– STORY –

During a party one evening in the royal palace, Rachel, the eldest
daughter of Duke Ferguson, was reproached by Prince Elliot for
sins she didn’t remember committing and their engagement was
abandoned. Rachel informed everyone she had not committed
the acts they were accusing her of, but she was dragged away
out of the party venue and thrown into the palace dungeon.

And so Rachel thought,

“Hooray for my slow doing-whatever-I-want life! No more

queen’s education, no more noisy servants–today marks the
start of my long vacation!”

Between enjoying all of the preparations she had made for this
very occasion and constantly harassing the annoying Prince,
Rachel is going to enjoy her slow prison life to the fullest!
The evening’s festivities were a rousing success, but the venue quickly descended to
silence as the Prince declared the annulment of his engagement.

In the middle of a luxurious banquet hall was a handsome young man with long blonde
hair that reached his shoulders. Prince Elliot, eldest son of the King. And at his back
was a lovely young woman with fiery red twintails.

These two’s gazes were planted squarely on a noblewoman who was being taken away
by one of the Prince’s aides.

The woman had tied up chocolate brown hair, and despite her current situation, she
was unnervingly calm. The Prince’s (original) fiancee, Rachel, the eldest daughter of
Duke Ferguson.

Twintail
The Baron woman was trembling behind Elliot’s back as he and all his aides stared
daggers into Rachel.

“Rachel. If you have even a bit of shame, then you will apologize to Margaret
immediately!”

Two people were standing on each side of Rachel, twisting her arms. They were Sykes
Abigail, the head knight inside the castle, and George Ferguson, Rachel’s own younger
brother. Both of them soon spoke up as well, berating Rachel.

“You’re getting what you deserve you witch! You are the one who incited those other
noble women!”

“…please just admit to your sins honestly Sis. How much more do you intend to drag
the Ferguson family’s name through the mud?”

These men were condemning a woman who could no longer move anything other than
her mouth.
But whatever they said to her, a fire in Rachel’s eyes refused to extinguish as she stared
back at the prince while wearing a cold expression.

“I have done nothing, so there is no need for me to apologize to your girlfriend.”

Her white porcelain skin looked all the more beautiful when held in contrast to her
dark brown hair.

Thin lips painted pink with pale eyes darker than cobalt.

Her naturally pale face had a mature touch to it, and her eyes gave off an intense yet
intelligent feeling.

The dress she was wearing had a calming design to it, showing off the figure of the
wearer rather than trying to appear glamorous.

Rachel was the same age as Elliot, but she looked older with her somewhat plain and
calm appearance. She kept that image intact while repeatedly voicing her denial to the
charges in a quiet tone.

She remained the same as the Prince continued to lay his anger upon her… with that
attitude of hers, the words Rachel kept repeating came out more and more believable.

The Prince was annoyed.

In fact, the fact that Rachel’s attitude was no different from how she usually was only
served to annoy Elliot even more.

Why is this rebellious……!

Rachel had never fought with him before and always acted with the utmost
discreetness. Hers was an exemplary attitude for a noblewoman to take up with her
future husband, and it was probably partially the reason why she was chosen to be the
Prince’s fiancee in the first place… although because of that, if there was ever a
problem it was because of Elliot’s restlessness.

The Prince’s mind wandered… one of the reasons why he had never liked this woman
from the beginning was because of her attitude. Adults around Elliot had yet to break
their habit of treating him like he was a child. And with her being the way she was, it
just showed how much Elliot had to do to grow up…

He had thought that confronting her like this, adding pressure from all sides, would
finally break that superwoman demeanor of hers, but the only result from all this was
a growing desire inside him to punish his fiancee who absolutely refused to apologize.
“That’s enough already Rachel. It was pointless to give you time to reflect on your
actions.”

Elliot rose his chin up, and Sykes began dragging Rachel to the dungeon.

“Rachel, life is long. Enjoy yours inside the prison.”

At Elliot’s mockery, for the first time Rachel’s expression distorted from the calm look
she had before. However, it wasn’t the look of humiliation that Elliot had wanted… it
was a sarcastic smile.

“Yes, Your Highness. I’ll be sure to have lots of fun and enjoy a long, leisurely life.”

The sudden show of emotion took the Prince back, and an expression unlike anything
this Duke’s daughter had ever shown before left him speechless…… but before the
Prince could come up with a meaning for her words, Rachel had been pulled out of the
hall by an indignant Sykes.

Rachel coldly watched on as her fiancee continued to spout out funny theories and
ridiculous logic.

There was nothing she could do about this guy.

It is said that men take longer to mentally grow up out of their childish attitudes……
but this idiot was supposed to have become an adult years ago.

It is ridiculous that Rachel would want to harass this woman who means nothing to
her, and it is really annoying that she had to be lectured by this guy.

How hard would it be to educate a royal fiancee?

And then there were all the surrounding people snickering at the scene without
knowing anything and smiling like they were happy that justice was being served.
Were they all born without brains?

Honestly she had never wanted to marry Prince Elliot or become the queen in the first
place. As the daughter of a duke, she was just fulfilling her familial obligations. Why is
it that she had to keep leading this idiot around like she was his mother…?
Rachel, who had originally only agreed to become this idiot Prince’s wife out of familial
obligation, was actually quite apathetic throughout this whole stupid farce. She didn’t
care about anything Elliot was saying and wished he would just get on with it.

And right when Rachel was thinking like that,

“Rachel, life is long. Enjoy yours inside the prison.”

She became unable to hold her poker face any longer. A large smile spread across her
cold demeanor as her true feelings spilled out.

“Yes, Your Highness. I’ll be sure to have lots of fun and enjoy a long, leisurely life.”

She would do it. Did this guy not understand what his future would hold?

The Prince seemed to have made this decision rashly, but in truth the news about his
intentions had already been leaked to Rachel long ago. Although she had thought he
would at least some of the information she had gotten would have been inaccurate,
but…

Apparently she had given him too much credit. All was well though. This meant all of
the preparations she had made won’t go to waste as he had already completely
annulled their engagement. The expectations she held were enough to make her laugh.

Rachel’s heart was burning hot even as she remained her composed exterior while
Sykes walked her to the dungeon.

At the Prince’s command, she could forget all of that queen education she had been
subjected to and live a leisurely life.

Trapped inside the royal palace’s dungeon which hadn’t been used in recent years…
Rachel was excited thinking about her future life.

There was no more painful or bothersome queen education.

There was no more by-the-minute schedules.

There was no more family tutors trying to teach her useless facts, no more noisy made
to interrupt her sleep, and an opportunity to read lots of books.

She had the free time to do whatever she wanted, and she could have a tea break
whenever she so desired. Plus there would be nobody there to get angry with her
should she sleep until noon.

A time where she could do whatever she wanted had come for Rachel during her prison
life.

Consciously holding down her feet that wanted to start skipping, Rachel kept her feet
moving forward to her sunny future.
*CLACK* *CLACK* The sound of boots walking down stone steps echoed in the air, and
the patrol put in charge of watching over the dungeon raised his face. With a torch in
one hand, a ghostly young man was pulling a rope tied to a girl walking behind him
with the other.

After being misunderstood for coming down here with strange intentions, the young
man started shouting out orders.

“Are you the prison guard?”

“Hah, but this is…”

While the guard tilted his head to the side, confused at what could be going on here,
Sykes removed the rope he had used to tie Rachel’s hands together and pushed her
back forward.

“It’s an order straight from Prince Elliot. We’re throwing this woman into the dungeon.
It’s undecided when she’ll be let out… it’s up to how well she reflects.”

“Hah…”

Sykes furrowed his brow at the lackluster responses he was getting from the guard.

“What is it?”

“Hah… as a matter of fact, this is, the prison…”

Sykes looked back past the guard, tired of his bumbling response… and saw that the
dungeon had been turned into a storehouse.

“What is this?”

The unexpected sight made Sykes cry out. A number of wooden boxes of various sizes
were stacked up high, pushed into one corner of the cell. There were some stacks that
reached all the way to the ceiling.

“Actually… a number of officials came down here earlier today, and they kept bringing
down more and more of this stuff saying they were just going to keep it here temporarily.”

Sykes looked over each of the boxes from a distance, eyeing them over suspiciously.

“We haven’t used the palace’s dungeon in a long time, so it’s probably nothing. They
probably never expected that it would need to be used that very night…”

The guard had no idea what was in all those boxes, but they were taking up over half
the cell.

“Why was this place randomly chosen to act as a storage facility……?”

“I don’t know. This is the first time something like this has happened… but since we
never use this place, there was no reason for me to tell them no…”

A number of documents from civil servants had been given requiring that these boxes
be safely stored away… Sykes clicked his tongue at the horrible timing, but when he
looked again, he saw that the front part of the cell where the toilet and entrance were
were open.

There was enough room for Rachel to lie down as well.

“We have no choice, just stay on this half of the cell. And not a word of complaint. Just
be appreciative you don’t have a criminal partner in there with you as well.”

“Understood.”

Rachel quietly nodded, so Sykes motioned his chin over towards the cell door. A secret
key make a soft *CLICK* as the door unlocked and then a long *SQUEEK* filled the
whole basement as it swung open.

Knowing the circumstances of the men and women who had entered these walls
before, a scornful smile finally broke through the knight captain’s scrutinizing demeanor.

“Heheheh, it’s probably a pretty creepy place for the daughter of a nobleman… well, if
you live in the capitol. After a week I’m sure you’ll get used to it and start thinking of
it like an unusual inn… Well, I suppose you have no idea how many years you’ll actually
be in here?”

Rachel remained silent as she walked into her new home while the knight captain
continued to fling threats and complaints at her back.

After entering, the cell doors immediately closed behind her, still rattling as her
captors slid the key back inside and locked the door.

Looking down at this quiet girl who had taken a seat on the cold stone floor, a disgusting
smile came across Sykes’s face.

“If you want to start crying or hating the great me, just remember that this is all
because of your actions. Anyway we haven’t used this dungeon in a long time. The
location is also bad, so sorry if we forget you’re here~”

Sykes once again began to laugh at his own prodding.

“Hahahaha, that’s right. His Highness will soon forget you while having fun with Miss
Margaret. Before we forget that we put you in this prison, I suggest you lower your
head.”

The Duke’s daughter watched Sykes and the prison guard go with a frown as the two
of them turned their backs on her. They were to leave this noblewoman on her own…
was how it was supposed to be.

Sykes and the prison guard began making their way back up the stairs, and at that time

*KACHANG* *KACHANG* *CRASH*

“Crash?”

The two men turned back around when they started hearing some funny noises.

What they saw was Rachel, twining a heavy iron chain around the bars of her cell and
the door frame and using a heavy padlock to lock it up.

harassment
This was the moment Rachel’s counterattack began.
“Huh?”

“Wh-what!?”

Seeing the unexpected actions of the young noblewoman, Sykes and the prison guard
both ran back to the cell door.

But Rachel had already securely locked it shut.

“Hey, what is this!?”

The men tried yanking open the door with all their strength, *CHING* *CHING* but
the door would only make a small noise as the edge of the door hit the chains fastening
it shut. In the end, they couldn’t open it enough to slide in even a finger.

Rachel coolly watched them go from inside her cell.

“It’s nothing. I locked it shut for my own safety.”

“This, isn’t this is a prison!? Isn’t it strange that the prisoner would be locking their
door!?”

Rachel spoke calmly and coolly as Sykes’s face turned red from his shouting.

“I am a beautiful, unmarried woman. It would be unbearable if the worst were to befall

me. It is a plot point in many stories for guards to sneak their way into dungeons where
their bosses can’t keep an eye on them.”

“You thought, that’s unheard of here!? And where did this chain and lock come from!?”

“That is a product for my own convenience.”

Rachel didn’t give an inch no matter what was being yelled at her while Sykes and the
prison guard were both at a loss for words. She was supposed to be locked inside a
prison, but it was starting to take the form of a basket instead.¹

“Wh-what do we do…?”
The prison guard spoke dumbfounded, and after a moment, Sykes begrudgingly replied.

