Volume 2Chapter 16

Chapter 16 – A Hostile Noble

I came out of the examination hall and was walking toward the carriages when I heard somebody shouting up ahead. What’s the commotion?

“That a base commoner such as you should cut across in front of me! Is it not ordinary for a commoner to take pains not to appear in a noble’s sight at all? Do you not know even that! This is precisely why base commoners are so hateful. That a creature of this kind has set foot inside the Royal Academy is a lamentable thing.”

…What? What kind of thing is that to say? Are there people who say that? I doubted my own ears and went toward the source of the commotion to see who was saying it. And there was a boy with striking red-brown hair, dressed as a high noble’s son would be, throwing those words at a quiet-looking brown-haired boy in clothes about the standard of what I wear at home. That commoner boy is the one who went to the interview rooms with me. He has his head down and is enduring it without a word back, and he’s shrunk so small and he’s shaking so badly that he looks likely to fall over.

What do I do. I feel for the boy and I want to help him, and me stepping out might only pour oil on it. And that noble boy is probably a son of the hostile camp. Are hostile nobles all people who think like this? If so, the school life ahead of me is too depressing to think about.

“You. Apologize, would you!”

“…I am terribly sorry. To have cut across in front of a noble was a very sorry thing to have done. How I might make amends, I…”

The commoner boy said it kneeling and bowing his head low. That boy can use fluent formal speech. And he took the interview too, so poor clothes or not, isn’t he an extremely able child?

“You had only to apologize at once like that, and you put me to the trouble! I shall educate you as my father does. Raise your head!”

Told that, the commoner boy raised his head fearfully. There were tears gathering in eyes that looked golden, and they were about to fall. Being set on by a high noble in a place like this is beyond frightening.

When the boy raised his head the noble boy swung his arm up. Wait, is he going to hit him? That is not allowed! The moment I thought it I’d taken a step forward. And I caught the hand the noble boy had raised to strike with before it could reach him. I’ve gone and done it without thinking, and now what. I hadn’t thought about a single thing that comes after this.

I glanced at the onlookers who’d gathered round, and their eyes slid away too quickly. Nobody wants to be involved…

“What are you! To interfere with my education, what is the meaning of this! And to touch my hand without leave: I shall have you executed for disrespect!”

No, in this country you can’t actually be executed for disrespect over touching a noble. Though if a noble were to, say, beat a commoner he disliked badly enough, covering it up is something a noble can do. Rank really is a hateful thing. Then again, I have a ducal house behind me, so could I afford to be firm? No, but bringing trouble down on Lord Richard…

“I am very sorry. It is only that the boy was careless as well, so if you would show mercy.”

In the end I chose the road of apologizing along with him. If he’d leave at that it would do. As I thought it, it didn’t go so smoothly.

“Are you telling me you do not want my education!”

No, your education is simply hitting somebody. Nobody calls that education; do you not even know that? Is this boy stupid, or not stupid but taught by somebody who was terrible? Then again, if he’s a hostile noble his parent presumably thinks the same way he does, so it may be the teacher who was terrible.

“It is nothing of the kind, only that putting you to the trouble would be a sorry thing.”

“That is not for you to decide! Enough. I shall educate the pair of you together! Come to my house now. This is an order!”

Are we going there? This is turning into something enormous. Should I be calling Lucien… Except he doesn’t seem to be nearby. Seriously, what do I do. Could I use House Townsend’s name?

“Stand up, quickly! Follow me! If you will not do as you are told I shall tell my father!”

The noble boy swung a fist up at me this time. Perhaps once he’s hit me he’ll be satisfied. I can heal it with healing magic straight away… I shut my eyes to take the impact, and in that instant a voice I know very well arrived.

“Stop that.”

It’s Martine. Of course, royalty take the examination too, so she’d be here. I was deeply relieved by Martine’s arrival. Nothing bad will come of it now.

“Y-Your Highness. It has been a long while.”

“You were Arthur of House Preauvert, were you not?”

“Yes. My name is Arthur Preauvert. I am honored to meet you.”

House Preauvert is the foremost of the hostile nobles, the house I was told to be most careful of. To have got into a quarrel with them from the very start. The road ahead really is something to worry about. So this boy is Lord Arthur. I’ll remember that.

