Preparations for the Founding Festival (1)
“His Highness Lloyd is a prince of the empire. The only person who could possibly match his status is another imperial prince. And with His Highness Adrian excluded, that leaves only one other candidate.”
Helena frowned at Pailin’s suggestion.
Edwin.
She wasn’t particularly thrilled about parading that shabby prince in front of everyone.
Still, he might be the perfect opponent to bolster Lloyd’s dignity.
Helena appeared to ponder for a moment before her lips curved into a pleased smile.
“Not a bad idea at all.”
This would be the perfect opportunity to make the Third Prince understand his place once and for all.
If he suffered the humiliation of being compared to Lloyd in front of the entire empire, he would never dare lift his head again.
“I should petition His Majesty.”
Helena’s lovely lips twisted upward in a smirk.
“I greet Your Majesty.”
Edwin kept his head bowed, though his eyes darted around nervously.
The sudden summons from the emperor had left him flustered the moment he entered the audience chamber. He hadn’t expected both the Second Empress and Lloyd to be present as well.
“Yes, Edwin.”
The emperor smiled faintly as he looked at the boy standing before him with both hands clasped respectfully.
“You know the Founding Festival is approaching, yes?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Envoys from various nations will be arriving.”
He gave the wine glass in his hand a light swirl.
“How would you feel about performing a sword dance alongside Lloyd at that time?”
“A sword dance?”
Edwin was visibly taken aback.
He had never once performed a sword dance in his life, and it had only been a short while since he secretly began learning swordsmanship from Philip.
“Indeed. Lloyd says he wishes to do it with you.”
“B-but if it’s to be performed before the envoys, surely my brother Adrian would be—”
“Adrian has no interest in swordsmanship, I’m afraid.”
Edwin’s face clouded with discomfort at the emperor’s words. Without thinking, he glanced toward Lloyd.
The moment their eyes met, Lloyd sent him a quiet, mocking sneer. It was as if he were certain Edwin would never be able to refuse the emperor’s proposal.
“We intend to hold this year’s Founding Festival with great splendor,” the Second Empress Helena added with a smile.
“In particular, the delegation from the newly allied Adamanth Kingdom will be attending. This is a far more significant occasion than usual, so shouldn’t we show them that all of the empire’s princes are exceptional?”
Her voice was so saccharine it made his skin crawl.
Edwin fidgeted, unable to show any sign of reluctance.
“Or do you perhaps have other preparations already in mind?”
“N-no, I don’t.”
Helena beamed at his answer, her smile as radiant as a flower in full bloom.
“Then the matter is settled.”
Caught between Helena’s pressure and the emperor’s expectant gaze, Edwin finally nodded.
“I look forward to it.”
The emperor seemed pleased with his response. He looked between the two princes with a gentle smile.
“Both of you, do your best.”
“Yes, Father.”
The Second Prince Lloyd and the Third Prince Edwin answered in unison.
In the emperor’s eyes as he regarded his two sons, a spark of interest gleamed.
Creak.
The moment he stepped out of the audience chamber, Edwin halted.
The Second Empress and Lloyd, who had left ahead of him, were waiting outside.
“…Then I shall take my leave first.”
He offered a quick bow and tried to hurry away as fast as possible.
But the Second Empress’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
“How is knight division training treating you, Edwin?”
Edwin flinched and froze.
“Why so startled?”
Helena continued in a voice laced with mockery.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know? As a member of the imperial family, how could I not be aware of a prince’s daily routine?”
“That’s…”
“I hear you’ve been training rigorously alongside the knights of the 3rd Division. It must be quite difficult.”
Fortunately, it seemed she didn’t know about his secret sword lessons with Sir Philip.
Edwin answered politely, a faint look of relief on his face.
“…Thanks to Your Majesty’s concern, I have been training without incident.”
“That’s good to hear. You’ll soon have to practice the sword dance with Lloyd, after all. It would be troublesome if the difference in skill were too glaring.”
Snort.
Lloyd, standing behind her, smirked without saying a word.
But Edwin remained silent, simply lowering his head.
“Hmph.”
The Second Empress let out a derisive huff at the sight of him and turned to leave.
