<h4>Volume 3 Chapter 2 Underling</h4>


    It’s been three months since elementary school has started.


    That’s when I noticed.


    —what was with this environment?


    I was pondering about how weird this ce was as I rested in my dormitory room.


    “...elementary school is too easy. I didn’t need to send donations. No, wasn’t it necessary so I wouldn’t be targeted Professor John?”


    In any case, he’s a strict teacher, but he never got mad at me.


    Other than that though, he just treated me the same as all the other students.


    Get up in the morning, finish a light exercise, study through the lessons, practice martial arts, and thene back to the dormitory to sleep at night.


    Everyone else was stillining about it, but personally, it was so easy that I was starting to feel a bit anxious.


    In the first ce, sses were a breeze. I had already studied most of these topics in the education capsule.


    While the physical training could only be considered a preparatory exercise to my strengthened body, it always left me feeling dissatisfied.


    —I wasn’t expecting this.


    “This can’t be. It’s too easy to the point that I’m worried if this is actually okay.”


    It’s important for me as an evil lord to have a trained body.


    ‘There’s no point to violence in reality.’


    ‘You only need a good education to be sessful in society.’


    All such stories were lies.


    Certainly, violence could be considered useless to a normal society.


    But I learned how important brutality actually was in my previous life.


    The bad guys use violence, while good people could only cower in fear of them.


    Violence was another form of power.


    Even though I trained myself in order to obtain that power, my abilities would no doubt rust in this lukewarm environment.


    “No good. This is no good. I was sure that they’d start the actual training after three months but there’s been so sign of change at all.”


    At first, I thought they were waiting for us to grow used to the training, but even after three months the contents of said training hasn’t changed much at all.


    The amount of change could bepared to the size of a single strand of hair.


    What was I supposed to do about this?


    That when I suddenly got a call from home.


    The caller was Brain.


    ...why couldn’t it have been Amagi?


    As Iy on the bed and answered the call, what appeared was the image of Brian crying like usual.


    “Lord Liam, you promised that you’d make sure to call us regrly!”


    Isn’t he a bit too overprotective?


    “Don’t cry just because I forgot to contact you on schedule, or did something happen?”


    “No, things are going well here. Lord Liam, I’m more concerned about you.”


    Does he not trust me?


    “There’s no problems on my end either.”


    “That’s good to hear. Oh, and the head maid is worried. Can you tell me what your rtionship with prince Wace is?”


    “Wace? Ahh, that guy. Well... I guess we get along?”


    “...huh?”


    Brian was stunned.


    Prince Wace had quite the troublesome background.


    That’s one of the reasons why the surroundings always tried to keep their distance from him, but considering the individual himself, people avoided him because of his personality problems.


    ◇ ◇ ◇


    The next day in the cafeteria.


    The first years were finally started to get used to life at the elementary school.


    Everyone had already formed their groups in the cafeteria.


    Personally, I was talking with Kurt, a fellow evil lord.


    “Brian is constantly calling me and won’t stop asking about how my school life is going.”


    “Isn’t he your butler? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with him regrly checking up on you.”


    “I don’t have anything to say, life here is just in boring. The most interesting thing I could talk about is how I still haven’t found a way to sneak out of the dormitory.”


    I’ve been inspected the high walls built around the school grounds in hope of finding a way out that I could use to y around in the city.


    If I wanted to y outside during the holidays, an escape route was necessary.


    This was a problem that could be solved by simply bribing the gatekeeper, but I’ve been looking for an escape route because I had too much free time on my hands.


    “Liam, I really can’t tell if you’re a serious person or not.”


    “If you look at things on the outside, I’m pretty much as serious as you are.”


    “I-is that so?”


    Just from that little bit of praise, the serious-based evil lord Kurt seems to have grown embarrassed.


    I turned back to my meal.


    Most of the menu items served in the cafeteria were nutritious meals.


    They weren’t bad, I enjoyed them.


    But they were painfulpared to the luxurious meals I used to have daily.


    That’s when I heard a loud voice echo out from another table.


    –it was Wace.


    “Hey, why don’t we eat our meals together?”


    Smiling, he put his food tray on a table a group of girls were sitting at and forcibly secured a seat.


    “By the way, are any of your houses looking to take in a son-inw to take over as head? Or have any of you broken off from your parent’s house to be independent, looking for a groom?”


