Ran was washing dishes while I was playing with my communicator at the dining table when suddenly, there was a knocking sound on my room's door. I could already guess who it was.
Knock Knock
"Young Master, it seems the second prince is here" Ran notified me.
"Prepare a tea and I will invite him in myself," I said to Ran after putting away my communicator and walking towards the door to open it. Prince Theo came into my room alone without any servants and he walked in after the door was opened as if he was entering his room.
"Take a seat, your highness," I said to him politely and he went to the only sofa in the room which I already expected he would do considering that was the most comfortable seat to sit on in this room.
"So aren't you curious why I'm coming here and why the hell I dare to come alone when I know who you're?" he said directly to me after Ran finished serving us tea.
I gave a hint to Ran to leave both of us alone since the second prince seems to prefer that. Currently, I was not wearing my mask and thankfully this face always remains stoic as if I have facial paralysis. Thus even though I was shocked to hear Prince Theo's words as if he could read my mind, it didn't show on my face.
"I wouldn't dare harm the royal family member" I replied honestly since that was exactly what I thought.
"Sure. The Zanuki never did anything that will cause trouble to them and they rarely care about anything too much which is why I choose you instead of that Manic girl or that Kiba boy" he said after sipping his tea.
Seeing his teacup had become empty, I voluntarily pour another tea into it while saying, "Is it because we're the most neutral or the elder of my family have made some kind of a deal with the royal family?"
"You're quite sharp aren't you?" he replied while his smile become wider.
Based on my instinct, it didn't seem like the second prince had any bad intentions toward me, and even in the novel, he was the one helping the commoners the most but most of the time, the crown prince took all the credits himself.
It didn't seem anything dangerous since there was already a deal between the two families.
"Your grandfather, asked my father, the emperor about my brother's request. So my father agreed with the Zanuki stating that they wouldn't help me if I wanted to become the emperor one day and instead they will take care of me as fellow nobles" Prince Theo continue saying when he saw me remain silent.
'It seems like it was the crown prince's idea and the second prince just went along with it. The crown prince might want to keep the second prince in check using the Zanuki and grandpa might know about this all along. That was why he said to just go with the flow since the deal won't harm our family.' I thought to myself.
"So is the crown prince trying to put you in check by using me?" I asked for confirmation since I knew no matter what the crown prince did, the second prince always had the upper hand.
"Yeah sort off. He tried asking me to sign a deal that stated that I will abdicate my rights to the throne and he will make me the seventh council member"
"But you didn't sign the deal?" I asked.
"Why should I? By the way, so you know, I was never interested in the throne since I don't think I wanted to be like my father, being restricted all the time. That's why I proposed another deal to my brother which I think he liked more than his deal. The deal stated that my brother must let the Zanuki protect me as long as I don't aim for the throne. I will also help my brother become the future emperor as long as the Zanuki is behind me. My brother also cannot harm me for whatever reason as long as I don't try to disturb the throne. If he did all that, I will consider voluntarily abdicating my right to the throne in the future" he explained to me clearly.
"It's not a good deal when it's too good for one party" I commented.
"Yeah, that's kind of true but that brother of mine agreed and signed the deal. It's not because he is stupid or greedy but being the emperor is his only goal in life thus having a deal that seems like a trap will not stop him"
'I think that is why even after the crown prince become the emperor, he didn't manage to kill him (Prince Theo) in the future'
"So don't worry. I just asked my brother to let me befriend you since I never had a friend before" he said reassuringly.
"Sure" I replied shortly.
"Really? You don't seem that easy to convince though" he commented.
"There's no benefit in rejecting you, your highness," I said straightforwardly.
"Yeah that's true so let's use each other until we're both bored," he said while gesturing for a handshake.
"Sure" I replied while shaking his hand.
"By the way, what rank are you?" he asked me before he went out of the room.
"15th"
"I'm 14th so you have to work harder to let me use you," he said patting my shoulder and walking away.
"..." I stood in front of the door for a few seconds before I slowly closed it.
"He said confidently as if he rank 1st" I mumbled to myself while gesturing for Ran to clean the tea set.
*************************************
[POV: Prince Theo]
"Prince, are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine and I also managed to record everything" I replied.
"His room is surrounded by assassins. We only managed to detect them using a heat sensor camera. That is why we already planned to rush into the room if you come out 5 minutes later"
"He's a Zanuki so that's to be expected right but it seems like I chose the right person. He really suits my taste"
"..."
"Hahaha don't need to think too far. Just act like he's a great ally so is there any extra information about him"
"We're not sure how many Zanuki's Shadows are around him but he only has 2 personal servants from the Moran clan. One of them is seemingly not here currently. We still couldn't find anything about his birth and it's only speculation that he is the son of Zeshna Zanuki"
"That one Zanuki that always went MIA," I asked.
"Yes since she is the only person who can hide a child if she wanted to"
"So why is he suddenly showing up a few years ago and then being hidden again?" I asked.
"The Manic Intelligence said that he was sick and hospitalized for a few years at one of the Tang subsidiary hospitals. No information or medical records could be found since everything was handwritten and only have one copy to avoid information leakage."
