Chapter 9

“I’m glad you remember me. ”

Aurora sighed and glared at the man with an amused look in his face. Forget about being a court magician, this man must be an airhead for trespassing into a room of a newly engaged lady. But Aurora refrained from replying, like a prim and proper lady, she did her courtesy next to Felix.

“Raise your head. I allow you to speak. This is an informal visit after all.”

“Forgive me for asking this…. Did you changed the color of your eyes?”

“When I go on a stroll, I have to change the color of my eyes. I sometimes use color gray since I like it and the name Eric, which is a common name.”

At Eric’s eloquent explanation, Aurora have no choice but to give up. In Welbum Kingdom, purple eyes is the proof of being a member of the royal family. On the seventh day of since the child was born, a ceremony is held where a baby within the third-degree of the royal lineage changes the color of his eyes through magic. The more vivid the color of purple in the baby’s eyes, the purer the blood of the old King the baby posses.

Eric has a very dark purple eyes, with only a few of those in the royal family possessed. This a fact that not only does he have the blood of the old King but also of the direct lineage of the royalty and there’s only one person of the royal family that would appear in Order of Knights today.

“Forgive our insolence, your Highness the Crown Prince Textus.”

There’s no other man but Prince Textus himself in front of them, His Highness the Crowned Prince of the Kingdom of Welbum—the one who wished to see Aurora’s embroidery.

＊＊＊

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting for so long.”

Beneath an old tree standing behind the training grounds was a table surrounded by Prince Textus, the Vice Commander of the Imperial Guards who’s also acting as the Crown Prince’s personal guard and younger brother, Prince Sentence, a Squad Leader in the 4th Unit, 1st Platoon of the Order of Knights, Felix, and his fiancee, Aurora.

What an unusual group of people, Aurora thought. Although this was an informal visit, the convoys behind Prince Textus in a row were awesome knights.

—When was she ever surrounded by so many men before?

Aurora was sweating cold as Felix shot her with questions 「When, where and how did you meet His Highness?」, then Prince Textus in front of her gave an unreserved look as if he’s observing her like an interesting animal, and next to His Highness was a man with a cheerful smile as if he found an interesting toy. While keeping her mouth shut, she sat still with a blank expression on her face.

“It’s not a lie when I told you I was a magician. I was a magician before I became the Crown Prince, and I was studying as a magician while I was trying my best to become a crown prince.”

“I have heard the rumors.”

“Hahaha! Was it the rumor about the 「Demon Prince」? I’m not a demon but I’ve been studying ancient magic since I was a student. I’ve always been searching for anything related to ancient magic everywhere. Then one day, I felt a certain magic which was very similar to that of an ancient magic from the handkerchief of one of the men in the training grounds—ah, place Lady Porta’s belongings here.”

“I hope this doesn’t inconvenience you.”

“Leave them here.”

Aurora’s basket, which seemed to have been checked too carefully and left at once after being brought out of the carriage, was placed on the table.

Aurora breathed and reached for the basket. It wasn’t surprising that she had needles and scissors in it, and it was uncomfortable for others to thoroughly inspect the embroidery tools she deemed as part of her soul. However, if she speak in such a way in the Imperial Palace, she may be charged for treason, not for lese majeste.

To apologize for her stand-up monologs earlier, Aurora herself took the initiative of unfolding her basket.

A cloth to make a handkerchief without any embroidery.

A cloth to make a handkerchief with embroidery halfway done.

A cloth to make a handkerchief with finished embroidery.

Scissors and embroidery hoop in the needle box.

An embroidered tie she gave to her brother.

An embroidered hair decoration she gave to her mother.

A ribbon she embroidered for herself when she was a child.

“I have a list of the purpose and the time of production, the source of materials, and the origin of the tools. Please, feel free to pick them up.”

Aurora took out the papers which had been placed at the bottom of the basket and gave them to Prince Textus and Prince Sentence, the escort who had a playful smile. Aurora relaxed as she sat down with Felix’s arms supporting her.

“This is bad, Tence. This lady might be more capable than any secretaries I have.”

“So you’re an educated woman? You don’t look like one.”

While handing out the papers to Prince Sentence, Aurora’s eyes widened at the youngest prince’s unscrupulous manner. Smiling just like his younger brother, Prince Textus reached out to the things in front of him. His palm shines with purplish lights.

“Oh… Fu——n… This is…”

Prince Textus’ have those childlike expressions like his flushing cheeks which reminded Aurora of her elder brother.

Her elder brother is an educated man who was smart enough to graduate as the top student of the Academy. The first reason he came to love studying was that when he was young, their grandfather bought him a celestial globe.

“Could you show me the handkerchief that you used to wipe Felix’s cheeks?”

“It was stained with blood but here it is…”

“Thank you.”

