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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: A Princess's Whim
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“Those shoes are from that pulp novel that’s so popular in the papers these days, aren’t they? Something about the dramatic union of a noble and a commoner.”
Ella smiled, gesturing subtly toward my shoes.
The servant who had led me here approached the princess and whispered something in her ear. After listening, the princess wore a thoughtful expression for a moment before whispering quietly back to the servant.
“I understand. I must be going.”
The servant left the private room first.
The princess glanced between Eric and me, a look of relish on her face.
“Ah, what a shame. To think I have to leave before I can see more of this amusing spectacle.”
“What nonsense is this?”
The princess didn't so much as blink at Eric’s rude retort.
“I’m leaving now, but if you two need any advice on ‘that thing’ you must do after the wedding, be sure to contact me.”
*That thing?*
What could she mean? I turned to Eric with a puzzled expression, but he only glared at the princess, refusing to look my way.
“There will be no…”
“Oh, right. And about those glass slippers… It would be wonderful if you wore them to the ceremony, don’t you think?”
Ella said, pointing at my shoes. I furrowed my brow.
“These?”
“Yes. Why? Do you not want to?”
“No, I’m just curious as to why…”
*A wedding in such cheap shoes?* As I mumbled, Ella’s eyes went wide, and she covered her mouth.
“...?”
*What’s with her?*
As I was thinking this, Ella pointed at me and exclaimed in astonishment.
“Good heavens! I’ve never seen a low-ranking noble talk back to me before! Why, they usually pretend to drop dead if I so much as tell them to!”
“Ah…?”
My face twisted into a grimace.
All the while, Ella continued to make a fuss, her expression like she’d just seen a dragon from a bygone era.
“How dare she talk back to me? It’s simply fascinating, isn’t it?”
*Ugh, I take it all back—any thought I had of wanting to befriend this woman! This is exactly why you should never get close to people of high station! They treat lesser nobles like insects!*
“Lady Imeline Wedgwood is a special case. You should give up.”
Eric said, as if to placate her. *You’re the special ones, you children of a ducal house and a royal family, steeped in a lifetime of privilege!*
The princess murmured, intrigued.
“Yes, she certainly does seem special… Talking back to a princess… Isn’t it like a mouse pouncing on a cat? How charming…”
*Oh, please. Don’t you dare find me charming.*
I was so dumbfounded I glared first at Eric, then at the princess.
Well, I tried to. I only managed to glare at Eric. When I turned to glare at the princess, I was crushed by the ineffable dignity and charisma radiating from her blue eyes and had no choice but to quickly bow my head.
“Ah, I understand… I’ll be sure to wear the glass slippers.”
“Good. I’ll look forward to it, then.”
*Look forward to what…?* But before I could ask, the princess had already swept out of the room.
Once the princess was gone and we were alone, Eric took my hand.
“We need to go somewhere.”
“...?”
I glanced down at the hand he was holding and frowned. Seeing my expression, Eric spoke politely.
“Ah, my apologies. It seems there will be many occasions in the future where I must take your hand without asking, so I would appreciate it if you would grant me permission for such contact.”
“Oh, I can permit much more than that.”
*I was just surprised because his hand was drenched in sweat.*
*Is he nervous…?*
It might not seem like it, but he must be so nervous about handing his family’s secrets over to the princess that his palms are sweating buckets.
Besides—he’s about to be my husband, so what’s the big deal about holding hands? Won’t we be, you know, pressing our lips together at some point? In fact, I made sure my lips and mouth were perfectly clean when I was changing earlier.
I gave him a confident smile. Looking down at my bright expression, Eric inexplicably clutched at the collar of his shirt and muttered.
“...No, I can’t allow that.”
And with that, he pulled his hand away.
I looked up at Eric, feeling a little disappointed.
“So, where are we going?”
Eric answered my question, his face serious.
“…The photo we’re sending to the newspaper.”
“Ah, the one of us in the hotel room?”
As I asked this nonchalantly, Eric gritted his teeth. He held up a palm to me as if fending off a wild beast.
“Let me be clear. The only physical contact permitted without consent is holding hands. If we ever take another picture like that one…”
Eric clutched his shirt again, as though reliving a deep trauma. It was only then that I remembered how I had started tearing his clothes off in the hotel room, and I felt a pang of guilt.
“I won’t do that again without permission.”
Eric looked me up and down, clearly unconvinced, before letting out a sigh.
*Does he think I’m some kind of animal?*
*I do have some self-control, you know.*
“In any case, if we’re going to submit a photo, wouldn’t a normal one be better?”
*Oho. Publishing a photo in the newspaper to prove that Eric and I were already lovers? Not a bad idea.*
“The princess’s idea, I presume?”
Eric flinched at my question.
*Just as I thought. There was no way a scheme like this came from Eric.*
“So, what do you mean by ‘normal’?”
*Though, to be honest, I don’t think a picture of two lovers in a hotel room is all that abnormal.*
“For instance, a picture of a couple taking an affectionate stroll on a night like this.”
Just then, the door to the private room creaked open, revealing a familiar face. I stared in bewilderment at Lily, who was dressed not in a maid’s uniform but in the formal attire of a knight.
