My name is Ralph Mackenzie, and I am the second son of a marquess. Though I was born into nobility, as the second son, I had no right to inherit the Mackenzie title and estate. Because of that, from a young age I’d been determined to do what I could on my own! And so, I did my best to study and learn sword fighting.
My older brother, who would be succeeding my father, seemed to be under a lot of pressure. It was possible that being the second son was actually easier.
“You will be in the same grade as the second prince, His Highness Keith,” my father announced. “That is why you must work hard to study, so that you may be chosen as his schoolmate!”
Around the time that I turned eight, my father strongly urged me to become particularly close to Prince Keith. As a result, my tutors for both academics and sword fighting became a lot stricter.
Perhaps it was the fruit of my labor, but I succeeded in becoming Prince Keith’s schoolmate, along with Hugo.
Before we enrolled in the Royal Academy, it was decided that Prince Keith would be moving into the dorms. I’d been under the assumption that, like all the royals before him, Prince Keith would be commuting to school from the palace, so this news was shocking.
“We’d like to move into the dorms with you as well, Prince Keith!” Hugo and I immediately said.
It appeared that our decision was for the best.
“Thanks, you two!” Prince Keith exclaimed. “I have no idea why my father ordered such a thing, but I have no choice other than to obey him.”
As sons of nobles, Hugo and I were also in no position to disobey our fathers. However, in Prince Keith’s case, disobeying his father meant disobeying the king. Anything the prince’s father said was basically a royal command.
Hugo and I were both confused when we heard that Prince Richard, who would be graduating in a year, was also moving into the dorm.
“My brother will be fine, but I feel bad that even Margaret has to move into the dorms,” Prince Keith lamented. “Not only that, but...none of her friends are moving into the dorms with her!”
That’s interesting.
Princess Margaret’s friends were noble ladies who were also noble supremacists. I knew that because I had a distinct memory of my father being displeased that she’d chosen such girls as her schoolmates. Hugo and I decided that we would behave in a manner befitting the schoolmates of Prince Keith.
Enrolling in the Royal Academy and living in the dorms with Prince Keith turned out to be a lot more freeing than I’d expected. There was just one issue—my father had driven it into me that I shouldn’t get good grades in subjects that were difficult for Prince Keith, such as classical literature and history. That made me a bit sad.
Other than that one issue, it was easy being Prince Keith’s friend. He was an honest and decent person.
Another issue arose later. For some reason, Prince Keith began to see Princess Margaret’s lady’s maid, Patience Granger, as a rival of some sort. That was something else we had to be careful about.
At the beginning of the year, Prince Keith seemed to be interested in our classmate Louise, but she was definitely a bad choice. Both Hugo and I initially thought she was perfect as well. She was beautiful, smart, and gifted with proficiency in light magic. All that together made her potentially the perfect princess for Prince Keith, but we quickly realized that she wouldn’t do well as a royal.
We worried that Prince Keith had romantic feelings for her, but he quickly noticed on his own that she gave dirty looks to lower-class nobles.
“Louise is just like my sister’s friends!” Prince Keith exclaimed.
Hugo and I were relieved to hear that. Though it wasn’t as important of a position as Prince Richard’s wife, Prince Keith’s future wife would become an important figure in the Kingdom of Lawrence.
I definitely don’t want a mean noble supremacist to become a princess.
We entered our second year in the junior division, and the girl on Keith’s mind was Patience Granger. During summer vacation the previous year, she’d been invited to vacation with the royal family at the summer palace. According to what I’d heard, Prince Keith had had a good time with her there.
Becoming the princess consort to the second prince sounded like too much of a burden for a viscount’s daughter, but my father had let it slip that he would be happy to adopt Patience into our family. My father’s comment suggested that everyone recognized Patience as a skilled noble lady handpicked by the queen to be Princess Margaret’s lady’s maid.
Well, everyone but those three dumb friends of Her Highness knows that!
Eventually, those foolish friends of the princess were dismissed from being Her Highness’s schoolmates. They’d gone too far in their mocking of Patience, and Princess Margaret chose Patience over those three girls.
Of course she did! That’s obviously the correct choice!
After that incident, Hugo and I both learned a terrifying truth: It was incredibly easy to be forsaken by the royal family.
Patience was smart. As if she were showing off her intelligence, she brilliantly skipped ahead to the senior division.
“I could’ve done that as well, if it weren’t for classical literature and history!” Prince Keith complained. “If only I was in the senior division! Then I could have entered the competition during the Festival of Verdure!”
This is bad!
Last year, Prince Keith had also complained that he wanted to participate in the competition, but Prince Richard, who’d been the student council president, had sternly put the second prince in his place. The president of the knight club, President Eric, had also been quite strict.
However, President Hammond was now in charge of the knight club, and he was trying to curry favor with Prince Keith. It was the junior division students’ job to take care of the club’s horses, but President Hammond had forced that responsibility onto the riding club. Things weren’t looking good.
Perhaps I should be discussing this with Percival? But I’ve heard from father that he’s going to switch from the knight track to the civil service track. According to what I’d heard, Percival was the son of the minister of foreign affairs, so he couldn’t become a knight.
The questionable actions of President Hammond continued, and eventually the student council declared that the knight club was to be dissolved as a punishment for forcing the riding club and magic club to handle cleaning duties and participate in training.
Hugo and I were both surprised that the situation actually reached this point, but our reaction was nothing in comparison to Prince Keith’s. He became the leader among the furious members of the knight club.
The person who calmed this storm was Patience. She suggested to Prince Keith that the knight club gather signatures and petition the student council to reverse their decision.
Prince Richard had been pulling strings behind the scenes because he wasn’t happy that President Hammond had been spoiling Prince Keith. Regardless, the knight club once again became a proper club, and I didn’t have to reconsider my educational path.
Despite the fact that things had settled down, for some reason, my stomach hurt. Whenever I saw Prince Keith and Patience together, I felt like I was sitting on thorns.
I spent my days getting together with Hugo, venting to each other. Though we were grateful she’d come up with the idea that helped bring back the knight club, we really wished she wouldn’t irritate Prince Keith and his romantic feelings for her by getting involved with the alchemy club.