The king exited the audience chamber, and we were dismissed from the court conference. I wanted nothing more than to sprint home, but I was worried that the marquess might bother Count Archiam. I scanned the area, looking for either one of them, and... Oops, I made eye contact with the guy next to me. I’d at no point managed to hear what his position was either. It was probably fine because the king had said that he intended to investigate this matter, but I decided to ask anyway.
“Are you a Lord of Leveling?”
“Eek!” he whimpered, seeming excessively terrified. Judging from how scared he is, he’s probably a Lord of Leveling. Since the king had said he was going to handle the punishments, there was no point in me pressing this guy any further.
It didn’t seem like I was going to get any more out of him, so I took another look at the rest of the radicals around me.
“Are there any other Lords of Level—” I began.
“Run! She’ll take your position!”
For once, the radicals seemed to be of one mind, and they all began moving at the same time. They stampeded together toward the chamber exit. Running home from school like someone who doesn’t have any after-school activities isn’t very classy, you know?
The back row was now deserted, and Count Archiam seemed to be the only other aristocrat left in this part of the chamber.
“Hello,” I greeted him with a bow. The count tried to respond through his evidently lingering anxiety, but just as I’d expected, Marquess Prynan materialized beside him.
“Countess Dolkness, you did well,” he said in a tone that dripped with deep displeasure. “Your technique of clouding matters by spouting nonsense was masterful.”
“Spouting...nonsense...?” I slowly repeated.
“So you’re choosing to keep feigning ignorance...” The marquess shook his head. “His Majesty is waiting for us. Archiam, you’re coming too. Follow me.”
I wasn’t feigning anything, but the marquess seemed to be growing ever more irritated. He turned around and walked off, so I followed after. We headed for the front of the audience chamber, passed through the door through which the king entered and exited, and continued to follow the hallway beyond. The count seemed tense with nervousness, and he walked alongside me with awkward footsteps.
Soon enough, we were led into a small study. Bookshelves lined both sides of the room, but it didn’t seem like an office. I understood it to be the king’s private space.
We were surrounded by books, and a writing desk faced the window at the back of the room. In the center of the space stood a round table just barely big enough for four people, as well as four chairs. The room felt cramped, but in a good way. I like this place.
The king, who had removed his ceremonial cape, was sitting at one of the chairs at the table. A smile appeared on his face as he caught sight of the marquess and me, and it grew even wider when Count Archiam crept through the door behind us.
“I’m glad you came too, Darren,” His Majesty said warmly. “Both of you, sit.”
The marquess hadn’t waited for an invitation, and he’d already taken a chair next to the king’s. I was sure that the count wanted to keep his distance from the marquess, so I chose the seat facing the king, next to the marquess. Count Archiam attempted to sit in the open seat—the seat between the king and myself—and Marquess Prynan shot him a glare, which made the count flinch.
“Don’t bully him so much,” the king scolded. The marquess huffed and passive-aggressively averted his gaze from the count instead.
The king gave a signal, and an attendant brought us tea. All four of us silently sipped from our teacups. I couldn’t tell if this was a moment of relaxation, or if there was just too much tension in the air to allow for any conversation, but time passed... Eventually, Count Archiam couldn’t take the silence anymore and spoke up cautiously.
“Um... Why are we here...?”
Oh, he came along without knowing what he was in for. He’s probably scared. In order to help soothe the count’s anxiety, I jumped in to explain why we were gathered.
“You see, Count Archiam, this is a meeting during which we’ll discuss how we’re going to deal with the insolent members of the aristocracy who have neglected their duties as Lords of Leveling!”
The marquess snorted in disbelief. “Excuse me...? Do you intend to keep up this act?”
Huh? I was expecting the king and the marquess to agree and say I was spot on, but the marquess had instead scoffed at my explanation. I looked to the king to confirm who was in the right, and he seemed uncomfortable.
“If this incident is resolved in this manner, people will remain discontented. I had us gather here so that the parties involved could discuss things alone.”
“What are you going to do about those who claim to be Lords of Leveling?” I asked again.
“Let’s first get something out of the way...” the king said with a constrained sigh. “I truly believe that there isn’t a single member of the aristocracy who has ever claimed to be a Lord of Leveling...”
“Oh, right,” I agreed with a sage nod. “They’re crooked aristocrats who are secretly Lords of Leveling, but they aren’t raising their level.”
