For A Princess

The day after he signed the contract with Delmore, Lesaric was asked by a few researchers to offer his help. They didn’t even care that Lesaric was supposed to be here as an experiment.

“We always lack manpower,” someone told him, shrugging.

They usually asked him to do small things. They would ask for something to be carried or for someone to examine a research paper. Then, they would just chat about random things. Every researcher was so focused on their work that they didn’t like listening, they just liked talking about themselves.

They said Lesaric was perfect because he didn’t talk much.

Today, Lork Arksy asked for Lesaric’s companionship.

“I used to work in the finance department,” he said. “Apparently, I just inherited my last name because I could use magic. I can’t create Granica.”

“Can’t most people who can use magic create Granica?” Lesaric asked. “I thought it just meant that, if you were weaker, your Granica wouldn’t be too powerful.”

Arksy called him over to look over the machine. They worked for a moment, then he nodded. “Yes, most people can,” Arksy said, returning to the conversation. “But I can’t. I can’t consistently use magic, so my magic line keeps going on and off. I can’t maintain Granica.” He shrugged. “My parents were discouraged. They even sent me to the Academy. My father did all he could to earn money by fighting in wars… So, I ended up at the finance department somehow, and guess what? The minister hated Horns. He just hit me whenever I tried to touch a document.”

Lesaric frowned. He tried to console Arksy, but there wasn’t much he could do.

“It’s over now at least,” Arksy said.

“How did you end up in the lab?”

“I created a few financial statements concerning lands that the emperor personally owned,” Arksy said. “Miss Delmore saw that and, apparently, I made a good impression. She said I’d be good at data analytics. So, she came to see me herself.” Arsky smiled. “She saw me get slapped. She said something to the person in finance department and instantly got me out. She said she needed someone good at statistics because she was doing a few social experiments. I’ve had a very happy life ever since.” Lork Arksy fixed the papers cheerfully.

Lesaric was confused. He had helped a few researchers over the past few days and, while half of them were Horns, the other half were normal people. The normal people that were part of the lab treated Lesaric with no prejudice. Sometimes they even asked what happened in the most recent war because they were interested in his stories. They respected him.

The researchers born with Horn blood were brought in mostly by Delmore. Most of them were treated unfairly where they were before but were able to hone their abilities once they joined the lab. Whether they were Horns born with great power or Horns that didn’t even get the last name, they were no different.

“Princess Delmore… she seems to be different from the other royals,” Lesaric said without thinking.

“Yes,” Arksy nodded. “At first, I didn’t trust her. I thought that someday she would hit me too. I even thought she would steal what I was working on…” He trailed off. “I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this, but most royals don’t come to the lab. But there was this one time that the first prince’s Horn was taken here.”

“Like me?” Lesaric chuckled.

“Yes.” Arksy also chuckled. “Anyways, that Horn seemed to be favored by first prince. The prince came to the lab himself and demanded to see him. Miss Delmore said that the Horn died but the prince didn’t believe her.” Lork Arksy didn’t continue but Lesaric understood, especially after what he had seen a few days ago.

“Royals don’t really fight each other, do they?” Lesaric asked. “Unless it’s about the throne.”

Arksy shrugged. “Miss Delmore claims that she isn’t favored by others. She wouldn’t let any of us intervene when the prince started to… hurt her.” His voice trembled a little. “Even though that happened, she didn’t tell him where the Horn went. She fainted right after the prince left. To let herself be treated like that… I never doubted the princess again after that.”

Arksy sighed. “You won’t be able to trust her yet, of course. We understand. But you should know that she really has a lot depending on her. She doesn’t even care about her own body.” Lork Arksy cleared her throat and was cheerful again. “I hope you learn to appreciate her. She’s really taking care of you.”

Right after he finished, Lork Arksy corrected the mistake Lesaric had made in setting up the machine.

Lesaric chuckled. He had been wondering why the machine wasn’t working, he didn’t know what was wrong with it.

“Thank you for your help, Lesaric.” Arksy smiled.

“Of course.”

When Lesaric left, he started heading to the lab’s third floor, the floor he had been avoiding. He walked until he got to the biggest room: Delmore’s lab, where he had woken up.

***

Delmore put her hand on her tired eyes. She was in terrible shape. Her hair was a mess and her lips were split. She was really tired. She just wanted to lie down and sleep comfortably, but she had so much to do.

She had to recover the research paper that had gone missing, and she had to at least pretend to be increasing the production of the ramsa liquid that Libron had requested. On top of that, she had to take care of the research she was conducting.

After she put Lesaric in the lower lab, she started working on another project to help Lesaric. The more safety features they had in the lab, the better.

“So tired…” she groaned.

Her eyes hurt. Her stomach also hurt. Come to think of if, when did she last eat? Did she eat an apple for breakfast this morning? No. So, when was it?

At that moment, someone was at the door. Delmore spoke without looking up. “Come in.”