Sword, Magic and Academic Society

Vol. 1 - Ch. 116 - Royal Palace (1)

After the Colosseum was emptied of spectators and I finished my security mission, I went to the royal palace at the behest of Godorfun-sensei.

"There's someone interested in meeting you. I’ve already left a message to Dew, so just follow me."

He rambled off vaguely as he took me to the southeast section of the royal capital, where… the royal palace was.

Uh-huh, I could already feel the rage of my master...... Hopefully he didn't forget that I didn't have much say in this either.

The royal palace was huge, well not as big as the Royal Academy given that it had countless training facilities, but it was still stupidly huge with multiple gates.

The southern gate was used by the King, the King's official envoy, or nobles when they came to be audiences for official events. The gate's name was dubbed 'Aurora Crown'.

Aside from that, there was an east gate for royalties, a west gate for all sorts of suppliers and such. However, Sensei took the magic car toward the northern soaring magic gate, used by the King's immediate aides like the heads of the noble families, commanders of the knight order, or rank holder bureaucrats.

???

The north gate was lavishly decorated with the engravings of mythical creatures like qilins, dragons, and unicorns, giving it a striking appearance. If one didn't know any better, they would never be able to imagine this was just the back gate of the royal castle. The entrance was guarded by two gatekeepers, seemingly members of the royal guards.

Seeing Sensei's entrance, they stood up straight in attention and put their hands on their chests in salute.

We, too, saluted back in courtesy and passed through the gate. Still, I heard that it has been quite a while since Sensei retired from the knight order, but it seems like his face pass was still effective even now. Oh, right. I think he did say he was granted the title of king's advisor or something.

On a side note, I, while being a member of the knight order, also didn't need to go through the procedure to enter the royal palace with his presence.

The premises of the 'Royal Palace' were just as big, around 5 km in diameter, starting from the first avenue first street to the second avenue second street and were surrounded by walls and gates. The palace's premises were divided into the 'Royal Court' for administrative work and 'Royal Palace' for the King, for convenience's sake.

Typically, the only ones who could enter the royal court without any procedure were the royal guards as well as 3rd court rank holder knights (vice-commander class) unless it was a matter of extreme urgency.

The royal guard order knights were the cream of the crop even among the handpicked knights of the knight order.

There were multitudes of administrative buildings where elite bureaucrats served within the royal palace, though we were apparently heading towards the guard post of the royal guards.

Well, it might be redundant to explain this, but, and obviously, the handful of elite bureaucrats directly serving the King couldn't possibly manage the entire Yuglia. Therefore, facilities equivalent to government offices in Japan surrounded the royal palace where employees not holding rank in the kingdom worked.

......Well, with what sensei had revealed, the captain of the royal guards had connections with my mother's family, and apparently was the current head of the Dosperior family.

I honestly have no idea why mother ceased her relationship with her family, but I hope we were not heading to meet that captain of the royal guards. The last thing I wanted was to get caught up in some power play......

As the feeling of unease was gradually eroding my spirit, I tried asking Sensei in a low tone.

"Err, Sensei, who exactly wants to meet me?"

I wondered if Godorfun would go the roundabout way, but he easily revealed the details.

"Hmm? Ohh, I forgot to mention it I guess. It's His Majesty the King."

"Ah, so it's just His Majesty? Phew, I'm so....... not gladddd!!!! H-H-H-H-H-His Majesty you say!? No, why am I, a bottom rung trainee knight, suddenly asked to meet him? In case you forgot, I'm just the third son of a rural and destitute viscount family who did not learn etiquette to meet someone of such high caliber!!"

Oh, hell nawww! This isn't one of those RPGs where you're but a mere traveler and no one stops you from meeting the King even without an appointment, or the protagonist who just had the magical way to remove the grave trouble plaguing the King!!

Why in the world was I suddenly meeting the top big shot in such an out of the blue random event!

"Hmm? I didn't expect you to be the type to become flustered with a minute event like an unofficial audience with the King. Certainly not after you had so gallantly declared you would crush me in our first meeting, right?

However, rest assured His Majesty is famous for his gregarious personality. He is someone who would employ all sorts of people without any judgement. His Majesty isn't going to take a tiny bit of rudeness to heart, so follow whatever knight or Schord etiquette you deem appropriate.

