ahaha. Indeed. It's very pretty! Could you show me more?"
The mages were always delighted by this. Once they grew close, perhaps their research would one day change how people looked at her. Surely she could find hope.
There had been two people at the Academy who handled proper magic. Lady Ailiya hid herself away and refused to engage, but Ribellio was different.
Rii...
He found her bothersome, yet showed no fear.
- "Princess Anicia. Is this how I should address you?"
Though reluctant, he had called her by name and told her the demon's curse was mere superstition.
- "It's superstition. How are we supposed to research that?"
He had also told her to leave the laboratory at once. His tone was polite, but the message was clear: get out.
- "I'm busy with my research, so please leave, Your Highness."
- "I must respectfully decline your investment. My current sponsors are more than sufficient."
- "I have other research to attend to. Lady Ailiya would be better suited for that."
He might have seemed rude, but that only made him appear more like a genius. She had wanted to grow closer, yet never knew how. Mischievously, she had wanted to torment him more.
"......"
Rii had left the laboratory. Word around the Academy was that he had burned all his research materials and would never return.
Why...?
Because she had bothered him?
I... I did something wrong...
Just as she thought she had been left alone once more in an empty world—
"......!"
Anicia's eyes widened. From a vast, distant mountain range, from a distance where sound should never have reached—
The voice she had so desperately sought was calling her name.
Wait a moment.
Anicia's breath caught for an instant.
Did he know? About my ability?
Only imperial family members should have known.
How?
A short while later, the firebird returned with a letter in its beak. It was a formal reply filled with flowery language—the kind of cumbersome sentences Rii would never use.
The real message was the one from earlier.
Anicia pressed a hand to her forehead and felt certain.
He knew about my ability and called my name to tell me.
She wanted to teleport to him immediately. It would be simple with her ability. But the time was not yet right.
'You're interfering with my research.'
Rii was completely absorbed in his work. It might be far greater research than anything he had done at the Academy. The Princess did not want to repeat her past mistakes. Rather—
The other reasons Rii left.
She found herself wanting to learn more about that side of things. Who had mocked Rii's research and driven him to the frontier? She would make them pay the price.
......
Meanwhile, in front of the lord's mansion in the Solanium Basin. A wide-open area with spacious farmland and an empty lot. Whoosh—
"The firewood burns really well."
Ribellio lit the furnace and began smelting ore.
The Princess really isn't coming.
Anicia could teleport to anyone who called her name. Officially it was a secret, and even she rarely used the ability. Still, if his research had truly been recognized, something like that wouldn't have been a problem.
In that case, she was just testing the waters because she missed her attachment doll disappearing.
He had been momentarily flustered by the Princess's unstable state, but only for a moment. As a mage, Ribellio quickly organized his thoughts in a rational direction.
The female lead would handle it even if I did nothing.
Why should he care about the original story or the Academy? He had his own work to do. Already, a row of small furnaces the size of kimchi refrigerators lined the space before him. Status windows began appearing one by one atop the rectangular stone furnaces.
Smelting Complete (Refined Quartz)
Smelting Complete (Refined Quartz)
Smelting Complete (Copper Ingot)
It appeared!!
Following the quartz, the copper had also been baked to perfection.
Heh heh heh.
This was why he had thrown himself into mining and gathered every resource he could. He could finally craft the Sprinkler, the core of automated farming.