Then came the talks about a cultural exchange with the Romany Kingdom. Although Lars wasn’t terribly proficient at magic himself, his political acumen was the strongest among his brothers, and so it was suggested that he lead the diplomatic delegation. Part of it, of course, was so that he could score some personal achievements and for Lufina to learn from the Romanian sorcerer she so deeply admired, but the two of them were worried for Sofia at the same time.
Neither the third prince nor the third princess had much family pedigree to lean on. Lars’s mother did not come from a particularly highborn house, and Lufina was the daughter of a noblewoman whose family owned an abundance of magic stone mines. The two siblings had always gotten along well because of that, and they extended the same sympathies toward Sofia.
When they heard that Romany had a milder climate than Egorova and that it possessed a magically talented knight force with a young, unmarried, and talented commander from a prominent noble family, they sounded him out as a match for Sofia.
“If she got shuffled off into the hinterlands as a political pawn, who knows if she would even be allowed to live?” said Lars. “We thought that surely a high-ranking knight in Romany would not treat her so poorly in the interest of future diplomatic relations.”
“I apologize for pushing our decision onto you,” Lufina said.
Apparently, the two of them had been dogmatic about the engagement.
“I really am sorry. Our intelligence informed us that you were not betrothed…,” Lars said as he glanced at Aresh and Seiichirou sitting intimately close to each other. “I assumed that Seiichirou’s partner was that priest…”
Aresh’s purple eyes flashed angrily. “The priest? You mean Siegvold? I don’t understand. What were you doing for them to come to that conclusion?”
“Nothing,” said Seiichirou. “The Egorovans asked to see the private school, and I just spoke a little with Priest Siegvold as I was guiding them around.”
“How would that make them draw assumptions?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask them? They’re right there.”
“Your lovers’ quarrel isn’t getting us anywhere. Save it for when you’re alone,” Erene said flatly, prompting Aresh to frown and fall silent. Seiichirou shut his mouth, too, not wanting others to see his petulant side.
“Oh no, I’m sorry,” said Lufina. “Kondo was wearing an amethyst lapel pin at the dinner party, so we just assumed that his partner had purple in their appearance. Then we met the priest and got the wrong idea.”
“Now whose fault is that, Mr. Aresh?” said Seiichirou.
“Well, it did make them understand that you were taken,” Aresh said sullenly.
“Oh, don’t give me that…”
“I told you to save it for later.” Erene snapped her fan shut.
The two bickering lovers fell quiet once again.
“Anyway, we caused you a great deal of trouble with our plan,” Lars said. “I won’t be offended if you just forget about the whole marriage offer.”
“We are ever so sorry,” said Lufina.
“No, I’m just glad we sorted out the misunderstanding. Please lift your heads,” Erene insisted.
“There’s also, well…the matter of how you healed Sofia,” the two Egorovan royals said after they had slowly lifted their heads.
They were curious about how Sofia’s pallor had instantly cleared when every previous attempt at healing magic only served to contain her immediate symptoms.
“You asked for a purification spell, yes?” Lars went on. “Does this mean that the Holy Maiden’s power can cure Sofia’s illness?”
“What? Purification removes the magicules. It’s not a cure to illness, I think?” Yua, who had only done what Seiichirou told her to do, cocked her head.
With the conversation evidently going nowhere, Aresh chimed in. “Princess Sofia most likely suffers from magic poisoning. It can happen to people with low magic resistance when their stamina is low or if they go somewhere with a high density of magicules.”
“Magic…poisoning?” Lars and Lufina looked confused.
Seiichirou didn’t blame them. This was a world where magicules were as natural as air, and Egorova was particularly dense with the stuff. It was like telling an earthling that someone had an allergy to oxygen or nitrogen.
To muddle matters further, healing spells did work on sickly bodies to an extent. A peasant might not have the luxury, but the royals could solve most problems instantly with healing.
“Magicules are part of the air. They are not poison,” Aresh explained. “Most people, even those with weak bodies, will not suffer unless they venture to the depths of the magic stone mines or some such place. But there are rare cases where people have low resistance.”
And such cases would probably be regarded as inexplicable.
“How do you know all of this?” Lars asked.
Aresh turned his gaze to Seiichirou, who nodded and took up the explanation. “As you know, I was summoned from another world. Because of that, I have hardly any magicule resistance to speak of.”
Even then, he’d managed to get by in the Romany Kingdom, which wasn’t too dense with magicules, by sticking to small portions of magicule-light foods. But when he got his hands on magicule-heavy indulgences, he rapidly fell ill, and Aresh came to the rescue.
Seiichirou did not go so far as to mention all of that, but he did say, “Princess Sofia’s body is still developing. I believe that is why she cannot withstand the magicules in Egorova.”
