Chapter 21 Lucius The Prince

Now, the prince, Lucius-sama seems to be leading me to the library.

What a luck, I have been wanting to go inside the huge library for quite a while now!! I gladly accept this wonderful blessing~!

Taking a quick mental note of the library’s location, we have finally arrived inside the Royal Library.

I notice that not there are not only theoretical books and other tedious books, the library also contains fictions such as novels and comics! I wonder when can I get my hands on them...? Now, I have the chance to visit the library often. The chance is namely, Lucius-sama!!!

“So, you’re Alrescha, right?” Lucius-sama suddenly turned at me.

“Uhhh, people usually would address me Lyra,” I say, reluctantly.

“Hmm? Why not Alrescha?”

Uhhhhh, how would I know???

It’s like how you’re called “Lucius-sama” or “Luca” instead of “Aideen”, right?

“Well, it’s not important, anyway,” he quickly shrugs it off.

Errr... alright...?

Why bringing it up in the first place, then?

Weird prince.

“So, let’s have out first strategical meeting. From now on, you’re my assistant, get it!” he puts his hands on his chest.

Uhhh, strategical meeting to what...?

Despite my lack of understanding…

“Understood, Lucius-sama,” I said obediently. Well, he is still the crown prince, so I will see how it goes!

“...” He goes silent for awhile, then he turns away.

“Let see... for today’s prank... Let’s do a water surprise to the apprentice maid!”

“Huh?!”

Gasp! I let out my voice without even thinking about it.

“What’s wrong?” the prince turns around at me again.

“Ah, n, no. It’s nothing, Lucius-sama,” I quickly covered my mistake. Well... the king wants me to be a good playmate. So I guess this is what I should do...?

I feel bad for the maid… But I should make sure he uses a clean water. And perhaps warn her a bit so she can at least dodge it.

“Anyway, I know that there’s a new young maid that just entered the castle. Perhaps we could play along with her and see her reaction! I know where she’d go to, so it’s perfect!”

For a 4-year-old child, he is mischievous enough. Did he watch too many episodes of the old series about a cat and a mouse?

“Alright, Lucius-sama,” I nodded in understanding, while keeping in mind to try to warn the maid, if possible.

“...,” the prince sighed, for no reason.

“Alright, let’s go and put the plan into action!”

The new maid is a very young maid, early in her teens, I think.

She is earnestly trying to memorize the huge castle and is going to assist in cleaning one of the rooms. She’s going with a senior maid to go inside.

Just as she opens the door…

“Wait---”

My timid voice was too late to warn her as the sound of water splashing can be heard.

“Whoa!” The maid yelped in her surprise, while the senior maid quickly closes the door to shield herself from the water, before she finally opens the door and enters.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, but I was just surprised, uhm…”

The two of them finally turned to us.

“Uhm… I…” I timidly started to speak.

“…Oh, you’re the Prince’s new playmate? …thank you for accompanying the prince, uhm…,” the senior maid spoke.

“Well well, it seems like another prank of the prince. *sigh*, well, it can’t be helped. The prince is at that age, after all. But, be sure not to overdo it and don’t ditch classes again, okay, Lucius-sama?” The senior maid asked the prince.

“O-kay!”

…No sincerity at all in his response.

“Alright then, let’s go and get you changed. I apologize on the behalf of the prince.”

The two maids bowed and left the room.

…Is that it?

Well, it’s true that children can be naughty… but shouldn’t you scold him more?

…Oh, I forgot. He’s the prince. But even still.

“Hey, I noticed you tried to warn the maid, huh? As a punishment, you are to take off one of your twin tails!” He commanded.

Uh, that will totally make me look weird, but I have no choice, right?

Can’t have him get angry at me... he would totally pull out another worse prank if I get his mood bad...

Aaah really, handling children, especially those that I should please—is totally not my specialty.

It’s true that I had a younger brother with quite the age gap, but I didn’t really interact with him that much, so…

I spent the rest of the day trying to please the prince, but it seems like he is either irritated or bored. To be honest, I am getting fed up with his antics—that have a pattern!

All that he’s done... it’s all so catchy and will surely grab others’ attention. Also, he has never addressed me with my name. He called me with “oi”, “you”, “underling”, and so on...

Anyway...

Is it true that he wants to have his parents’ full attention back, especially his mother?

But being a king and a queen means you will have your hands full with various matters, whether you like it or not.

The birth of a new child will also demand a parent’s attention towards that child.

It’s not that his parents didn’t try to give him a quality time, too, right?

Getting the full attention back will be a hard task to do. He has no other choice but to adapt.

Befriending the others might help him to shift his attention, if lessons and trainings are not enough to occupy his mind. So, why…?

In the end, I was dismissed and the prince clearly seems like he doesn’t care enough whether I will come again or not. Like my presence doesn’t matter.

Well, I don’t know if this is a good sign or a bad sign.

Clearly, this made me wondering how it was with Alt-nii.

My presence to the family surely altered the amount of attention and care he received.

But I have never seen him throwing tantrums or such... or that I am not aware of it?

Perhaps I should try asking...

Also, the prince and his pranks…

Who knows that he might get someone injured or sick because of his prank to gain others’ attention, especially his parents’ attention?

This kid needs to learn that.

But I don’t know if I should be the one to tell him off? I mean, I am in no position to do that… my family’s position is obviously lower than those of royal family.

I’m certain the king and the queen should have told him, but he might have ignored their warnings as nothing of the sort has ever happened.

