After the small disturbance, Bhalrom relayed the details of the event to the King, with Max filling in any explanations where necessary. The King took a moment to himself to think, staring at what looked like a game of chess. Letting out a light sigh, he turned to the Knight Captain and spoke in a soft voice, but still with a sense of regality to it.

“Thank you, Bhalrom. You must be tired. Go home and rest with your family. We will speak again tomorrow.” (King)

With a bow, Bhalrom took a step back, before turning around and leaving. As he opened the door and left, he bumped into a girl, nearly at the age of 18. Seeing who it was, Bhalrom showed a surprised look before bowing towards her.

“My apologies, Princess.” (Bhalrom)

Hearing that, Hiro slightly turned his head to look back towards them, curious about the royal family. What he saw was a young beauty dressed in what looked to be some sort of training uniform for ease of movement and durability. With honey blonde hair tied at the back, she had a straight posture and radiated elegance and femininity. Even her naturally gentle - if somewhat stoic facial expression combined with her blue eyes gave off a strong vibe. A stark contrast to the Prince who had vacated the room earlier.

Turning his attention back to Max and the King, Hiro’s long and untied hair flicked slightly. The princess gave a light bow to the Knight Captain, about to continue walking when she noticed the oddity in the corner of her eye. Turning to look at the King’s Study, she briefly met eyes with the youth who had turned back around. But that was more than enough. His radiantly purple eyes, and the contrasting white and black hair combined with his foreign clothing of unknown design. It wasn’t hard to miss him.

But to her, he seemed… more. A sense of imbalance. Seeing the revered Magus standing next to him, she thought no more on this topic, lest she be late to training. As both her and the Knight Captain moved off, Hiro glanced back one more time, a sharp look in his eye.

Her senses are sharp… Better be wary of her... (Hiro)

The King and the Magus began to discuss serious topics regarding the war with Argus, as well as the deteriorating relationship with the Elves and the Beastmen. Max went into details on what had happened at the Endher Forest as well, in a way that the King could understand given their difference in understanding of things.

Hiro stood close to the door, hands together in front of him and legs shoulder width apart. A bit of a formal stance he had picked up called “rest” from cadets when he was a teen. Looking around the room at the books, he realized that he could not read anything he saw. It seemed that the language barrier was only a temporary fix.

Thinking in his head, he wondered if he could, at the very least, create a magic that makes others understand the words he was saying. Maybe something similar to the amulet he was wearing under his shirt.

On that topic of his clothes, he had used a neat little spell he created, which is similar to a regulated temperature. It keeps his body at a cool temperature, not too hot, not too cold, and can be maintained with little mana usage. Not that he had to worry, since he could have to passively left on using his vast mana. It wasn’t like the limiter completely locked it away.

The principle of the spell was that a thin layer of fiber mesh mana was applied to his skin all over. To this layer, he created the magic like a program. If his temperature went above a certain threshold, it pulled heat from his body and dissipated it. If his temperature went below a certain threshold, it would heat up and warm his body.

He also made a second camouflage layer while he was playing around with ideas for this mana mesh of his. The camouflage layer acted like an insulator, keeping his mana presence hidden. He had already learned how to calm it, but some extra reassurance never hurt. There were still other layers he wanted to test giving properties to, such as defensive layers.

While he was thinking about all this, Hiro was brought out of his thoughts when he was mentioned by the other two in the room.

“So this is the boy who was found in the Endher Forest?” (King)

“Yes, Elrik.” (Max)

“Well, his appearance certainly doesn’t fit any of the known people… Young man, I’ve heard of your circumstances. Tell me, what is it you plan to do from now on?” (King Elrik)

“Yes, Your Majesty. I can no longer continue as a Bard, and I am in unknown lands. Max-- Sir Eisenwald has offered to guide me for a short while until I can stand on my own two feet, in return for helping him where possible. Becoming a traveling merchant to earn my keep is my most likely path after that.” (Hiro)

“A well mannered young man. As expected of a Bard, I suppose. Have you ever performed for nobility?” (King Elrik)

“No, Your Majesty. I do not believe I am worthy of doing so.” (Hiro)

“Very well. You must be tired as well. I will have the guard show you to a guest room in the castle. I also invite you to the participate in the evening feast tomorrow, as a sign of faith, and as Max’s friend.” (King Elrik)

With a polite and soft tone of voice, as well as remaining bowed slightly with a straight posture, Hiro showed quite the elegance for a commoner. Of course, he had seen plenty of shows which portrayed royalty and nobility, so he only had to imitate them with the help of his knowledge.

