Nigel’s brow furrowed instantly at the leisurely voice coming from beside the bed.
When he turned his head, Veil Khalid was there. He was sitting on the desk in Nigel’s personal study as if it were his own home, leisurely flipping through an ancient magic tome that Nigel had brought from the Imperial Palace.
“…Veil Khalid.”
A low, sunken voice broke the silence in the room. Nigel glared at him, swallowing a scoff as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Not content with entering someone else’s room without permission, you’re openly reading my books?”
Even at the sudden words, Veil wasn’t surprised and turned the page as he spoke.
“Isn’t this much okay? I’m the benefactor who safely escorted a prince who drank truth serum all the way here. It’s perfect for relieving boredom while waiting for you to wake up.”
“Why don’t you put it down now. That’s a book from the Imperial Palace library.”
“Oh, from Kaiserion’s library?”
Veil wore a smirk at the corner of his mouth as if he found it even more interesting.
“The annotations in this book are quite fascinating. Did an Imperial Palace mage write them? I didn’t know our prince was so passionate about magical studies that he’d go to such lengths to read this book.”
“Sorry, but I didn’t even know that book had annotations.”
Nigel staggered down from the bed. Veil Khalid tilted his head at those words. He had clearly thought it was a book that a high-ranking Imperial mage had personally annotated for the Crown Prince, but it seemed he had completely missed the mark.
“Then?”
“……”
His legs weren’t completely steady yet and his knees had no strength, but he stubbornly walked to the desk and roughly snatched the book from Veil’s hands.
Nigel closed the book with a thud and said.
“You don’t need to know.”
Then he immediately added.
“What about Rowen? I’m sure I heard his voice.”
To ask about Rowen as soon as he wakes up. Veil Khalid tilted his head as if displeased.
“That’s your very first question? Aren’t you curious about the truth serum?”
“……”
One of Nigel’s eyebrows rose.
“You were asleep for several hours. Did you know?”
“What, you were making a fuss over just a few hours?”
He leaned against the edge of the desk and stared coldly at Veil. Whether it was because of the truth serum or his chronic headache, his head still hurt as if it would split. But he was certain he had heard Rowen’s voice while lying with his eyes closed.
“Are you really saying Rowen never came?”
Veil pulled out the chair and stood up, taking a step right up to Nigel’s face. It was an improperly close distance.
“That’s right.”
I see. He was sure he had heard it… Was even that a hallucination? Hard to believe, but he had no choice but to believe it.
“But why did you bring me all the way here? I was clearly in the Student Council room with Eden Lake.”
“What do you think is on your wrist right now?”
“Ah. So it was thanks to this.”
Nigel lightly shook his wrist once without any sign of gratitude. To send a signal even about drinking truth serum—it was truly worthy of being Brion Kingdom’s treasure. Still, he had properly confirmed the bracelet’s function with this opportunity.
“Was it Eden Lake?”
As soon as he heard the question, Veil Khalid, who had grasped the intention, shrugged his shoulders and answered.
“Well. He drank it too, so I don’t think so… but he might have done it judging that it wouldn’t work on him.”
“……”
Nigel’s violet eyes sank slightly. It seemed he was pondering about Eden Lake on his own.
“I’ve identified the name of the person who gifted tea leaves to the Student Council.”
Nigel met Veil’s eyes as if urging him to speak.
“Ribe Hallion.”
Immediately, Nigel frowned. He had wondered if it might be a name he knew, but it was a name he was hearing for the first time. Moreover, the naming style wasn’t the kind commonly used in the Empire either.
“…I heard it’s a common surname in Sihar.”
Sihar. The barren western land that had been incorporated into the Empire long ago, and Eden Lake’s homeland.
“Sihar…”
Nigel uttered the name quietly as if chewing on it. The air in the room sank even more heavily. Nigel put strength into his fingertips pressed against the edge of the desk.
“Right, so I can’t say Eden Lake is completely unrelated.”
