Volume 1 - CH 13

It’s impossible to imagine the second prince appearing in a servant course classroom.

For example, let’s say Lady Sophia needed something from me. In that case, she would send her maid here, and even if that wasn’t possible, servants specifically assigned to the noble class would go instead.

So there was no reason for my lady to come here on her own to feet.

And that’s just her, the other party this time was the second prince.

Just why would he– no, right now my top priority should be welcoming him.

“Your highness, there was no need for you come to a place like this yourself, if you needed something, I would’ve gladly come at your call.”

“No, this is something that would be dangerous to talk about in the noble class.”

…dangerous? Something that needed to be discussed in secret… does it have something to do with Libert? Could it be that he intentionally interfered with our first contact with him yesterday for this reason?

If that was the case, then he did what he did because he lost the initiative… well for now, let’s listen to what he has to say.

“As for your protection… I see, so you did bring some.”

Taking a quick glance around, I noticed some presences glancing our way from around the corner.

“Oh? You could tell they were there?”

“Well, yes… I’ve trained myself to a certain degree for self-defense.”

Or so I replied, but I was actually caught off-guard by how friendly he was being. As an elitist, I thought the second prince would act more arrogantly towards a commoner like myself, and yet…

“You don’t need to be so stiff. The bodyguards are just some people my father assigned to safeguard me. They’re of no concern, and they’ll keep whatever we talk about confidential.”

“…understood.”

I mean, wasn’t it normal for those assigned to monitor others not to speak? Well, I think they’ll still report to the king, but…

Either way, what we discuss shouldn’t be leaked to our classmates.

“Your highness, if what you need to tell me is something others shouldn’t hear, should we move?”

“Yes, that would be for the best. Do you have anywhere in mind?”

“Then… how about the courtyard?”

While turning my gaze, I made that proposal.

I wanted to put Luke in charge while I was gone, but I couldn’t see him or Chloe anywhere. They were just here a little while ago, so I guess they departed while I was out.

Making do, I left the rest to my classmates and accompanied the prince to the courtyard.

The courtyard still had the facilities from yesterday’s party set up, and now I was currently facing the second prince in one of the venue’s corners. His guards were lurking in the surroundings, but they weren’t close enough for our conversation to reach them.

I didn’t know what he wanted to discuss with me, but we could talk in these conditions with peace of mind. Facing the prince like this reminded me of the event that played before I was convicted and sentenced to my execution, so I couldn’t help but feel nervous.

“Now then, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“What else could it be? Of course… it’s about Sophia. I want to know what she’s thinking, so that’s why I’ve come to you.”

“…I see.”

Yesterday, my lady danced with the second prince and his followers, but she never confirmed whether she was an elitist or not, so now he’s come to question her butler instead to verify it.

“Isn’t this something you should directly ask my lady herself?”

“There’s no way I could do that! What am supposed to do if she tells me that she doesn’t like boys who aren’t good at dancing?!”

…huh?

What is he saying? This is bad, I can’t understand what the prince was talking about. However, even if I couldn’t comprehend the other party’s words, there’s no way I could admit that.

There’s no way I could, but… I was seriously lost here.

Waitwaitwait, let’s think about this calmly.

The prince’s response to my statement that he should’ve asked my lady directly was that he was afraid of being told that she didn’t like boys who weren’t good at dancing.

In other words, what he wanted to ask Lady Sophia was, ‘could you still fall in love with a boy who isn’t good at dancing?’ or… something like that?

What’s with that? Was he just trying to rattle me? Was this a mental attack?

…no, its been made very clear that the second prince holds passionate feelings towards Lady Sophia. When keeping that in mind, does that mean that he’s seriously worried about what she thinks on this subject?

In the current state of affairs where tensions were running high between the elitists and the commoners, I didn’t think such a flowery question would appear… for now, should I try confirming this?

“That’s… I don’t think my lady holds the dance she held with you in low-regard, your highness.”

“There’s no way she doesn’t! Yesterday, I stepped on Sophia’s foot once!”

“…y-yesterday?”

“Yeah, the first time we danced together I stepped on her feet three times. Since then, I resolved myself to get better before we danced again.”

“…isn’t the reduction from three to one still an improvement?”

“It doesn’t matter if I’m still stepping on her feet in the end!”

…he was serious.

No, in the first place, I felt like we were slowly losing track of the conversation… however, his highness seemed to truly be worried about being disliked by Lady Sophia.

But putting that aside, he’s been talking normally to a servant like myself this entire time.

“May I ask something of you, your highness?”

“Yes?”

“Your highness… don’t you hate us commoners?”

“Why would I?”

