Chapter 20

Man, this kid’s weak. He already looks super dejected.

“Wait a minute, I can’t give up just like that! Please, won’t you at least listen to what I have to say?!”

There was a weird determination in his eyes that told me he wasn’t going to back down. Not to mention, this odd interaction was drawing unwanted attention.

At this point, I just wanted the situation to be over with.

“Fine. Spit it out.”

“Thanks!”

Thus, I agreed to listen to what he had to say…

“Please teach me magic!”

…and regretted my decision terribly.

I wasn’t sure how to respond at first. I never expected he’d come out with something so completely incomprehensible. We’re in a place with top-class facilities, a library stacked to bursting with knowledge-filled tomes, first-rate instructors…and he comes to me? Of all of the options available to him, why the heck has he chosen me?

“I know that the girl sitting by your side, Mia, has been studying magic with you. I also know she’s grown unbelievably quickly in just one month…and in our rank duel yesterday, I understood the reason why. Please, I want you to teach me magic! I…I have to make it to the top ten in the rankings, no matter what!”

So, because I wanted to make Mia a pawn, that triggered the prince of this entire kingdom to come to me, a villain aristocrat, seeking magic lessons? Wild. I still don’t quite understand either.

“I might not look like much, but I’m still royalty. Rumors will start to spread the moment that you start teaching me. That fact alone will increase your fame, so…h-how about it?”

I stared at him, silent.

Jeez, it’s like every last thing I do has unintended consequences. This world really has no love for me, huh? Argh, damn it, so what if it doesn’t?! I can overturn fate as many times as it takes. In this academy, power is everything. He might be a prince, but now that I’ve shown how much more powerful I am in the rankings, there’s no need for me to respect his title anymore.

“Get lost, you worm. Who would ever agree to teach y—”

“I don’t wanna!”

“Get out of my s—”

“Please…”

“Get lo—”

“Augh…”

“…”

Why does he look like he’s about to start crying? You’ve gotta be freakin’ kidding me. I mean, you’re free to ask, but I’m allowed to turn you down, damn it! Shit. I guess we’ll have to go somewhere quieter so I can hear him out, at least…

The situation was about to get a whole lot worse, however, as Mia dropped a bomb on the whole conversation.

“Luke only taught me because I became his pawn, so I think you should just become one of his pawns too, Prince Polpon.”

Mia’s eyes were unclouded, completely sincere. It sounded as if she believed, truly in her heart, that her advice would bring happiness and joy to anyone who followed it.

“P-pawn…?”

The shota prince was, of course, baffled.

Man…I’m so tired… Ugh, my stomach…

2

D ETERMINING THAT ABEL AND LILY’S ­PRESENCE would overcomplicate matters, Luke broke up the party for the time being.

I should talk this over with Alice and Mia, since they’re aware of my situation, and Polpon—since he’s the root of my current problem.

There was one thing that Luke wasn’t happy with, however.

“Why’d we have to meet up in my room?”

“Quite inappropriate, I agree,” complained Alice. “I should be the only one permitted to enter.”

“Shut up, you.”

“Ah…s-sorry…”

“Your room makes me feel calm,” said Mia.

“P-pardon the intrusion.”

The room was spacious enough to accommodate them all, but Luke was incredibly displeased with what was happening. He didn’t make a habit of inviting guests over for no good reason, and while he did consider for the briefest second that their topic of conversation might warrant the privacy of his own dorm room, he felt this was entirely unnecessary.

Was this really the most suitable option…? Ugh. Well, fine, let’s finish this as quickly as possible.

“I remember now,” Prince Polpon said, looking at Mia. “You’re the daughter of the house of Lennox, aren’t you?”

“…So what if I am?”

Prince Polpon, the root of all their woes, sat beside Luke. Mia stared back at him defiantly, her demeanor ice-cold.

“As a member of the royal family, I’m embarrassed it took me so long to recognize you as a royalist,” Polpon explained.

“That isn’t what you came here to discuss, though, is it, Prince Polpon?” Mia reminded him.

Luke sighed faintly to himself, sensing that the conversation was about to head down a troublesome path.

“It’s relevant though,” Polpon insisted, his expression growing more intense. “I mean, I am here to ask a favor of Luke, heir to the house of Gilbert, and they’re one of the top noble-faction families in the land.”

The Kingdom of Milestia was home to three great aristocrat families who each held a large amount of political power. These houses belonged to Marquis Godwin, Marquis Drummond, and Marquis Gilbert.

The houses of Godwin and Gilbert joined forces to create a faction of nobles, while Marquis Drummond was loyal to the crown and formed the opposing royalist faction with other like-minded aristocrats. Twenty years ago, a fierce battle for power erupted between these factions, but the fighting had long since died down.

Claude’s ambition quickly faded after the birth of his son, Luke, after all.

