Volume 5 - CH 3.01

DEC 5, 2021 ~ LUMINSTIA

Banquet of Flowers; on a Summer Day

The university of Roma, which was once located in the old town of Roma, was the oldest and the biggest university of Ahmad.

However, about half a century ago, due to the increase in number of students and the deterioration of its facilities, the plan to relocate all the departments except the department of theology to the outskirts of Roma occurred; as a result, the newest town in Ahmad, Lauris, came into existence.

Leaving Roma and then going east for about one hour along the highway, that was where Lauris was located. It was a university town that placed the university of Roma, which had relocated, at its centre, but rather than an independent town that was separated from Roma, it might be more accurate in reality to consider it as a part of Roma.

The young Quique Albiol also spent his student days in the student district of this Lauris.

「Ru~♪ Raruru~♪ Ru~rarura~♪」

A pink mass was spinning round and round.

There was no deviation in the rotation axis. It was a splendidly stable rotation.

「……」

Quique Albiol, who had confirmed that with a sidelong glance, sighed lightly and put on his monocle again. He then put a ruler on a paper, which was spread on the work table, and drew a line.

On the stomach—part of the armour—of the girl who was dancing round and round happily, a gorgeous relief of a rose was sparkling. Quique, who had been drawing lines for a while, glanced at her again and smoked his kiseru.

「…You’re in a good mood, Bettina」

「That’s right♪」

Bettina suddenly stopped her rotation and pointed at the relief of a rose with both hands.

「—That’s because I’m the first to specially receive the decoration that the Crown Prince created, you know!? Me, who is neither a member nor a noble!」

「That’s certainly amazing」

Ten days had passed since Bettina came back safely from Heidelauta. And then, Bettina specially received a summons from the royal palace yesterday and was awarded the decoration by Isaac.

It was a decoration called “Ahmad Distinguished Services Rose Crown Medal” or something, which he never heard of.

Of course, it was also natural that he never heard of it; Isaac specially and newly created it to award it to the person from among the members of the Seal Chivalric OrderTempliers Aegis who had rendered distinguished services in particular.

How did Bettina edge out excellent members like Lucius to be awarded that? Thinking about it calmly, it was suspicious in various ways, but in any case, to decline to be given the decoration was disrespectful in its own way.

Therefore, she gratefully received the object that made the design of the actual decoration into a relief and attached it onto Bachururus like that. It might be a consolation that there was no exaggerated ceremony.

「Ranranru~♪」

The pink object, which was spinning round and round and skipping, was a kind of weapon that possessed the weight of two big men and, furthermore, five times their power. If she was careless, this small workshop would be destroyed in the twinkling of an eye.

「—Don’t be too happy」

「Yes? Did you say something, Oji-sama?」

Bettina, who had grabbed a hand mirror, suddenly decided on a pose and reflected her own body. She then gazed at it and glowed with self-satisfaction.

「No, it’s fine if you’re happy」

Quique didn’t fully understand the political aspect of things, nor was he interested in it. However, if he had to guess from a layman’s view, he felt that the Crown Prince awarding such a decoration to Bettina was most likely to avoid a pointless battle of egos between the great nobles.

Thinking about it normally, this decoration should first be awarded to Vice-Leader Lucius Richternach, who enjoyed the deep confidence of the Crown Prince. However, no matter how great Lucius’s achievements were, there weren’t only “patrons” who would be convinced by that. “Please let my son receive the first honour by all means”—there was also bound to be parents who would unreasonably say so among them. In any case, many people would discover the value of this first honour, and it wasn’t hard to imagine quarrels occurring due to that.

Therefore—this was simply Quique’s guess though—Isaac probably chose Bettina, who had no direction relation with the chivalric order, to be the first recipient, for which a fierce competition was expected.

It somehow seemed that his niece was used as a shield, and although a bit of feeling of dissatisfaction remained in Quique, the royal court was more or less such a thing. If one hated it, they shouldn’t get a job that had to do with the people from the royal court. However, Quique couldn’t get a job except his current one, so compromising in various ways, he was in this current place.

「…However, people of royalty and titled nobility tend to be capricious」

「Oji-sama?」

「It’s nothing」

「Jeez, you’re mumbling to yourself a lot today, Oji-sama!」

Scolding him cutely, Bettina put the hand mirror down.

「—That’s right! If I tell Okaa-sama and Otou-sama about this in a letter, I think they’ll surely be delighted!」

「Ah…」

Striking the kiseru against the corner of the work table, Quique lost sight of the words he should follow up with.

Even though such a thing happened, Bettina still hadn’t forsake her parents? Quique felt a slight anger, though it wasn’t towards Bettina. The anger was towards Bettina’s parents, who were Quique’s older brother and his wife—the parents who were cold towards such a brave girl.

「Pardon me. Is Bettina Albiol-jou here?」

「An?」

Quique, who was about to stuff new tobacco leaves into the kiseru to suppress his anger, took off his monocle and looked back at the courteous greeting, which was never heard of in this workshop.

「The Crown Prince summons Bettina-jou」

Standing at the door was a neatly dressed page.

「His Highness?」

「He said that there’s something he wants to request of Bettina-jou, so he’d like her to come to the “Garden of Philosophy” immediately—」

「I, I understand!」

Bettina’s voice sounded shrill, and she extended her arm towards the wall.

「—P, please tell him that I’ll go to see him immediately!」

What did she think people’s clothes were? When Bettina picked up the spare white robe hanging on the wall, she started to polish the surface of Bachururus with it with a tremendous force.

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