That was for sure. The lord of a declining house like Duval didn’t have the sort of authority to alter an institution run in accordance with the wishes of the royal family.
“Ever since then, she’s been giving me nasty looks. I can’t stand it.”
“That girl never grows up.”
I was fairly sure phrases like that and “repentance” weren’t in her dictionary.
“Even if it’s not hurting me or anything, it gets on my nerves.”
“Well, she’s got her eyes on the third prince, and you’re the only girl on your team. I’d assume she’s envious of you, no?”
“Wha?”
There was nothing romantic about our teamwork. Honestly, the only thing on our minds was making our project for the festival a success. Third prince notwithstanding, I was under the impression life wouldn’t be easy for the second and third son, hence their determination to put on a good show. While they might be able to spend the near future as aides to the third prince, that job would disappear if he became one of the common people.
For a boy with little hope of inheriting his house, getting good grades and achievements in general magic probably seemed like a good chance to make a name for oneself. There would be lots of employers attending the festival, so it wasn’t impossible for them to be scouted if they did something noteworthy. Likewise, perhaps if a girl put on a fine display of embroidery or poetry she might entice a potential suitor.
And yet...
“Ribbons is awfully complacent,” I said.
“Indeed. Do you think she truly understands the position she’s in?”
“I bet not.”
If I were to inherit the house, both my father and brother would be removed. I didn’t know where they might go, but there was a good chance they might build a house to retire to in our domain. There was no room for Ribbons in that picture. If my father and brother retired in seclusion, they wouldn’t be able to spend money the way they currently were, and they wouldn’t have time to take care of Ribbons. More than anyone, she needed to be preparing for the future.
“She wouldn’t listen if it came from me, and I don’t feel like telling her,” I said.
“Indeed, that’s something for her parents to solve.”
Normally, our father should be doing something for her, such as setting aside some of his money for her, arranging for her to be adopted by a merchant, or finding someone for her to marry. Except doing that wouldn’t be easy now that she had been so thoroughly spoiled.
“What do you suppose she’ll do, come this fall?” Colny asked.
“I don’t think she or our father have given it any thought. That reminds me, do they know that the royal family has approved my inheriting the house?”
“They shouldn’t. If they did, they’d try to stop it.”
Which meant we were going to keep it a secret until the last moment.
Oh, that’s right.
“By the way, I have a question.”
Colny turned to face me again. “What might that be?”
“When I inherit the house, am I just going to be signing documents?”
“I couldn’t say. I don’t know much about that process.”
So she doesn’t know. Maybe Sheila will.
During our slow crawl to the academy festival, I had a visitor show up at the attic room.
Don’t tell me it’s Ribbons.
Checking the monitor, I saw it was the fourth-year girl who had visited previously. The competent brother’s girlfriend—no. Not his girlfriend; his dance partner at the ball.
“Coming,” I called. Opening the door, I was greeted by her smile.
“Please, forgive my intrusion. I was asked to see that you received this.” In her hand was an envelope. A plain old white envelope. “I trust I needn’t tell you who it’s from? And now I’ve done my job.”
Once she had firmly ensured I received the letter, she simply turned around and headed back down the staircase. She really had come here just to hand me this correspondence, which I noticed didn’t have its sender’s name anywhere on it.
“Figures.”
That said, if she were the messenger, then it definitely came from the competent younger brother. What could make him want to send me a letter? Closing the door behind me, I opened the envelope.
Inside was a card bearing a single sentence: Be careful during the academy festival.
Was I to assume this meant his dimwit brother would attack me at the festival? Or maybe it wasn’t me, but general magic’s performance? Or maybe the academy festival itself?
“Eh, I won’t get anywhere thinking about this by myself.”
Yep, this is something to shove off—entrust to the adults.
The next day, I swung by Bear’s prep room between classes. I figured he’d be here since there wouldn’t be any general magic classes today.
“Bear, you here?”
“Who are ya calling a bear?!”
Oh, he’s here. Except there’s also someone who shouldn’t be here. Why are you here, Competent Brother?
I was so surprised, I didn’t notice I was just standing in the doorway until Bear said something.
“Close the door behind you.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“It appears my presence puzzles the little lady,” the brother said.
“She’s not much of a lady,” Bear replied.
Why are these two talking like good friends?
“Excuse me, miss. I’m not in general magic, but I am in magic. I had a question, which I brought to my instructor, but they said it would be faster if I asked Mr. Fulmanson here. So here I am.”
“Oh. I see.”
I forgot it all the time, but Fulmanson was Bear’s last name. Not many bears have those.
More importantly though, was that really why this guy was here? It was a little hard to buy that he just happened to be here the day after he sent me that letter.
“Lera, I get that you’re concerned, but you can trust this guy, at least when it comes to his older brother. He says he’s got his doubts about their great-grandfather.”
“Huh?”
I turned my head to the competent brother, unsure if Bear really should have said that.
“Though I can’t go into any details,” he said with a smile, “not everyone in the noble faction obeys my great-grandfather out of belief in him. You can even count me among them. That’s why— Ah, is there any chance you came here because of that letter I sent?”
Competent indeed. I hadn’t even said anything, but the timing apparently made it pretty clear.
“There’s nothing more I can offer,” he said regretfully. “Not only do my brother’s motivations elude me, he has the backing of our great-grandfather. I’ll be powerless if the marquess puts his foot down. Plus, we don’t know how deep his influence runs within the academy.”
So in effect, it wasn’t so much the dimwit brother and his plans that we needed to worry about, but rather his backer—Marquess Bilbroza, the head of the noble faction.
Hold on, if that’s true, then I don’t stand a chance! I was approaching despair.
“Lera, we know about the letter,” Bear added. “We’re planning to bring House Aspozat into this.”
“Huh?”
Thand and everyone else?
“But they’ve already gone out of their way for me once, with the dimwit brother incident...”
“Dimwit brother...”
Ah, whoops.
It still hadn’t quite sank in that the brothers were actually related. The thing was though, he didn’t look particularly bothered. If anything, he was suppressing a snicker.
“No need to hold back, Zodian.”
“Pfft! Ha ha ha!”
I guess he’s got a good sense of humor?
Our chat concluded with Bear telling me not to make any moves, and that House Aspozat would look into things on the outside. After that, I made my departure.
“If the old man decides to make life difficult for you, it will be from outside the academy,” Bear had said. “In here, I’m keeping an eye out, and so are some of the other instructors. If you have to do anything, it’ll be on the day of the festival.”
“The day of...”
“We’re sure they’re going to interfere with general magic’s display. Stopping that and ensuring the show is a success is your job. Got it?”
Since I couldn’t really argue with that logic, I dedicated my focus to making sure the upcoming display went well.
As we got closer to the fateful day, it became increasingly common for our general education classes to be spent making preparations. Nothing odd had happened since my chat with Bear. Just Ribbons being a pain in the neck, mostly.
Because my team was all in the same general education class, we were able to practice our coordinated spells. We used the general magic classroom, where we saw students from other classes as well. Naturally, that included Ribbons. Her silent, fixated stare didn’t do anything to improve my mood. Unless I was imagining it, the third prince was similarly uncomfortable.