“I suppose you’re right,” Mia admitted coolly. “Maybe that’s also part of the reason I was so aggressive toward Alice at first. Ever since I was a child, I’ve witnessed so much of that sort of fighting. It might be that I have an unconscious hatred for supporters of the nobles. However, I don’t care about any of that now…heh heh.”

Mia smiled calmly to herself, which was actually more than a little bit terrifying. It sent a wave of indescribable fear shooting down Luke’s spine. House Lennox were royalists, and House Lonsdale were influential members of the noble faction. Of late, there was less fighting between the groups on the surface, but the roots of the feud between the factions ran deep. It was this that Polpon thought was a little strange, as he saw Mia walking around with Luke and Alice.

“It’s a little late to be saying this, but, Prince Polpon, are you sure this is wise? Asking Luke for help, I mean…”

“I have to reach the top ten in the academy hierarchy, no matter what. I know that there are many people who won’t agree with what I’m doing, but I will sacrifice what I must,” he answered. “And right now, I’m just another student, the same as you. Won’t you cut the ‘prince’ stuff and just use my name?”

“Right. Polpon it is, then,” replied Alice immediately.

“Oh.”

Polpon couldn’t help being a little bit shocked at how easily Alice took to addressing him casually.

“What is it?”

“N-nothing…”

Just like that? thought Polpon.

“Sure, whatever,” Luke said dismissively. “Polpon. So anyway…”

Luke, you too? Ah…um, I’m still your upperclassman, you know? Maybe you could be just a tiny bit more respectful…?

“Why do you need to get into the top ten so bad?”

Just as Polpon was beginning to wonder whether he was in the wrong on this whole formality issue, Luke’s question brought his focus back to the real issue at hand.

“Well…”

Polpon hesitated for a moment, but looked Luke dead in the eyes when he eventually answered.

“The king, my father, is incompetent. That’s why.”

As he made this statement, his expression was not one of anguish or anger—rather, the complete opposite. All emotion had vanished from Polpon’s face, as if a candle had just been blown out.

“My father places too much trust in magic,” he continued. “There are many in the line of succession, but he intends to choose the most talented magic user among them as the next king. That’s his only criterion.”

Polpon quietly fretted over the future of the kingdom.

“There’s no shortage of problems facing this nation. Our political power struggles have loosened our grip on the aristocrats, and many of our subjects are suffering in poverty. We have a mountain of diplomatic problems to deal with too. Many other nations will view us with hostile eyes if we don’t comport ourselves properly. We might appear to have a friendly relationship with the neighboring empire on the surface, but in terms of the national strength of our two nations, our whole kingdom is a house of cards. Our lack of magic technology really is going to be the death of us. We should have realized how far behind we are in the development of new magic tools, but we as a nation are too prideful. We disregard all that research just because our base magic strength is naturally higher than theirs.”

The blackened pus of the kingdom came oozing out as the prince spoke. The issue had been in need of resolution for years, but had been swept under the rug as the country rested on the laurels of its innate magical strength.

“I want to change this kingdom. For that, I need to become a better magic user than my older brother, so that I can become king—that’s the most basic requirement for what I want to do. I can’t beat my brother right now, though. He’s the better magic user, but he doesn’t give a second thought to the people of this kingdom, so I can’t let him take the throne. Respectfully, I beg of you…”

Polpon lowered his head. The gravity of this action was not lost on Luke—he did, more or less, understand what it meant for a member of the royal family to be bowing to him.

“I want you to teach me magic.”

There was a moment of silence, then finally, Luke answered with a laugh.

“Mwa ha, you seem to have misunderstood something here.”

His tone of voice was evil, cold as ice.

“Prince, I do not give a damn about what becomes of this country,” he said bluntly. “My own happiness is all that matters to me. I am one of those very aristocrats that you so despise.”

Polpon was speechless. It was partly due to anger, of course—Luke’s statement amounted to a complete abandonment of his responsibilities as a noble, after all. It was only natural that Polpon would grow angry, as someone who worried for the future of his nation.

But there was something else to it as well.

I’m angry, but it’s not the anger that has left me speechless. It’s like there’s some…unknown power behind his words that’s overwhelmed me, thought Polpon anxiously.

“Should it prove necessary to attain my own happiness,” Luke continued, “then yes, I shall put in the work to improve this country. At present, though, I don’t see any need for that.”

“B-but why?! You know what’s happening, don’t you? You heard what I just s—”

“I know what’s happening, yes. But I believe that the magical power of this kingdom is much, much stronger than you think it is.”

“…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take perfectly good care of my own domain. I won’t allow anyone to consider me inferior to the other lords in any way.”

