Chapter 14 - Not Everything Was Gone After All (1)

"No, why the hell?"

With a month and a half still left out of the half-year term, I could not understand why they would bother lifting my probation now of all times.

After they had shoved me into the Prince's Palace and acted as if they would never see me again. When I thought of the King's face, my expression naturally twisted.

"Are you not pleased?"

Karl asked, looking puzzled when he saw my face.

"I don't really care either way."

Even if I left the Prince's Palace, I had nowhere in particular to go, and since I knew no one, there was no one for me to meet. Why would I be pleased?

Except there was.

"Your Highness."

Only a day after my probation was lifted, a maid handed me a golden envelope.

"An invitation?"

The contents of the pointlessly ornate envelope were an invitation.

「To His Highness First Prince Adrian Leonberk, whom I hold dear.

Last spring, when the tragic news arrived without warning, I had to doubt my own ears. To think that Your Highness, who had been so brave and hale...(omitted)」

I quickly skipped past the chatter.

「While spending my days in grief, I heard the news that Your Highness had recovered enough to leave the palace once more, and in my excitement, I send this letter.」

I ignored the useless phrases.

「On the coming full moon, together with the members of the [Social Club for Special Young Lords], I have prepared a modest gathering to celebrate Your Highness's recovery. I beg that you attend and grace the gathering with your presence, and also...」

To summarize the contents of the invitation, which had been plastered with useless sentences,

「Let's meet once to celebrate your probation being lifted.」

That was about what it said.

"I thought there wasn't a single place that would welcome me, but I guess there is somewhere telling me to come now that my probation's been lifted."

It was an unexpected invitation. I asked the maid about the [Social Club for Special Young Lords].

"It is a social gathering of which Your Highness was a member."

For some reason, the maid looked uncomfortable.

"Why? Is it some strange place?"

At my question, the maid answered with a troubled face.

"The elegant amusements of young lords are inscrutable to womenfolk."

There was no need to guess. Saying they enjoyed elegant amusements probably meant they drank themselves stupid and chased women.

I was busy enough with training as it was, and I had no intention of attending such a worthless gathering. So I was going to decline.

「From Bernard of the Eli family, the eternal friend of the wise, brave, and considerate Prince Adrian.」

Until I saw the sender's name.

"Eli?"

"Young Lord Bernard Eli is the chairman of the [Social Club for Special Young Lords]."

The maid said. She seemed to have assumed that, because I had lost my memory, I was asking who Bernard Eli was. But that was not what I was asking.

Eli.

It was a name in my memory.

[A hundred years ago, when the Eli family, who insisted on the Mana Heart until the very end, completely collapsed, the Mana Heart became a low-grade method used by mercenaries and the like.]

On the day we had talked about the Mana Heart, the Eli family had been among the names my uncle mentioned.

"Your Highness. What shall you do? If you intend to attend, we shall make preparations, and if you intend to decline, we shall send word."

While I was lost in thought, the maid asked.

"I'll attend."

"... I shall understand it as such and make preparations."

The maid's face darkened noticeably. She looked terribly disappointed that I had said I would attend the gathering.

It must be a pretty unwholesome gathering. That must be why the maid was looking at me like that, as if old habits died hard.

But I was not attending the gathering for some debauched amusement.

"The Eli family, huh..."

It was because I had become interested in the family that had held fast to the Mana Heart until the very end.

* * *

It was not even a banquet, only a gathering of a small club at most. I thought I could simply go as I was, with nothing to prepare. But that was my mistake.

"No, why are you making such a fuss over one little gathering?"

"Your Highness's physique has changed so greatly that every article of clothing must be newly tailored."

They measured me, and measured me again.

"Still?"

I had no idea what there was to measure so much, but the tailor tormented me all day long.

"There is a saying that clothes are wings. To put on those wings, a certain degree of patience is necessary."

"Are you joking? Is this a body that can fly just because you put wings on it?"

When I said that out of sheer irritation, the tailor spoke with the face of a man filled with a sense of duty.

"I, though my skills are lacking, shall devote all my zeal and sincerity! Even if Your Highness cannot fly, I shall devote the utmost zeal and sincerity so that Your Highness may be satisfied!"

Damn bastard. He would die before saying I could fly.

Well, to be fair, my current body was like that. My present body, where half-baked swollen muscles and fat existed in friendly harmony, was the very picture of a muscle pig.

Even without seeing it, I could tell clothes would not look good on me.

"Fine. I get it. Do your best."

After saying that, I left my body to the tailor again. No, I was about to.

"Did you make my old clothes too, by any chance?"

"I did, Your Highness."

My first meeting with that scoundrel bastard came to mind. The pointlessly flashy clothes that had not suited that pig-like body. Apparently, those had been this man's work.

"What color are you making it?"

"Naturally, according to Your Highness's taste, gold and silver, or white..."

"Forget it. Make it black."

I cut the tailor off at once. If I left him alone, I was going to end up looking like a clown, just like that scoundrel bastard of the past.

"B-Black, you say?"

"Keep the decorations minimal and the design simple."

The tailor's face suddenly became gloomy.

So it wasn't the scoundrel's taste. It was this guy's.

I glared at the tailor and reminded him again and again. Absolutely do not make it flashy.

"As you wish."

The tailor answered in a dispirited voice that he understood. From the way his lips jutted out in a pout, he seemed quite displeased with the situation.

But what could he do?