    The girls’ gazes started swimming at hisck of subtlety.


    “I’m the second daughter of my house.”


    “My older brother is my house’s heir.”


    “I’m about to get a little brother soon.”


    The third girl... was she saying that her house didn’t have a male heir at the moment?


    But Wace seemed to have epted their exnations,


    “Oh, that’s quite a shame. Please excuse me.”


    After suddenly standing up, Wace left to go and speak to the next girl he spotted.


    “You over there! What’s your family’s take on getting a new son-inw?”


    Looking at Wace, I couldn’t help but think–


    “–he definitely isn’t what I thought a prince would be like.”


    Wace, who hadpletely destroyed my image of princes, continued to try and pick-up girls.


    He was speaking to a girl from the first school building.


    “His Highness Wace also has his own circumstances.”


    “What’s his story?”


    Kurt went on to exin to me about what paths were left to the excess princes.


    “To be honest, all the princes after the hundreth don’t seem to be treated that well. If it’s up to the thirtieth, then they still seem to have proper backing, but otherwise I hear that they’re treated worse than lower nobility.”


    “The princes also have it hard, huh?”


    “They don’t have any choice than to marry into another house, if they don’t do anything, then they’d eventually be forced to be civil officials or military officers. Some of them have gotten jobs in other fields, but his Highness Wace doesn’t seem to be that type.”


    There were many royals who became active in different fields, such as art.


    But Wace chose— independence.


    “It looks like he wants to be his own master.”


    “Is bing self-reliant really that difficult? Can’t he just have the Empire support him until then?”


    “Independence isn’t that easy to obtain. Even more so for someone who doesn’t have backing like him. He can’t do this alone, and his Highness understands that.”


    –was this really okay for an imperial prince?


    To gain independence through picking up girls– I could onlyugh at such a thing.


    Looking at Wace, he was picking up his tray to leave. Apparently he was unsessful today as well.


    Apparently a few of the girls have been approached by him twice, or even thrice, and they were growing more troubled on how to deal with him.


    I called out to Wace, who was drooping his shoulders.


    “Hey Wace,e over here for a bit.”


    Wace turned to look in my direction before speaking,


    “What do you want? I don’t have a hobby of flirting with men.”


    At thatment, Kurt face seemed to flush a little.


    He looked irritated,


    “Liam, why’d you call out to him?!”


    Iughed as I answered Kurt, who was losing his patience,


    “Because he seems interesting. Hey Wace, just hear me out. I’m not interested in your body.”


    Reluctantly, Wace drudged his way over to our table.


    “You’re pretty rude. I thought you were honour students, but you have quite foul mouths there.”


    This guy was an idiot after all.


    He seriously seemed to think that we were honour students.


    Well, Kurt was a serious person at first nce, so maybe he is one?


    “At least we’re better than a failed skirt-chaser.”


    “Ugh... damn it!”


    Wace furrowed his brows, he looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t think of anything at the moment.


    “Sh-shut up. I’m doing this for my future, that’s why I’m pushing so hard despite the shame it brings me.”


    “You sure can endure a lot of it. Is this fun for you?”


    “...back in the inner pce, there weren’t that many chances to interact with girls. At most there’d be my mother and her maids, or my father’s concubines, the rest being my blood-rted sisters.”


    He seems to have gone through a lot.


    But Kurt recalled,


    “Wait, but then shouldn’t have the maids been okay?”


    When he said that, Wace turned away,


    “...they served the mothers, not me. Also my mother didn’t allow me toy my hands on them.”


    “Do you want to be independant that badly?”


    When I asked, Wace shouted, “Of course I do!”


    Although the surrounding gazes started to gather on us, I didn’t really care.


    Rosetta passed by us then.


    However, Wace didn’t even nce towards her.


    “Huh? You’re not going to try for Rosetta?”


    To my question, Wace answered,


    “–that woman can’t provide for me.”


    ...how is this guy able to say such embarrassing lines so confidently?


    “In the first ce, my goal is to be independent.”


    “Why independance?”


    Wace seems to want to be a person that’spletely self-reliant,


    “It can be as a court noble or a provincial one, but I want to be living under my own strength. You might not know this, but having the status of a prince actually really inconvenient for such a thing.”


    “You can’t really call yourself independent if you’re relying on others to gain that status.”


