Crown Prince (1)
Crown Prince (1)
A three-story manor.
The lord's residence, where the retired knight Ohen was staying, was a little too small to truly be called a manor.
Still, it had everything it needed.
A pleasant little garden adorned the front, while a large family tomb stood behind the house.
An upstart noble family already had a family tomb.
Would Ivana, the caretaker's daughter, be buried there as well?
Two Royal Knights stood guard in front of the main gate.
A royal carriage was visible, too. It was far more opulent than the carriage I had ridden in with the Princess.
I walked up to the main gate.
"Halt. You cannot enter today."
The knight on the left held out a hand to stop me.
The knight on the right tilted his head at the sight of me.
"An academy student? Were there academy students in this territory?"
I had shed my mercenary attire and was wearing the Royal Academy uniform.
"You must have heard the news about Ivana. But we aren't accepting condolences yet, so turn back."
They seemed to think I was Ivana's classmate.
Should I clear up the misunderstanding first?
"I am indeed an academy student, but I didn't come to pay my respects to Ivana."
At my words, the two knights looked at me in confusion.
After all, there was no other reason for a boy in an academy uniform to come visiting.
"My name is Alex de Gracia. I'm a second-year student at the Royal Academy, and I came here because I captured Paula, who murdered student Ivana, along with her suspected accomplice, Joachim."
How much did the Crown Prince and the knights here know?
The news of what had happened at the Marquis's estate probably hadn't reached them yet, but I couldn't be certain.
"Wait, hold on."
The two knights exchanged glances, then looked back at me.
Their expressions made it clear they had no idea what to do.
"Hold on. I'll go report this. Joke or not, keep him here."
I had come looking for the Royal Knights in my full Royal Academy uniform—there was no way this was a joke.
Still, unable to believe what I'd said, one knight left those words behind and ran into the manor.
The remaining knight drew his sword awkwardly and pointed it at me.
Regrettably, he couldn't gauge my strength.
I was hiding my mana, and the gap in our abilities was so vast that he couldn't sense it.
The knight endured an awkward wait until the one who had gone inside returned with an elderly, seasoned knight.
'He's strong.'
The moment the knight stepped out of the house, I knew.
He was one of the handful of strongest ability users I had ever seen.
He didn't seem to be Ohen.
There was no way a retired knight could be that strong.
He seemed to recognize my prowess, too.
His brisk stride slowed, and his hand came to rest atop the sword at his waist.
When he reached the gate, he asked something else first.
"Are you truly an academy student?"
"Yes. Alex de Gracia. A second-year at the Royal Academy."
I had no choice but to introduce myself again.
"There's no way a student possesses skill like this..."
The other two knights looked bewildered.
They couldn't understand what the senior knight meant.
"No, that's not what's important right now. You said you captured the criminals?"
"Yes. I captured the exchange students from the Empire, Paula and Joachim, and locked them up somewhere."
"Where?"
"I wish to speak directly to the highest authority here."
At my words, the knight knitted his brows. But this was something I couldn't back down on, either.
"I am Alvaro, Vice-Commander of the Royal Knights. You may speak to me."
A vice-commander was second-in-command of the Royal Knights. He was higher-ranking than I'd expected.
It made sense that he was so strong if he was the Vice-Commander of the Royal Knights.
Then again, with the Crown Prince on the move, there was no way ordinary knights would be escorting him.
'Was the Vice-Commander also part of the First Prince Faction?'
Although I'd heard that the Royal Knights generally aligned with the First Prince, I hadn't imagined the Vice-Commander himself would be acting as his escort.
Besides, as vice-commander, he could certainly claim to be in charge.
But I raised my hand and pointed at the carriage.
"I know that a high-ranking member of the royal family has arrived. Please grant me permission to speak to him directly."
"How dare you!"
The other knights drew their swords, but the vice-commander fell into thought.
"...Very well. But if this is nonsense, you'd better be prepared to die."
I had prepared myself for death a long time ago.
"Understood."
I had tucked my dagger away in the artifact pouch, too, so no weapons were in sight.
After a quick pat-down, I was able to pass through the main gate alongside the vice-commander.
What a relief.
They didn't know about what had happened at the Marquis's estate yet. Things looked set to go more smoothly than I'd expected.
Yet the vice-commander didn't head inside the house. Instead, he set off in an unexpected direction.
He rounded the building and headed toward the backyard.
Though puzzled, I followed him without a word.
It might have been a trap, but there was no turning back now.
Fortunately, it wasn't a trap.
But it was a place I hadn't anticipated in the slightest.
A large stone chamber stood in the estate's backyard.
The vice-commander led me straight into the family tomb, where knights stood guard.
'Was Ivana really laid to rest in the Viscount family tomb? But why is the Crown Prince paying his respects to her?'
A soap-opera scenario in which Ivana was the Crown Prince's secret lover even crossed my mind.
But when I entered, the Crown Prince was standing in front of a spot I hadn't expected.
Ivana's grave was indeed there.
A newly constructed tomb stood toward the back.
But the Crown Prince stood right in front of the tomb at the very front.
That tomb was clearly the stone grave of the Viscount's wife—the lady of this household.
As I waited behind the vice-commander, the Crown Prince, who had been closing his eyes and stroking the stone grave, opened them.
The Crown Prince turned toward me.
I had seen him from a distance during the Princess's Awakening Festival.
