Investigating the Imperial Family (1)
“So tell me again—why did you come looking for me?”
“To ask about Her Highness Princess Aylin’s past, Your Highness the Third Prince.”
The man studying me with a crooked, skeptical eye had the same blue hair and blue eyes as Aylin. He was Lionel von Valencia, the Third Prince—the only member of the imperial family currently enrolled at the Academy besides Aylin herself.
Because Lionel lived in the Academy dorms rather than the Imperial Palace, finding him had been easy enough.
“First of all, I don’t like you.”
“May I ask why?”
“Because Aylin freezes me out, yet she clings all over you!”
Lionel glared at me, fuming. Huh. He’s less hostile toward Aylin than I expected.
Given how carefully she’d been hidden all this time, and how fiercely she seemed to resent the imperial family, I’d assumed the royals hated her right back. Apparently not.
“I’m sorry to hear that. But that isn’t exactly my fault, is it?”
“You said you like the Katram Duchess, didn’t you? Imagine watching her whisper sweet nothings to someone else.”
“……I’ll grant you the empathy, Your Highness.”
So this is what it means to be royalty. His tongue is sharper than I thought.
“Exactly. That’s why I can’t stand you. So why should I tell you anything about Aylin’s past?”
“Because I can give Your Highness something you want.”
“Something I want?”
“You hate that I’m always at the princess’s side, don’t you? Well, so do I. Staying stuck together like this is……”
Drip. Drip.
I heard water falling. A loose faucet? No.
Water was leaking from the ceiling of Lionel’s dorm room. More precisely, mana pouring off Lionel had blanketed the ceiling, and water was condensing out of that mana and dripping down.
Yeah—if even a drop of that gets inside you, it’ll wreck your insides.
At the same time I realized just how much of a pain the Third Prince was going to be—
“You hate my little sister sticking to you? You’ve got a lot of nerve running that mouth!”
“That isn’t what I meant. Please calm down.”
“You just said you don’t like Aylin!”
“Your Highness, the conversation is getting rather heated.”
He was a classic doting older brother. He hated that I was close to Aylin—but if I said I wanted distance from her, he’d take it as me dismissing her.
No matter what I said here, nothing would satisfy him. I’d gone and found myself a truly troublesome opponent.
Time to change tactics.
“I will build a bridge between Your Highness and Her Highness the Third Princess.”
“What?”
“You’re troubled by how poorly you get along with the princess, aren’t you? Then let me serve as the bridge. I’ll open a path for the two of you to talk.”
“Hmph. You don’t know Aylin at all.”
“Pardon?”
Lionel’s face twisted with dissatisfaction.
“Aylin doesn’t like a single person in the imperial family. She doesn’t even like talking to us. You think she’ll just come out and chat because you offer to play go-between?”
So I was right—she really does hate the imperial house.
Then why does she like me? Why does she care far more about some guy she met on the first day of the Academy than about her own family?
I kept the conversation moving.
“Even so, isn’t it worth trying? Does Your Highness truly wish to remain estranged from her forever?”
“Of course not!”
“Then place a wager on me. It may sound presumptuous, but Her Highness listens to me rather well.”
“Hmph! It won’t do any good. You went with Aylin to the audience chamber, didn’t you?”
“I did, yes.”
“Then you saw what happened to her after she faced His Majesty.”
“Hmm.”
She really was in bad shape that day. All her usual confidence vanished; she just clung to other people for support.
How much must she despise the Emperor for a single meeting to reduce her to that?
“That’s how deep Aylin’s feelings toward the imperial family run.”
“Then I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“If she hates them, there must be a reason. Her Highness the Third Princess isn’t the sort to despise people without cause.”
A remark that could easily be taken as an insult to the imperial house. I pushed through anyway.
“What exactly did the imperial family do to Her Highness?”
“You little—…”
Drip-drip-drip-drip-drip. The water falling from the ceiling accelerated. At this rate the room would be flooded in under ten minutes.
“You think Aylin’s protection makes you invincible?”
“I am in her debt, and I wish to repay it as best I can.”
“You’ve got a mouth on you, I’ll give you that. Hmph!”
Drip—!
The droplets from the ceiling stopped. At the same instant, every trace of water mana soaking the room vanished without a sound. Remarkably, nothing remained wet.
“I like that spirit.”
“Thank you.”
Pushing through had worked. It was obvious Lionel adored Aylin; showing him I was willing to risk his threats for her sake had been effective.
