The carriage carrying the Duchess departed, and a few days later, my older sister Elena left the mansion too. I trained under Miguel. Life was no different from before. The people who whispered when they saw me hadn't changed, and my two brothers still went out of their way to avoid me.

Miguel, though, had something different to say when he looked at me. “You're not taking lessons from another knight behind my back, are you? There's no way your skill could improve this suddenly...”

“Urgh. And your understanding of the sword has changed too much to simply call you a genius.”

Being young again was frustrating. My body wouldn't move the way I wanted it to, but Miguel evidently saw things very differently. Then again, although my body had gone back to age six, all the training and combat experience I'd gained by age ten remained intact in my head. There would have been no point in coming back if everything stayed the same.

Perhaps that was why I improved much faster than before. I needed less time to understand swordsmanship, and all that remained was to strengthen my body. I soon surpassed the progress I'd made in my previous life.

Unlike before, even the knight commander came to see me, and the Duke seemed to pay me more attention. Rumors spread that I might be a genius at swordsmanship as well as academics, but I paid them no mind. I had plenty to investigate and prepare for besides training.

In my previous life, I'd been so busy learning the sword that I'd paid too little attention to what was happening around me. Objectively, it wasn't something a child under ten should have had to worry about. But it had gotten me killed, so this was no time to worry about what others thought.

First, I went to the library and looked through every book on the kingdom's history. I'd read most of them before. A second reading yielded little more than praise for the hero who had founded the kingdom and for the royal family descended from him. Worse, they said nothing at all about what I wanted to know: the kingdom's current situation.

“They don't have newspapers or broadcasts here, so I'll have to ask people...”

“The kingdom's current situation?”

Miguel's answer was far worse than I'd expected. “There's the king, his two sons and one daughter, His Grace, and the other nobles.”

Come on, I knew that much.

“I'm a knight. That's all I need to know. More importantly, it's time to train. Please focus on your training.”

I couldn't help sighing.

“... Well, I can tell you the basics, but I doubt they'll be much help.”

The head butler told me a few more things, but he wasn't much help either. Fortunately, I got a more detailed account from a clerk.

“You mustn't tell anyone... that you heard this from me.”

“Don't worry. You know I can keep a secret.”

The clerk nodded. All the effort I'd put into winning him over, with favors and gifts, had paid off.

“The kingdom's nobles can be divided into two groups, broadly speaking, or three if you look more closely.” He lowered his voice as far as it would go. “There's the royal faction, which believes the king should be given more power, and the noble faction, which believes the rights of the nobles and their territories must be protected. Recently, the royal faction has split into supporters of the First Prince and supporters of the Second Prince.”

“Because of His Majesty's age?”

“That's right.” The clerk nodded, looking pleased with my answer.

“There's a princess too, isn't there?”

“She'll marry a high-ranking noble or go to another country anyway.”

At times like this, I was reminded all over again how close this world was to the Middle Ages.

“House Gresia supports the First Prince, then.”

“Oh, that's right. What makes you think so?”

I knew because I'd heard it before I died, but I couldn't say that. “Our house descends from the royal line, so we'd be in the royal faction. And the First Prince has the legitimate claim, so we'd support him.”

The Duke was a traditional noble to the core. There was no way he'd support anyone else.

“You know your politics. House Gresia supports the First Prince. Still, His Majesty remains in good health, and the princes have only just come of age, so the division isn't particularly serious yet.”

Which meant it would be serious four years from now. Serious enough for House Gresia, which supported the First Prince, and House Hierro, which supported the Second, to forge an alliance through marriage.

But by then, shouldn't the noble faction have been cultivating ties with both princes too?

“Does the noble faction have a leader of its own?”

“Yes. Julian de Carlos, the ruler of a principality. He's His Majesty's younger brother.”

Ha. What a mess.

“He's an extraordinary man. He practically founded the principality himself.”

He seemed to be quite a popular noble. The clerk had sounded indifferent when he mentioned the princes, but now his voice was full of respect.

So there were two princes after the throne, and their uncle, who had gathered the nobles into a power bloc of his own. In the end, three people were after the throne.

Which of them did the people who killed Adria belong to?

“Which side is Count La Palma on?”

Count La Palma. The noble the person who killed me had said they served.

“Count La Palma is a little hard to place... Some say he's with the Second Prince, like the Marquis of Hierro in the neighboring territory. Still, he's probably closer to the noble faction.”

I looked at the clerk again. Had he always been like this?

“You really do know a lot.”

“Ha ha. If I'm going to teach a genius, I ought to know plenty myself.”

Getting to live through age six a second time had let me keep my reputation as a genius at my studies. But more to the point, the clerk knew a great deal about the kingdom's political situation. Aside from teaching me, he was an ordinary clerk handling the territory's administrative work. How did he know so much? Did even an ordinary clerk harbor ambitions of his own?

I made a point of remembering the young clerk, and committed our conversation to memory.

