To my small and adorable puppy, Ash
Ash, I may soon die
Why? Because my beloved youngest son has been missing without word for weeks
I will soon die from heartbreak
So this is not a letter but a will
To think that the letter sent after weeks is a request to arrange a skilled tutor
You’re the first to make such an unreasonable request of me
If anyone other than you had dared make such a request, I would have cut off their limbs and fed them as pig feed
Knowing you’re a well-behaved child who never acted spoiled even while sick
I have no doubt that there must be a deep meaning behind this
You always have a home to return to
If things are difficult, return to this father’s side anytime
I’ll send you the dessert you like soon
I love you, Ash
As soon as I finished reading the letter, I was gripped by strange emotions. The ‘price for lending the tutor’ I’d expected to be written somewhere wasn’t written anywhere. I’d thought there would at least be a demand to send letters faithfully every week. Just as I couldn’t take my eyes off the letter, a hand reached down from above and snatched the letter away. When I hastily turned my head, Deus, who had come without me knowing when, was reading the letter.
“Are you going back?”
“……”
“Abandoning me?”
A sharp voice came back, as if he’d quickly read all the text in that short time. I glared at Deus with a cold expression, then reached out my hand as if asking for it back.
“Give it, no…… please give it back.”
“Why are you suddenly using formal speech?”
“I thought if there was distance, you might treat me less carelessly.”
“I’ve never treated you carelessly.”
Deus, who answered definitively, returned the letter. After putting the received letter in my clothes, I examined Deus’s complexion. It was a calm face that didn’t show even a bit of guilt. Unimaginable as the person who had casually broken my ankle. That somehow made me a little angry.
“I’ve always treated Ash preciously. Why are you saying such things?”
“What does treating preciously mean?”
“……”
“Never once having been treated preciously…… only treated like a monster, how would you know the sense of treating something preciously?”
I hesitated mid-rant, spewing anything in anger. My heart beat rapidly.
To Kiss who could kill me anytime, I couldn’t speak like this, yet to Deus who clearly wouldn’t kill me, I poured out anger like this. Even I thought it was the worst. I sighed and rubbed my face.
“Fine, don’t act like that again from now on.”
“Can’t promise.”
“……”
“I’ll take Ash whenever I want. That’s the law of our deal. But after pouring it all out like that, I’ll grant one thing you want from me.”
Whether to call it shameless or chillingly honest. The selfishness characteristic of royalty that excludes all others’ emotions and pursues only their own desires seemed indeed not easily broken. I narrowed my eyes and asked back.
“……Anything?”
“Anything.”
“Then……”
To readily grant what I want, is this the carrot after the stick? I wanted to make an absurd wish to trouble Deus, but I knew such a thing would be meaningless anyway.
In the end, Deus didn’t love me but just needed a deal partner to satisfy his violence. Then it would be advantageous for me to also exclude emotions and obtain compensation from that act. I fidgeted with my fingers, pondering, then carefully began.
“In 3 weeks…… there will be a banquet formally introducing you. Even if you don’t stand out the most there, you need to learn etiquette and politics at least enough to prove the Crown Prince’s dignity.”
“……”
“So for the next 3 weeks, don’t run wild and make an effort. I’ll also do my best to help.”
I laid out the requirements with a resolute face. How much silence flowed? Deus, who had been expressionless all along, soon burst out laughing.
Deus, who had been laughing for a while, approached while wiping the tears pooled in his eyes with his wrist. My body stiffened at the arms naturally embracing my waist. A voice mixed with laughter pierced my ears.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Ash…… still doesn’t know how to use me properly.”
“……”
“It’s okay, after my power awakens to some degree, Ash will have grown a lot too. Then you’ll know how to handle me more cleverly.”
I hesitated trying to push away Deus who was rubbing his face against my shoulder. It was because I felt a strange dissonance from Deus’s words. Deus’s eyes, who turned his face to meet my gaze, curved into crescents. I asked in a puzzled voice toward Deus who let out a meaningful laugh.
“Power awakening?”
Deus, who had been just laughing without answering, poked my cheek with his index finger and said.
“Baby doesn’t need to know.”
* * *
After knocking and entering the drawing room, the woman and Kiss who had been waiting for us turned around almost simultaneously. I tapped the arms of Deus who was embracing my neck from behind and pressing down on my body.