The current expression from Prince Textus’ face resembles a lot like Aurora’s brother.

It was those same over the clouds smile of her elder brother that she saw on the Prince Textus’ face as his hands happily traced the embroideries and stroke them with his fingers shining with some sort of magic.

“Lady Porta, what did you have in mind while making this embroidery?”

“While I was embroidering?”

Aurora who was lost in thoughts tilted her head at Prince Textus question.

“I’m afraid I don’t know… I wasn’t think of anything while doing the embroidery.”

“When you started embroidering, do you think of the person whom you want to give them to?”

“Everything that I have here were all made even before someone requested some embroidery.”

Aurora replied honestly, as if it wasn’t quite obvious.

Embroidery for Aurora is more than just a hobby—neither was it a job. Her embroideries were made not for someone else to buy nor because someone requested her. If she wants to do a design—she embroiders them and if she has someone she wants to thank or congratulate—she embroider something for them be it a family members, a friend or simply for herself. She was exceptionally good unlike those bad craftsmen who creates embroideries without any purpose.

Aurora is quite unusual herself as she was both a daughter of a noble and also a lady who’s good at embroidery. When she was just a little girl, she once gave another girl an embroidery which made her a topic in conversations for her skills and as a thank you for the book she received, Aurora gave her aunt a handkerchief with embroidered flower.

“Isn’t Lady Porta a magician?”

“I have met Countess Porta and she says she has no magic powers at all but it seems a few of her relatives have.”

“If it’s the Moon Prince saying himself, then it must be true. Hmm…”

Prince Textus took a look at each of the embroideries once again. Then, a faint gentle light streamed down from his palms to the embroideries.

“To sum it up, there’s a magic imbued in these tie, cloths, ribbon and Felix’s handkerchief, an 『Ancient Magic』 or should I say a 『Charm』.

“A charm?”

As everyone’s eyes widened, Prince Textus continues—

“Like the ladies 『Love Charm』 or 『Goodluck Charm』 that children usually do to pray for a better weather—they all fall in the same category as a Charm.”

“Aren’t 『Charms』 made to give relief?”

“Normally they would bring relief to people but on some rare cases, there are those who are capable of executing magic powers to attack others——that’s where Magicians began.”

The Prince Textus’ mysterious eyes sparkled but beyond those beautiful eyes looked more dangerous, Aurora gasped loudly that could be taken as a disrespect in front of the Crown Prince, Felix turned more stolid while Prince Sentence let out a doltish ‘aha’.

“What made charms different from spells? Because in the old times, people who can execute charms were rare but their magic were pretty effective. They soon began to work in different ways such as magician, fortune-teller, and medicine maker. These were then handed down generations to generations. Learning magic now was systematized—in short, embroidery is an ancient form of magic—”

“Stop!!! Do you really have to make your explanations longer?! Can’t you just get to the point?!”

Prince Sentence cut off Prince Textus’s professor-like lecture with his eyes sparkling while Felix glanced at Aurora and whispered to her ears.

(His Highness usually takes his time when explaining.)

(I see… )

“Why, Tence. We’re almost at the best part—”

“Shut up! Get to the point! How long are you gonna keep Earl Porta’s daughter in this training grounds!?”

“But I should at least explain the importance of this resear—”

“Just get over it!”

(It doesn’t seem to be an exaggeration.)

(Oh, dear…. )

“It can’t be helped… I’ll sum things up.”

Prince Textus shrugs his shoulders and quickly summarized his words seeing how his brother continues to scold him. No one will blame Aurora for her relieved expression and Felix simply have a strong respect for the two.

“This tie has a charm for 「Recovery」, the cloth and ribbon has a charm for 「Attraction」 and 「Protection」 for the handkerchief. Lady Porta was probably not aware but she mistakenly embroidered the charms while subconsciously thinking of how people that will receive the embroideries be using them.”

Aurora and Felix looked at each other unintentionally. Aurora isn’t a magician but Felix is, and he can feel that her magical powers isn’t strong enough to call her a magician although if she train herself, she will be able to use some basic magic spells.

“Isn’t Lady Porta’s brother named Luminox el le Porta? He certainly was a weak man but with this tie, he would show some signs of the charm 「Recovery」. This silk here used by Countess Porta, a hair ornament than can also be used by women of all ages was scribed with the right charm 「Attraction」. And then, since Felix is a knight who’s prone to danger had his handkerchief embroidered with the charm 「Protection」—in short, this isn’t your normal embroideries without purpose.”

The Prince, who would not stop talking about magic turned to Aurora with a gleeful smile as he speaks—

“In other words, if I were to base on my research, Lady Porta seems to have the magic powers of the predecessors of magicians— she’s an 「Ancient Magician」”