[V15C2] The Prince's Ulterior Motives

That day, Isaac Walker was in the royal palace as Second Prince Felix Arc Ridill.

Today, he was here to make the rounds required of the Second Prince. Tomorrow, he would go back to being Isaac Walker.

His schedule included a sleepover at the Roseberg estate and accompanying Monica to the Mage Association, so he intended to take care of his princely duties before the end of the day.

Currently, he was participating in a tea party with palace nobles. There was much for him to do: gathering intel on domestic affairs, recruiting collaborators for Erin’s ship lending contracts, and so on.

Unfortunately, such events would not always give him the information he was after.

After all, there were plenty of nobles hoping to marry off their daughters to the handsome Second Prince.

“Please come to our tea party next,” “Care to join us at the evening ball?” “Would you like to meet my daughter?”—he politely deflected such invitations and quietly slipped out of the venue.

As he walked down the corridor, he spotted Monica on the opposite wing of the palace. They were both on the fourth-floor corridors, with the courtyard in between, and there was no one else around.

“Wil.”

Isaac tapped his pocket as he called for Wildianu, and the white lizard popped his head out.

His very capable spirit understood his intention immediately, just by the joyous tone of his voice.

“…I have recently learned something, Master. You are serious about everything you do, even when acting childish.”

“Well, everything is more fun when you give it your all, right?”

“Is that so?”

“How about we give it a try and find out?”

Wildianu wiggled his tail with a sense of unease, showing his hesitation.

He couldn’t help but feel like Isaac was avoiding the question. Nevertheless, he had no reason to refuse his master.

“…Very well.”

With that, Wildianu cast an illusion to render Isaac invisible to onlookers. Then, he created a series of watery platforms in the air, connecting the window next to Isaac and the window next to Monica.

Isaac leapt out of the window and jumped across the platforms to reach the other wing. With each light tap of his shoes, his ornate white jacket fluttered like the wings of a bird.

It took fifteen jumps for him to reach the window on the opposite side.

Isaac slipped through the window behind Monica and gave her a casual greeting, as if there was nothing unusual about it.

“Good day to you, Lady Everett.”

“Wha—!? I-I-I… Y-Your Highness!?”

Isaac gave a warm smile and showed Wildianu perched on the back of his head.

This gesture was enough to make Monica understand they were covered by an illusion. She relaxed her tension.

Meanwhile, Isaac extended his other hand.

“May I have your hand, milady?”

“Oh, okay. Pardon me.”

Monica had always been stiff when escorted by a man, but lately, she seemed to be getting a bit more used to it.

Especially with Isaac. He could tell how comfortable she was with him, and that made him very happy.

Today, Monica was wearing a light blue dress rather than her Sage robes. The cute and modest dress had probably been picked out by Lana. Her hair was adorned with a ribbon of the same color.

“Ike, are you working right now?”

“I’ve just about wrapped everything up. You were having tea with Princess Cecilia, right?”

“Yes, we had tea this morning… um, Louis-san is taking tomorrow off, so I had to get some documents from him… I just finished doing that and was going to head back to my guest room.”

Isaac performed a few quick calculations in his head.

If Monica was on the way to her guest room, then there were a few people she might bump into. Among them were some that he really did not want her to encounter.

After defeating three evil dragons, the Silent Witch was a national hero in Ridill.

The black dragon incident in Sazandol was still recent, and more suitors have come forward, determined to bring her into their families.

Since Monica was of common birth, there was no need to worry about the noble families concerned about lineage.

However, there were many nobles who did not care about bloodlines, mainly new nobles who had risen due to talent in magic or the magical tool industry. They tended to be desperate in getting their hands on people with reputation and ability, like Monica.

If there was even a tiny chance of her running into such people, Isaac could not let her walk alone.

“I’ll escort you part of the way back.”

“Okay.”

Unaware of Isaac’s true intentions, Monica nodded with a smile.

Isaac walked beside Monica with Wildianu perched on his shoulder.

Just to be safe, Wildianu continued maintaining the illusion around them. In addition, there was no one nearby, so they were free to talk about anything.

“I’m looking forward to the sleepover tomorrow,” Monica said.

“Me too.”

