NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23
The term ‘Emperor’s Children’ is actually not the official title.
By saying it’s not the official title, I mean it’s not something people like Lucas or Jayden directly identify with. Just because we are classified as the Emperor’s children doesn’t mean there’s some secret society or a cool code name involved—nothing fancy like that.
Legally, we are just the sons and daughters of the Emperor, not much different from Alice. We were literally adopted by the Emperor after all!
But even if that’s the case legally, in terms of rhetoric and public perception, it’s a different story.
The beings the Emperor gathered are all monstrous with incredible abilities. They even tend to disappear from official events sometimes. And when they return, something has vanished from the Empire, or someone has died or gone missing.
While those deaths and disappearances often looked accidental, at times they resembled brutal crime scenes as if to send a warning. The Empire has made efforts to investigate, but ultimately, they couldn’t find any concrete evidence, and the cases usually ended there.
So unless you’re an idiot, you can quickly put two and two together about the trouble those monsters caused. Excluding Alice, who’s mostly at the palace, the rest of the ‘pure-blooded’ beings are the Emperor’s top-notch pieces. Just give them a command, and they’ll do whatever task you throw their way without a hitch.
Of course, most commoners don’t know much about this. Lesser nobles might have heard a rumor or two but probably just chalk it up to coincidence. Only the high-ranking nobles with the capability to collect evidence would actually fear us.
And that’s part of the Emperor’s scheme, too.
If you value your life, you’d better bow down.
That’s what the Emperor wants to say.
And I guess that message will slowly spread throughout the Empire from now on.
*
Well, anyway.
Thus, the eyes I attract are mostly because I am a ‘Crown Princess’.
The murmurs around me… they’re probably because I’m not the ‘real princess’ or something.
“Sylvia.”
“Yes.”
Alice, who was walking just slightly ahead of me, suddenly stopped and turned around to face me.
“Walk beside me, not behind me.”
“…Understood.”
At her command, I slowly moved forward to stand next to Alice.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we were maintaining some overly friendly distance. I mean, no matter how much female friendships exist, holding hands or locking arms is something straight out of a cartoon. Although, considering this place is similar in some aspects…
Thinking back, physical contact between characters in the game wasn’t as common as you’d expect. Excluding the female characters who had kissing scenes with the main character and the rare friendly hugs, there was barely any physical contact between the leads.
…Whether that was done thoughtfully based on actual human behavior or just a result of graphical and motion limits is something to ponder, though.
“You said to be confident. As a princess, act confidently just like me.”
“But, Your Highness.”
“And here, I’m ‘Alice’. We’re the same, right? Don’t you know that there’s no superiority or inferiority among students?”
She’d been pretty bold earlier while staring straight at the Headmaster.
Wondering what my silence was about, Alice briefly averted her gaze and started walking ahead again.
Well, she did say it was an order from the Crown Princess, so I decided to follow.
I wasn’t sure how they assigned classes at the academy. It probably wasn’t completely random. Given how students with overlapping interests ended up in the same class, one could guess there was some planning involved.
A total of 30 nobles, including me and Alice, were divided into two classes of 15. But even if there wasn’t a need to separate from Alice, Leo Grace and Claire ended up in the same class too. It seemed they did that considering they were siblings.
There were also instances where the firstborn son of a duke and the firstborn son of a newly minted baron ended up in the same class, or where two betrothed individuals were in the same one. Thus, everyone who had any ‘relation’ was placed together to avoid breaking those ties. But whether the clean split into 15 was a coincidence or by design is a mystery.
By the way, I had a grasp on all the kids in the noble class in this school.
One of the standout features of the Chronicles of Aetherna was that even extra characters were given some backstory. Of course, they didn’t have storylines that directly affected the main plot in any significant way. They usually had side quests that had no bearing on the main storyline at best, or they might just feature a few lines of dialogue.
However, those side quests continued on as the story progressed, or those few lines of dialogue eventually connected and changed throughout different chapters and, in some cases, the character could even appear in sequels with dialogue linking back to the previous game.
Honestly, despite the graphics and motion being somewhat underwhelming, the world felt alive because so many characters seemed to have their own stories.
The catch was that to obtain a Platinum Medal, you needed to complete every single achievement in the game—bronze, silver, and gold medals all counted—and that ‘medal gathering’ included writing up character cards for all the named NPCs.
And to write that character card, you’d have to see every single one of their dialogues at least once.
In other words, it meant you would have to find and talk to hidden side quest characters or NPCs hidden away in the corners of various maps. People began to call it an ‘NPC marathon’.
