I couldn’t help but glare at him.
“You’re talking about the fiancée of a prince of the Kingdom of Sorcié. I can’t afford to interact with her so casually,” I protested.
“Eh? I only said ‘that girl you like.’ That’s all. Who exactly are you talking about?” he retorted, grinning at having succeeded in his little prank.
When I saw the look on his face, I immediately understood that he had teased me on purpose. Janne knew that I had taken a liking to a woman in Sorcié—which was rare for me—and he also knew who she was. Perhaps he had reported this finding to my half brother. No, in fact I was sure he had. That might be why he had ordered me to go to Sorcié to study during such a busy period.
However, the woman I fancied was a prince’s fiancée. If something happened between us, it could spark an international incident. I couldn’t believe that our king had ordered me away to Sorcié so casually given the circumstances. Actually, it’s more likely he did so only after some very careful investigation.
The engagement between her and the thirdborn prince was supposed to be political in nature, contrived to reduce tensions between him and the other princes, and word on the street said that his heart belonged to someone else. Furthermore, marrying for love had been the fashion in Sorcié for some years, and an increasing number of people were starting to dissolve the engagements their parents had decided for them in youth. I had even heard that this particular woman’s decision to enter employment at the Magical Ministry was motivated by a desire to dissolve her engagement to the prince.
The king’s apparently carefree directive for me to go and make friends in Sorcié might have been premised on careful investigation that turned up these facts...but I had unfortunately seen evidence to the contrary at the Assembly. Regardless of how she felt, I had seen just how intense the passion the thirdborn prince—Jeord Stuart—felt for her was. That was not the kind of passion one directed at someone with whom one was only in an obligatory relationship. That prince was unquestionably in love with her. And quite deeply at that.
Though the prince looked to me to be immature, still in the process of growing up, I sensed that he would eventually become quite formidable. I did not feel passionate enough about her myself to be willing to risk making an enemy of such a man. At least, I shouldn’t have. However, since I had met her, too many things had passed between us for me to remain as detached as I had before.
Perhaps the tipping point was the moment she saw the true color of my eyes, which I usually kept hidden behind black glass, and yet she accepted my appearance without any difficulty? Although we’d only met a handful of times, whenever I thought about her I felt that the balance of my mind was upset. This may have been the reason that, when the matter of my going to Sorcié to study came up, I recalled some things that I would have preferred to leave forgotten.
I became a mercenary in order to live freely. I became a man who thought nothing of taking the lives of others. At least, I kept telling myself that in order to push my own true feelings deep down inside my heart. I could see Janne grinning beside me, but I was fed up with talking to him for the time being. I scratched my head.
“I’d like some time to myself to rest, so leave the room, all right?”
Janne just shrugged and stepped outside without saying another word. Once the door had closed, I immediately fell back onto my bed.
Janne and my half brother had told me I should go to Sorcié to relax, but of course I had no intention of doing so. For the sake of Ethenell, I aimed to learn what I could about the culture of Sorcié, which was so much richer and more developed than our own kingdom, and take that knowledge home. I would also try to form new connections with the people there. That was the purpose of my study trip. Under no circumstances was I to spend it socializing with her, the prince’s fiancée. I braced myself for the challenges ahead. It would still be a while longer before we reached Sorcié.
★★★★★★
Despite the sense of danger I felt, thinking that a doom flag might be upon me any day now, morning greeted me all the same. According to what I’d been told, the Prince of Ethenell—meaning Cezar—had safely arrived in Sorcié and had already begun his life here as a student. But naturally, I spent my days commuting between the Magical Ministry and my home, so I had no expectation of meeting him. I thought that he might well finish his term of study here without us ever running into each other.
Though I felt a little bit sad at the thought of him bidding Sorcié farewell without us meeting even once, when I considered the threat of doom flags, I figured perhaps it would be for the best. We could meet as much as we liked in the future, once any Catastrophic Bad Ends were averted, so I just needed to be careful for another six months. After that, I would be free.
Now, with all that still on my mind, today was another workday, and I once again rode in my horse-drawn carriage to commute from Claes Manor to the Magical Ministry. As always, I slept like a log inside my carriage and the driver needed to wake me up when we arrived. I stepped out of the carriage while rubbing my eyes, then walked to the Magical Tool Laboratory, where I worked.