Chapter 79

Chapter 79. The Princess’s Awakening Ceremony (1)

Early morning.

The students leaving the dormitory were moving quickly to attend their first-period classes.

I also slipped among them and left the dormitory.

Perhaps because some time had passed, a few students passed by while giving me brief eye greetings.

They were either commoners or the third or fourth sons of small, nameless territories somewhere in the provinces.

Unlike at the beginning of the semester, not every student ignored me now.

However, there were still no students who openly acted as though they knew me.

Considering how an illegitimate son of a noble house was treated, it could not be helped.

Unlike the students heading to class, I walked toward the academy’s main gate.

Some students looked at me with curiosity, but no one asked openly.

“Is it today?”

No, there was one person who asked.

The voice came from a group of female students heading to class on the opposite side of the road.

It was a fairly large group, gathered not only with new students but also seniors.

They had been moving along while happily chatting with one another, but because of the student who spoke to me, all of them stopped talking.

The person who spoke to me was the student who alone radiated beauty within the group, namely Valea.

Valea’s social skills were truly strange no matter how I looked at them.

After making a contract with me, she acted even closer to me than before.

She often sat beside me during class, and just like now, whenever she passed by, she always acted as though she knew me.

And yet she was still able to get along with other friends like that.

The fact that she could get along so well with nobles despite being the daughter of a baron whose father had died meant that her social skills were a hundred times better than mine.

“Yes. I am on my way there now.”

At my words, whispers rose among the female students.

“What is going on?”

“It is the princess’s Awakening Day today.”

“Do not tell me he was invited to the Awakening Ceremony?”

“Surely he is not going inside the place where the Awakening Ceremony is being held?”

“There is no way. Only family, no, only members of the royal family will attend.”

“Then is he going separately to congratulate her?”

“That must be it.”

“Even that is amazing. To congratulate the princess on her awakening.”

“That is true. No one from the academy was invited.”

“No, he may be a child of the ducal house of Gresia, but he is an illegitimate son. Is that even possible?”

“Shh! How can you say something like that so carelessly?”

“In any case, it is strange. How did he come to know the princess?”

Now, even without separately infusing mana into my ears, I could easily hear whispers from this distance.

Thanks to that, I ended up hearing plenty of unpleasant talk behind my back.

Valea also knew very well that I could hear them, but she gave no sign of it and spoke to me.

“Please go safely! And give my regards to the princess!”

She waved at me and walked away with the other female students.

The whispered questions about me gradually faded into the distance.

Just as they had said, I was on my way to the princess’s Awakening Ceremony today.

Naturally, I would not be entering the ceremony hall itself. It was because of the awakening congratulations and the Queen’s summons.

The princess, her guard knight, and her maids had gone to the royal palace in advance yesterday.

In front of the main gate stood a carriage sent by the royal family.

It was not a carriage sent for me.

“Welcome.”

It was meant for Katrine, the Queen’s younger sister and the princess’s aunt.

Professor Katrine was in the carriage.

Once I sat down, the carriage departed immediately.

Since it was a carriage sent by the royal family, it was extremely splendid.

It was about the same level as the carriages kept at the main residence of the ducal house.

“It has been a long time since the two of us traveled together like this.”

Katrine spoke to me with a pleased expression.

“It truly has been a long time.”

I also smiled at her words. I thought back to when I had explored the dungeon with her.

After we exchanged a few words like that, Katrine looked at the academy’s main gate as it grew distant and let out a sigh.

“It was so suffocating that I nearly died. If not for Aisha, it is really not a place I would want to stay in.”

The stiff expression I had seen on her during class had relaxed completely.

It seemed her tension had eased because no one else was around.

I was also someone else, though. Should I tell her to be careful?

I pushed aside that thought, which had briefly come to mind, and offered words of comfort.

“You are doing well.”

It was meant as comfort, but in truth, she really was teaching well.

She was doing well as the homeroom professor for the first-year Knight Department, and she was also teaching the Knight Department students well.

Though it had only been a short time, many students had come to respect her, and thanks to her classes, the students’ abilities were improving quickly.

They were students who had suffered humiliation after being utterly defeated by knights during the first class, but the Royal Academy students were all inherited ability users who had awakened.

Therefore, once they received proper education and training, they could quickly begin showing their true ability.

There were now students who could spar evenly with the knights, and the other students no longer lost easily in spars either.

“Doing well? I am only making them properly use the inherited abilities they already have. It is boring.”

I remembered the sparkle in her eyes from when she had been a mercenary.

She had lived as a mercenary to be of help to her house, but she had not disliked adventure or mercenary work either.

“Mercenary work was exhausting, but it was not suffocating like this. The dungeon exploration was fun too.”

Since she had tasted that kind of freedom, it made sense that a professorship would feel suffocating.

To be honest, I felt suffocated too, so I agreed with her in my heart.

On the way to the royal palace, I had a comfortable conversation with Katrine for the first time in a while.

We talked about various personal matters, school life, and other things.

Although I had to leave out the things I needed to hide, it was an enjoyable time in its own way.

As we continued talking like that, the royal palace had already drawn close before we knew it.

“Ah, I will return the dagger to you today.”

“Yes.”

A few days ago, Katrine had borrowed my dagger. The reason was that she had something to research.

Since it had originally belonged to Katrine’s house, lending it to her for a few days was more than acceptable.

