房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"You put it on the entire room?"

"Yes."

The gold-haired prince asked the black-haired attendant, and the boy confirmed with a decisive nod, then...

"Ehmi for goodness sake, why are you using my friend for Victureo\'s agenda?! Your brother already burnt his face, why are you trying to get him in trouble?!"

"!!!"

Horeo raised his voice in anger, taking a step towards the petite platinum-haired girl...

...who got instantly shielded by Zoemi stepping in without even thinking...

"Huh...? Zoemi, weren\'t you paying attention?"

Horeo groaned, massaging his forehead seeing the reaction of his best friend.

"My prince, I..."

The black-haired boy tried to explain himself, but honestly, he didn\'t understand his own actions either.

"Give it up, little Horeo – Zoemi will always protect me, that\'s just what he does. And don\'t just start shouting at me without an actual reason – Victureo family is on your family\'s side... even despite the few recent decisions that your mother has influenced..."

Still, the one person who definitely didn\'t see anything wrong with the picture, was the platinum-haired Ehmi, leaning to the side from behind Zoemi\'s back and looking at Horeo without the slightest intention of moving anywhere.

"Ugh...! Fine! Just don\'t get that old hag into this – she never represented the Bellcephora family and never will."

The gold-haired prince scoffed and waved his hand to the side in an annoyed manner.

"...alright... A few things require explanation or Zoemi will never figure out what is going on... Let\'s sit down and talk."

"That was always my intention too."

Horeo sighed and motioned towards his desk ad bed with his chin and Ehmi nodded and pulled Zoemi over, seating him on the bed and then sitting beside him.

She turned out to be barely short enough for her legs to not reach the floor.

"..."

Horeo sent her a resentful glare and then walked over towards the desk and sat down on a chair before putting his legs up.

"Zoemi, the man you asked me about, Ludier Galamroze. I assume that you wanted to talk to me about raising the defenses of the academy by enlisting the help of the King\'s Guard in order to protect Miriette from getting targetted by him, didn\'t you?"

"...! Y-yes...!"

The gold-haired prince breathed out and asked, easily figuring out the black-haired boy\'s motivation.

"To tell you the truth, the best way to assure her safety would be simply to stay away from Xeonith – which she already does since there\'s no reason for them to interact with each other."

Horeo revealed, shrugging his shoulders dismissively.

"Huh...?! B-but why...?"

Zoemi furrowed his brows and look between the gold-haired prince and the platinum-haired girl by his side.

"The family which ordered the assassination of Galamroses was the branch of the Derizno family of course. Deriznos have been growing in power and influence as of late – especially because of the current queen\'s recent decisions – and they wanted to get their hands of the mines in the Galamrose\'s territory – which of course Ludier refused since he didn\'t want to become a part of the political power struggle... which resulted in his family being the victims of the political power struggle."

Ehmi leaned forward, getting Zoemi\'s attention, and explained with a sour expression.

"Recently, that old hag had been out of control and my father is simply going along with her every whim."

Horeo nodded in confirmation and the disgust clearly showed on his face.

"For whatever reason, she is obsessed with kissing up to the Deriznos – and that includes hiding the inconvenient information that it\'s their fault that a rampaging murderous transcended ice magician had been unleashed upon the other nobles."

He added while crossing his arms.

"Victureos and Deriznos relations had been considered bad so you might see now why I chose to step up and interfere."

Ehmi shrugged her shoulders and pointed out without much interest before she turned towards the first prince again.

"Would it really be so bad to burrow Deriznos under the ground where they belong? In the first place, the Bellcephoras have you, probably one of the strongest light magicians in history – you don\'t need their support. Just take the throne, blow up an enemy kingdom – or two – and have the overconfident nobles who don\'t want to follow you piss themselves in fear."

She motioned at him with her chin with the annoyed expression – and Zoemi looked at Horeo with curiosity too, the black-haired attendant knew about the prince\'s strength so he was also kind of curious about his stance on the matter.

"I m not against a strategic massacre when the opposite nation isn\'t of any use to our kingdom, but murdering my own family is where I draw the line. I want to get my throne in a more natural way – preferably after my father abdicates on his own free will."

Horeo sighed and put his feet back down on the floor and shrugged his shoulders with a bitter expression.

"That\'s something that I can respect, little Horeo."

Ehmi smiled and nodded to him with satisfaction.

"But – what about the security at the Academy?! Even if the serial killer\'s identity is kept hidden on purpose, that shouldn\'t change the fact that the Aspakeoy Academy is a likely target for him, right? It should be possible to get the royal family sent some additional forces for protection!"

Zoemi got the rough picture of the situation going on - although it was obvious that both Ehmi and Horeo were still keeping a lot of details from him despite promising to explain everything – but it was understandable.

"No – the Aspakeony Academy is built on neutral territory – sending out any sizeable forces to here would be seen as trying to seize it. Think about it – the same reason why a murderer might want to come here is why no one can send and station their troops here."

Horeo\'s expression turned bitter and he sighed.

"Too many children of important families are gathered here – attempt on gaining control over the Aspakeony Academy would be equal to kidnapping them all."

Ehmi finished the sentence for him and looked back at the worried black-haired boy.