episode_0023

The term ‘Imperial Children’ is not an official title, to be precise.

When I say it’s not an official title, I mean that it’s not a name coined by individuals like Nanarus, Jaden, etc. There’s no secret society or fancy code names associated with being classified as Imperial Children. Legally, we are just sons and daughters of the emperor, not much different from Alice and K. We are beings adopted by the emperor, quite literally.

However, no matter how it is legally, in terms of legitimacy and people’s perceptions, it’s a different story.

The beings the emperor has adopted are all like monsters boasting extraordinary abilities. They often disappear from official gatherings. And when they return, something or someone in the empire has vanished, died, or gone missing.

These deaths and disappearances sometimes seemed like accidents, but at times, they appeared as gruesome crime scenes, almost like a warning. The empire conducted investigations diligently, but the cases were eventually closed without finding proper evidence.

So, unless you’re a fool, you can easily imagine what kind of deeds those monsters adopted by the emperor have committed. Except for Alice, who is almost exclusively talented and not tainted by blood, the rest of the ‘untainted’ beings were like the emperor’s top-tier chess pieces. They would execute any task cleanly and return when ordered.

Of course, most commoners are unaware of this. Lower nobles might have heard rumors, but they would likely dismiss them as mere coincidences. Only the high-ranking nobles who had the ability to gather solid evidence feared us.

And that was the emperor’s intention.

If you value your life, kneel down on your own.

That’s what the emperor wants to say.

And that message will probably spread slowly throughout the entire empire from now on.

*

Well, anyway.

Therefore, most of the gazes I receive are because I am a ‘Princess.’

The murmurs around me… probably because I’m not a ‘real princess.’

“Sylvia.”

“Yes.”

Alice, who was walking slightly ahead of me, stopped in her tracks and turned to me.

“Walk beside me, not behind me.”

“…Understood.”

At Alice’s words, I slowly moved forward and stood beside her.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we maintained an overly intimate distance. In fact, even in a same-sex relationship, holding hands or linking arms while walking around is something you only see in comics. Well, in a way, this world is similar to that.

Looking back, there wasn’t as much physical contact between characters in the game as one might think. Apart from the occasional love interest forming with a female character and rare moments of welcoming hugs, there was hardly any physical contact between the main characters.

…Whether this was a deliberate choice to accurately reflect human behavior or simply due to the limitations of graphics and motion, it’s worth reconsidering.

“I told you to be confident. If you’re a princess, act confidently just like me.”

“But, Your Highness.”

“And here, call me ‘Alice.’ We’re the same beings, right? Don’t you know there’s no hierarchy among students?”

Despite saying that, she was standing too confidently with her head held high in front of the principal.

Whatever she thought of my silence, Alice avoided my gaze and started walking forward again.

Well, for now, I decided to follow the princess’s orders.

I’m not exactly sure how the classes are determined in the academy. It’s probably not entirely random, judging by how certain individuals end up in the same class due to their compatibility.

Me and the 30 nobles, including Alice, were divided into groups of 15 each. However, just like there was no need for me and Alice to be separated, Leo Grace and Claire also ended up in the same group. Considering that the two were siblings, it made sense for them to be together.

There were also cases where the eldest son of a marquis and the eldest son of a newly appointed viscount were placed in the same group, or where two people engaged to each other were placed together. All those who had some kind of relationship were arranged to stay connected. But was it just a coincidence that we were neatly divided into groups of 15, or was it intentionally done from the beginning?

By the way, I had already identified all the students in the noble group from the school.

One of the distinctive features of the Azerna Chronicles was that even the extra characters were given some level of backstory. Of course, it didn’t have a narrative that directly influenced the main scenario. At most, it progressed as a side quest that had no impact on the main story, or just a few lines of dialogue were given.

However, as the side quests progressed in the game, they continued in the background, with the character’s lines gradually changing in each chapter, and sometimes the character even appeared in the sequel, continuing the dialogue from the previous work.

Although the game had impressive graphics and motion, what brought the world to life was the fact that all those characters were portrayed as if they had their own stories.

The problem was that in order to earn the Platinum Medal, you had to complete all the challenges in the game – collecting all the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medals, and all the named NPCs had their own character cards to be completed.

And to complete those character cards, you had to watch all their dialogue at least once.

In other words, it meant finding and talking to each hidden side quest NPC or NPC hidden in some corner of the map. People called it the “NPC Marathon.”

And I wrote a guide on that method. Damn developers.

Fortunately, in the sequel, the convenience was greatly improved, with characters I had talked to being marked, so there was no need to search for quests separately. But still, it wasn’t like you didn’t have to talk to them.

