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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: A Party for the Forgotten Prince
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[Then that makes even less sense! If they're twins, doesn't that mean they were born on the same day, at the same time? Why is Lucian the only one getting the cold shoulder!]
“Twins are supposed to be a symbol of abundance and good fortune! How can humans be so cruel!”
The two, huffing and puffing with indignation, snapped their mouths shut at the sound of a whimper from inside the room.
They moved further away from the room.
[What's wrong with twins? Isn't it better if they're twins? I thought the Imperial Family had trouble bearing children. And having two sons born at the same time should be even better.]
“I don't know either. Do humans have some kind of bad superstition?”
Hmmmm.
Ria and Kaizareu crossed their arms, racking their brains. But they couldn't find a clear answer.
One was a ghost who couldn't leave the mansion, and the other was a hatchling with no interest in the human world.
There had to be something hidden.
“I'll look into it later.”
[Alright. Let me know as soon as you find anything. How long will you be here?]
“Well, probably about a month this time, too.”
It might seem like an absurdly short time for a dragon, but it was the maximum amount of time he, who hadn't even undergone his coming-of-age ceremony, could be alone without any guardian.
Any longer and his parents and the elders would supposedly raise hell.
[Hm? Wait a minute, didn't you mention a birthday banquet earlier?]
“Huh? Ah, right, I did. Probably the Crown Prince's birthday banquet... Huh?”
The Crown Prince and Lucian were twins.
Which meant their birthdays were the same.
Realizing another new fact, Ria and Kaizareu were thrown into a fluster.
[You, you...! When did you hear about that!]
“Uh... well...! Ah! Right before I came here, that jerk left on the same day I did! He said there was a banquet in a week and he had to go prepare!”
Kaizareu had arrived here the evening before last, and the journey had taken him two days.
That meant after tonight, five days would have already passed.
[Only two days left.]
“Don't humans consider birthdays important?”
[...I don't know.]
I would only know if I'd ever seen the humans who lived here celebrate their own birthdays.
They had all ended their lives in solitude, so of course, there was no one to celebrate with them.
But seeing how fairy tales and novels treat birthdays as such a major event, it must be an important day.
“He's the kind of kid whose eyes sparkle just from going to the village. You saw him eating that candy, right?”
I saw it clearly.
He was the kind of child whose eyes shone as he said there was something so delicious in the world, wanting to share one with Kaizareu and give one to Ria, too.
Had such a child ever been wished a happy birthday, or even eaten cake?
[I don't know how birthdays are supposed to be celebrated, but we have to make it an unforgettable day for him.]
“Just tell me if you need anything! I'll help with whatever you need!”
Seeing Kaizareu clench his fists and flap his wings, Ria fell silent for a moment.
[...Didn't you say humans were a pain?]
Kaizareu's wings froze mid-air. His body slowly descended, and only after his feet touched the floor did his eyes tremble like an earthquake.
[Besides, you've only known Lucian for three days.]
Of course, a lot had happened in that short time.
Kaizareu had saved Lucian and healed him. They got along so well they chattered nonstop, and they even went on an errand to the village.
On top of that, the great Kaizareu had even fumbled to comfort a crying child.
Kaizareu, too, seemed to sense something odd in Ria's words and wore a confused expression.
It was a subtle expression, as if he wanted to argue with her but couldn't quite bring himself to do it.
“Ugh...! Agh, I don't know! If I want to do it, I'll do it! Who cares if he's human or whatever!”
[You've grown quite fond of him.]
“That's not it! I'm just... Ah! I'm just doing it because I feel sorry for him!”
[Right, right. I'll play along.]
“Argh! It's true! I'm just helping out for a little while! Even if he's human, Lucian is Lucian!”
Does this little dragon even know what he's saying?
Perhaps it was his pride, but he refused to easily admit that he had taken a liking to a human. But he didn't say he wouldn't do it, either.
Either way, it was true he had grown attached to Lucian.
***
The next morning, Ria and Kaizareu immediately began preparing for Lucian's birthday party.
Seeing Lucian acting as usual, it seemed he had forgotten his own birthday.
While this was fortunate for the two of them, it was also heartbreaking that he couldn't even recall his once-a-year birthday.
Ria and Kaizareu took turns looking after Lucian and started researching what people usually do for birthdays.
Though all they could really do was rummage through the books in the library.
[Party, party, fireworks, masquerade ball...?]
Rummaging through various books only yielded useless information.
