The court mage had been a delivering a report for the King in the past hour. Though the pleasant weather beamed in from the transparent glass door, a heavy atmosphere, like a dark cloud, permeated the room.

The King closed his eyes and he stroked fingers along the ridge in between.

He had long since known that his Lord was having difficulty taking in what he was saying, and tried to slow the pace of his report, but it seemed even that was not enough.

Finally, the King let out a deep sigh, saying, "Alphonso, let's pause for a moment."

"Yes, my Lord." The hooded man set the documents in his hands onto the desk between them.

"I need to walk this down."

"Understood, my Lord."

Alphonso accompanied him for a short walk around the castle. He stayed by his side as they turned from hallway to hallway, all the while receiving the greetings of the castle's numerous servants. Eventually, they came to the second-floor hallway facing the palace garden. There, sounds of wooden swords clashing, and voices shouting resonated through the glass-paned windows.

The King looked out the windows and asked, "Are you sure that was a good idea, Alphonso?"

"Mm?" Alphonso joined the King and observed the ruckus going on in the garden. Below, amid the patch of grass, Sir Dorlan drilled the newest member of the Royal Knights - the Heroine's new bodyguard. "Indeed, she has shown no talent whatsoever. In terms of skill, I cannot imagine her growing further than a regular soldier, even with the guidance of Sir Dorlan."

"I can see that."

"However, I believe that is exactly what the Heroine needs right now."

"You did say that back then." He paused for a moment. "But what about the heroine, herself? Have you made any progress with her?"

He shook his head. "Apart from learning about her ability to manipulate people with her magic, I'm afraid not. She has shown no aptitude whatsoever in any advanced magic, even from the basic elements... At this point, it might be better to nurture whatever ability she does exhibit, rather than force her to learn conventional magic."

"I see." The King nodded. "Very well, I shall trust your judgment."

"I understand, my Lord." Alphonso glanced at his face and came upon the far-off look in his eyes. He followed his gaze towards the trees in the garden swaying in the breeze. He thus came to an idea, and said, "My Lord, shall we enter the balcony?"

"Hmm. Sure."

Farther down the hallway, a sliding door led to another balcony, this time facing the palace garden. The moment the two of them passed the sliding door, the wind swept Alphonso's hood right off his head.

"Woah..." Quick as lightning, he pulled his hood back up to hide the top of his head. Pretending it didn't happen, he cleared his throat and said, "The breeze is stronger than I thought."

The King snickered. "That it is." His thick coat danced with the flows of the wind as he reached for the marble railings. "Mm. It's a good breeze. But I wonder if it'll rain?"

"Who can say...? At the moment, there doesn't seem to be many clouds in the sky."

"That's true." He closed his eyes.

There, in the midst of the sun's gaze, wrapped in the wind's light caress, the two spent a few moments in silence.

Slowly, a gentle smile returned to the King's face.

Taking this opportunity, Alphonso then said, "My Lord, shall we continue where we left off?"

The King then turned around and sat back on the marble fence. "Very well."

"Now then, I shall skip to the conclusion of my report. In short, I am afraid that it will be difficult to create the new company-sized formation of mages that my Lord requested."

"Hm." He nodded. "Because the Elvish blood is diluting, you said."

"Indeed. The magical potential of a person is exclusively tied to how much Elvish blood runs in their veins."

"Of course."

"As you have seen from my report earlier, it seems that Elvish blood has been diluting in our citizens for every generation. This is true even for the three great clans of mages."

"And the nobles?"

"Even worse." He shook his head. "I still hold to the theory I proposed years ago. With the end of the last Elvish Empire a thousand years ago, there are no longer pure blooded Elves with which to replenish the magical heritage passed down to us from the original conquest of the Great Hero-King. Thus, the original half-Elvish blood dissipated across the human population. Though this meant that more and more humans could use magic, it also meant that the magical properties of that blood were diluted for every generation that followed."

"And you're saying that, at this point, that blood has diluted to the point of disappearing?"

"Not yet. I am sure that humans will yet continue to enjoy the benefits of magic in their everyday life. However-" He lowered his head. "The dilution has already reached the point that acute magical talent is becoming rare. This effect can also be shown in the document I showed earlier, of the share of exceptional students in the three great academies."

"I remember. They were going down precipitously."

"Yes. Unfortunately, it is also from that block of exceptional students that I would have had to find potential recruits to any formation of battle mages."

"I see."

"This is in contrast to the situation in the Easter Empire. My Lord is aware that they are positioning themselves as a powerhouse magical warfare."

"Yes."

"I believe a report from your loyal retainer, Aster, has finally given me the key to solving that puzzle."

"Hm? Tell me."

"It seems the nobility of the Easter Empire has engaged in incest for many generations. If this is true, then, perhaps, they did it on purpose. They must have known of the possibility of diluting the Elvish blood, and have thus turned to incest, to continue to produce many talented mages to this day."

The King turned away. "How distasteful. Could his not be just bad rumors spreading about the nobility in Easter? This sort of rumor-mongering is not really new, even here."

