"Yo, you're here again today, Quartermaster Squars."
"Ah, Miltiadis."
At the end of the Left Wing, where the First Prince had been absent for over a month, Miltiadis of the Palace Guard casually called out to me. I had been left alone to watch over the place, sitting at a desk set up in a corner of the Blue Room.
"This place is far, isn't it? You come here often. And it's so quiet even during the day that it's kinda creepy."
"It's not as if you don't know my position by now. I prefer the quiet here."
Better to be alone in silence than to suffer the cold treatment and ridicule in the Finance Department.
Miltiadis, the confidant of the Palace Guard Captain, doesn't stay long like I do, but comes daily to check if anything has changed. I hear that he is officially assigned to the First Prince's residential quarters. Yet I've never seen him working like Totos, and I've overheard him speaking of matters he'd rather not delve too deeply into with the First Prince.
"No, really, really. I thought you'd quit within a year. The Prince is gone, yet you're still here—what kind of wind is blowing?"
Miltiadis, who brushed back his golden hair and sat down casually, had a refined elegance that made little noise despite his rough appearance. I hear he is related to someone of Marquis rank or higher; perhaps this is the result of good breeding.
I, on the other hand, have such thin blood that I inherited only elven characteristics, born to a status below the so-called intellectual nobility. I studied desperately to find a good position, only to be demoted to the point where I had grown weary of it all.
"I suppose it's because alchemy is interesting."
"Seriously?"
Please don't look at me as if questioning my sanity.
"It's just a degraded form of magic, it can't do anything significant. That Prince only does it to hide the skills he was trained in by that amazing magic teacher, right?"
"No, he certainly possesses talent for magic, but he is equally capable in alchemy. ...Above all, the gap between those who can and cannot is profound. Even the slightest ability represents a vast change from having none at all."
I spoke passionately, carried away by unexpected praise.
While not rare among humans, I was born with elven characteristics and raised in a family and relatives who could all use magic. Thus, most people assume from my appearance that I can use it. And when they learn I cannot, they openly show disappointment or mockery.
"Ah, well, I understand it's rare as a technique. I have a certain relationship with the First Prince myself, but I don't understand what's interesting about it at all. What's so good about it?"
A month since the Prince departed, meeting in the Left Wing and chatting pointlessly like this has become a daily routine.
"By the way, do you understand the contents of the books here? I have to look through the books sent from Lukiusaria, but just the magic system alone is too much. I'm full up."
He speaks as if unserious, but I know he actually looks through everything. The First Prince said so, and whenever I add books on the Prince's orders, he notices immediately. He must be quite the talent to serve that First Prince.
The First Prince, born of even lower blood than the Emperor who is scorned for his birth being too low. Shunned despite talent, discarded despite wisdom. Born so, while hiding his abilities, he actually slips under the noses of the great nobles—one would surely be deceived unless they were sharp-eyed indeed.
"Quartermaster Squars, haven't you heard anything interesting from the Prince? He's surprisingly fond of pranks, you know. I bet he set something up before leaving."
"Well, I was told I could use the equipment if I was interested in alchemy. As for preparations, this is an official deployment, so there shouldn't be any danger this time?"
The Prince never brought me and Miltiadis close together. Judging from his words and actions, he hasn't revealed the secrets related to alchemy, and he probably doesn't know who devised the Dink wine either. Conversely, he seems to know more about political matters than I do, but at the same time, he is not a complete ally. The same goes for me. I pretend not to know about the possibility of assassination or the difficulty of return, making casual conversation.
"No, no, it's nothing that grand. Like a trick to surprise me. The Emerald Room, was it? There's so much incomprehensible stuff there that I can't even check it properly. Haven't you heard if he did something before leaving?"
"I'm the same there. I only understand the parts I was taught to use. You seem to have an inventory there, so why don't you check it once?"
Whether he notices I'm playing dumb or not, he exhales as if tired.
"Look, I don't understand even reading the inventory. They say it's just copied from what was sent from Lukiusaria. The furniture and such were sent with proper inventories made by the Princess Consort, so conversely, there are too many proper inventories."
"Ah, if it's furniture and small items, I copied those. There were also inventories of items added using the Prince's annual allowance... What I newly made was mostly clothing."
Conversely, there were few items without inventories. This in turn showed how terrifyingly few things were in the Prince's room.
"Well, it was a room unnaturally devoid of things."
Miltiadis, affirming as if recalling, noticed the beaker by the window and his eyes widened.
"...!? Wh-what, what's that, what's that?"
"That? Ah, it's an experiment in the middle of making salt crystals. For some reason, no matter how I follow the experimental method the Prince left behind, the crystals won't form properly."
"Salt? That, salt water? Huh? What are you doing..."
Miltiadis muttered, looking somehow dissatisfied.
