Mia smiled calmly to herself, which was actually more than a little bit terrifying. It sent a wave of indescribable fear shooting down Luke’s spine. House Lennox were royalists, and House Lonsdale were influential members of the noble faction. Of late, there was less fighting between the groups on the surface, but the roots of the feud between the factions ran deep. It was this that Polpon thought was a little strange, as he saw Mia walking around with Luke and Alice.
“It’s a little late to be saying this, but, Prince Polpon, are you sure this is wise? Asking Luke for help, I mean…”
“I have to reach the top ten in the academy hierarchy, no matter what. I know that there are many people who won’t agree with what I’m doing, but I will sacrifice what I must,” he answered. “And right now, I’m just another student, the same as you. Won’t you cut the ‘prince’ stuff and just use my name?”
“Right. Polpon it is, then,” replied Alice immediately.
“Oh.”
Polpon couldn’t help being a little bit shocked at how easily Alice took to addressing him casually.
“What is it?”
“N-nothing…”
Just like that? thought Polpon.
“Sure, whatever,” Luke said dismissively. “Polpon. So anyway…”
Luke, you too? Ah…um, I’m still your upperclassman, you know? Maybe you could be just a tiny bit more respectful…?
“Why do you need to get into the top ten so bad?”
Just as Polpon was beginning to wonder whether he was in the wrong on this whole formality issue, Luke’s question brought his focus back to the real issue at hand.
“Well…”
Polpon hesitated for a moment, but looked Luke dead in the eyes when he eventually answered.
“The king, my father, is incompetent. That’s why.”
As he made this statement, his expression was not one of anguish or anger—rather, the complete opposite. All emotion had vanished from Polpon’s face, as if a candle had just been blown out.
“My father places too much trust in magic,” he continued. “There are many in the line of succession, but he intends to choose the most talented magic user among them as the next king. That’s his only criterion.”
Polpon quietly fretted over the future of the kingdom.
“There’s no shortage of problems facing this nation. Our political power struggles have loosened our grip on the aristocrats, and many of our subjects are suffering in poverty. We have a mountain of diplomatic problems to deal with too. Many other nations will view us with hostile eyes if we don’t comport ourselves properly. We might appear to have a friendly relationship with the neighboring empire on the surface, but in terms of the national strength of our two nations, our whole kingdom is a house of cards. Our lack of magic technology really is going to be the death of us. We should have realized how far behind we are in the development of new magic tools, but we as a nation are too prideful. We disregard all that research just because our base magic strength is naturally higher than theirs.”
The blackened pus of the kingdom came oozing out as the prince spoke. The issue had been in need of resolution for years, but had been swept under the rug as the country rested on the laurels of its innate magical strength.
“I want to change this kingdom. For that, I need to become a better magic user than my older brother, so that I can become king—that’s the most basic requirement for what I want to do. I can’t beat my brother right now, though. He’s the better magic user, but he doesn’t give a second thought to the people of this kingdom, so I can’t let him take the throne. Respectfully, I beg of you…”
Polpon lowered his head. The gravity of this action was not lost on Luke—he did, more or less, understand what it meant for a member of the royal family to be bowing to him.
“I want you to teach me magic.”
There was a moment of silence, then finally, Luke answered with a laugh.
“Mwa ha, you seem to have misunderstood something here.”
His tone of voice was evil, cold as ice.
“Prince, I do not give a damn about what becomes of this country,” he said bluntly. “My own happiness is all that matters to me. I am one of those very aristocrats that you so despise.”
Polpon was speechless. It was partly due to anger, of course—Luke’s statement amounted to a complete abandonment of his responsibilities as a noble, after all. It was only natural that Polpon would grow angry, as someone who worried for the future of his nation.
But there was something else to it as well.
I’m angry, but it’s not the anger that has left me speechless. It’s like there’s some…unknown power behind his words that’s overwhelmed me, thought Polpon anxiously.
“Should it prove necessary to attain my own happiness,” Luke continued, “then yes, I shall put in the work to improve this country. At present, though, I don’t see any need for that.”
“B-but why?! You know what’s happening, don’t you? You heard what I just s—”
“I know what’s happening, yes. But I believe that the magical power of this kingdom is much, much stronger than you think it is.”
“…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take perfectly good care of my own domain. I won’t allow anyone to consider me inferior to the other lords in any way.”
Luke had not a scrap of patriotism in him. He also had no interest whatsoever in spending even a moment of his time trying to improve the nation’s fortunes or making Polpon king. He was also, most importantly, convinced that all the events that were currently unfolding around him were not supposed to be happening.