“Are you sure about this?” I asked.
“It’s fine. Tida’s lack of ability was at fault,” Prince Caesar said.
We had to wait a bit before going into the room because students entered in order of class ranking. However, if royalty were in attendance, that order would sometimes change. Tida was second in the class rankings this time, and Amy had offered to let him go ahead of her, but Prince Caesar turned her down. Tida wasn’t crazy about the idea of going in last anyway, so it all worked out.
But then, Princess Isabella said, “I was so hoping Tida would manage to get first place. When I was a student, I always admired the person who got to enter last, but I never managed it myself. But maybe if Tida couldn’t do it, perhaps Luna can?”
Luna began to protest, but her mother said, “Since you’ve got the energy to complain, why don’t you try studying seriously for once? If you do your best and still fail, that’s one thing. But slacking off and still complaining is just plain pathetic.”
Luna backed off when she realized she was getting lectured. She then hurried off to her own class.
When it came to the royals’ final rankings when they had been in junior high, the king had placed third and Queen Maria, first. Prince Caesar had also come in first; Princess Isabella had come in fifth; Prince Zane, second; Princess Mizaria, twelfth; Prince Lyle, third; and Lord Ernest, second.
Honestly, I was shocked Prince Lyle had ranked that high, but I guessed that since he had ended up as the Minister of the Military, he must have been fairly good at academics. And the one who had beaten Lord Ernest for first place was none other than Gramps, who was fondly reminiscing to me about those days. For the record, my mom had come in second. Dad had been eighth.
“In second place in this year’s rankings is Tida von Blumere Krastin. Please enter.”
Gramps chatted away in my ear as the students filed into the room. Tida’s name was called before he’d finished his story.
“Tida’s up, which means we’re next. Are you ready?” I said to Amy.
“Sure am.”
“And in first place in the rankings this year is Amy. Please enter.”
Amy’s name had finally been called. I lined up behind her to enter the hall, just like Prince Caesar and Princess Isabella had done for Tida.
But for some reason, Gramps suddenly pulled out his staff. A nearby employee came over to stop him—anything that resembled a weapon wasn’t allowed.
“Are you trying to tell me an old man can’t walk without his cane?” he asked. “And you’re worried I could use this as a weapon? This hall is packed with people who can cast spells! Besides, if we’re banning dangerous items, what about all the fancy jewelry the other parents are wearing? I’m sure some of those hair ornaments and bracelets have been used as weapons before!”
In the end, Gramps just steamrolled them into letting him keep it.
As I watched the scene unfold, I couldn’t help but think, Sure, they can argue accessories aren’t weapons, but Gramps literally used that staff to knock out a wyvern. Of course no one can seriously say it’s not a weapon, and he’s been walking fine without it up until now... There’s no way he really needs it.
Still, I felt that it might not be a bad idea for Gramps to look extra intimidating tonight—some students had been rumored to be targeting Amy. I decided not to comment on the matter.
The doors opened, and just as I’d expected, a murmur went through the crowd as we entered and they noticed the staff. However, no one dared to say anything to Gramps directly. I saw a few people whispering to nearby faculty, but there weren’t any attempts to stop us. We made it to the seats prepared for Amy and her family without issue.
“Now, let the party begin! Your Majesty, would you do the honors with a toast?”
“Of course! A toast to the shining future of our kingdom! Cheers!”
And with that, the party began. The king and queen were planning on leaving shortly; they hadn’t planned on attending at all, but since they were already here, they decided to stay at least through the opening ceremonies. The other reason they weren’t sticking around was that it would make it difficult for the other students to enjoy themselves. They would also draw attention away from Tida and Prince Caesar.
“Gramps, we’re really sticking out a lot, huh?”
“We sure are. Some folks are here to see us, and some are here to see Amy. Hey, let’s grab some food from over there.”
“That sounds good. Amy, should we move over to the side?” I asked. “Everyone’s staring at us.”
Amy noticed the attention and nodded. We began to walk away, and although no one followed us, people were still watching.
