The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

"The imperial law does not explicitly define the conditions required to ascend to the throne. Determining the next Emperor is solely a matter for the imperial family to decide."

"That much is easy to understand. The same applies to Belvur."

The Empire was technically a constitutional monarchy. Emphasis on technically—in reality, the Parliament functioned as little more than a puppet of the Emperor. But because of that, at least on paper, the roles of the Parliament and the imperial family were clearly divided.

The Parliament governed the nation, while the imperial family preserved its legitimacy.

That was why choosing the next Emperor was entirely within the imperial family's jurisdiction. Of course, that didn’t mean the Emperor could appoint anyone at will—there were still internal traditions and rules to follow.

The problem was that, right now, the imperial family—the people with the actual right to determine the Empire’s future—consisted of only Alice and me.

Any other royals close enough in lineage to have a say had been removed by the Emperor himself or had been cast aside in the power struggles. Even Alice’s mother had been dead for years.

The Emperor himself was currently imprisoned in Belvur as a war criminal, and most of his children had been arrested as accomplices.

Claire, who carried the Emperor’s blood, was adamantly claiming she was a Grace, not a Fangryphon.

...In short, every single remaining imperial family member with the authority to decide the Empire’s future was standing right here.

That wasn’t an exaggeration. It wasn’t a joke.

Realizing this a little late, I made sure to weigh my every word carefully. In this situation, anything Alice or I said—whether formally or informally—could be taken as the will of the imperial family.

"In past precedents, the next Emperor has generally been the eldest child of the imperial bloodline. There have been cases where an individual was chosen based on their abilities, but unless there were significant personal or leadership deficiencies, the title typically went to the eldest son. If no son was present, it passed to the eldest daughter. And..."

I glanced at Alice standing beside me.

"And I already have an elder relative whose abilities are more than sufficient. So, I believe treating me as the next Emperor is a rather hasty conclusion."

"...I see."

Thankfully, my words seemed to be sinking in.

This sort of situation had happened in the real world too.

Even when a ruler was unpopular or perceived as incompetent, if their claim to legitimacy was unassailable, they could ascend to the throne regardless. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

If it were an absolute monarchy where the ruler truly wielded power, people might push for a more capable candidate. But in most constitutional monarchies, the only thing a monarch had left was legitimacy. And the more powerless the monarchy became, the more obsessed it became with preserving that legitimacy.

If someone wanted to change the monarch, the typical method was to have the original ruler take the throne briefly before formally stepping down in favor of their chosen successor.

Not that Alice and I had any intention of pulling something like that.

"What does the First Imperial Princess think?"

The King of Belvur turned his gaze to Alice.

She had been deep in thought until then, but she finally raised her head and responded.

"Nothing has been decided yet. Everything happened so suddenly. We need to sort through the aftermath before we can determine what to do about the vacant throne."

It was a textbook response.

"More importantly, I believe discussing my father’s treatment should take precedence."

"..."

The King of Belvur studied Alice’s calm, expressionless face before slowly nodding.

"Indeed. The affairs of a foreign throne are for that nation to decide. I apologize for making assumptions."

"There is no need to apologize. From an outsider’s perspective, it is an understandable misconception."

"Then, as you suggest, we will handle the urgent matters first, one at a time."

Even as he said this, the King of Belvur cast me a knowing glance.

...So, I hadn’t managed to completely clear up the misunderstanding.

Well, I couldn’t blame him.

If I were in his position, I’d probably be suspicious too.

A nation with that kind of legend just happens to have someone show up in this kind of situation?

That was a little too much of a coincidence.

...Not that I was particularly thrilled about being the person caught in it.

*

"Haah..."

Alice threw herself onto the bed as soon as we returned to her room, looking completely exhausted.

Technically, it hadn't been that long since we left Lutetia. But considering the time we had actually experienced, it felt like an eternity. Seeing Alice like this again gave me the strange impression that it had been ages since the last time.

Maybe it was because that world had been an illusion created by the goddess. The time we had spent there felt long, yet also strangely hazy—like a dream half-forgotten upon waking. Thanks to that, I didn’t feel like what happened yesterday had actually happened ten years ago. I was sure everyone who still held memories of that world felt the same.

"There’s too much to think about."

"Mostly because of you."

I sat down on the guest chair in Alice’s room, and she shot me a glare as she spoke.

"..."

I had no words.

Because, well... she wasn’t wrong.

"Really, after insisting that I’m the only one who could be the next Emperor, you went and recreated a legendary scene. What were you thinking...?"

It sounded like a complaint, but her tone didn’t actually carry any real resentment.

A year ago, Alice would have seethed with jealousy over something like this.

"Are you not interested in the throne?"

"Is that really what’s important right now?"

Then what is?

Oh, right. The Emperor’s situation. And all the awkward questions we’d have to answer once we returned to the Empire. At least in Belvur, we weren’t responsible for solving everything ourselves, but that wouldn’t be the case once we got back home.

But Alice scoffed when she saw my expression.

"...Isn’t that exactly what’s important?"

I mean, the throne is empty. That’s not unimportant.

Of course, whether the imperial nobility actually believed it was empty was another matter entirely. Some of them might try to reclaim the Emperor and put him back on the throne.

And if Alice or I ended up on that throne, there would undoubtedly be people trying to manipulate us.

"But before that," Alice cut me off firmly. "Let’s talk about your ability."

"My ability no longer exists."

"I know."

Alice nodded, then furrowed her brows as if something about the topic irritated her.

"What did you think I was going to ask? Whether you could use it to help me?"

Uh...

Well, Alice wasn’t the type to say something like that.

"It’s not about that. I wanted to talk about your ability—and the memories I got back."

She sat up, no longer sprawled out on the bed. Though she didn’t sit completely straight, she planted both hands on the mattress and looked at me.

"...Back when we were kids, when you kept getting better grades than me."

Ah.

That.

It really had been cheating, in a way. I had so much more time to study than everyone else.

"Come to think of it, couldn't you have just looked at the exam questions and then rewound time? Why did you do it that way? You pulled the same trick every time."

Alice looked at me like she genuinely couldn’t understand.

"..."

Well.

To be honest, I hadn’t wanted to sink that low.

There were other reasons too. I had always been worried that relying on shortcuts would eventually erode my personal standards, leading me to make an irreversible mistake someday.

So, if I was going to learn something, I figured I might as well do it properly. It wasn’t like I lacked time. And if I wanted to maintain my character, I needed more than just surface-level /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ acting—I needed a real foundation. In the end, I did end up benefiting from that knowledge more than once.

But above all else... I hadn’t wanted to cheat while Alice was working so hard right next to me.

Yeah, I know. From the perspective of someone without my ability, it was still cheating.

"Seeing the hardworking princess beside me, I just... didn’t want to do something like that."

But I told her the truth anyway.

There was no point in hiding it anymore. She had already figured everything out.

The only reason I had ever been able to beat Alice... was because I had infinite chances.

Now that I didn’t, no matter what I did, Alice would always be better than me.