Chapter 33

My gardener, who remained after Mother left, is the only one who wasn’t replaced; all the others are gardeners from the Marcosias family in Fulftball.

The gardener who stayed is a middle-aged man older than Krieger, but his build is similar to Krieger’s. The new gardeners who came from Fulftball also mostly have similar builds.

When Mother was here, they created a beautiful garden with flowers and greenery to suit her tastes, but after she left, the garden took on a completely different character.

I wonder if it’s okay to change the castle grounds like this, but since the areas visible to visitors remain the same, I don’t think there will be any complaints from outsiders.

“Don’t worry, I’ll return it to its original state when Lord Albert returns to Fulftball,” the gardener, Feawalter, who has been here since Mother’s time, said with a smile.

“How?”

“My magic is earth-based. There are a couple of others with the same attribute, so it won’t take long to restore this size of area.”

I see, that’s interesting.

I look at the magically modified garden.

It’s not really a garden, more like a forest, and it’s equipped with quite a few obstacle traps.

You see, at first, it was just a small, child-sized playground to build up my basic physical strength. Since I lacked physical strength, the idea was to play on such equipment to build it up. As my strength increased, the difficulty of the playground gradually increased, and this is the final result.

It reminds me of the training a boy who lost his family to a demon, except his sister, would receive from his master in the mountains before joining an organization to slay demons. The location isn’t in the mountains, and the scale is smaller, but it’s similar.

“Originally, we wanted Lord Albert to complete his first hunt ceremony in the Forest of No Return in Fulftball by the age of five, but that was impossible. So, we decided to prioritize the other option.”

The first hunt ceremony is a ritual that almost all male members of the Marcosias family undergo, where a child under five is given a dagger and instructed to stab a slain monster.

Because the Forest of No Return is a vast and majestic natural environment, it harbors many threats that humans cannot measure. Not only the geography itself, but the monsters living in the forest, if left unchecked, would cause significant damage to Fulftball. Therefore, as the stewards, the Marcosias family must be able to handle all the monsters in the Forest of No Return.

The first hunt ceremony is the first step to developing the toughness needed to withstand the monsters’ intimidation, the terror of their forms, and the ferocity of their attacks. After the ceremony, entry into the Forest of No Return is allowed.

See? I’ve never left the castle, and I haven’t undergone the ceremony, so I’ve never faced the vastness of the Forest of No Return or its monsters.

“Would I be considered unworthy as the head of the Marcosias family for not having undergone the first hunt ceremony?”

Feawalter responded with a cheerful smile to my muttering.

“There have been previous lords who didn’t undergo the ceremony, and there have been female lords. We understand the reason why Lord Albert couldn’t undergo the ceremony. While it’s supposed to be completed by the age of five, the first hunt in the Forest of No Return as an adult can also serve as the ceremony.”

I see.

“I was born at the wrong time, huh?”

“Lord Albert?”

“If I had been the second prince instead of the first, things would have been much smoother, right?”

If I had been the second prince, the king’s mistakes could have been ignored, and the preparations for inheriting the Marcosias family could have been openly made with the expectation of renouncing my succession rights when my grandfather visited, without causing any fuss. I think the royal family would have readily approved my going to Fulftball.

The king’s planning is really poor.

The obstacle course that Feawalter created, which is more than just a playground, is difficult to navigate without a certain level of physical strength and muscle. There’s one more essential element: magic.

By circulating this magic throughout the body while moving, one can easily navigate the trap-filled path.

In this world, as far as I know, most people, regardless of whether they are royalty, nobility, or commoners, have magic. However, the amount of magic varies, with nobles and royalty generally having more, and commoners having less.

Of course, there are exceptions.

There are people without magic, commoners with a lot of magic, and nobles or royalty with little magic. In a world where everyone has magic regardless of status, such people seem like they could be the protagonists of a story. If they were around me, I’d probably end up being the sidekick. I’m a prince, and my magic level is average. By the way, Ignatz has quite a lot of magic, so he could be the protagonist or the protagonist’s partner.

In this world, there are no demons or demon races, but there are magical beasts. And there are dragons! How romantic! They are extremely rare, living in rugged mountain ranges where humans can’t enter, deep in the ocean, and deep in the Forest of No Return. Dragons are at the top of the magical beast hierarchy and are the only ones that can communicate with humans. This is based on legends, and since they haven’t been seen for hundreds of years, it’s uncertain. Some say dragons are extinct, but since dragon scales are occasionally found, they must still exist somewhere.

I’d love to see one in my lifetime. Don’t call me childish! I’m only ten! I’m a kid! It’s okay to be fascinated by dragons!

A new chapter has begun.

The chapter title is correct.

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