“It looks like they’re all holding back and keeping one another in check. No one wants to be the first to approach and risk annoying us.”
“It would be great if they just kept that up all night,” I said. “Oh, hang on, let’s bring this with us.”
“Would you grab a plate for me too?” Gramps asked as I made a plate of my own. Before I knew it, my plate was a mountain of food.
A few nearby nobles were clearly laughing, but...
“This is super tasty too, Tenma!” Luna showed up with a plate piled higher with food than mine.
The nobles who had laughed at us suddenly ran away so we couldn’t see them anymore.
“The stuff at the school store isn’t that tasty, but the food at this party is amazing!” she said.
“Back in my day, that store and the cafeteria weren’t anything to write home about either. We used to sneak off campus to eat a proper meal in town,” Gramps said.
“Really? I think the cafeteria food is pretty good, but Tenma’s cooking is the best,” Luna said.
“A lot of the cafeteria food is kind of expensive, so it’s hard to eat there every day. Cooking for yourself is way cheaper,” Amy said.
Even though Amy was a commoner, she was probably making good money thanks to Spidey’s thread and her adventurer gigs...but not even she had been eating at the cafeteria every day. I asked her if she needed money or anything, but she shook her head.
“There are cheaper options, but they’re not very good,” Amy said.
Apparently, the tasty stuff came at a premium, so she’d only have those occasionally. She figured if the cheap meals were going to be bad anyway, she might as well cook something she actually liked for cheaper.
“Whoa!”
As we chatted, I suddenly heard a loud clatter nearby. Gramps had dropped his staff.
“Sorry about that,” he said with a bow, but he didn’t look sorry at all.
I realized he’d dropped it on purpose. Gramps had done so because a handful of guys were trying to inch their way towards Amy. Gramps must’ve guessed that since Luna had come over to talk to her first, the guys were trying to use her as a buffer so they could slide in and get near Amy that way. They probably thought they could just say hello to Luna first and then sneak over to Amy. However, Gramps wasn’t having any of it, so he had dropped his staff on the floor to startle them.
“Look at them all, buzzing around like flies. Tch, they’re nothing but cowards. One loud noise and they’re already scattering! Don’t any of them have a spine?” he muttered.
None of them could hear him, of course, but the moment he said that, someone actually did step up and start walking purposefully towards us. And that someone was Tida.
“Tenma, would you mind if I joined you?” he asked.
“It’s fine with me, as long as it’s all right with Amy.”
Tida glanced over at Amy with a slightly worried look. She smiled awkwardly at him and let him join our conversation. However, Luna stood behind her and held her arms up in an X formation, trying as hard as she could to stop him. Amy didn’t see her, though, and Tida just ignored her like she didn’t even exist. Luna’s protests were for naught.
Tida joining us made it harder for other guys to approach Amy. Several of them gave up entirely and went to talk to other girls instead. However, our moment of respite was soon replaced with another problem. A swarm of girls was lining up to talk to Tida, and they were already starting to size one another up. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Just then, Luna spotted someone in the crowd and started waving them over. When that person didn’t respond to her, she ran off to get them herself. She soon returned with a very small group of girls.
“Here are my friends, Tenma!”
The girls fidgeted nervously, glancing around timidly.
“Don’t worry, everybody! Tenma, Gramps, and Amy are all super nice!” Luna said, deliberately not mentioning her brother on that list. He noticed, of course, but didn’t comment on it. Instead, he smiled at her friends, but the way he glared at Luna when the girls weren’t looking told me he wasn’t thrilled.
“Mind if we join you for a bit?”
We chatted with Luna’s friends (or rather, answered their barrage of questions) until Prince Caesar and Princess Isabella showed up. And since those two had guards and knights with them, that made the crowd around us even bigger. Luna’s friends had just started to relax, but now they were getting overwhelmed again. The girls’ parents noticed this, and after greeting the prince and princess politely, they quickly retrieved their daughters.