Chapter 96: Branch 13: Isabeau

---D-Day+57, Glenic 28th---

"...Again. Stormgarde Academy was established in?"

"Please Emony, not another review...  We've been at this for two weeks."

The morning spring's light is obscured by thick clouds and a sprinkling rain.  Three splendid looking carriages under heavy escort have just left Raelera's north gate.  Each carriage bears the royal coat of arms, gold rose on a black field, on their sides and are pointed north.

While the front and back carriages are filled with luggage and servants?  The middle one only has four passengers within.  Two young ladies with expertly tailored bright dresses.  And two older women outfitted almost as expensively, but much more conservatively, in dark clothing.

At the moment both of the older women are wearing tired expressions.

"Yes, I'm much more interested in tales of the new lord of Lions Keep.  I heard he is only fifteen and already has six wives.  All of them kept very satisfied by his magic... thingie."

Two girls giggle while two women groan.

The source of their exhaustion?  The two young ladies.  Who's upbringing and education, should keep them from taking this trip so lightly.  Indeed, it should keep them from taking this trip at all.

However, their charges are desperate.  And this is likely their last chance to escape fate.  Third Princess Isabeau, youngest daughter of King Arter II Angelles, and Viscountess Ymanie, youngest daughter of Duke Gautier Baramont.

While both had been blessed with beauty?  Both had also been cursed with no magical talent.  Yet their siblings are magical powerhouses.  Among the nobility, mana is almost as important as lineage.  Without mana?  Your value, and your prospects, plummet.

The two had bonded over their mana misfortune and dedicated themselves to fixing it.  No mediation technique or cultivation process was too bizarre.  Or too expensive.  For them to try.  No remedy too outlandish to attempt. 

Frequently targeted by con artists, they had become an ongoing embarrassment to their families.  Though the years were not completely wasted.  Isabeau having become lethal with a bow while Ymanie is now considered deadly with a spear.

And, luckily, what they lacked in mana?  They made up for in cuteness.

Their fathers regularly interfered with the mothers and siblings attempts to reign the duo in.  Or ship them off somewhere to be forgotten.  Still, they could both feel that time was running out.

On one fateful recent evening, the oft neglected pair had been again wandering the palace.  This time stumbling across something, forbidden.

A cult!  Followers of an unrecognized religion.

In the corner room of a palace basement.  A couple dozen servants and slaves had gathered.  Listening to the sermon of a traveling priest.  Discovered, the servants and slaves declared the girls had to die.

The inquisition tortured and executed cultists.  Killing the two would be their only chance to live.  Shocking everyone, the priest protected the girls.  Berating and shaming the cultists until they relented.

He recognized that these lordlings were just as lost as the servants and slaves.  Welcoming the girls instead, they joined the others in listening to tales of a monster from another world called, the Beast.

One tale in particular caught their ears.  Curing the Incurable and the Gift of Mana.  A magicaless girl, like them, was blessed by the Beast and healed.

When she was retested?  She now had enough mana to rival the strongest in her House.  Becoming?  A powerhouse.  And where was this Beast now?  Lions Keep.  Right next to Stormgarde Academy.

The friends soon confirmed that a daughter of House Chastel had indeed been cured of an incurable disease and after?  Found to now have a large reservoir of mana.  She had even been readmitted to Stormgarde Academy so she could learn magic.

The new lord of Lions Keep had been the one to cure her and he too would be attending Stormgarde Academy this year.  For the two desperate lordlings?  It seemed like a blessing from Metia herself.

As more proof of their neglect.  The girls invitations to Crownfair Royal Academy had been 'delayed' for another year, again.  Not that the invitations would do them much good. 

Manaless students were very much treated as second class in Tourin's top school.

Stormgarde Academy, on the other hand, had curriculums suited to magical and magicaless students.  The school's rules even forbid any discrimination against manaless students.

Another difference is Stormgarde having an entrance 'competition.'  Instead of invitation only like Crownfair or first come first serve.

The pair lobbied to attend Stormgarde instead of Crownfair but were refused by their worried fathers.  Stormgarde was weeks away from home and the rival of their fathers alma mater.