Deus, who stood properly with a sulky face, looked into space with an expression devoid of interest. The woman, who had been briefly flustered by such insolent behavior from Deus, opened her mouth with a gentle smile.
“It’s an honor to meet you, I was once exclusively employed by the Serpent family to teach the children…… My name is Rowena Valentine.”
The novel’s setting belatedly came to mind. Rowena Valentine. A woman from the crow beastman family, called a monster even within the Valentine family that had produced genius after genius of the century.
Not content with creating a new magical formula at just five years old, she also excelled in mathematics, history, philosophy, and diplomacy, often receiving requests to serve as an advisory committee member from other countries.
Not only that, but as the daughter of the Valentine family that had a symbiotic relationship with the imperial family, it was fair to say she virtually knew imperial etiquette inside out.
Truly excellent in all fields, she was none other than the strategist that anyone wanting to become a monarch would most covet. Kiss, who had made a deliberately surprised expression upon hearing the name, smiled brilliantly and said.
“So you’re the young lady of the Valentine family. Personally, no matter how many times I visited, you wouldn’t meet me, so I thought I absolutely wanted to meet you at least once out of stubbornness.”
“Oh my, it seems my maid must have mistaken you for someone else. If I’d known it was Lord Kilius, I would have met you any number of times.”
Unlike the two who laughed haha hoho and exchanged pleasantries, Deus, the actual protagonist of this gathering, was burying his face in my shoulder. Rowena, who had been glancing toward Deus, spoke warmly.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, I’ve heard the explanation from Lord Kilius. Though I’m inadequate, it’s a great honor to have the opportunity to take charge of Your Highness’s learning.”
“……”
“If you have anything particularly curious, please feel free to ask me anything. I will answer with sincerity.”
Deus, who had been expressionlessly looking at the warmly smiling Rowena, smiled in turn.
“You have no fear, coming in and out of the Detached Palace while pregnant. If you fall out of favor with the Empress, that child in your belly will be pulled out and crushed before it even sprouts limbs.”
Kiss’s and my expressions froze simultaneously. Rowena alone, not losing her warmth, asked back as if surprised.
“How did you know I’m pregnant?”
“Because the flow of magical power is subtly different.”
“That’s an amazing ability. Knowing how to read the flow of magical power means you’ve also mastered its operation. I don’t think I’ll have anything to teach you about magical formulas…… but do you happen to know this formula?”
Rowena, who had been purely amazed, soon wrote an unidentifiable formula densely filling one side of parchment. Deus, who had been quietly looking at that formula, frowned. Then her eyes sparkled.
“Is there perhaps a problem?”
“It works but it’s an inefficient formula. I wouldn’t use that.”
“Then is there a better formula?”
Deus, who had been about to say something, closed his mouth. Then he shot back with a rough expression.
“Why should I tell you that? You’re the one who came to teach me.”
“……”
“Studying in the first place is what lowborns with nothing do. So you all study hard for me.”
I poked Deus’s side with my elbow. It meant to be moderately mischievous. Rowena, who maintained her composure even at such rudeness from Deus, spoke in a calm voice.
“I taught Ash letters from a young age…… and truly spent many moments together. Ash was gentle and clever from childhood, so even when I played pranks like pretending to steal his nose, he couldn’t even get angry and just cried sniffling. That appearance was so cute that I once made concrete plans to kidnap Ash.”
“……”
“But realizing kidnapping was realistically impossible, I captured all such adorable moments of Ash using magic crystals.”
Rowena rummaged through her bag and pulled out something. What Rowena pulled out was…… magic crystals that replayed images of Ash when he was young like videos.
From his appearance with his bottom clearly exposed in front of a bathtub, to crying wah wah with cheeks frozen red from the cold, to his appearance with missing front teeth.
‘Isn’t that…… a crime?’
Unlike me whose expression rapidly soured, Deus’s face showed unprecedented vitality. Rowena, who gathered the magic crystals sprawled on the table back into her bag, smiled brightly and continued.
“If you successfully complete lessons with me for 3 weeks, they’ll all become Your Highness’s possessions.”
Silence flowed. Deus, who couldn’t take his eyes off Rowena’s bag, answered in a serious voice.
“I want to study. I’ll become a model student and win scholarships. I’ll become the last intellectual of this era.”
