Chapter 59.
Then came a little “pong” sound and an explosion with a little mushroom cloud from Flam’s basic alchemy magic kit.
"Oh! Looks like it’s completed!" Flam smiled brightly as he looked at the finished potion in the sunlight through the window.
"What potion is it?" I queried.
Flam smiled evilly. "Puhuhu, it’s an aphrodisiac that’s supposedly very good for men."
I was dumbfounded by his whisper in my ear. No matter how good it was for a man, why would you make that during class?
Although, of course, I was making the same thing.
"Then you’d better not let the sun shine on it. It’ll lower the efficacy.”
Flam hurriedly hid the aphrodisiac into his arms. "You seem to have a knack for magic, to even know such things."
I felt a prick at his words but shrugged as if nothing was wrong. "It is common knowledge. Common knowledge. It’s also in the textbook distributed today. It’s going to be on the test at the end of the training, so perhaps you should study a little more.”
"Ahahaha, is that so?" Flam scratched the back of his head embarrassed.
Pong!
My basic alchemy magic kit had the same reaction as Flam’s.
"Oh! Is it complete? What did you make?"
I picked up my finished reagent to check if it was made well.
"Wuhuhuhu, if Mr. Flam’s aphrodisiac is considered normal, should I call mine T. O. P. among them?”
Flam swallowed dry saliva like he was captivated by the brilliant light from my aphrodisiac, which was very different from his own.
"Gulp! T. O. P? Best? Let me have a look."
I easily struck away the hand that reached for my shining aphrodisiac. "Hey! Should an educated person be acting like this?!”
"Hey! There’s no such thing when it comes to body rejuvenation! Give it up!"
With Flam clinging on trying to take my aphrodisiac, I had to hold him back with one hand, while extending the arm with the aphrodisiac as far away as possible.
By the way, why is this guy so strong?
Flam was too strong to just leave him be, but I couldn’t just simply push him away.
This guy seems serious? His eyes were full of greed as if he really needed the aphrodisiac.
"Ah!"
While I was focusing on Flam, the professor in charge of today’s magic class took the aphrodisiac from my hand and drank it on the spot. Flam and I could only stare at the empty potion bottle like a dog that was chasing a chicken, only for the chicken to fly on top of a roof.[1]
"Ah, ahhh."
Flam was frustrated seeing the empty potion, wearing a look of despair beyond simple disappointment.
"What are you looking at? Wasn’t this made for me? Otherwise, there’s no way you’d make an aphrodisiac during class, right?”
The professor looked down at me and Flam, touching his slightly white beard.
"Ah, hahaha. Well."
Leaving me in a quandary, the professor reached his hand out to Flam.
"Ahem, so give it up."
While saying so, the magic professor turned his head with a slight blush, perhaps because he was embarrassed.
You’re a greedy old man.
Flam hesitated, taking turns looking at the aphrodisiac and the professor’s hand, and then drank it on the spot.
As expected of Flam! Do what I couldn’t do! Make others shudder! Make one admire you!
"Kuu! It doesn’t taste good."
Flam handed the empty potion bottle to the professor. We, including the professor, laughed.
"Hahahahaha."
"Hahahahaha."
"Hahahahaha."
"Point deductions for you two," the old man said grudgingly in the end.
-o-
In the space behind the huge banquet room of the magic school, Arelia’s maids were busily moving about. This was because her birthday ball, her coming of age ceremony, was going to be held today.
Arelia remained still so that the busy maids could finish her makeup without disruption. She knew how much effort the maids had put in for today, as such she endured this stuffy feeling. Her birthday was tomorrow, however, the birthday ball would continue for three days. The emperor’s birthday was celebrated for a week, and the crown prince and the empress’s five days, so hers was a rather short one. Of course, it was because it was her 16th birthday, marking her as an adult, that it was held for three days. Otherwise, normally, it was just two-day balls.
Ordinarily, she shouldn’t hope for a ball, whether she had a political marriage or not, unless the husband was a powerful person. Arelia didn’t think it was necessary to have a ball because it was annoying, but it was common for ordinary nobles to dream of having this kind of large-scale birthday banquet.
"Oh my, Your Imperial Highness! You’re so pretty!” The maids all exclaimed and praised the princess.
It was a pain for Arelia to just give her face to the maids, but it still felt good to hear that she was pretty.
Knock, knock!
Someone rapped on the door of the room designated to Arelia. Even though it was only a temporary dwelling, there were few in the empire who had the authority to come to the place where the princess of the imperial family was staying.
"Who is it?"
"I will go find out."
When Arelia asked, one of the maids immediately approached the door and asked through a pipe connected to the guard outside the room.
"Who has come to visit?"
A soldier replied with a blunt and trembling voice through the pipe, "General William is here with his niece."