Before we got off the carriage, Katrine spoke to me as though she had only just remembered.

“I almost forgot. You have some time after the Awakening Ceremony ends, right? Let us stop by somewhere before returning to the academy.”

“Pardon? Where?”

“My house.”

If it was Katrine’s house, surely she meant—

“House Ratenhamar?”

“Yes. Our house has a proper sparring room.”

Was it because we had not been able to have a proper spar?

The sparring grounds at the academy were all open spaces, so I could not have a proper spar with her.

She could not show all of her ability either, and I could not reveal all of my ability.

Sometimes, because the whispers behind my back became too severe, I thought about revealing my true ability. However, I was still worried about what would happen afterward, so I could not bring myself to do it.

“Must we have the spar there?”

I did want to properly face her, but I did not think that the place absolutely had to be the count’s house’s sparring room.

“Well……”

At my answer, she looked troubled. Was there something more to it than the spar?

“My father also said he wanted to see you.”

In the end, that seemed to be the reason she had said to come to her house.

Well, the dagger I possessed was a relic of House Ratenhamar.

We had obtained it together during the exploration, and Katrine had given it to me, so it was currently mine.

Even so, if they said to visit once, I could not refuse.

Seeing her look so apologetic also made it difficult to refuse.

In the end, I nodded.

---

After passing through the royal palace’s outer wall, the carriage stopped in front of the inner castle.

In front of the inner castle stood a considerable number of carriages.

An Awakening Ceremony was an internal family event.

Even in the ducal house, only the priest who conducted the proceedings, people of the house, and the butler had attended.

I had heard that the royal family was not very different.

Well, I had come to the royal palace under the pretext of congratulating her, so other people must have come under the same pretext.

“Let us go.”

In any case, all I had to do was follow behind Katrine.

At Katrine’s words, I also stepped down from the carriage.

Naturally, someone had come to greet us.

“Lady Katrine de Ratenhamar and Young Master Alex de Gresia, welcome.”

The butler who had come to greet us guided the two of us with courteous words.

We entered the inner castle. The royal palace’s inner castle. The sturdy and enormous castle was the very place known as the Knight’s Castle.

We passed through a huge corridor, crossed the interior of the royal palace, and came out into the palace’s rear garden.

In the royal palace’s rear garden, there was a large flower garden and a beautiful, large burial chamber.

We did not enter the flower garden, but stopped at the edge of the rear garden.

Many people had gathered there.

I could see the maids I had seen when I met the Queen, as well as nobles, priests, and knights.

They were all people who had come to congratulate the princess on her Awakening Ceremony, just like me.

I tried to remember the faces of the people gathered there.

They were people who had come to see the princess’s Awakening Ceremony. There might be other reasons, but they were more likely to be on the princess’s side than those who had not come.

However, most of the gathered people did not seem to have much expectation for the Awakening Ceremony.

Among the Queen’s maids, there was one maid praying, but most of them were talking with the people around them without any particular expression.

“Surely she will obtain [Mana Sensitivity], right?”

“Well. It is an ability both princes obtained.”

“She may obtain one of the circulation arts. King Carlos the Founder possessed quite a few circulation arts, did he not?”

“Did most of the circulation arts not pass over to the ducal house of Gresia?”

“In any case, they are connected by blood, so one could appear in the royal family too.”

“The first king’s abilities also include Steel Body, [Physical Optimization], and shield arts, so another ability might appear.”

“Or the Queen’s side’s ability may be passed down.”

When I quietly inclined my ears, I could hear what they were saying.

Most of them were talking about what ability the princess would obtain. Contrary to their expressions, if they grew a little more heated, it seemed they might even start betting.

However, unlike what I had first thought, they seemed difficult to call part of the princess’s faction.

They might simply be close connections.

Fortunately, the Queen’s maids were a little different. Although they were called maids, all of them were of noble birth. They were children who had not received titles.

The maids who finished praying spoke in low voices about something different from the others.

“I hope it is an ability other than [Mana Sensitivity].”

“Why? It would be good if the princess obtained [Mana Sensitivity] too.”

“Both princes obtained that ability, and that is why their relationship keeps worsening. If the princess obtains it too, will she not be harassed by the two princes……?”

“Ah, you are right.”

[Mana Sensitivity].

It was an inherited ability said to be obtained only by direct members of the royal family of the Kingdom of Carlos.

It was the finest inherited ability for sensing and using mana.

Whether one used elemental abilities called magic or learned circulation arts separately and used one’s ability as a knight, it was an inherited ability that made anything possible.

It was an ability that Sir Carlos the Hero, the first king, had gone around saying was the most important to him, and at some point, it had become an ability that a king of the Kingdom of Carlos absolutely had to possess.

‘Should I pray that she does not obtain it too?’

If I wanted to spend my academy life safely, the princess had to obtain some insignificant ability.

I did not have any particular faith, but I closed my eyes slightly and prayed earnestly to a god I did not believe in.

‘Please let her obtain an ability from the Queen’s side. The ability of House Ratenhamar.’

Wait, would that make her my fellow disciple?

At that moment, murmurs arose. When I opened my eyes, the people were looking in one direction.

People were coming out of the royal palace.

I could see the princess, handsome young men, Queen Ria, and a middle-aged man wearing a splendid crown.

The people, including me, all knelt.

The middle-aged man wearing the crown.

It was the procession of the king of this nation.