"He looks healthy to me" I commented.
"The Manic Intelligence didn't dare to dig deeper since many of their manpower went MIA during the mission"
*(MIA = Missing In Action)
"It's obvious that they might be already dead. Ok then, tell me if you get anything else later" I said before ending the call.
"Hmm, can I trust him but he's the one paying for that commoner fee. Is that just a wimp?" I kept on thinking about the person I'd just met less than half an hour ago.
Then I instinctively grab my phone and send a message to that person after deciding that he seems like he could be trusted.
[Me: Hey]
[Me: Are you asleep yet?]
[Red cat: No why?]
[Me: Let's grab breakfast together starting tomorrow]
[Red Cat: I'm making my own breakfast]
[Me: Then I'll just have to come to your room for breakfast]
[Red cat: Sure]
[Me: So what's tomorrow's breakfast?]
[Red cat: Chicken porridge, cinnamon toast, garlic bread with mushroom soup, grilled sweet potato, and fried meat dumplings]
[Me: Are you ordering takeout?]
[Red cat: No. I and my servant will cook]
[Me: See you tomorrow then]
[Red cat: Sure]
"Damn they sure eat a lot huh. Should I bribe him with food later?" I lamented while looking at his replies.
**************************************
"I'm full," said Prince Theo.
"Hnn" I replied while we were walking to class.
"Hey, cover for me when I fall asleep later since it's your fault I overeat and become sleepy," he said to me after we reached our table.
"..." I just ignored him and took out a maths book since that is the first subject. Ron has reminded me before that I have to follow the instructor's way of problem-solving if I didn't want to be questioned like before.
So for the two hours class, I focused all my brain on remembering the complicated formula and preventing myself from simplifying it.
Maybe I should discuss with Ron whether I could get an exception from the instructor since learning maths like this was torture for me. Prince Theo calmly slept during the two hours class and Miss Zanne just turn a blind eye to him.
Since yesterday I was fully preoccupied with Prince Theo, I didn't manage to take a look at the other main characters in the class. So during the self-study session for each subject, I observed the class and take a look at the main characters one by one.
First is our protagonist Cedric Hel, sitting at the back of the class near the locker area. He was currently doing some exercise in the notebook, maybe finishing Miss Zanne's homework. Beside him is one of the main characters, a black hair guy named Shino Kiba, his best friend and also from one of the prominent noble families The features of the Kiba family members were the three whiskers shaped tattooed on both of their cheeks. He was currently playing games on his phone.
Not far from their seats was Selina Senju, another main character and also the female lead. She has silver hair with light blue eyes and due to her distinct beautiful features, many male students always kept on glancing at her.
However, she rarely talk to anyone else since she knew many approached her because of her beauty thus she worked hard to show that she was not just a flower vase. It took a long time for her and Cedric to become close.
*(flower vase: just a pretty face)
Not far from her was Gina Tang, the descendant of doctors and researchers. She was a timid girl since she rarely communicate with outsiders. She wore a face mask and gloves and only the skin of her upper face and ears could be seen.
Her family's speciality is poison thus before their coming of age, they consume and put poison into their body to build immunity to poisons. It is said that their blood is too poisonous and they could only conceive children through IVF and use surrogate mothers.
'What a sad life but since it's the family tradition, only the single main family still maintain it and the branch family have reduced their poison immunity to a safe level and can conceive normally'
Some even speculate that one of my parents is from the Tang family since I was wearing a mask and also a black leather gloves on my hands.
Lastly, I looked at the middle table of the first row and saw the same green hair, spectacle girl from before, during the registration day, Amanda Manic. That haughty and proud peacock behaviour coupled with her physical features, perfectly fit Amanda Manic's characteristics.
As the family that controls the empire's intelligence network, they were never afraid of anyone except the royal family and the Zanuki. They would always do anything to find the information that they wanted but they never managed to dig into the Zanuki too much since the Moran would be hindering them. The other noble family just let them dig their information as it was too troublesome to evade them.
Many of the nobles that do shady businesses would suck up and bribe Manic members to cover their deeds thus out of the six prominent noble families, Manic was the only corrupt one and of course, everyone knew about that fact but since they didn't do anything excessive, they turn a blind eye on the Manic.
"Hey, why are you looking at that Manic girl?" Theo suddenly whispered in my ear.
I flinched a little before I answered shortly, "No, I'm just looking around"
"Ohh sure but I don't like that girl. She looked at everyone else like they were ants that can be easily trampled" he commented.
"I don't think she's that bad"
"Yeah maybe, but who cares" he replied yawning.
Not all of the Manic were actually corrupt, most of them were still diligent and do their job sincerely. Managing information was a dangerous thing thus being able to take control of an empire's information network was proof of their capability.
Later, the next subject's instructor which is Professor Joseph Abraham came into the class and started the Monster Research class for another two hours until lunchtime. Like yesterday, I went to lunch with Theo since he kept on sticking at me and we chose to eat behind the first-year building which has almost no one there. It's more comfortable to eat how much I wanted to without being stared at.