“But what you’re digging for is an imperial secret—an abyss even I don’t know.”
“An abyss even Your Highness doesn’t know?”
“That’s right. I don’t know why Aylin hates the imperial family either. Because I first met her only two months ago.”
“……Two months ago?”
“Yes. For a full seventeen years I never once saw my little sister. I only heard stories. They told us we had an adorable younger sibling we simply couldn’t meet for certain reasons. Mother… Her Majesty the Empress spoke of her every day with such a sad face.”
Lionel looked out the window. The weather was brilliantly clear.
“I grew up hearing about my sister and looked forward to meeting her more than anything. How cute must she be for Her Majesty to speak of her that way? Even I, the youngest, actually had a little sister! So when I finally met Aylin two months ago, I was genuinely thrilled. I was determined to love the sister I’d only ever heard about. But—”
Plip. Plop.
Whoooosh—!
Outside the once-sunny window, rain suddenly began to pour.
“The sister I met after seventeen years showed open hostility toward every one of us. Watching her turn that rare ice mana on us was heartbreaking. She even bared her fangs at His Majesty the Emperor.”
“…….”
No wonder she slapped ice-thorn collars around the other nobles’ necks on the very first day of the Academy.
She’d already done the same thing to the imperial family, so of course she didn’t hesitate.
“My brothers and I were stunned by that inexplicable hatred. But His Majesty and Her Majesty only looked at their daughter with sorrow, as if they understood. His Majesty even tried to approach her, willing to be hurt. The Imperial Palace was in chaos that day. The Magic Emperor, who had never once been wounded in his life, nearly lost consciousness from blood loss.”
“Y-Your Highness… do you really dislike me that much?”
Is dumping imperial secrets on people just a hobby for this family? The princess nearly assassinated the Emperor! That’s an open imperial scandal—anyone who hears it should be more worried about heaven or hell than about their own neck!
“Shut up and listen. So I don’t know why Aylin hates the imperial family either. I tried asking her directly, and she shut me down cold. Even now she doesn’t live in the Imperial Palace.”
“What? Then where does she live?”
“At the Katram Ducal House. More precisely, in a secret annex the Duke keeps hidden.”
“……?”
“A secret annex a collateral branch member like you wouldn’t know about. The fact that Aylin still lives under Duke Katram’s protection is classified at the highest level.”
Aylin lives at the Katram Ducal House? In an annex so secret even I, the steward, don’t know about it?
“You want more details about Aylin’s past. But to get those answers, you’d have to demand them from His Majesty the Emperor himself. Which is, of course, impossible for you.”
“That’s……”
“Well, Duke Katram might know. He’s her current guardian, after all.”
Lionel twisted his lips into a smirk as he looked at me. He knew perfectly well that even after hearing all this, I still couldn’t go ask the Duke.
The moment I asked, it would be obvious I was digging into Aylin’s past. And if the Duke—who already knows I’m just a commoner by birth—found out, a simple dismissal wouldn’t be the end of it.
“Well, that’s about all I can give you. You’re still going to build that bridge with Aylin, right?”
“Haah… I’ve been thoroughly played.”
I’d gained almost nothing, yet I still owed Lionel a favor. So this is imperial rhetoric. Looks like I’m still green when it comes to the ways of the world.
“I’ll speak to Her Highness as soon as possible. Still, thank you for telling me what you did.”
“Forget it. Just finding even a faint side path to ease Aylin’s hatred is already a huge gain for me.”
“One more question, Your Highness, if I may.”
“What is it?”
“From the very first meeting, Her Highness the Third Princess showed open hostility toward you. So why do you still care for her so much?”
“Does there need to be a special reason?”
Lionel gave a short, quiet laugh.
“She’s family. And if I hurt her without even realizing it, isn’t it only right that I try to heal that wound?”
“……I understand.”
The Valencia imperial family was no stranger to succession struggles. As long as they were human, power struggles were inevitable.
Yet history recorded no fratricidal bloodshed among the siblings. I felt I had just glimpsed the reason why.
Still… Aylin is loved.
I’m glad. Even without me, she’ll be all right.
“I’ll take my leave now. Forgive me for disturbing your rest, Your Highness.”
“It’s fine. Take this with you on your way out.”
Lionel tossed me a small box. When I opened it, it was packed full of mint candies.
“They’re Aylin’s favorites. I heard about them from the Duke and bought some.”
“……Her Highness likes mint candy?”
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
No problem at all.
It’s just that my young lady likes mint candy too.