Ferrudion was baffled.

『“Who is he?”』he asked Lemme om Apox, who was standing to his right, via their soul link.

She replied in I!onian, “He must be a foreign noble.”

‘That is not helpful, duh.’

He gave up on using his material senses to observe the man and turned to the spiritual dimension instead.

‘Not bad.’

The man's soul was on the same level as Kalou Saha's. If their carriage driver had been a one and Lemme om Apox were a ten, Kalou Saha and this man would be a solid six.

Of course, if Ferrudion himself served as a ten, they would all be a zero, just like the creatures that had pulled their carriage.

In fact, even his father's secretary had a strong enough soul to relegate them to a zero.

If Ferrudion were to put himself on a scale, he would likely chose the secretary as a one and his mother as a ten. On this scale, his father would be an eight while he himself would be a solid five. He still had a lot of growing left to do, after all.

Ferrudion returned his focus to the material dimensions. The angry foreign noble's companions had caught up to him and the group was talking heatedly in their foreign language.

『“What is wrong with them?”』

“It looks like they are trying to calm him down,” Lemme om Apox explained in I!onian.

‘It is annoying that she needs to talk out loud like that. Should I teach her how to use soul speech?

‘Her soul is probably too weak and her thoughts too messy for that though…

‘I should teach her a godly language first…

‘But if I use ideas instead of the proper concepts, can it still be considered the same language?’

His contemplations were interrupted by Sir Fedinan Ksanten.

“I apologize for the commotion, my Lords, the Viscount Daz of the Faunahaz Principality has not been feeling too well…”

Sir Ksanten tried to apologize in Pakpak but Viscount Daz, who must have overheard him, interrupted,

“And yed yoh invid zis zikibaduk do my place of res-d? Zould I dak zis as an addempd do bazaz-kill ze advisor of ze pikon?”

Ferrudion was happy that he did not have to send a single message for Lemme om Apox to start explaining the new words,

“A sikibatuk is something that a group of people believes will likely harm them.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

‘Likely? A group of people believes?’

“To basasa-kill someone means to secretly kill someone for money.

‘Ah, an assassination!’

This was a concept that Ferrudion was familiar with.

“A pikon is what you call a prince or princess in I!onian.”

“The child of a ruler, got it.”

Ferrudion processed the man's statement using this information,

“Why does he think Sir William invited something that will likely harm that pikon?”

Since he did not know if the pikon in question was a prince or a princess, he used the Pakpak word.

Unfortunately, this seemingly sent the viscount over the edge.

“Wad are yoh plodding do do do my pikon?!”

Ferrudion grinned. The man's accent was entertaining.

Sir Ksanten opened his mouth to explain, but one of the viscount's companions beat him to it.

“Calm down. They were discussing the meaning of the words you used.”

The slender black haired youth spoke in clear, unaccented Pakpak.

At this, the viscount visibly reddened before responding in their language to which the youth gave a two syllable response.

Ferrudion watched with interest as the viscount bowed to the man, turned stiffly, and walked back the way he had came.

The youth then smiled at Ferrudion and switched back to Pakpak.

“We embarrassed ourselves.”

“Yes.”

One of the youth's remaining companions audibly gasped.

“I like your honesty, I am Azhona Happonod Zana a Haz. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“I am Pelou Dean,” Ferrudion replied simply.

There was a moment of tense silence.

‘Why are they silent? Ah, I forgot my guardian.’

Waving at Lemme om Apox, he added,

“This is my guardian, Lemme om Apox.”

The youth blinked. He had cold but dark blue eyes, Ferrudion observed.

Finally, Lemme on Apox tried to salvage the situation,

“It is an honor to make your acquaintance, … my lord.”

This last bit she said in a questioning tone as the youth had failed to include his title in his introduction.

“We are from beyond the Hum Mountains and know little of this continent…”

“I see, I should have introduced myself properly. I am Azhon Happonod Zana a Haz, fourth child of Pikon a Haz, ruler of the Independent Principality of Faunahaz.”

Upon hearing this, Lemme om Apox bowed respectfully and intoned,

“Your Highness.”

Ferrudion did not bow. Disguise or not, bowing to a mortal would be too much. But since the mortal had repeated his introduction with titles, he decided to play along,

“I am Pelou Dean, son of Marquess Pelou, from the「home」(X'xala) Empire. This is Dame om Apox, my guardian.”

The long-named princeling grinned in response.

“Are you here to attend the academy as well?”

“Yes, among other things.”

“Then we will be classmates. Since we came close to dropping formalities already, what do you think of calling me Azhon?”

Ferrudion considered the mortal's offer. He did not know if he would ever talk to him again, but a shorter name would save him some time.

“Ok.”

The following silence stretched out for a long while.

‘Conversing with mortals is difficult.’

This had been true from the start and little had changed since then.

‘Maybe I can introduce the others…’

He gave it a try.

“These are Kalou Dan and his guardian Kalou Saha. They are from the Ironforest Kingdom.”

All things considered, Ferrudion now felt that their names could be optimized as well.

“You can call him,” he waved at Kalou Dan, “just Dan and him,” he waved at Kalou Saha, “Kalou. It is shorter.”

The black-haired princeling chuckled.

“Your culture is unusual, but I find it refreshing. I should visit your… Ggala? Your Empire some day.”

“It is a long and arduous journey. We were lucky that Lord Dan Kalou and Sir Saha Kalou rescued us after our ship fell to pirates,” Lemme om Apox provided their cover story.

“Why did the viscount believe something would assassinate a pikon?”

Ferrudion preempted any questions the princeling might have asked with his own question.

The prince sighed before replying,

“Our ancestors consider gray or white hair a sign of death. They believed that to be in the presence of a young one with hair as light as yours meant to invite death.

“After all, for death's influence to have already changed someone so young, they must have dealt death themselves…

“Or some such nonsense. It is an old belief that has no place in today's world.”