A Crown for a Princess

Ruby quietly sits as Doctor Pledais checks her ears.

"Since the bleeding has stopped, Lady Ruby shouldn't be in any danger. Just in case, make sure that her maids thoroughly clean her ears tonight and tomorrow morning to catch any blood that happened to dry up overnight."

"What do you have to say for the mana bracelet and the ruby crown? Why did they react the way they did to Ruby?" the duke asks, leaning against the long chair as he looks down at Ruby.

"From what the appraisal has shown, the ruby crown is imbued with ancient fire magic. A seal has been placed on it, but it is so old and outdated, there isn't any record of such a seal as far as I know."

"That still doesn't explain why it caused Miss Ruby's ears to bleed," Raynold adds in as he passes Ruby a glass of water.

"Lady Ruby claims that her ears were ringing as soon as she entered the room. And we can conclude that it was because of the incompatibility with the mana bracelet and the ruby crown. The only explanation that I can think of is that whatever magic is contained in the crown, it counteracts anything of the same attributes."

"But Ruby has been in my office before, and she has never reacted this way."

"I can only assume that it is because the crown reacts to the mana bracelet." Doctor Pledais glances over at Ruby who is staring at the crown. "Have you ever tried placing the crown on the Lady?"

"No, we haven't. We didn't want to put any more stress on the princess until you arrived," Raynold answers.

"May I?" Doctor Pledais asks, gesturing to the crown.

"I don't see why not," Duke Stoneborne answers. "You're the magic doctor, so you know more than I do about this."

Doctor Pledais takes the crown and faces Ruby. "Lady Ruby, do you mind if I put this crown on you?"

"I don't mind," Ruby replies.

Doctor Pledais stands up then slowly hovers the crown over Ruby's head. When he notices that nothing is happening, he begins to lower the crown onto Ruby's head.

"Oh... Oh my!"

"What is it, Doctor?" Duke Stoneborne asks when he sees Doctor Pledais's surprised reaction.

"Lady Ruby's mana is being sucked into the crown," Doctor Pledais states. "She has the appropriate amount of mana for a child her age now."

"Will the mana return if the crown is taken off?"

"There's only one way to find out." Doctor Pledais begins to remove the crown. The red aura that was sucked into the crown returns to Ruby as the crown is taken off. The doctor takes heed to this and places the crown back on Ruby's head. "Well, to answer your question, Your Grace, yes, the mana does return to the Lady if the crown is removed. I dare say that this crown will be more effective in handling the Lady's mana than the bracelet."

"So, Miss Ruby can wear the crown around the bracelet but can't wear the bracelet around the crown," Raynold mumbles to himself.

"More like, the crown noticed that the bracelet was taking its mana source and reacted the way it did so that the bracelet will be removed from Lady Ruby's wrist."

"You speak as if the objects are alive and have their own thoughts," the duke interjects.

"Like Your Grace says, these are simply inanimate objects. However, once an object is imbued with magic, it will take a small portion of the caster's thoughts with them. The castor of the crown must have had several thoughts of maintaining a large amount of mana while the castor of the bracelet thought about controlling mana at the bare minimum."

"Father, will I have to wear the crown every day?" Ruby asks as she gazes up at the duke.

"At least until you get to the age where you can control your mana yourself."

"I think it suits the Lady rather well," Raynold comments. "A princess should always be accompanied by her crown."

Doctor Pledais walks from Ruby's side to where the duke stands. "I don't have a lot of books in my library regarding ancient magic, so I will send word to the king's mages' tower if they happen to have some. I can assure you that I won't mention anything about the Lady. It's just that the seal that is placed on the crown is there for a reason. It's better to find out why before it decides to break."

"I understand, Doctor. Thank you for your help."

Raynold shows the doctor out after some final check-ups. Ruby remains seated in the duke's office while the duke begins to shift his focus to his work. Curious, Ruby gets up from the chair and wanders over to the duke's desk.

"You are being distracting. Go sit back down," the duke comments as Ruby gets closer.

"What are you working on, Father?"

The duke glances over at Ruby who is standing on her tiptoes to read the documents on the desk.

-She is very small for children her age- the duke begins to ponder. -If she came from the mine, she wouldn't have had any sustenance to keep her alive, yet here she is.-

"Ruby."

"Yes, Father."

"Tell me about the voices you heard earlier while we were out."

Ruby stares up at the duke with the duke staring back down at her. Suddenly, Ruby begins to crawl onto the duke's lap which makes the duke toss her back onto the floor.

"Why did you suddenly get on my lap?" the duke asks, glaring at Ruby.

"I saw the children at the market sit on adults lap," Ruby frankly answers unbothered by the duke's glare. "I assumed that that is what children do with their parents when they want to talk about something."

"No, that is what uneducated children do. You are a noble. You should act like one."

"But I am also uneducated as well since I only had one class so far. Does one class mean that I have become educated?"

The duke loudly sighs and pinches the arch of his nose. "You are different from the children at the market. You have the chance to be educated as you have the resources to get a teacher. The children at the market do not have resources to hire a teacher."

"Why not?"

"Because they do not make enough money. The children at the market will grow up and learn their parents' trade and continue on that path. However, you will get an education and use it to further advance the kingdom and the duchy."

"Why?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"There are a lot of things that I do not know about this world. I have to ask in order to get a better understanding so that I may perform my duties well."

"Haa.... You have become my daughter, yes? This will become official in the coming month. Once it becomes official, you will be the one who will inherit the duchy as the first born of Stoneborne. That means that you will have to work in order to keep the territory safe and under control."

"But you said that when you find out where I am from, you will send me back. What is the point of learning how to run the duchy if I am just going to be discarded after my origins have been discovered?"

"You have too many things that can be of use to me. After meeting with Doctor Pledais today, I have decided to not send you back but offer your parents double your monetary value."

"If I have monetary value, does that mean that I am simply an object for you to buy?"

-She asks too many questions. Should I keep her confined to the estate so that she doesn't see and experience things that will lead her to be loud and wild? She has been such an ideal child so far, but she is slowly turning into the children I dislike.-

"If I let you sit in my lap, will you tell me about the voices you heard?"

"Yes."

"Fine," the duke sighs defeatedly. He slides his chair back so that Ruby can climb up. Annoyed that she is too slow, the duke picks Ruby up and sets her on his lap. "Better?"

"Yes, Father."

"So tell me everything that happened."

"It was a child's voice. It was saying how happy it was that I could play with her. There were five other figures laughing and running, but I couldn't figure out what they were."

"Describe the surroundings."

"Everything was all blurry. It looked like we were outside while being inside a house, but it was way smaller than this house. The house was a very brown-like color so it was probably made from a tree using the wood. It also looked like we were surrounded by trees because the majority of the colors were green."

-Isn't that very similar to the fairy story?-