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Next arc would be starting of new arc. It's quite interesting when I took a sneak-peak in it.
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The Nine Marquises—
Valcondor (No Class A student) Endeumion (Al) Grauksh (Dan) Sernande (First appearance in this chapter) Diarmaq (Bester) Dosperior (Lala) Dragoon (Allen, Fey, Parry) Torveil (Stella) Leverance (Jeuri)
Also, the three Dukes— Grauster (First appeared in If it's not love, then what? «1») Zatsinger (Leo) Shutrenu (First appeared in Intermission - Teachers of the Royal Academy)
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"Speaking of which, it seems like my granddaughter is also quite a fan of Allen Rovenne, so maybe… Hahaha!”
Marquis Endeumion's words incurred glares from everyone present.
The breakfast might have just been served on the round table, yet the atmosphere had already become piping hot as sparks flew everywhere.
"......By the way, I heard he spent the final night of the outdoor class with the students of Class E, and actively looked for information about the romantic relationships of Class E's students. The rest of Class A slept like logs after going through that grueling scenario, but he alone insisted that 'Outdoor Classes can't come to an end at all without this' and talked to them on his own. I just can't think of why it was so important. Any guesses?"
The quiet remark came from Marquis Sernande, also the youngest person among the marquises. Her territory lay in the northern region of the kingdom. That was to say, her territory shared a direct border with the Rosemieur Empire, and then there was the exceedingly turbulent relationship between the two powers at this point. Fortunately, with her husband, who had an important position in the 4th legion of the Knight Order, temporarily taking over, she was able to leave her position temporarily, allowing her to participate in the new year's events.
No one answered her question.
They had similarly pondered the question. But the opponent had hidden his intention so cleverly that they really couldn't see anything except what was on the surface. It was as if he was truly just there to listen to everyone's love stories that were oh so common during stay overs.
The nine of them were sure that there was no way someone would push themselves to take part in some random conversation after overcoming their limits in the prior scenarios, but they just were unable to figure it out.
Of course, they couldn't.
"...Oh, right. He apparently asked Bester about his fiancé and his love life too when it was just the two of them. But my word, he sure has the makings of a sly fox in politics. He actually revealed something quite interesting during their discussion, and only our Bester seems to know about it."
Marquis Diarmaq said while staring at Marquis Dosperior.
The implication behind his gaze was clear. Bester had informed him about the origin of his mother, Celia.
As much as Bester wanted to keep the matter to himself given his status, he probably only had a few options on how to handle it, and just throwing it in a corner of his mind and forgetting about it forever wasn't one of them. The responsibility would be too heavy for him to shoulder once it became apparent that only he had the information.
It was quite an outrageous revelation, but from Marquis Diarmaq's viewpoint, there couldn't be any better timing than now to play this card. Plus, it would also raise the Bester’s stock among the others as the sole informant of this information.
As for Bester, he seemed to have exchanged information about himself — the identity of his fiancé — to even things out. Though, of course, it was incomparable to the revelation about Allen's mother. It wouldn't be surprising if the information he got from Allen turned out to be a prank of sorts.
Hence, Marquis Diarmaq kept his gaze on Randy Von Dosperior. He was trying to ascertain the authenticity of Beater's information via his body language.
And as the top dogs among the nobles, no one was naive enough to not realize what Marquis Diarmaq was implying.
A suspenseful atmosphere hung in the hall.
Marquis Dosperior, who had been quietly observing the discussion with an almost nihilistic expression with an insincere smile on his lips, stared back at Marquis Diarmaq for a while before relaxing.
"I’ve been just as curious about Bester, whom that Allen has dubbed the ‘Overseer Guardian’. I was astonished when I heard that because our Dosperior family has taken pride in being the 'Kingdom's Shield' since its founding. To hear such rave praise about him makes me want to meet Bester-kun at once for sure." (T/N - Forgot the title, will change defense master later, of if you remember it, you can change it.)
The reply caused the rest of the marquises, who had been quietly listening, as well as Marquis Diarmaq to yelp inwardly. Though, their poker face concealed their inner turmoil.
What they'd first noticed was how Randy Von Dosperior — the head of the Dosperior family and also the leader of the Imperial Guards — had intimately called out Allen Rovenne's name irrespective of how the said Dosperior family had always kept themselves aloof from the politics of the Royal Academy.
