Outside the coach window, Albion bustled with activity. Lights powered by mana stones lined the main street, giving the evening an orange glow.
The earldom of Flozeth must’ve been seeing light snowfall right about now. It wouldn’t begin to pile up too much until December, but once it really started falling, everything would be buried in white—to the point that the snow would need to be cleared every day. As the snow made coaches unusable, the people of the earldom fastened sleighs to their horses to travel; but for the most part, they simply stayed home, waiting for the eventual thaw.
Meanwhile, in Albion, in the south of the country, snow rarely piled up. Coaches could be used all year round, and the city streets were bustling. When she thought about the big difference in life between the north and the south, Estelle felt bitter about the snow burying the place where she was born.
After they’d resolved to focus on socializing this Season—to find a new fiancé for Estelle—the siblings had left the management of the earldom to their uncle and headed for Albion. The two continued to worry for their people, however, with yet another of Flozeth’s harsh winters ahead.
I hope they won’t get much snow this year, wished Estelle.
All this on her mind, she gazed vacantly out the window. Sirius, who sat in front of her, spoke up.
“Estelle, tonight’s ball is sponsored by Marquess Rogell, who’s highly popular with the ladies. Hopefully you catch his eye.”
“Oh, the competition is too fierce.”
Marquess Rogell, also known as Claus Rogell, was a marquess at the young age of twenty-three. His staggeringly handsome features, ice-blue eyes, and silver hair had earned him the title of Lord Ice.
What’s more, House Rogell had both fame and history, having been around since the founding of the kingdom. Miriallia, the late queen consort and birth mother of the first prince, had come from this house. She was Claus’s aunt.
And yet, despite Claus’s looks and pedigree, there wasn’t a single amorous rumor about him; he still had no fiancée, which made him just as popular with the ladies as the first prince, his cousin.
Claus and Sirius had something in common—they had both lost their fathers at an early age and inherited their titles. What set them apart was that Claus’s mother was still in good health.
“Should we really go to this ball, brother?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, this is the first time we’ve accepted Marquess Rogell’s invitation, is it not? Going to this ball would mean...”
“Are you worried we’ll be giving up our neutrality?”
Estelle shuddered—her brother had guessed precisely what she was thinking.
At present, the Kingdom of Rosalia was split among three factions in regard to the matter of succession to the throne. There were those who supported First Prince Arcrayne, others who supported Second Prince Liedis, and yet others who maintained neutrality.
As a general rule, the successor to the throne was chosen by the principle of agnatic primogeniture, with priority for the Awoken. Members of the royal family had an easy time Awakening, and both Arcrayne and Liedis had gained powers at an early age.
The public records at the time stated the Kingdom of Rosalia had eight Awoken in total. Five of them were royals.
The reason nobles disagreed on the subject, despite Arcrayne being an Awoken just like his brother, was that Liedis was of better birth and had better powers. The two had come from different mothers—after the demise of Arcrayne’s birth mother, Queen Miriallia, the king had remarried to Queen Truteliese, who’d given birth to Liedis.
Queen Truteliese had come from the family of Duke Marwick—a branch of the royal family that had split away three generations prior. A history of consanguineous marriages between this family and the royal one had allowed Prince Liedis to Awaken and gain the use of regular telekinesis—the ability to move objects without touching them—as well as teleportation.
As for Arcrayne, he could only use telekinesis, and he was even said to have a smaller supply of mana than his brother.
What further complicated things was that Arcrayne had by that point already achieved some success in official duties. He had graduated with excellent grades from Albion’s leading academic authority, the University of Albion; and when the king had claimed to be in poor health at the end of the previous year, Arcrayne had done a splendid job representing him for half a year. This had made the twenty-three-year-old prince’s presence felt more strongly in the kingdom.
On the other hand, Liedis was still only fifteen. A mere student.
Thus, the choice of the next king was between the affable Arcrayne, whom one could expect to reign with stability; and a young man of yet-unknown capacity for regnancy, but superior lineage and powers: Liedis. The law dictated the successor to be Arcrayne, but Liedis had a more powerful faction behind him, which prevented the king from holding an investiture of Arcrayne as crown prince. In Rosalia, this ceremony was a requirement for assuming the title of crown prince, and so the position of next king remained unsettled.