"Well, nothing happening today as usual, so I'll be heading back."
"Yes, thank you for your hard work."
After some small talk, Miltiadis left looking strangely dejected.
After that, I quietly worked alone as a quartermaster. Though with the master absent, it was just regularly purchasing predetermined items, and separately contacting merchants to search for books and such. Since the arrival of these was a matter of luck, when they came in, I would process them and create reports to send to the Prince.
"Well, let me use this today as well."
Finishing my tasks, I took a book from the library in the Blue Room. Inside, between the pages, was a procedure for making Essence written by the Prince.
I went to the Emerald Room and placed the necessary equipment and materials on the workbench. Confirming the procedure, I began making the Essence.
"Once done, ignition test. Check. ...Good."
Fire was born from my hand.
My heart leaped just from that.
I had thought it something I would never have a connection to in my life, yet I was reproducing magic.
The small sparks scatter and fade, useless for practical purposes.
Still, I know.
That this alchemy, called a degradation of magic, can, when elevated, generate ice and electricity that magic finds difficult.
"Ah, I want to try it soon. But still, stable quality is still difficult for me."
I understand why the Prince is so passionate about this as a hobby.
At the same time, I am still too inexperienced to reach that level.
"Yes, still... not even close to his level."
Turning my head as I spoke, there was a crystal ball.
A rugged construction even when placed on a pedestal as decoration.
Just by looking, one couldn't tell what it was, and I myself was still half-doubting its capabilities.
Still, it was the crystallization of alchemy created by the Prince, originally devised by a mage praised as the Nine-Tails.
And a masterpiece elevated by technical and theoretical concepts that would make even that mage marvel.
"Degraded? Ridiculous. It's filled with such potential."
I, who cannot use magic, have reproduced magic.
What magic could not achieve in stability, alchemy has sublimated.
If possible, it's better not to use that crystal.
It's better not to have such a crisis situation.
But I can't help thinking—I want to try using it.
I want to bear a part of that astonishing technology.
"Ah, how long has it been since I felt this way? It's as if I've returned to my childhood innocence."
I feel slightly embarrassed to be frolicking in the master's absence.
But at the same time, I always repeat my gratitude within my heart.
For the Prince who detained me for a year, who showed me what alchemy truly is.
I now feel I can even be grateful for being demoted.
"...Among the malice, I hope they prove somewhat useful."
I was picturing the faces of relatives who had tried to arrange my re-employment in the military when I was demoted."Yo, you're here again today, Quartermaster Squars."
"Ah, Miltiadis."
At the end of the Left Wing, where the First Prince had been absent for over a month, Miltiadis of the Palace Guard casually called out to me. I had been left alone to watch over the place, sitting at a desk set up in a corner of the Blue Room.
"This place is far, isn't it? You come here often. And it's so quiet even during the day that it's kinda creepy."
"It's not as if you don't know my position by now. I prefer the quiet here."
Better to be alone in silence than to suffer the cold treatment and ridicule in the Finance Department.
Miltiadis, the confidant of the Palace Guard Captain, doesn't stay long like I do, but comes daily to check if anything has changed. I hear that he is officially assigned to the First Prince's residential quarters. Yet I've never seen him working like Totos, and I've overheard him speaking of matters he'd rather not delve too deeply into with the First Prince.
"No, really, really. I thought you'd quit within a year. The Prince is gone, yet you're still here—what kind of wind is blowing?"
Miltiadis, who brushed back his golden hair and sat down casually, had a refined elegance that made little noise despite his rough appearance. I hear he is related to someone of Marquis rank or higher; perhaps this is the result of good breeding.
I, on the other hand, have such thin blood that I inherited only elven characteristics, born to a status below the so-called intellectual nobility. I studied desperately to find a good position, only to be demoted to the point where I had grown weary of it all.
"I suppose it's because alchemy is interesting."
"Seriously?"
Please don't look at me as if questioning my sanity.
"It's just a degraded form of magic, it can't do anything significant. That Prince only does it to hide the skills he was trained in by that amazing magic teacher, right?"
"No, he certainly possesses talent for magic, but he is equally capable in alchemy. ...Above all, the gap between those who can and cannot is profound. Even the slightest ability represents a vast change from having none at all."
I spoke passionately, carried away by unexpected praise.
While not rare among humans, I was born with elven characteristics and raised in a family and relatives who could all use magic. Thus, most people assume from my appearance that I can use it. And when they learn I cannot, they openly show disappointment or mockery.
"Ah, well, I understand it's rare as a technique. I have a certain relationship with the First Prince myself, but I don't understand what's interesting about it at all. What's so good about it?"
A month since the Prince departed, meeting in the Left Wing and chatting pointlessly like this has become a daily routine.
"By the way, do you understand the contents of the books here? I have to look through the books sent from Lukiusaria, but just the magic system alone is too much. I'm full up."
