Around four hours after it turned to Monday.
The Prince arrived at the Academy earlier than usual. The arc lamps were lit since it was still dark outside.
Without a single servant in tow, Klion snuck out of the palace at this early hour. The capital was safe and secure so there wouldn’t be any assassination threats even if he wandered around like this anyway.
There was one reason why the Prince ca to the Academy alone at this ti.
She should co if I wait here.
Iluka Eliyev habitually woke up early in the morning to work out. And Klion knew of this sohow.
If he waited in the area every morning before the sun rose, he’d be able to catch Eliyev jogging without being interrupted by anyone.
Klion sat at a bench in the central square that gave him a clear view and yawned continuously. It was due to bedding a maidservant last night. His body was still fatigued but that didn’t break his resolve.
Klion wasn’t the most patient person. He stood for a mont to stretch his body. The ground was a little damp as if the spring rain was imminent.
Stamping on that dampness a few tis, Klion, who was lightly rotating his ankles─.
Stab!
“Argh!”
Looked down at the sensation of sothing digging into his lower abdon.
Where his appendix was, a sharp needle was embedded there. The needle’s thickness was the size of a thumb.
“What... are you.......”
His mind went back and forth between fuzziness and clearing up again. His consciousness was flickering. The arc lamps appeared blurry as if he was hit in the eye by a Light Arrow.
The tal needle lodged in the wound turned into magic elents and dissipated. This caused the wound to open up and bleed through the gap.
This, was it.
It went in rather deep. The pressure on his intestines made it difficult to breathe.
As his consciousness was fading, Klion saw a line-shaped crack that seed to be penetrating through the ground.
This is....
Then his thoughts disconnected.
**
It was the start of a shitty Monday.
I actually didn’t have the Monday blues. Sothing like that didn’t affect since my life had been a cycle of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday, Friday until now. The point was, I had to see both Professor Hasfeldt and the Second Prince’s face at the sa ti. I was already swearing at the thought of it.
Lotte and I left the dorms and headed to class. Nothing much happened until the morning eting.
“Yo! Good morning today, too!”
Freyr ca in.
Then the other classmates including Verl and the savage-looking girl with ultramarine hair ca in next. Verl would react with a little jump when I t his eyes which was kind of amusing.
[It’s one minute until the morning eting. Why isn’t the Second Prince here?]
That’s true. It hasn’t even been a week and he’s already late. Such weak discipline.
Drrrrr, bang!!
“Greetings, soldiers!!!!! A strong, steadfast morning to you all─!!!!!!!”
“Why are you here right now, Mr. Noelheim...?”
“Mm, I suppose I won’t be able to keep it from you!!”
At his sudden appearance, the faces of the whole class beca bewildered including and Lotte. As Mr. Alex marched to the lectern with precise movents, the rest of us couldn’t do anything but stare at him dumbfoundedly.
Mr. Alex glanced around then opened his mouth after clearing his throat.
“It’s just as I’ve heard; I’m not seeing Prince Klion here!”
“Um, did sothing happen to His Highness?”
“Hm, I’ll say it just once so listen closely! His Highness was found unconscious at the central square this morning.”
“What?”
Our faces beca twice as stupid.
Well, except . My current expression wasn’t sothing that belonged on a refined and composed Golden-Eyed girl.
[Please do sothing about your expression. What are you doing with that pretty face?]
“They say that there were signs of blade usage on his lower abdon. As for who did it, they’ve just begun to investigate!”
In other words, he got stuck in the belly and got his just desserts. Clearly, it was an assassination attempt no matter how you looked at it.
Does this world have ninjas, too...?
“Hence, your horoom teacher Miss Hasfeldt and Miss Heerlein the sub-teacher have gone to the palace. The chairman is also absent. So, I’ll be leading the morning eting today!”
“Oho.”
What luck. My stomach felt relieved like I took antacids. Right now, the corners of my mouth were stretching all the way up to my ears.
But since I shouldn’t be found failing to manage my expression from not being able to read the atmosphere, I tried to think of the saddest thing and looked around. The other classmates were either devoid of expression or grinning.
They’re the sa as . Wow, is this the bond of sympathy? My mood’s gone up!
“There isn’t much for the eting. More importantly, the first period is ‘Understand Magic Beasts’. Alright then, soldiers! Let’s get right into the lesson!!”
“Ah.”
My mood’s gone down.
**
The attack on the Prince at the Academy was an unprecedented situation.
It was a serious matter that summoned not only Klais as the horoom teacher, but also the sub, riga, and even Robespierre the chairman.
The most renowned physicians of the palace looked after the prince. The Emperor even ca into the Second Prince’s chambers and watched as this was taking place. So did the faculty of Tilette including Klais, riga, and the chairman.
“He has beco stable but we can’t know when he’ll wake up.”
“How is it that he remains unconscious when it was only a single stab wound to the stomach?”
