The four men began walking toward the training grounds’ exit. Kevin and Alexander looked rather tired, but Edward and the general looked spirited.
Ever since they had been old enough to hold swords, Edward and Alexander had practiced combat with General Riley and his grandson Kevin.
Kevin was the same age as Harold, Amy’s older brother, and was both their sparring partner and combat instructor. As of late, the general had frequently been coming out to spar with the boys in Kevin’s place.
Although Edward was the Third Prince with the explicit duty not to outshine his older brothers in any way, he was also a member of the royal family. He was naturally very skilled at sparring, and with enough training, he could very well outmatch the older princes, but this wasn’t something anyone—even the Third Prince himself—wanted.
Nevertheless, as a royal, if something were to happen to Edward, it could incite an uprising. Edward’s training, therefore, concentrated on defense.
They returned to the antechamber of the training grounds to change clothes and tend to their weapons.
“I’m heading straight back to the dormitories after this. What about you, Ed?” asked Alec.
“I’m going to the Department of Technology.”
“For magical tool stuff? Did you start some new research again?”
“The final survey tallies should be coming in tonight. There’s no real rush, but I want to analyze it,” Edward answered with a smile.
Alexander could tell that Edward was really enjoying himself at the lab. Fiddling around with magical tools seemed to suit him, and Alexander enjoyed hearing about the development of new products.
Kevin, who was a layman when it came to magical tools that weren’t weapons, wiped the sweat from his brow, looking confused.
“Survey tallies…?”
“I guess you could call it a follow-up survey over the magical tools that were previously provided to civil officials. It’s used to examine their usage and current state of wear.”
“Man, that sounds complicated… Is this something the Earl of Northland asked you to do?”
“I was the one who proposed it, but yeah. He left it up to me,” Edward admitted, looking a little embarrassed but puffing out his chest proudly.
Joshua Northland, the Director of Technology at the Institute of Magic, believed that capable people should be given the positions and jobs they were best suited for. In his mind, if someone was capable of doing a job, their social standing and age were irrelevant. He didn’t even make an exception in this merit-based system for Edward, a member of the royal family.
Unlike my private tutors or my school that ostensibly touts impartiality.
Prince Edward had almost never been judged purely on his abilities and results before working with Joshua.
General Riley and Joshua were two of the few mentors Edward had with whom he didn’t have to think about his own social standing.
Edward, now back in his normal clothes, smiled to himself as he realized Joshua giving him these responsibilities had meant he’d met his boss’s expectations.
General Riley had been listening to their conversation as he checked the weapons that had been put away.
“Oh!” he suddenly said, as if he’d just remembered something. “Rudolf’s son-in-law works at the Department of Technology, right? Is Joshua doing all right?”
“He’s in good health. He’s just always so busy.”
“Haha! So he hasn’t changed at all, then!”
Edward grinned as he thought about his boss. Joshua frequently bounced back and forth between different research teams and locations, giving instructions and juggling a dozen things at once, all while carrying out his own research.
In fact, Joshua was so busy that Edward didn’t have any time to talk to him privately outside of work. Only occasionally did Edward catch him and ask him to carry letters or gifts back home for Amy. Additionally, outside of that first lecture, they hadn’t had any specific conversations about the progress of Amy and Edward’s engagement.
On that first day, Edward had told Joshua that he wanted Amy to think of him as a real fiancé, not a fiancé in name only. Since then, Edward knew he’d have no choice but work as hard as he could for Joshua, who would almost certainly be privately judging him.
The result of which was his promotion from a student at Joshua’s lectures to Joshua’s fellow researcher at the Department of Technology. But Edward wasn’t disappointed about this unintended consequence.
“So, are you supposed to learn something from these tallies?” Alexander asked Ed.
“Yes. I was curious if we’d be able to predict the breakdown of magical tools. Being able to do so could be helpful for future developments, of course, and for managing and adjusting the inventory of repair parts for our current magical tools. Some materials are hard to get, and some parts take a long time to make, you see.”
“Sounds to me like you’re already thinking like an engineer!” said Alexander.
