The Hawk Spreading Its Wings - 4

A royal must be the king’s strongest ally, and must stand above the nobility. For a royal house that numbers only a handful to rule an entire nation, every last member of the bloodline is desperately needed. And yet I am not at the king’s side — I am in a foreign land.

Because I was not born later, because my elder brother was not born sooner, I had to leave my homeland as if fleeing. It was as good as abandoning my duty as a royal, but I had no choice. Had I fulfilled that duty, the royal house — and beyond it, the nation itself — might have been put in peril.

A royal must be competent. For a handful of royals to stand tall above countless nobles, authority alone is not enough; they need ability in equal measure.

Whether Enen watched over me or not, I was fortunately rather gifted.

"I regret to say there is nothing more I can teach Your Highness."

The problem was that the gift was too great.

"A blessing upon the royal house. A talent sent down from heaven."

"Indeed. A great mage who will leave his mark on history is being born."

It was not baseless confidence or arrogance. I possessed ability everyone acknowledged.

"Perhaps even more so than the Crown Prince—"

Yes. Everyone thought so.

In everyone’s eyes, my talent was outstanding — more so even than my elder brother, the Crown Prince.

The problem was that this was not merely some people’s opinion. Father and my brother saw it that way as well.

"Splendid. Continue to strive even harder."

The look in Father’s eyes when he regarded me was not ordinary. In the gaze he turned on my brother, there was a faint trace of regret. For ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Uven United Kingdom, a magical powerhouse, talent for magic was a formidable advantage.

Even I, watching from the side, could tell — how could my brother, the one on the receiving end, not? The meaning in that look was enough to drive him mad. With the throne itself at stake, it was only natural.

If succession passed over the eldest son, it would not be a mere matter of pride. My brother’s very life hung in the balance.

"Remarkable, Later."

Even so, my brother suppressed it with all his might. Rather than venting rage and hatred toward me, he welcomed the appearance of a gifted younger sibling. Had the age gap between us been considerable, the royal house might have known peace.

But it was not so. The difference in our ages was such that, if Father forced the issue even a little, a change of Crown Prince was possible.

Just as Father’s worries deepened, and just as something other than brotherly affection began to mix into my brother’s eyes—

"I will enroll at the Imperial Academy."

At seventeen, I made a sudden declaration of enrollment at the Imperial Academy.

It was an extreme move. For a royal — not even a noble — to attend an educational institution in another country was absurd. All the more so when the prince had only just come of age, at the very moment he should have been launching into lively social activities.

That was precisely why I chose the Empire. No noble would support a prince who had spent three years learning at a foreign school. While I was away from home, my brother’s foundation would grow all the firmer.

"Later, think again. There is no need to travel so far."

My brother, who tried to stop me, was a tangle of worry and pity for his younger sibling, happiness at a rival’s withdrawal, and self-loathing for rejoicing at that.

If only he had been a villain, I might have seriously aimed for the throne. How could I destroy a brother like that? He fretted so for a younger sibling who could take everything from him.

"I’ll be fine. I wanted to gain a variety of experiences."

A variety of experiences. The throne was not among them.

And so, leaving the others’ protests behind me, I enrolled at the Imperial Academy. My standing at home would plummet. That was what I wanted. I had to become someone infinitely far from the throne. It was for the stability of the royal house and the prosperity of the nation.

I probably would not receive the warmest of looks in the Empire either. When a foreign prince arrives out of nowhere, people are bound to wonder what is going on.

I never imagined there would be two of us like that, though.

Remembering that time, a dry laugh slipped out. Surprisingly, the Prince of Armein and the next Saint had also enrolled.

I wondered what on earth was going on. I half thought Armein must have a succession problem of its own, or that a new Saint candidate had appeared in the Holy Kingdom. Neither turned out to be true.

At any rate, that was what happened. Thanks to a foolish hawk that had fallen without ever taking flight, memories of the past had come flooding back.

I cannot go back.

It was a path I chose for the royal house and the nation, bracing myself for a weakened position and a ruined reputation. Even if it is a proposal from Father himself, I cannot return.

And—

"Chess isn’t something you play to win. I play it to make you mad, so of course you can’t beat me."

"Just wait. Let me make one more knight."

"Where did the guy who plays chess go?"

A voice that still seemed to ring in my ears. My fist clenched without my realizing it.

If I go back now, I lose.

I absolutely cannot go back. I have never once beaten Ryutis — how could I go back?

