HNSW - Chapter 9 - A, Like, Important Meeting, or Something. (Patreon)

Time had passed and Lilussees was now eight years old. To her horror, her education had continued during that time.

Lilussees and Adelisees were currently in a training field, standing across from several dummies. Lady Baillairgé was watching over them as usual. Lady Baillairgé introduced combat drills to all of her tutees as soon as they were capable of casting a battle oriented spells. She found the most common misconception among aspiring students of the mystic arts was to conflate the study of magic with the practice of a battlemage. It was one thing to cast a spell in a class, where there were few distractions and little urgency. It was another entirely to cast a spell in a crisis where emotion and adrenaline ran high and one’s very life may be at risk. So, Lady Baillairgé would have her students repeat several simple defensive and offensive spells a mind-numbing amount of times throughout their education, until the spells were so ingrained they could be cast without thinking…and so cast in situations where the student could barely think. For a lady to be intending to use magic for her self-defense, that was an essential capability.

Since the casting of these spells was to be reflexive, Lady Baillairgé told Lilussees and Adelisees to cast the spells they were most comfortable with. Which was why Lady Baillairgé currently had a complicated expression on her face.

Lilussees held out her hands in front of her. A pitch-black substance that absorbed any light that touched it swirled between her hands, forming into a sphere. Lilussees then extended her arms outward, pointing her palms towards one of the targets. Without any further words, chants, motions, or charms, the sphere began to move. It melted down into the ground, merging with the shadows as it raced towards the target. Soon, the area underneath the target grew dark. The sphere leapt up from the ground, expanding to engulf the target before imploding on it. It took a noticeable chunk out of the side of the dummy’s torso.

On the one hand, Lilussees was a true savant in the mystic arts. She had a natural command over her mana more akin to the more mystical creatures of this world, or a well-seasoned mage. She also had an exceptional ability to drown out distractions and focus on what she was doing…well, that was likely because she was concerningly apathetic to most things but it was still helpful for spellcasting. As such, she managed nearly unassisted casting of basic spells at the age of eight.

Adelisees, in contrast, was currently holding a small wand. She had to draw out the magic circle with the wand, then hold it in place while she began to speak.

“Blaze, ignite my will. Burn on and consume my foe. Firebolt!”

She thrust her wand forward and the magic circle flashed. A small ball of fire shot from it and managed a glancing blow on her target, leaving a small fire on the dummy’s shoulder.

It was honestly an impressive performance for a girl of her age. She had gotten the chant down to only two sentences and no longer needed to specifically declare every step of what she wanted her mana to do. It only took her a few seconds to draw the magic circle and she had no trouble keeping it in place once drawn. And she now only needed a simple wand, instead of the fully lit torch she had to start with. Lady Baillairgé had seen battlemage recruits with less confident spellcasting than that.

But it was a performance not unheard of for a student of a couple years, and not outside of the realm of possibility for a child her age. One that came from the heavy expenditure of effort, countless hours of trial and error and struggle and refinement.

Lilussees’s was not.

But there was a small problem. Lilussees’s greatest talent…was in dark magic.

Dark magic was not exactly outlawed, and there were plenty of dark mages throughout the kingdom. Their wardings were essential to prevent the buried dead from rising again, whether by foul play or the natural accumulation of mana in the corpses. They were therefore, and somewhat ironically, one of the most commonly employed type of mages. However, it was true that dark magic had some…less savory applications many of which were restricted or banned outright. Dark magic was, therefore, distrusted by the general populace and frowned upon by the nobility.

That reputation was not enough to prevent a noble from practicing, or even specializing in dark magic, but it was a point that people would notice and gossip over. The ignorant even had a tendency to accuse dark magic-wielding nobles of ritual sacrifices and kidnappings and other similar sorts of things. It made Lady Baillairgé sigh that they would conflate dark magic and blood magic, an entirely different discipline with more in common with healing magic than dark magic. But, unreasonable ignorance aside, for a future high-ranking lady like Lilussees, from whom the image of perfection was the minimum, every point like that was something that would have to be considered and accounted for.