[Still, we can manage a cake and some presents.]
As luck would have it, there was a new cookbook among the books Kaizareu had bought. It definitely had a recipe for a two-tiered cake, right?
Besides the cake, they'd have to make all sorts of other tasty things, but with Lucian around, it was nearly impossible to cook without him noticing.
[We have most of the ingredients, so that's fine.]
How could they prepare for the birthday party without Lucian noticing?
“Save... save me...”
“I am the Emperor!”
Along with Kaizareu's wail, an ecstatic Lucian appeared. The two were adorned with various items they had found in the storage room.
Seeing him swing a wooden sword while declaring himself the Emperor, it seemed they were role-playing.
It was obvious what the story was without even asking.
“Ah! There's my beloved witch!”
They were surely acting out the fairy tale, 'The King, the Dragon, and the Witch'.
I chuckled at Lucian, who was looking at me with sparkling eyes. Then I rescued the near-collapsing Kaizareu by taking Lucian into my arms.
[Lucian, that's too hard on Kaizareu.]
“Are you tired, big brother? You said dragons are super-duper strong.”
Kaizareu, looking momentarily choked up, lay sprawled on the floor, gaping. But he couldn't bring himself to refute Lucian's words.
Judging by the way his light green eyes darted about, he seemed to think that one wrong word would subject him to Lucian's pestering all over again.
“Ah, whatever! I'm tired! You try carrying something your own size on your back all day!”
Then again, it was a near miracle that Kaizareu had let Lucian ride on his back and played with him for almost an hour.
“I'm never playing with you again!”
...The problem was, it seemed that time was over as of now.
At Kaizareu's shout, Lucian's face fell. Nevertheless, the thoroughly annoyed Kaizareu huffed and turned his body away.
Lucian glanced nervously at Kaizareu and whispered to Ria.
“Did I do something wrong?”
[Hmm. In a way, yes? Not everyone has as much stamina as you do.]
“But I'm the weakest one here.”
A ghost who could lift anything with magic, and Kaizareu, a dragon no matter how small he was. Compared to them, Lucian was nothing but a fragile human.
Of course, the stamina Ria spoke of was a bit different from the strength Lucian was talking about.
Rather than explaining further, Ria just vaguely agreed and suggested a new game to him. He seemed to like the idea, as he immediately trotted over to Kaizareu.
“Big brother, let's play the sleeping game this time.”
“You want to play again?!”
“This time, the person who falls asleep fastest wins! Super easy, right?”
Kaizareu, who had been about to get angry, sensed something odd and tilted his head. When he glanced at Ria, she gestured for him to just play along.
Understanding Ria's signal, Kaizareu reluctantly went upstairs with him.
About ten minutes later, an exhausted Kaizareu reappeared, looking completely worn out.
[Is Lucian asleep?]
“He wouldn't stop chattering, so I had to force him to sleep.”
[...You didn't use physical force, did you?]
“What are you talking about? Of course I used magic.”
I thought you'd knocked him out in a fit of anger.
“After all the trouble I went through, don't tell me you haven't prepared anything.”
[Of course not. I've been sketching out a rough plan.]
Ria shared her plan for the surprise birthday party the next day.
First, she planned to set up a table in the backyard, decorate it with a tablecloth and various flowers, and then serve all kinds of dishes.
Since birthdays are meant to be celebrated by many, she intended to animate the statues and suits of armor to fill out the numbers and make it feel less empty.
Add some presents to that, and you have a decent birthday party.
[But there's a problem.]
“What is it?”
[How do we distract Lucian while we're preparing for the party?]
“Umm...”
[Preparing the food and setting up a table in the garden will be too obvious. Isn't there a way to do it secretly?]
“Do it secretly at dawn.”
[Did you already forget we're having the party in the evening?]
“Ah, right.”
Ugh.
Both Ria and Kaizareu wracked their brains.
“Ah, how about this? We send Lucian on an errand to the village.”
[Oh?]
“He needs to go pick up his fitted shoes tomorrow anyway.”
The pretext was perfect. Not only that, but giving him various errands would also serve as good practice for going to the village. It was killing two birds with one stone.
“Have you thought about what to give him as a present?”
[Hmm... I'm still thinking. What about you?]
“I'll just give him one of the treasures from my subspace.”
What's gotten into him? He's the type who never lets anyone touch his things.
Besides, a dragon's subspace, even a hatchling's, would be filled with all sorts of gold and jewels.