“During diagnosis, we confird a countercurrent of the mana within his body. The shock that he experienced at the ti of the stabbing must have broken his control on his mana.”
The Emperor was troubled, but Klais was even more disturbed.
Because the Prince had quarreled with her soti ago. If he blad the injury on her in order to withdraw Aether from the school, then she wasn’t sure how she would respond to that.
There was no evidence, of course, because Klais wasn’t the culprit. However, the accusation itself would be a blow to the Hasfeldt family’s reputation. She wasn’t cautious about getting involved in scandals for no reason.
Hence, she was here, to prove that she did not commit the act of stabbing the Prince.
“Ugh.”
“Your Highness!”
The shock hadn’t been that severe so Klion opened his eyes soon enough. The Imperial physicians had to stop the Emperor from whacking his problematic son in the back.
“F-father?”
“You moronic child! How in the world did you end up with a hole in your stomach!”
“What are you talking about?”
Klion stared blankly at the Emperor and the others around him.
“Duchess Hasfeldt, even Countess Heerlein.... What brings all of you here?”
“Huh, what’s wrong with this child? Have you still not fully co to?”
Klion, who had been gazing around him, grunted Kughand looked down. The sight of his lower abdon wrapped in bandages ca into his vision.
“What’s th.... Ugh!”
“Son, are you having trouble rembering?”
“Have I been stabbed?”
The one who knew that best would be Klion. It should have been Prince Klion. Yet the Second Prince simply shook his head as if he didn’t rember anything.
“That’s right, you fool! They said you were at the school early lying on the ground of the square! Who am I to hold responsible for this!!”
Since nothing had been revealed about who did it, there was no one to hold accountable. If they had to bla soone, it would be the Academy’s faculty. They were the ones who neglected the safety of the student, after all. Considering the commotion that occurred not too long ago at the entrance ceremony, the security should have been more strict.
That was why the chairman had co. Robespierre bowed his head in turn to the Emperor and the Prince.
“This is due to poor managent on my part. I feel greatly responsible.”
“No, the fault does not solely lie with you. It’s because my son went to school early in the morning without any guards. Think about it. What kind of Imperial would do sothing like this?”
Klais sensed sothing off about the Prince and the Emperor’s attitude all of a sudden. Sothing different from before, a feeling of discord.
This is how you both were ten years ago.
It was now a far off mory. Klais’ mind compared it to the picture of the Crowned Prince and the Emperor she had t as the family heir right before entering the Academy.
The Emperor had been inexperienced at the ti but not soone who lacked decisiveness, and the Second Prince Klion, though lusting after won all the sa, had been a wise heir who knew boundaries.
“Anyway, I’d like to express my gratitude to the faculty for bringing to the palace.......”
Just then, the chamber doors opened with a Clackand soone entered.
“Your Highness, are you alright?”
It was Duke Blanton, the one leading the Second Prince’s faction in the political struggle for the next Emperor. He was soone who had little relations to the Hasfeldt family who declared total neutrality in palace politics.
Today was probably the first day that Klais was properly seeing Duke Blanton in person. After witnessing Prince Klion’s state, Duke Blanton wiped the sweat off his forehead with a relieved sigh.
“Thank goodness you’re well, Your Highness. More importantly, I’ve found out who is the perpetrator behind all this!”
“The perpetrator...?”
“Indeed. Do you not rember, perhaps?”
“What do you.... Ugh...!”
The Duke’s expression turned strange at Klion’s behavior.
“There is a high probability that the one stabbed you is the daughter of Viscount Eliyev’s family.”
“Eliyev? You an Iluka Eliyev?”
“Yes, think about it. The Eliyev family’s daughter has a routine of waking early in the morning to exercise and she maintained it even after coming to the Academy. Who else could have attacked you at that hour if not Eliyev?”
As he heard that, the Prince held onto his head and tried to recall sothing. Within a minute, his eyes had returned to the way they were before the stabbing.
“I see, now that I think about it. That bitch Eliyev is....”
“Is that true, Duke Blanton? That the Viscount’s daughter injured the Prince?”
“You needn’t be concerned, Your Majesty. I will submit a request about this to the inspector. Please leave it to .”
“Hm, if that’s what you say.”
Just now, Klais felt that sa discordance again.
The first thing was that the Prince’s reactions changed once more. Secondly, his father, the Emperor, was acting passively in that he was leaving the decisions up to Duke Blanton. Both were rather strange.
However, there was sothing else that was even more peculiar.
Then why was the Prince at the Academy from such an early hour?
But she soon dismissed the question because she didn’t think it necessary to know.
Well, he would have been out hunting for girls.
There was the feeling of sothing not quite matching up but she simply let it go. Researching Flare was more important to her anyway so she didn’t need to think long on it.
For Klais at least, the priority was to find the author of the paper that she read yesterday.
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