“Perhaps I should’ve invited a certain person...” the king muttered to himself.
It seemed that this pressing issue of our nation’s plague of false Lords of Leveling was going to be set aside for later.
A discussion with just the involved parties... This honestly feels like a roundtable. It was true that with the way things were going that the marquess and I were going to end up being enemies for the rest of eternity. Although we probably wouldn’t be able to reconcile our differences at this point, we could perhaps escape the fate of becoming complete adversaries.
Many topics couldn’t be discussed openly at the court conferences because of the other aristocrats in attendance. I decided that I needed to apologize to the king for the trouble I’d caused him.
“I apologize for speaking up like that in the conference despite knowing that it would cause unnecessary confusion.”
“No, no. It’s all right,” the king reassured me. “All the heads of aristocratic households in Valschein are welcome to contribute. I should apologize for watching silently while knowing you were getting pulled into such a troublesome situation, Lady Yumiella.”
I shook my head. “I can’t see what you could have done to prevent this. It was only this morning that Count Archiam decided to let go of his position. It only would’ve caused issues if I’d discussed it with you prior to the conference...right?”
If I had gone to the king directly and asked him to protect the count’s position, the king probably would’ve had a hard time deciding what to do. Though he couldn’t ignore a request coming from me, if he did as I asked without hesitation, he would have run the risk of upsetting the marquess, along with the rest of his faction.
It seemed that my assumptions were spot on, and the king responded with an ambiguous nod. In complete contrast to the king’s vague answer, Marquess Prynan evidently decided to speak the quiet part out loud.
“If the leader of our nation is to be at some little girl’s beck and call, perhaps the day on which I take the throne isn’t so far off.”
The count and I froze, shocked to hear such a bold-faced declaration of possible insurrection, but His Majesty seemed surprisingly blasé.
“You shouldn’t say such things, Prynan,” he responded mildly.
Oh, he’s joking. I didn’t think the marquess would have gotten away with a statement like that if this was truly a feudalistic society, but the pair of them seemed used to this sort of banter. If they talk like this often, are they actually close friends?
I stared at the two, thinking about how they were as far apart in age as a parent and his child. In this case, the “parent” wore an audacious smile, while the “child” let forth a long-suffering sigh. The king turned to Count Archiam.
“I must say, I feel bad for making this observation, but...I’m grateful that you decided to step down from your position. I’m glad you decided that for yourself, and I think it was a good choice.”
“I-It’s nothing,” the count stammered. “I feel embarrassed for clinging onto a position with no substance to it for so long.”
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” the king assured him. “If anything, I’m envious of you. I’m similarly a prisoner to the previous generations of kings. Though I must admit that I’m curious about one thing... For whose sake did you decide to make this change?”
“I changed for my wife’s sake, as well as my own, but most of all, it was for my children.”
“I see, I see.” His Majesty nodded. “There’s a lot that can be learned from our children.”
I don’t think there’s anything His Majesty can learn from that prince. I kept that thought to myself, and it didn’t even appear on my face, yet the count reacted to the king’s statement in obvious surprise.
“You have something to learn, Your Majesty?!”
The king tilted his head curiously. “Parents grow as people by watching their children both fail and learn from their mistakes. Surely you had this experience too?”
“Oh, I see now what you’re saying,” the count said thoughtfully. “When interacting with my son as an infant, when he still couldn’t understand a thing I said, I wondered why he cried so much. I know that I always listened to my parents.”
“You’re asking too much of an infant,” the king chided.
“I knew that, but I guess I never thought of how I myself behaved at the same point in my development. But after experiencing it for myself, I now think about how my father and mother must have had their hands full with me.”
Hrm, I don’t quite follow. The dads continued their conversation, leaving me in the dust.
“There are some parents who don’t pay attention to how their children are doing,” the king said. “While I must admit that the most difficult parts of child-rearing were largely handled by the servants, when I think about what it would’ve been like if I hadn’t been there when Maurice started walking... It’s terrifying.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” the count agreed. “By facing those who are younger and less experienced, you can also face the juvenile, inexperienced parts of yourself.”
I still don’t think I get it. Oh, but when I compare how I was before and after Ryuu was born, I think I’ve changed. I guess that change was a kind of growth. The conversation led me to think about my dear Ryuu, who I hadn’t seen for several days, and I briefly felt the contented glow of a proud parent...until a tasteless person didn’t read the room and changed the subject.