If I had simply lost in an ordinary way, I would have thought, well, he’s better than me, and moved on. But he toyed with my pride using five knights I had never heard of.

So I will win. No matter how long it takes, I will slam a queen into that bastard Ryutis’s face.

By the time I win, Luise should have results of her own as well.

If ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only to see that, I have to stay at the Academy until graduation.

It truly is an Academy life that sets the heart racing.

I felt my dying faith give a little twitch. Had my prayers reached the heavens? Had Enen taken pity on me?

"The entire ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hawk faction, you say?"

When the Director of Intelligence contacted me out of nowhere, I wanted to bite my tongue. The dove faction of the Five Pillars had already been toppled. For the Director himself to call in that situation meant something extremely urgent had blown up. Usually, that kind of thing was bad news.

And then the usual odds got broken.

Those crazy bastards.

The more I listened to the Director, the more I could only marvel. Negatively, of course.

It was true the hawk faction had driven out the dove faction and seized the initiative. But they had only driven them out — they had not wiped the dove faction out entirely. Inside the Five Pillars, the doves were still very much alive and watching with both eyes open.

So the next move should obviously have been to eliminate the doves completely, or bring them over as allies, right?

Not normal, then.

The full-throttle, eight-cylinder men of the hawk faction who never looked back did not fuss over such trifles. Even with the entire group made of hawks, they launched a project that would make anyone say are you insane? — while the dove faction was still alive.

Nothing less than the assassination of a royal. Honestly I had expected they might try, but I never thought they would actually go for it. My expectation had only been at the if this were a romance fantasy, they’d do this level. If someone asked why they would take such a reckless gamble, I would have nothing to say. I don’t know either.

Anyway, the dove faction, who had been ground down to the soul by the hawks and were grinding their teeth over it, grasped the hawks’ spectacular self-destruction and ran straight to the royal house.

They really are doves.

At nearly carrier-pigeon speeds, they definitely earned the name. Good naming.

After that, everything moved like clockwork. The royal house of the Uven United Kingdom was appalled by the sudden attempted royal assassination, and the dove faction cut ties at once for fear of getting caught in the idiots’ self-destruction.

In fact, before they could even cut ties, they had already been beaten half to death by the hawks, so no one thought the doves were accomplices. Talk about a blessing in disguise.

"Astonishing."

I mean it. That all of this cascaded in less than a month is astonishing.

That the dove faction, mainstream of the Five Pillars for decades, fell from power? Irritating from the Empire’s perspective, but these things happen. Politics never knows what tomorrow will bring.

That the ones who replaced them happened to be the hawks? Possible. If the doves fell, a current wanting a new direction must have been flowing inside the Five Pillars, and the hawks could do what the doves could not.

But that “what the doves could not” turning out to be royal assassination? That is not something doves can’t do — that is something no human being can do.

Do they… not have heads?

Even recklessness has its limits. I thought they would at least fully seize the Five Pillars before they started digging their own grave — I never expected them to explode this fast. Were hawks animals short on intelligence?

Suddenly my fondness for hawks seems to be dropping. These hawks are complete ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠disasters.

I nodded at that. From the perspective of Foreign Affairs, which had been waiting for the right moment to contact the hawk faction, this must have felt like what the hell, but with the doves back in power, it was not a bad thing.

Far better to keep playing with the weaklings you already know than to get friendly with a pack of lunatics.

It ended well.

And from my standpoint, the result was not bad either. The chance of the Five Pillars trying to smash the Academy is gone with this. Of the three organizations, only two remain.

Please, if the rest would just self-destruct on their own. I would like to live a little more comfortably too.

"Ah, yes. Thank you for the consideration."

As always, the Director of Intelligence cut the connection while showing off his overwork.

I am glad I do not live like that.

I have to retire before I end up like him.

My will to retire had been growing weaker by the day, but every time I saw the Director of Intelligence, I could rekindle it.

Truly, thank you, Director…

The next day, at club time, Later looked the same as always. He showed not the slightest agitation or anxiety.

It was a relief that nothing seemed amiss, but I had also been half-hoping the Uven United Kingdom would issue him a summons home. Looking at him now, it seemed that would not happen. A pity, in a way.

Those dove bastards.

At a time like this, shouldn’t they be strongly arguing that a royal abroad needs to be brought safely home? If they toppled the hawks and made their comeback, they should put in at least that much effort.

I am increasingly convinced that doves really are incompetent.

Of course, hawks are cute, so they get a pass. Come to think of it, the Barenti family’s symbol is a hawk. That means they are cuter than doves. Correct.