“We’ll report to His Highness for now…… and, and we’ll go with what he decides…”

So the head of the knights in the entire castle left the dungeon and slowly began
dragging his feet back to the party venue.
By the time Sykes returned from the prison, he found Elliot still flirting with Miss
Margaret… but the situation was soon going to evolve(deteriorate).

“…!!”

When he saw the state of the dungeon, Elliot was at a loss for words. Sykes, who was
supposed to have been prepared for the strangeness of this situation, was also at a
loss for words. This prison, it was a completely different place from just 30 minutes
ago.

The dungeon is a facility that is actually comprised of one large square room separated
in two by a row of iron bars.

The front room across from the iron grating is used for waiting and monitoring the
dungeon. The staircase leading up to the rest of the castle was obviously here as well.
The only furniture in this portion of the dungeon was just a simple desk and a couple
chairs.

The prisoners’ meals would be brought from the kitchen in the upper floors, so there
was no need for any kitchen facilities, and because any interrogations are taken care
of in the guard quarters, there was no need for any furniture.

The room in the back is where the prisoner resides–the actual dungeon. Interior
decoration consists of stone with a stone ceiling and a stone floor. A monochromatic
design. In one corner there was a toilet, shower, and washbasin all shoved together.
These two portions of the room are only separated by the iron bars, and if they were
to be removed, you would have a single, larger room.

As it is called a dungeon, it is the basement floor mostly underground, but there is

several elongated holes in the high walls to act as windows in order to provide
ventilation and lighting. Because this was the only source of light for the room, even
in the daytime it was dim without any lamps or candles.

Whether life in this stifling space would be dreadful or not depended on the position
of the person interred here and the degree of hostility from the person who had put
them in there.

If the prisoner was a big shot that needed due consideration or if the person was still
on amicable terms with their jailer despite the circumstances, then they could expect
special treatment. Rugs and other furnishings like beds, desks, and chairs could be
provided along with toiletries for the toilet and even a bathtub.

If the purpose of the prisoners incarceration was to oppress them or their jailer felt
hatred for them, then they may receive nothing instead. Shivering in the cold and
forced to lie down on the cobblestone floor. They would have to eat off a tray placed
on the ground and subjected to the humiliation of being watched as you bathe and
excrete waste by the guard.

Just listening to this type of treatment is enough to make most men tremble. Especially
if their imprisonment had already been decided…

Nonetheless, the stories are mostly just urban legends.

In the first place there is almost no reason for this prison to be used in the first place.

Compared to the past, most inmates are handled immediately by the guards, so rather
than being thrown into the dungeon, they are immediately dragged into the guard
quarters where their interrogations are handled post haste without giving them even
a chance to escape.

On the other hand, and criminals who wouldn’t need this type of consideration
wouldn’t be important enough to be placed in the dungeon of the royal palace. It is far
better and more practical to just ship them off to the larger suburban prison used by
the common people.

This dungeon was something to be used to abuse powerful people who had lost
everything from the days where civil wars and conspiracy was an everyday thing. The
country had been at peace for a long time now so rather than a prison, it had become
more of a holding cell for nobles and courtiers who meet extraordinary conditions.

Rachel Ferguson, who was this cells first resident in a long time, was indeed an
extraordinary case. Somebody who was expecting the Duke’s daughter to draw the
Prince’s ire and be thrown in there. There was no such person who existed. Or at the
very least, such a capable person is hard to come by.

But was Prince Elliot able to think that deeply…?

Of course not. He just wanted to bully Rachel who had created a bad environment and
bullied the cute Margaret. At no point in any corner of his brain did he ever consider
what her living arrangements would be like.

What had crossed the Prince’s mind was the powerful image of Rachel becoming
desperate after being imprisoned and begging Margaret for forgiveness and to be
released as soon as possible. Any specific details were unable to be found.

Honestly, after expelling Rachel from his social gathering and flirting with Margaret,
the Prince had completely forgotten the matter until Sykes had drug his feet back into
the hall.

So he had no idea what problem his aide could have had with that woman, and he
didn’t understand the strangeness of the situation until he had gotten to the prison
himself.

……because when he did arrive in the prison, Prince Elliot could not understand the
sight in front of him.

In this prison, the Duke’s daughter who had just had her engagement annulled and
left alone in this cold dank place was currently relaxing.

In this place where stone pavement should be visible from every corner, a geometrically
patterned rug mat was laid down, and the shower and toilet which should have been
in plain view for the guards was partitioned off by a floral curtain.

The resident who had arrived at the castle that night while wearing a formal evening
dress had already changed into some simple indoor wear. On the rug mat was a
cushion sofa where this dungeon’s imprisoned was turning the page of her book while
lying on her back. In other words, there was also a light inside the cell close enough
for her to be able to read.
Why is she wearing a different outfit from what she had been thrust in there with?

Where did this furniture come from?

Impossible.

This picture is impossible.

This side of the iron bars is definitely still a dungeon.

And even though the other side is supposed to be a dungeon, even if it is narrow, why
is such a comfortable living arrangement spread out?

The people gathered here had no words for this mysterious sight, but after a moment
of them staring, the nobleman lying there suddenly noticed their presence.

“?”

Rachel sat up, completely ignoring the other side of the bars, and after picking up the
kettle off of her alcohol lamp, she poured out some boiling water into her tea pot
before covering the lid. Inside this dank dungeon, the smell of obviously outstanding
fragrant tea spread.

“Mufuu…”
Rachel smiled happily while smelling the excellent scent.

Elliot, who had been frozen in shock until now, finally moved a little when his jaw
dropped watching this whole tea brewing scene. Sykes kept staring at the woman’s
face, but he couldn’t force any words to come out.

After around a five count, the Prince’s senses finally returned to him when he rushed
forward and clung to the iron bars.

“You! Where did you get something like this from!”

Rachel gave the Prince an incredulous look, finding his response incomprehensible.

“Because I prepared all this myself, I didn’t put any strain on the national budget.”

“That’s not the problem!”

“Because these are all private items I bought over time, there is no way for me to say
specifically.”

“I’m not talking about where you got it! Where did it all come from for it to be in here!?”

Elliot’s words were becoming harried as he continued barreling through the

conversation.

Rachel however couldn’t seem to understand what he was talking about, so rather
than tell him anything, she decided to instead open up one of the nearby wooden boxes
and enjoy a sweet. The wooden box she had opened was one of the ones that had been
in there since the beginning. The ones that should’ve been a bunch of extra storage.

“……there!?” Sykes shouted.

“What!?”

The prison guard started explaining the situation to the Prince who was unaware of
the circumstances of those boxes. As the full trick became known to him, Elliot began
to feel dizzy as he watched his former fiancee happily enjoy a cookie and sip some tea.

“Pr-predicting the situation, the Duke had already sent in siege supplies!?”
Rachel popped in here replying to the Prince’s terrified misunderstanding.

“To be accurate it was actually done by my hands. Well, I’ve been preparing for just
such an event.”

With the Prince unable to catch up to that second statement, Rachel opened up her
book at the bookmark at she placed on the sofa and once again began devoting herself
to absorbing the contents.

Although everyone would admit that Rachel Ferguson was a beauty, they would also
admit to her having a strangely light presence, and sometimes the Prince would forget
what she would say.

Her beautiful thin lips would scarcely form any expression, and they would rarely
voice any of her opinions other than the abstract. Even if she were to voice an opinion,
the Prince would often hear it at his own convenience.

She was like the shadow of the Prince, a convenient woman attached to his side. The
rival noblewomen would often verbally bad-talk her saying she was like a wilted
flower and not suitable for the Prince.

Besides the shining beautiful Prince, she was a delicate butterfly that didn’t get in the
way, but was also inconspicuous.

She would be unnoticeable if not for the Prince at her side which was why she had
always been deemed not fun.

Because she was such a woman, Elliot thought that was why she didn’t put up any
resistance when he threw their engagement out the window……

But now he had a different thought,

……Who is this woman doing whatever she wants right now in this ridiculous place?
During tonight’s party being held at the royal palace where numerous young nobles
had gathered, an emergency report was delivered that Rachel’s engagement had been
suddenly abandoned by the Prince.

In a situation that was almost impossible to understand, the Duke’s house had
descended to a state of chaos, and as everyone turned to the Duke for answers… he
was running to try and gain information from his vassals to try and grasp the situation
himself.

Each subordinate came rushing in, delivering one fragment of bad news after another.

“It is certain that then that the Prince broke off the engagement with Rachel at tonight’s
party?”

“Hah. We have been able to confirm so from multiple sources. In the midst of tonight’s
party, she was restrained in the middle of the banquet hall and taken away.

The Duke could feel a migraine coming on.

“That idiot prince…! I wonder if he aimed for a this to be sensationalized, but the place
is way too bad. He’s never been the brightest, but this is a question of his common
sense…”

The Duke Dan had already judged that the Prince would be going down.

Ending the engagement and violating over a dozen noble manners and customs, no
matter how he tries to play this off it’s going to look bad for him.

Of course there was also a bitter anger in him that his daughter’s engagement had
been broken so shamelessly…… but honestly, the current problem bothering the Duke
more than anything was something far worse…

The Duke slammed his hands on the top of his desk.

“That guy’s head was always empty…… but now he’s willingly awoken the Demon…!”

The Duke’s eldest daughter Rachel has been a beautiful child ever since she was small.
With her modest gestures and fragile appearance, she looked like a shy and gentle girl
from the outside. The Duke and his wife who didn’t know anything would always talk
and praise her during their get-togethers. Everyone thought she was a wonderful child
in both body and mind.

They were wrong.

As the girl grew up and her sense of self developed, the Duke and his wife’s smiles started
to cloud.

In any case, her behavior was bad compared to the other kids her age.

When a group of kids tried to bully her once, she climbed up a big tree in a skirt and
then threw a beehive at them. When older kids came forward to try and act as
reinforcements, she started knocking them down with a large stick and punished the
main instigator of the bullying by throwing them in a pond.

When the Duke heard all the noise and rushed to the scene, he found his daughter
throwing stones at the boy every time he tried to come back up out of the water for
air.

When the shocked father tried to stop the incident, his daughter at the time looked at
him with a very serious face and said,

“It’s okay. If you keep throwing the stones fast enough down on him while he’s trying
to come up, I can prevent him from floating back up to the top.”

It was around this moment the Duke had concluded there was a very high probability
that his daughter was a psychopath.

For the time being he pointed out the difficulty of loading the boy down at the bottom
of the pond by throwing stones at him, and he took the time to explain water
resistance and how that shape of these amorphous stones meant you couldn’t
guarantee where they would land. He educated her on all such things, but the entire
time Dan was quietly panicking inside his head.

His daughter’s eyes were shining, “As expected of Father!” she praised him, but it was
honestly the first time he had experienced his daughter’s praise going in one ear and
making its way out the other.

It was worth all the effort the two parent had put in when they noticed Rachel’s
distorted personality, and their daughter was able to pick up the social skills that
matched her appearance as she matured.

Comparing manners and morals to the rules of a game, they were able to get her to
grow up in the ideal way, playing the ‘rules of life’ to make it a fair game for everyone
playing.

But the two parents were always aware.

If she were ever to lose the thought that she had to play by the rules, then they had no
idea what kind of things their daughter was capable of.

So they raised Rachel and her brother with an emphasis on the necessary education
on ethics for nobles… and then the abandonment of her engagement shattered so
many of those rules.

The Duke knew more than anyone else what could be happening in the banquet hall
right this very moment.

stupid idiot
Prince Elliot had just flipped the table over.

A butler breathlessly rushed into the room to file a report while the Duke continued
to pace back and forth in his study impatiently waiting for an update on the current scene.

“The details have arrived!”

“Has there been movement!?”

The Duke’s impatience had hit MAX levels, and the butler’s face went blue when he
realized he had to break the news.

“The situation is a bit… His Highness hasn’t sentenced Milady with anything, but since
she won’t apologize for whatever offense she apparently caused, she seems to have
been dragged down to the dungeon and quietly imprisoned there.”

“……”

All movement from the Duke stopped…… right before he lost all feeling in his legs and
crumpled down into his chair. His butler quickly rushed to his side.

The Duke was stunned for a while, but he was soon able to leak out a few words.