They planned to have a two-day sleepover at the Roseberg estate tomorrow and the day after. Monica, Isaac, and Cyril had all been invited.

Though they referred to it as a sleepover, this was also a business meeting for Raul to hand over the work he was responsible for, before leaving to study abroad in the Empire. In addition, it also served as a farewell party of sorts.

“By the way, where’s Nero?” Isaac asked. “He came with you, right?”

“Right, but he wandered off saying he was going to eat at all the stands in the capital.”

“How free-spirited of him.”

During the casual conversation, Isaac continued his previous line of thought.

Monica was very valuable to families interested in her magical talent. And the most threatening of them was none other than Raul’s family, House Roseberg.

House Roseberg and House Albright were both prominent noble families who held positions in the Seven Sages.

Generally, House Albright tended to be more progressive and quicker to act. This was likely due to the temperament of the previous head of family, Adeline Albright.

She established a groundwork allowing House Albright to monopolize the art of curses and gain massive profits. Then, she named her young grandson her successor and selected a fiancée for him from the family of a foreign margrave.

This would be unheard of in more traditional households, yet Adeline had pushed it all through without batting an eye.

On the other hand, House Roseberg was slower to act due to their respect for the old ways. They generally allowed House Albright to take the lead.

But after the passing of the Third Thorn Witch, the next head of House Roseberg was chosen as Melissa Roseberg, rather than one of the Third Thorn Witch’s daughters or sisters. This was likely influenced by House Albright’s decision to appoint the young Ray.

(The Third Abyss Shaman, Ray Albright, got engaged rather recently… House Roseberg must be thinking it’s about time for Raul to find a bride.)

Isaac knew that Raul had no romantic interest in Monica. However, the two were close in age, both members of the Seven Sages, and worked together in research projects.

Moreover, he had heard several rumors about the Roseberg witches trying to bring Monica into the family.

The so-called sleepover came in the midst of such circumstances. What if the goal was to spread gossip that the unmarried Monica spent the night at a man’s house? That could be disastrous.

To prevent that, Isaac asked Melissa Roseberg to help construct the narrative that the Silent Witch was visiting her instead of Raul, and stayed over at her home.

Her response was, “Fine, whatever. Moni-Moni can have a guest room in the main house, but you get to sleep on the floor of the workshop.”

Apparently, she was at least kind enough to let him sleep under a roof.

After internally sighing at the effort required for the arrangements, Isaac glanced at Monica again.

The corners of her mouth were slightly raised. She must really be looking forward to tomorrow.

Suddenly, a breeze blew in through the window, gently fluttering the ribbon in her hair.

Watching the scene filled Isaac with joy. He put on the perfect smile of a handsome prince as he complimented her.

“Your dress today is lovely. A perfect match for the early summer sky. That ribbon really suits you too. You look so cute.”

Monica looked up at Isaac and blinked a few times. Her round eyes shimmered green under the afternoon sun.

“Ike…”

Monica fell into thought, as if searching hard for the right words, before continuing in a clumsy tone.

“Ike, you’re always so considerate with me.”

The unexpected comment hit Isaac like a joyous surprise.

Then, her cute and slightly childish face broke into a gentle smile.

“My disciple is just so kind.”

(…That’s not really true.)

Isaac put on a slightly wry smile.

(Because every time I call you cute, I’m really thinking ‘please fall in love with me’.)

In the past, all of his compliments had been sweet nothings, tools to manipulate people for his own ends.

Now, the man who had whispered such empty words was pouring all of his prayers into the simple statement of “you look cute”.

Currently, he was escorting her under the cover of Wildianu’s illusion. Even this was proof of his ulterior motives.

(I just want to stay at your side.)

For now, he was satisfied to have his beloved master facing him with such sincerity.

—— “Ike, you’re always so considerate with me.”

After all, Monica had chosen those words after carefully thinking about how she felt about him.

Compared to House Albright, House Roseberg is more old-fashioned. Because of the stifling atmosphere, Melissa and Raul often avoid the main house and hole up in the detached workshop.

In contrast, the fiancée marrying into House Albright was granted a high degree of freedom, allowing her to cook, ride horses, and basically anything else.

View the latest chapters at seeker142.github.io