Chapter 196 - Getting Dragged In
Editor: Sam
The next week when I went to the castle, three boys were lined up in front of me.
It was Prince Nico, Prince Albert, and Prince Lambert. Nico and Prince Al were looking at me with their arms folded and Lam-ojisama was only standing there looking at me in amusement. It was hot and humid even though it was spring.
“Lei, it’s about the night before your day off,” Nico spoke heavily. I expected this.
I went to the northern fief with Prince Al and Prince Nico, and the incident where I fell down a hole also happened in the north, and Nii-sama and I used our barriers to communicate with each other.
It was an emergency, so nothing was said to me at that time, and I don’t think anything was said to Nii-sama either.
But I think those who have magic, more or less felt something. They might have thought that it was something unique to the north. But if the same ‘something’ was felt in the royal capital as well, then it was caused by someone who was also with them in the north.
And that someone, in other words, was, “Lei, it’s you.”
Prince Al, your eyes are sharp. That’s not the way you look at a baby. I shook my head.
It could have been Nii-sama or Gill. In fact, it was Gill who said he was going to make a barrier.
“Whath wash?” I answered, I lifted my palms up and showed him. Otou-sama does this often.
“Guh. Alabans. Kuku.” Lam-ojisama was holding back his laughter. He was being rude, but does this mean I look like Otou-sama? Then, that’s good.
“You really make people angry.”
I hardly did anything to be angry about on our trip to the north. It was Prince Albert who got angry on his own.
“Lei ignore Uncle. Can’t you tell me?”
Nico looked at me sadly. This isn’t fair. It wasn’t fair for adults to be questioning a two year old either. I screamed, “Ashw Giww and Nii-syama. Lei doeshn’th wnow.” (Ask Gill and Nii-sama. Lei doesn’t know)
Dammit. This made it sound like Nii-sama and Gill did something. Well, they did. I’ll leave the rest to them.
“Now. Nico, ith’sh thime tho shthudy.”
“Okay.”
I grabbed Nico’s hand and ran towards the library. I heard a small voice behind me.
“You’re not walking fast at all.”
Prince Al is really rude. You can’t grow up in just a month or two, now can you?
Nico looked at me seriously when we reached the top of the stairs.
“Uncle only noticed the time in the north. But I think I’ve felt it three times now. Didn’t the same thing happen on Purgatory Island?”
“Nico, thath’s...”
Nico noticed that I had made a barrier back then, probably because he had been next to me.
“Ith’sh hard tho expwain. Ashw Nii-syama.”
“You’re not keeping it a secret from only me, right?”
I patted Nico’s head with my other hand.
“I’m noth. You’re my friend.”
“That’s right!”
Nico tugged my hand as his face brightened. The truth is even friends can keep things from each other. But I won’t be ambiguous about it anymore if even Prince Al or Prince Lambert can sense it.
“I’wm wefting ith tho Giww and Nii-syama.” (I’m leaving it to Gill and Nii-sama.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothhing. Leth’sh go!”
“Okay!”
We managed to trick Odds-sensei and reduced our studying time.
I thought about leaving the matter to Gill and Nii-sama, but apparently that wasn’t enough. The Four Marquises can only be away from the capital for barely 10 days since they had to maintain the barrier. Using those ten days, Gill’s Otou-sama went to Farland last week. Otou-sama was also called away under the guise of receiving Stan’s report, and was asked about the barrier which took place last week.
That was the day before this week’s holiday, or in other words, today, exactly one week after we had carelessly caused a barrier reaction.
Because of that, Nii-sama and Gill were called away in the middle of Nii-sama’s class, so it was boring.
“You’re complaining, but didn’t you have fun playing with Chris, Felicia and Mark? You even had a nap half-way through.”
“I washn’th compwaining. You awsho pwayed Nico.” (I wasn’t complaining. You also played Nico.)
“Isn’t it fine since you had fun? Older people have their own circumstances too.”
I wanted to say that Mark and Felicia didn’t, but I held back.
Leaving aside Otou-sama who came home while looking disheartened, I was worried about Gill, who was taken home by a stern looking Stan-ojisama.
“Worry about Nii-sama too.”
“You’re fine.”
First of all, no one here had a stern expression on their face or looked gloomy. I only saw a cheerful man who said he was going to spend two days with his family since he had a break. Otou-sama seemed to be in a much better mood than usual.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen Stan. He was summoned by the royal family before Gill told him about the situation. He turned grim when he found out about what had happened. He’s always a cheerful guy, so it’s interesting to see him look like that sometimes.”
“Otou-syama...”
It was completely someone else’s problem. It’s not Gill’s fault in the first place, and the Albans was the source of the problem since he had only copied what we were doing.
“Lei, are you saying it’s the Albans fault in the first place?”
“Lei did nothhing wrong. He wash copying Nii-syama and Otou-syama.”
“You’re right. It’ll take too long to tell them about the full story.” Otou-sama summed it up nicely.
“Well. Stan was funny, but it’s more trouble than it’s worth.”
I felt like I didn’t want to ask.
“His Highness wants you to teach the children how to do it.”
I knew it was like that.