“This is… so His Highness is fine.”

“Yes.”

The butler, who also knew about the growth Rachel had gone through from her youth,
nodded his head.

His daughter’s sudden steeled resolve wasn’t enough to settle the Duke’s worries
entirely. He had no choice but to let that girl do what she wanted to ease up on the gas…

The Duke’s bustling impatience disappeared from his face. He walked around to his
desk and began loading his pipe with some tobacco.

He would take a puff for the time being. That’s all he would do for now. It was all that
he could do.

The Duke took a deep drag on his pipe, savoring the taste of the tobacco before spitting
it back out… and then he remembered something important.

“If it’s like this… George was also there in the hall. What was he doing while all this
was going on?”

Apart from Rachel being his future wife, George was also a good friend to the Prince.
Before it becoming such a serious event, if he had tried to arbitrate or reported this
matter to the Duke, then this commotion could have been minimized.

The butler who had delivered the original report suddenly looked uncomfortable
again before being forced to bring up some horrible additional information.
“It seems… the young lord has also become infatuated with the Baron’s daughter just
like His Highness and joined together with him in condemning the Lady.”

The Duke and butler couldn’t look each other in the eyes, instead turning their gazes
up to the ceiling.

“George… is already dead.”

“Yes.”

“That idiot has been with his older sister for sixteen years now. Why can’t he understand
something so simple?”

It had been a while since Rachel had done anything crazy, but still, what in the world
had he been thinking?

The Duke had zero intentions of protecting his eldest son from from the inevitable
anger Rachel would unleash on her younger brother.

If he were to do that, then the damage would just spill out over here as well.

He refused to have everything he ever worked for smashed to pieces because of his
foolish son.

While the Duke was staring up at the ceiling, still enjoying long drags from his pipe,
the corridor suddenly became noisy, and his wife burst through the door.

“Ah, Dan!”

“Iseria!”

A weeping wife jumped into her husband’s chest right as he rose out of his chair worried.

“Rachel is…… Rachel is……!”

“I know. I was just listening to the report now… we must keep ourselves together!”

The wife, who was completely upset, started shouting through her tears.
“Because she… Rachel won’t silently take this… Rachel’s going to kill everyone there!?
Our future’s and the future of His Majesty are going to be completely destroyed!”

“It’s alright! Rachel is already 17 years old, she isn’t a child anymore. She’s at the age
where she can make judgements like an adult.”
Towards his crying wife, the Duke continued to try and ease her worries with words
he didn’t actually believe. But his words provided very little relief for his wife.

“Dan, you can’t understand… you don’t know what it’s like watching your little girl
sing Lizzie Borden’s Poem while swinging around an axe!”¹

“You have to calm down Iseria! It’s okay, we’ll be okay! Rachel has grown greatly as a
noble lady over this past decade. The Rachel that she is right now won’t beat the Prince
to death with a blunt object, but will instead mentally tear away at his brain in a way
that is just barely legal!”

“Really…? Rachel really is okay with just that? That girl won’t bring the kingdom down
in an ocean of fire after carving the Prince up with a knife”

“Believe in our daughter Iseria! She is an intelligent and clever girl. There is no way
she would be so stupid as to bring herself down along with her victims. She will
definitely destroy His Highness in a way without getting any blood on her feet.”

Nonetheless, the Duke was unable to predict what his daughter was thinking, and
whether his daughter’s plans would end with the Prince’s murder was something that
couldn’t be said.

How to deal with this…… at this stage the Duke could do nothing other than sigh.

There were a number of servants surrounding these two… and all of them had been a
member of this house too long to tsukkomi their conversation.

“Excuse me.”

While the Duke rubbed his wife’s back trying to calm her down, a calm voice asked for
permission to enter the room–an unnerving thing in this currently chaotic mansion.

Walking through the door, it was Rachel’s childhood friend and maid Sofia who bowed
her head to the head of the house.

“Ah, Sofia. You’re timing is perfect. Have you heard what happened to Rachel?”

“Yes. Of course.”
“I will be heading over there immediately to protest. I would like for you to get ready
and join me on my way there. If we can’t get Rachel out of prison, we will be sure to at
least provide her with her personal belongings to make her stay more comfortable. If
anyone objects, we will push through with my authority.”

Rachel having been thrown in prison directly from the banquet hall, she would require
a change of clothes and other things for her to go on living. Sofia was close to Rachel,
so bringing her along would make things go quick was what the Duke thought, but…

“No, everything’s fine.”

“You’ve already prepared everything? As expected of you.”

“Yes. Everything has been prepared and brought in for her.”

“I see, that’s good preparation…… huh? You brought it in?”

Turning his full attention on the maid who was saying things that didn’t quite make
sense, he saw two other gray-haired maids behind her give a sharp nod.

“Milady gained information on this event in advance, so we prepared enough food and
supplies for her to live there for three months and transported it to the royal prison.”

In private, the maids working under Rachel are often even more arrogant than their
master as evidenced by how Sofia responded to the Duke with a surprised expression
as if what she was saying were common sense.

“…Huh?”

Numerous doubts were jumping around the Duke’s brain all at once, but he tried
gathering himself together and asked his daughter’s follower his most important
question.

“Ju-just a moment… she got this information in advance? Why didn’t Rachel do anything
then? And then, how did you smuggle in three months of supplies into the royal palace?”

This maid loyal to Rachel answered once again as if the answer were obvious.

“It seemed dubious whether he would actually do it, the Lady had received knowledge
about the Prince’s ‘Engagement abandonment plan’. ‘Once that idiot breaks off the
engagement and annuls my responsibilities, won’t I be able to laze around and do
whatever I want for a while? That sounds lovely!‘ were her words.”

“……Rachel…”

“And ever since the engagement with the Prince was first finalized, she has been
organizing her ‘Dark Night Black Cats’ to have them encompass all throughout the
royal palace. Thus it was a simple matter to smuggle in her supplies while disguised
as it being public service.”
“Rachel, what in the world are you aiming for……!?”

The Duke was relieved to know that his daughter had her wits about her.

But more than that, he was trembling with fear realizing the darkness in his daughter’s
heart went far deeper than he thought.

Why did she have an intelligence organization that the rest of the house wasn’t aware
about? And being able to smuggle in over three months worth of supplies, isn’t that
too far beyond just a simple information network? Couldn’t she actually perform a
royal assassination if it’s like this? And many other thoughts of that nature were
running through the Duke’s head…

“Anyway, I’m going to go protest the government’s actions.”

“Please feel free.”

He decided to pretend that he hadn’t heard anything.

1. It’s a Mother Goose poem:

Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one.

Rachel was doing whatever she wanted when she was supposed to be bound.

She was coolly returning Prince Elliott’s glare. He quickly started yelling through the iron
bars.

“Oi! Isn’t this a prison!? Why are you so relaxed!?”

“It is said that the people who live in the capitol are”

“That has nothing to do with right now! Oi, tell me how!”

The prison guard was completely bewildered when the Prince suddenly started talking
to him and began shaking at his fierce glare. Naturally.

“Even if you ask me how I…”

“Do you think I sent her to prison so she could have a happy vacation like if she were
at a villa!? Go in there and confiscate everything that person brought in!”

He was given an order, but because it was impossible, the guard had a hard time talking
back to the Prince.

“Even though you say so… in reality”

“In… she’s steadied her basket from inside…”

Having the key and padlock explained to him, Elliott’s jaw dropped once again. The
sparkling beautiful Prince, it was eerie seeming him with a strange look in his eye and
a dumb look on his face…… or so the prison guard thought.

“What do we do?”

The prison guard was at a loss when asked. The entire reason they had gone to get the
Prince was to ask Elliott this very question. The guard took a glimpse over towards
Sykes, but he was standing perfectly still looking the other way. Any help from him
couldn’t be counted on.

Because the prisoner’s younger brother is intelligent, he should have been brought
along as well… but they would all look incompetent if they were to call for him now.

The Prince scratched his head in irritation, and as his frustration boiled up, it pushed
out a sudden rash answer.

“Break the chain! We’ll cut through and force our way in!”

Elliott kicked Sykes in the butt to get him moving.

“Oi, go call up some knights! Have them bring some tools with them!”

“Huh?…… Ha, Hah!”

Sykes started running up the cobblestone steps, his boots creating an echo inside the
chamber with each stride, and Elliott began ridiculing Rachel as she continued to lie
back on her cushion.

“For you to pull a terrible stunt like this, your sins are only getting worse! The
treatment you’ll receive will be exactly as it should be. I won’t leave you even a single
blanket, imagine yourself miserable and shivering alone in the cold darkness!”

Proclaiming his intentions to an innocent woman with a wicked smile on his face, the
figure of the Prince looked like a villain from every angle that you looked at him.

Glancing at the Prince’s smile from over her shoulder, his former fiancee made a small
smirk and made a small, “Hmph,” through her nose.

“…You should do as you want.”

Sykes came back with four other knights making up a five-man unit. The Prince
immediately directed them to the problem chain at once.

“This is it.”
“Uwa… you want us to cut this!?”

One of the knights screamed. The others knights were each making similar faces as
well. Naturally.

They had been told that the chain the Prince’s finger was pointing to was the size of a
woman’s pinky finger. The diameter of the chain, was not that. The diameter of the
iron material the chain was made of, was.¹ In other words, if you were to try and wrap
your hand around the chain, it was so thick that your index finger and thumb might
not be able to touch… its the kind of chain you should be putting on a castle gate
instead of a cell door.

The padlock keeping it shut was accordingly huge, so much so that Rachel dainty arms
probably couldn’t have lifted it unless she used both hands. The keyhole had been
carefully directed towards the outside of the iron bars meaning those outside the cell
couldn’t see it.

“I was told we were going to cut some chains and brought the lever scissors…”

The knight brought forward his specialty scissors made for the express purpose of
cutting metal. By operating under the principal of increasing the pushing force, it was
an impressive tool that increased the clamping force by several times.

However.

“If it was made of lead we could manage but…”

“Is it useless!?”

“This, the material’s iron… and it’s not even cast iron but forged…”

Just to try it, two knights worked together with the scissors to try and cut through.

But no matter how much effort they put in, not even a trace of a bite would mar the
surface.

“It’s impossible.”

“Is it really!? Some other, there has to be some other way!”

“Once, I did buy an iron saw…”

The mean had an iron saw to cut through metal, so they decided to try using that
instead. The knights took turns switching off and as a result…

“Your Highness, we have left a slight mark…”

“Hmm… after 30 minutes of work…”

This was going to take til dawn to cut. But then a knight finally took a look at the saw
and showed the blade to Elliott who had been getting lost in his own thoughts.

“And it’s flat. The edge of the iron saw has been completely worn away.”

“…can we just keep changing saws?”

“We don’t have another one in the castle…”

The entire dungeon fell into silence.

Behind these silent men, a small sound rang out in spite of them. As Elliott turned
around, he saw the shoulders of a young noblewoman shaking as she tried to stop
herself from laughing while reading her book.

Blood rushed to Prince Ikemen’s² head and he kicked the iron bars with his foot.

“Oi! Because of who is it that you’re making such a fuss in there!”

“Isn’t it because of Your Highness? Aren’t you the one who had me put in the prison? I
wouldn’t have been able to make a fuss otherwise.”

“AHHHH!!”

When you put it all together, that’s how it is.

Elliott could feel his cheeks getting hotter, conscious of all the gazes gathered on him.

This woman, she was going to get it!

It was true that Elliott was the cause. He was the one after all who had annulled their
engagement and then thrown her in prison because she wouldn’t say she was sorry……
but even so, Elliot was burning up at the revelation that this woman’s ‘decorative doll’
appearance was just for show, and he couldn’t bear to silently withdraw like this.

“Oi, bring me a spear so I can stab this woman!”

“Y, Your Highness!?”

Sykes, the prison guard, and all of the accompanying knights were astonished at what
Elliott had started screaming.

“I’m not going to kill her. I’m just going to inadvertently hurt her by stabbing her in the
knee or something. Then she’ll have to unlock these chains and come out herself!”

“That is, you’re right but…!?”

Sykes and the other knights all shared an uneasy look.

