The Crown Prince In Hiding

After the break ended,

the new students of Artheris moved into their second year of study.

Second Year, First Day Back

The golden gates swung open wide, welcoming the second-year students back through familiar grounds.

There was a change to the uniform — a black pin would now be fastened to the right breast of both the male and female uniforms.

Casca tucked a lock of cotton-white hair behind her dark brown ear, golden eyes fixed on the face of the seventeen-year-old boy she had pressed against the wall. She drew a red line on the wall, marking Prince Fury's height.

"Oh my, it looks like you may have grown just a tiny bit."

"Say that again."

Casca straightened her husband's collar and smoothed out the creases in his school uniform.

Dan caught Casca's hand as it cupped his cheek.

"It's second year already, Fury."

"I know."

"Study hard."

His fiancée leaned in and kissed him on the lips, then moved to his left cheek and right cheek, covering every angle.

"I've packed your lunch in your bag."

Dan nodded and picked up his school bag.

At that very moment, Freya appeared beside him out of nowhere. She turned Dan's head toward her and kissed him on the lips, then moved to his left cheek and right cheek, just the same.

Then she turned and looked at Casca, narrowing her eyes.

"Like you're the only one who gets to do that."

She stuck out her tongue.

But Casca just smirked.

"Understudies."

"EXCUSE ME 💢"

The students who had scattered home for the break boarded ships, trains, and airships, hauling their things back to the dormitories in a lively atmosphere. But livelier still were the young men and women gathered at the main entrance of the academy — those who had come to sit the entrance examinations.

Last year, Dan and Freya were among that very group. Today, they stood on the other side.

And the place they now needed to go was the notice board for the second-year track selections — the year in which students would be formally divided into their respective departments, with class groupings rearranged entirely.

When he reached the board, it took him a moment to find his own name. Eventually, he did.

Section 4 Department of Magical Engineering Dan Burn

"Found it. I'm in Section 4. Have you found yours?"

"I'm in Section 1."

Zeedee turned to him with eyes that looked ready to cry.

"Your highness... we're no longer together."

"Would you say we weren't already together?"

"Huuuuu!"

"Don't make such a big deal of it."

"...Where's that haughty little girl?"

"Not hard to guess..."

Dan swept his finger toward the notice board for the Knight Division.

The top name on the sheet. Student number one of the Knight Division.

Rafinya Saint Pauli

"And the stubborn little one?"

"Looks like she went with Magic."

Dan pointed to the Magic Division.

The name of Princess Nora Ophilis was not difficult to find.

"Well, that suits her perfectly."

But then,

when Zeedee swept her gaze back to Prince Fury's department, toward a name near the very bottom...

"Wait... Your Grace..."

She pointed.

"Your section..."

Magical Engineering, Section 4

Nora Ophilis

"That girl followed you into our department too."

Dan could barely trust his own eyes.

"She double-enrolled?????"

"But of course, Mr. Fury."

Nora Ophilis appeared from behind him in an all-black uniform, the only student who did not have to wear white.

"Though I didn't expect to be lucky enough to end up in the same section as you."

Surely a page had already relayed the information to her — but the theatrical smile on her face, the look of someone who had planned everything, left Dan puzzled.

"So you really did double-enroll like you said."

"The Ophilis royal family does not break its word."

"What a nuisance."

"If it's Section 4, our class hours won't overlap with the Magic Division's, Mr. Fury."

"Is that right?"

"I was already praying I'd get Section 4. I really am quite lucky, don't you think?"

"A princess from a nation of influence? Dream on."

The first day of second year was similar to first year in that everyone received their timetables and went from class to class to meet their professors.

A fair number of new instructors had appeared, but of course, the three main departments still had the same familiar faces at the top.

Professor Foden held an iron grip over the Knight Division.

Professor McClaff was the immovable authority that every Magic Division student would have to face until the day they graduated.

As for Dan's department — Magical Engineering — there was no single professor who dominated it. Many came and went from all across the kingdoms, specialists in a vast range of fields.

