NoveLight ™
“If I had to sum up Asier Grasis in a single phrase, I’d say this: ‘A prince who doesn’t act like one.’”
He treated his subordinates kindly, yet maintained enough authority to command respect. He upheld his dignity without indulging in extravagance, always honing both his mind and his body. Despite his noble status, he frequently lowered himself to aid those beneath him. In fact, most of the royal welfare systems probably came from his mind.
Hearing this much, you might think:
“Uh, isn’t that an ideal? How is he not acting like royalty?”
A frugal, compassionate prince who cares for his people sounds like the perfect example of royalty. But that’s not how the royals I knew from Grasis behaved. To me, ‘royalty’ meant gluttonous wastrels who squandered the national treasury on luxuries and squeezed the life out of their people to fill their own coffers.
Now that I think about it, I sound like some kind of revolutionary calling for a guillotine.
“Um... Kana, is it okay to say that? He’s still a prince after all...,” Da-eun said hesitantly.
“What’s the harm? He probably thinks the same thing.”
“Hm, as much as it stings, she’s not wrong,” Asier remarked.
“R-really?” Da-eun breathed a sigh of relief, as if she’d narrowly avoided being accused of treason. Even if Asier did have a personality like that, Grasis has already fallen, so it’s not like anyone could charge her with treason anyway.
“I told you, he’s not like other royals.”
“Yeah, I see that now,” she agreed, nodding in understanding.
Because of Asier’s unique traits—or quirks, rather—he was considered an outcast or a black sheep within the royal family. To put it simply, he was like a ‘swan raised among ducks who thought he was one of them.’
Even so, the royal family never cast him out. Maybe it was because of his exceptional abilities, perhaps out of the last vestiges of familial bonds, or maybe for some other reason. Whatever it was, I didn’t particularly care. It wasn’t something I needed to know now.
What I was truly curious about was something else entirely.
“How are you still alive?”
“Y’know, the way you say that makes it sound like I shouldn’t be. I know that’s not what you meant, though.”
Asier’s voice carried a hint of wryness.
“There’s no grand story behind it. I just got lucky. You know I wasn’t the type to stay locked up in the palace. I happened to be away from the capital on the day of the fall, so I escaped. That’s it. If you were expecting some heart-wrenching tale about knights sacrificing themselves to buy time for my escape, sorry to disappoint.”
“I wasn’t expecting that.”
Even the royal guards, handpicked for their own benefit, wouldn’t be the type to risk their lives for a royal. They joined the royal guard to secure their own safety, not to protect the crown.
“So, why are you playing the role of a blacksmith all of a sudden?” I asked.
“I’m not playing the role of a blacksmith. I’m still an apprentice.”
“Whatever.”
“You really haven’t changed at all.”
His voice took on a nostalgic tone, but I just shrugged it off. After a moment of hesitation, Asier spoke again, his expression torn between pain and longing.
“After you rejected me...”
“Huh?! Ah, I’m sorry. Please, go on.”
“-after you rejected me, I kept thinking. What was I lacking? What could I have possibly been missing that made you feel no attraction toward me? Was it my looks? My wealth? My personality? I thought about it over and over, but none of those seemed like the right answer.”
“...I mean, your personality might’ve been part of it,” I muttered under my breath, but Asier ignored me.
“Then I realized something. Women are drawn to a man’s masculine traits.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
Both Da-eun and I stared at him in bewilderment. Sure, there’s some truth to that statement, but wasn’t that a bit too sudden? Without missing a beat, Asier continued.
“If that’s the case, what does it mean to be masculine?”
He launched into a long explanation about how masculinity was different from femininity, blah, blah, blah... Honestly, it wasn’t very interesting, so after a while, I stopped listening. Even Da-eun, who was translating for her viewers, eventually went silent.
Just as Asier was about to go on, I decided enough was enough.
“Okay, I get it. You’re saying that jobs typically done by men are seen as masculine, and blacksmithing falls under that category, right?”
“Exactly. There are plenty of male blacksmiths, but how many female blacksmiths do you know? Maybe one in every fifty?”
“Hmm...”
Da-eun’s expression contorted into something unreadable. She muttered under her breath, “This guy was a prince?” I elbowed her to keep her quiet. While there was some truth in what Asier was saying, it still felt a little off, especially for a former prince to take up blacksmithing just to appear more masculine.
I could understand guys working out to build muscles to impress girls, but becoming a blacksmith for that reason? That was just... odd.