… Anyway, NPCs with dialogue were characters with unique modeling and dialogue, characters with unique names but no unique modeling, and characters with no unique name, just like “girl in sailor suit, commoner student, man in suit.”

And all the noble group NPCs had unique modeling.

Matching that polygon mess to a real person’s face one-to-one was impossible, but isn’t “purple rolled bun hair” or “green twin tails” somewhat uncommon hairstyles? In that sense, I knew the stories of the kids in the noble group quite well.

… In fact, as soon as the situation around me stabilized, I wrote down the contents in my notebook. I wrote everything in Korean, so no one would be able to read it.

And before entering the academy, I read all that content after a long time.

“Wait a minute! Just a moment!”

So, as I was about to start the first day at the academy with Alice, I heard a slightly urgent voice from behind.

Normally, as time passed, students would gradually adapt to the school in their own ways, but very few had experienced something like a “school-like place” in this country. Most nobles hired private tutors for homeschooling before coming to the academy, while commoner children… well, they usually went to work in factories. Unless they were bourgeois children.

Therefore, on the first day, the students were bustling in the hallway like this. It’s not because of some strange aura around me and Alice, but thanks to that, the areas away from us were even more crowded, and it seemed like a protective barrier was formed around us, with people gathered in a circle.

But there was someone who forcefully broke through that barrier and came towards us.

“Claire!”

No, it was two people. One woman, one man.

The woman was Claire, and the man was Leo. It was unbelievable that they were both here. I never expected…!

Well, actually, I did expect it. Claire’s gaze towards me during the entrance ceremony was far from friendly.

And from my experience playing games, they were indeed extraordinary, even more so than I had imagined. Whether others recognized it or not, I was a princess.

“Oops!”

“….”

As Claire pushed through the crowd towards us, I saw her almost trip over her own feet when she reached where our faces were visible, and I blinked twice.

What’s this, dialogue and actions that seem straight out of a romantic comic?

Even from a distance, I could sense it, but seeing it up close, she seemed even more innocent. Unlike the Claire I knew from the game, who always wore heavy makeup, the Claire in front of me had almost none on her face.

And of course, it was natural, but she was beautiful. Comparable to Alice.

“Ah….”

Although she stumbled a bit, it wasn’t due to lack of practice, as Claire didn’t fall clumsily. She stumbled for a moment, then quickly regained her balance.

“Y-Your Highness.”

And quickly bowed slightly at the waist, as if greeting a noble lady in a dress.

And upon receiving such a greeting, Alice, without mentioning anything about hierarchy among students…

“Over here, too.”

…said, pointing towards me with her hand.

“What?”

“Over here, she’s a princess too.”

Looking somewhat puzzled, Claire asked again, and Alice replied in a somewhat stern voice.

I suppressed the urge to turn my head in disbelief with superhuman patience. Sweat formed on my back as I struggled to maintain a composed expression.

No, just a moment ago, Alice said there was no hierarchy among students…?

Oh, of course, there was no way Alice could know about the relationship between Claire and me.

And from Alice’s perspective, the Claire in front of us right now could be seen as someone who had come ‘forcibly’ to establish a connection with the princess.

Furthermore, just as I knew all the children of the nobility in the aristocratic class, Alice also had the possibility of knowing. In the original work, there was a scene where the protagonist naturally guessed the name without being told, so it was possible.

Claire was a person of the Grace Marquis.

As one of the Emperor’s close aides, and a family appointed directly by the Emperor, as a Marquis, she held considerable power, but that didn’t mean she became a Countess.

If you consider this academy as a grand ball and think of the etiquette as a noble for the first time, Claire was completely off track from the beginning.

Before the official greetings from the Count and Viscount, she, a mere Marquis, took the lead in speaking, and

even committed the mistake of showing respect to only one of the ‘equal princesses’ standing side by side.

“Claire…!”

Leo Grace, who arrived late, stiffened at the scene unfolding before him.

Hmm.

He’s a character known for being kind-hearted in the original work. However, despite being a male character, he always ranked at the top in popularity polls. The game was quite popular in Japan, and he was a character that players could empathize with due to his sense of justice and slightly bourgeois sentiment.

I quite liked him too.

But…

As a character with a strong sense of civic duty, it’s no wonder that she’s become so stiff in this situation.

“……”

Silence envelops the surroundings.

Alice, Claire, Leo, and I.

Even the people surrounding us.

Not a single word is spoken.

But seriously, how are we supposed to break this awkward atmosphere?