The moment those words left my lips, everything stopped. It was as if the air turned brittle and time froze around us.
The jaws of the guards hung agape, practically dropping to the floor. It was only then that it occurred to me how unusual it was for someone to greet the princess of the Ardene Kingdom in such a brusque and casual manner.
Whoops.
Fortunately for me, Princess Sella didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, she seemed to relax a great deal in my presence. It wasn't anything that was painfully obvious. She was too skilled at social maneuvering and reading the room for that, but if she was an elegant and refined rose a moment ago, now she was a positively brilliant sunflower.
It was a cheesy comparison. I know. But even so, I couldn't deny the smile that she showed me when I greeted her. Really, this was just the classic cliche of "rich girl is greeted casually, but she's never experienced that before so now she's over the moon" or something like that, right?
"I bid you good morning, Ryuuko." Princess Sella grinned, giving me an elegant curtsy. Even someone as unfamiliar with such formal gestures as me could see that it was a movement she'd practiced countless times.
"Uh, yeah. G'morning." I was pretty that I was supposed to respond with some measure of delicacy or something, but I wasn't exactly the best at that sorta shit. Plus, there wasn't really much in the way of formal gestures back in the Zaltsel clan aside from bowing and kneeling.
Of course, there was the traditional apology where you smeared blood against your chest, but that wasn't exactly a refined or elegant gesture. And besides, I didn't have anything to be sorry about.
Sella's smile widened and she gestured to the elven woman standing next to her. "This is Radeca, eighty-seventh princess of the Sylphid Alliance. She's also a first-year student just like us!"
I nodded to Radeca. "'Sup? Name's Ryuuko, nice to meetcha."
If she was offended by my informal way of speaking, Radeca certainly didn't show it. Instead, she merely curtsied just as Princess Sella did.
"Princess Radeca Elewynn of the Sylphid Alliance." She introduced herself simply.
When she spoke, I was rather surprised. Before hearing her voice, I thought that it would be graceful and sophisticated like a gentle melody played on a harp. Instead, what I got was a flat and monotone sound.
It wasn't as if she sounded robotic, but it was emotionless and just as hard to read as her facial expressions. I don't know what kind of upbringing she had, but I was pretty sure that it couldn't have been a warm one.
Well, whatever. I just gotta make sure she doesn't croak, right?
I took the opportunity to use [Complete Analysis] on Radeca once the two princesses returned to their conversation. Maybe I was expecting a little more based on what I saw from Sella before, but Radeca's stats and skills were honestly pretty weak.
As far as I knew, the Sylphid Alliance also participated in the regulation of levels by using the asceitheit devices, meaning that it would've been rather easy for Radeca to casually gain levels just as Sella had done. However, for someone who was supposedly in danger of being assassinated, Radeca's skills and class levels hadn't been boosted to ridiculous amounts at all.
If Cyrus—a Ranger from the Ardene Kingdom—was aware of the potential danger that Radeca was in, I doubt that the Sylphid Alliance was ignorant of the threat either.
Seriously, what's going on? I'm pretty sure that Sella's skills and class levels were boosted just before they came to the Zaltsel clan in case something happened, but what about Radeca? Aren't her parents worried that she'll be attacked? Or are they just that confident in her guards?
I took a quick look at Radeca's guards as well, but they were nothing special either. Their combat strength was around what I'd expect for soldiers who protected royalty, but I was pretty sure that even Lucrezia could beat them in a fistfight despite being a mage.
It was almost like Radeca's death wouldn't mean anything to her family or to the nobility of the Sylphid Alliance.
"Hey! Ryuuko! Listen when someone's talking to you, idiot!"
The sharp protests coming from beside me broke my train of thought. Obviously, it was Liandra. Neither Sella or Radeca would've addressed me in such a tone and the guards probably had no interest in me either.
"What?" I said, slightly irritated. Believe it or not, I was actually trying to take the mission seriously a few moments ago, and Liandra had just disrupted a pivotal part of the process: determining how difficult it would actually be to protect Radeca.
"We have to start heading to the classroom, otherwise we'll be late."
For a moment, I was unsure of how to actually respond.
"Uh... Huh. Y'know, I didn't think you'd actually care."
"I actually don't, but when I'm going to get my mana burnt for being late, it's hard not to."
I raised both eyebrows in surprise. Mana burning was a torture method reserved only for mages. All magic users had internal mana pools that they could draw on and were refilled by the ambient external mana in the air.
However, a mana pool was very delicate. It was almost like an extra organ inside a person, and when it was stimulated incorrectly, it could cause great pain. When magic users refill their mana pool, they do it at a fixed rate. Gradually through training, this rate becomes faster and faster until the strongest of magic users can refill their mana pools within a second so long as there is sufficient mana in the air.
Typically, a mage cannot replenish their mana faster than this fixed rate, but they can do it slower. When they do so, the mana pool becomes relaxed. During that state, it becomes easier to grow the mana pool.
However, when the opposite occurs—that is, when mana is replenished faster than the fixed rate—the mana pool becomes agitated and causes a phenomenon known as "mana friction." Not only does this cause mana to rapidly erode from within the magic user's body, but it also causes them a great deal of pain.
Luckily, this is not a phenomenon that occurs naturally. Rather, special techniques or devices must be used to accelerate one's mana intake rate. As far as I knew, these devices are usually reserved only for the most heinous of criminals and are only used during interrogations.
The fact that Liandra was saying this meant that there was only one possibility.
"...Hold on. You mean if you don't follow the schedule, that collar's gonna burn your mana?"
Liandra nodded, staring at me like I was an idiot.
"I... Huh. I didn't even know it was possible to have that on a timer."
"Never underestimate the cruelty of the Ardene Kingdom's nobility." Liandra said cryptically.
Since other students were starting to enter the building now, I decided that it probably wasn't the best idea to be talking about this sort of shit right now. Instead, I just walked to the classroom along with Liandra.
When we arrived, we were among the first students to do so. The lecture hall was still rather empty except for a few other early students, and I could spot Princesses Radeca and Sella sitting next to one another near one of the front rows.
Instead of the traditional high school desks that I sat in back on Earth, this looked more like a college's lecture hall. The rows of wooden desks were made in one long block of material and fixed seats were placed directly behind them. They kind of reminded me of church pews.
Liandra and I chose an area that was far from the other students, but still close enough to Princess Radeca so that I could observe her and intervene in case anything happened.
Within minutes, the classroom filled up. Liandra and I got a few strange looks, but this simply served to make our classmates give us a pretty wide berth and honestly, that wasn't so bad.
I didn't intend to make friends here, anyway. After all, they were all patiently waiting for me back across the Fissure.
I drummed my fingers against the wooden surface of my desk. It'd already been ten minutes and the teacher still hadn't arrived. The other students were getting a little restless, and so was I.
I considered ditching, but I had no idea whether or not it'd trigger Liandra's collar and I didn't want to test it out either. The last thing I wanted to do was deal with a small, bespectacled girl writhing on the ground in pain and frothing at the mouth.
I stood from my seat, intending to approach Princess Sella and ask whether or not this was normal but before I could even take a single step, the doors of the classroom slid open.
Ah, shit. It's one of those, huh?