It was essentially impossible for the guard to stop him from knocking. Usually, he would prevent knocking and announce in a loud voice, but William disliked the fuss and must have stopped the soldier.
"Your Imperial Highness! General William has come to visit!" The maid cried out in surprise.
“Let him enter,” Arelia said calmly.
The maid opened the door cautiously.
"I apologize. I’m having my makeup done now, so it’s a little unnatural to move my head. My apologies to Yuria, too.”
William smiled. "No, it’s my fault since I came suddenly."
"That’s right. It’s all Uncle’s fault. How could you think of entering a makeup room where a woman is putting on makeup? This is the women’s restroom. Women’s restroom!" [2]
Yuria shook her head. There was nothing wrong with calling a place to put on makeup, a restroom, but William was flustered by his niece’s words.
Come to think of it, when he looked around, there were only women.
"Ahem, I’m sorry. Shall we leave?"
Arelia witnessed a rare occasion of William being surprised through the mirror, she was amused.
"No, it’s okay. Yuria, you can’t make fun of General William." Although it was a joke that suited her taste, she was afraid of the maids’ nagging if she revealed her inner feelings.
"No, it’s okay. My niece and I are very close, so this is common. Hahaha." William tousled Yuria’s hair as he spoke.
"Hohoho, I’m jealous. By the way, what brings General here?” Arelia asked.
"Ah, I came to give my greetings and deliver Yuria to Your Imperial Highness, so my job is done." Saying his greetings, he made to leave the room. "I’ll look around the perimeter again. Please take good care of my niece."
As her uncle stepped out, Yuria brought a chair and sat down next to the vanity table where Arelia was getting her makeup done.
"Wow, very pretty! It’s making me jealous." Yuria clapped and admired the princess’s face.
The maids were bewildered by Yuria’s abrupt casual speech and behavior. But Arelia answered casually as if nothing was amiss. "Do you want to put on makeup too? My maids are very good at makeup."
After the first day of the magic school, they had ended up going to eat snacks. Arelia and Yuria decided to talk to each other casually while they were eating parfait, so this scene was natural. But the maids who did not know the situation were perplexed.
"Oh, can I?”
As Yuria’s eyes glittered, Arelia burst into laughter.
"Hohoho, you’re a woman too. When I first met you, you didn’t seem to know anything but magic."
"No, well, it’s a rare opportunity." Yuria was embarrassed.
"Mmhmm~ To look good for a man named Den?" Arelia smiled gently seeing the other’s cheeks turn slightly red.
A startled Yuria fumbled as she said, "Ah, n-no. What do you mean?"
"Ay, regarding that, when we went to eat parfait, you and Alice had a heated discussion about a man named Den.”
Yuria raised her voice. "A heated discussion! It wasn’t to that extent!"
"Mmhmm. Was it not?" Arelia asked slyly.
Yuria turned her head with a reddened face and avoided her gaze.
“So then you won’t wear makeup?” the princess continued to ask.
“I- I will,” Yuria said as she pouted. Arelia found her cute.
Naturally, Yuria sat next to the princess and also got her makeup done by the maids.
"Later, I’ll introduce you to all the people at the boarding house I’m staying in. Since everyone goes to school, they will all be at the ball," Yuria said coyly.
Arelia smiled. "I look forward to it."
-o-
I looked at myself in the mirror. There was a handsome man standing in the mirror as usual. What was different from usual was only that I wore a suit, which was rare. If it’s around this much, then I wouldn’t look out of place.
I swung my arms lightly, tried sitting and standing up.
Mrs. Arscilla’s luxury suit that she’d lent me, fit perfectly on my body and did not make moving feel unnatural. Also, maybe because it was luxury silk, it felt nice to the touch. I put on a matching hat, picked up a cane, and turned around.
Behind me was Alphonso, who kept moving about like his suit was uncomfortable, and Lisbon, who was sitting leisurely on the sofa in the knight school uniform.
"The suit is very nice. Thank you, Mrs. Arscilla."
I greeted Mrs. Arscilla slightly exaggeratedly by bowing with my arms bent inwards.
"It’s nothing. It’s fortunate that the suits my son used to wear were still left." Mrs. Arscilla smiled casually while drinking tea.
Alphonso and I didn’t have uniforms to replace a suit like Lisbon. In Alphonso’s case, the low-rank knight school only provided training uniforms, not actual uniforms. Well, the entrance age of the low-rank knight school was basically sixteen, it would be a waste to give students who were still growing uniforms for ceremonies that rarely happened. It was said to be acceptable for rare national flag-raising ceremonies, but it was not enough to wear to a princess’s birthday ball.
Although, I didn’t know the details because I was not a knight school student. Considering the level to be admitted was high, the knight school students were generally rich, so cases like Alphonso not having formal wear was actually rare.
1. An idiom that basically means their efforts were in vain.
2. Yuria says makeup room with the same word for bathroom/restroom in Korean
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