“No kidding,” said Kevin.
They both looked a little put-off, but Edward just tilted his head, unfazed.
“You think so? But Alec, aren’t you already managing your family’s land?”
“That’s completely different! All I do is give approvals and act as the final overseer. Gramps takes care of a lot of it.”
“You’re doing a lot, too!” said Kevin, putting a hand to his forehead in disbelief. “You two are unbelievable. More capable than your position even requires, and you don’t even realize you’re capable at all!”
“But I heard you’re the supervisor for the fighting competition this year,” Edward pointed out to Kevin.
“The civil officials take care of the hard stuff. I just got the job because the duties on site aren’t so different than what I’d normally do. Well, it is a little difficult coordinating with the guilds and the other kingdoms…”
“You’re kind of a hotshot too, then! You’re a soldier, but you have to verbally spar with those crafty old foxes!”
“I wouldn’t be that disrespectful, Alec,” said Kevin, although he was laughing loudly. “I’m totally inexperienced compared with those guys. But anyway…we’ve decided on the general framework for the participants. Harold’s party applied, too. They submitted their entry form through a guild.”
Alexander jolted forward in surprise.
“Hal’s going to compete?! When’s he coming back to Luducia?”
“Not sure yet. Their rank is so high that they can bypass the preliminary matches, so they might arrive just before the main tournament. I heard that they’re heading to the special hunting zone now.”
“You’re joking! The special zone… Well, that’s Hal for you…”
“You seem pleased, Alec,” said Kevin, “but isn’t there a chance we might have to face them in the tournament?”
In the combat tournament, there were individual matches as well as team matches. Harold’s party, therefore, would be in the same tournament seeding as Edward, Alexander, and Kevin’s team in the group competition.
“I could only dream of going up against Hal!” exclaimed Alec. “Weren’t you two in the same year, Kev?”
“Well, yes, but those guys—and especially Harold—are sure to pull out moves we could never predict, so my experience fighting against him won’t be very helpful. He’s talented enough, but his swordsmanship and his mind are far too reckless.”
“Ah… That’ll be the Northland blood in him,” said General Riley.
“Do you know something we don’t, General?” asked Edward.
General Riley nodded slowly, lost in thought, and began to reminisce aloud.
“There was some dispute when Joshua married Isabelle. You may not be aware of this, but Rudolf is quite a doting parent. He told Joshua in no uncertain terms: ‘If you can’t defeat me, you can’t have my daughter!’ And so, they agreed to have a sword duel.”
“But it’s impossible to defeat the margrave one-on-one!” Kevin interjected.
His presumption was more than substantiated. Where General Riley had built his reputation through land battles, Rudolf Wallum had done the same through his fierce sea battles. And he wasn’t only skilled at commanding those naval battles, either—his physical strength was almost unmatched.
By contrast, although Joshua had started to make a name for himself in the field of magical tool research, he gave off the impression of a slightly dweeby civil official—which, in fact, he was.
“I can’t really imagine the director holding a sword…” Edward muttered.
“Quite so. Everyone thought the duel was over before it had begun. But when it came time to fight, Rudolf was completely caught off guard by Joshua’s unique sword technique. Joshua barely managed to win, and that’s how he and Isabelle were allowed to marry.”
In fact, Joshua’s swordsmanship was heavily influenced by the Japanese martial art he had been very familiar with in his past life, kendo. His posture and footwork were unthinkable among the fighting styles of this world, and even Rudolf, accustomed to a fierce, dramatic style of fighting, had not seen it coming.
General Riley, who knew both men quite well, cheerfully turned to Edward and gave him some advice.
“Although they’re not related by blood, they’re more alike than you might think. Maybe you should do some extra training too, eh?”
“Well,” said Alec, thumping Edward’s shoulder. “I promise I’ll collect your bones for a funeral afterwards.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Alec!” Edward joked, smiling cheerfully. “But if that’s the condition the director gives me, I’ll be more than happy to take up the challenge.”
“That’s the spirit, Your Highness!” cried General Riley, returning his smile.