Nearly a year later, he looked a little under thirty.
He had a fairly handsome face, but his bored expression detracted significantly from his good looks.
"What is it?"
"This student claims to have captured Paula and Joachim, the murderers of Lady Ivana."
"What?"
The corners of the First Prince's eyes lifted.
"Where are they? Have you dispatched knights?"
"Well, this student insisted that unless he spoke to Your Highness..."
The moment the vice-commander tried to explain why he'd brought me along, I interrupted him.
"I have them confined in Room 1 on the second floor of the 'Blue Wildflower' inn in the center of the village. I severed the tendons of both of them before binding them, so you needn't worry about them resisting."
At my statement, the First Prince looked at me for the first time.
"An amusing fellow."
The vice-commander glared at me for interrupting him mid-sentence, but immediately summoned another knight and issued orders.
The knight who received them sprinted out of the stone chamber.
The vice-commander then approached the First Prince to explain why he had brought me inside.
"Why did you insist on speaking directly to me?"
The First Prince looked at me with his usual bored expression.
"I ought to warn you that trying to score points by speaking directly to me isn't a very clever tactic. Thanks to you, the Vice-Commander is in a foul mood."
The vice-commander and the First Prince seemed closer than I'd expected.
Then again, it took that kind of closeness to bring the Vice-Commander of the Royal Knights into his faction.
"That wasn't my intention. There was a lot to explain, from capturing the two of them to arriving here. I figured I'd end up meeting Your Highness anyway."
"Indeed, as you say, it's quite a baffling situation. And your skill is far beyond what someone your age should possess... Shall we hear the story, then?"
With that, the Prince stepped out of the Viscount's family tomb.
Instead of going inside the manor, he headed toward the chairs arranged along one side of the backyard.
Luxurious chairs and a table stood on one side of the backyard, completely out of place in the manor and its grounds.
They seemed to be items the Prince had brought himself.
When the Prince took his seat, a maid standing beside the table filled an empty cup with tea.
A subtle scent of alcohol wafted from it.
"Now, speak. I am ready to listen."
The First Prince looked at me as though he were granting me a massive favor.
In times like this, it was best to play along.
"Thank you."
I expressed my gratitude and began my story.
I explained everything, starting with the knights' arrival at the Marquis's estate and ending with how I'd come to be here.
But I told one part differently.
Instead of saying I had fought the knights, I claimed that Joachim had caught wind of what was happening and escaped, while I'd been swept up in the situation without knowing a thing.
Everything else, I recounted truthfully.
I told him about following Joachim, meeting Paula, and then learning that they were part of the Empire's secret organization; about moving alongside them while disguising my true intentions until I heard that a high-ranking member of the royal family was in the territory; and finally, about launching a surprise attack to capture the two of them.
It was almost identical to the truth, yet changing just one detail turned it into an entirely different story.
"A secret organization of the Empire... Could they have done this knowingly?"
As he listened to me, the Prince fell deep into thought.
What did he mean by doing it knowingly? That seemed to be precisely what I was curious about.
"Still, what an entertaining adventure tale. Parts of it were pathetic, but it wasn't a waste of time."
The Prince seemed satisfied with my story.
Right on cue, the knight who had gone to verify it returned.
"I have confirmed it. As he said, two young people were bound inside the room, and there was one corpse. We confirmed the corpse's identity as Joachim through the items in his possession. The two are currently being brought here."
The Prince nodded, looking satisfied.
"It ended differently than I expected, but I feel as though I've finally properly paid my respects to Ivana. Mother will be pleased as well."
Once again, words that stirred my curiosity slipped out.
Mother, huh.
Perhaps because he'd received good news, the Prince seemed to be in high spirits.
Now was my chance.
I cautiously opened my mouth.
"May I ask just one question, by any chance?"
When I said that, the Prince smirked.
"Sure. What are you curious about?"
"Why did you mobilize the Royal Knights over the death of Lady Ivana?"
The Prince's expression hardened instantly.
Shing!
The vice-commander's sword came free of its sheath, and the Prince snarled at me.
"Do you look down on me just because I humored your story? Ordinarily, your head would have been chopped off as an accomplice!"
Ah, regrettably, it seemed I'd pushed too far.
In the end, it looked like I'd have to settle for mere speculation.
I felt my chest. Fortunately, the artifact pouch hadn't been discovered.
Luckily, the Vice-Commander of the Royal Knights, whose true strength was hard to gauge, was right here.
Since a fight with him still lay ahead, it wouldn't be a pointless suicide.
Just as I was thinking that and reaching into the pouch—
I saw a knight running over in haste.
He rushed over and whispered into the Prince's ear.
Overhearing the message from nearby, the vice-commander stepped in front of the Prince and pointed his sword at me.
I was standing a little way off, but I could hear it, too.
It seemed the news of what had happened at the Marquis's estate had finally reached them.
Regrettably, my lie hadn't even held up for a few minutes.
"Hahaha! You tricked me quite thoroughly!"
The Prince burst out laughing as he heard the report.
Then he glared at me.
"I wasn't going to tell you since I planned to make use of you, but there's no need for that anymore. I'll tell you what you were curious about."
I could feel the knights closing in.
I could also feel the vice-commander's mana surging.
Perhaps because of the Prince's words, they didn't attack immediately.
Instead, the vice-commander erected a soundproofing barrier with his mana.
The Prince opened his mouth once more.