Chapter 131: 131

I followed Kayone, asking students along the way.

On the first year’s floor, I was mistaken for a mugger. You don’t have to be so scared.

“This way?”

Apparently, Kayone was heading towards the gym.

The club students were finishing up their morning practice because homeroom will start soon.

I passed a club member in the corridor connecting the school building and the gym, and stopped.

“She’s not going to the gym, is she?”

There must be a lot of club members still in the gym.

I don’t think Kayone is the kind of person who acts in a way that is easy to spot.

Then how about the courtyard between the main school building and the gym?

The courtyard should be empty at this time of day. It would be crowded with students at lunchtime, but no one would be using that place in the morning.

I turned off the path in the middle of the corridor and headed for the courtyard.

I pass a few girls on their way to the school building.

As I pondered asking them if they had seen Kayone, I spotted the person I was looking for.

There were six benches surrounding a large tree in the middle of the courtyard.

Kayone was sitting on one of them.

With a flowerbed full of colorful flowers blooming in the background, she looked somewhat forlorn.

What should I do?

I came here, but I don’t know what to say to her.

There was no way I could come up with something clever, in fact, I might say something strange and step on a land mine.

I stopped and watched for a while, and then I heard the first bell ringing from the speakers throughout the school.

Kayone didn’t seem to move even though she heard it.

I don’t have a choice.

Since I came this far, I guess I’ll just skip school too.

“Kayone.”

I’ll just call out to her.

There’s no point in hesitating.

Kayone, who had been looking down pondering about something, slowly raised her head and looked at me.

I’m sure the slow movement is because she’s depressed.

“… Kazamachi-sama. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong.”

Kayone looked at me with a weak smile that was not a smile.

The areas around her eyes were slightly swollen and her eyes bloodshot.

There must have been something in Prince Atol’s words earlier that drove her to this point.

“Utai asked me to follow you because she was worried about you and couldn’t leave herself.”

“You’re such a worrier, Utai-chan. I’ll be fine. It’s all…”

Once more the shade fell on her beautiful face, and Kayone cast her eyes downward.

“… I’m just reaping what I sow.”

She muttered with a trembling voice.

“… Ah, if you don’t mind, could you tell me about it?”

“Eh?”

She looked at me again and was taken aback.

“What? Well, I want to know about the prince. Ah, we’re going to have a duel, right? I want to know as much as I can about the enemy, right? It seems like you guys are looking into my situation, and you know, that’s not fair.”

I don’t know about this excuse?

Was it too far-fetched?

“… Kazamachi-sama.”

“Hmm?”

Kayone continued to look at me with a puzzled look on her face.

“You’re a very bad liar, aren’t you?”

“… W-what are you talking about?”

It was obvious.

It seems that it was too forced.

“Fufu…”

Putting her hand over her mouth, Kayone laughed elegantly.

With her bulging chest and her height, she looked so mature that it was hard to believe she was the same age.

“W-what?”

“No, I was just thinking that your awkwardness is just like His Highness.”

I don’t like the idea of being compared with that abject prince.

“His Highness… used to be kind, too. He was not a good liar, but he was vain, and he was very hardworking and dedicated, and he couldn’t leave someone who was crying alone. That’s the kind of person he was.”

“Really?”

I can’t imagine it, as he is now.

He’s a pompous and irresponsible guy who frowns and is uncooperative.

That’s my current impression of Prince Atol.

“We’ve been together since we were very little. Before I could even remember. My mother was His Highness’ wet nurse. We were almost like siblings.”

“Childhood friends, huh?”

“Yes, His Highness’ mother became ill after giving birth to His Highness and passed away.”

… oh.

Well, I suppose we might be similar in that way.

“Don’t you think His Highness’ wings are different from ours?”

“Wings? Now that you mention it, they’re pure white.”

They’re bat-like wings.

While Kayone and Utai’s wings are blackish, Prince Atol’s are pure white.

I thought that was just the kind of race he was.

“In the Dailan royal family, there is a person who is born with feathers of that color once every few decades. It’s a sign that they have very strong magical power. The royal family members who have had white feathers in the past have achieved great things.”

“So, does that mean that he has great magic power too?”

Then why does he despise himself so much?

“… Yes. The magic is so strong that even His Highness himself cannot control it.. It’s probably the most powerful power in the history of our country. That is…”

Kayone closed her eyes and looked up at the sky.

She put her legs together, and clenched her fists tightly in her lap.

She pursed her lips in frustration.

“… His Highness is still tormented to this day.”

Kayone let that out in a shaky voice.

New tears pooled in the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill over even now.

“… I don’t really understand, what’s the problem with that?”

I dropped down on the bench, keeping one body length away from Kayone.

“… His Highness, who has had power in his body since childhood that even adults cannot control, was like a bomb that could explode at any moment. The magical power that leaked from his body could even harm himself. His father, His Majesty the King, had no choice but to give the newborn His Highness a certain treatment.”

“As a baby?”

“Yes.”

From the grim look on Kayone’s face, I knew that this was no ordinary treatment.

“There is an ore on the Sphere Continent that dissipates magic power. It’s called Ajinanka stone, a rare ore similar to iron ore.”

“Ajinanka…”

Huh?

I think I heard that name recently.

I’m sure that’s what Alba Germain was talking about, the ore that Jaja and Nana need.