Luke had not a scrap of patriotism in him. He also had no interest whatsoever in spending even a moment of his time trying to improve the nation’s fortunes or making Polpon king. He was also, most importantly, convinced that all the events that were currently unfolding around him were not supposed to be happening.

This speech of his…wasn’t he meant to deliver it to Abel? They overcome a bunch of trials together or something, I think, and Polpon ends up king… Wasn’t that how this story was supposed to go? Actually, I’m positive about this. That’s definitely how it was meant to go.

Indeed, it could not be. Luke was a villain aristocrat, after all—it was bizarre to think that Polpon, second prince of the kingdom, would ever lower his head to someone like him.

Jeez, I guess that just shows how crazy things have gotten now…

In the original story, Abel was meant to have a duel against Polpon’s older brother. They signed some kind of magical contract agreeing that if Abel won, Polpon would get to become king, and if he lost, then both Polpon and Abel would have to leave the academy.

That’s not what happened, huh?

Luke’s instruction of Mia and the rapid improvement of her abilities in such a short span of time had caught Polpon’s eye instead. Then came his duel against Luke. He felt that raw power against his skin firsthand, and that was what had made everything go insane.

“Right, enough. Your presence is an eyesore. Get out.”

“…”

Polpon’s really got a lot of what it takes to be king. If he does ascend to the throne, and the influential aristocrats band together to work for the good of this country, the Kingdom of Milestia is really going to become a much better place than it is right now—I’m sure of that. But heck, regardless of how talented he is, Polpon’s still just sixteen years old. I guess being young and inexperienced can lead you to make some bad decisions, especially if you let your emotions take the wheel.

“Luke only taught me because I became his pawn, so I think you should just become one of his pawns too, Prince Polpon.”

Just as he was about to give up, Polpon remembered the words that Mia had said. They were all that he had left to cling to.

“If…if I become your pawn, will you help me then?”

“…Huh?”

Polpon desperately clutched at his last remaining hope as panic set in. He was the lowest-ranked student in the school, aside from the first years, and he felt a huge amount of pressure to close the gap between him and his magically talented older brother. Then he met Luke…or rather, encountered him. He had stumbled upon a monster whose spells were so powerful that they put him on a completely different level than everyone else. To Polpon, Luke was a single speck of light in the darkness, his best chance at a breakthrough. He convinced himself that the only way he would be able to improve his present situation would be to have Luke teach him.

I’ll become his pawn, even if that means signing a magical contract with him. Luke…I don’t think he’s truly evil to the core, despite the way he acts. I can only hope I haven’t misjudged him too badly, or else I could end up a puppet king…but that’s a risk I’m willing to take. If it means forging my path toward the throne, I’ll gladly prioritize Luke’s happiness for however long it takes. I’d prefer that so much more than never becoming king and standing helpless on the sidelines!

Polpon made up his mind. Perhaps if he’d been able to calm himself down a little, he would have taken a moment to reflect and realize that he wasn’t making the right call. In that moment, however, that just wasn’t possible for him to do.

“I’ll become your pawn, Luke!” he declared. “I’m royalty, so I know I’ll be able to do something that can make you happy. So…please! Please teach me magic!”

Polpon bowed his head yet again, and Luke felt his stomach twist into an anxious knot.

Luke had no way of knowing the thought process that had driven Polpon into such an insane decision. The sight of the prince begging him like this disturbed him terribly.

“…Just, give me a second…my head hurts… My stomach hurts too…”

“A-are you okay, Luke?!” cried Mia.

He had one hand on his forehead and the other on his stomach, but that did nothing to stop the downward spiral. In turn, the sight of Luke in such terrible pain disturbed Mia terribly. She immediately came to his rescue with her Healing magic.

“Heal.”

She repeated the process. Then repeated the process. Then repeated it some more.

“Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal.”

“Stop. That’s enough…” Luke muttered miserably.

“S-sure.”

“…That was way too much.”

Not even Mia’s fervent over-Healing did anything to ease the pain in Luke’s heart.

3

T HE GRAY WOLF’S CLAW MARKS WAS NOT JUST any run-of-the-mill adventurer party. Not only had the four-member party achieved A rank, but in fact, they were closer to hitting S rank than any other adventurer party in the entire kingdom. They were led by a swordsman named Zack, and then there was the heavily armored warrior Sippel, a bandit named Sufsasa, and an archer called Qui Gong. Together, they had worked hard to climb to these heights.

Ironic stuff…seriously.

Once, not too terribly long ago, Zack had been a broken man. After an encounter with a true monster, one of the chosen people, he’d been ready to throw in the towel. It was Alfred’s scheming that got him back on his feet, and he resolved to keep working as an adventurer for just a little longer.

Zack used to dive straight into battles, barging right through his enemies, while his companions followed along as backup. Now, though, he knew his limits. After his defeat at the hands of Luke, Zack’s party began to fight together as a team and had improved to a shocking extent.