As the guard entered in response to the King’s call, Hiro and the guard left the room and headed towards the guest wing. Left in the room alone, Max and Elrik looked at each other as they both sat opposite each other, the board of chess between them.

“So, old friend… what are you hiding?” (King Elrik)

With a knowing smile, Max reset the chess board as he spoke.

“I’ve been with him for the past few weeks, and still struggle to understand him.” (Max)

“He shows etiquette to the level of nobility. And you expect me to believe he is a commoner? I’m not a fool, you old timer.” (King Elrik)

With the friendly banter going on, Max suddenly showed a serious face.

“I give you this bit of advice. He is wise beyond his years. We would all do well to show him that we are not his enemy.” (Max)

Taken aback by this statement, Elrik looked at his friend, wondering what he had seen to say that. He could tell that the Magus favored the young man, but not the reasons why. There was something else to this that the mage wasn’t willing to share.

“I will investigate and help Hiro. He comes from far away, and can only communicate with us thanks to the elven amulet I gave him. Rest assured, I will watch over him.” (Max)

“Shall we play a game of The King’s Play?” (King Elrik)

“Hm, very well. Let’s see how well you have grown while I’ve been gone, shall we?” (Max)

Like this, the two old friends reminisced.

………

…………

……………

…………

………

The next morning, Hiro got up early did some training exercises in his room, working up a sweat. He had made it a routine to always get some exercise in. Having lived for a long time as a fat person, he never wanted to get that way again.

After an hour of doing this, using mana to shackle himself as if applying weights, he stood up and stretched to cool down. Finishing his stretches, he used another unique spell he had come up with. By imagining the effects of cleaning products such as body soap, shampoo, conditioner, fabric cleaner, fabric softener and so on, he combined it all into one handy piece of magic.

Activating the spell, his body glowed with a pale white light as all the dirt, grime and other such things were lifted off of his clothes and body. He especially made sure that he wasn’t getting any acne or blackheads/whiteheads. He already went through puberty once, he didn’t want to experience that again either.

For the next hour, he spent time practising magic. Using a soundproofing spell, he made it one way so that sounds he made didn’t leak out, but he could still hear things happening outside. From the start of his experimenting, he had been working on creating a dimensional storage type of spell. It was a trope in other world stories, after all. Convenient as hell, and a cool party trick, it was a must have. Especially if it was an unlimited space.

He was already halfway complete with creating it. He had succeeded in creating an unlimited space which things could be put inside, and freeze the time of the things inside it, as well as recognizing what was in it. The only problem was, he was only halfway complete with creating it.

Anything he had put in could still be consciously accessed, but he couldn’t pull anything out of it. As such, he wasn’t willing to put anything important inside it yet in case he had to collapse the space in order to create a new and working one. It was like working forever on a character in beta, only to have it deleted at the full release.

While in meditation for the hour, he got a bit hungry and decided to finish. He could live with just one meal a day, but it was always good to grab a meal when you could. Leaving his room, he started to explore the castle area. He was only required to attend in the evening, after all, so he had quite a bit of free time until then.

Meanwhile, King Elrik was sitting on a balcony with Bhalrom in attendance, standing behind him.

“I wanted to speak with you while Max and the young man weren’t around. Tell me, Bhalrom… What do you think of him?” (King Elrik)

“Your Majesty?” (Bhalrom)

“What can you tell me about him? Your personal impression.” (King Elrik)

“Well, I did spend some time with him, but not as much as Sir Eisenwald. He liked his space and time alone, but was more than receptive when approached in good will. Hiro would often be found singing quietly to himself while doing whatever task he was doing. While not particularly good at fighting, he has been getting lessons from the Magus in hopes to protect himself.

The First Army has taken a liking to him, as he managed to keep up their spirits during the march back with his uplifting tunes and storytelling with different accents. The men will probably miss his stories now that he won’t be with us. Aside from that… he is mysterious. He seems more like a hermit scholar than anything else. He doesn’t speak much, preferring to talk only when he has something to say.

I’ve seen him open up with Max by chance, and he had quite the joking attitude, somewhat cynical. Maybe he had a tough upbringing?” (Bhalrom)

“I see…” (King Elrik)

Letting out a sigh, the King could do nothing but look at the sunny skies. He wanted to learn more about the mysterious young man, but instead found more questions.

Back to Hiro, he had found what he believed to be the castle garden. Having taken a moment to explore everywhere he could go without being caught or appearing suspicious, he had eventually ended up here. Being on a plateau with the rear of the castle inaccessible by natural methods, he could only shake his head at the lack of observers in the event someone got up that way. Climbing gear, magic, whatever they used, it was still possible.

