The imperial palace was in complete disarray after the meeting. The Trier and Dalimore families had their titles revoked, the chancellor and eight others were sentenced to death, and their families were subject to further investigation. Prince Andrew was officially named crown prince, while Prince Jean received the former lands of Marquess Trier, took his mother’s maiden name of Stanfield, and became a duke.
Ah, right, and apparently, all of the plants in the area of the spirits’ former forest wilted. Those who had been happily taking their time suddenly entered a great panic; work on the tree farm really kicked into high gear.
For at least three years, the empress would likely be in a difficult position, but she had an even more pressing issue to consider: She had to determine how to handle the Belisarios now that we were being given special treatment by the Royal Spirits. It wouldn’t be good if someone completely unaware of that fact incurred our wrath, so our family was now given the same treatment as a duke’s family. Apparently, that placed us only a step down from the imperial family in terms of precedence.
Father had been left with his own worries, though. The Earth Queen had outright declared that the imperial family owed us a great debt, and she’d even allowed my brothers to not kneel. I had Ruri’s blessing and the vow from the four Royal Spirits that they would be my guardians. If someone made one wrong move, the country could be completely destroyed, so the imperial family would very much have liked to make me one of them, whether through adoption or marriage. So long as I said no, however, they couldn’t force me into anything, no matter how many times they offered.
The entire country could fall into ruin if someone annoyed this one particular four-year-old. Even I was starting to see myself as a nuisance. Who does this kid think she is, hmm?
And so, the imperial palace decided that if they couldn’t pull me into their family, they would take father instead.
“They are suggesting I take up a position in the imperial palace, such as the role of chancellor.”
“I see,” Chris said. “Well, I wouldn’t mind you leaving the matters of the march to me, so good luck.”
“This is no laughing matter! I’ll barely get to see you all anymore. If I can’t see Deir, then work has no meaning!”
But the nobles of our march were overjoyed. If the margrave gained more power, those below him naturally did too. We already had a ton of people visiting us over the summer to learn how to raise their spirits. Never mind a holiday resort—we’d become the land of the spirits.
The imperial family had taken their vacation in the lands of Marquess Johannes, but some officials from the marquess’s domain had visited us to take part in our lessons on caring for spirits. Most of the land along the coast was Ruri’s territory, so it was like we had sacred land within our castle grounds.
Then autumn rolled around and as predicted, the March of Belisario boasted a record-breaking harvest and massively successful catches at sea. Our domain burst into celebration, and all the towns and villages gifted us food and alcohol. Our knights’ order and the soldiers of our army even set up stalls in the castle town for a day and gave out free food.
With such bounty, we had plenty of reserves for worst-case scenarios, and we were able to sell our crops at high prices to the areas surrounding the capital whose harvests had suffered.
When the city was happy, the knights and everyone else working in the castle were happy. When everyone else was happy, I was also happy. I hope I get to go see the castle town myself soon.
“Deir, would you like to join me at Empress Ephenia’s tea party?” mother asked as I mused on recent developments. “The crown prince will be attending as well.”
“Father said I shouldn’t go to tea parties until I’m six,” I reminded her.
“Another letter has also arrived from His Grace, Lord Jean,” she pressed.
“I will read it in due time.”
At the end of the meeting, I had asked the empress, “Had you really been forgetting to give mana to your spirits?”
She’d looked at me in shock and said, “I really had. I’ll make sure to do it from now on.” But honestly, the doubts I’d begun to harbor about her had yet to clear. What if she deliberately hadn’t fed them in order to use us and the Spirit Queen? What if the general had pushed himself to grow his spirit into a beast only to help alleviate any of the inevitable anger? What if Kohaku had caught on to that, and that was why she’d made the conditions for giving them spirits harsher?
And now, the empress knew that a little kid like me was suspicious of her. She had also noticed that it wasn’t just me—father and my brothers had become just that little bit colder toward her too. The change was so small that if she hadn’t known them personally for so long, she’d likely never have noticed.
As if in an attempt to repair relations, mother always invited me along whenever she went to tea parties.
Sorry, mother. I can understand Her Majesty’s position in my head, but my heart can’t forgive her for trying to use the spirits in that way. Nor can it forgive the imperial family for abandoning the spirits without a second thought for all these years.
It was expected that a noble would have at least one spirit—they served as a status symbol. The more you had, the more impressive you looked. But that meant that they viewed them as mere decoration.
It didn’t matter how hungry or lonely spirits were, they couldn’t voice their needs until they became beasts. You had to treasure those tiny lives. Take good enough care of them that they became a beast, and they would protect you for life.
Until we could see that Her Majesty and the others who served in the palace were taking proper care of their spirits, we couldn’t be as friendly with them as we were before, but I didn’t want anything to happen to them either. Once the forest was back to normal and the princes had their own spirits, I was sure we could greet each other with a smile just as before.
“Chris, you need to go to the academy soon, don’t you?” I asked as I pondered the situation. “Will you be all right?”
“You should be asking them that. Andrew’s recent tea party was horrific.”
Chris was more often in our domain than in the imperial palace, so even though he was acquainted with the crown prince, he wasn’t his retainer. All his life, the prince had been constantly surrounded by the children of nobles from the central regions or the second and third sons of high-ranking noble families, all of them competing to become his retainers. Anytime a prodigy like my brother had shown up, there had always been someone who would try to interfere with him getting close to the prince.
In other words, you’re telling me these boys were fighting among themselves for another boy’s affection? Could I merge with a tree and watch them? I’d even become dirt if I had to. I wouldn’t dare do something so blasphemous as breathe the same air as them.
“This time, they treated me like I was one of Andrew’s relatives and had me sit right beside him,” Chris recounted. “Some were even asking if they could become my retainer.”
Damn, they’re desperate.
“Andrew asked me about the spirit situation, and I told him that he should start going to the forest by the school and keep using his mana or having picnics there. He’ll leave a much better impression if he’s been going there for years rather than only showing up for the first time when it’s time to receive his spirit.”
“Great idea, brother. Now, when did you two get so close that you stopped calling him Prince Andrew?” I quizzed him.
“It was quite a while ago.”
What?! How careless of me to never notice!
“Does that mean His Imperial Highness drops your title too?”
“Of course,” Chris said. “Is that a problem?”
“Huh? Oh, uh, no, I was just thinking I don’t have any friends like that.” I offered him my most innocent smile.
“You don’t have any friends?!”
“Uh... I do!” I racked my brain. “There’s Elda!”
“Isn’t she more like a cousin? We’re only acquainted because our domains neighbor each other.”
“W-Well, there’s...”
NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I really don’t have any friends who are just human children!
“They’re all scared of me, apparently,” I sighed.
“Oh,” he said. The silence that followed spoke volumes.
“Even when their guardians give them permission to play with me, they’re always too scared to.”
“What’s that term everyone’s been using again? The fairy princess loved by the Royals?”
“Now who could that possibly be?” I made a show of gazing off into space in apparent confusion.
Hang on a sec... Speaking of second sons of high-ranking nobles, don’t we have one of our own? You know, a son who’s only one year younger than the second prince?
“Huh? A retainer?” Chris said when I voiced my thoughts aloud. “He’d be much better staying here to train with the knights.”
“Wasn’t he going to join the imperial guard, though? Wasn’t the plan to become best friends with the prince and serve as his bodyguard?”
“Things are much more interesting here than in the capital and I’ve been busy recently anyway,” Alan said with a shrug.
That was fair. Alan was having to run himself ragged explaining spirits to people just like the rest of us.