Chapter 21
Artius frowned, thinking he had suffered a loss by worrying for nothing.
‘But it seems it’s true that she used magic.’
When probed, she had an expression as if something was fishy.
It seemed she wasn’t complaining about using a little magic this time, but if by any chance that child died, it would be troublesome for Artius.
‘…I don’t want to see another imperial heir anymore.’
Artius’s biggest concern was that if the princess died, he would lose his successor.
It had been his concern since the first time that child had narrowly escaped death.
And Ricardo had said he would become that child’s teacher so that Elonia wouldn’t be swallowed up and die by her own magic.
There were plenty of mages in Ravanta’s magic tower, but he couldn’t entrust the princess to them.
Because Elonia was the only imperial heir.
The aristocrats still hadn’t given up on the vacant position of empress.
The way to move the emperor who wasn’t taking in an empress on the grounds that a successor already existed was simple.
They just had to get rid of the only successor.
Right now it was safe because Elonia was confined within the Princess Palace.
But the moment she entered the magic tower to learn magic, it was obvious the princess would die, either unable to control her own magic or by an “unexpected accident”.
‘…That can’t happen.’
The aristocrats were all pretending to cower while looking for an opportunity.
Even if the culprit of the Princess Palace intrusion incident a few days ago was Ricardo, there would be endless assassination attempts on the princess in the future.
Artius raised his head.
At the end of his gaze was the portrait of Empress Philemia that he always kept in his office.
“…You are my only empress, Philia.”
So taking in someone else as empress and having a new child was something that must not happen.
Artius had two choices.
The danger to the princess from an unspecified majority, or the danger from a specific individual.
In order not to be swayed by the appetite of the aristocrats, the choice Artius had to make was crystal clear.
—-
The next day, Artius summoned Ricardo.
“…Come to the palace again tomorrow. The captain of the Princess Palace knights will be waiting for you.”
“That means—”
“However, you are not the only guard for the princess. You also participated in the war, so you should know this person.”
Next to Artius, a platinum-haired knight who looked honest at a glance looked down at Ricardo.
Ricardo remembered her too.
“Of course. Isn’t it Lady Ethan Flang, who was your closest aide?”
“The center of the guard will be Lady Flang here. And she will monitor you.”
“Your words are most reasonable. Rather, if there was no monitoring, I would have asked for it first.”
“…Since you’re from Heilan, I’ll tell you in advance. If you look down on Knight Flang for being a woman like other Heilanians, you won’t be safe no matter if you’re Cheron’s disciple.”
“My master was also female, so why would I look down on her?”
Ricardo said to Ethan with a brazen grin.
“I look forward to working with you, Lady Ethan Flang.”
“…”
Not only Ethan but even Artius was at a loss for words.
How could he smile so pleasantly in the middle of enemy territory?
It was simply astonishing how such a brazen disciple came from a master like Cheron.
No, even if their attitudes were different, the way they spoke bluntly was exactly like Cheron.
Momentarily reminded of Cheron’s will as well, Artius wrinkled his nose.
However, the more guards, the better.
No matter how much Artius recognized Ethan Flang, in the end, there was only one body and physical limits.
If he entrusted the job to only one person because of their outstanding ability and that person died, everything would become useless.
And if it was Ethan, she would be able to quickly stop Ricardo even if he did something foolish.
Because she was the captain of the Tite Knights that he had personally chosen.
If he received a report from Ethan that Ricardo was suspicious, he could personally deal with Ricardo.
This was the full story of how Ricardo became Elonia’s guard.
* * *
After Elonia got two guards, Llewellyn came to play at the Princess Palace without fail again today.
“Uh, uh…?”
“You’re here, Llewellyn. Greet my guards.”
“Greetings, Prince. I am Ethan Flang, in charge of guarding the princess.”
“I’m Ricardo Harriet. Please call me Rica.”
“Uh, yes… I’m Llewellyn Asta…”
Although Llewellyn was a shrewd child who acted friendly towards adults, he seemed overwhelmed by the two large figures and sat on the sofa, shrinking and fidgeting, unlike his usual self.
At Elonia’s order, Ricardo, Ethan, and even the maids including Sarah all left the room.
“Then please call us if you need anything, Princess.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Sarah smiled kindly and quietly closed the door.
As soon as all the maids and even the guards left, Llewellyn fussed and asked Elon,
“Elon, what’s this? Suddenly having guards?”
“Well, it just ended up like this.”
Elonia would have usually scolded Llewellyn for getting fresh with her, but this time she understood him.
She had already heard from Ethan about how Ricardo had become her guard and grasped the general situation.
‘He told me to report immediately if Ricardo does anything unnecessary.’
Both Artius and Ethan.
They all knew that Ricardo was from Heilan.
Of course, he was officially recognized as a knight of Ravanta, but no matter how much he wanted to spite her, assigning a knight from Heilan as a guard to Ravanta’s princess…
Thinking about it again, she wanted to stab Artius in the head.
‘That bastard, did he actually want to kill me while pretending to acknowledge me as his successor?’