“Your shouting could be heard a long way off. Is that not unbecoming in a noble?”

“Th-that is, these people are the ones at fault! These people were trying to do me harm!”

And now we’re the ones who were trying to harm Lord Arthur. Nobles who flaunt their rank and do as they please are genuinely hateful. I glanced at the commoner boy still kneeling beside me, and he seems to be shaking still.

“Oh, Leon! It has been a while!”

Martine spoke to me as though she had only now noticed me. …Weren’t we not acquainted? Is it all right to be acquainted? I looked up at her thinking it and got a bright smile. So I should play along?

“Your Highness. It has been a long while.”

“Lady Catherine came to the palace two weeks ago, so it is two weeks since I last saw Leon as well. Have you been well?”

“I have been passing my days without incident.”

“I am glad of it.”

“Y-Your Highness! You are acquainted with that creature?”

“I am. Leon is a commoner, but he is very able, and he has House Townsend’s patronage. He was coming to the palace for a time as Lady Catherine’s attendant, so we know one another by sight.”

“A-acquainted with a commoner! The royal house will be defiled!”

What sort of education has Lord Arthur had? He holds views so lopsided that I’m almost curious.

“Leon, what has happened? Your Highness, it has been a long while.”

Lucien came into the conversation with obvious deliberateness. I’d seen him nearby a little while back, watching how it went.

“Lucien, it has been a while. Leon is affiliated to your house, is he not? It seems he has run into trouble with Arthur.”

“Has he. I am sorry to have put you to the trouble. You are Arthur of House Preauvert. Has Leon done something?”

When Lucien asked him, Lord Arthur shouted at him with the face of somebody looking at something dreadful.

“Is it true that you are patron to that commoner?”

“It is true.”

“I had heard that House Townsend talks nonsense about how able commoners ought to be raised up, but to think you were going so far as to be a commoner’s patron and put him into the Royal Academy! Do you understand how dangerous a thing you are doing? My father laments constantly that the sacred sphere of the nobility is defiled by base commoners!”

So the cause of this boy’s thinking is his father… Which means the Duke of Preauvert. A man I never want to meet. I’d been told there was a hostile camp, and hating commoners to this degree is beyond what I expected.

“I do not consider commoners base. There are a great many able commoners, and without commoners the country would not stand at all. It is better for the country that able commoners be able to exert their strength. Able commoners gather at this Royal Academy too, do they not. I do not consider those people inferior to us.”

“That is impossible! Commoners are savages and they will break the country, beyond question! That commoners are accepted at this Royal Academy at all is what is wrong.”

“That is a tradition of long standing! This country developed in the first place by nobles and commoners joining their strength. Have you forgotten that history? Have you forgotten the Apostle’s teaching?”

“Whether the Apostle even existed is doubtful! Most likely base commoners deceived everybody. The country turns perfectly well with us nobles alone, without joining strength with commoners. Commoners need only listen to a noble’s orders!”

“You…! Would you disparage the Apostle?”

This is bad, it’s escalating. Being of equal ducal houses, they can say as much as they like to each other, and that’s what’s heating it. Lucien was calm at the start and seems to be getting angrier by degrees. If Lucien loses his temper there’s no controlling this.

Listening to the two of them go at it, though, the root of the quarrel among the nobility comes into view. Essentially it divides into nobles who still revere the Apostle, and nobles who would throw the Apostle’s teaching away and enlarge their own profit.

The Apostle’s teaching, if I remember, was that nobles, in exchange for receiving privilege, guarantee commoners a minimum of livelihood and personal safety; and that nobles do not rule over commoners but live helping one another.

Thinking that teaching over again, it’s a hard one for a world with a class system to accept. That it was accepted means the Apostle must have been respected enormously and had enormous influence. But however much somebody is respected, it thins with time. Which suggests House Townsend’s camp may be slightly the weaker of the two.

Then again, more people act for present advantage than for an ideal or a future. So the camps being evenly matched must mean the Apostle’s authority hasn’t gone. And, as Lord Richard said before, there must be a fair number of nobles who think that if noble power grows stronger than it is now and commoners are held down, the country will eventually be ruined.

But the longer this runs the worse it looks for House Townsend’s camp. Because the hostile camp finds it easy to draw people over. Dangle a little advantage and plenty will lean their way.

