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It had already been an hour since the Moonglow manifested for everyone to see.

The people around him had calmed down.

And now, the banquet that was supposed to celebrate the foundation day of Royal Moon Academy had become a stage for the nobles to fight.

“It’s too early for the Crown Prince to ascend the throne,” Duke Arman Winchester, the leader of the Noble Faction, said firmly. “Your Royal Highness hasn’t come of age yet.”

For some reason that he couldn’t remember, Duke Arman Winchester was hostile to him.

[I think he mentioned once about a promise that I supposedly broke. But I can’t remember it. And when I asked Duke Winchester, it seems like he also couldn’t remember it well. Hence, it’s weird for him to hate on me this much.]

“No one said Prince Nero will ascend the throne right at this moment,” Marquis Vincent Lennox, the Empress Dowager’s grandfather, retorted to Duke Winchester. “But why are you already opposing it, Duke Winchester? Prince Nero is the rightful heir to the throne.”

It was really amusing to watch Marquis Lennox defend Nero.

.....

[Calyx is the marquis’ biological grandson. But even though Calyx has the right to claim the throne as well, Marquis Lennox has been supporting me just because Calyx and the Empress Dowager support me.]

“I’m just saying that Prince Nero isn’t ready to ascend the throne yet,” Duke Winchester insisted. “And I believe I’m not the only one who feels the same way.”

“Really now?” Marquis Lennox asked sarcastically. “Why do you sound like an instigator then, Duke Winchester?”

This time, the other nobles joined the fight.

Of course, the Royal Faction supported the marquis while the Noble Faction supported the duke.

Nero wanted to roll his eyes.

[God, they’re so childish.]

Nero turned to Hanna and was about to ask her to leave the hall with him when he noticed her expression. He knitted his eyebrows because of confusion.

[Why does Hanna look like she’s about to cry out of worry?]

Nero was about to ask Hanna what was wrong when a loud voice echoed in the entire hall.

“Duke Winchester, Marquis Lennox, please stop fighting,” Duke Rufus Quinzel said firmly. “It’s inappropriate for nobles of your standing to be fighting like children in front of the students. Why don’t we calm down and set a good example to the new generation of young nobles present in this banquet?”

As expected of the Twelve Golden Families’ peacemaker.

Duke Winchester and Marquis Lennox didn’t apologize to each other. But, at least, they kept their mouths shut this time.

“Headmaster, I apologize on their behalf for causing a scene,” Duke Quinzel said to Alphonse Salvarore, the headmaster of Royal Moon Academy. “Please carry on with the program.”

Headmaster Salvatore smiled and nodded. “Thank you, Duke Quinzel–”

The headmaster was once again interrupted because of the sudden shift in the air.

[What is it this time?]

In just the blink of an eye, Nero found himself behind Sanford and Raku– his personal knights. Even Jaxson Emmett, the vice-captain of the Black Hawk Knights, surrounded him and Hanna. After all, his fiancée was the daughter of House Quinzel.

The other royal knights who came with him also surrounded me.

“Protect the other guests,” Nero ordered his royal knights. “Sanford and Raku are enough. Moreover, the Quinzel Knights are here anyway.”

The royal knights bowed to him before scattering around the hall in an orderly fashion.

“Prince Nero, please leave the hall with Lady Hanna,” Sanford whispered to him. “We’ll handle this place.”

Jaxson Emmett nodded in agreement. “I shall escort Your Royal Highness and Lady Hanna.”

“Why do we need to run when we’re capable of protecting ourselves?” Nero said, scoffing. “Hanna and I are stronger than all of you combined.”

“Geez,” Sanford complained in an obviously annoyed tone. “Prince Nero, will it kill you to let us do our job– mmf!”

Raku covered Sanford’s mouth with his hand.

“Prince Nero, the knights are just doing their jobs,” Hanna said, holding his hand in an attempt to calm him down. “It will be easier for them to move if we’re not here.”

“It’s not like I’m being difficult,” Nero explained, calmly this time. Then he gently squeezed Hanna’s hand. “I just don’t feel that the strange presence here is hostile. Hence, there’s no need for us to be this cautious.”

“Then you should have explained it clearly,” Hanna scolded him. “This is the first time I felt this kind of presence.”

“It feels familiar to me,” Nero said, entwining their fingers together while looking around. “But I can’t remember where I felt this presence before.”

And soon, the being finally showed itself.

It started with a golden butterfly appearing in the middle of the hall. Then it flew towards her while being followed by other colorful butterflies.

<“Greetings, Prince Nero.”>

[This voice…]

It sounded very familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he had heard it before.

<“It’s me, Tara.”>

That name…

Nero knitted his eyebrows. “The Queen of the Spirit World?”

Hanna looked surprised, and so was everyone in the hall.

Soon, the golden butterfly turned into a petite young lady with golden butterfly wings.

The lady’s otherworldly beauty and strange clothes made it clear that she was indeed a Spirit and not an ordinary person.

He knew that he was acquainted with the Queen, but he didn’t know how.

[I vaguely remember I was sick when I was young, and it was the queen who took care of me in the Spirit World. But I don’t remember the rest.]

