The Second-Year Fellowship Gathering

The Second-Year Fellowship Gathering

The Second-Year Fellowship Gathering

Had the person sitting in the place of royalty at the end of the room been a Sovereign archnoble, he would have been much older. It seemed safe to conclude that he was indeed a prince.

Nobody told me a prince was going to be in attendance, though.

I cocked my head. If my guardians had known about this, I was sure they would have warned me or at least told me to be on guard.

Rather than wearing black as the Academy mandated, the small figure—the word “small” came unbidden to mind every time I saw him—was dressed in red and white, the divine colors of winter. He was at least wearing a black cape, to mark that he was from the Sovereignty, but he stuck out nonetheless. Even Anastasius had worn mostly black, so it hadn’t occurred to me that royals were allowed to break the dress code.

“Here are your seats,” a servant said.

Just like last year, the Small Hall had four-person tables arranged at equal distances apart. We were taken to the three tables for Ehrenfest, at which point Wilfried took his seat at the table to my left and Charlotte took hers at the one to my right. Brunhilde pulled back my seat for me before resuming her position, standing behind me with my guard knights. Hartmut, meanwhile, was seated beside me as my scholar.

“Hartmut, did you know that a member of royalty was attending this year?” I asked in a hushed voice. He discreetly shook his head.

“I did not, and it seems we are not the only ones. Many of the other duchies seem just as surprised, so we can assume that nobody was informed.”

It was nice to know I wasn’t alone in my ignorance. I always had the feeling that I was missing out on important information, since I didn’t spend much time in the castle, but that wasn’t the case here.

“However,” Hartmut continued, “I recall there being rumors in the Royal Academy last year that a royal was going to be baptized. Word said it was the son of the king’s third wife, the half-brother of Princes Sigiswald and Anastasius. If those rumors were true, he would only have been baptized this autumn.”

“He was baptized this year?” I asked. “Someone must know about him, then.”

“Nobles in Ehrenfest debut during winter society, but royals are officially debuted during the spring Archduke Conference. I expect that he has not had a formal debut yet.”

That explained why he was so tiny. I had thought that maybe he just looked small because he was seated so far away, but this made a lot more sense.

That said, why is there a newly baptized prince here in the first place?

Hartmut had only confused me further. Thankfully, once the archduke candidates from all the duchies were seated, a Sovereign scholar introduced the small prince and explained the circumstances.

“This is Third Prince Hildebrand,” the scholar said. “He was baptized this autumn and welcomed into the royal family. Under normal circumstances, he would be attending the Academy much later, but the king instructed him to attend this year as part of his royal duties.”

To summarize, there was a rule that there must always be at least one member of the royal family attending the Royal Academy. If there was no one of proper age, a graduated adult would be sent instead. It would have been more proper for Anastasius to return, but it seemed that he was exceptionally busy with his duties as the second prince. He needed to fill with mana the land he had been given for his marriage and the royal magic tools that had fallen out of use.

In other words, Prince Anastasius is so eager to marry Lady Eglantine that he’s putting his all into getting his land ready and refusing to return to the Royal Academy. That has to be it, right? I mean, reviving those old magic tools has to be a harder job than being stationed at the Academy.

Now that he was an adult, Anastasius had chosen to work hard over the winter rather than stay at the Royal Academy. Hildebrand was being thrown into the deep end as a result, having to attend the Academy so soon after his baptism. He was merely here for political reasons, however; it wasn’t as though he would actually be going to classes yet. He would presumably be spending most of his time in his own chambers.

I wonder why this rule was put into place... Is it for emergencies or something? Maybe to ensure someone’s always there to settle disputes?

Last year, when Dunkelfelger had made a fuss over my bringing Schwartz and Weiss out of the library, Anastasius had been contacted and arrived almost instantly to arbitrate the dispute. He had also spoken to Solange and me later on to learn more about the situation.

There certainly are a lot of people here; who knows what kinds of problems might arise? Royals must have their hands full with this stuff. And for the royal family to be sending a literal seven-year-old to the Royal Academy, they must be in dire straits.

Once the scholar’s announcement was over, everyone prepared to give their greetings, as they had done the year before. Again, Klassenberg was first. It seemed not to have any archduke candidates now that Eglantine had graduated, so an older-looking boy stood up and went to greet the prince instead.

The event continued as expected: the representatives of each duchy would stand up to greet the royal and then go down the side to greet every duchy of a higher rank than theirs. Dunkelfelger was the next to go up, then Drewanchel... Only after the ninth-placed duchy had greeted the prince was it our turn.

Wilfried and Charlotte stood up while I was helped down from my chair. Wilfried then looked at Charlotte and me.

“Rozemyne. Charlotte. Let’s go.”

Wilfried escorted us to the prince’s table at the far end of the hall, moving slowly enough for me to keep up. When we reached Hildebrand, we knelt down, crossed our arms, and bowed our heads.

“Prince Hildebrand, may we pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the harsh judgment of Ewigeliebe the God of Life?”

“You may,” came a distinctly childlike voice.

Up close, I could see that Hildebrand had bright purple eyes and a faint blue tinge to his silver hair. He also had a cute face. Perhaps a boy wouldn’t much appreciate being called cute, but he looked especially young—as expected, considering that he had been sent to the Royal Academy so early. Not to mention, unlike the arrogant expression of royal dignity that Anastasius had so often worn, Hildebrand was wearing a bright smile that actually put me at ease. He was far from the archetype of the exceptionally manly man.