It was the Prince who had suddenly declared he was abandoning the engagement and
imprisoned his former fiancee all without following any of the proper procedure. The
entire royal palace including the dungeon belongs to the King, and it can’t be said that
the Prince had the authority to use it however he wanted. At the very least, he wouldn’t
be able to make these kinds of decisions if the King weren’t away on an inspection.

Above this, wasn’t the Prince actually abandoning he duty by breaking an officially
accepted engagement? She hadn’t committed any crimes (she bullied the Prince’s
girlfriend, so imprisonment and execution should be out of the question), so the men
would probably be punished at some point if they were to follow the Prince’s orders now.

And for some reason none of them thought the Prince would be much help if that were
to happen. Sykes and the other knights all started silently pushing each other forward,
but when the Prince ran out of patience and raised his numb voice…… they all stopped
halfway.

“Oi, I’m getting anxious being made to wait like this. It’ll be fine if we just cut her a little,
so…”

“?”

The Prince’s words stopped mid-sentence, and when all of the men turned to see what
he was looking at…… they saw what he saw, and they all stiffened up just like he did.

At some point the woman in the cell had stood up without anyone noticing.

And in an obviously familiar form, she had loaded up a crossbow.

“Y-You even brought weapons…!? To bring weapons into a prison, you’re insane!”

“What are you talking about now? This isn’t a weapon.”

“Eh? I’m wrong?”

“It’s a self-defense tool.”

“That’s the same, IDIOT!”

For the time being Rachel was pointing the tip of the bolt towards Elliott, but she had
settled into a position where she could shoot at anyone if she needed to. And none of
the outside knights had any weapons to counter her.

Rachel gave a cynical smile towards the men who had all taken a step back.

“Since Elliot is lacking in both wisdom and patience, I assumed a situation like this
would come up. By the way, unlike His Highness who liked to play and chase girls
around town, I liked accompanying my Father and Uncle when they went hunting.
Wild birds drop so well don’t you think?”

And with a smile… she showed them all a beautiful smile that made their spines go cold.

“About three years ago, the village I was staying at was attacked by some brigands…
of course the Duke’s soldiers took control of the situation almost immediately, but I
also helped take care of three of the men myself. That is… I don’t have any reservations
about shooting a human being so long as their an enemy, is something to take to heart
don’t you think?”

Bad.
Sykes and the others couldn’t say otherwise.

These days, even knights probably don’t have any real experience. So whether they be
knights or soldiers, they are made to practice so that if the time ever did come where
they did have to stab someone, they wouldn’t hesitate. It was easy to tell apart the
veterans who actually had killed someone before by this flow.

That’s the way it is in the world right now… and now translate that to one battle-
hardened high-ranking aristocrat.

She teased them, “Should I kill you~” asking them what she was supposed to do, and
Elliott and Sykes became able to read the room.

Rachel tilted her cute, pretty little head.

“If you don’t do anything on your side, then I will allow your idiotic face to come down
and visit me. But if you ever try to harm me or break in here Prince, I, I guess I’ll just
have to exercise my right to self-defense don’t you think?”

Rachel smiled again and motioned to the stairs with her chin.

“If there’s nothing else, could you please pack up and leave?”

At Rachel’s question, the knights hurriedly dragged Elliott away, his legs unmoving
even as they scraped against the floor. It looked like they were courageously dragging
the Prince away from danger, but the truth of it was that they couldn’t leave if their
superior officer stayed behind, so they were dragging him with them. Incidentally, the
prison guard was the first of them to run.

Having his back pushed by Sykes to force him up the stairs, the Elliott was able to
regain his mind and started shouting again.

“If you want to be in the prison so much, then stay there as long as you want! But on
the other hand, do you think anyone on this side will let you out!? Even if you say you
want to leave, we will never let you out! Even if you cry I won’t let you out!”
Rachel responded with a small yawn to her former fiancee’s threats and re-opened
her closed book again.

“I want you to at least be able to say something like that to my face.”

She didn’t expect a reply. And by the time Rachel’s words had ended, the Chicken-
Hearted Prince had already escaped.

Rachel fell asleep while still holding her book, thinking about all the happiness she her
life would include starting tomorrow.

1. I just wanted to point this out since I was really confused at first, they aren’t saying
that the iron is as thick as a pinky finger. They are saying that the thickness of the iron
is the same as the length of a pinky finger.

2. For anyone who doesn’t know, an ikemen is just a young, good-looking, and cool guy.
This is a story that took place about three weeks before Rachel was imprisoned in the
dungeon.

The guard manning the gate of Duke Ferguson’s mansion kept a watchful eye out for
the young noblewoman’s carriage. Dusk had just begun to settle when he saw a carriage
racing this way. He turned back to the mansion and began shouting.

“The Lady is home!”

After his words echoed through the courtyard, the mansion immediately sprang to life
as family members and servants rushed out to greet her, and the guard ran back to his
station and threw open the gate. The guard opened the gate at just the right timing so
that the carriage bearing the Duke’s family crest on its front was able to pass through
without having to slow down.

As the fiancee of the first prince… rather their future queen Lady Rachel had returned
home from her special education inside the royal palace.

The butler, head maid, and all the other servants formed two lines on either side of the
mansion’s entrance, lowering their heads as Rachel came down the hall.

She gave a simple self-evaluation to the butler when he asked how the day’s studies
had gone, and she confirmed with the head maid that dinner would be held at its usual
time in two hours. In the meantime the other maids and male servants bowed their
heads and brightly greeted Rachel as she walked up the large steps to her room on the
second floor…… and when the door closed behind her, she collapsed onto her bed just
as she was.

“Ah~…… so tired……”
Rachel started whining with her face buried in her bed while her personal maid Sofia
peeled off the clothes and accessories she was wearing. Her studies at the royal palace
were quite taxing, and it was a regular occurrence for her to collapse with a *BMPH*
whenever she returned.

It was her attendants job over the next two hours to get this withered Rachel into the
bath, and arrange a level of dress and preparedness for her that she would look
presentable when having dinner with her family.

A maid had to be able to show off some dexterous tricks in order to strip a master who
didn’t want to move naked.

That would be natural. Ever since Rachel began her queen’s education inside the royal
palace, her maids had been working on various techniques and technologies to support
her. If their master is weary, then they would take off her dress without causing any
additional burden to her.

Why don’t they strip her while she’s standing up? There isn’t a person here who could
give a sound argument. Rachel’s basic behavior is their top priority.

The maids provide her a thin sheet to cover herself before taking a step back and
allowing Sofia to replace them. Her fingertips on both hands rapidly got to work on
Rachel’s body, massaging everything from Rachel’s upper back down to her ankles.

“…four hours of classroom lectures followed by two hours of dance, later… was inspecting
table manners?”

Rachel’s face was still buried into her pillow, but Sofia was capable of guessing the
day’s curriculum by the tension in her master’s muscles even before Rachel gave her
a deft nod for confirmation.

“Un… it was only three hours of classroom lectures and two hours of dance along with
an hour of how to elegantly walk… there was also an additional two hours of how to
gracefully watch theater… that lecture alone left my shoulders feeling stiff.”

“And how does one gracefully watch theater?”

“Shoulders back, sitting up straight with good posture, and then keenly smiling while
enthusiastically watching the stage… in order to watch… In fact, the lecturer woman’s
angle while watching that empty stage was wrong, so all that lesson is good for is
diminishing the royal pedigree. Then in the end her hollow eyes started shining while
she said we would have some fun… there isn’t any excitement with keeping your eyes
locked on an unmanned stage…”

“It’s a ridiculous class as you are watching from the sidelines.”

“I look like a fool watching another fool staring at nothing.”

Sofia gave a signal, and from seemingly out of nowhere eight other maids appeared,
suddenly surrounding Rachel from all sides.

“Poor girl… for our Lady who is so tired, allow us to heal everything for you.”

“…I always tell you gently…”

“Naturally.”

While taking note of her master’s cautionary words, Sofia started handing out
instructions to her subordinates.

“Today’s emphasis is the shoulders, shins, and soles of her feet! They’re all in an
extremely stiff state, so be sure to act thoroughly! All members, begin!”

“Didn’t I tell you to use your hands gently!?…… Fugyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Nine people including Sofia all attacked Rachel at the same time. They pressed down
on her with MAX motivation to begin the massage. Not just their fingertips, but they
were using the second joints of their fingers, full-fledged rub downs with their hands,
and even some acupuncture sticks… all done simultaneously across her entire body.
And with Sofia of course being the chief among them, she took charge of the most
reverberated feet.

“Huah!? Puah! Hingyaaaaaaaaa! Ihya, Ihyaiiiiii!”

A relaxing full-body massage that fully heals a person, allowing them to gently nod off
to sleep… the massage Rachel was being assaulted with wasn’t something that cute.
The nine maids restrained the young lady as she started bouncing around in pain, and
they continued to sprinkle their full power onto her.

“I’ve already said it many times! Why do you have to do my whole body simultaneously!?”
“I’ve explained this already many times, but we don’t have the time to do this gradually
one at a time. It cannot be helped.”

“It cannot be helped, but doesn’t your voice sound like you’re enjoying yourself!?”

“My lady jumping around from the pain of a sudden prick? Is there any reason I wouldn’t
find this interesting?”

“Is this a labor dispute strike!?”

“Everything we do is for My Lady. My, the kidneys…”

“Agaaaaaaaa!”

“And now for the showstopper.”

“Fuhyaaaaaaaa!”

“…Hmm, because it bounces so much during the Spring, your legs look pretty tired too.
Lisa, Mimosa, focus on the area right underneath her knees in particular.”

“Knock—It—Off—!”

The noblewoman is then carried while in a half-conscious state to the tub where she
is thoroughly boiled at a low temperature. Wrapped in a towel when her snow white
skin turns a rosy pink, this time she is softly rubbed down to prevent any muscle sores
from returning. After pouring some cold, refreshing lemonade down her mouth,
Rachel finally fully regains consciousness.

“…Every day every day, I’m sick of having this boring queen education sucking my soul
away as if I were performing penance every single day… it’s like I’ve already descended
to Hell. Ah~, I don’t want to be that Prince’s wife…”

“Thanks to you, we are having fun every single day.”

“Aren’t you diverting work stress by shopping and trying out the food at various
restaurants?”
“Shopping and being a gourmet is a little hard on our wallets, so we refrain from such
fattening hobbies. Something more entertaining than hearing My Lady scream, do you
think there exists anything like that in the world?”

“Out there? There are definitely plenty of other things?”

While watching the other maids prepare the clothes and make-up that was to be worn
for tonight’s dinner, with Rachel settled Sofia started reading off the day’s report.

“There are a number of things to report today, but there is one of import that should be
heard first.”

“Oh, what is it? Have our secret messages sent through the route inside the royal palace
been leaked?”

Sofia kept silent and passed over a hundred letters causing Rachel to tilt her neck to
the side while drinking her lemonade.

“Um? ‘E, are you planning on destroying your engagement to the boss?’… Huh?”

As one would expect, Rachel raised a shocked voice.

“Besides that one, ‘I have already formulated my own concrete plan’ apparently.”

Sofia started reporting the details of their spy’s findings while Rachel continued to
silently stare at the document in hand.

“As we had previously reported it seems that the Prince and those close to him have
become enamored with the daughter of a baron who recently started visiting the royal
palace… and it seems he has at last consolidated his determination to make that
woman his girlfriend and future princess while getting rid of My Lady. Unfortunately
it seems that Master George is involved in the plot… although we have gained concrete
proof of the conspiracy, we have yet to report this evidence to the head of the house.”

Sofia reported everything she could before asking with a all her heart,

“What would you have done…?”

If Rachel were to move the subjects she had, it would be an easy thing to crush the
Prince’s plan or even the Prince himself. The latter option would actually increase
Rachel’s power even higher.

“…Well”

Rachel handed the report back over to Sofia.

“Let’s increase our communications. We don’t necessarily know who this ‘boss’ is.”

“My apologies. When making a cryptographic table we didn’t take into account times
like this.”

Sofia folded the report and put it away in her pocket before looking back into her master’s
eyes.

“So, what shall we do?”