He didn’t know how long he had been exploring, but it seemed as if quite a bit of time passed while he dawdled. Probably close to lunchtime. Finding a peaceful spot under a tree, he took a seat and leaned his back against it. Looking up at the leaves and branches, he could see some sunlight shining through it.

Closing his eyes, he zoned out the surroundings as he began to hum a tune. It was a slow song in a different language. While the amulet would usually translate it to the language it was set to, Hiro had learned to filter it to only translate when he speaks English. Max could only shake his head when he learned of that.

As the beginning tune finished and the words started, Hiro began to sing softly, his voice ringing out clearly in the empty garden. It was a large garden, so even if he made a bit of noise here, he doubted that people would be troubled.

“「Senbonzakura, yoru ni magire~」” (Hiro)

Ever since he saw the Sakura trees in that silent forest, he had this song stuck in his head, precisely because of this one line. While almost all of that time was hard to remember, those two separate trees he had seen were the only things that were still vivid in his mind.

One thing he was thankful to this world for, was his memory. Previously, he wouldn’t be able to sing properly because he would always forget the words. But now, he could remember them easily.

As he finished the song, he let out a slow breath as he opened his eyes, meeting eyes with several listeners. All but one of them he recognized, as they were from the First Army. They must have been passing by and heard him. As for the last person, it was the Princess he had seen briefly yesterday.

With applause, the knights gave compliments to his voice and the song, despite not knowing what the words were. While the princess stood a short distance from the group, Hiro gave his thanks as they left, off to return to their duties. With just the two of them left, the youth gave her a slight bow from his seated position. While he didn’t know her name, and only knew her position by hearing Bhalrom the night before, he didn’t know of any etiquette where he had to greet her explicitly.

And it didn’t seem like she was the type to care about that. With a quick glance over her appearance, he could see some dust. She had probably just been training, though when considering the knights were around at the same time, maybe she was sparring someone? Or a fight. Yeah, probably a fight to win the girl’s heart. He seemed the strong-willed type after all, and he had seen some stories with a similar setting.

He felt quite lucky he avoided the trope of fighting the princess for her hand in marriage. That sounded way too troublesome.

“You have a wonderful voice.” (Princess)

“Thank you, Princess.” (Hiro)

“So you know who I am.” (Princess)

“Only your title. Knight Captain Bhalrom said it yesterday, and I was close enough to hear him.” (Hiro)

“My name is Eileen. And yours?” (Eileen)

“A pleasure to meet you, Your Highness. My name is Ārohirohi. Everyone calls me Hiro.” (Hiro)

“Then, you can call me Eileen.” (Eileen)

“Yes, Princess Eileen.” (Hiro)

“...” (Eileen)

With a scrutinizing look, the princess stared at the young man who looked about the same age as her, frowning slightly at his ‘humble’ smile. She didn’t know why, but it somehow irked her. As for Hiro, he was smirking on the inside. Despite knowing she had sharp senses, he couldn’t help but want to irritate her for no other reason than to have fun. She didn’t want to be called “princess” or “highness” for some reason, but he still called her so.

“What is your relationship to Maximillian?” (Eileen)

“He is teaching me for the meantime. At least until I can stand on my own.” (Hiro)

“Hmm… Also, what are those clothes of yours?” (Eileen)

“They are native to my land of origin. I come from far away.” (Hiro)

“How far?” (Eileen)

“That, I’m afraid, is hard to tell. At the very least, too far away to go back.” (Hiro)

Seeing that his facial expression and tone of voice remained unchanged throughout the small talk, Eileen began to feel wary about him, as if something was off. But at the same time, she was still curious. And she wasn’t the only one.

A distance away, the King and Queen were walking together, returning after watching Eileen’s matches earlier, and happened to hear singing.

“Darling, who is that young man?” (Queen)

“I wish I knew the answer to that question…” (King Elrik)

Looking at each other, the Queen had a curious expression, because her daughter was showing some interest towards a man for once, unlike the usual fake smile and dismissive attitude. Elrik on the other hand had an unsure look in his eyes. As they continued on, Eileen spoke up to the young man once again.

“Well then, I should be going. It was a pleasure to meet you, Hiro.” (Eileen)

“It was a pleasure to meet you too, Princess Eileen.” (Hiro)

A bit irritated, EIleen looked at him no more as she continued her walk back to her room. Hiro on the other hand was snickering in his mind. His display had nothing wrong with it and couldn’t be complained about, but he had still managed to annoy her for fun, because of her sharp senses.

Though as he thought about it, his expression changed from being gentle, to something more akin to sadness. She had probably had a hard living, given her social status and obligations. And with a brother like that Kasius, he couldn’t fault her for being a bit hard. He knew what it felt like, after all.