Lord of Charm



The prince had a young, round face. His phoenix eyes and short black hair gave him a handsome look, and his body was lean and flexible from his training.

"Good, you're here on time. Come here and let's start. You don't need to teach me anything, but you can advise me if you have anything to say."

Kisuke was surprised by the prince's open-mindedness. He was sure that the prince knew that his swordsmanship was amateur at best, yet still told him he could advise him.

Kisuke entered the arena and drew his sword.

"Nice sword."

"Thank you, Prince."

The prince charged at him and started attacking, applying different techniques to catch Kisuke off-guard. Although Kisuke's techniques were much inferior to the prince's, he didn't feel any pressure.

In his eyes, the prince moved in slow motion, and he could easily adjust whenever he was fooled by the prince's feints.

Kisuke used this opportunity to learn too, he was slowly falling for fewer and fewer feints and became able to understand the prince's movements by observing his muscles.

He also imitated some of the prince's attacking sequences and kept improving them as the fight continued.

"All right, stop. I need a break. You can do whatever you want for thirty minutes, and we will continue."

The prince stopped their session and sat down to regain his stamina. They were sparring for an hour straight, and as a true magician, he was exhausted from the continuous pressure.

"Prince, you have a really nice house."

The prince lived in a relatively small house separated from the main palace.

"Thank you."

"Why do you live outside the palace?"

Kisuke asked curiously. He didn't speak to the prince during their training, but now the prince was resting, so he figured it'd be ok to have a conversation with him.

"More privacy and quiet. I have my chambers in the main palace if I want to move there."

"I see."

The prince usually didn't speak with others beyond what he had to because of his eccentric personality, but he had a very good impression of Kisuke. First, he didn't waste any of the practice time, second, he simply gave him a very good feeling.

The reason was Kisuke's high charm. Although he restrained most of it, the small amount that leaked out was enough to make others like him and have a good first impression of him. It was one of the reasons that Haruka was so accommodating toward Kisuke.

As a True Magician, the sixth prince was very weak against those effects, and if Kisuke let out his charm entirely, the prince would probably do anything to please Kisuke.

"Are you native to our dynasty?"

The prince eventually took the initiative to speak after Kisuke didn't add anything else.

"I am. My mother lives in Oda City, and my father is a foreigner whom I've never met."

Kisuke was already used to telling this story by now, so it came out naturally.

"Do you have siblings?"

"I don't. Do you maintain a good relationship with your siblings?"

"It's hard maintaining good relationships with all of them. I have 5 brothers and 4 sisters, and all of us are always busy with our own businesses, so we don't interact much with each other. Besides, some don't like their half-siblings."

Kisuke read in the information book he received from Caligula that Nikkokuni had an empress. The empress had a few husbands, so although they all shared the same mother, they came from different fathers. 

He found it weird at first because it was the other way around in the Amistrys Empire.

"Do you have any siblings from the same father?"

The prince shook his head with a hint of sadness.

"Now, my father is the last concubine of the empress, so I'm the only one."

Kisuke could feel the prince's yearning for family, and an idea formed in his head.

"I can be your big brother if you'd like." 

He smiled at the prince and his eyes had an unnoticeable green shine in them. He only applied a very small amount of mana on his charm, or else the boy would lose his senses.

"Really? I'd love it!"

The boy said too enthusiastically, but it was understandable that he was weak against the charm's effects with his low stage.

"30 minutes passed, let's continue. You can call me Big Brother when we're alone, but it might be inappropriate to do it in front of others for now."

"Okay, you're right."

They continued their session for another hour until their time together was over.

"I will be going now. I've learned a lot from sparring with you, Sixth Prince."

"Since you're my big brother now, just call me Tanjirou. My name is Oda Tanjirou."

The empress' last name was Oda, and all her offspring used it.

"Goodbye, Tanjirou."

"See you later, Big Brother."

Kisuke left Tanjirou's training room and saw the guards again.

"You have earned many merit points today. I'm afraid it's improper for a junior to earn so much only because of luck. How about you share 10% of your points with each of us?"

One guard smiled at him in a friendly manner. If Kisuke didn't hear his words, he'd think the man was offering him help.

"Such a few points wouldn't make a difference for a personal guard of the sixth prince, Sir."

The guard also thought so when he accepted this role, but the prince didn't interact with the guards at all and barely went out, so the guards rarely had a chance to accumulate points beyond the normal pay.

"You shouldn't ask too many questions. Just give us 10% of the points for taking care of you."

The guard's smile stayed on his face while giving a direct threat.

"What if I report this incident to my commander?"

"Then he will ask for 10% too. If anything, we are surprised he didn't ask for it yet. You see, it's very difficult to advance in ranks and magic, so this way the juniors can support their seniors. One day, you'll be standing in our place and your junior will help you out."

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