#21. Sweeping Away the Small Fry
Simon staggered back in shock.
It was still too early for him to be surprised.
“I’ll also be personally handling His Highness’s swordsmanship training.”
“You say that as if swordsmanship were embroidery or flower arranging! If he trains improperly, he’ll never become a good knight!”
“I don’t care if he doesn’t become a good knight.”
“What?!”
“Because His Highness isn’t meant to be a knight—he’s meant to be an emperor.”
I gently brushed Franz’s soft, golden hair, smooth as honey bird feathers.
Simon puffed and fumed, unable to come up with a proper rebuttal.
“This is overstepping your authority!”
“How can it be overstepping, when this was His Majesty’s decision?”
Franz, who had been quietly listening, made a distressed face.
“Can’t I keep learning swordsmanship? Sir Brendan is a good teacher.”
“You hear that? Even His Highness wants me!”
Simon straightened his hunched shoulders.
Pfft. I couldn’t help but scoff.
“Nothing’s changed. I’m still the education supervisor.”
“Miss Elisabeth, why are you throwing such a childish tantrum? This isn’t a matter for a woman to recklessly interfere in.”
“Are you deliberately choosing insulting words?”
“I meant no offense. Please don’t take it the wrong way.”
A few words were often enough to strip away the polished veneer of nobles and expose their vulgar, petty faces.
Tantrum? Woman? Reckless?
I shot back with a cold expression.
“If you know the words are offensive, wouldn’t it be better not to say them at all?”
Simon glared at me with open hostility and burning anger.
“You’ve gone too far.”
“I only said this out of concern for Sir Brendan.”
“I know very well that you enjoy His Majesty’s favor. But even so, you cannot treat His Highness’s appointed sword instructor like this.”
“Ha… Since you don’t seem to understand, let me spell it out for you.”
Perhaps I did have a teacher’s knack after all—since I wasn’t even that angry at such a slow-witted student.
“First. I only conveyed His Majesty’s decision.”
“……”
“Second. Don’t assume I can’t teach swordsmanship. I’ve learned methods suited exactly to His Highness.”
“And who could you possibly have learned that from?”
The impatient, dull-witted student butted in again.
“I wasn’t finished. Wait until I’m done before asking questions.”
“!”
“Third. For His Highness, growth is more important than grueling sword training.”
“Are you saying my guidance was wrong?”
“Very wrong. Just look—what did you let happen to His Highness’s hands?”
“……”
“If you didn’t notice, that’s a problem. If you did notice and ignored it, that’s an even bigger problem. Don’t you go around saying His Highness is the Empire’s future? Don’t you report everything to His Majesty?”
“This must be some misunderstanding…”
“Misunderstanding? Then why did you ignore it when the entire Crown Prince’s palace was thrown into chaos? Because you’re a nobleman, did you think you could just brush it aside with dignity?”
I pressed him relentlessly.
The same man who once flattered me with lines about goddesses and beauty now trembled with rage.
I delivered the final blow.
“For the record, His Majesty himself taught me the methods. He showed me how to instruct without even touching a sword. So don’t underestimate me.”
Franz stared up at Elisabeth with a dazed expression.
“What exactly are you trying to do?”
“Stay still. This ointment’s a special order from a friend.”
She grabbed Franz’s hand despite his resistance.
If he’d really wanted to, he could have pulled away.
But with this woman… somehow, he couldn’t.
She’s so strange. Always barging in, acting like she knows everything. But why don’t I hate it? Why does it seem… cool?
She carefully applied ointment and wrapped bandages over the wounds no one else had ever cared to notice.
Franz muttered bluntly,
“You know you could be executed for treating me so casually?”
“You use informal speech with me, too.”
“I’m the crown prince. You’re just a commoner-born tutor.”
“How petty. Wasn’t it you who used to whine, ‘Elisabeth-sensei, when are you coming?’”
She mimicked his voice in an exaggerated whine, chuckling at the memory.
Franz pressed his lips together tightly.
This is only because my brother asked me. He told me to keep watch so her conversations with the literature professor wouldn’t go on too long.
He didn’t know why Nikolai had made such a request.
But just the fact that his admired elder brother wanted his help had made him leap with joy.
It felt like the distance that had grown between them was shrinking.
And all of it had started after Elisabeth arrived.
“You want to get on your father’s good side, don’t you? If you appoint me as your tutor, I’ll make His Majesty the biggest doting father in the Empire.”
Her whispered words echoed in his mind.
She had no idea Franz wasn’t Nikolai’s real son.
And Franz didn’t even know what a “doting father” truly meant.
But somehow, the phrase stirred a sharp pang of longing inside him—touching on the tender wish he had always hidden.
Everyone thinks I hate my brother, but in truth, I adore him more than anyone. He’s my idol. How could Elisabeth have known that?
Until his mother’s death six years ago, Franz had lived with her in the Canary Chamber.
The only visitor allowed into that locked room was his half-brother Nikolai.
Until his passing, the late emperor never granted the young concubine the status of empress, nor acknowledged her four-year-old son as a prince.
Ironically, because of that discrimination, Franz ended up being recognized as Nikolai’s “son.”
But what did that recognition really mean?
In a palace teeming with wolves, Franz was always alone.