“Let me see… it’s’ certainly unexpected…”

Rachel sat back in her seat, silently staring into thin air while Sofia continued to quietly
gaze at her.

The Rachel who she admired’s marriage partner.

Prince Elliott who was popular among young girls with his brilliant appearance, and
to be honest their intelligence network investigated any rumors that had circulated
around him. In the end all they could find out about him though was that he was
incompetent.

It was useless.

Although the part about him having good looks was certainly true, with the insides
not being even remotely compatible with Rachel, the couple’s relationship quickly fell
through. Even though this was a common occurrence with many arranged marriages
between aristocrats, the fact that the next King and Queen couldn’t find any common
ground between each other left a sense of crisis for the servants who weren’t Rachel’s.

If he was the type of idiot who could only do whatever his wife told him, then with
Rachel’s maneuvering you could describe him as not incompetent. But even though he
was incompetent, his pride wouldn’t allow him to just follow orders. If Rachel was the
one who had thought something up, then he would get angry and throw a fit, opposing
whatever it was without thinking about the future.

Rachel would try and give him a practical problem, (like someone having broken in to
the royal palace), and Rachel would try and instruct the Garbage Prince would put in
zero effort. When Rachel would diligently try to teach him, he would call her noisy and
not listen to anything she said.

It was like the little Prince’s only goal was to defy the Lady…

Sofia patted her hands in her lap trying to hold back her murderous intent for the
unsuspecting royal fool. If Rachel authorized it, Sofia would have been more than
happy to go down to that stupid, incompetent Garbage Prince and personally instructed
him about the fate of cheaters.

By the way, Sofia has never met Elliott before. All of her opinions were speculation
derived from the reports she had received. Although she tried to remain objective,
blood always rushed to her head whenever somebody got even in a little of the way of
her Master’s benefit or prevented her from seeing Rachel’s adorable shortcomings. Or
so she was thinking on her own.

While noticing her empty glass, Rachel turned to Sofia.

“So, what are they concretely going to do?”

“Yes, they will be condemning My Lady the evening of the party celebration for the
opening of the social season next month, and they will push forward the Baron’s
daughter on the spot after declaring the breaking off of the engagement.”

“I see… that is because only the noble youths will be coming out there. There won’t be
any worries of any parental nobles or powerful people putting an end to the charade
on the spot. This kind of forward thinking is definitely George’s handiwork.”

“You think so?”

Rachel shrugged her shoulders.

“If it was His Highness Elliott, he would’ve come forward and made his declaration the
next day without preparing any foundation beforehand.”

“He’s quite the fool isn’t he?”

“He’s reputed as a person who has to use all his nutrients in order to understand. Also,
His and Her Majesty will be visiting the mining areas in the southern regions before
heading to the summit… George has picked out a good timing for this.”

“There are other tacticians involved…?”

“The rest of the Prince’s entourage are a bunch of muscle brains who only ever think
about their calorie intake. Of the nine people he has following him, eight of them are
a collection of sycophant jesters.”

“…Even if we weren’t talking about this case, it’s a lineup that makes me worry for the
future of this country.”

“That’s why His Majesty hasn’t passed down any real power right now.”

Rachel rose up from the couch and dropped her bathrobe to begin getting dressed.
Confirming the glow of her skin, the maids quickly got to work putting on the new
clothes they had prepared for her.

“So Sofia. Making an accusation against me at the night’s ball and changing his fiancee
to the Baron’s daughter… after that, what does His Highness plan on doing with me?
Since he’s doing this in such a public place, surely they wish to finish the matter in a
single stroke?”

“Because their thought patterns are those of children, it seems they have yet to think
about that. They plan on shaming My Lady by forcing you to confessing how you
bullied the Baron’s daughter, and it seems they will make you apologize. When His
Majesty the King returns home, they will drag My Lady before him where you will
confess your sins and the replacement of fiancees will be smoothly realized. It sounds
like such a plan so far.”

“They’ll dispose of me afterwards by throwing me to His Majesty and Father… I mean,

have they really only thought that far ahead?”

“Five prosecutors.”
Sofia put a simple dress to be worn at home on Rachel before she took a seat on a stool,
and the maids in charge of make-up wrapped a scarf around her neck and began to
apply on white powder. The make-up was applied thinly per Rachel’s preferences, so
applying the white powder was finished after a few light dabs. The maids then
immediately switched over from the puff ball to a brush and started applying crimson
to her lips.

“After the evening ball, it should be about a week before His Majesty returns home
right? Do they expect me to just go along with what they’re saying?”

“I cannot imagine a scene where My Lady would apologize to them first, but… if they
were to carry out this crime drama in front of the other participants of the evening
ball, they probably do not believe you can overcome the facts.”

“I can’t even imagine… I, do they want me to become the most famous noblewoman in
the court.”

“A wolf that can’t bark is still a wolf. Oh my, this is the first time a poor debut in court
has ever made me laugh. Hahahahah”

Even though they had gone to so much trouble to get this information, Sofia was
starting to think it would be better to not pass it on to the lord.

“That’s right. If the Lady were to refuse to recognize her sins, it seems the Prince’s
group would get impatient and throw you in the dungeon to make you cry.”

The words said in jest caused Rachel to stiffen with astonishment.

“…dungeon?”

“Yes. It seems like they Prince intends to imprison you in the dungeon.”

“Was there such a thing in the Royal Palace?”

Rachel’s doubts were justified.

In this sweet and peaceful country, are dark facility like a dungeon shouldn’t exist
inside the royal palace. Although criminal nobles did appear every once in a while,
nobody in the town shops ever talked about them being put in prison inside the royal
palace.
“I confirmed it after the information came in. Underneath the warehouse facing the
backyard and temporary courtyard housing, there is a semi-underground prison. It
seems the seventh generation king had it constructed in the royal palace to hold
rebels.”

A relic of the period when the court saw plenty of blood. In other words…

“It was about a hundred years ago… can it still be used?”

“It’s a room with only stone walls and iron bars. Interior decoration, it is completely
lacking in furniture, but the upper and lower water supplies seem to have been
maintained… it runs at least. There are officials who manage the facility and perform
regular maintenance.”

When they looked around, they guessed a person could have still spent some happy,
trivial days at the time.

“…it sounds like you can’t fit too much in there, but for one person it should be plenty
of space to spare.”

Taking Sofia’s report in hand, Rachel closely eyed the sketch of the prison printed
there. If she were to trust the vertical and horizontal lines written there, the whole
room seems to be the size of a tennis court.

“Because it was supposed to house greater aristocrats, was it designed with a larger
estimated living space?”

“They might have created it in accordance with the position of the ground floors’ walls
and pillars.”

Rachel’s interest had been piqued, and standing up, she started pacing about. The
maid in charge of accessories quickly followed after her having not yet put on the
Lady’s necklace. Rachel briskly halted. The rushing maid was then allowed to catch up
and set the accessory.

“Sofia, the problem party is about three weeks away correct?”

“Yes, I believe so…?”

Sofia tilted her head. Clearly the Garbage Prince had secretly made these leaked plans,
but was there any relation between that and the information on the dungeon?

“Do you have a catalog for those previous reports and items the Black Cats have
received?”

“Huh? Hah…”

Her lord was asking questions with more and more obvious answers.

The intelligence group that Rachel owned separate from the Duke, Dark Night Black
Cats, has a signboard with a black cat pictured on it. In the shadows of a logistics
trading company that operates over various seas and parts of the world, it was
charged with acquiring active funds and maintaining regular contact with information
networks from various sources. Of course, despite being a covert organization under
Rachel’s influence, it also acted as a proper business.

Rachel roughly looked over the latest product list that the maid had panickly brought
over until she carefully inspected a few pages that caught her eye.

Rachel looked as she normally did, but her smile soon twisted into a rarely seen heartfelt
smile.

“This is good…”

“Hah?”

“Sofia.”

“Yes.”

“For the evening ball three weeks from now, if His Highness abandons the engagement,
I will no longer be the next queen correct?”

“That is, is that so… but would His Majesty allow the engagement to be broken?
Although he isn’t someone I have ever worshiped, he is, as expected, not as stupid as
his son.”

Sofia-sensei was capable of making quite the controversial remarks, but Rachel didn’t
care.

“Such a thing is not a problem. His Majesty won’t be present at the evening ball.”

So, there was no need to stop Prince Elliott’s plans for that evening.

“When my engagement is destroyed by that group, I will deny my condemnation.”

“Hah…”

“And they shall successfully throw me into the dungeon.”

“…Successfully?”

Rachel spun around with item catalog in hand, making a declaration for all to hear.

“I shall enter an indefinite vacation~!”

Sofia and the rest of the maids all became of one mind standing perfectly still, so the
noblewoman danced alone.

As to be expected, Sofia was the first to regain her sanity and spoke up.

“My Lady… I don’t quite understand what you mean…”

“Well Sofia, nobody would understand normally if I don’t explain it.”

“Yes, that’s definitely so.”

Rachel happily began listing some things off her fingers.

“If my engagement has been destroyed, then there would no longer be a wedding. Are
you fine up until there?”

“Yes.”

Confirming comprehension of Sofia, Rachel went on.

“That is, because I will no longer be qualified to be the next queen, then my qualification
for the queen’s education would also be lost.”

“That’s right.”

“So my time would be free.”

“…That’s true.”

The maids’ faces all turned cloudy as if something extremely doubtful had come to pass.

“So! Since the time spent so far has been so hard, I shall spend my time for a while
leisurely, relaxingly, and practicing my hobbies!”

“I understand your reasoning.”

“How about it, logical isn’t it?”

Towards the inflated Rachel, Sofia acted as the representative and asked a very
important question.

“Engagement abandonment… once the engagement is canceled, I understand you

want to take a vacation for a while and enjoy your free time.”

“Yeah.”

“With that story… the part about you, ‘Being thrown into the dungeon’? After having a
suitable talk, wouldn’t it be better for you to just return to the mansion and choose a
scenic spot?”

“Well Sofia, I can’t do that.”

Rachel noted the part where her maids were falling off, and she lightly struck Sofia’s
forehead with her finger.

“If I were to escape halfway, then wouldn’t my queen education instructors immediately
catch me and bring me back?”

The confused Sofia was revived.

“They could come up with a reasoning such as, ‘Duchess Ferguson is using a fight with
the Prince as an excuse to flee from her classes’, or something of the such right?”

“I see!”

Rachel had begun to sweat from all the spinning she was doing. She was truly overjoyed.

“Good right? After the engagement with that idiot is broken off with him bearing the
full responsibility, won’t I be able to even escape my duties as a Dutchess for a while
and do nothing!? It’s wonderful!”

But, it was bad for Rachel who thought it was great… the plan had a hole.

Sofia swung her head.

“My Lady… when His Majesty returns, won’t he blow away the Garbage Prince’s will?
Even before that, they won’t be able to resist once the Duke comes in to object.”
Sofia made a conclusion with a rare stupid look on her face.

“So, after being thrown in the dungeon, I will be released the very next day.”

Rachel summarized Sofia’s point with an unchanging smile.

“Oh, but I don’t have to be dragged out.”

“Huh!?”

Rachel’s affirmed her words with no hesitation.

“You can put the lock and keys inside the prison.”

“…Inside the prison?”

“That’s right.”

If the lock and keys were inside the cell, could you still say you were in prison?

“So, I shall prepare for my fun vacation now!”

“Pleasant… vacation…?”

With the understanding of the general imprisonment, all of the maids felt that their
Lady’s feelings were a bit off the mark.

“For now, we will plan on me being in there for three months, so we must prepare
preserved food and something for me to do. Even if it’s canned food, recently there
have been many kinds added to the repertoire. Let’s have the Black Cat’s shop look for
something good! We will also gradually clean and fix up the dungeon in advance so as
not to draw attention to ourselves, and we will have to thoroughly study the security
so that we can maintain a method of contact! It’s indoors which means I won’t need a
tent, but I wonder what I s"hould do for bedding… ah, I have so little time yet so much
to prepare!”

Acting as if she were about to go camping, Rachel started to feel at ease while planning
her preparations.
Sofia who was looking on at her Lady’s face suddenly turned her head away… when
she saw Rachel getting serious, she lost her ability to think effectively.