    “I know that! But that’s my only option here. If I tried to be an officer or a soldier, all that would be waiting for me is a life of ughter.”


    Kurt had a face on that said he didn’t know what to say,


    “I guess his Highness also has his fair share of troubles.”


    “That’s right. If you understand that, why don’t you consider bing my patron?”


    “Oh, that’s a bit... sorry, I’ll have to refuse.”


    “Why?!”


    Kurt wasn’t nice enough of a person to be the patron of a useless prince.


    The thing is, he was a really interesting prince.


    His struggles to be self-reliant were amusing to watch.


    I called out to Wace,


    “Why haven’t you entered the house of a minor lord or officer then?”


    He looked troubled,


    “Personally, I’d be okay with that, but I’m still a prince. The pce won’t allow me to. They’re requiring me to enter into a certain social caste, something at least of the baron rank or higher. Maybe it’d be possible if they were the ruler of a pioneer, but otherwise, the pce wouldn’t permit me to.”


    With so many options to choose from, I could feel myself growing more excited.


    Wasn’t this really interesting?


    “If that’s how it is, then I’ll be your patron.”


    “Liam?!”


    Kurt tried to stop me, but I ignored him and spoke to Wace,


    “The Banfield Count house will support you. If you’re going to rule over part of the frontier, then I’ll lend you a hand with your independence.”


    A stunned Wace stood up and fixed his uniform,


    “Thank you so much!”


    Wace, who raised his arms and voice looked really stupid.


    Aical person like him was really fun to watch.


    “Liam, you need to think this through. It’s not that easy to be the prince’s backer.”


    Kurt tried to persuade me, but I can’t take back the words I’ve already spoke.


    It was already done.


    It wasn’t because I felt sympathetic for him, nor was I impressed with his efforts.


    I just wanted to help him out because he was interesting.


    Above all else, now an imperial prince was going to be my underling.


    Doesn’t that make for a really good story?


    “I’ve already seeded as Count. My word is the decision of the Banfield house. So there’s no problems there.”


    “No, but-!”


    I turned to Wace, who looked worried,


    “I keep my promises. I’ll support your independence. Are you okay with being a minor lord?”


    “O-of course I am! Anything is better than the cramped life I’ve lived in the inner pce! As a feudal lord, even a minor peerage is fine! I just want to live with my own strength.”


    Simple enough.


    “Leave it to me. I’ll prepare a territory for you after our training ends.”


    Kurt looked amazed as he held his face in his right hand,


    “Liam, I seriously can’t understand you.”


    All I was doing was helping a single prince be self-reliant.


    Kurt was worrying too much about it.


    ◇ ◇ ◇


    The imperial capital.


    Rumours about Wace had reached the prime minister who was working at the pce.


    His subordinate presented him with a report,


    “Count Banfield has named himself at the his Highness Wace’s guardian.”


    “...what?”


    The minister stopped his stands, unable toprehend what his subordinate was saying.


    “Apparently the Count has dered that he’d be the patron of his Highness Wace.”


    He was abandoning his status as a royal.


    Currently, he was in the process of advocating his right to inherit the throne.


    Liam has sworn to support Wace’s independence in the future.


    But there wasn’t any merit to Liam bing Wace’s backer.


    It’d be almost impossible for Wace to pay back this favour.


    Almost no aristocrats would even consider bing his patron.


    “This must be another of the Count’s whims.”


    “But at the very least, this will allow one prince to safely be self-reliant.”


    “It’s not easy to being a pioneer, but he should be able to do it with the Count’s backing. If we leave this alone, no problems should appear in the future– just, what was he aiming for?”


    The prime minister was reading too deeply into this.


    This was the result of his overestimation of Liam, who was extremely exceptional for his age.


    (Disregarding the Count himself, the Banfield house is still renowned as untrustworthy. Is he doing this to show how he’s contributing to the Empire?)


    Could that be the reason why he chose to support Wace, an individual who was neither poison nor medicine?


    If that was the case, then the prime minister could see how Liam would benefit from this.


    (It’s not easy overwriting the stigma thatsted for two whole generations, but this can be the first step in gaining some trust in noble society.)


    If Wace was able to safely seed, then Liam would be able to have the Banfield house seen as more trustworthy among the aristocrats.


    The prime minister was convinced that was the reason why, and was excitedly waiting for the results in anticipation.