For second year, he would be studying the foundations of every branch of natural science, before moving on to third year — the final year — where students had to complete a "Project" to graduate in the field of their choosing.

His schedule would be lighter. He wouldn't attend every day — just three days a week — which suited him well enough. Nora had five days because of her double enrollment. Rafinya was theoretically three days too, but as a scholarship student she had to train, making it effectively the same as five. Perhaps even seven.

As for Dan,

there was only one thing occupying his mind right now.

"The World."

To draw closer to Luca, he needed to understand the "world" as it existed across each era — this planet that had endured an unimaginably long passage of time, through so much heat and cold.

"We once believed that all celestial bodies moved in orbit around our world, following the Geocentric model — until just a few years ago, when that theory was slowly challenged and ultimately proven incorrect."

Professor Edmunds was the astronomy professor for second year. He was a renowned astronomer from Mathema, and his most distinguished work involved determining the significance of the moon to the world.

"You don't truly appreciate just how remarkable the fact of your own existence really is. Nothing on this earth could have been born without the moon."

Dan stopped.

...The moon?

"The sun gives energy to living things, but the moon is what sustains the conditions for life to exist."

The gravitational pull of the moon gives rise to the phenomenon of tides — and this is the very heart of how life began. The regular movement of seawater circulates minerals and nutrients, and helps regulate ocean temperatures, keeping them stable.

Beyond that, the "shoreline" — the transitional zone between land and sea, flooded and dried alternately each day — served as an extraordinary chemical laboratory where the earliest organic molecules could react with one another, eventually developing into the first living cells.

"Imagine a spinning top. Without something to stabilize it, it will begin to wobble and eventually fall. Our world is no different. The moon acts as a counterweight, maintaining the stability of the Earth's axial tilt at around 23.5 degrees. This stability gives the world consistent seasons and prevents extreme climate shifts. Without the moon, the Earth's axis would swing violently — causing the polar regions to face the sun directly, or transforming the entire world into alternating expanses of ice and scorching desert within just a few million years."

Our world, then, is "peculiar."

And it is for this reason that thousands upon thousands of religions have arisen, each attempting to explain the wonder of its existence.

Professor Edmunds looked at his students before adding offhandedly,

"This is perhaps a slight digression — but the fact that life came into being on our world, when viewed through the lens of probability, is something that borders on the impossible within the vast expanse of the universe. This kind of perfect alignment across every dimension is often compared to what is known as the Watchmaker Analogy."

He continued,

"Imagine you are walking through a dense, overgrown forest — wild, untouched, full of trees and grass growing as nature intended. Then you stumble over something on the ground. You pick it up, brush off the dust, and find that it is a fine pocket watch. You would never, for a single moment, believe that the rocks, stones, soil, sand, or roots of this forest had somehow coincidentally come together — eroding, rearranging themselves — until they formed a watch composed of intricate, tiny gears. What you would think instead is: 'someone must have placed this here,' because the mechanism is far too complex to have come about by natural accident."

Our world... is that very watch, sitting amid the savagery and emptiness of the universe.

The perfect distance from the sun. The ideal conditions of the environment. The moon, steadying the Earth's axis.

If any single gear within it shifted by even a fraction of a degree — or if the ingredients were blended even slightly off — the hands of life on this world would stop at once.

It is precisely this level of elaborate and exquisite coincidence that leaves both scientists and philosophers in awe, for the world is not merely a random rock in space. It is a delicate, perfectly calibrated mechanism — as though someone had "intentionally" shaped and assembled it with the utmost care.

The students in the classroom fell into a hush. Those drawn to the science of the stars leaned in with visible interest. The astronomy class drew a fair number of students from families with Luminus clergy backgrounds, for they saw this as the study of God's own work.

But... one young man's hand rose into the air.

Princess Nora slowly turned toward him... Dan Burn.

One look at his face, and she already knew... Dan had something he wanted to say.

"Professor Edmunds, I believe what you've said isn't quite accurate."