Up to this point, House Flozeth had remained neutral on the matter. In fact, the same went for most nobles living far to the north of Albion.
But now, this Season, Sirius had decided to accept Marquess Rogell’s invitation. This was a declaration of his intent to support the first prince henceforth.
“Brother, did you choose to side with His Highness Prince Arcrayne because Baron Pautrier supports his opponent?”
“I wanted to avoid running into that irritating upstart, so yes.”
“Are you sure that’s a good reason to ally yourself with the first prince, who has the odds stacked against him...?”
“Wyntia and Pautrier slighted us,” replied Sirius with anger written on his face. “I made this decision after consulting our uncle, so you don’t need to worry about it. We were close to the limit of how long we could keep up our neutral stance, anyhow. So this is fine. If His Highness Prince Liedis becomes the next king, the kingdom will be somewhat less hospitable toward us—that’s all.”
“Sounds like a big problem to me...”
During the previous year’s devastating rains, they had filed for a tax cut. They also had shipping costs of mana stones to worry about, and sometimes they needed grants to cull the dragon population. Losing favor with the kingdom could have an impact on things like that in the future. This was one of the reasons House Flozeth had remained on the fence up to this point, carefully determining the right candidate to support.
“Don’t make such a face, Estelle. Our allegiance wasn’t decided by your circumstances alone.”
“Lies.”
“I’m not lying. I had His Highness Prince Arcrayne’s personality in mind when I made my decision.”
“And what, pray tell, do you know of him, dear brother?”
“A few things. Perhaps you’ve forgotten, but I went to the same college as him.”
From the Royal College to the University of Albion—that was the ideal path of education for all noblemen. Both of those leading institutions only accepted male applicants and had high requirements for entry. Although Sirius had needed to leave the university early to inherit his domain, he had been on this education path until then.
Prince Liedis was attending the Royal College at the moment. It wasn’t as though all of its students could advance to the University of Albion, so people were keeping a close eye on his prospects. Even if he managed to enter the aforementioned university, he would need to have grades at least as good as those of his half brother to avoid criticism—a regrettable fate, common though it was among royalty.
Inside, Estelle rather sympathized with Prince Liedis. She stared intently at her brother’s face.
“I suppose you were a brilliant student.”
“I might not have been able to get in, had I been born two years later. When the prince took his entrance exams, they were incredibly competitive,” said Sirius with an awkward smile on his face.
Whenever it was made public that the queen had conceived, a baby boom occurred among nobility. The purpose was to try to put their children close to the soon-to-be-born prince or princess and follow them around. Lyle and Claus Rogell were both twenty-three, just like Prince Arcrayne.
“Were you on good terms with His Highness during those days?”
“No. We were in different years and participated in different club activities... I do remember briefly teaching him when he asked me how to hunt dragons.”
“Sounds like you were hardly acquainted.”
“Oh, be quiet. I know, all right? But His Highness looked gentle and kind in my eyes.”
“Don’t most royals act gentle and kind in public?”
In Estelle’s mind, royals always had smiles plastered on their faces and spent their time gracefully waving their hands at the masses.
“His Highness Prince Arcrayne might appear at this ball. You may get to dance with him if you’re lucky.”
Marquess Rogell was related to Arcrayne on his mother’s side and was a leading figure of the faction supporting him.
“You know, I’m not looking to become a princess!”
Such a position would be too stressful for Estelle, whose eyes could see what others could not. Even in regular high society, the numerous and varied expectations placed on Estelle wore her down enough.
She shook her head to reject her brother’s idea.
As the two continued to banter, their coach arrived at Marquess Rogell’s town house. Just as one would expect from a great house—a house from which many women had gone on to marry kings—the Rogell mansion was particularly large, despite being located within city limits.
“Shall we go, then? Your hand, milady.”
“It has been a while since I last had the pleasure, brother.”
A mischievous smile on her face, Estelle took Sirius’s hand and climbed out of the coach.