“Thanks for that,” Lloyd said. “I’ll be comin’ back for more.”
“Sure. That was good magic,” I replied.
We left the training area and went our separate ways.
Mwa ha…interesting. Lloyd’s technique is still rough around the edges, but that really was a fine spell. He’s got good magic, that one—gotta be on the same level as Alice and Mia, I reckon.
…But this is still pretty boring. I’m sure magic has a lot of depth to it normally, but I end up succeeding way too easily at everything I attempt. More importantly, magic duels don’t have the same push and pull that sword fights do, especially when I can curbstomp any opponent, thanks to my overpowered Dark element. I miss the spine-tingling action, the trading blows and the tactical retreats that can allow for the weaker party to gain the upper hand… It’s so much more exciting.
The sword really is what I prefer, to be…huh? Hang on, I think I see someone over there… Are they watching me?
I turned, but the watcher panicked and ran the moment our eyes met.
That purple-haired girl…I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before? Or maybe I haven’t… Maybe she just looks familiar because she’s also in the first-year class?
Hm. Not that I particularly care who she is, anyway.
“Hey there! Luke!”
Someone called out to me from the opposite direction, and I turned to see the root of all my current worries standing there—Polpon.
I gritted my teeth and turned away.
“Ah, hey! Wait up!”
I think he irritates me in the same way Abel does. No matter how many times I knock him down, he just ignores it and gets right back up… Ugh, I’m sick of dealing with this damn prince. I mean, that day he went crazy and started asking to be one of my pawns, I turned him down. At least, I think I did. I tried to…but he hasn’t stopped following me around. He doesn’t know when to give up.
I swore a bit under my breath thinking about it. Then again, maybe I brought this on myself. I was just a little bit curious about what was going on in his unpleasant little mind, so I asked him what he would do if he actually became king. His answer was…well, it sure was something.
“What a good question! First, I would purge all the incompetent aristocrats in the kingdom, being careful not to remove so many at once that it affects the functioning of the state. I don’t know how many years that process would take, but unless this country comes together as one, I really don’t think I can make anything else happen. So…for starters, I’m fine with ruling by fear.”
That was his answer, and he seemed pretty cheerful when he was talking about it. He used the word “purge” like it was some normal, everyday activity, like it wasn’t a completely unhinged thing to say.
I guess what he means is that he’ll strip the titles of all the incompetent nobles and not allow any dissent. That’s real ruthless stuff, honestly. I never expected any of that from him. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help being just a little impressed by him… That was my biggest mistake because it just made him even more persistent.
I sighed.
“What’s the matter, Luke? Are you tired?”
“…”
It wouldn’t be all that simple, anyway. He’d need a wildly powerful military force to subjugate those nobles—it’s not like they’d just roll over and go down without a fight. That means the royalist faction would need to gain more strength, which takes time… Really, everything he’s suggesting would take years to come to fruition. But still, his heart must be made of ice-cold steel to be so sure of himself and so willing to take the lives of others for his country. That’s a bit interesting, I suppose…
I couldn’t help but think so, at least privately. But Polpon was perceptive, and, sensing that he was making progress, he began to follow me around.
I sighed again, more forcefully.
“Luke…? You look really exhausted. Are you sure you don’t need me to become one of your pawns? You wouldn’t be so tired out if I w—”
It’s your fault I’m like this, dumbass, I thought, tuning out the rest of his sentence.
“Ah, come to think of it,” he exclaimed suddenly, “the number one girl in the hierarchy is coming back from her magic division training soon. You know her pretty well, right? I mean, she is the daughter to House Godwin.”
“Eh…?”
Eleonora… That name didn’t consciously ring any bells, and yet it seemed vaguely familiar. For some reason, for just a brief moment, I felt like I knew her.