The Magic Tutor

It was the morning after my late night meeting with the princess. Vespera was already awake when Gina knocked on our door, asking us to get ready for breakfast.

"Nice, breakfast included? It feels like I'm in a fancy hotel…" I thought with a smile on my face as I got ready to start the day.

Gina took us to a guest's dining room where we met with Jackson, commander Thomas, and sub-commander Harvey.

"You guys stayed here too? I thought you were going home." I said to both knights who were sitting down at the table.

Harvey let out a muffled laugh as he covered his mouth with his hand. "Normally we would go home, yeah. But we still have matters to discuss with the king, and he also asked us to be here for your meeting."

A moment later, the maids opened the doors to the dining room and made way for the king and his family to join, and introduced them once more.

Following behind the king and the queen, there was the princess that had visited me the night before and her little sister.

"Princess Melina Sephyr and Princess Alexandra Sephyr." introduced the maid.

("Tch! I still can't get used to her name…") I thought after the princesses' introductions.

"Alright, we can be done with formalities now, it's time to eat and talk." said the king as he and the rest of his family sat down.

"It's a shame Darius isn't here today. I think he would have been interested in meeting you, Ichiro." said the queen.

"Umm, who is Darius?" I muttered embarrassed, since it seemed like everyone knew who it was. Except for Vespera, but she cared even less than me.

"Oh, he is our oldest son." responded the queen with a nonchalant smile.

"You weren't exaggerating in that report when you said young Ichiro doesn't know much about our kingdom, huh Harvey?" said the king as he laughed.

("Well, I'm embarrassed now… Maybe I should have learned a bit more about the kingdom…")

We were interrupted by the maids that arrived to serve us tea, but it gave us a good moment to change the topic from my ignorance about the kingdom to the events that happened in Glorya.

Both commander Thomas and sub-commander Harvey had given the report that Lord Laval was the one who hired the bandits to kidnap Lady Triana. The way I found out about it was when I read his memories, but I strictly forbade myself from telling anyone about that magic, so I just told them that me and my familiars interrogated the leader.

Fortunately, Lord Laval was put into custody as soon as the report arrived, and the guards found evidence of his dealings with the bandits. Not only did they find documents and contracts, they also found a list of women that the Lord wanted to kidnap, and an underground hidden dungeon that was being built under his house.

Needless to say, he was sentenced to be executed a few days later.

"We are still working on getting all the evidence from Lord Wester, but we found some incriminating documents in his residence that showed how he was spending the resources that we were giving him for End Town…"

The king explained to us Lord Wester's objective. To put it simply, Wester hated End Town since it was so far from any other city or village, the population was low, the area was considered extremely dangerous, and there wasn't any product that they exclusively made and exported.

When he heard about the village asking for help to fight the goblin attack, Lord Wester ignored it, hoping that the goblins would wipe out the village so the king would give him compensation. That's why the king never sent any reinforcements; because Lord Wester always told him that the village was perfectly fine.

But the worst part was when he kept ignoring the town while it was being developed. The man just refused to believe that the little run-down village was actually growing, so he kept stealing all of the resources that were meant to be sent there, while trying to suppress the information that came out of our town.

The adventurers guild was one of the main reasons why his plan didn't work. The sheer amount of adventurers that had been visiting us, then spreading the rumors of End Town all over the kingdom were no match for the noble's suppression attempt.

In the end, Wester was revoked of his title and sent to prison indefinitely.

"Now, the question here is: Who shall we give End Town to?" said the king after summarizing the fate of both corrupt nobles.

("Is he asking us!? How are we supposed to know? I don't even know any other nobles…") I thought about how to respond without sounding more ignorant than I already was.

"Your Highness…" interjected commander Thomas. "The people of End Town have been growing and developing without interacting with nobles for a long time. I believe that if we were to force a Lord into governing them, they wouldn't take too kindly to the idea."

"Mhmm, I see." Nodded the king. "The least I want is to create more contempt from the residents of End Town towards us… What do you suggest, Thomas?"

"I suggest we recognize Jackson as the legitimate governor of End Town." said Thomas confidently, making Jackson, who was sipping on his tea silently, do a spit take.

"M-me?" He muttered while wiping tea from his chin.

"Everyone there trusts you, and all business that goes into town has to go through you first, right? I see no better candidate." said Thomas.

I agreed. Jackson truly was the best candidate to lead the people of End Town. He didn't look too confident when the king and Thomas said that, but I had seen Jackson in action whenever an emergency arose in town, and he was always the first to act rationally and effectively.

"Now, let's get to our next topic at hand…" said the king. "Young Ichiro, let me apologize. I believe our daughter paid an unsolicited visit to your room last night."

"I-... Uhh… It's okay, I didn't mind…" I began stammering, thinking about what to say that wouldn't give the princess any trouble when she interjected.

"I just wanted to meet him… Besides, dad, if he was dangerous you wouldn't have asked him to stay at the guest's wing, or asked Gina to take care of him… Right?" said Princess Melina with her upbeat personality.

"Yes, it's true that I don't think he is a bad person. However, it wouldn't kill you to be a little more patient sometimes, you know?" said the king, with a tone of voice that I could only describe as a father being defeated by his daughter.

The queen interrupted her husband and daughter. "Anyways, Ichiro. As we told you yesterday, it was thanks to Melina putting the dots together that we were able to find you. I'm sure she probably told you already, but she wanted to ask you to become her magic tutor…"

"She did tell me about it-…" I responded right before getting cut off by the princess.

"He passed my test, too!" she exclaimed, making the rest of her family, even her little sister who had been quiet the entire time, widen their eyes in surprise.

"That's… Quite impressive. Considering none of the other candidates passed her unconventional test…" muttered the queen as she held her chin.

"But that makes it easier then!" exclaimed the king. "So, young Ichiro, what do you say? Will you take the position?" he said, leaning forward on the table while staring daggers at me.

"I… Don't have a problem with teaching her magic. However, I do have some conditions… If you don't accept them, then I can't take the job." I said, trying my best to sound confident in front of the royal family.

"I still have lots of stuff to do back in End Town, so… If the Princess wants my tutoring, she will have to travel with us there…" I paused for a moment as I saw both the king and queen sit back while keeping their eye contact with me.

The queen spoke up. "Hmm, the job would last two years, since after she turns 16 she will attend the academy. Are you planning on staying there for the next two years, Ichiro?"

I gazed at the princess who seemed to really want to join the conversation.

"Well… The Princess told me that she wanted to register as an adventurer and travel a little. So, I was thinking we could both register when we turn 15 and travel for a year before she attends the academy…" I paused again for a moment as I saw both the king and the queen perplexed at my words, while Princess Melina was blushing and her little sister, Alexandra, started giggling to herself.

("Wh-What? Did I say something weird?")