He speaks as if unserious, but I know he actually looks through everything. The First Prince said so, and whenever I add books on the Prince's orders, he notices immediately. He must be quite the talent to serve that First Prince.
The First Prince, born of even lower blood than the Emperor who is scorned for his birth being too low. Shunned despite talent, discarded despite wisdom. Born so, while hiding his abilities, he actually slips under the noses of the great nobles—one would surely be deceived unless they were sharp-eyed indeed.
"Quartermaster Squars, haven't you heard anything interesting from the Prince? He's surprisingly fond of pranks, you know. I bet he set something up before leaving."
"Well, I was told I could use the equipment if I was interested in alchemy. As for preparations, this is an official deployment, so there shouldn't be any danger this time?"
The Prince never brought me and Miltiadis close together. Judging from his words and actions, he hasn't revealed the secrets related to alchemy, and he probably doesn't know who devised the Dink wine either. Conversely, he seems to know more about political matters than I do, but at the same time, he is not a complete ally. The same goes for me. I pretend not to know about the possibility of assassination or the difficulty of return, making casual conversation.
"No, no, it's nothing that grand. Like a trick to surprise me. The Emerald Room, was it? There's so much incomprehensible stuff there that I can't even check it properly. Haven't you heard if he did something before leaving?"
"I'm the same there. I only understand the parts I was taught to use. You seem to have an inventory there, so why don't you check it once?"
Whether he notices I'm playing dumb or not, he exhales as if tired.
"Look, I don't understand even reading the inventory. They say it's just copied from what was sent from Lukiusaria. The furniture and such were sent with proper inventories made by the Princess Consort, so conversely, there are too many proper inventories."
"Ah, if it's furniture and small items, I copied those. There were also inventories of items added using the Prince's annual allowance... What I newly made was mostly clothing."
Conversely, there were few items without inventories. This in turn showed how terrifyingly few things were in the Prince's room.
"Well, it was a room unnaturally devoid of things."
Miltiadis, affirming as if recalling, noticed the beaker by the window and his eyes widened.
"...!? Wh-what, what's that, what's that?"
"That? Ah, it's an experiment in the middle of making salt crystals. For some reason, no matter how I follow the experimental method the Prince left behind, the crystals won't form properly."
"Salt? That, salt water? Huh? What are you doing..."
Miltiadis muttered, looking somehow dissatisfied.
"Well, nothing happening today as usual, so I'll be heading back."
"Yes, thank you for your hard work."
After some small talk, Miltiadis left looking strangely dejected.
After that, I quietly worked alone as a quartermaster. Though with the master absent, it was just regularly purchasing predetermined items, and separately contacting merchants to search for books and such. Since the arrival of these was a matter of luck, when they came in, I would process them and create reports to send to the Prince.
"Well, let me use this today as well."
Finishing my tasks, I took a book from the library in the Blue Room. Inside, between the pages, was a procedure for making Essence written by the Prince.
I went to the Emerald Room and placed the necessary equipment and materials on the workbench. Confirming the procedure, I began making the Essence.
"Once done, ignition test. Check. ...Good."
Fire was born from my hand.
My heart leaped just from that.
I had thought it something I would never have a connection to in my life, yet I was reproducing magic.
The small sparks scatter and fade, useless for practical purposes.
Still, I know.
That this alchemy, called a degradation of magic, can, when elevated, generate ice and electricity that magic finds difficult.
"Ah, I want to try it soon. But still, stable quality is still difficult for me."
I understand why the Prince is so passionate about this as a hobby.
At the same time, I am still too inexperienced to reach that level.
"Yes, still... not even close to his level."
Turning my head as I spoke, there was a crystal ball.
A rugged construction even when placed on a pedestal as decoration.
Just by looking, one couldn't tell what it was, and I myself was still half-doubting its capabilities.
Still, it was the crystallization of alchemy created by the Prince, originally devised by a mage praised as the Nine-Tails.
And a masterpiece elevated by technical and theoretical concepts that would make even that mage marvel.
"Degraded? Ridiculous. It's filled with such potential."
I, who cannot use magic, have reproduced magic.
What magic could not achieve in stability, alchemy has sublimated.
If possible, it's better not to use that crystal.
It's better not to have such a crisis situation.
But I can't help thinking—I want to try using it.
I want to bear a part of that astonishing technology.
"Ah, how long has it been since I felt this way? It's as if I've returned to my childhood innocence."
I feel slightly embarrassed to be frolicking in the master's absence.
But at the same time, I always repeat my gratitude within my heart.
For the Prince who detained me for a year, who showed me what alchemy truly is.
I now feel I can even be grateful for being demoted.
"...Among the malice, I hope they prove somewhat useful."
I was picturing the faces of relatives who had tried to arrange my re-employment in the military when I was demoted.