“Understand your situation, then give precise orders to move your men.”

That was what Zack excelled at—the tactic that he had relied upon for years—but one day, he realized that maybe that’s not actually what he wanted to be good at doing. He found that he had reached a dead end, and so he smashed down the wall to find a clear path waiting for him on the other side.

“Huh? Where are you off to, Zack?”

“Just hittin’ up the tavern. Got some people to see too.”

“Wahey! Sounds great! You’re buyin’ the first round. I’ll see you there a bit later.”

“Sure.”

The party had recently arrived at the capital, so Zack left his bags in his room at the inn, changed clothes, and then headed straight out to get a drink. Experience had taught him that the tavern was always the best place to make friends in a new city. His group had been operating out of Gilbadia for so long, it had actually been quite a while since he’d visited the capital.

Zack walked the streets, only half remembering where he was going, until he came upon the little tavern. The wooden door was old and worn down, but it made him feel much more at ease than any of the fancier places ever could. Zack decided that this would be his spot for the night and went inside.

“Ha ha ha! I jus’ can’t wait fer the next one!”

“Me neither!”

There were only three patrons in the entire place—was it just too early for most folks to start drinking, or was this a reflection of the tavern’s waning popularity? In any case, one person sat at the bar counter, drinking and chatting with the owner, while two others were sitting a little further away and snacking on some appetizer dishes.

“Man, what do we even do…?” One sighed.

“Been saying the same thing for hours. Get it together.”

“Yeah, but…I just can’t forget what happened that night…”

“Sissy. Coward. Chicken.”

The two in the corner who were eating and sipping at their drinks wore some sort of cloth wrapped around their heads.

Don’t see those that often, Zack mused to himself. Turbans, I think they’re called?

There was also an intimidating atmosphere of melancholy around the pair that made them a bit hard to approach.

“Hey, welcome! A new face, eh?”

The master of the house conveniently chose that moment to call out to him, so Zack began to gravitate toward the counter.

“Well met, master! I just got into the city, yeah! The name’s Zack, and I’m an adventurer. Nice t’meet you. I’ll have an ale, if you wouldn’t mind!”

“Comin’ right up!”

With practiced ease, the man poured out an ale from the wooden barrel behind him and somewhat roughly clonked the ale stein down on the counter.

“I’m Butch, and this is Korko,” he said, gesturing to the other customer at the counter. “He’s got a shop out on the market. Nice t’meet you!”

“Nice to meet you, Zack,” said Korko.

“Yeah, same.”

Zack took a long swig of his ale.

“Ahh! That’s good stuff!”

“Sure looked like you enjoyed it! What are you doin’ here in the capital, then, Zack? Just say if you don’t want to answer, I guess.”

“Nah, I’ll tell ya. Got called here by Aslan Magic Academy. I’m gonna be a special instructor there, startin’ this summer.”

“Wh-what?! That’s friggin’ incredible!!”

“Eh, it ain’t all that big a deal,” Zack shrugged. “The guy they wanted to come couldn’t make it, so I’m just fillin’ in.”

“But still, that’s amazin’! I’m sure I’ve just not heard of you because I don’t follow adventuring, but you’re famous, right?”

“Nah, I mean it, I’m really a nobody. I’m just your average adventurer. Used to work out of Gilbadia.”

Zack’s continued protestation wasn’t a matter of modesty. He genuinely believed in his heart that what he was saying was true—he wasn’t a hero or a villain, he was simply some guy who happened to be an adventurer. He knew that there were true monsters in the world. With that thought, the image of a young boy floated into the back of his mind—a boy who looked down on everything.

“Gilbadia… Then you must know Luke, right?”

The second that name hit Zack’s ears, he spat out the mouthful of ale he’d just drunk.

“H-how do you know that name?” he spluttered. “I guess…yeah, I know who he is…”

“Oh! You do know him then! I gotta ask, has he always been such a great magic user?!”

“Huh…? What the heck are you talkin’ about? Luke’s a swordsman.”

“What the heck are you talking about? Luke’s an awesome magic user.”

“Hm?”

“Eh?”

Are we really talking about the same person?

Just as Zack’s doubts began to form, he felt a little tug at his sleeve.

“I want to hear about him too.”

Zack turned to see a girl wearing a turban standing next to him. Before he could respond, a tall man—also wearing a turban—rushed over and bowed his head in apology.

“Ahh, sorry about that. She’s not much for manners, y’see. She’s always gettin’ in people’s way like this.”

“Huh? S-sure…don’t worry about it. I mean, I was a bit surprised, but I don’t mind. You two want to drink with us?”

“Oh, thanks a bunch! I appreciate it!”

The little tavern was bustling, despite the few patrons inside—and many of the things that Zack learned from his new friends came as a great surprise.