Despair descended on the duo when an unexpected offer arrived from their older brothers.  You see?  The Kingdom of Tourin is on the verge of collapse.

Even before the demon invasion, tensions among the nobility were high.  The first prince and first princess had married into opposing Houses.  Plotting and scheming over who would rule the kingdom when King Arter II died.

The only thing preventing civil war between the first prince and first princess?  Between House Airnett and House Baramont?  And House Angelles against itself?  Was the feud between the Court and Land factions.

Before the demon invasion, the Court faction was so dominant that succession struggles could be ignored.  Then runaway inflation, food shortages, and a flood of refugees, severely weakened the Court faction.

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Finally, the Beast being summoned instead of the Hero?  The Duke who was supposed to recruit the Hero, dying?  Letting a Marquis recruit the Beast?  Disastrous.  The apple cart had been flipped.

The kingdom was now politically paralyzed.  Unable to resolve the upcoming succession without making big concessions to the Land faction.  Which neither the first prince nor first princess could politically afford to do.

Solution?  Sacrificial lambs.

The first princess's husband and the first prince, would convince their fathers to let the duo attend Stormgarde.  In return, they would convince the Beast to either change factions or leave the Land faction.  Before King Arter II's death.

He reportedly already has three wives.  What's two more?  And if he kills them instead?  Who could be more disposable than two magicaless girls?  Not seeing any other option, the friends agreed.

With their brother's support?  The fathers finally relented and the scramble to get a princess and viscountess prepared for, and on the way too, Stormgarde's entrance festival began!

Leading to the exhausted state of the young ladies' attendants.

Spending most of each day of the last two weeks, cooped up in a carriage, would get on anyone's nerves.  Doubly so when dealing with two young noblewomen who become more and more excited the closer they get to Stormgarde.

They had spent the last two days on the edge of their seats and today couldn't stop bouncing.

"Princess, again, Miss Yvette and I have been tasked with preparing you for the competition."  Trying hard to be respectful.  "Which begins today. You both have mathematics and etiquette exams today. With dance, singing, instruments, and grammar, tomorrow."

Viscountess asks.

"When is the combat exam?"

Emony restrains herself for the umpteenth time.  These girls are far too inappropriately tomboyish.

"The melee, missile, and magic portions occur on the sixth day.  Since you cannot compete in the magic tests you must make up those lost points in the others."  Inner peace, inner peace.  "If your total score is not within the top one hundred?  You may not be able to attend."

The princess starts feeling nervous for the umpteenth time.

"How...  How m-many are competing?"

Yvette answers this time.

"Four hundred, Princess Isabeau."

Seeing her nervousness, Ymanie leans over and gives her knee a squeeze.

"It will be okay, Isabeau.  We've been tutored since we could walk.  And reviewing the exams for weeks.  Golden as Metia's smile."

Both Emony and Yvette frown.  While its true these girls were blessed in both body and mind?  They question whether the pair are blessed enough.  Competition to enter Stormgarde is tough every year and attracts applicants from across the western half of the continent.

And many come back to compete again if they fail.  The opportunities provided by a Stormgarde education are just that good.

"Hard work will make it okay viscountess.  Something we need to get back too."  Emony collects herself.  "Let's review the multiplication tables.  How do you calculate twelve times..."

The excited, but sore butted, pair groan.

Then smile, looking at the tower of Lions Keep standing on the horizon.

Completely forgetting the question.

Again.

---

Angelles, Isabeau Manel (female, human, tourinese)

• Third Princess
  • Kingdom of Tourin
• Youngest daughter of King Arter III Angelles

Baramont, Ymanie (female, human, tourinese)

• Viscountess of Baramont
  • Title-less
  • Duchy of Lathouc
• Youngest daughter of Duke Gautier Baramont
• Younger sister of Emeric Baramont

Emony (female, dwarf, tourinese)

• Attendant and Tutor
  • Princess Isabeau Angelles

Yvette (female, elf, tourinese)

• Attendant and Tutor
  • Viscountess Ymanie Baramont

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