The connection wasn't so obvious, but the nuance of calling Allen Rovenne 'that Allen' was pretty obvious. At the same time, it pushed Bester's evaluation up in the minds of everyone present.
The above result obviously delighted Marquis Diarmaq. Suppressing his broad smile, he replied with 'Yes, of course. We can set up a schedule for that.'
It could have been an intimidating piece of information, but given Marquis Dosperior's reaction, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say 'His Majesty has already been made privy of the situation' and he had already set up this unbelievable groundwork while everyone had yet to hear about it.
As everyone had their respective guess, Marquis Grauksh, who hadn't uttered a single word up to then, entered the discussion. He also had information he had gotten through his persistence, and he wouldn’t miss this prime time to reveal his cards as well.
"...If what I heard was correct, then it seems like Allen Rovenne had an unofficial audience with His Majesty once. And I dare say... this was the time he asked His Majesty to accommodate the Sail Club that Daniel, the son of Count Serdos from our region, is the president of. I guess he probably did it for their deep friendship. I mean, he specifically came to visit him in the summer vacation, after all.
But that aside, Randy-dono had been present on that occasion, so you must have had the chance to interact with Allen Rovenne then... right? I wonder if you can tell us what was his… Allen Rovenne's request? Or, how exactly did he convince His Majesty of the Sail Club's value when sail ships are a thing of the past?"
Once again, silence reigned in the hall.
Everyone had their polite smiles masking their true thoughts, but the air was so tense one could hear it crackling.
This had been the biggest doubt everyone had about the Sail Club as they just couldn't see the goal of that club that Allen Rovenne had been so fervently investing his time in. They were aware that the Sail Club was using the port meant for the Knight Order, but they had chalked it up to Godorfun's doing.
But their assumptions would be completely subverted if the permission had indeed come from His Majesty instead.
Allen had thought this would just add more oil to the rumours about him, so he hadn't revealed this fact to anyone. This was another reason why they didn't have even a single piece of information about what actually happened.
Being on the receiving end of everyone's sharp gazes, Randy was silent for a moment, and eventually opened his mouth with a sigh.
"......The audience itself happened at the military garrison of the Royal Palace in absolute secrecy, but if the word is already out, then there's no reason to hide it anymore. And frankly, the event details are silly enough. You should all be aware of His Majesty's curious nature. He expressed a strong desire to meet with Allen after the events in the Rising Star Cup match. There, he had him ask for anything he wanted as a reward.
Allen then requested for the right to use the military port, and a permit to frequent the Rune River so that they could use it as their training ground for sailing as it was near the Academy."
Unable to decipher Allen's intention, everyone waited for Randy's continuation.
"Of course, His Majesty asked why he was so fixated with outdated ships. And his reply was, well...... ‘It sounds fun. We just want to play around…’ His expression was devoid of any motive back then, and he answered with a bright smile. His Majesty had been amused by his answer as he never expected such an… ordinary reason, and he burst into laughter."
Everyone blinked their eyes in confusion for a moment, and simultaneously, they all burst out laughing.
"Kakaka! 'Because it's fun'... Kakaka!"
"Such a normal reason in front of His Majesty! As expected of the man Jeu has set her eyes on, he's interesting! Hahaha!"
"It amazes me that he made His Majesty break into laughter. Hahaha! I can already imagine what Allen Rovenne's expression was like!"
"Fufu, Ahem, I mean that's rude."
"Who knows if he's actually been disliked? Hahaha!"
"Pfft! No, what you said might be rude, Marquis Valcondor. There's no way he should have done it out of mere friendship with Daniel-kun just because he visited him on whim! Dear friends! Hahaha!"
Marquis Grauksh faintly chuckled, replying with 'Well, kids and their whimsical nature. You can never know with them.' His face had a wry smile as he scratched his head as if amused at a child's antics.
But, his other hand under the table was squeezed so hard it wouldn't be surprising for blood to ooze out of it.
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Meanwhile, an earth-shattering discovery, enough to engulf the Kingdom in a crisis, had been unearthed in the northeast region— in one of the territories under the Grauksh region.