Which is where I come in. If the Apostle won’t appear, then scoop up the able commoners and show where they can be used for the country’s sake. If I were the Apostle it would have been simple: announce the fact, be treated as a special case, and be given high noble rank without graduating from the Royal Academy at all.

But I’m not the Apostle, so it has to go the long way round: make a show of being outstanding at the Royal Academy at everything except the attributes, and then, once graduating brings noble rank, reveal every attribute and be made a high noble. Revealing every attribute before I hold noble rank would leave me hunted from every direction, by nobles and other countries alike, which is exactly why it’s arranged this way.

It’s a tangle, and this country’s situation and my own place in it are coming together in my head. I’d had the information before and it never felt real. The people around me were basically decent, all of them. Which is why having Lord Arthur in front of me is making it real.

Feeling it is all very well, and this situation is no better than it was. If I cut in to stop Lucien it’ll get more tangled, and leaving it to Martine isn’t right either. Martine is a princess, and this country still holds firmly to the idea that governing is a man’s business. Which is why only a man can become king, and only a man can inherit a title. So Martine must find it hard to put a word into this.

I was standing there worrying about it when the crowd parted suddenly and a boy came toward us. It’s Lord Stephane! The strongest help there is. Martine must have sent for him. Thank you, Martine.

“You there. What is all this noise?”

“Your Highness…! It has been a long while.”

“It has been a long while.”

“What is the commotion? Quarreling where this many people are watching is an unsightly thing.”

“I am very sorry. The cause is this commoner; he cut across in front of me! Punishment for this commoner, if you please.”

At those words I felt the boy beside me flinch. A punishment from a prince would be frightening. But Lord Stephane wouldn’t do that, so it’s all right! I encouraged him with that inside my head.

“Arthur, cutting across in front of you is not a crime.”

“B-but this man is a base commoner! To set foot in the Royal Academy in clothes as shabby as these… the noble sphere will be defiled!”

“Arthur, what you think of it is your own affair, but the Royal Academy proclaims equality without regard to station. If you are a noble, keep the rules.”

“Is the royal house on House Townsend’s side…! Do you shield a commoner?”

“That is not it. I say only that the rules are to be kept. Traditions and rules that have continued from of old have meaning in them, and the royal house holds that meaning dear. Yet it is also important that rules unsuited to their age be changed. Precisely because both of those are true, one must not forget to keep the rules that exist. Forget that and the country falls into confusion.”

Martine told me before that the royal house wants to support House Townsend’s camp. Except that announcing it openly carries a high risk of revolt by the hostile nobles, so the royal house says nothing and declares support for neither side. The royal house is in a difficult position too…

“…Certainly.”

“Then withdraw. Standing here arguing is in everybody’s way. My apologies to all of you.”

Lord Stephane really is the First Prince. There’s a weight to him, and it’s cool.

“…Then, if you will excuse me.”

Lord Arthur went off at speed toward the carriage stop. I watched him go and got to my feet. And spoke to the boy who was still kneeling beside me.

“Are you all right? I’m a commoner too, so there’s no need to be tense. Rough luck.”

“Er, thank you, truly. For helping me…”

“Sure. What’s your name? I’m Leon.”

“I’m Ronnie. Leon, thank you, truly…”

The boy who gave his name as Ronnie is still holding his bag hard against himself and making himself small, as though something still frightened him. This boy could use formal speech and there’s a chance he passed, and I hope this doesn’t make him give up on enrolling.

“Then, I’ll be going…”

“Oh, wait. Listen, I’ll probably pass this school, so if you pass too, let’s be friends. Commoners together, right?”

“But you know the prince and the princess, Leon, and you’ve got House Townsend’s patronage. I can’t be friends with somebody like that.”

“Knowing them is only as an attendant. I’m an ordinary commoner, so don’t let it bother you. I wanted a commoner friend I could talk to as an equal. So if you pass, enroll properly, all right?”

It may have been a bit forceful, and when I said it Ronnie gave a small nod. If a clever boy passed and then gave up enrolling over this, that would be too much of a waste.

“All right. Then… see you.”

“Yeah. See you.”

So I saw Ronnie off. He went away quickly with his body still small. It would be good to meet him at the Royal Academy again.

