I asked her what kind of work she meant, and she explained that Princess Isabella had dragged her around greeting other nobles. That had involved chatting and exchanging information with friendly royalist nobles and putting pressure on the hostile ones. The match had interrupted their task, and once it had ended, Luna had been expected to go back to her classroom. She had come to find me instead.
“Hey, how’d you even sneak in snacks and juice like this?” she asked.
“It’s not that hard to hide things. But now that you’ve eaten some, you’re my accomplice,” I warned her.
She nodded cheerfully and reached for another snack. I wondered if she liked the sound of being my accomplice—it probably made her feel like we were doing something a little bad. And honestly, getting caught wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it was kind of fun to sneak snacks like this once in a while.
“By the way, looks like Amy’s super popular, even with the dumb boys. She’s smart, good at magic, your apprentice, and a commoner. Even guys from my class are after her,” Luna said.
The “dumb” boys she had mentioned were from minor or broke noble households—meaning barons or below—who thought that getting Amy to be their mistress would mean they’d be one step closer to building a connection with me or Albert and the others.
“Some of them have their sights set way out of their league, but they won’t even ask about a proper marriage! That just screams they have no future. All the girls are saying it. Oh, and they’re also saying they have no class, no backbone, and no charm!”
She’d said “all the girls,” but I knew she had meant girls she knew or ones in her class. Either way, if that kind of gossip had been going around about these boys, they must have had pretty bad reputations.
“Girls are scary,” I said.
“Some of them only talk to you because they’re after money too. You really have to watch out.”
At any rate, these were the kinds of things good friends warned each other about.
“So...how do people find out about guys who actually have good reputations?” I asked.
“Hmm, well... If you’re close with someone, they might tell you. Or you might just have to find out yourself.”
Luna didn’t seem super interested in hearing about good guys, though. She just needed to know they weren’t bad students. She’d never gone digging herself in that way, but she knew the two main methods to go about it.
“Basically, the first way costs money—you literally pay someone who’s got the scoop, or you hire someone to find out for you. The other method is the boots on the ground way...which is basically stalking,” I said.
“Yep. Sometimes the second way gets you info no one else knows, but you could get in major trouble if someone found out.”
If you hired a pro or someone you trusted for the first method, you could probably deny it if you got caught. But stalking someone? Well, that could get you arrested real quick. And if the person you liked found out you were tailing them, the fallout could be fatal to your relationship.
“Come to think of it, didn’t Leon stalk me once...?” I muttered.
That comment was enough to catch Luna’s attention, and before long, I found myself telling her the whole story about how we had first met. I exaggerated it a bit for laughs.
Since Leon’s screwup had caused the “stalking incident,” it was a funny story. And since everyone at the academy had known that he’d had a habit of making those kinds of mistakes, it wasn’t like I had been ruining his reputation. The fact that it’d been amusing might’ve actually boosted his image. At the very least, Luna found it funny, and not in a mean way either.
“Someone should be coming to get me soon. You came here because you were worried about me, weren’t you, Luna?” I asked.
“Well, that was part of it, but mostly I was trying to get away from Mother.”
She was being pretty blunt. I guess that meant she trusted me, but still... A little white lie didn’t hurt every once in a while, you know? However, I had to silently offer a prayer for Luna, because...
“Pfft!”
I heard someone stifle a laugh just outside the room. Actually, there were several people eavesdropping—the king had just cracked first.
When the door opened to reveal the people spying on us, Luna froze in shock. The king was grinning, but Princess Isabella stood behind him, staring blankly at her daughter. There were also a few members of the king’s guard, including Jean—they were trying their best to pretend they hadn’t heard anything.
“Um, I got it backward! What I meant was I came here because I was totally worried about Tenma! It only seemed like I was running away from Mother, but I wasn’t! Really!” Luna said in a panic.
Nice try, but...
Unfortunately for Luna, no one was buying it. She kept nervously rambling on until finally Princess Isabella let it go. She said that we would just tell everyone that Luna had come to check on me because she’d been worried.
This was actually some kind of information control strategy to make it seem like the royal family actually felt bad about the match, even though the reformist nobles were the ones who had pushed for it. The idea was to pin the blame on the reformists and win the sympathy of the public. But personally, I didn’t care much either way. I was just being used as the face of this whole scheme, and my reward was that the nobles who tried to push me around would be warned—“Cross Tenma, and it might damage your reputation both in the eyes of the royal family and the masses.”
“This only works because Tenma’s got the public on his side...”
“Yeah, Grandpa could never pull that off!” Luna said.
Her jab made the king chuckle, but honestly, it had probably stung a bit. He gave her a slightly rough pat on the head.
“Your Majesty, it’s almost time. We should return to the reception room,” Jean said.
That made everyone suddenly remember our true purpose here, and we all began rushing to get back to the party. Princess Isabella dragged Luna by the arm, and I noticed the king grab a few snacks for the road.
“You’re a bit late, Tenma,” Queen Maria said when she saw me.
“Sorry, Queen Maria. I was still a little excited after the match, so Luna chatted with me to help me wind down,” I said.
Luna nodded enthusiastically beside me. The queen seemed to realize the real reason Luna had gone to where I had been, but she didn’t mention it.
“I see. That was kind of you, Luna. You’ve always been close with Tenma. The perfect conversation partner!” The queen had said that loud enough for the reformists in the room to hear. She then continued, slipping in a few indirect digs at them and blaming them for the match while simultaneously apologizing that we couldn’t refuse.
Just then...
“The venue is ready, everyone. Please make your way to the hall.”
It was finally time to party.