Three Idiots And King

The tournament had ended without incident, and Rudel, Luecke, and Unias—injured… or rather, seriously wounded—were once again laid up in the infirmary as usual. Rudel had practically claimed the bed by the window as his permanent spot, with Luecke in the middle and Unias on the aisle side.

In that infirmary, Izumi was cutting fruit for the three of them with the fruit-peeling skills she had gotten much better at. Rudel’s portion had been carved to resemble a Killer Rabbit, but—

“It looks like a dragon’s head, so I can’t eat it… Can I keep it as a decoration?”

“Th-This is a Killer Rabbit! It’s a rabbit, so please eat it.”

“Oh, I see, it’s a rabbit… Then maybe I can eat it. A rabbit… but still…”

Covered from head to toe in injuries, Rudel refused to eat the fruit Izumi was holding up to his mouth. Watching the two from the side, Luecke and Unias stared in exasperation at Rudel’s indescribable reaction and his exchange with Izumi. And outside the room, someone listening to their conversation was thinking…

(A-A rabbit!!! He’s going to eat a rabbit person? Y-You mean sexually, right?! You’re going to eat one sexually, right, Master!? Let me join you!!!)

…It was Fina. Following behind her were King Albaha, accompanied by his Senior Knight guards, and the academy principal. They had come incognito to congratulate Rudel and the others on their victory.

With this championship, both the royal family and the academy had come to evaluate Rudel highly… but that was not necessarily entirely good news for him.

“Excuse me… You three look lively enough… Wait, what are you doing?! Stay exactly as you are!”

Albaha casually entered the hospital room, only for all four people inside to immediately kneel before the king… three of whom were seriously injured patients. Izumi had moved first, but Rudel immediately forced his aching body out of bed and knelt on the floor as well… which ignited Unias’s competitive spirit, while Luecke apparently could not tolerate being the only one doing nothing and joined them too.

The result was a king who had made three seriously wounded boys kneel before him. His Senior Knight subordinates looked at Albaha as though they desperately wanted to say something. …Their respect for the king despite their injuries was admirable, but these three were also the future heirs of the Three Dukes…

“You can stay in bed! Don’t force yourselves to kneel like that!!!”

(Ah, Father’s shouting… This is hilarious!!!)

Fina enjoyed the spectacle without changing expression, while the king found himself receiving silent looks from his subordinates and the principal begging him to make them stop. Thus, the king’s anguished cries echoed through the hospital room…

Once things had finally calmed down enough for a proper conversation, Albaha began.

“Congratulations on winning the tournament, Rudel. I never imagined you would prove quite this capable… Which brings me to something important. I would like you to formally inherit House Arses. Thanks to Fina’s letters, I have a general understanding of what has happened until now. You saved Fina, and I also know that the reports concerning you were written with malicious intent…”

The king had finally given Rudel a fair evaluation instead of relying on the false reports from before. Izumi was delighted, while Luecke and Unias were both relieved… but Rudel himself could only feel dissatisfied.

“No. It is true that I put the princess in danger, and it is also true that I dragged Luecke and Unias into it! Being allowed to remain at the academy is more than enough!”

To Rudel, inheriting the position of one of the Three Dukes… becoming a grand duke meant giving up his dream of becoming a Dragoon. He had finally drawn closer to that dream, and returning to his position as heir now was the last thing he wanted.

“No, no. If I disregard a handful of those reports and look at everything else together, I can conclude that you would make an excellent grand duke. Your grades place you among the academy’s top students, and your ability to interact with people regardless of status or whether they are demi-human speaks very highly of you.”

As the king praised him, Rudel, who had no desire to inherit the grand dukedom, began thinking. At this rate, becoming a Dragoon would become much harder… If the king ordered him to inherit the position, Rudel would become even more deeply involved in governing his territory. The moment he graduated, he would likely have to begin handling domestic affairs… His father would dump miscellaneous work on him, and he would have to enter high society, something he had never experienced before.

Rudel had no time for that. Everything he had done until now had been for the sake of becoming a Dragoon. The title of grand duke was useless to him.

“…I… have no interest in becoming a grand duke.”

“…Is that because of your dream? It is true that Dragoons are heroes among heroes in this kingdom, but if you became a grand duke, you could save far more citizens than a single Dragoon knight ever could.”

Rudel frowned deeply at the king’s words.

“Even so, I don’t want to give up on my dream!”

Rudel’s resolve did not waver. The king found himself impressed by the strength of that conviction and by the determination in Rudel’s eyes. And so he told him…

“A knight’s duty is to protect the royal family, the kingdom, and its people. Your answer has been contradictory from the very beginning… We will leave the matter of the grand dukedom undecided for now. But if you cannot give me an answer that satisfies me, I will neither allow you to become a Dragoon nor let you keep the grand ducal title. …That will be all for today.”

With that, Albaha and the Senior Knights departed. Fina glanced back once at the troubled Rudel before following her father out of the room.

After the king left, Rudel went to the rooftop. He had asked Izumi to bring him up to the roof of the infirmary… though by this point, it could practically be called a hospital. It was already past noon, and a breeze swept across the rooftop, making the laundry hanging there rustle.

Rudel sat on a bench with bandages wrapped all over his body, his hands bound so heavily that he could not even move his fingers, and reflected on the king’s words. Izumi sat beside him, watching him with concern.

Izumi knew Rudel’s dream. She also knew that he had resolved to abandon his people if necessary for the sake of achieving it. …And now, at this late stage, the king’s words had become an obstacle to that dream. Izumi herself understood that if Rudel inherited the Arses territory, he could save many people, so she knew the king was right, but…

“Rudel… don’t let it get you down too much.”

Even so, Izumi still wanted Rudel’s dream to come true. When she tried to encourage him,

“Izumi, how do you think I can talk the king around? I can think of a few convenient excuses, but… nothing that really feels convincing.”

“…Rudel? Are you planning to deceive the king?!”

“Deceive him? Don’t make it sound so awful! Besides, I understand that what the king said is right… Basically, I just need to save more people as a Dragoon than I would as a grand duke, don’t I? I’ll become a knight, then a Dragoon, and save as many people as I can!”

Covered from head to toe in injuries, Rudel did not look remotely convincing. Yet Izumi found him reassuring all the same and smiled as she looked at him.

…Three people were watching the pair from behind cover. Luecke, Unias… and the academy principal. The three had intended to speak to Rudel, assuming he was depressed, only to discover that he was unexpectedly… no, far more energetic than they had imagined, and apparently trying to deceive the king.

“You can’t deceive him!”

Luecke whispered sharply, but—

“So he’s going to deceive the king… The real question is how.”

“Why do you sound excited about this, Unias?! Rudel is trying to deceive the king! We have to stop him!”

“No way. This sounds interesting… Besides, Rudel already said it himself, didn’t he? He’s going to save more people than he could as a grand duke.”

As Luecke began arguing with the amused Unias, the principal felt relieved to see Rudel in such good spirits. He was also reassured that Rudel had been thinking about what came after becoming a Dragoon.

(I’m glad he doesn’t seem likely to lose his way…)

Afterward, Rudel wrote a letter to the king. It was meant to be his answer to the king’s question, and Albaha was greatly pleased by what he wrote.

“I will become a Dragoon who saves even more people than I could as a grand duke.”

That was Rudel’s answer to the king.