While saying that, Veil observed Nigel’s expression. Eden Lake was the junior Nigel had cherished for a long time, whom he had brought into the Student Council even vouching for him with his own name.
As if reading that intention, Nigel’s purple eyes touched Veil Khalid’s face. But nothing could be read from Nigel’s expression.
“Ribe Hallion. There’s no way they used their real name to send such a gift.”
“Right. Moreover, in Sihari, ‘Hallion’ also has the meaning of ‘the forgotten one.'”
Immediately, he felt Nigel’s gaze as if surprised. Veil shrugged as if it was nothing special and said.
“Brion and Sihar are close in distance. I naturally came to know simple Sihari words.”
Come to think of it, there was a scene that came to Nigel’s mind. Just before drinking tea after his walk, it was the scene of Eden Lake and someone arguing in Sihari.
A dignified man with exotic features who had looked at him with an inscrutable expression. Eden Lake had clearly explained that man was a relative.
But… The two didn’t look alike at all except for their dark skin. Of course, even among relatives, there are many people who look completely different in appearance. But that man had given off a dangerous atmosphere.
I should start from there first. Thinking this, Nigel stared at Veil Khalid intently. Though he didn’t say it aloud, Veil, who had noticed that it was Nigel’s order to leave, nodded his head with a low laugh.
“Alright. For today, let’s stop here.”
Then, as if regretful, he glanced once at the book he had been reading that was placed on Nigel’s desk, then began walking toward the door.
“Mother.”
At Nigel’s random words, Veil turned his head with a “Huh?”
“The annotations written in the book. Mother wrote them.”
Ah, I asked about that earlier. Veil naturally started to answer with thanks, then stopped. But what came out between his slightly parted lips was shock.
“What?”
It was because he had said it so plainly that he had to reflect on what Nigel meant. Mother! Because Nigel’s mother meant none other than the Emperor of the Kaiserion Empire, Celestia Kaiserion.
“…You’re saying those annotations were written by that person? By the Empire’s Emperor?”
Veil unconsciously looked back at the book Nigel had taken away. The annotations he had skimmed through earlier were full of radical interpretations touching on the taboos of ancient magic and eerily precise mana operation methods.
I thought she just elegantly drank tea in the Imperial Palace, but she had scrawled such monstrous knowledge across the pages.
Nigel, as if tired of Veil’s fuss, casually tapped the book on the desk with his fingertips.
“Mother’s deep knowledge of magical studies is an open secret of the Imperial family.”
“…Why keep something like that a secret?”
Nigel casually tapped the book on the desk with his fingertips.
“Because people usually get scared when they learn that the Empire’s Emperor is also skilled in magic.”
Nigel’s voice was calm, but there was a strange coolness lingering at the end.
Veil swallowed dryly. That was certainly true. As a prince of the Brion Kingdom, he immediately felt just how terrifying it was to learn that the current Empire’s Emperor possessed not only powerful military might but also tremendous magical skill.
And he finally understood why Nigel hadn’t readily answered when he first asked.
“…Certainly, from Brion’s position, it’s news I don’t want to hear. Anyway, I’ll take my leave for today. Nigel, I think it’s best not to trust Eden Lake too much.”
Veil left the room, leaving behind his plausible advice.
Click, the sound of the door closing settled into the silence. Left alone, Nigel quietly looked down at his mother’s book on the desk. The smell of old paper between the pages brushed past the tip of his nose.
“……”
Had she written annotations?
Only then did Nigel flip through the pages. He frowned and tried to interpret the contents written in the notes, but perhaps because he was trying to read from the middle section that opened without any context, he couldn’t understand what it was about at all.
To think he was reading this just because he was bored. To think this is a book he could look so interested in. Newly realizing the difference in magical skill between him and Veil Khalid, Nigel smiled bitterly and closed the book.
Two days from now. In two days, it would be the day Mother visits Kaiserion.