“Come in, Sir Lily.”
“…Sir… Lily?”
Lily casually produced a camera from her tunic and spoke.
“I will take a fine photograph for you. Please smile. The picture will turn out better that way, will it not?”
A dry laugh escaped my lips at the soldierly persona so deeply ingrained in Lily’s voice and manner of speech.
I glared at Eric.
“So much for being honest… for being the same on the inside as you are on the out!”
✵ ✵ ✵
Princess Ella was walking briskly toward one of the inner chambers of the palace when she came to an abrupt halt.
Long limbs, a handsome face that made it hard to believe he had a grown son, and, even from this distance, she could feel it…
*An aura.*
Seeing Baldeck Orleans approaching from the end of the corridor, Ella raised the corner of her mouth in a slight smirk.
Ella detested physical exertion, but she had been trained from a young age to be sensitive to energies like auras and mana, so she could clearly perceive Baldeck Orleans’s power.
It seemed the duke had spread rumors that he had given up the sword, but judging by the level of energy he wielded, he clearly hadn’t been neglecting his training.
*A sly fox.*
Ella concealed her displeasure and resumed walking.
The moment Baldeck saw Ella, he smiled warmly and offered a polite greeting.
“Your Highness, it has been a long time.”
“My, you’re late, aren’t you?”
“My apologies. You invited me, but on my way here, I was briefly…”
“No, I don’t mean you’re late for the party.”
Ella looked down at Baldeck, her expression cold. Baldeck looked up, puzzled. Ella gestured to the private room behind him.
“I’m talking about Lady Margaret Beaufort. You’re already too late.”
At Ella’s words, Baldeck hesitated for a moment before smiling.
“So I’ve heard. I had hoped she would partner with our family’s leather business, but I was told she is already planning a new venture with you, Your Highness.”
“Only leather?”
Ella scoffed. Baldeck’s face hardened.
“You brought up a steel mill, did you not? A proposal to build a large one in the south. But where would the land and the electricity come from? Does your fiancée, Lady Helena Wedgwood, happen to own some land in the south?”
Ella deliberately prodded Baldeck with information brought by her attendant.
“The steel mill is not a project that is actively underway. However, if we were to pursue the steel industry, there would be no need to use electricity. The continent is teeming with brilliant magitech engineers and magic stones buried in ancestral lands, is it not?”
*Right. Like the ‘Mermaids’ Tomb,’ for instance.*
Even after the invention of cheap and efficient electricity, the nobility continued to deal exclusively in magitech products, scorning electrical goods. This was due to the perception that the energy from magic stones was ‘nobler.’
Ella regarded Baldeck with cold eyes.
“I must say I’m disappointed, Duke. I always thought you were on my side. Competing over business rights is unavoidable, but to try and contact Lady Beaufort in secret… Had we spoken openly, I might have been willing to concede.”
Of course, she would not have conceded. If she had any such intention, she wouldn’t have contacted Lady Margaret in secret to secure the rights herself.
“My loyalty has always been with you, Your Highness. There is a reason my son follows you, is there not?”
Baldeck used the word ‘loyalty’—a pleasant but insubstantial term. Trying to gauge his true intentions, Ella decided to press him further.
“Indeed. Eric… Young Lord Eric is of age now. To strengthen the bond between the House of Orleans and myself, what say you to giving the young lord to me?”
Baldeck’s expression stiffened.
If, as the rumors suggested, Ella and Eric were to be betrothed, the House of Orleans would be classified as pro-royalist and might have to share many of its existing businesses with the crown.
This was precisely what Baldeck had sought to avoid by choosing Robert over Ella. Robert was the sort who, if given the throne, would allow the royal treasury to be slowly pilfered.
But Baldeck said something unexpected.
“If that is what my son wishes, then I will, of course, move forward with an engagement to you, Your Highness.”
Ella narrowed her eyes.
*‘If that is what my son wishes.’*
From this answer, Ella could sense one thing with certainty: Baldeck’s conviction that *my son would never want what I do not want.*
Baldeck was unaware that his son had slipped from his control.
Whether he was truly unaware or merely pretending, she couldn’t tell.
Ella thought of Eric handing her the documents.
*So, the boy is deceiving his father after all. Hah… So many interesting things are happening today.*
Ella thought of Imeline Wedgwood, who had been at Eric’s side.
The woman who had seemed like a trembling southern bumpkin in the audience chamber. But here, in the private room, she had cast off her mask entirely, challenging her with a bold face. A woman skilled at disguising her true self, and cunning in negotiation.
Had that woman corrupted Eric? Or did Eric have some reason to be so certain of his father’s treason that he felt he had to deceive him?
Whichever it was…
“Very well. Then let us speak again after your wedding, Duke.”
The princess grinned, patting the duke on the shoulder as she passed him. When she reached the door to the room where Lady Margaret Beaufort was waiting, she paused with her hand on the knob and glanced back.
The duke was gone.
“Such an unpleasant man.”
The princess stared down the empty corridor for a long moment before finally opening the door.
Then, with the most artificial smile in the world, she spoke to Lady Margaret Beaufort, who was nestled in a sofa.
“How does it feel to have grasped the safest lifeline on the continent, my lady!”