But Lady Baillairgé held her tongue. The point of these exercises was to master the magic most comfortable to the user for the sake of self-defense in a crisis. Remaining above criticism by choosing a more well-thought of school of magic would not help Lilussees if it caused her to hesitate when an assassin’s blade thrust towards her heart. And, as a master of the mystic arts, Lady Baillairgé herself did not approve of the light taboo surrounding dark magic. In her view, it was just another branch of magic. All magic could be dangerous if employed maliciously or irresponsibly, after all.

And, ultimately, Lady Baillairgé began to nod her head. Dark magic or not, a child who could cast chantless magic at eight years old was someone the kingdom itself would take note of in the future. And Lady Lilussees was also a noble’s daughter to boot. Lady Baillairgé still had notable concerns about her personality…but she knew that she would never be forgiven if she did not make the report in a timely manner. She supposed what happened next…would be up to the powers that be.

***

Lilussees stood before her mother, attempting not to sigh. Though, her mother seemed a bit different today. Animated, more energetic than Lilussees had ever seen her. She even had a smile on her face.

Lilussees had a bad feeling about this.

She stomped over to Lilussees and clamped her hands on Lilussees’s shoulders.

“Lilussees, you’ve done it. We’ve arranged for you to meet the crown prince.”

“Yes, mother.”

Her mother lowered herself to look Lilussees directly in the eyes.

“I don’t know if you fully understand, Lilussees. The crown prince is currently looking for a fiancé, and is now coming to meet you in-person. If this goes well…you could be the queen someday. The queen!”

Her grasp on Lilussees tightened and her eyes turned a little bloodshot. Lilussees wanted to shrink away but was currently trapped.

“You must be on your best behavior, Lilussees. You must be perfect. You’ve done well so far, but the true battle starts now. So, let’s redouble our efforts.”

Lilussees frowned. She did not like the sound of that. Nor did she like the sound of becoming queen. Her lessons on the kingdom indicated that being king, queen, or even just part of the royal family could be an ungodly amount of e-word. Her current amount of e-word was already ungodly! The idea of being asked to exert even more? No, thank you. She would politely but firmly decline any such motion.

Unfortunately, eight years of life as a human had taught her that when her mother got into her current state, there was no reasoning with her. Paradoxically, the response that required the minimum amount of e-word was to just go along with what she said. So, Lilussees sighed in her mind as her mother forced her to go over every tiny, little, annoying detail of etiquette she had involuntarily memorized.

All the while, Lilussees debated what exactly she was going to do…

***

A young boy in his early teenage years heaved a sigh and leaned on the windowsill of his carriage. An older gentlemen sitting across from him made a wry smile.

“I take it you are not enjoying yourself, your highness?”

The boy, Prince Galois the Third, oldest son and heir apparent of the king, heaved another sigh.

“I don’t find these meetings particularly enjoyable, no, Avreer.”

Avreer made a light smirk.

“But, your highness, most young men would love the chance to receive the attention of beautiful and illustrious young ladies.”

Prince Galois rolled his eyes.

“That is because most young men are idiots, and take fluttering eyes to mean a woman is entirely smitten with them with no other thoughts in their heads. As for me, name one young lady I have met outside of my sister that has actually desired my company and not my future crown.”

Avreer chuckled softly.

“You are correct as always, your highness. But a marriage with purpose need not be devoid of affection. If I may offer my advice…it would behoove you to find a young lady you don’t dislike the company of, ultimate motives aside. Your future partner is as of yet undecided and you have an unusual chance to influence the decision for one in your position. But if you do not express a preference, then your opinion will not be considered in the final choice.”

Prince Galois sighed once more.

“I am aware, though with the young ladies I have met so far, I fail to see what difference it would make. I suspect this one will be no different…”

Author’s Note:

Meeting with the crown prince? The possibility of becoming queen, fulfilling the ultimate ambition of every noble family? Gaining unparalleled authority over the nation and having your name recorded in the annals of history?

Ugh, that sounds, like, entirely too much e-word, or something.

Just, um, probably don’t use poison this time, Lilussees. Humans, like, don’t look favorably on attempted assassination of national rulers, or something.

Anyways!

How will Lilussees escape the ungodly e-word coming her way? How will her meeting with the crown prince go? Will her behavior meet her mother’s expectations? Tune in next time, to find out!