The Princess of the Sea
The Royal Class—specifically, the royalty of Bachn. A princess of the Bachnia clan, bearers of the sea’s magic power. Amelia Bachnia had decided to stay in Franz as a guest for the time being. A decision was a decision, after all.
“Haa.”
I looked around. I hadn’t even clashed with her directly—just raised my magic a little and protected my body—but the inn was already falling apart. I ran a finger along the wall. It felt damp. There was no actual water, yet the entire building had been soaked through as if it had been plunged into the ocean. This place would need major repairs or a full remodel. The seawater would rot it from the inside out.
“……Hmm.”
The princess kept glancing around, clearly watching my reaction. She looked hesitant, almost fidgety. Well, it wasn’t like she’d done anything wrong on purpose. I gave a bitter smile and walked over to her.
Welcome to Franz. First time here, right?
“This way, if you please.”
“Understood. Then, son of Franz—Leoric Franz. Shall we meet again tomorrow? There are many things I wish to discuss about what comes next.”
“Yes, that would be fine. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
Inside the Franz estate. Instead of one of the standard guest rooms, I led Amelia to one of the more luxurious wings reserved for the family’s own people. The other party was royalty, after all. We couldn’t possibly assign ordinary maids to attend a member of the royal family. Lena would have to take on the burden herself.
When I looked at her, our eyes met. I’m counting on you. You know that, right?Of course. Just leave it to me. We didn’t actually speak those words, but the exchange of glances felt exactly like that.
With a respectful bow, Lena and the veteran maids and servants she trusted began escorting Amelia Bachnia away.
“…….”
At the end of the corridor, just before turning the final corner, Amelia glanced back at me. Not the brown eyes I was used to—real, pitch-black eyes. Eyes that seemed to hold an endless darkness, like staring into the deepest abyss of the ocean. Our gazes locked for a brief moment.
Then she turned her head and disappeared from view.
“…….”
Even though she was gone from sight, I could still faintly sense the trace of her magic power, so I remained where I was. Only when that presence had grown so faint I could barely feel it did the tension finally leave my body.
“Ughhh.”
Royalty. Actual royal-class royalty. What the hell is going on?
“What the hell is this?”
“You’re telling me,” Zeke muttered.
I saw him wiping cold sweat from his pale face with a handkerchief. I felt like I was going to die, so he must have been suffering too.
“She really is royalty from Bachn, right?”
“I don’t know about anything else, but that sea-attribute magic power…”
He trailed off, but I understood exactly what he meant. Magic power couldn’t be stolen. Even if it was the same sea attribute, each person’s unique signature could never overlap. Just like how every person experienced the ocean differently, magic with the same symbolic attribute still carried its own distinct aura.
Of course, I’d never actually seen sea-attribute magic before, so I couldn’t say for certain it was the real thing… but there was no way any other noble near here possessed sea magic besides the Bachnia clan.
“No… what the hell is this?” The words slipped out again.
“You’re telling me.”
But Zeke could only give the same exhausted reply, his face drained of energy. After a moment of silence, once we’d both caught our breath, it was time to think about what came next.
First things first.
“Send a letter to my father.”
“Understood.”
We had to inform him immediately.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
What was above us? Why were water droplets falling?
“There’s a drainage system installed as a precaution,” the knight from the security forces explained.
“A precaution?”
“We seal their magic power to imprison them, but occasionally a criminal manages to undo the seal. In those cases, if a fight breaks out during an escape attempt and the ceiling collapses, the system is designed to flood the area with water.”
“Ah, I see.”
No matter how much magic power someone had, there was a limit to what they could handle when several tons of water came crashing down. A titled noble might survive, but still.
“It’s quite unique. Though it would be meaningless against someone from Bachn.”
“……Is that so?”
Behind us, Amelia Bachnia, princess of Bachn, was following along. The day after the princess had appeared, I’d sent someone to my father. On the way to the prison to interrogate the bald merchant, Amelia had shown up. I knew she was coming this way, but when she appeared alone first thing in the morning, my heart really had dropped.
It was the first time I’d ever seen the usually expressionless, almost robotic Lena running toward me with a completely pale face.
“People of Bachn have exceptional affinity with water.”
She spoke with a blank face, but… this was a system designed for criminals. There was no point explaining that. Should I just smile and compliment her anyway?
“With only a small amount of magic power, they can stay underwater for long periods and even swim against waterfalls.”
“The bald merchant is a commoner with no magic power.”
“……So a group led by someone like that managed to kidnap me?”
Her tone was flat and difficult to read emotion from, but I could tell the girl was a little downcast. The knight guiding us from the side was also wearing a bitter smile.
“It was an extremely secretive method that even I wouldn’t have noticed. Using people without magic—commoners—is a tactic they employ quite often.”
Using ordinary commoners without magic was indeed a common strategy. It was hard to detect. On the other hand, it was also difficult for us to monitor them, so it was a double-edged sword.
