Chapter 5

spent a hectic week waking up to the scent of tea, getting perfectly prepared, having breakfast, and going to various classes.

In the meantime, I met Plantz three more times.

After mentioning Freya again during swordsmanship class and almost killing her by pretending it was a mistake, it became somewhat quiet.

What was truly surprising was Planz’s sword skills.

Of course, Kalian’s strength was poor, but Plantz also blocked the attack quite well.

‘I guess the name ‘Knight’s Family’ wasn’t for nothing.’

In any case, after that, Planz still had a mocking look in his eyes whenever he saw Calian, but the number of times he opened his mouth significantly decreased. With that alone, Calian was satisfied.

As I was sitting in front of the mirror to go to breakfast and blankly watching the maids comb my hair, Jan came up to me and told me about the day’s plans.

“… Lastly, we will have dinner with the Queen and Viscount Briesen.”

“ah.”

Viscount Lennon Brissen.

He was the older brother of Queen Silike and the second son of the Marquis of Briesen. Although he was born into a long-established knightly family, he had no aptitude for it, so he gave up sword fighting early on and went on to lead the Briesen Guild, the largest clan in Kairis.

‘He said he wasn’t qualified to run the business, so he left full authority to the manager he hired for a large sum of money. Well… having the money to do that is also an ability.’

“Is only Viscount Briesen attending without any other nobles?”

“Yes. We were supposed to prepare a celebratory performance for the last day of the festival to commemorate His Royal Highness’s birthday, but circumstances arose and we had to hold it somewhere else instead. I went to the palace to apologize to Your Majesty for that matter, and I think I’m planning to go see the princes.”

“If that were the case, I could just go to Plants.”

Jan’s face stiffened slightly at the direct mention of Plantz’s name. It was clear that it would be difficult for Jan to find the words to reply, so Calian quickly spoke again.

“Anyway, okay.”

Then Jan opened his mouth again.

It seemed like there were other things left to talk about today besides the schedule.

“And I have something to tell you.”

As Calian nodded slightly, Yan seemed to hesitate for a moment and spoke.

“Prince, I need to open the safe for a moment. Should I do it again?”

‘safe? ‘Have I had something like that?’

I thought he was a prince with nothing, but it seems he had money.

Calian quickly searched through his memories. And then I found out that the silver, fancy, unknown piece of furniture in the corner of the bedroom was a safe.

“Why the safe?”

“That’s…”

For some reason, Jan hesitated.

In that case, there is only one reason. It’s something to do with Freya. Jan cautiously opened his mouth.

“The manager of Whitlin Manor sent the proceeds up.”

‘My mother’s name was Freya Whitlin. Then I guess it’s Freya’s territory.’

It seems that Lemaine, who made Freya his concubine, gave her territory. It seemed that it was inherited as Calian’s property instead of being passed on to another noble after her death. Kalyan said after seeing the unexpected income.

“See you later. I wonder how much we’ve saved.”

“Yes, I understand. And”

Calian, who had finished getting ready to go to breakfast, nodded again with the nuance that he had something else to say.

“You know, when the prince turns 15, won’t he be able to have two more servants?”

I didn’t know.

“The Prince will turn 15 after his birthday this year, so the officer in charge of internal affairs asked how he could find two attendants. Even if it is not exactly before his birthday, he can be brought in two or three months earlier. And if there is no person in mind, the officer in charge will “They also said they could assign it directly.”

Yan’s words continued as I was organizing my answer.

“How about you two use guards like princes?”

I remembered the servants who always followed behind Randel and Planz. Calian, who thought they were just servants because he did not have a sword, responded with an expression of understanding.

“It was an escort. Somehow I liked the big guys.”

Kairis did not provide separate personal guard knights for princes other than the crown prince. The interesting thing is that battles where life was at stake were more often fought between princes rather than the crown prince.

Therefore, the princes personally hired guard knights, which was also illegal in Kairis. Therefore, it had become customary to accompany the escort disguised as a servant. Of course, people who used memorization to avoid being noticed as having a sword were mainly hired.

This was a fact that Kalian also knew.

I just didn’t know that you had to be 15 to have three servants.

‘Then did the original Kalyan also have a guard?’

If Jan had said this first and had the money to hire an escort, there was a high possibility that he would have hired one.

‘He knew how to use magic and had a bodyguard… and yet he was assassinated. So, does this mean that he was an assassin capable of subduing at least a 3rd circle wizard?’

While Kalian was thinking this, he unconsciously swiped his hand near his heart.

‘No. If it had been faked as a suicide, the surroundings would have been clean. If he was a wizard, there would have been traces left behind whether it was attack or defense. Therefore, it is highly likely that the old Calian suffered the same fate as me when he was unable to use magic.’

Anyway, Kalian died two or three months before his birthday, and it is said that Howie can be obtained two or three months before his birthday. There are parts that fit together in a strange way.

‘Either the escort failed or did not stop the assassin. Or maybe the escort was an assassin.’

Several possibilities came to mind.

Whatever the correct answer was, it would be of no benefit to Calian.

“I think it’s better not to hire them. I have someone in mind.”

Jan gave an expression of disbelief. Because you clearly know Kalian’s personal relationships. But Kalyan did not explain further.

Of course, the person Calian had in mind was the child he had thought of bringing home earlier. But there was one problem.

“I’m not sure, but he’s probably a commoner. Is that okay?”