“We will get the supplies ready at once.”

Rachel came first to Sofia and the other maids.

Whether it was the common sense of the world or not, their Lady’s judgement was
always right.

It was all right even if she were running away from reality to avoid her queen’s
education, so long as the Lady was having fun.

“Allow us My Lady, because it is a dungeon, we shall prepare lighting and plenty of

insect repellent.”

“I think we should bring only the minimum for meals. Would you like sweetened tea,
or is that not necessary?”

“If she can’t go out, then we should bring in some novels and poetry as well…”

“My, you all are in high spirits!”

Nobody was bringing up any more objections, and so, Rachel’s ‘Happy Vacation Plan‘
began.

At the cafeteria.

“Oi, is Rachel still… it’s already been four hours since she came back…”

“I told her three hours but…”

“Hungry…”
As Elliott had said, he didn’t arrange any meals for Rachel to have.

This was of course harassment for making him retreat under the threat of a weapon.

But this wasn’t the primary objective. He had decided to bring this down to a test of
endurance, and after being weakened through a lack of meals, she would yield and
lower her head to him.

Instead of any meals being given to Rachel, the prison guard would eat the food every
day in front of her cell. It was the strategy of fueling Rachel’s hunger by having the
delicious prison food that was originally meant for her eaten right in front of her.

No matter how extraordinary Rachel was, she couldn’t live without food. And so it was
a fear of having nothing to eat that would bring about the Prince’s victory. She would
quickly get discouraged. So Elliott showed his confidence.

That’s why.

The prison guard was sitting at his desk in front of the iron bars, raving about eating
the meal he himself had brought.

“Aiya, for you noble families even black bread has a different taste! The texture is so
smooth, there is almost no acidity in the taste, and it smells so fresh!”

The prison guard was giving a review of the menu, using a monotone voice as if he
were an incompetent gourmet reporter. But it was still effective for the noblewoman
inside the prison where Rachel was moaning about her own meal.

“It’s nice having oatmeal, but as I thought there’s not enough powdered milk after all…
there are raisins though, so it’s still fine.”
“And this grilled chicken breast! Although it has gotten cold, the taste has completely
soaked in, un. Aiya aiya this, isn’t this too extravagant for a prisoner?”

“If it’s food that pops, then mine certainly has a strong taste as well… but this roasted
duck, its meat has become hardened after being pickled in the sauce. Well, this is the
limit of canned food I suppose.”

“…And it’s even lucky enough to get dessert! Un, this orange is a little sour, but it’s still
good!”

“Ah, this white peach pickled in syrup is pretty good. It’s lacking in raw, fresh taste, but
this different kind of sweetness is still good.”

Rachel was eating out of some cans she had brought with her at a folding table and
chair set up in her cell, and she smiled sweetly when her eyes met with the silent prison
guard.

“After all it’s preserved food, so the taste isn’t that great. It seems Mr. prison guard had
a satisfying meal that I am envious of though.”

“HaHaHaHah! Well, if you’re feeling envious then apologize to the Prince as soon as
possi… ble, Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait!”

The prison guard jumped up to his feet, hitting his foot against the desk, and creating
a loud clamor as the metal tray and dishes bounced off the stone floor. With slightly
watery eyes the prison guard started yelling at the iron bars.

“Don’t say things that don’t match with your heart!”

“My, because it looked like Mr. prison guard was having such a delicious meal, I just
wanted to match with you in spirit and share a conversation.”

“Just like a noble, is your only skill getting on people’s nerves!?”

“Ah, was it the lunch menu? Then I’ll have to start thinking about making arrangements
around Mr. prison guard’s menu~.”

“Fine! Is harassment all that can come out of your mouth!? Harassment needs
harassment in return!”
“Well, that’s no good! Nobles, they don’t fight in the same ring.”

“Pretending to fight fair and square, they don’t get directly involved and have others
perform their back-handed dirty tactics…”

“Isn’t that what your job is right now?”

For this noblewoman who was saying whatever she wanted, the prison guard angrily
thrust a finger towards her.

“Is it fine!? You, do you think you can last like this!?”

“Oh scary.”

“Those preserved meals you brought will eventually run out! After you get hungry and
bow your head, do you think the Prince will consider taking your hand!?”

As he continued to scream… the prison guard’s eyes gradually drifted to the large stack
of crates piled up in one corner of the prison.

…that, possibly for months…?

After the prison guard’s report, the meal showcase strategy was inevitably abandoned.

“Damn! Damn! Daaaaaaaaaaaamn!”

The beautiful Prince had unleashed his anger, hideously twisting his face in a way that
should never be shown. He was in a place where others could see, and Sykes, the head
of the knights, and George, the Duke’s eldest son, both took a deep breath and shared
a look. A few servants that were unlucky enough to be in the room at the time were
also there, trying to eliminate their presence by sticking close to the wall.

For now, it was clear to see that Rachel was skilled.

Prince Elliott continued to stamp his foot on the ground, but he who was wholly
incompetent couldn’t figure out what next to do after everything that had happened.
Generally hunger strikes occur inside prisons, but he was now faced with the opposite
problem of his starvation tactics being circumvented because of an insane amount of
stockpiled food.

“Rachel… rather than crying out in hunger, we’ll harass her with spices that would make
the meals even more delicious!”

“According to the prison guards report, it seems there is enough room in her menu for…”

“Can we cut off her water supply!? If she’s unable to freely drink water, then there
would be nothing else she could do!”

“In order to do that we would have to destroy the path that the water supply runs
through. And if we were to do that wrong, then half the royal palace would become
flooded.”

“Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn!”

The Prince was going crazy from Rachel’s first counter. His durability was a little weak.

“What would you like done?”

Towards Sykes’s question, spit out an order.

“Enough, leave her be except for the occasional patrol! That guy will just give her some
entertainment if he clumsily goes after her!”

The Prince made an unusually well thought out plan George thought… although he’d
never say that aloud. The Prince then approached George with a blood vessel pulsing
at his temple.

“George, can you hold down Duke Ferguson?”

The foolishness came right back around, and George shook his head inside his heart.
Well, he had predicted that his older sister would work on the Prince’s nerves at least
this much though.

“In any case, there is no way for us to take out the goods all ready inside for now. Well,
no matter what he says I’ll make sure the Duke my father cannot provide any more
support.”

“Hmm. Rachel has been able to prepare for this life alone because the financial
strength and amount of resources behind the Duke is incomparable. Once she
discovers that the Duke has been held down, and her home has become her enemy,
Rachel will surely lose heart. Be sure to do it.”

“Hah!”

It was beyond these two’s imagination that Rachel hadn’t in fact made use of the
Duke’s resources and done all of this through her own means.

To make matters worse for Elliott and George, there was something else that they
couldn’t have expected. The fact that the Duke and his wife had all ready given up on
George, their family’s heir.

After that, a few days passed.

In the afternoon when the prison guard was on his patrol, Rachel made the unusual
move of calling out to him herself.

“Mr. prison guard”

“Hm? What. Has your head cooled down a little?”

“Although I believe it’s His Highness who needs to cool his head.”

“…What is it?”

Looking as if she hasn’t had to bear anything at all, Rachel was holding a sweet smelling
can with a spoon inside it. It seems she was eating dessert just now.

“Mr. prison guard is, are you no longer eating three meals a day here?”

“Ah, that plan was canceled. Far from doing any damage to you, I ended up looking like
an idiot talking to you.”

“That’s it.”

Rachel looked cute while tilting her head to the side and making a troubled face.
“Eating a meal by myself just isn’t enough.”

“Hoh… You’re cheeky, but you can say some cute things.”

“Without being able to see Mr. prison guard’s tearful face, I can’t feel like I won, and
the meal doesn’t taste as delicious.”

“You bully! Go quietly read your book!”

“Yes, that!”

“Shut up!”
Rachel stirred as the morning sun hit her face, and she awoke.

Unlike a wise man she inelegantly raised her body that was buried in the soft cushions
of her sofa, and began rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands for a while. Rachel
wasn’t proud to admit that her ability to wake up wasn’t that great.

…In addition, she had been concerned about the continuation of the novel she had
been reading last night, so she had stayed up late.

“…It’s useless… I can’t get up.”

Right now, there was nothing that could be done.

Rachel had already turned over on top of the sofa, and with her back to the sun, she
let sleep take her once again.

Elliot awoke after a fierce impact struck his futon.

“Wh-what’s going on!?”

Sykes was standing before him, holding a blanket with a blunt look on his face.

“Your Highness, it’s already time to get up.”

“Like this, isn’t this too sudden!? Mou, aren’t there better ways to do it!?”

“No, that is…”

Looking at the those gathered around Sykes, there was the head maid and a second
team of maids already doing some of the cleaning.
“Ah…”

He had been pushed to act by these people.

Even if he were to ignore Sykes, the next stage would be harassment from the sound
of the head maid barking out orders, and the unfamiliar sound of cleaning going on
around him.

Elliott understood there was no chance for him to forcibly choose to go back to sleep,
so he begrudgingly slid off his bed.

Having slept until midday, Rachel brewed herself some tea, and with the lightly tasting
drink in hand, she started opening up some wooden boxes.

“What shall we do for today’s brunch…”

While looking over the canned food organized by type, Rachel, “I had fish yesterday…”
was thinking about what to have while talking to herself. Well, in truth there weren’t
that many types to be had though.

You have to watch what you eat since prison life doesn’t allow for much exercising, so
with the menu assembled accordingly, she had to carefully make a decision… in other
words, she had some free-time and was idling it away.

“It’s fun deciding a menu for yourself.”

Her menu was decided, but not yet created.

Because yesterday was spent running around and goofing off, today’s schedule was
even harsher under stricter surveillance.

“…Oi, isn’t this too much for just going to the toilet?”

So Elliott complained, but the tough civil servant shook his head.
“Yesterday you left the room saying, ‘I’m going to the toilet,’ and then never came back
to the room until nightfall.”

“…That was, well, that’s… the toilet wasn’t available, and I was looking for another!”

“Your Highness’s personal toilet was already in use?”

After returning from the toilet, officials from each department guard the windows and
doorways with documents in hand.

“So Your Highness, already those documents that were to be approved this morning
are late. We won’t have time to take lunch in the dining room, so we’ve prepared you
a sandwich.”

“With no break!?”

“You slept well enough yesterday…?”

Rachel grew tired of reading, so she began knitting instead.

“Hmm, it’s nice doing it… but what should I knit?”

The Jack of all trades Rachel, she had the means, but had to first decide what she
wanted to do with them.

“Thinking about it… in the first place, it’s the season to make something out of yarn…”

The realization at her own lack of preparation had left her astonished.

“So then, let’s go with a scarf for George.”

Elliott was buried under documents.

“Your Highness… how’s the progress?”

When George timidly called out to him, Elliott responded in a weak voice.
“I don’t understand any of this. How long until it’s over…”

Elliott was speaking to his secretary who continued to pass over one document after
another.

“Oi, how much more is there?”

The official answered emptily while quickly readjusting his glasses.

“Your Highness, ask me again after you’ve finally done a majority of the work for the day.

Rachel set down her knitting needles and looked out at the peaceful afternoon light
and calming winds.

“It’s nice, this comfort…”

Already, knitting was impossible.

“It’s such good weather for a nap!”

Rachel excitedly prepared the cushions on her couch, but when she covered herself
with the blanket, she suddenly realized something.

“Wait a moment… sleeping in the afternoon, isn’t this the strongest!?”

Rushing over to open a wooden box, she opened a bottle of plum wine.

“Just a bit… un, just a little bit.”

Despite what she was saying, Rachel happily poured herself a cup of wine without
holding back, savoring the taste as the moderately pink liquid poured into her mouth,
and the sweetness of the alcohol stimulated the tip of her tongue.

Elliott looked on to the political affairs that wouldn’t end with disgust as a tantrum
began brewing inside him.
“Completely… this good weather while I’m indoors arranging documents, even all these
civil officials are thinking about it.”

Elliott began mumbling to himself while staring out at the garden. George and Sykes
were both standing behind him, yet they simultaneously looked away nonetheless.