Well, according to Ricardo, he had somehow managed by proclaiming himself as a magic teacher, but it didn’t make sense from a common-sense perspective.
Llewellyn cautiously looked at Elonia, who had a sulky expression, and asked,
“Then what about our academy tour?”
He almost cried while asking.
A few days before the guards arrived, they had planned to secretly go play at the academy with Llewellyn, and the day to execute that plan was today.
But if guards suddenly appeared like this, they couldn’t go out freely!
Llewellyn checked Elonia’s expression, wondering if she might be upset or disappointed, and said,
“What should we do? If I had known you would get guards, we should have gone earlier…”
After visiting the Asta estate without a word, Elonia couldn’t even take a single step out of the Princess Palace.
Llewellyn felt sorry for Elonia like that.
He wanted to comfort Elonia and do something for her, and just then, Elonia was the first to say she wanted to go play at the academy.
It was the first time Elonia had asked Llewellyn for something!
In fact, Llewellyn had heard what Elonia had said in passing and misunderstood on his own, and Elonia had only said, “Do as you please,” looking at Llewellyn like an immature younger sibling, but anyway, Llewellyn was happy.
Wasn’t it only natural for an older brother to grant whatever his younger sister wanted?
Llewellyn always wanted to make Elonia, who had a sullen expression, smile as her older brother.
So he had wracked his little brain and worked hard to plan, and he had felt like walking on clouds thinking about guiding Elonia around the academy day and night.
But after spending such a busy week and finally coming to the palace on the weekend, Elonia had gotten guards.
Everything had turned to bubbles!
‘I should have planned faster…! Becoming an older brother and not even being able to show my younger sister around the academy!’
For the first time since he was born, Llewellyn thought he was stupid.
Elonia found Llewellyn, who was restless by himself, quite cute and suppressed her laughter.
‘Dummy.’
No matter how much he acted like an adult or shrewdly, he was still a child after all.
Of course, at first, she had left him alone because she found it cute how he was babbling by himself, but if he wanted it this much, it couldn’t be helped.
In fact, Elonia had also been quite looking forward to secretly going to play at the academy, so she had already finished conspiring before Llewellyn.
So there was no way she would give up here.
Llewellyn was still a long way from being called “oppa” by Elonia.
‘Certainly, even I didn’t know guards would come at this timing.’
But that made it easier to sneak out and come back.
If only Ethan had come as a guard, she would have had no choice but to give up, but the story was different with Ricardo here.
She only wanted to put a blade on Artius’s head for a moment, and her curiosity about the academy remained.
Elonia patted the back of the sniffling Llewellyn.
Llewellyn sniffed and asked Elonia,
“Elon, aren’t you upset?”
“Why should I be upset?”
“Well, because you can’t go out now…”
“Dummy.”
“Dummy…”
“Rica!”
Llewellyn was dumbfounded by Elonia’s words and tilted his head, not knowing why she was suddenly calling Ricardo.
Soon Ricardo appeared out of thin air, and Llewellyn almost fainted.
“Yes, Princess.”
“Uh, uh? H-how…?”
“Stop whining and get up. You have to guide me around the academy.”
“Uh-uh?”
Llewellyn kept saying “uh-uh” like an idiot with his eyes wide open.
And he stammered while pointing at Ricardo.
“T-teleportation magic? A mage? B-but a k-knight…?”
“Is this a secret?”
“That’s right. This is top secret, so please keep it a secret, Prince.”
Ricardo was the disciple of the Great Sword Mage Cheron.
As much as his excellent master had taught him, casting a spatial movement spell while taking two kids along was like eating cold soup for him.
And Ricardo was a very good servant who ignored the emperor’s orders but not Elonia’s.
Ricardo put the outer coat and bonnet he had secretly brought on Elonia and added glibly,
“Uh, since when? Did you persuade the guard? No, are you really a sword mage?”
“Yeah. This is a real secret. Ah, right. Rica, did you handle Ethan well?”
“H-handle?”
“Of course. I put him to sleep for sure. He’ll be taking a nap in the sunniest spot in the Princess Palace. He won’t budge for the next two hours. Phew, that guy’s vigilance is really something else, so it was tough.”
“Uh, uh-uh?”
“Instead of saying ‘uh-uh’ like an idiot, you should get ready to go out too.”
“Princess, should I change your hair color too?”
“Ugh, no. Even if my mana is fine, putting someone else’s mana on me is annoying.”
“Am I someone else to you?”
“Yeah.”
Llewellyn couldn’t keep up with the situation.
So Ricardo had hit his fellow guard Ethan on the back of the head and was having such a silly conversation while helping Elonia’s outing?
For a moment, he wondered if this was okay, but excited by the thought that he could finally show Elonia around the academy, Llewellyn uncharacteristically nodded without thinking.
“Okay! Leave guiding the academy to me!”
“Then I’ll escort you.”
Ricardo held out his hand to Elonia and Llewellyn.
The two children held Ricardo’s hand and headed to Lucid Academy.
Well, this chapter confirms that Ethan Flang (에단 플랑)is a woman.