And his brain was stopping him from remembering.

“I came here as soon as I feel the blessing of the Moonglow descend upon Your Royal Highness.”

The Queen of the Spirit World said that while walking towards him.

[Well, more like flying.]

The nobles, the knights, and even Sanford and Raku made way for the queen as if they were enchanted.

“Congratulations, Prince Nero,” Tara said, putting a hand over her chest. Then she descended gracefully on the floor. And, as soon as she did, she got down on one knee and bowed to him. “As the Queen of the Spirit World, I came here to declare that the entire Spirit World supports the ascension to the throne of Your Royal Highness– the future emperor of the Great Moonasterion Empire.”

Nero didn’t understand why Tara would support him, but it was a welcomed support.

[The Spirit World’s support will shut up the nobles who are opposing my future ascension to the throne.]

***

“HANNA, your fiancé is pretty amazing.”

“Sandie, you’re probably the only person in the empire who would refer to Prince Nero as my fiancé,” Hanna said, laughing at what her friend said. “It’s usually the other way around.”

Sandie lowered her gaze to the pot in her hands and whispered, “I don’t like your fiancé.”

Her friend was free to talk that way because only the two of them were in the parlor room at the moment.

It was the parlor room reserved only for the Royal Family.

But Nero already left the banquet to introduce Queen Tara to the Empress Dowager. Hence, only her and her guests could enter the parlor room.

The Crown Prince left the quiet Sir Raku as her personal knight.

“Sir Raku is guarding outside the parlor room, Sandie,” Hanna reminded her friend. “Although I protected the entire room with my Shadow Veil to keep our conversation private, we can’t be too complacent. After all, I don’t know what Sir Raku’s abilities are.”

“Well, if your fiancé is the type of prince that would kill everyone who talked badly of him, then the empire is doomed.”

Hanna couldn’t help but laugh.

Sandie Morrisley was the daughter of Viscount Austin Morrisley– one of the Twelve Golden Families’ representatives.

But unlike Hanna’s father who was one of the pillars of the Royal Faction, Sandie’s father belonged to the Neutral Faction whose territory was located in the Northern Region of the empire.

The families under the Neutral Faction were elusive.

Even though Sandie attended the Royal Moon Academy, she never made other friends aside from Hanna.

And there was only one reason why Sandie decided to leave the North.

Apparently, there was a poisonous plant that only grew in the Royal Moon Academy.

[That’s the Poison Queen for you.]

“I didn’t expect the Queen of the Spirit World to appear here just to congratulate your fiancé for being chosen by the throne,” Sandie said, looking up at Hanna. “With this, the Noble Faction can’t openly oppose your fiancé’s ascension to the throne anymore.”

Dark blue short hair with side bangs that covered the left side of her face– Sandie looked a little spooky, especially since she wore black all the time.

[And there’s also a perpetual dark bag under her right eye.]

.....

Even though Sandie was hard to approach because she looked aloof and detached to the world, Hanna could see in Sandie’s ocean blue eyes that she was curious about certain things in the empire.

“Sandie, your family belongs to the Neutral Faction,” Hanna said carefully. “If I become the Crown Princess of the empire and you become the viscountess of your family, will you support me?”

“I don’t like your fiancé, so our family would probably remain neutral even by then.”

She laughed at her friend’s answer. “I’m glad,” she said. “I don’t like the current royal family either.”

“If that’s the case, then why are still sticking to your fiancé?”

“Because I promised a dear friend I’d protect Prince Nero,” Hanna said firmly. “That’s why I need your help again, Sandie.”

“Did you run out of the antidote?”

Sandie knew Hanna was being poisoned, and it was also Sandie who made the antidote for the poison that Regina fed Hanna.

[Fortunately, Sandie isn’t the type to ask questions.]

“No, but I need your power,” she said to her friend. “To be precise, I want us to use the technique that we invented by combining our powers together.”

Sandlie tilted her head to one side. “You want me to make a clone of you using your shadow?”

“Yes, that,” Hanna said, nodding. “I need to meet Duke Hawthorne in secret.”

Because Hanna needed to know if Emperor Nikolai had really passed away.

[Neoma, I hope you and your family are okay.]

***

REGINA entered the royal parlor reserved only for the Royal Family members.

But since Raku– one of Nero’s knights– was guarding the door, she was able to enter the room even though she wasn’t invited by Hanna.

“How rude.”

It was Sandie Morrisley– Hanna’s closest friend in the academy.

“Are you perhaps talking about me, Lady Sandie?” Regina asked the lady. “How am I being rude when I’m only here to fetch my cousin?”

“I’m talking to my pot,” Sandie said, her gaze fixed on the pot in her hands. “I don’t talk to filthy humans who don’t know their place.

Regina was about to remind Sandie Morrisley that she was a Quinzel, but...

“Sandie, Regina, please stop fighting,” Hanna said in a sad voice. “Let’s get along well, hmm?”

Regina turned to Hanna, then she knitted her eyebrows.

[Something doesn’t feel right about Hanna…]

***

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