Whenever loneliness overwhelmed him, he returned to the Canary Chamber, clinging to the faint scent of his mother that might still linger there.
Then, one day, a new occupant took over that room.
The shock and sense of betrayal were indescribable.
I thought she was just a vulgar woman coveting my brother’s power… but what is Elisabeth’s true nature?
All his life, Franz had only been surrounded by paid servants or sycophants seeking favor.
Even smiling assassins had lurked nearby.
Yet she was the first to expose them—and the first to raise her voice for him.
“If it weren’t for me, things could have been far worse. Aren’t you going to thank me?”
“Hmph. Do you even know why I hid this from His Majesty?”
“Because you wanted to uncover the culprit yourself. To prove that Franz Lov Yevrei is a capable and wise crown prince.”
“…Is that all?”
“And maybe you didn’t want His Majesty, whom you love so dearly, to see you weak and sickly.”
Once again, Elisabeth was right.
But Franz shook his head gravely.
“I’m not so foolish as to risk my life for that alone.”
“Then what’s the real reason?”
“His Majesty himself couldn’t uncover the mastermind. Even after multiple assassins confessed. What does that tell you?”
“That you’re very popular with assassins?”
“Is that something you should say to a ten-year-old?!”
Franz snapped.
Elisabeth pinched his cheek with a mischievous grin.
“You only call me ‘teacher’ when it suits you. And you expect me to treat you like an adult?”
Franz slapped her hand away, frowning.
Still, he didn’t show how much she sometimes felt like a peer—like a real friend.
“They’re not to be underestimated. I was waiting for them to slip up. Only then could I catch the true mastermind.”
He said it with pride.
Elisabeth clicked her tongue.
“You only see half the picture, silly boy. Tsk, tsk.”
For a moment she looked less like a girl and more like an old man with a long white beard.
“Franz. The ones who confessed? They’re the lowest of the low, disposable pawns. Even if they slipped, it would never reach the leader.”
“But—”
“You put yourself in danger. If you didn’t already have a reputation as a brat, they’d have realized you were plotting something. And then what?”
“You mean… they’d have silenced me?”
“Poisoners bold enough to target the crown prince? Of course. While you were busy pretending you could handle it alone, you almost paid the ultimate price.”
Franz had suspected as much.
That he couldn’t solve anything by himself.
But having her call it out stung.
And yet, because it was Elisabeth, his bravado felt useless.
“…I do owe you for that.”
“Oh my, what did you just say, Your Highness? I didn’t quite hear.”
“I—I said thank you!”
Franz burst out, raising his voice.
Instead of pinching his cheek again, Elisabeth ruffled his golden hair.
“Good boy. You even know how to say thank you.”
Her words were warm, her tone tender.
Tears prickled at his eyes.
For the first time, he felt the comfort of someone truly understanding him.
Maybe all he had needed was an adult who could both scold him and gently pat his head. Someone trustworthy.
“Still, chasing out Sir Brendan was too much. What were you thinking?”
“Sorry, but he’s not the great teacher you imagine, Franz.”
“He’s the only one who ever encouraged me that I could become a fine knight.”
“That’s what’s called false hope.”
“So harsh.”
“Face it, Franz. You have no talent for swordsmanship.”
Nikolai was both emperor and an unmatched swordsman, said to rival the greatest knights.
Franz had heard countless tales of his brother’s prowess since childhood.
He had longed to become a strong man like him.
So he clenched his teeth and endured brutal training.
Even if I’m not his real brother or son, I wanted to prove that his blood ran in me too. That I was of the emperor’s line.
Though he preferred other pursuits, he devoted himself to swordsmanship.
But the more he forced it, the deeper his wounds—both physical and emotional—became.
His other studies suffered, and his self-loathing only grew.
“Even His Majesty told you—there’s no need to push yourself to death.”
Elisabeth rested her hand on his head again.
“The elders want to dethrone me and put another crown prince in my place. They say a weakling like me can’t be emperor…”
“You think His Majesty would let a bunch of small fry dictate to him?”
“You call the heads of noble houses small fry?”
“You don’t need to worry about them. Sweep them away, and that’s the end of it.”
“!”
“If we ask His Majesty, he might even banish them to some far-off exile. Should we test it out?”
Her dark, pearl-like eyes sparkled with mischief.
Franz flushed bright red.
“You want me to become a tyrant? The empire can’t be run by the emperor alone. Persuading the nobility is part of ruling.”
“…Now I understand why His Majesty chose you as heir.”
“What?”
“If it were me, I’d want someone clever like you to succeed me. Even if we didn’t share a single drop of blood.”
She hadn’t meant it knowingly, but her words hit Franz hard.
He quickly averted his gaze to hide the rush of joy and shy embarrassment.
“Elisabeth… Can you really teach me swordsmanship?”
“I did learn the method from His Majesty. But I plan to be a bit lazy with it.”
“Lazy?”
“Because we’ve got other, more important things to do with that time.”
She brushed back a lock of her crimson hair.
Franz thought it was as beautiful as his mother’s golden hair, though so different.
That, too, was strange.
“And what’s that supposed to be?”
Curiosity swelled in his chest.
He didn’t realize it was all part of Elisabeth’s plan.
But even if he had, perhaps he still would have followed her.
Because Elisabeth always had that kind of magic.