I think that’s what it was called.

“When His Highness was two months old, he was given a tattoo all over his body, constructed with Ajinanka as a dye. It was the only way to dissipate the magical power that was destroying him.”

“… two months old. Is that okay?”

“Of course it wasn’t okay!”

For the first time, Kayone barked emotionally in front of me.

The tears were already flowing clearly from her eyes, and her fists were clenched and shaking.

“I’m sorry… I’m a little distraught.”

“No, no. I was a little too casual about it. Please forgive me.”

Tattoos made from Ajinanka stone, huh?

I don’t think so, but is Alba planning to give it to Jaja and Nana?

No, no, that’s not good.

Absolutely not.

“Well, what happened to the prince with the tattoos?”

I have to ask.

I don’t mean to be rude, but I feel like this is the one thing I need to know.

“When he was young, his skin was so sensitive that even a little dust would make his whole body turn red and he would cry all the time. He also developed skin diseases and complications at the same time, and by combining the medical technology here and magic, he was able to survive, but there were times when we were afraid that he might not. There were several times when we were afraid that the environment in the royal capital would be harmful to His Highness’ health, so before he turned one year old, we decided to take him to a lake guarded by the House of Inteira. The scales of the Sea Dragon are submerged there, and the lake has healing properties.”

The scales of the sea dragon…

Does it have that kind of effect?

I wondered if the dragon forms of Aoi and Rouge would have any different effects.

No, it’s more about the prince now.

“After several years of cleansing his body with lake water, he managed to become as fit as a normal person by the time he reached the upper years of his childhood. However, he still needs to purify his body in the lake water once a month for a day or so.”

“Once a month, how does he… ah, there was transfer magic, wasn’t there?”

They can just use magic on the way there and take a private plane for royalty on the way back.

Comet to think of it, these guys have been absent for a few days at a time.

“Serious magic power.”

“Magic power?”

“Yes. His Highness’s original magical power was so enormous that the only way to deal with it was to carve a powerful magical mark into his body with a tattoo. However, this is not something that can be finely tuned. As a result, all the magic power was released from His Highness’ body.”

All the magic power.

It’s not really something that clicks for those of us who can’t use magic.

“Those of the royal family who were born with white wings have left behind various achievements for generations. The people still have high hopes for Your Highness even knowing his personal circumstances.”

“But the prince can’t use magic, right? Then…”

He can’t live up to the expectations of the people, can he?

“… His Highness has been working hard. The whole time. Even if he couldn’t use magic, he believed that there must be some other way to live up to his expectations.”

Kayone looked at me and smiled gently.

She looked at me as if she were looking at the prince of that time, with nostalgic eyes.

“… but it was a cruel thing, His Highness was mediocre in other areas. The other princes had talents that easily surpassed His Highness’s in academics, socializing, domestic affairs, production, and military affairs. It is not that His Highness is inferior to others. But…”

Kayone shut her eyes and took a deep breath.

A shuddering breath escaped from Kayone’s mouth.

“… Atol-sama worked so hard.”

It was a weak voice that she managed to squeeze out.

It was a sad voice that held back tears, suppressed sobs, and still lost to the air rushing up from her lungs.

“He was trying his best. Atol-sama was really trying hard. He was trying to be praised by his father, whom he had only met a few times, and he was trying to be a wonderful prince who could live up to the expectations of his people, that he even neglected sleep every day! He had to endure the pain in his skin! Endure the comments of those around him who were selfishly disappointed! He was trying so hard! And yet! And yet!”

I completely get it now.

Kayone was distraught, her face distorted into a crumpled mess.

Her tears overflowed one after another, leaving a large puddle on her clenched fist.

All I could do was stare at her, unable to find anything to say.

I don’t know what I can say to stop her tears.

“Being chosen as the ‘Servant of the Sea Dragon’ was Master Atol’s first achievement! Training your body! Studying tactics with single-minded devotion! It was the only thing he was proud of that he had finally obtained after years of training and discipline!”

“The servant of the sea dragon…”

Was that the reason why he wanted to fight me?

Yeah, if that’s the only thing I’m proud of, I can kind of understand.

He’s got a lot of pride, and he wants a duel with me.

I’m sure he felt that he didn’t want to give that up at least.

“… I’m sorry, I lost my composure again.”

“Ahh. It’s okay.”

Kayone rubbed her eyelids with both hands and wiped away her tears.

As I watched her, I thought about it.

I’m sure she really likes the prince.

“… His Highness was delighted. After the selection ceremony, he flew straight to the Inteira house and gave me a big smile, proudly saying ‘Finally’!”

“… I can’t imagine that from what he’s like now.”

I recalled Prince Atol, sitting in the back of the classroom with his arms crossed in a pompous manner.

The way he sits there looking bored with a frown, doesn’t match what Kayone is saying now.

“… The incident took place at the festival celebrating the 40th anniversary of His Majesty the King’s reign. It was a reunion with his father, His Majesty the King, for the first time in years.”

“The incident?”

After catching her breath, Kayone dropped her gaze to her feet again.

She took a quick breath and slowly looked up.

“His Majesty the King said that as soon as His Highness became the ‘Servant of the Sea Dragon,’ he would lower him to last in line to the right of succession to the throne.”

Her eyes were filled with nothing but sadness as she said that.