Yan was also a true nobleman. So, what Calian was saying was to ask whether Jan, a nobleman, could work on equal footing with commoners.

Jan’s face made him wonder why he was asking such a question.

I always felt like Jan was the type that showed everything on his face.

“What is important now is not the status of the person who will come as an escort, but the fact that there is someone who will escort you. Is status important when it is not enough to rush out and fetch him right away?”

“okay.”

After hearing Yan’s words, Calian grinned and nodded.

“It’s okay if the prince is okay with it, since it’s the prince’s bodyguard. It’s not like only nobles can serve as the prince’s attendant. Also, if you’re a knight and you need the talent, you can keep him as a servant first and then give him a knighthood when the opportunity arises. ”

“I don’t mind doing that.”

No matter how royal Calian was, he couldn’t give himself titles at will. Unless you have special merit, you cannot arbitrarily raise your status. Therefore, in such cases, it was common to bring a person along as a servant and then give him a title when the time was right.

“It’s not like we can bring him in right away, so tell the person in charge of internal affairs that I’ll take care of it.”

It wasn’t a problem to bring him in right away, but we had to find out where he was. It is not even clear whether they are in Kairisis, the capital of Kairis.

“Okay, I’ll tell you that.”

“Then is it over?”

“No. There’s one more thing.”

Calian’s head moved up and down again.

As if it was probably the most important thing to say, Yan swallowed dry saliva once and opened his mouth.

“Exercise, Prince. Do you need to continue the physical training you started a week ago?”

“It’s hard to call it training. It’s just about running three or four laps around the artificial lake in front of the palace.”

“Aren’t you overwhelmed with just that right now? I’m telling you this because you look like you’re having a hard time.”

Perhaps because he hadn’t exercised too much in the meantime, he felt more tired than before he started exercising and lost even more weight, which made Jan very worried.

“I’m going to keep going. If I keep doing it, it’ll be okay.”

Yan let out a low sigh, as if he expected such an answer.

“I talked to the chef and told him to pay special attention to his diet. Even if you can’t help but eat breakfast, you must eat all of your lunch and dinner without leaving anything behind.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Yan, who was now somewhat accustomed to Calian’s words of gratitude, smiled slightly. Then he held out one hand and politely pointed to the door leading outside. It was a gesture asking us to go to breakfast.

Ugh. I don’t want to go.

* * *

After finishing his meal in silence, which he was still not used to, Kalian was surprised by the huge amount of profits from the estate that he had accumulated without spending a single penny for 14 years, and came out wearing a little light clothes.

I was planning on exercising before class started in the morning.

I have been exercising like this for the past week. Of course, I wasn’t alone and Jan was usually with me.

However, sometimes, when Jan was away to attend a meeting between servants, a maid named Merlin followed Kalian on Jan’s behalf. It was the same maid who brought Kalian’s mirror and called the hairdresser. Surprisingly, Merlin ran three or four laps around the lake without taking a single breath.

Even now, Merlin was following Calian.

Calian, who remembered that it was Merlin who had ordered ‘a lot of frills’, quickly got into position and started running.

No matter how much I ran forward, when I looked back, there was Merlin running at me, keeping the same distance away. Calian was in tears.

‘scary!’

I didn’t find out it was true until later, but Merlin was the second daughter of the leader of the capital knights guarding the outer castle of Kairisis. Even though he never learned how to use a sword, he ran around Mount Tarun on the outskirts of Kairisis with his leader every day since he was young. So that’s about it.

In the end, after three and a half laps, Kalyan was completely exhausted and sat down. Sweat poured down my face and my lips became chapped. Merlin’s eyebrows furrowed slightly when he saw that. Of course it wasn’t because I didn’t want to see him sweating.

When Kalian first started exercising, he ran four and a half laps, and on the third day he ran four laps. And now three and a half laps. There seemed to be a problem.

“Prince.”

“huh?”

Ordinary servants and maids could not speak directly to the prince, but had to go through higher-ranking servants or higher-ranking maids. Therefore, if Merlin had anything to say to Calian, he had to convey it through Jan. However, Calian’s maids would occasionally talk to Calian after talking to him once in the process of fitting the attire. Kalian, of course, didn’t feel bad about it or find it a problem, but rather liked it because he had more people to talk to.

“How about calling a healer?”

“Be a healer.”

A priest from Tensil who Jan tried to call when Calian injured his hand. Of course, Calian knew why such a healer was called. This may be due to the problem of gradually decreasing physical strength.

But there was a reason I couldn’t find a healer.

‘The circle will be discovered right away.’

Of all the frustrating and stupid things the old Calian had done, there was one thing he felt was the only good thing. The point is that he hid his status as a wizard. It was a secret that even Jan didn’t know.

I think it would have been good to have told Jan, but I understood because he was in a situation where he didn’t even have the luxury of trusting anyone.

If it had been known that Calian could use magic, Bern would have already died before entering Calian’s body. I would have tried to get rid of it before it grew to the point where I couldn’t handle it carelessly.

For the same reason, the current Calian also had to hide the circle for now. I had to do that even more since I couldn’t use mana.

Calian, who had gathered his thoughts, gave a slightly delayed answer.

“no, that’s fine.”

Merlin looked disapproving, but didn’t say anything else.

Calian stood up.

Then, after running one more lap, I went back to my room.