If anything, His Majesty has good eyes to discern people, so you would fare better acting natural than putting up any sort of front. It's just an unofficial audience...... or the setting is at least that His Majesty was just dropping by to check on the royal guards, and you just happened to be there."

For real? I guess this old man was going senile from old age...... He might have some pompous title for sure, but who in his right mind would compare a trifling quibble with an old homeroom teacher with an audience with the Kingggg!!

It might be strange coming out of my mouth, but that was so rude!

"As you know, I had taken my post in the Royal Academy following His Majesty's decree. So I reported each day’s events to him. His Majesty found you an amusing fella and had been requesting to meet you at least once for a while now. Though I think, and most likely, another reason should be the rumors he has heard about you from his sources.

But since it would be a bit out of line to grant an audience with His Majesty without any valid pretext, it was left to 'when there's a chance' so far. However, his gregarious nature had taken another flight of fancy after seeing your match today, so he handed me a decree saying 'I don't care if it's just for 5 minutes, I want to meet him directly.'

The arena was obviously out of question since it would have been in front of the audience's eyes, and you didn't have the qualification for an unofficial audience. Hence, we have to do it like this."

Ohh? No, I mean, can you please not treat me like I’m some sort of toy for real......

???

"This room please, Sir Godorfun. I’ve asked everyone to leave this place empty.”

Randy Von Dosperior, the captain of the Royal Guard, came out to greet Godorfun-sensei at the post while explaining the details to him.

I was also seeing him for the first time, and he had an honest and earnest vibe to him. But most of all, his eyes were the exact same as my mother's!

"It's been a year, huh, Randy? The last time we met was at Vardi's memorial service. But I must apologize for making you work here when you're already swamped with the handling of the founding festival."

Seeing Godorfun-sensei apologizing after we entered the arranged lavish room, Randy-san shook his head with a wry smile.

"It's an order from His Majesty, after all. Either way, it must be due to His Majesty's gregarious trait once again. Leaving that aside, it's not easy for Sir either......"

"Fufufu. Well, it's more or less as you have guessed. Speaking of which, though, haven't you passed a message to me stating you wanted to have a meeting with me? If required, I can ask Allen to leave the room for a short while......"

Randy-san turned to glance at me when he heard Godorfun-sensei's words.

"But can I ask him one thing before that?"

Ugh, so it was really gearing toward that direction, huh? I mentally prepared myself.

"Pfft. You know, taking such a defensive stance would only show that you have something to hide. Either way, there's just one thing I want to ask. Is it from your mother that you’ve inherited that dark brown hair?"

......The what? Wow, wasn't that quite a casual question for such a serious face? I didn't think it would’ve been that hard to investigate, plus my hair color wasn't exactly rare either.

"Yeah. The rest of my family often told me how my hair is an exact replica of my mother's."

Hearing my reply, Randy-san stared at me for a short moment before speaking.

"......So it is. Alright, I have the whole gist of the story now."

Huh, what in the blazes!? I swear if this scene had appeared in one of those detective novels, many great detective fans might really be burning the book with how goofy this situation sounded. What do you mean you resolved the whole mystery with a casual question? Can we just talk in human language, please!?

As I was plunged into confusion, Randy-san started his explanation with a wry smile.

"......Learning to mask your expression wouldn't hurt, you know. It might come in handy down the road.

Frankly, the Dosperior family had never been interested in digging deeper about you unlike the other forces, though I do have a grasp over the general matter through the reports I receive. And I’ve also heard about your mom's name earlier as well, but it was an unassuming name that wasn't rare, and since she seemingly portrayed herself thoroughly as a commoner, I didn't find anything suspicious.

...Until I saw your match today. It really gave me a new perspective about your abilities, the way you perform instantaneous mana compression as simple as breathing, after seeing you up close. The only logical reason here is that the blood of the Dosperior family runs in your veins.

However, the last hint that turned that theory into a conviction was your hair. The color, feel, and growing pattern really is like being cut from the same cloth."

After explaining that, Captain Randy turned to Godorfun.

"As a matter of fact, the reason why I wanted to meet Sir was to have a chance to talk with you. I heard you rejected any and all interview proposals from the others. So I wondered if I could get this chance by concocting a suitable situation. After all...... you must have realized this already. That you're my little sister's, Cecilia's, son."

E/N - Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn!

Well, we’ve known this for a while now. I just wanted to be dramatic ?