Zoltan desperately waved his hand. “Anyway! Won’t you introduce yourself to His Highness Prince Lars?”
“Oh, right, sorry. I am Norbert Blanc. I was at the dinner party, though I doubt you’d remember me.”
“Ah, yes, I know you. I am Lars Eric. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
When Lars took the reins and offered his own hand in greeting, Norbert, Zoltan, and Orjef all turned wide-eyed. The prince of a great nation had chosen to greet a lowly civil official like an equal. Even if Norbert was from a count’s family, it was still shocking.
Norbert hesitated and looked at Seiichirou, but it wasn’t as if Seiichirou had the foggiest idea what was going on. In any case, Norbert clearly couldn’t ignore Lars’s outstretched hand. Seiichirou’s eyes flickered in that direction, silently urging his subordinate to return the handshake.
And so Norbert timidly put his hand out.
“Phew, that was nerve-racking! Prince Lars is way more down-to-earth than the rumors make him sound,” a relieved Norbert said to Seiichirou and Orjef later, after Zoltan had escorted Lars and his group to the church’s inner garden.
“Down-to-earth… I don’t know about that,” said Orjef.
“Huh? You don’t think so?”
“It’s hard to say. Well, he is pretty casual with the technician and sorcerer in his party, so I guess he’s down-to-earth in that sense?”
Orjef’s comment reminded Seiichirou of their conversation from that morning. Lars was indeed casual with certain people. He knew exactly how to treat those who would be “useful” to him in the future—which implied that Norbert fell into that category. But what about him had piqued Lars’s interest?
Then Seiichirou suddenly remembered: Oh, right. He’s technically royalty…
It was easy to forget because of the way Norbert normally acted. Only some of Romany’s nobility were privy to Norbert’s bloodline—did the leader of the Egorovan delegation stumble upon this knowledge, or did he go out of his way to dig it up?
“Anyway, it sure was a surprise to see you show up out of the blue, Sei!” Norbert said, which reminded Seiichirou…
“Sixty-five points.”
“You’re grading me?! I was hoping you’d let me off the hook…”
“You speak too quickly. While in front of people, you speak one-point-five times faster than you think, so you have to enunciate. Also, your classes need a tighter focus. Show me your lesson plan later.”
“Shucks…”
“You two sure are chummy…” It was Orjef’s first time seeing Seiichirou speak without any deference whatsoever. He was a bit worried about what Aresh might think.
Just as Seiichirou was lecturing Norbert, he felt a tug on his cloak. Turning around, he saw a boy with fluffy light green hair, who was about a head shorter than him.
“Oh, Selio.”
The young priest-in-training had guided Seiichirou around back when he was investigating the church. Between his fluffy hair and long eyebrows, he was as cute as a girl, though his attitude was not nearly as pleasant.
“Hey, you… You should’ve said hi to the church people if you were coming.”
Selio was not part of today’s school group, if Seiichirou’s memory served correctly, and so he must have come running after he heard about the visit.
“Ah, sorry. I didn’t have any business with the church today.”
“Y-yeah, but you still should’ve said something! It’s not like I’d force you to come inside or anything.”
Seiichirou felt deeply moved that their relationship had come so far that Selio knew about his condition and even showed concern for him.
“Sorry. Next time I’ll come when you’re having a lesson.”
“Okay, but…when would that be?”
“I can’t say off the top of my head, but…I’m sure it will be soon.”
“Really? Definitely? Do you swear to Abran?”
Seiichirou thought it was a bit much to swear to the god who had kidnapped him and Yua from their world without so much as a by-your-leave, though he decided to nod along.
“Oh man, I look away for one second and you’ve gone and made more work,” Norbert pointed out.
Seiichirou was about to argue when he noticed that Lars and his cadre had returned.
“Hello, Kondo. I see you have a good reputation here at this school as well.”
“I suppose so. I taught some lessons in counting when the school was first getting off the ground.”
“Oh, did you? By the way, I heard Norbert and the priest call you ‘Sei.’ Is that your family name?”
Crap.
The visit had been so off the cuff that Seiichirou had forgotten to ask people not to call him that. He got the feeling that he would be exposed immediately if he froze up and told a lie, so he decided to just tell the truth.
“Kondou is my family name, and Seiichirou is my given name.”
“Ah, so Kondo is your surname. Your name is Sei… Pardon me, could you say it again?”
“Seiichirou.”
“Sei…chiro?”
People in this world in general, not just Romany, found it difficult to pronounce Japanese names, it seemed. To be fair, Seiichirou’s name was a mouthful even in Japan.
“That’s right.”
“Seichiro, then. All right, I’ve committed it to memory.”
A dazzling smile lit up the man’s handsome, doll-like face. Even Seiichirou, who was used to seeing Aresh, found Lars too blinding to look at without squinting. Beauty was a curse indeed.
“But I must say that your partner is quite possessive to restrict others from calling you by your first name,” Lars said with a meaningful look.
Seiichirou almost combusted on the spot.
The moment Lars and his group were out of the area, Selio tugged on Seiichirou’s cloak relentlessly as if to say, “What partner? Who?” Seiichirou decided to go home. Behind him, Norbert burst out laughing, which was highly aggravating to say the least. Seiichirou decided to give him some new work when he got back to the Accounting Department.