Year 79 Season Opening - 3
I want to clock out.
I only just clocked in a little while ago, yet I desperately, violently want to clock out.
"Never stop questioning. Never hesitate to ask. Advance without harboring doubt. In this place of learning, instruction is equal for all. Whether equal teaching yields different results is a matter left entirely to each student."
I felt a little sorry for the principal pouring his heart into the opening ceremony address, but honestly none of it was landing. How was I supposed to absorb even the finest words when I was stuck here away from my pregnant wife?
Besides, I wasn't a student. I had no real obligation to listen to the moralizing in the first place.
"I hope that someday, when you look back on your lives, these three years of academy life will be remembered as a fine and meaningful time."
With those words the principal stepped down to the students' applause. The vice principal and the head instructors of each faculty took their turns after him.
Nothing particularly special stood out in the speeches. Thankfully, this year's academy freshmen were a rather ordinary bunch compared to the last two years, so the faculty had no real reason to be on edge.
Of course there was the usual peculiarity of a high ratio of foreign students and mages among the new arrivals, but that was merely last year's trend continuing. A simple increase in numbers was nothing the academy couldn't handle.
Though there sure are a lot of them.
Then I watched the students give an especially thunderous round of applause as Trixie took the stage, and I realized "a simple increase" no longer covered it. The numbers had ballooned to something truly staggering.
Well, of course. Trixie had already announced she would step down from her visiting lecturer post starting next year. To the mages scattered across the continent, this must have looked like their last chance. They had thrown in their applications with absolute desperation.
"As expected, Your Excellency's prestige truly pierces the heavens."
While I stared blankly at Trixie's back, the vice principal seated beside me whispered softly.
"As a fellow citizen of the Empire, it fills me with pride."
"Is that so? If you're only proud of her as a fellow imperial, Her Excellency might feel rather slighted."
"Oh dear, a slip of the tongue. Please keep it secret."
I answered with a slight smile. My relationship with Trixie was that of an engaged couple—a bond far tighter than mere shared nationality. Reducing one's fiancée to "fellow imperial" levels, as the vice principal had put it, might genuinely hurt her feelings.
"Naturally it will remain a secret. One cannot very well torment someone who deserves congratulations instead."
The vice principal smiled at that, dipped his head lightly, and spoke again.
"I hear you have obtained a treasure beyond compare. My congratulations."
At the vice principal's well-wishes, the corners of my mouth—already climbing—ascended even further. The more people offered congratulations, the more vividly the fact that I was going to have a child sank in—
Wait a second.
How did the vice principal even know? I hadn't said a word to anyone at the academy yet.
I wasn't trying to hide it, but Mar's pregnancy was something we had only learned right before the term started. There hadn't been any mental bandwidth left to tell people, and once I finally recovered my wits I had been too busy informing the family. The academy's turn simply hadn't come yet.
"Thank you. If the academy's own vice principal calls the child a treasure, then surely it will grow up brilliant."
"Haha, you flatter me."
Still, staying silent in front of someone offering congratulations would have been rude, so I expressed my thanks naturally enough.
Besides, if the rumor had already spread without me having to say anything, that was convenient for me too. No need to go around announcing it one person at a time.
Who was it, though?
I was still curious. Who exactly had played the role of megaphone?
If Father had been the one bragging, the recipients would have been Imperial Diet members, but those gentlemen, for all their power, lived buried inside the Diet and were rather poorly suited to spreading news quickly. Even Mother, I had heard, had kept a certain distance from high society ever since Mar became a countess.
…
It was Father-in-law.
The candidates naturally narrowed down to him alone. If it wasn't Father or Mother, it had to be Father-in-law.
Come to think of it, Father-in-law was the man who, when Mar was first born, had boasted about his late-in-life daughter to all of high society and played a major role in earning her the nickname "Treasure of Valenti." Now that youngest daughter of his was expecting a child of her own—he had every justification in the world to trumpet the news in every direction.
My heart settled. If the megaphone was Father-in-law, there was nothing left to worry about.
The whole Empire is going to know.
It might even have crossed the borders by now.
A few days earlier, I had come across a rather interesting piece of information.
"The Minister is expecting a child, you say?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Four weeks along, I am told."
I had arranged a meeting with Father-in-law to receive a report on the northern garrison. After finishing the official report in that dry tone of his, Father-in-law had casually dropped an absolute bombshell.
The news that the Minister was having a child—that a child bearing the blood of both the Crassius and Valenti houses had been conceived.
"The Iron Blood Duke has been bragging so much you'd think it was his very first grandchild."
I only remembered laughing along with Father-in-law's hearty chuckle.
And then a tiny, tiny flicker of indignation had risen. A sitting Imperial Count and minister-designate was having his first child—surely the proper course was to report it to the Emperor himself. For that obvious procedure to be forgotten, leaving me to hear of it secondhand… that was not the conduct of a loyal subject.
So I leaked the information to the Minister of Palace Affairs. The wife of the Minister of the Inspectorate was with child; he was to prepare a suitable gift.