Even after hearing the clerk's account, I kept asking people questions whenever I had the chance. I asked those with some knowledge about the kingdom's politics, and ordinary people about the territory.

Then one day, while I was going around asking questions, I ran into Manuel in the corridor.

The little brat usually took a detour to avoid me, but today we met right in the middle. Seeing Manuel at eight again after knowing him at twelve made me smile. The exaggerated sneer on his face was both funny and cute.

“I hear you've been going around asking strange questions. You'd better be careful. Mother didn't look pleased when she heard about it. Don't get carried away just because everyone's been making a fuss over you lately.”

Oh!

Manuel spoke in a thoroughly mocking tone, but his words snapped me to attention. I'd made a mistake. In my eagerness to ask questions, I'd drawn too much attention to myself. Going around asking people about the kingdom's political situation was bound to invite misunderstandings. If the Duke or Manuel's mother, the Duchess, heard about it, they might suspect I was after Simon's position.

I couldn't afford that kind of misunderstanding now. I'd died several times over suspicions like that, and I had no desire whatsoever to go through it again.

“Thanks, brother! I'll be careful. I'll make sure no one has reason to talk, so don't worry. I really appreciate you telling me!”

“I-I-I... As long as you understand.”

Manuel looked as though that wasn't the response he'd wanted, then scampered off. I'd gathered a fair amount of information. It was time to rein myself in.

I continued my training and began a different investigation, this time into Majorca Fortress and the symbol I'd seen in the tomb beneath it. I turned the library upside down looking for the symbol and started asking the clerks and others about it and the fortress. Before long, the rumors that I was after Simon's position died down. People decided it was just another direction in which the genius's curiosity had taken him. That earned me a reputation as an eccentric genius, but I could live with that.

I heard several interesting tales about Majorca Fortress, but unfortunately, no one recognized the symbol. Just in case, I checked the symbols the heroes had used, but it wasn't in any of the books I had.

And so I spent my time much as I had in my previous life, all the while keeping my ears open. Three years passed, and at last I could hold my own against Miguel.

“Argh! This makes no sense!” Miguel said through clenched teeth. His arms bulged, and his face had turned bright red.

I couldn't answer. If I opened my mouth, the mana I'd connected to the ground would surely scatter. Our swords were locked together, neither moving an inch.

“How am I not pushing you back when I outweigh you by that much?”

I could understand his frustration. I was plainly shorter than him, and he weighed a full three times as much, yet I was holding his sword at bay. It was thanks to a new way I'd learned to use mana, of course. But I hadn't told him my secret, so it was only natural that he was fuming.

“Let's stop here.”

He stepped back. “How on earth did you do that?”

“It's a technique.”

“Haa... A technique? Then I suppose this is as far as my instruction goes. Our skills are evenly matched, and you're using techniques I don't even know. I can't very well remain your instructor.”

Damn. That hit where it hurt. I couldn't have my practice partner walking away. Where else would I find a sucker like him?

“That was only a match without mana. I still need to learn how to acquire mana and study the mana Heart Method.”

I'd already acquired mana, and I was confident I wouldn't lose a match where we used it either. But Miguel didn't know that, so it was fine.

“True. Still, knowing you, young master, you'll learn quickly and beat me in a mana match before long.”

It had worked again. He really was my wonderful sucker of a knight.

“In any case, that's it for today's training. The knights have been called together, so I have to go.”

“What for?”

“The knight commander and Young Master Simon are going to House Hierro in a few days. We've been summoned about that. I expect they'll choose who goes with them and rearrange our duties.”

Was this when it happened? The event I'd been waiting for had finally begun. I returned to the mansion with Miguel, then requested an audience with the Duke.

“His Grace says you may come in.”

Perhaps it was because my skills had improved even further, but this time I didn't have to wait. When I entered, the Duke put down his pen and looked at me.

“What is it?”

The way he treated me seemed to have changed a little, but his expression was as cold as ever. I hadn't expected anything else, so I wasn't disappointed.

“I'd like you to let me join the party going to House Hierro. I'll discreetly guard Simon.”

It must have surprised him. The Duke's expression shifted slightly. “Hmm. It's not a bad idea...”

Just as I'd expected, he took it well. All that work honing my skills and making sure he noticed had paid off.

“Why the sudden interest?”

“I've only seen the world through books. Now I'd like to go out and experience it for myself.”

Ugh. I gave myself goosebumps. It was exactly the sort of embarrassing line a dreamy boy cooped up in a mansion would say.

“... I see. You are nine, after all.”

The Duke, who'd been expressionless until now, looked at me with a touch of bemusement. Damn it. That made it twice as embarrassing.

“Whatever your reason, it's a sound idea. You have my permission.”

Yes! All that effort had paid off. The Duke was, as ever, a coolheaded and rational... piece-of-shit noble.

“You've told Amanda, I assume?”

“Ah...”

“Since you're the one who asked, you can be the one to tell your mother.”

I was doomed. I pictured my mother with tears in her eyes. The corners of the Duke's mouth seemed to lift a little as he watched me.