16-1 The Prince Of The Gale

Come to think of it, there was one person in the Albatross Royal Family who had caught my attention.

That was the second prince.

I had never once seen him before.

Apparently, people called him things like “Michael of the Gale.”

What the heck was that?

I had seen the first princess before.

She had been with her fiancé from the neighboring Kingdom of Hyde, His Highness Crown Prince Sid.

They had even politely greeted me from their side.

They were an incredibly handsome and beautiful couple, but there was nothing annoying about them at all, and in particular, apparently even His Highness Prince Emilio adored Prince Sid.

Apparently, the one who ultimately brought the two of them together was His Highness Prince Emilio.

When I looked at those two, I was reminded of that song about a prince and princess traveling through the desert.

They really felt like a royal couple.

A super-handsome blond boy prince and a super-beautiful silver-haired princess.

Even though they were such an incredibly beautiful pairing, there was not even the slightest trace of unpleasantness about them.

If there was anyone who could tell this couple to go explode for being happy, they had some serious nerve.

I thought it was amazing that royals from major nations—and neighboring nations at that, with all sorts of interests surely involved—had gotten engaged after a passionate free-love romance, but apparently, it was indeed a rare case even in this world.

Well, with those two, it would not have been strange even if their parents had arranged things between them.

But apparently, only worthless types had tried approaching Her Highness Merine, like that Kirmis guy, or that marquis’s son Edward, the idiot son who had gotten involved with Eri—or more precisely, the princesses.

On top of that, there had even been talk of making her the partner of that second imperial prince from the Empire, that useless coward.

Apparently, His Highness Prince Emilio had not been pleased when he heard about that.

So it seemed that, even while still young, he had brought together his beloved elder sister and Prince Sid, whom he liked.

Apparently, Her Highness Merine also doted on her much younger brother.

I understood, I understood. His Highness Prince Emilio was adorable, after all.

His Highness Prince Emilio loved his elder sister too, but that elder sister herself had already been completely smitten with His Highness Crown Prince Sid from the beginning.

Well, that was the age for it.

The age when one fell in love with love itself.

Her Highness Merine was now already fifteen and had come of age, but back then, she had still been thirteen.

Yes, yes, young people were good. Young people were.

As for the second prince in question, His Highness Michael seemed to be a different type from his elder brother, the crown prince, and apparently, he simply could not sit still in one place.

I had never seen that prince together with the other royals.

At any rate, he had a reputation for being far too light on his feet.

But well, other than that, he was someone I had not heard any particularly bad rumors about.

The royal family here was generally like that as a whole.

As long as one did not include a certain ducal house that no longer existed.

However, what bothered me was that many of the people I asked about him, Michael, for some reason smiled wryly.

Just what sort of person was he?

Even today, while thinking such thoughts, I leisurely came to the royal palace.

I was certain of it.

The Empire would definitely attack this kingdom before winter came.

Today, I had come to confirm with His Majesty whether there was any information.

Then, there was one person I did not recognize at His Majesty’s side.

He had magnificent blond hair, probably inherited from his mother, and in appearance alone, he was quite handsome.

But seeing him here, relaxing with an ordinary attitude, meant that this person was probably…

“Hiii. Are you that rumored Blazing Flame? Wow, you’re younger than I expected! So, you see…”

He rattled on.

He was really rattling on quite intensely.

Then His Majesty held up his hand to stop him and scolded him.

“Now, at least introduce yourself, Michael. Sorry about this, Al. As you can see, he is this sort of fellow.”

“No, please do not worry about it.”

“My apologies. I am Michael, the second prince of this country. Anyway, nice to meet youuu!”

And while leaving behind a Doppler effect, Lord Gale ran off with loud footsteps.

Hmm, just as the rumors said, he really was a gale-like person.

No wonder people smiled wryly.

In appearance, he really did look like a noble, handsome man.

In that respect, he had an atmosphere that was truly prince-like.

According to rumors, this person was also apparently extremely capable.

But how should I put it? He felt like a disappointing elf without pointed ears.

I also gave a wry smile after all.

This was that, wasn’t it?

His Highness the Crown Prince was like that, with a plain and simple air like Louis XVI, and if the next one was this, then I could understand why His Highness Prince Emilio became popular.

So that was why there had been such a commotion.

But apparently, both of his elder brothers doted on His Highness Prince Emilio as if he were their own child.

Well, they were separated by nearly a parent-and-child age gap, and not only was he cute in appearance, that honest and innocent personality of his was adorable too.

Also, His Highness Prince Emilio had not even the slightest political element that would threaten their positions.

He was the beloved youngest child loved by the entire family.

So movements like excluding Emilio had only been the people around them making noise.

After watching him go for a while, I turned my gaze back to His Majesty and got to the main topic.

“Your Majesty, how are things moving on the Empire’s side?”

The reason I was worried was that from here on, we had the school performance and Christmas party, then after celebrating the new year, there would be the graduation ceremony, and on top of that, even preparations for opening the elementary school, which involved an enormous amount of work.

The work attached to that would also be difficult.

I could not stand having the Empire come at such a busy time, so I had come to ask about that area first.

“At present, there is nothing in particular, but the imperial emperor remains in critical condition, and the crown prince remains under house arrest. It would not be strange for anything to happen at any time.”

Was this a report from the spies this kingdom had sent into the Empire?

I had also voluntarily been doing spy-like things myself.

His Majesty spoke calmly and matter-of-factly, without any particular emotion.

He was probably already prepared to meet them at any time.

After all, this was a matter that could be called the greatest concern for this country for many years.

“I see. I cannot stand having them interfere oddly with my place again. Well, I suppose they will.”

After leaving the royal palace, I returned to the Beast-Ear Garden and immediately began work without delay.

In matters like this, I still had not lost the habit drilled into me at the company, where one minute of work was worth forty-four yen.

For now, I decided to strengthen security.

I had prepared a new elementary school building, so I installed an alarm system there.

For example, a system that detected if someone forced open a window or broke a door.

I also developed an Eraser that detected stealth-type magic and, according to settings, canceled magic and skills.

I divided the surveillance system into sections so it could be viewed by block.

I also made it so that if even one part of it was disabled, I would know immediately.

I placed surveillance cameras throughout the Beast-Ear Academy—which was what I called the safe house, kindergarten, and elementary school all together—and had golem soldiers monitor them.

Since I had been steadily improving the golem cores, they had become able to handle this sort of work too.

I put magical GPS devices on the children’s wrists.

They used the same mechanism as the magical smartphones.

I also installed various gimmicks that detected abnormalities, and when something happened, golem soldiers would rush over by teleportation based on the GPS information.

I would prepare dedicated soldiers for this.

Furthermore, as protection for the garden, I assigned twenty golem soldiers under each adventurer.

To let them carry all of these guys, I also lent item boxes to all the adventurers.

In addition, I made it possible to transfer any necessary equipment from my side into those at any time.

For now, that should do.

I would implement more when I thought of it.

Considering who the opponent was, no amount of preparation would be enough.

Unexpected situations were not allowed.

After all, the children’s safety was at stake.