After that, things flowed smoothly without any further intervention from me. The Minister of Palace Affairs informed the ministers of every ministry, and those ministers told their vice-ministers and acquaintances. Once the news spread with the administrative apparatus as its center, blanketing the entire Empire took no time at all.
"A younger sibling only one year apart from the Crown Princess will be born."
"Indeed. My, my. The godfather is even providing his goddaughter with a fine friend."
I huffed a quiet laugh watching the Empress beam with pure delight.
Just as she said, once the Minister's child was safely born it would become a sibling only one year younger than our beloved Charlotte. As the child of her godfather there would be every pretext for them to meet, so they could grow into excellent friends.
The next head of House Crassius.
I organized my thoughts while watching the Empress approach the Crown Princess to tell her she would soon have a little sibling.
Already, by taking six wives, the Minister had bound House Crassius to multiple high houses. And when the Minister produced a great many children among those six wives, and those children in turn married, the number of houses entangled with Crassius would explode.
The child who will stand at the center of it all.
Moreover, at the apex and center of that marriage network would stand the eldest among the siblings. There was nothing strange about the firstborn becoming the next command tower.
He might even lead a house greater than the Minister's own.
The seeds of marriage the Minister had planted were highly likely to bloom in spectacular fashion in the children's generation. Once descendants reached the third or fourth generation the blood ties would loosen, but siblings or first cousins could still reasonably be considered a single faction.
I hope they become good friends.
The more I imagined the Crassius faction decades from now, the more that single conclusion emerged.
Please let the Minister's children also be as loyal and gentle-natured as the Minister himself. Otherwise, noise might arise against the imperial authority and the Empire's prestige, both of which had only just been set firmly upon solid rock.
"My Empress. What would you say to sending attendants from the Empress's palace to the Countess of Tailglehen before long? They are the ones who attended you during your own pregnancy; they will be more than capable of assisting the Countess."
"The Countess will be delighted if we do so."
After a moment's thought I made the suggestion, and the Empress nodded in agreement. Building up this sort of debt with the Minister's wife—and with the Minister's child who would one day be born—would surely pay dividends someday.
And setting political considerations aside, this was the first child of my daughter's godfather. A kindness of this degree was something I could extend as many times as I liked.
…Perhaps I should hold a banquet when the child is born.
A banquet hosted by the imperial family itself to celebrate the birth of a mere noble's child. If the Minister learned of it he would twist himself with joy.
Excellent.
I would do it without fail. For my dear Minister, that much was only natural.
I truly had not expected the pregnancy news to cross the borders.
"Congratulations, Advisor! As expected of the continent's greatest warrior—your vigor is something else!"
The moment club time began, Ryutis burst in with words that could have been either teasing or congratulations; I couldn't tell which.
What did "vigor" even mean, coming from a warrior? What did my skill with a blade have to do with any of this?
"Ahh, if only I'd heard before the term started I would have prepared a gift. A shame, but I'll bring one next time."
Ah.
But hearing the follow-up settled my heart considerably. He hadn't received the news from across the border; he had only learned of it after arriving at the academy.
"Words alone are more than enough. Don't go overboard."
"Then I'll prepare the absolute best within the bounds of not going overboard!"
I offered the ceremonial refusal with an easy mind, but of course it was rejected.
Fine, prepare whatever you like. I'd already received a gift stamped with the Lovens royal crest; was there anything left I couldn't accept?
"Quite a few things to celebrate piled up over the break. A wedding, a beatification, and a pregnancy."
After the snickering Ryutis, Later opened his mouth next. Unlike the purely amused Ryutis, he wore an expression that suggested the triple joy had left him mildly flustered.
"A gift to commemorate the beatification. I'll prepare a pregnancy gift later as well."
"An excessive gift. Thank you."
I accepted the fountain pen Later held out and tucked it into my coat.
It looked as though the Ostian royal crest was engraved on the pen, but by this point I was past caring. I really shouldn't get used to this sort of thing.
"And this is for you. I heard you've officially become a marquis—you'll be rather busy after graduation."
"Haha, something I'll just have to endure. I'll make good use of it, thank you."
Later then pulled a pocket watch from his pocket and handed it to Ainter. A watch for someone about to get busy, was it? The kid knew how to throw a subtle jab after all.
Gifts and well-wishes continued to pass back and forth, filling the air with a pleasantly warm atmosphere.
"Ahem, ahem."
"……."
For about five minutes, at least.
The club members who had been doing their best to keep the cheerful mood going soon ran out of energy to sustain it; they coughed awkwardly or turned their heads away.
I understood. If I had been in their position I would have done the same.
"What."
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
When I casually turned my gaze toward Erich, he spat out a curt single-word answer.
It was cheeky, but I understood. That curtness was a desperate attempt to hide his embarrassment.
They get along well.
Seeing Sera glued to Erich's side, arm linked through his, filled me with warm satisfaction.
Well done, my future sister-in-law. Keep showing affection so boldly in front of others and it becomes an established fact.
"…Around the time Advisor's child is born, I suppose a new wedding will be held."
At Ryutis's muttered observation Erich flinched, while Sera broke into a beaming grin.
Well done, Ryutis. For today at least, I'm on your side.