“As was said, the office work has to be done even when the weather is so nice.”

“And in the reverse, us members of the chivalric order have to go out even in bad
weather.”

“Idiot, that’s the type of excuse for adults! Aren’t I still in the apprenticeship stage
before being an adult? So I should be given a curriculum suitable for my level.”

“That’s right…”

“Absolutely, to overwork a minor for profit… that would violate child welfare laws!”

“…child…?”

The dissatisfied looking aides were leaving it alone.

Elliott switched his mind, and he began thinking about what to do after this.

“Now, maybe I’ll take a stroll around the garden and kill some time.”

Maybe Margaret will come around at just the right time, Elliott walked into the garden
thinking such… and a filthy group was there waiting opposite of him.

Inside the group was the assistant head of the knights order with several of what
appeared to be apprentice knights bowing down to him.

“We have been waiting for you. Now then, please head to the training ground!”

“Huh? You guys, what are you saying…”

While Elliott had no idea what was going on, Sykes came up from behind, giving praise
with his chest stuck out.

“Since Your Highness was saying what a crime it would be to be stuck inside with such
beautiful weather, I pulled some strings and allowed you to join in with the practice of
the knight’s order!”

“So that’s why it was so easy to get those civil officials to release me!? No, I didn’t mean
this type of thing…!?”

“Your Highness said it yourself, and I for one look up to your dedication!”

“Now then, prepare yourself!”

“Hold on…”

Elliott was thusly taken away be the muscle brains.

Because nobody was there to saying anything, when Rachel finally arose from her nap,
the remaining red light of the sunset was just about to disappear.

Hurriedly lighting her lamp, the room regained its light before it subsided into darkness
completely.

“I overslept…”

Rachel was feeling truly remorseful.

“…if my sleep was just a little deeper, I wouldn’t have gotten up until morning” the
Rachel who completely lacks discipline thought.

“Well, what should I have for dinner?”

Rachel thought about it for a moment before pulling out a large can. This evening’s
main dish for dinner would be boiled white fish with garlic oil.

After opening up the can and preparing it over the alcohol lamp, she brought out the
potatoes she had and dexterously cut them into thin slices. Place the cut up potatoes
into the can, and with the fish riding on top, kick up the heat of the fire.

“Fufufufufufu, I have increased my cooking skill to such an extent! The flavor of the oil
from the potatoes will be sucked up and make it even more delicious! Ah, I want to
inform all of humanity about this discovery of the century…”

Ignorant to the ways of the world, the young noblewoman had no one there to tell her
that this was a well-known technique for all humanity already.

What was known was exactly the type of alcohol that would best compliment tonight’s
dish, and while watching over the boiling of her meal, she chose the most suitable one.

The piping hot fish boiled in potato oil had to be blown on before it could be put in her
mouth. The noblewoman’s mind left her for a second as the taste spread through her
mouth, and “MMmmmmm!” couldn’t hold herself back from crying out in pure pleasure.

“Ah… to be able to say that I can make such dishes myself, I am evolving remarkably.
Also, I said I would be able to live by myself and was right.”

And while the taste of her meal was still dancing on her lips, she quickly drained the
cup of white wine in her hand.

“The taste of the fish and garlic was washed away by the refreshingly sour taste of the
white wine… there’s nothing to endure!”

Rachel was satisfied with the taste of the dish she had prepared for herself. Thinking
in prison
about the cuisine (?) for her menu had to be done since she was living alone now. All
thanks to the Idiot Prince.

The noblewoman tapped her snow white cheek with the tip of her finger… and then
gave a breathless sigh.

“Delicious food, delicious alcohol. And if some drunkenness comes around, I can fall
over directly onto my cushions! It’s perfect!”

A remarkable Lady capable of overturning a bad situation, she was able to absolutely
enjoy her dinner.

As expected for dinner, there was no case of being told to eat while working.

Because Elliott’s dinner was a private matter, he had a small dining room close to his
room, (Although the table was large enough for at least ten people to eat there), and
so he took his seat as the guest of honor wobbling with a sore body.

“…today was terrifying…”

To the trembling Elliott, George and Sykes added words of comfort from their places
to his left and right.

“We’ve managed to work through a bit of the document processing, thank you for your
great contributions Your Highness.”

“And the assistant head knight also praised you for trying so hard, Your Highness!”

“Is that so…”

A green pea potage¹ was the first dish to be served, and Elliott picked up his fork.

“…you didn’t say that I did good work…”

“…”

“…”

They were two close friends who couldn’t tell subtle lies.

The dining table was silent except for the noise of Elliott slurping his soup… something
that sounded hollow on the ear.

“Ah, even so…”

Elliott brought the bowl up to his face and drank the last remaining dregs from the bowl.

“I want to see Margaret! Whenever I feel like this, Margaret’s bottomless brightness is
needed! George, is Margaret not coming today!?”

Even though the sun was setting, what was the Prince saying at this point?

While the Prince was shouting out, scratching his head over where his beloved was,
George and Sykes turned their faces to each other looking surprised.

“…Your Highness, what are you saying…?”

“Doing only things that you aren’t used to, I wonder if you’ve tired yourself out too
much…”

“…why you, what’s with that response?”

George and Sykes looked at each other again.

In reality, other than this evening, there was a reason why these two were so confused.

“Because…”

“…what?”

“So, what!?”

George pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his middle finger while
making a strange face.

“Margaret won’t be able to come to the royal palace today or tomorrow as she is on a
family trip, weren’t you just yesterday saying that you were dying from loneliness?”

“I told you before I’m going to go see my Mama, and I’ll get to see Cold Wall Falls while
I’m there too! Ehehe, I’ll be sure to bring back a souvenir for Your Highness!”

A pretty girl whose red hair was tied up in twin tails had said this the day before…

“Didn’t she say that only yesterday!?”

“What are you talking about at this time!?”

The cutlery Elliott was holding in both of his hands dropped to the floor.
“No good… I’m not confident I can live like this anymore… I will die if I cannot look
upon Margaret’s laughing face…”

“Just from not seeing her for three days!? How much do you depend on her Your
Highness!?”

“Hey Your Highness, how long is this story going to go on for? Can I eat my dinner first?”

“I can’t meet her again for three days!? That’s about two years worth of experiences!”

“It’s really only two days, not two years! You’ll see her again in the afternoon the day
after tomorrow!”

George tried to clear up the situation, but his words only served to cause Elliott extra
grief.

“Day after tomorrow!? I cannot see Margaret until the day after tomorrow… until then
I’m, I’m a civil official who is going to be crushed under documents and killed!”

“You say it like that, but isn’t this the same work your Father and other members of
the royal family have to do every day!?”

“Margarettttttttttttttttttttt!”

“His Highness has broken!? Oi Sykes, quit munching away on your meat!”

“Can’t I finish eating?”

“Now!”

The idiotic disturbance continued on until the head court lady came in and shouted at
them.

Rachel closed her book, satisfied with the plot twist at the end.

“Is it coming… un, it was nice being able to read it until the end. Even if I’m felling fuzzy
underneath a blanket, it was a place where I couldn’t sleep otherwise.”
Rachel reduced the light on her lamp, making it dim. Her heart was filled with euphoria
delivered from a happy ending.

“It’s so nice not having the head maid here to get angry when you read a book late into
the night… tomorrow morning, I’ll sleep until noon if I’m still sleepy.”

Sometimes, I want to walk in the garden… is a thought that never crosses her mind.

But, when you’re reading as many books as you’d like, and taking a teatime whenever
you’d like, it might be a good thing to take care of yourself by doing some chores on
your own.

…If you were to say it bluntly.

The young noblewoman would travel everywhere by carriage, so she never really
exercised in the first place. She barely walked in her home garden, and while her
family’s guards had always thought this was due to her being shy, it was actually due
to her being a selfish Lady who only prioritized only her own personal circumstances.

So that’s why as long as she can manage to change her clothes, there was nothing to
worry about even if she couldn’t leave this one room.

“The queen education was painful and unavoidable… if this is the start to my slow life,
then I don’t think this will be that bad.”

After experiencing hardships, then ordinary days feel like a utopia, so even though
Rachel was in prison, her thoughts as she laid back on the floor was that this was the
perfect solution.

Elliot forcefully pulled open his bedroom window. A small cool breeze came through
from the dark garden, brushing against his cheek.

“Yosh…”

While looking for his outdoor shoes, a security knight called out to him from outside
the window.
“Your Highness”

“What is it?”

“Miss Poisson is currently on a trip, and it was heard by the knight’s order that His
Highness went on a rampage earlier from withdrawal symptoms. Did you know that
we carefully watch over both the carriages and horses even during the nighttime?”

“I see… keep up the good work.”

“Hah”

Elliott gently shut his window, and after closing the curtains as well, he slowly crawled
into bed.

1. If you’re an uncultured swine like myself, then you will be pleased to learn that
potage is a type of thick soup.
After the kettle starts making noise on top of the lamp’s fire, pour the hot water into
the teapot which already held some tea leaves inside. Then turning over the hourglass,
Rachel covered the teapot with a tea cozy¹ before digging through one of her wooden
boxes.

“…Should I have cookies, or should I go with dry cake? That is the problem.”

Placing the back of her finger underneath her lips, Rachel began to worry… and
towards her well featured face, Prince Elliott’s cold gaze stuck.

“…Rachel. Right now, is there really a problem there!?”

“My Your Highness! At this stage of the steaming, is there any other problem more
urgent?”

Some days had passed, and what Elliott saw when he returned to the prison with a
cooled head was… Rachel elegantly preparing for teatime.

No matter how you look at it, she wasn’t reflecting at all.

“No way, you have nothing to say?”

Towards the Prince’s words, Rachel put her hand to her chin and thought for a moment.

“…Ah! I haven’t chosen a cup yet?”

“Why would I care about such a small mistake!?”

“No good no good, the sand has all fallen while I was thinking.”

“Don’t lose interest in the Prince’s question!² Can’t you listen properly!?”
As the shouts of her ignoring the Prince came, Rachel made a cheerful grin as the scent
of her preparations tickled her nose, partook a piece of sweet candy in a single bite,
tried a piece of brandy cake laden with plenty of dried fruits, and made a pleasurable
sigh after pouring and drinking a cup of her freshly brewed tea.

“After all, Lion Tea’s Nuts and Berries is the best for tea cakes… a grand answer.”

“…Oi, turn this way if you’re satisfied. Bastard, to what extent do you plan on ignoring
the Prince’s remarks?”

Hearing Elliott’s words as his tone became like the simmering of boiling magma,
Rachel glanced up at the Prince with her fork still in hand.

Rachel swallowed what was in her mouth, bristling her eyebrows, and then intensely
pointed³ at Elliott with one end of her fork.

“Your Highness… that Prince thing, you must not allow your attendants to make fun of
you for it! Such rude fellows must be intensely pointed at, not called upon! Do you
understand? Do you promise Onee-san?”

“Haaaaaaaah!?

While preaching to her former fiancee with a smug face, Rachel poured herself a second
cup with her task done.

Towards the unusual assumption he got in response, Elliott was left dumbfounded…
and then when his senses returned to him, a blue vein popped on his forehead.

“Should a prisoner be making a lifestyle for themselves where they can prattle such
an extremely elegant line of gibberish… Ah!?”

“Well! I will have you know I am properly awake. Even if I were sleep talking then His
Highness alone was enough to awaken me.”⁴

Rachel had a comeback for every remark.

“Enough already, bastard! Not only have you bullied Margaret from the shadows, but
now you foolishly choose to refuse to reflect on your actions like an idiot…!?”

“That’s it! Altogether, while I’m locked away in a prison, why do I have to continue
playing the straight man for each thing His Highness says! Why is the burden of the
Prince’s disgrace being put on a prisoner? Is this fine? Be aware of the words and
things appropriate for His Highness’s position, and shouldn’t you be more careful of
your surroundings!?”

“Eh!? S-sorry…… hm?”

……There was something wrong with Rachel’s reasoning.

It was around here that Rachel managed to finish her third cup of tea, and Elliott
realized Rachel had coaxed him into finding fault in himself.