***

“Lyra, you still look so tired. How was it with Luca?” Dad asked during the dinner, opening the conversation. I slept shortly after arriving until before dinner.

“Well... Lucius-sama doesn’t seem to care about my presence at all... I wonder how should I act in front of him. I followed what he wanted to do and all, but he didn’t seem to be happy about it? Also, he needs to stop doing his pranks, but I didn’t dare to tell him off” I poured all my mind.

“Hmm, should I go in your stead?” Alt-nii asked.

“Wha, how dare he, against my Lyra...?!” Dad mumbled.

Uhm well Dad, he is the prince! So he should dare to do that.

“Lyra, are you… interested to be the future queen, anyway?” Dad suddenly dropped a bomb.

“Huh?!” I reflexively retorted. My mind is doing the analysis right now.

Being the future queen means I have to marry whoever is the crown prince. From the looks of it, that brat will be the crown prince. That means, I have to marry him.

“Me? Marrying that brat? Yeah, no!” I dissed.

Towards my honest answer, Mom chuckled, and Dad sighed in relief.

“When most girls dream of marrying a prince… Mwahaha, you are indeed my little sister!” Alt-nii gave his big thumb to me and winked.

I gasped when I realized what I just did.

“Uhm… Dad, Mom, are you hoping that I will be the queen some day?” I timidly asked. This… is a very important question that could change the course of my life.

“Huh? Oh, no, no! I don’t want you to be snatched away by anyone, not even the king of any country!” Dad answered.

“Ahaha, that’s exaggerating, Cyan. You know you will have to give her off when she’s married in the future,” Mom reminded Dad.

Dad’s shoulders slumped down in his dejection and denial of the future reality.

“Oh and, Lyra, you are free to choose who you want to marry. Your mom and dad were opposed to our engagement before and decided we won’t impose that political marriage thing on our children,” Mom smiled.

That’s good to know!

Married off for political reasons is the fate for most nobles, but I assume the nobles who got married out of love would hate to keep that tradition going.

Which means, perhaps the king wouldn’t force political marriages to his children, and I wouldn’t have the risk of being forced into a marriage with the prince.

Ah! Wait… that would be funny, Mom and Dad were engaged to each other, but opposed that engagement… and then they got married out of their own accord??

“But, Lyra would make an awesome queen, I think!” Alt-nii said.

Can I take that as a compliment, without thinking about how I can be a queen…? (Marrying the crown prince)

“By the way, Alt-nii... when I was born... did you feel like I stole away Mommy and Daddy’s attention...?”

“Huh? Ah, hmmm, I think I felt that way for quite a while... but I can’t remember,” Alt-nii chuckles.

“Oh, Altaire did rebel a bit during the first few weeks when you were born, Lyra,” Mom confirmed it to me.

“And then, what did you do?” I asked.

“Well? In our case... we talked to him about it... and well, he’s had Clavis coming over to play starting at that time,” Mom tried to recall those old time.

“Yup, Clavis is fun to tease! Ehe!”

“Uhmm... Alt-nii?”

“Nah, at first he tried to endure all my pranks... But then he exploded and yelled at me. After coming to his senses, he apologized many times, I guess, but then he murmurred that I was being too overboard. From what I remember... hmm, yeah, that was what made my impression on him change. I remember I finally acknowledged him as an interesting fellow at that day! So I told him to address me as just Altaire,” he said.

...so, how severe were your pranks that Clavis exploded?!

“Ah, but my opponent is the prince here, aah, I wonder what I should do...”

I sighed. I can’t think any of the right answer.

“Lyra, I think you can just act however you want to,” Dad finally speaks.

“Huh? But, I wouldn’t want to incur the wrath of the royal family...”

“I believe that the royal family won’t get mad at you for such a thing. Instead, I think that since most people around the prince all think like that, he gets bored, right? And seeing that nobody can really oppose him and give him a scolding as much as his parents, that caused him to pull more pranks in order to know until when can they withstand it?” Dad speculates.

That is logical.

However...

“He might be angry at me... and that may not do good on our family... not only me...”

“Ah, well... I think it’s better for you to display your real self and let the others decide on how they’re gonna respond to that rather than trying to please them. I still believe that Titus and Shaula won’t stay quiet if Luca is acting selfish and makes up a story about you... if Luca is capable of doing that,” Dad says.

I am contemplating...

“Besides,” he added as he cradled me into his arms, “even if the royal family comes to dislike us, we would still be here and support your decision, Lyra, so long as it’s a right decision.”

(Deep inside his heart, Cyan knows that Titus won’t ever do that, unless the king is possessed by some mad ghost.)

Ah—

Mom nodded and Alt-nii, too.

“Go and catch that prince, Lyra! Defeat him!” Alt-nii puts his hand in the air.

Now, I have my family’s full back-up and support to act as I see fit towards the prince, without worrying any single thing.

I can’t imagine how it will turn out...

If that can at least reduce the prince’s antics, then it’d be good.

If not, then at least I won’t have to deal with him again, I guess. Which doesn’t really matter to my family, it seems. They aren’t slightest bit worried on how I won’t get chosen as the future queen, and that I should be fawning over the prince so that I will be selected. They don’t seem to care about that kind of thing at all.

They want to support me to just be myself.

And do whatever I want, regardless of what others say, as long as it is not something bad.

Alright, just you wait, you little brat!!

This Lyra will be coming at you with her full might, so beware!!

A life lesson is coming your way, in a hard style!

Inside of my game-defiled mind, I can hear a mechanical BGM resounding.

NPC : Title unlocked, [The Mighty Lyra]!