“But……”
There was one thing I needed to know. The ones behind this were bad enough, but—
“The magic stone that bastard was carrying. It contained magic power at the Duke-class or possibly even Royal-class level.”
“……Was it from the Bachnia clan?”
“Hard to say. Unless they frequently swap out the stored magic power, both the grade and quality inevitably degrade.”
“Hmm.”
If it really was Bachnia magic, then even if not direct lineage, it meant some collateral branch was involved. If that were the case, a bloody wind would blow through Bachn. Whether she knew that or not, Amelia’s normally expressionless face seemed to darken.
“We’ve arrived. It smells a bit, but……”
“It’s fine.”
When I nodded, the knight immediately opened the door. Inside was the bald merchant, apparently cleaned up somewhat neatly, but a faint scent of blood and urine still wafted from his body.
“……Hii, hiiiik!”
At the sound of the door opening, the bald merchant seemed to snap back to his senses. He turned toward us and screamed. His eyes were fixed on—
“First time seeing this face.”
“So it seems.”
I’d thought as much. No matter how I looked at him, the guy didn’t seem to have anything special about him. And considering the magic stone had been set to detonate only upon near-contact, he was probably just bait.
“So what was the objective?”
The knight answered my question. The torture was already over. I’d heard he hadn’t lasted very long.
“Well……”
The knight hesitated. He looked reluctant to speak. It didn’t seem like they’d gotten no information at all. The way he was struggling to even mention it…
“I’ll guess. The Red Blood?”
“……Yes.”
The knight’s eyes, filled with something close to disgust as he looked at the bald merchant, told me everything about the organization’s nature. I turned my gaze to the bald merchant as well.
Under the stares of three magic-bearing nobles, the bald merchant flinched, then suddenly shouted in a loud voice.
“You people! Because of monsters like you!”
An organization for humanity’s freedom. The opposite of the nobles’ Blue Blood—the Red Blood. For those who ruled with magic power—
“Do you even know how many people are suffering?!”
An organization that claimed to stand for those without magic, the ones being ruled. The bald merchant’s cry echoed through the underground prison. In other words, a resistance opposing the current system that stood against all the nobles of this continent.
“They still exist?”
“Yes. I was surprised too. To think they’re still operating as an organization.”
“It’s a cell-based structure, so I suppose it can’t be helped.”
I’d heard they were wiped out decades ago. But like cockroaches, they just refused to die.
“This is……”
Amelia stared intently at the bald merchant. Since it was my first time seeing them too, it must have been her first as well. The slightly gloomy look on her face vanished, replaced by eyes that sparkled with clear curiosity.
“I’m disappointed. Red Blood. I read about them in books, but this is all there is?”
“Well, he’s probably just a low-ranking… ahem, errand boy.”
“……D-don’t you dare look down on me!”
Apparently enraged by our casual conversation, the bald merchant shouted something. This guy couldn’t even last a minute under torture and spilled everything, yet here he was acting all proud? When I glanced at the knight, he made a slicing motion across his throat. Shall I kill him?
“No, don’t kill him yet.”
“Hii, hiiiik!”
At my words, the bald merchant seemed to remember what had just happened and screamed again. Hmm.
Anyway, a revolutionary group. Even when I first heard about them, I thought it was interesting. I never expected something like this to exist in this world. Unlike Earth, there were more than a few problems here. Just off the top of my head—massive monsters, magic-wielding beasts, and natural disasters.
“Why do you want to kill all the nobles?”
“Because of their existence, countless commoners without magic suffer. We of the Red Blood will reclaim freedom from the Blue Blood and create an equal world!”
The way he spoke so fluently, without hesitation, suggested this was their core ideology. Equality, huh. Equality. In a fantasy world where magic power existed, they were talking about equality.
“If you kill all the magic users, does that make everyone equal?”
“That’s right! A paradise where everyone has equal opportunity will arrive! As long as monsters like you don’t exist!”
A paradise of equal opportunity. Haha.
“Then let’s say you kill all the magic-bearing nobles.”
“What?”
The bald merchant stared at me with a blank face. The knight and Amelia behind him also turned to look at me.
“Then who comes next?”
“W-what do you mean, next?”
Seeing his confused expression made me chuckle. I didn’t have any strong opinions about their claims. I wasn’t a history major, after all. I had basic common sense, but the last history book I’d read was decades ago. I dredged up those faint memories as I looked at the merchant.
“Magic power. Magic power is also a form of power. So what comes after? Authority? Wealth? What about knowledge? Appearance?”
“……What?”
Even without magic, the world was still unequal. It wasn’t fair. Dirt spoon, silver spoon, gold spoon. It depended on what kind of family you were born into and how much they earned. Discrimination arose from the wealth one possessed. Discrimination based on appearance. Discrimination based on skin color or gender also existed. There were so many words for discrimination.
Having come from that world, I knew. I knew the world of hatred and discrimination all too well.