Mei Ruan April 18th, 20XX

Lillian stood up with a jolt and accidentally pushed a hefty pile of scrolls off the table with her wings. I pushed a magic platform forward to catch the scrolls and eased them back to the top of the table.

If this had been at home, I wouldn't have bothered, but we were currently at the castle's library. I was sure some of these scrolls were worth more than I was.

Lillian presented the scroll in her hand to me. This wasn't the first time she had done so, but the grim look on her face told me that this was the real thing.

"General."

From the length of the scroll, I could tell it was only an excerpt from an entire text. That much was given considering this was only the fringe of the vast collection that was the royal library, any more than this and I'd have to give up my royal exemption.

The author wrote the excerpt in a light journalistic style, rather than striving to any academic standard, but it possessed the information I needed.

"Thank you, Lillian, but I need you to keep searching….."

Flashes of shame ran through me as I recalled my actions in the throne room earlier, but more than feeling shameful, I felt confused and dreadful.

I, who had withstood Jaya's tyranny for so long, would never treat another person like that, never mind the prince of the queendom. And personal morals aside, I had attacked the prince of the queendom!

Me! A general of the Ruan clan!

If there was one thing I'd had ground into my mind and soul while I was in training, it was loyalty to the royal family. Even if I played a few schemes, like what I'd done with Lillian earlier, I would never even have dreamt of harming him.

Looking back, I had felt betrayed….which made no sense, considering I had just met the prince.

While most of the male population could barely use magic and could at best perform cheap tricks, one of the more popular ones among them was bewitchment spells. Which was why I'd assumed and accused his highness of using against me.

A grimace played out across my face as I recalled the various times others had used such a trick against me in the past. Even Akseli had attempted it once or twice.

I read through the scroll Lillian had brought to my attention and cross-referenced it with the research I had already completed and my overall theory of what might have driven me to act as I had.

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….. affected by being in the royal family's presence, with the most common manifestation of this being undying loyalty and increased efficiency in spell casting. However, a few other examples can be correlated with the amount of magical power both the Royal family member and the affected possess.

First off, the stronger the royal family member is, the more pronounced the effect of their presence. The magnification of this effect can lead to more extreme feelings such as overprotectiveness and coddling from those that surround the royal member.

However, the people who would get the highest effect are those with the highest perception of magic. These rare cases would feel the purified magic's effect much more strongly than their counterparts, and the already powerful inclination to adore the royal family member will escalate to expressions of Obsession, Covetous feelings and compulsive infatuation tendencies in order to keep the royal family member around them.

Exceptionally few people with heightened magic perception will be able to resist these feelings and should be kept as far away from royalty as possible for fear they completely lost control and cause harm to the crown...

This, along with the 'Book of criminal acts against the royal crown' and 'Understanding the importance of the crown', told me what I needed to know.

My actions earlier were pretty much beyond my control. In fact, I should be commended for stopping myself before I went any further, but I should stay as far away from his highness as possible.

I could almost laugh.

After all, I even pushed my underaged sister into the post of the duchess, thinking I could protect her from our elder sister's counter-attacks in the future with my royal status.

As I was now, I couldn't even get close to the prince without attempting to push him down.

Lillian hovered beside me and only looked on worriedly. She had come to the same conclusion I had.

"General…"

I cut her off, unwilling to entertain any hopes of finding a solution.

Even if I sealed off my magical capacity so the royal's compulsion would affect me less, I didn't trust that I would have enough self-control to keep it sealed.

There was the option of handing this control over to others, but I didn't have anyone I trusted enough to give that control to. Lillian would be the best option, but she wouldn't be around me enough to be a feasible option.

I would just have to give up on my hopes to join the royal family. Maybe I could push Aruna to the throne?

No.

Even the thought of putting my immature little sister on the throne was laughable. She hadn't even completed her mandatory military service yet. There was no way that wouldn't lead to objections from the other families.

I just needed to clean up here, and then I would return to the battlefield.

How laughable was this?

First, I'd clung to a verbal promise that had been made decades ago, and then I actually made it to a meeting with the prince and his entourage, only to be stopped by a condition that was so rare I could barely find mention in it in the royal archives.

"Lillian. Call for another audience with Esmeralda….. and don't let her bring the prince."

The shadow fairy went, but I stopped her. Since I wouldn't be here to protect the prince full time, the least I could do was clean up the surrounding trash.

That would serve as a part of my formal apology.

"Better yet. Just bring Esmeralda here so we can talk. Tell her the General of the Ruan family has some words to say to her."