“Leon, was that boy all right?”

Lucien came over and asked me.

“Yes. He seemed frightened, but I think he should be all right.”

“To try to crush a commoner with the backbone to take the Royal Academy’s examination… The hostile nobles really are a nuisance.”

Lucien murmured it at a volume only I could hear. He’s exactly right.

“Leon, that was rough luck.”

Martine and Lord Stephane came over as well. There are a great many people about now, and there were a great many onlookers a moment ago. A considerable number of people have learned that I have House Townsend’s patronage and that I’m on terms with Martine and Lord Stephane.

Farewell, my quiet life. Hello, my extremely loud one.

“Thank you for helping me. And thank you for your assistance, Your Highness.”

“There is nothing to thank me for. This is not a problem of yours and Leon’s; this is the nobility’s problem. I shall have to report it to my father…”

Lord Stephane murmured that at a volume the people around us couldn’t catch. The royal family must find this situation galling too.

“Then standing here obstructs the way, so let us disperse. We shall meet again at the Royal Academy.”

“Certainly. Then we shall take our leave of you.”

“Excuse us.”

So we parted from Martine and Lord Stephane and went back to the carriage with Lucien. I can go home at last. I only went to take an examination and I’m genuinely worn out.

⁂

“Richard, have you heard what happened at the Royal Academy’s entrance examination?”

It is the middle of the noon break. The officials have gone to the dining hall, I have had the room cleared, and there is nobody in the study but Richard and myself. Richard heard my question and a bitter look came over his face at once.

“I heard it from Lucien. That House Preauvert’s heir abused a commoner on the ground that the boy had crossed in front of him, and that Master Leon was drawn in for shielding him. His Highness came to their aid, I understand…”

“House Preauvert, then, and the several houses that follow its lead. Do you not think there are simply too many actions past bearing?”

“It is as you say. The law of this country forbids the unjust oppression of commoners in the first place. It has certainly become a dead letter at some point along the way, but that law still stands.”

That’s precisely it. There is such a law, so how much easier it would be if the royal house could punish openly. …Why did my grandfather and my father not enforce it severely? Well, it was an age of fierce war. That it was hard to turn their eyes inward, I understand. And yet I cannot help thinking that if they had enforced it, matters would not stand as they do now.

“Richard, if a punishment were laid on House Preauvert’s heir, what state of affairs would you predict?”

“Let me see… at worst it would come to civil war. And short of that, we would be asked why we are suddenly enforcing what we have left alone all this while. Against that, rebuttal is difficult, and I believe we would be made to conclude some agreement on terms unfavorable to the royal house. At the very worst there is a possibility the law itself would be changed.”

If the law were changed and the country came to stand against Micheline’s teaching, this country would be ruined before long. Why do we go on keeping Micheline’s teaching? There is of course the feeling of respect owed to the Apostle, this country’s founder. But more than that, it is because Micheline’s teaching is excellent at the work of keeping a country safe and making it grow.

If it were openly allowed that some few nobles hold power and hold down the great mass of commoners, the country’s destruction within a short time is certain. And under a structure like that, able people go on being buried, so no growth can be hoped for either. Why can the hostile nobles not see it? It is a genuinely lamentable thing.

“What did Master Leon say? He hasn’t given up on this country, I hope.”

“I heard it from Master Leon yesterday as well, and there was no sign of that.”

“That’s a mercy in the middle of misfortune. Once he has enrolled at the Royal Academy he may well be set upon again as he was this time. I shall tell Stephane and Martine to give him proper help if it happens.”

“Then I shall tell Lucien as well. Their Highnesses will have things they cannot put into words, given their position. Lucien, as an equal ducal house, should find it easier to argue back.”

“Indeed. I leave that with you. …If Master Leon would reveal what he is, a great many problems would be solved.”

If we could present Master Leon as the Apostle, the hostile nobles would fall considerably in number, and making them keep Micheline’s teaching would become easy.

“Though it will not do to leave it to Master Leon. I must do what I can myself.”

“Then I shall lend my hand as well.”

“Yes. I look to you from here on.”

“Certainly.”

We had got that far when the officials seemed to be coming back, so I had the door opened and called the valet in again. Now then, back to the work of governing. There are other problems piled high besides.