“Your Highness, you just have to feel Serephione’s strength for yourself. It’ll awaken something new in you!”
You mean like a new kink?
We set up a meeting on the outskirts of the forest in the imperial domain. It was a public place where anyone could go.
Prince Gardner, Cecil, Lou, Arthur, and I were all there. We had the others stay back; I’d claimed that “This is top secret training,” but really, I was just being considerate so as few people as possible could see him fail. I wasn’t sure if he caught on to that...
“All right, Prince Gardner, you’re going to go about an hour in the four o’clock direction. There will be four devilboars there. Catch one and bring it back here.”
“What? Excuse me, are you saying that’s my training?”
“Yes, this is your first task.”
“How should I go to the location?”
“Um, however you like?”
“Then bring me a horse!”
Ah, jeez...
“Sorry, I should rephrase. Go there by yourself. I don’t care if you run, walk, jump, or skip. Ready, go!”
“W-Wait! Why do I have to run?”
“What are you going to do if Prince Schneider fights you somewhere that you can’t ride a horse? You’d have no choice but to use your own two legs!”
“I’m a magician. I haven’t done any physical training at all.”
“Then you’ll have to start now. Even battles of magic come down to physical stamina, you know. No matter what big moves you try to use, it’s over if you run out of energy. Do you think battles only last one or two hours?”
“But I’m a prince. I won’t be on the front lines. I doubt I could join the front lines even if I wanted to.”
“Well, Prince Schneider may try to fire up his own troops by shooting flames from his hands from the front lines, since public opinion has turned on him for attacking me. That would make for one prince fighting on the front lines and one prince who doesn’t even show his face. Which do you think the people would rather stand behind? Personally, I don’t care if you want to stop training, though.”
“Four o’clock, you said?”
The prince disappeared into the bushes with long strides.
Good grief.
“Arthur, go after him. We don’t want anything happening to him.”
“Understood. Would you mind if I participated in this training as well?”
Huh? Why? This is closer to bullying than training.
“I don’t mind, I guess... Do you want to go too, Cecil?”
“No, I don’t need to. I’ll wait here with you.”
Hmm, all right.
Arthur nodded and vanished into the forest. Cecil and I sat down on a log.
“So, you think you could catch a devilboar with ease, Cecil?”
“Lady Serephione—no, may I call you Miss, like the guildmaster does? Take a look at this.”
“Oh?” Lou’s eyes sparkled.
Cecil took a plate from his neck. It was bronze...from Trundle.
“You’re not in Macgregor Guild?” I asked.
Cecil smiled sheepishly. “I’m ashamed to say it, but I have a platinum plate with Macgregor.”
“So, why the bronze?”
“Alma brought me to Trundle Guild. I saw her work there. It was on a completely different level...both the commission and how strong she was...”
Alma...
“I joined Trundle Guild as well and finally made it to C-rank, so I think I could handle up to three devilboars at once. Several of my classmates have also been initiated into Trundle.”
There was no way Ziek would hand out a bronze Trundle plate easily. Cecil wasn’t just a spoiled noble boy anymore.
“Why did you come with Prince Gardner?”
“Well, I really do like Prince Gardner, at the end of the day. He’s noble, diligent, and kind to a fault. And...it touched me how sad he was after he lost Maribelle.”
That’s just like Cecil. He may not have any political motives, but he doesn’t have any hesitation or regrets either.
“How much do you...? How much do Alma and everyone at school know about what’s going on?”
“Powerless as I was, I didn’t hear anything at first. Alma and Nick saw you running away while being attacked by magicians, so they ran into the gym after the following explosion, and they saw Mr. Kodak hurt badly and the general standing there stunned. There was a huge commotion about it, but the school never gave us an explanation.”
So they were concerned enough about me to come to the gym.
“I heard the whole story after I was accepted as a Trundle member. Trundle Guild guards information about you very strictly. They told me that you had been targeted for your power from a young age, and that Prince Schneider lured you to him using the general because he wanted your power, and that he tried to kill you when you refused him.”
My beloved scary-cool gang accepted Cecil as one of them... He’s the real thing.
“When word came after a while that you were alive in Marsche, everyone in the guild cried.”
Everyone...
“Then, they gave me the confidential news that the emperor of Galé had taken you back to his country after you were attacked by bandits, and that you two were so lovey-dovey kissy-kissy that no one could possibly interfere.”
“Hey, that last part was weird!”
“Oh, sorry. I picked that up from my favorite book, the Four Knight Sisters.”
What the heck?
“How many people know as much as you do?”
“Me, Nick, Alma, and Trundle Guild. And then the royal family, as well as probably the shrine Saint Elise is at. The students at knight school are sharing information too... They’ve probably reached something close to the truth, especially those of us in the same year as you.”
Us? “I’m still...in your year?”
“Of course!”