And I wrote a攻略 for that method. Stupid game developers.
At least in the sequels, usability was greatly improved, so it showed which characters you’d interacted with and you wouldn’t have to hunt down quests separately, but it didn’t mean you could skip talking to them altogether.
…Anyway, those NPCs with dialogue had unique models, NPCs without unique models but with unique names, and then characters with generic labels like ‘Girl in Sailor Uniform’, ‘Commoner Student’, ‘Man in Suit’ and no unique names.
And the noble class NPCs all had unique models.
It’s impossible to match those polygon blocks to real human faces one-to-one, but styles like ‘Purple Roll Hair’ or ‘Green Twin Tails’ aren’t exactly that common, are they? In that sense, I knew roughly the stories of the kids in the noble class.
…In fact, as soon as my surrounding situation stabilized, I had written down the content in a notebook. Since it was all in Korean, no one would be able to read it.
Before entering the academy, I had read all that content after a long time.
“Wait, wait!”
Just when I was about to start the first day at the academy with Alice, an urgent voice came from behind.
Schools usually have students adapt in their own way after a bit of time, but in this country, very few students had been to something resembling a ‘school’ before. Most nobles had tutors and were homeschooled before coming to the academy, and commoners… well, they typically worked in factories if they weren’t bourgeoisie kids.
Because of that, on the first day, students swarmed the corridors. The area around Alice and me was notably bustling; I thought it was probably not just my imagination. Thanks to this, everywhere else was even busier, creating a sort of round barrier of people surrounding us.
However, one person was trying to break through that barrier.
“Claire!”
Actually, there were two: a girl and a boy.
The girl was Claire, and the boy was Leo. What a surprise, both of them were big shots. Totally unexpected…!
Well, I actually had seen it coming. Claire’s gaze during the entrance ceremony was anything but ordinary.
And from the perspective of someone who had played the game, I was the one in a more powerful position than the two of them combined since, no matter how you looked at it, I was a princess.
“Ugh!”
“……”
I blinked twice upon seeing Claire almost trip as she navigated through the crowd toward us, nearly stumbling when she got close enough for us to see her.
What is this? This feels like something out of a shoujo manga.
Even from a distance, it was apparent, but seeing her up close made her look even more innocent. Unlike the game, where she had a harsh makeup look, the Claire in front of me had almost no makeup on at all.
And naturally, she was pretty. Comparable to Alice.
“Ah…”
Though she stumbled, it didn’t look like she skipped training; Claire managed to regain her balance after a brief wobble.
“Y-Your Highness.”
Immediately bending slightly at the waist, she brushed the front of her school uniform’s skirt, much like a noble would bow to a princess.
After receiving that greeting, Alice, instead of mentioning that there are no hierarchies among students—
“Here, this side too,”
—pointed at me with her hand, saying.
“Excuse me?”
“This side too, she’s a princess.”
Claire, looking a bit flustered, asked again.
Alice responded in a somewhat stiff voice.
I had to suppress the urge to whip my head around. I managed to keep my face from falling, but there was a sweat rolling down my back.
Wasn’t Alice just saying there are no hierarchies among students…?
Ah, well, of course, Alice could have no way of knowing the relationship between me and Claire.
From Alice’s perspective, Claire standing in front of us could easily appear as someone who just came here ‘grudgingly’ seeking to get close to the princess.
Moreover, it was quite possible for Alice to have a grasp on the dynamics, just as I understood all the noble kids. There were scenes in the original where characters recognized the protagonist by instinct without needing introductions.
Claire was from the Grace Baron family.
One of the Emperor’s close aides, and the family who received their territory directly from the Emperor, thus wielding considerable power, but that didn’t make a baron equal to a duke.
If we regarded the academy as a grand ball, Claire already started off on the wrong foot because a lesser noble spoke before anyone from the duke or count families did.
She also committed the blunder of only greeting one of the two ‘equal princesses’ standing right there.
“Claire…!”
Leo Grace, who had just arrived a moment too late, froze at the scene unfolding in front of him.
Hmm.
He’s known in the original for being a pretty gentle character. However, in popularity polls, he often ranked high despite being a male character. The game was quite popular among women, so his strangely just and subtly down-to-earth nature made him relatable to players.
I quite liked him too.
But…
Because he had this down-to-earth character, he’d likely freeze up in such situations.
“……”
An awkward silence envelops those around us.
Alice, Claire, Leo, and myself included.
Even those surrounding us were silent.
So what’s going to happen in this awkward atmosphere?