With a puzzled look, he returned that question to me with wide eyes. If one were to turn that image into a picture, it would surely become a masterpiece that captivated women who loved young boys everywhere… wasn’t this guy the leader of the elitist faction?

What was the meaning of this?

There was no way he hasn’t noticed the behaviour of his surroundings. So assuming he knew… he just left them alone to their own devices? No, he just didn’t care what they did in the first place?

“Why would you ask such a thing?”

“Your highness, the people around you advocate for those ideals, and they say that you feel the same way as well.”

I was definitely crossing some lines with these words.

It’s clear that I had gone too far, but if I missed this opportunity, I might never get a chance like this ever again. With that in mind, I made my query to the prince.

However–

“Oh, so that’s it. Certainly, they might say that, but that’s just their own opinion. I don’t actually think so at all.”

The prince answered that with a big smile.

There wasn’t anything hidden behind it. That was simply the innocent response of a child.

He was a kind-hearted boy who worried about stepping on another’s feet. A little kid who put in a large amount of effort to avoid repeating that mistake, just so he wouldn’t be hated by the girl he liked.

However… he was naive.

He couldn’t read the subtleties in other’s words either. While that may be appropriate for a normal child of his age, how he was currently was definitely no good. As a prince, he was far too immature for his position.

My lady has undoubtedly mistaken him for a member of the elitists, and when I pointed out the situation to him, he even admitted that he didn’t even do anything to deny the claims made on his behalf.

Maybe as a fictional capture target, a prince as refreshing as this was fine, but in reality, an honest prince who couldn’t even read the hidden meanings behind words was no good. 

But even before all that, if he really wasn’t an elitist, then he should at least tell others that he’s being misunderstood.

Just what has the prince’s educator been doing all this time?

Something needed to be done about this… but there’s no way I could say something like, ‘is your educator completely incompetent?’ or rather, I’ve already said too much.

In the first place, this wasn’t a matter someone of my status could comment on.

But he was a candidate for my lady’s future partner. If Lady Sophia married the second prince as he was now, then I could see nothing but hardships awaiting for her. 

Should I take it upon myself to retrain him to become someone suitable for her?

…no, I’d probably be executed for lèse-majesté before the training even began. I should back down here… wait, wasn’t he worried about what my lady thought of him?

“Your highness, Lady Sophia isn’t someone who would hate someone just because they weren’t good at dancing.”

“Really?!”

“Yes. However… just like you, my lady is constantly attracting attention due to her position as the daughter of a Marquis. Therefore, it’s necessary for her to pay attention to who she talks to and what the contents of her conversations are considering the eyes watching her.”

By telling the second prince that they were similar, I was trying to convey to him that he shouldn’t take brash actions either. I was indirectly giving him advice.

The bodyguards shouldn’t have heard me, but even if they did, the corresponding punishment they give me should be reduced.

However–

“I see, Sophia sure has it tough.”

–even with all of that, my words didn’t get through to him… I wanted to cry.

However… that’s right. This was normal for twelve year old children.

This isn’t good. Even though children could still learn something when taught by an incompetent educator, there weren’t many who could process such deep thoughts on their own.

Because his body was still immature, his mind was as well.

“By the way, uh… what’s your name?”

“My apologies for the late introduction, but I’m Cyril.”

“I see. In that case– Cyril, do you know what Sophia likes?”

Concerning food, she enjoys tea and shortcake. In the arts, she likes dancing and playing solo pieces on the violin. I could just tell him, but I didn’t think the prince was capable of impressing her with any of these things.

…wait, weren’t there an unusually large variety of roses in the royal castle?

“My lady loves roses, which are the symbol of her Rosenberg house.”

“Roses?! If its roses, then there’s a bunch of them at the castle!”

“If you showed them to her, then I’m sure she’d be very pleased.”

If they went to see the roses in the royal castle’s courtyard, then only servants and guards should accompany them. The followers wouldn’t be anywhere in sight.

In that situation, my lady would definitely be able to point out the error of his ways.

As I pondered that, the prince began making arrangements to invite her to the rose garden.

Once I finally returned to the classroom, I was suddenly surrounded by my classmates.

“W-what’s wrong, everyone?”

“What’s wrong?! What did the second prince want to talk to you about?!”

“No way, did he hire you?! Is this the second professor Tristan situation?!”

Ah… speaking of which, in professor Tristan’s story of when he was hired by the royals, he told us that the prince at that time visited his servant class as well.

“I’m sorry for not meeting your expectations, but that’s not the case. It’s somewhat of a personal matter, so please forgive me for not being able to disclose the contents of our conversation.”

When I told them that, they sadly relented. Since they were being educated to be professional servants, they seemed to understand the importance of confidential matters.

For the time being, now I had to think about the future.