She paused briefly, then tossed one last barbed remark over her shoulder.
“By the way, what is that outfit? You look like you’ve been wrapped in a potato sack. Does the tailor at the Third Prince’s Palace not even know how to measure his master properly?”
She looked down at the crown of Edwin’s head with open contempt.
“As a prince, you should refrain from behavior that diminishes your dignity.”
“…I will be more careful.”
The instant Edwin finished speaking, the Second Empress’s skirts swirled dramatically as she strode away.
Lloyd, following behind her, deliberately bumped Edwin’s shoulder as he passed.
There was no apology.
“……”
Edwin stood silently, watching the pair disappear down the corridor.
The eyes that had always been filled with fear now burned with a quiet, steady resolve.
“I dodged them all!”
Having evaded every single wooden throwing knife, Edwin let out a triumphant cheer.
With a face full of joy, he ran toward me—only to get smacked square in the forehead by the very last knife that came flying in.
“Ouch!”
Edwin clutched his forehead and crouched down, then looked up at me with an aggrieved expression.
“Rachel, that’s not fair! You can’t just throw another one out of nowhere!”
“Letting your guard down is always a mistake.”
“You threw that one on purpose!”
“You should have anticipated it.”
At my words, Edwin huffed in frustration.
Even so, he kept rubbing his forehead vigorously with the palm of his hand.
Impressive.
It had been exactly one week since we began training in the rear garden of the Third Prince’s Palace to help him dodge concealed weapons.
To be honest, I hadn’t originally planned to teach him directly, but after the hunting competition incident and the empress’s poisoning attempt, I changed my mind.
There’s no guarantee Edwin won’t be targeted for assassination either.
His poison resistance training was still ongoing.
The problem was that assassination attempts weren’t limited to poison.
Simply being able to dodge suddenly thrown projectiles should block the majority of assassination attempts.
Despite the short training period, Edwin’s evasion drills had shown remarkable results.
He isn’t dodging by instinct. He saw every single knife coming and avoided them.
I recalled the movements Edwin had displayed just moments ago.
It’s not just agility.
His greatest strength was his dynamic visual acuity—the ability to instantly read the trajectory of any weapon flying toward him.
Perhaps he truly did have a natural talent for martial arts.
Ian also had exceptional eyes for reading attacks.
Without meaning to, I thought of Ian.
Among all the assassins the organization had trained, he had shown the fastest growth.
His talent was unmatched within the organization.
And yet Edwin was displaying even greater learning speed than Ian had at that age.
Could it be that this boy is also…
I gazed down at Edwin, who was still sitting on the grass, sniffling.
A genius of the same caliber as Ian?
As I thought of Ian, I swallowed a bitter smile.
Perhaps it was because we had spent so many years together, but even the smallest things kept bringing back memories of him.
Even though those memories were painful enough that I wished I could carve every moment we shared out of my mind.
“By the way, Rachel, how did you learn all this stuff?”
When I turned at the sound of his voice, Edwin was looking up at me with a scrunched face.
“Archery is one thing, but why would a noble lady learn things like this? Bridget doesn’t seem to know how to do any of it.”
“…I learned it on my own.”
“What? Why?”
“…I was bored.”
I couldn’t possibly tell him about my previous life.
Edwin looked utterly dumbfounded at my answer.
But he didn’t seem inclined to press further.
“You must have been really, really bored.”
Just then, a maid approached from a distance.
“Your Highness, someone has arrived from the Second Prince’s Palace.”
“Already?”
Edwin’s eyes widened at the maid’s words.
He quickly stood up and brushed the grass off his backside.
There was a strange spark of anticipation in his eyes when he looked back at me.
It was understandable.
“It seems they’ve found a sword dance instructor.”
“Looks like it.”
The sword dance that the two princes would perform before foreign envoys during the Founding Festival.
Though the words sounded grand, it was essentially a public comparison of whose skill was superior.
Even though the Second Empress made the suggestion, the emperor must have approved it knowing full well what it implied.
After all, a sword dance was still a form of swordsmanship.
Then today I’ll get to see the level of the Second Prince.
I sent the maid away and returned to the room with Edwin.
It was time to prepare to head to the Second Prince’s Palace together.