"Perhaps. But if it does prove to be a baseless rumor, then it only means that we are still stumped as to how the Easter Empire managed to create a powerful army of mages when that of every other nation was dwindling."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Stoking his beard, he let out an anxious grunt. "I can see your wisdom. However, in our case, not only is... that practice... heavily frowned upon in all walks of life, even if we started now, then all that would happen is we would maintain an already diluted bloodline."

"Indeed. I believe, in this case, we have lost our advantage."

"Hmm..." The wrinkles on his forehead knotted. "I see... A world where Easter has the monopoly on the magic, huh? That is no savory thought."

"Perhaps, instead of finding ways to bolster the Kingdom's magical power, it would instead be more fruitful to find ways of defeating magic, without the using our own magic?"

"That sounds impossible..." He crossed his arms and smirked. "For instance, how could any man, without even the magic to defend himself, possibly defeat you, hm?"

"Hm? Hmmmm..." Alphonso tapped his finger over onto his chin. After mulling over the question for a while, he then said, "Yes, that does seem impossible."

He chuckled.

As the two shared in light banter, the sliding door rattled open, and out came the voice of a young woman. "Your Highness," she said.

When the two of them turned to look, a maid wearing a wimple over her head stood at the door. Crossing her legs, she gave them a curtsy.

"Ah." The King glanced at Alphonso and said, "Let us return to my room. We will continue this topic later."

"Yes, my Lord."

As the two passed her, Alphonso glanced at her face. Her hair of light brown fell over her eyes, hiding it from plain sight. Meanwhile, her cheeks took on a bright sheen, despite being struck directly by the sun.

Ah.

He quickly turned his eyes away and sighed.

Alphonso and the maid stood in front of the King's desk.

As soon as he was seated, the King said, "This concerns the treasonous Guard Commander of Ealdton, correct? Go ahead, Aster."

"Yes, Your Highness." The maid said, her voice now much lower, and more mature than the one she used earlier. She bowed. Then, as she lifted her head, so did she pull off her wimple, and with it, her face.

Her hair, black as night, unfurled down her shoulders, revealing a streak of silver locks that ran slightly off center from her forehead and over her eyes.

It has been around a year since she used that guardsman disguise after all... but still, is it really necessary to keep changing disguises?

She held the wimple, with the fake face still attached to it, down by her waist. Then, her lavender tinted eyes gleamed as she delivered her report, "Your Highness, we have finally caught a trail of the former Guard Commander, Ernest Greyland, in Rafale. My team is already tracking him down as we speak."

The King's eyes sharpened. "Good. Kill him. I leave the method up to you."

She grinned. "As you wish."

"And one more thing. Since you and your team are going to Rafale anyway, I want to assign a secondary mission to you."

"Ho?" She tilted her head to the side.

"I want you to cause a disruption within Rafale. I don't care what. I will leave the details up to you - casualties and damage alike. What's important is that Rafale is repaid for what they did in Ealdton."

"Of course, your Highness!" she said with palpable excitement in her tone.

"Make sure the attack cannot be traced directly back to us. This is important. It is enough that they should be left guessing as to who did it - and only those who are responsible for the destruction of Ealdton, to know who it really was."

"Of course, your Highness."

"Now, go."

Without another word, she placed her hand on her chest and bowed. Finally, she turned around and headed towards the door. But just as she passed Alphonso, she gave him a glance. With a smirk, she then mouthed her words to him.

'You owe me.'

But he ignored her.

As she then passed him by, so did he hear the soft click of her tongue.

Hmph. What a troublesome woman.

With Aster leaving the room, Alphonso and the King were left, once more, alone.

When the quiet finally settled back in, the court mage asked, "An answer to their hostility notwithstanding, is it truly necessary to provoke them, my Lord?"

"On the contrary," he answered, "If we stand idly after they inflicted this much destruction on our land, they might sense weakness."

"I see."

A silence fell upon the room.

At that moment, Alphonso's eyes turned to the tiny specks of dust floating in the air, made visible beneath the sunrays.

Then, the King took a deep breath. "What do you think?"

"I'm afraid, I do not know. Politics is unlike the pursuit of knowledge. Hardly is there ever a correct answer; and most of the time, it is as if you are swimming in the night, amid an endless sea..."

"...and all you can do is swim forward." Letting out his breath, he then snickered, saying, "You still remember what my father used to say."

"It seems to be true, amongst other things. He was a wise man."

"Hmph..." He finally relaxed his shoulders and lounged back in his chair. "I still wonder, at times, what he would do, if he were still here."

Alphonso lowered his head but gave no reply. And in his silence, a somber lull filled the air.

After a while, the King rested his head on his hand and said, "Do you think... he would still refer to me as his 'useless son' if he saw me today?"

"Hmm... I cannot speak for the late King... But at the very least, there are many in this Kingdom today who assess their ruler as wise."

"I see..." He closed his eyes in quiet contemplation.

My Lord, King George... who could ever have guessed that you would succeed the throne of Londinium? Perhaps not even yourself. As he looked at the aged face of the monarch before him, he could not help but look back to the spry young man he met beneath the shade of an apple tree; a young man in search for adventure.

He snickered to himself.

I admit, not even myself.