“Oh dear… So you’re saying that as long as Sofia is in Egorova…”
“Which is why I have a proposal.”
“Hm?” Those who didn’t know Seiichirou very well were confused at his sudden assertiveness.
“Oh.”
“Ohhhh.”
Meanwhile, those who did know him well reacted as if they’d seen this all before. Either that or exasperation.
At times like these, Seiichirou got as carried away as Ist.
“Romany is currently launching research into the relationship between magicules and magical energy in the hopes of increasing magical capacity and magicule resistance.”
“Increasing magicule resistance?” said Lars. “Really?”
“Indeed. Having almost no resistance myself, I’ve made do with tools such as these. I would almost certainly have suffered a bout of illness had I come to Egorova without them.”
It would have been nigh impossible for a freshly summoned Seiichirou. It was only through Aresh and Pavel’s blood, sweat, and tears that his tolerance had managed to increase in a tangible way.
“And I believe that I was able to raise my resistances with minimal periods of illness because I was in Romany, where the magicules are not so dense.”
“Wait a second. Are you saying you managed to increase your magical power?” The question came from an unexpected angle.
Seiichirou was a little surprised, though he nodded without his expression so much as flickering.
“Yes. Although magical power is said to be hereditary because it presently has a strong correlation with bloodlines, I believe that it can be raised after the fact.”
Which was why he was suggesting that Romany take custody of Princess Sofia as part of their countries’ joint efforts at magical research.
“That…would be the best possible outcome,” said Lars.
Indeed. By having her participate in research efforts, she would convalesce in a magicule-light land and build her tolerance. This would also spare her from being married off into the hinterlands, and if her magical power did manage to increase, her standing as a royal would improve.
This would also mean Lars’s side would owe them a debt and provide a good pretext for Romany taking the lead with the research. To put it cynically, the Egorovan princess would essentially be a hostage. Although she wasn’t terribly important from the Egorovan perspective, she was still a princess nonetheless. Lars’s side certainly wouldn’t abandon her.
Of course, only so many people were worthy of taking custody of a princess, which was why a certain somebody took this opportunity to stand.
“My house can take responsibility for Princess Sofia.”
All eyes turned to Erene.
“Seiichirou,” she said. “Let me join the experiments, too.”
“Huh? Well, I don’t see why not…” Seiichirou did not see what a married noblewoman like Erene stood to gain from participating, but there were probably a lot of people who wanted to throw their hat into the ring given that it was a state-sponsored plan.
“Oh, but I’m not sure about sending Sofia alone to Romany…” Lufina sounded ill at ease.
“Not to worry,” Norbert answered with his usual lackadaisical tone. “Long as she’s got a family who loves her, she’ll be just fine!”
He was a king’s bastard child, adopted by a retainer. Having sworn to support the royal family, the young man smiled without a care in the world.
Lars thanked them once more and stood up. “I’ve prepared private rooms for all of you. Please make yourselves at home until dinner.”
He was trying to set the scene for a banquet to give himself time to report to the higher authorities.
Aresh chose this moment to speak up. “I hope you’ll forgive us for not attending.”
Us, not me, he said. All eyes turned to Seiichirou.
“As I explained earlier,” Aresh said, “this man’s body is weak to magicules. He must rest before he returns to Romany.”
Aresh’s barrier had weakened by then. Although Seiichirou had been fine on the journey to Egorova, the aftereffects of Yua’s purification magic left him slightly feverish. As Aresh said, he needed treatment before he went home.
Aresh’s attitude was so matter-of-fact that nobody could bring themselves to ask who would be doing this “treatment.”
Perceiving this, Lars smiled and said, “Very well. I ask that you take care,” before leaving the room.
After that, Ist insisted on seeing the Sorcery Department, so Lufina showed him the way. Sigma went with them, of course. It wasn’t terribly dignified, but nobody on the Romany side spoke up strongly against it after what they’d experienced.
“Let us get ready for the dinner party, Lady Yua,” said Erene.
“Oh, but I don’t have a dress.”
“I packed enough for you as well. So shall we be off? Orjef, be our bodyguard.”
“What? Why me?”
“You really don’t have a shred of wit, do you? They don’t need a guard, do they? Isn’t a knight supposed to protect the dainty ladies?”
Seemingly used to Erene’s barbs, Orjef merely glanced at Seiichirou and the others before reluctantly leaving his seat.
“Nor—”
“Oh, I’ll just be chilling in my room. Don’t mind me!” Norbert avoided looking at Aresh, who was hovering behind Seiichirou.
Evidently, he didn’t want to get kicked by a horse and die.