The class had finally been united together. I was able to display my ability as my lady’s exclusive butler with this recent event, so there was no need to worry about that anymore.

Right now I had to focus on the elitist and commoner factions.

There’s also the revelation that the second prince wasn’t an elitist to consider… honestly, it wasn’t that hard to believe after thinking it over. At the very least, his game counterpart didn’t have a very good opinion them.

Taking that into consideration, then it might be a game setting that something happens within the next three years that causes the second prince to grow disdainful towards the elitists.

I couldn’t confirm the truth at the moment, but the current problem was that many people were misunderstanding the situation. There were already a number of cases that had diverged from the setting, so just because something was set to be naturally resolved by the game’s start according to my past knowledge didn’t mean that I could just leave it alone.

At the rate things were going, the second prince might inadvertently start a feud against the commoners. He needed to learn the reality of the situation directly from my lady.

The problem was Libert.

Lady Sophia had just garnered suspicion of being an elitist, so for the second prince to so brazenly visit me at my classroom was fatal.

From the elitists perspective, it was just the weird action of the prince visiting a servant. However, to the commoner faction, it looked like he was trying to get into contact with Lady Sophia’s proxy.

Although it was necessary to get into contact with Libert immediately, the method in which to do so required caution.

Even if the second prince wasn’t an elitist, the followers surrounding him were. I’m sure that both Lady Sophia and I were being monitored by them.

Of course, I couldn’t do something as conspicuous as what the prince did and visit Libert’s classroom directly. 

At least something in the grey. I needed a situation that I could insist wasn’t so black and white. It’d be nice if there was something I could use to get in touch casually like the party… 

“Cyril, why are you making such a troubled expression?”

It was Raymond who called out to me.

“Oh, have you finished reconciling with your friends?”

“Yeah, thanks to you… wait, don’t bring up such embarrassing things.”

“You said that last part yourself.”

Laughing back with a bitter smile, Raymond’s demons seemed to be gone now.

A twelve year old boy lost his father and was forced to carry the fate of his family on his small back. When taking that into consideration, his impatient and rash behaviour until now didn’t feel that unreasonable anymore.

In that sense, his present figure was probably his true self.

“But putting that aside– Cyril, why were you making such a troubled face?”

“Ahh… you see, I was actually thinking about how I could get into contact with Libert.”

“The son of the Lacourt Company’s president? If I remember correctly, he was the leader of the commoner faction… wait, that’s it!”

It was something I was contemplating immediately after the second prince brazenly came into contact with me. So when I mentioned wanting to contact Libert, it wouldn’t be strange for him to assume I received some kind of order from him to carry out.

“Let me just say–”

“I know. You need to talk to Libert in secret, so you can tell him that you aren’t hostile, right?”

“…why would you think so?”

Raymond couldn’t have inferred all of that from just my facial expression.

“The mistress you serve cares far too much about you to be an elitist.”

“She cares too much… about me?”

In front of Raymond, my lady must’ve taken an attitude impressionable enough to make him think so. I wonder when this happened.

“Before, when I directly met with Lady Sopia to speak with her, she told me, ‘I would never hire someone who’s hostile towards Cyril, the person I trust most.’”

“…I see.”

That wasn’t something my lady should be openly declaring to other people about a mere servant… but I can’t say that I wasn’t happy about it.

I was seriously struggling to stop myself from smiling.

“If you want to casually get into contact with Libert, then how about the tea party he’s hosting? It seems that some of the lower-class nobility and the influential commoners were invited to it.”

Apparently, Libert was organising an event to gather allies to stand against the elitists. The only people attending were those that didn’t have good opinions of the opposition– there’s no way that was true.

If I were an elitist, I’d definitely try to sneak in to find out about the commoner faction’s inner workings.

As I thought that, I couldn’t help but feel like this was the silver lining within the prince’s visit. Now even if I infiltrated the tea party, the elitists wouldn’t grow suspicious of me at all.

On top of that, what the prince talked to me about was his love life– there’s no way he would tell anyone about it.

The thing is, Libert would probably be making the same conclusions as the elitists… and I still needed to persuade him despite that.

“This is a great opportunity… but the question now is how am I going to attend?”

“You can have a noble invited to the party hire you temporarily as their butler. One of the participants I know of is that young lady who requested a dance from you earlier.”

It seems Alicia was among the lower-class nobility called to attend the party. Speaking of which, there was a similar situation like this in the game. It was an event that happened just before the ending where both my lady and I were executed.

…well, there shouldn’t be any danger of that this time.

The problem with this plan was that I’d be Alicia’s servant during that time, even if it was only temporarily.

All the light disappeared from Lady Sophia’s eyes just from her asking me to dance, so once it was known that I’d be acting as her exclusive butler… just thinking about it frightened me.