!!!

The entire room fell silent.

Dan had raised his hand and was challenging an award-winning scholar.

But rather than displeasure or offense,

Professor Edmunds showed interest in this unusual development. He leaned back against the desk and crossed his arms.

"Oh? And what did I say that isn't accurate?"

"About the watch, sir."

Nora: "Mr. Fury...?"

"A watch is a non-living thing. It cannot reproduce. It cannot pass on genetic information. It cannot adapt to its environment. Leave it alone for a million years and it would still be nothing more than rusted gears slowly crumbling away."

Dan continued,

"But life is not like that. Life adapts. Life changes in order to survive. Professor — life evolves."

Living things did not appear fully formed in an instant, like a watch assembled in a factory. They arose from millions upon millions of years of trial and error — with those who came before passing the torch onward, one after another... those who did not fit the world "died and went extinct," while only those who could adapt survived.

"The perfect alignment of this world — the moon at just the right size, water in just the right amount — it looks as though someone designed it with intention. But perhaps, in reality, it's because we have been adapting to it for millions of years already. Isn't that another way of looking at it, sir?"

The world was not made for us.

It is we who adapted ourselves to live within it.

"Therefore... I don't think we can compare a watch to the world. A watch requires a creator to begin working. But nature has the power to drive and reshape itself, doesn't it, sir?"

When Dan finished speaking,

every student in the room turned from him to Professor Edmunds.

He smiled slowly.

Shifting from leaning against the desk to standing upright, arms crossed.

"Interesting... what is your name?"

Lunch Break

"Mr. Fury... I can't believe you went that far on the very first day..."

Nora walked with her books in hand, talking as she went,

"Won't you end up being watched closely now?"

"I simply disagreed."

"You're starting to let your real self show, little by little."

"That's too much of a compliment. I'm a bit embarrassed now."

They arrived at the fountain area at the center of the academy, lined with statues of heroes on all sides. Dan and Nora sat down on the grass beneath the shade of a large tree.

And before long... the other student under Mentor Fury's care arrived.

Rafinya Saint Pauli.

In second year, one could tell that Rafinya's red hair had grown slightly longer. Likely because she kept it trimmed and cared for regularly... or perhaps the family's personal attendants managed it for her.

"Hey, Rafinya."

She sat down on the other side of him. Dan continued,

"How was your first day? Enjoyable?"

"Nothing particularly interesting."

"I heard you were thinking of withdrawing from the knight scholarship."

"...Yes, Mr. Fury."

"What made you stay in the program?"

"I thought what Nora said made sense."

The matter of staying on to build connections through Professor Foden's people.

"I respect your choice."

Dan unwrapped the lunch his wife had packed and answered between bites.

"What about you, Mr. Fury?"

It was something rare — but Rafinya was beginning to learn to interact by asking questions in return.

"How was Mathema for you?"

Dan opened his notebook, which held photographs of dozens of ancient specimens he had taken at the warehouse in Mathema, and showed them to Rafinya.

"Oh wow..."

"Mr. Fury argued with a professor today too."

"Is that right?"

"Argued through the entire lecture. No actual learning happened."

"Was it really that bad?"

"Honestly."

"Sounds just like someone from Diablo..."

"I wasn't arguing."

Dan tapped Nora on the head with his spoon with a clean pop, then followed it up with a tap on Rafinya as well, making it a combo.

And so all three of them sat together under the tree having lunch, sharing what had happened during the rest of the break, catching each other up on everything.

Until Rafinya spoke up.

"Mr. Fury... as promised."

Rafinya turned and reached into her gym bag, pulled out a thick stack of paper over a hundred pages long, and set it down in front of him.

"I copied it from the restricted library."

"Copied it?"

"Yes. They wouldn't allow the original volume to be taken out. When I went back to Newcastle, I went in and transcribed the entire thing for you. Every single letter."

"You went to that much trouble for it?"

There before Dan,

was the forbidden book of Professor Darwin C.

Bird of Paradise

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