If he had been born ten or twenty years earlier and taken the throne, maybe Grasis wouldn’t have fallen. But now... seeing him like this, it’s hard not to feel some pity.
“Wait, is that why you’ve been walking around shirtless?”
“It’s part of being masculine, isn’t it?”
“No, most men wouldn’t want to walk around half-naked.”
Even if Asier tried to act like it didn’t bother him, it was clear that the fall of Grasis had hit him hard. Before, he had been a relatively decent guy, aside from his habit of hitting on me. It’s a shame...
“So, Kana, let me ask again. Will you marry me?”
“Get lost.”
...Well, aside from that part.
With his second failed proposal, Da-eun’s viewers bestowed the dubious title of “creep” upon Asier. Not that he had any way of knowing that. Still, he couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling from Da-eun’s increasingly uncomfortable stares.
But there was no time for him to wallow in rejection. They still had a more pressing issue to solve—the theft of the Dragon Orb.
Once Asier was brought up to speed on the situation, his fluency in Arkish, despite being a Grasis royal, made communication much easier.
“Do you have any leads?” Da-eun asked.
“Hmm,” Asier thought for a moment before shaking his head.
“No, I can’t say I do.”
“Do you have any idea when it might have gone missing?”
“I handed the item over to my master yesterday and haven’t touched the chest since. There’s no way I would’ve opened it without permission.”
“Hm!”
Brondin nodded approvingly at the answer. As a disciple, it was a flawless response, but it didn’t help solve the mystery.
“Ugh...,” Da-eun groaned, clearly frustrated by the lack of progress, even with Asier back.
Kana, meanwhile, sat quietly, observing. With no apparent plan, Da-eun was left to think.
‘...Cute.’
No! Focus!
Realizing she was getting distracted, Da-eun snapped herself back to attention. In combat, Kana was reliable, but in this situation? Not so much. Da-eun was burning with the desire to prove herself without Kana’s help.
‘This is my chance! If I solve this, Kana will have to admit I’m capable!’
She imagined Kana praising her, ‘Da-eun... you’re amazing,’ and smiled to herself.
But she still had no idea what to do. So, she turned to the only source she had left.
“Help me, guys!”
The chat exploded in response, but as usual, it wasn’t very helpful.
“You should’ve read more mystery novels... or at least played a detective game or two!” Da-eun chastised the chat, which only earned her a barrage of angry hooks.
Just then, Asier spoke up.
“Master, did anyone else visit the workshop yesterday?”
“Huh? No, nobody.”
There had been no orders to fill, no customers to serve. In fact, there was a sign on the door reading ‘Closed Today!’ so it was unlikely anyone would’ve bothered knocking. After all, this was Baltora, the Dwarven city. Even if one blacksmith shop closed, there were plenty more available.
“And you always lock the door when you sleep, right?”
“Of course, I double-checked it last night!”
Brondin’s workshop door was one he’d made himself—iron-clad, sturdy, and with a finely crafted lock that no ordinary thief would dare attempt to pick.
“Well, it’s been broken into now.”
“...”
Brondin was visibly deflated by Da-eun’s blunt remark. Just moments ago, she had been praising his craftsmanship, so the criticism hit him even harder.
Asier cleared his throat to regain their focus.
“If a thief did steal it, it would’ve been during the night when I was gone. As I mentioned, the door was locked, and Master confirmed it. So...”
“The thief must have had a key?”
“Exactly.”
“The door is too well-crafted to have been tampered with without leaving evidence,” Asier explained, gesturing to the undamaged lock and hinges.
Brondin rushed over to the door, frantically inspecting every inch of it, checking the lock and even the doorframe. After a few moments, he turned, his beard trembling with emotion.
“No trace! There’s no way a thief could have broken in without me noticing!”
“Exactly, Master. No thief is as skilled as you.”
“My disciple!”
“Master!”
‘...This is ridiculous.’
Da-eun, watching their dramatic embrace, rolled her eyes.
Eventually, they calmed down, and Da-eun stepped forward to take charge.
“So, we need to track down anyone who might have a key. Do you know anyone else who might have one?”
Brondin hesitated, clearly uncomfortable, but under Da-eun’s persistent questioning, he finally relented.
“Other than my apprentice... there’s only one other person.”
“Who’s that?” Da-eun pressed.
I think these childhood friends who love MC are cute
Tftc