The person who would wear the clothes was telling him to do it that way. And that person was a prince, no less.

After taking my measurements like that, not long afterward, the tailor returned with the completed garments.

"I did not miss a single word of Your Highness's instructions."

He had been gloomy when taking the order, but the tailor's face was full of pride as he presented the finished product. I roughly ignored him and examined the clothes.

"Hmm."

It was certainly clothing made exactly as I had ordered.

The color was black, the decorations were minimal, and the design was simple. And yet, strangely, it felt flashy. But if I tried to nitpick, that would be ambiguous too.

"It is exactly as Your Highness ordered."

When I held the clothes and frowned, the tailor spoke confidently.

"Did I say anything?"

I replied indifferently, then put on the clothes with the help of the tailor and the maid.

"It fits perfectly, with nothing to add or take away."

"Ho."

Once I actually put it on, my dissatisfaction with the clothes vanished. The upper and lower garments were all in black, each subtly different in tone, paired with brown shoes. On top of that, when I draped on an outer coat resembling the uniform coats knights usually wore, the appearance was quite convincing.

Even my body, which I had thought could never look good in clothes, looked fairly decent.

"You did have skill."

"For Your Highness to say so, the hardships of my forty years on this single path seem to melt away like snow."

It was an answer filled with pride, and he certainly had the skill to deserve it.

"I will entrust you with the clothes I wear to the banquet as well."

"I shall begin work at once."

"No. Wait a bit. My measurements will change somewhat."

There were about two months left until the banquet hosted by the Royal Family, which the King had ordered me to attend. And two months was more than enough time for me to burn away every bit of excess fat left on my body.

"Then please send word at any time. I shall come running at once."

Excited by my praise, the tailor gave that farewell and left.

I stood before the mirror and looked at myself once more.

"I really have lost weight."

I had wondered when I would ever lose weight, but even so, my face had changed beyond recognition during that time. Seeing it like this, the scoundrel's original features were not all that bad.

It was a face that could be called handsome somewhere.

"Maybe it's the clothes."

As I smiled to myself in satisfaction, I felt someone looking at me. When I turned my gaze, the maid was looking at me from a corner that did not show in the mirror.

Her expression was truly strange.

It looked as if she was thinking, What a ridiculous show-off, but it also looked as if she was admiring my unexpectedly respectable appearance.

"Ahem."

Embarrassed, I needlessly cleared my throat.

* * *

Several days passed, and the day of the gathering arrived.

"There will be five of us escorting Your Highness, including myself."

Perhaps because it was their first outing since being stationed at the Prince's Palace, Karl and the Royal Knights were on edge. They looked extremely nervous, as if worried that some unpleasant incident might happen.

"Relax. It's right nearby. What's going to happen?"

Of course, that did not work at all.

While Karl and the knights were tense like that, a carriage appeared in the distance. It was a four-horse carriage with a white base, painted with a golden lion roaring as it trampled a dragon.

"Please board."

I nodded and climbed into the carriage. The maid got into the carriage after me, and Karl and the Royal Knights mounted their horses and lined up in an escort formation.

"Then let's go."

At my words, the carriage set off.

"I shall close the window."

No sooner had we left the royal palace than Karl approached and closed the shutter attached to the carriage window. A thick iron plate made to prevent assassination shots cut me off from the outside world.

"I was going to take a look around."

I had intended to see how the world had changed over the past few hundred years, but that was out of the question now. If it was the rigid Karl, especially as high-strung as he was today, he would be more than capable of turning the carriage back to the royal palace the moment I opened the shutter.

I was bored. I had no idea how much money they had poured into this carriage, but the inside, where not even the slightest sound seeped in, was a completely different world. Sitting in such an excessively quiet and excessively still place made me restless.

"Hmm?"

I twisted my body this way and that, and pointlessly examined every corner of the carriage, when the maid suddenly caught my eye. When I first saw her, she had been like a gaunt skeleton, but now she had filled out somewhat, and her beautiful figure was plainly visible.

That was why it stood out even more. The ugly scar carved into that fair skin.

"That scar..."

At my words, the maid pulled her collar closed. But that alone was not enough to hide the large scar on her neck.

"This lowly girl was lacking and caused Your Highness concern, so I deserved punishment."

Damn it. I had wondered if that was the case, and sure enough, it was something the scoundrel had done.

Awkward and embarrassed, I turned my gaze away, but where was there to look in this cramped carriage? Our eyes met again almost immediately.

"Hmm."

Come to think of it, the first people I saw when I opened my eyes were the maids, and the last people I saw before I closed my eyes were the maids, yet I did not even know their names.

"What is your name?"

So I asked her name, and the maid looked at me like a startled deer. My mood sank even further.

Those gentle eyes, that fair skin, and that scar. It was not even something I had done, so why did I feel guilty?

"I am Adelia Bayern, Your Highness."

She gave her name as though overwhelmed by the honor.

"What?"

And when I heard that name, I froze on the spot.

"Bayern?"

"It is a family that barely has its name on the register of nobles. It is not the sort of place Your Highness need concern yourself with..."

Before her cautious words could even finish, a question burst out of me reflexively.

"You are a descendant of the Bayern family?"

"Y-Your Highness?"

Good heavens.

I pressed a hand to my forehead against the dizziness.

Because I had never imagined I would hear that name in this way.

「Sword Marquis Agnes Bayern」

From the storehouse of my memories, where dust had piled up in layers, one nostalgic name suddenly sprang forth.