With the dragon giving such a generous gift, she, his bride in name, couldn't possibly give something shabby.
Ria pondered deeply about what kind of gift would be best.
***
“Hurry, hurry, move it!”
“Not that way, I told you to move it over there!”
“I won't tolerate a single error. Make one mistake, and it's a pay cut for you!”
At the same time, in the Imperial Palace, the servants were bustling about. Among them was the junior servant, James.
“H-How many times do we have to do this?”
“This is nothing. If it were His Majesty the Emperor's birthday banquet instead of the Crown Prince's, we'd have to do not only this place but the Ruby Hall and the entire palace garden.”
At his colleague's words, James was horrified and staggered.
After about an hour of running around without a break, the busiest work was mostly done. Now, the senior servants would handle the finer details.
“Oh man, I'm exhausted!”
“You worked hard. Is this your first time with such a large event?”
“Ah, senior. Thank you.”
Exhausted, James sprawled out and drank the water his senior handed him.
“Wow, the royal family's birthdays are on another level. Do they really do this every year?”
“Pretty much. But since the Crown Prince is still young, this is actually on the smaller side.”
“...And he hasn't even made his social debut yet.”
“It can't be helped. The Imperial Family has great difficulty bearing children. And how often is a prince born? His Majesty knows that well, which is why he named him Crown Prince as soon as he was born.”
As his senior said, children were precious to the Imperial Family. It was difficult to conceive, regardless of gender, and since the imperial authority could only be passed down to a male, they absolutely had to produce at least one prince.
Previous emperors had taken not only an empress but also several consorts to focus their efforts on producing an imperial heir.
Because of this drive to secure an heir by any means, sometimes there were too many, leading to horrific battles for the throne.
Such history was said to repeat itself almost every other generation.
James suddenly felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He was worried about Lucian, who looked identical to the Crown Prince.
At first, he had accepted Lucian as just an orphan who happened to look like the Crown Prince, but on his recent visit, he had felt a subtle sense of unease.
It was the unchanging characteristics of the royal family.
The trademarks of the royal family were white hair and golden eyes. Among them, the one thing that never changed was the vivid golden eyes.
There was no way he would mistake simple yellow eyes for golden ones. Besides, a street orphan wouldn't have such eyes.
Just in case, he had asked around and learned that using transformation magic to mimic the features of the royal family was an illegal act punishable by death. And even if one did, it couldn't be maintained for more than a week.
As the one delivering supplies, he had never once seen any potions or magical tools that a child might consume. Which meant...
‘That's Lucian's natural hair and eye color.’
When he'd asked last time, Lucian had said he was eight years old, and he looked suspiciously identical to the Crown Prince.
Furthermore, this was also the Crown Prince's eighth birthday banquet... It wasn't hard to guess that the two were twins.
‘There was a reason the Head Chamberlain was so evasive.’
He thought he finally understood why, despite being of the same royal blood, they were raised in such different environments, and why one was even cast out.
Twins were a symbol of misfortune and ruin.
It was said that the misfortune would only disappear if one consumed the other, so typically, the younger twin born second was killed at birth. The superstition held that if this wasn't done, a demon or a witch would visit the family and bring it to ruin.
But after meeting Lucian a few times and seeing what a gentle and kind child he was, he felt that such superstitions weren't very believable.
‘If it's the Crown Prince's birthday, then it's Lucian's birthday, too.’
Would there be anyone to celebrate the birthday of Lucian, who was left all alone in the ghost mansion?
“...Um, senior.”
“Yeah?”
“Will we be very busy tomorrow?”
“You bet. Why do you ask?”
“I was wondering if it would be possible to step away for a little while.”
“This punk, slacking off already... Hmmm...”
The senior, who had been clucking his tongue, crossed his arms as if thinking for a moment.
“Well, I guess we can do without you tomorrow. The busiest ones will be the stewards and maids working in the hall, anyway. You're just a junior among juniors, so there won't be much for you to do. Take tomorrow off.”
“Th-Thank you!”
“But you know you won't get the special allowance for tomorrow, right?”
“Of course! Absolutely!”
James beamed and bowed repeatedly to his senior.
James! If you're not busy, come help over here!
“Yes! Senior, I'll be on my way now.”
James hurried off to where he was being called. Seeing his brightened face, the senior tilted his head in confusion.
“The extra pay is pretty hefty. Why would he give that up?”
Well, maybe he has a date with his girlfriend?
The senior indulged in some useless speculation before he, too, left to lend a hand.