“Hold on, isn’t right now just your misunderstanding!?”

“Isn’t your reaction a little slow?”

“Can’t you shut up!? This is about you!⁵ Imprisoned in an underground dungeon,
hasn’t your head cooled down a little?”

Elliott was pointing his finger at Rachel while shouting.

“How is a young daughter of a Duke supposed to bear this dark and clammy
underground dungeon! It’s already been ten days since I pushed you in here. In what
way have the preparations you’ve done made this into anything more than a
temporary residence? Even if you stretch out your bravado, aren’t you just raising
noise!?”

The person who had all this directed to her commented how the tea was good, and
leaving the tea set out as it was like a no good wise man, she sunk into the soft cushions
of her couch and spread open a book. Looking at the front cover, it appeared to be a
magazine that gathered a number of trendy pictures and stories together.

Elliott was completely ignored and received no reply. It seems that it was a little too
dark at the time though, and she turned up the lamp on her table up a bit.

“Oiiiiiiiii!”
“Some people just can’t keep calm… when somebody is reading a book you should be
quiet, haven’t those in charge of your education ever informed you of such?”

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you before to listen to what people say to the end and not go
do something else…!?”

“If so then everything is fine. I wasn’t listening to you from the beginning.”

“How are you managing like this!?

With her book still spread open, Rachel glanced up at Elliott.

“Your Highness… what do you see about my life here that would make me raise a sound?”

Elliott tried looking around inside the prison.

A thick, geometric patterned rug was laid out to shut out the cold, hard ground.

While thinking about taking a seat, there was a cushion sofa that would be unbecoming
for him to have due to his position as a prince.

Clearly the earlier cups of tea were made with luxury tea leaves. Plus a lamp that never
seems to run out of fluid even though it’s constantly used.

Any fault with the contents could be left to bias as there were also some rare canned
foreign delicacies that were stocked for meals as well.

But she is unable to leave forcing her to put up with these dreary surroundings, and
it’s a life on the level of a poor, lower class aristocrat.

And Elliott guessed that over these last ten days… this woman, she’s a hikikomori.

“Ha, Hahaha… it certainly seems like you’re enjoying this dungeon quite a bit.”
“Right?”

“However! Don’t you know that the world is steadily moving forward while you’re
trapped in this place!? For you with your high pride, apologizing would be a
humiliation, but isn’t it better to think about the merits and demerits from staying in
prison?”

As Elliott’s eyes looked down on her while trying to make his point, Rachel had silently
gone back to flipping through her magazine.

“Well I have considered the merits and demerits properly.”

“Oh?”

“I certainly cannot go out whenever I’d like, and I will assuredly be left behind by the
flow of the world.”

“You see, it is so!”

“But”

“Hm?”

While Elliott was making a dubious face, Rachel was as ever keeping her eyes glued to
her magazine and spoke with a soft voice.

“As long as I remain in the dungeon, then the abandonment of our engagement
remains valid. Therefore, I don’t have to take part in the queen’s education. That
involves all the responsible teachers going on about nothing every single day. If the
Prince’s abandonment of our engagement gets canceled when I leave this prison, then
I will be immediately scooped up by the education office. It’s not a joke. Should I take
any chances with such a danger?”

As Rachel spoke, Elliott tried thinking.

He knew the teachers in charge of Rachel’s queen education. When he was little, they
continuously scolded him because he was bored and tried to run away from their
Spartan training… no, perhaps it would be better to say that they made use of force to
try and make their Prince act like a prince…

He had never actually seen Rachel receiving the queen’s education, but he knew the
teachers’ faces, and he could imagine what the classes were like.

There is no freedom of action, no way to spend your time as you’d like, and while stuck
in a cramped desk you have a number of teachers barking away at you like a number
of mad dogs.

Elliott wondered what would be better…

Sykes was overlooking the condition of the horses in the stable when he noticed Elliott
walking up from the backyard.

“Your Highness, did you just get back from visiting Rachel?”

“…Ah.”

Sykes tilted his head to the side seeing Elliott in a state where he seemed to be
completely lacking energy and began cleaning up after he finished brushing the horses.

“How is it? Did you see Rachel show a little reflection?”

“…No, somehow… she hasn’t reflected at all… in this case, she won’t reflect.”

“Huh?”

Sykes was growing troubled over Elliott’s listless demeanor, but it was then that
George came running up from the palace.

“Good, I found you! Your Highness!”

“George”

“Oh, George. What is it?”

George’s complexion as he came running over looked bad, and while they at first
thought he was just out of breath from running this way, that didn’t seem to be it.
“Did something happen?”

When Elliott asked, George started vigorously shaking his head up and down like a
woodpecker.

“In Your Highness’s office, wasn’t convinced about my Sis’s imprisonment…”

George began to reluctantly speak as his pained breath intermittently broke apart his
words as Sykes stroked his back.

“Ha… is that so?”

Elliott sighed.

Until now there were others, courtiers and aristocrats who couldn’t be convinced and
claimed that Elliott’s actions were on a whim and his convictions invalid.

“Well, it can’t be helped. I will go argue with them directly. Let’s go!”

Elliott tried to gather himself together and headed back towards his office… when to
his back, George threw out some additional information from his parched throat.

“Duchess Somerset and the other ladies in charge of my Sis’s education have flooded
in… they keep screaming at everyone in a shrill voice, and we’re struggling to respond!”

Elliott’s feet came to a complete stop, and after doing a splendid 180 degree turn on
the spot, he walked back to Sykes and George.

“Yosh, let’s go for a long distraction!”

“Eh!? That, the people who came to protest…”

“You’re leaving now!? Even though the sun will soon set!?”

“Don’t worry! We’ll just forget everything while letting the horses run! Whaaaaat, if
the sun does set, we can just stay over in the outside villa!”

Elliott joined the side of his two aides, and he ran the horses towards the suburbs as
the sun on the horizon began growing redder.
“Your Highness… even if you run, they will come again…”

“We’re not running away! By chance, we really did just happen to run off on our horses
by chance!

1. It’s a cloth you put over the teapot to keep the tea from getting cold. We have
something similar to that here in America, but they’re more for pizzas.

2. For the record, this is still the Prince talking. He’s just referring to himself like an
outside individual for this part.

3. So the author doesn’t use a verb here, he uses a sound effect. The sound effect is for
pointing intensely like they do in Phoenix Wright. So every time I say intensely
pointing imagine her slamming her table and pointing like a certified lawyer.

4. The word for gibberish in the previous line and sleep talk are the same here (寝言
).

5. I feel like now is a good time to point out that Elliott always refers to Rachel with
kisama (貴様). An extremely rude version of ‘you’ and synonymous with ‘bastard’.
The moonlight cut through the dark, illuminating a slender form on the floor from the
window. The moon was bright enough that one could read a newspaper off its light
alone whereas the darkness around it was thick enough that it could contain anything
in its inky pits.

Just beside the puddle of light in a quiet space, Rachel opened her eyes and raised her
body from the cushion it was buried in.

“Uun… I slept too much during the daytime.”

Her eyes were clear and sleep had become impossible.

She had gotten too excited because there was nobody there to get angry at her, so she
took a long nap. She had become overwhelmed by living alone.

Rachel gave up on trying to sleep and rose to her feet. She was able to see with just the
moonlight coming through the ventilation.

“…a good moon huh. I wonder if tonight’s moon is a full one.”

Rachel narrowed her eyes as she gazed up towards the brightly shining circle in the
sky, and rather than returning to her blanket once again, she came up with a grand
idea.

Transporting a couple of the wooden crates, she made a makeshift staircase to the
bottom of the window.

“Good idea.”

Taking up her carrying case with her, she climbed up the wooden stairs she had
created. Sitting on the top row and looking out the window, she enjoyed the nighttime
breeze.
“I feel emotional playing towards the moon.”

Rachel then pulled out her favorite instrument from its case, and with a dreamy look
on her face, brought it to her lips.

In the starry night sky, a light tone echoed throughout.

The pajamas Prince Elliott wore to bed consisted of only a nightgown. But after
slipping on a pair of nearby slippers, he still jumped out of bedroom and rushed to the
dungeon just like that.

He was making quite the intense face, yet his voice was quiet when he asked,

“Rachel, do you have something you want to say to me?”

Rachel was there holding her instrument with the iron bars separating them, and
seeing that they were wearing matching nightgowns, she shyly covered her front with
her arms.

“Your Highness… coming to a maiden’s room this late at night, you know it’s not
something to be praised right?”

One beat, two beats of silence passed.

Elliott kicked the iron bars with his slipper covered toes.

“That’s not it!? You have something to say, other than that! Something like, sorry for
causing trouble!? Even though it’s late at night, I shouldn’t have been blowing out all
these bleatings from a trumpet!”

“Your Highness… do you believe this to be a trumpet? Although it is in the brass family,
in a narrow sense it is actually different from a trumpet…”

“I know! Do you think I care about such things!? Are you feeling sentimental seeing
the full moon, so you decided to start making this racket at midnight!?”

“Yes.”
“In such a situation, why are you playing Sing Sing Sing and Little Brown Jug!?¹ What
kind of feeling are you going for!?”

“My… Your Highness, you’re quite well educated.”

“Don’t be a fool! Okay, then how about we go with this next!? This time we’ll mobilize
the knight’s order, and we’ll turn you into a hedgehog!”

“That could be a good look for me if I do say so myself…”

Elliott stomped back to his room in a huff while Rachel put her trumpet back in its
case chuckling to herself.

“The probability of it reaching him was about fifty percent, but since the direction of
the wind looked good, it was worth the effort.”

Melting into the cushion, Rachel gave it a few *PonPon* pats, and feeling satisfied, lied
her head back down.

“Ah… because I was able to enjoy the magnificent tearful face of His Highness, I should
be able to sleep well tonight.”

Observing the wall for some reason after breakfast, Rachel suddenly remembered she
had brought some paints with her.

“That’s right. I thought the walls in here would look dreary and thought to bring in
some paint to decorate them.”

She felt like enjoying a little art would compliment last night’s performance. Rachel
slowly stood up and eventually found the box that contained her painting tools.

Laying out some of the old newspapers that had been used to fill out the gaps in the
box, Rachel opened up one of the paint cans she’d need. Turning towards the stone
wall, she started off primering it with a coat of white before tilting her head.

“Nnn… it’d be kind of wasteful to just paint it like wallpaper.”

The original plan was to paint the whole thing her favorite peppermint green color,
and afterwards she would draw in some flowers where she wanted to… but looking at
the whitewashed wall, she now thought that would be a shame.

“Yosh, let’s challenge ourselves to make a masterpiece!”

Inspiration had struck. Since she couldn’t go outside, it might be good to draw a
landscape painting with the image of a scenic spot.

His elbows resting on the desk, Elliott stared at the documents in front of him and
grimaced as George tried to speak to him.

“What’s wrong Your Highness… are you feeling sleepy? You have some bags under your
eyes…”

“Ah…”

Elliott had a downhearted look on his face with his head turned down, and rested his
forehead on the back of his hands.

“Curse you Rachel…! Even when I got back into my bed, I couldn’t sleep because that
melody was endlessly playing in my head.”

“Hah?”

“No, I was saying…”

Elliott managed to stretch out his back, but Sykes burst through the door before he
could say anything else.

“Sykes… you should knock before entering a room.”

“Ah, I see.”

Sykes turned around, about to go back out the door to redo his entrance, but Elliott
stopped him in frustration.

“Practice your manners at home! Is there something wrong!?”

“Oh yes. No, it’s just that we received a complaint about a strange odor coming from
the direction of the dungeon.”

Elliott and George shared a look.

“…no way, you’re older sister’s already become a decayed corpse…?”

“That’s just Your Highness’s wish. You met her in the middle of the night last night
didn’t you? The smell wouldn’t spread in just half a day.”

“No, it’s not such a stuffy smell. It’s something, something more irritating.”

“…?”

The three men who had come down to the dungeon had to force their mouths closed
after seeing the changed walls.

“Y-you… this…”

On the dungeon wall which had been a mass of cracked stone just the day before, had
now become a flowery meadow and majestic canyon with a sea of mountains
stretching out across a white background. Perspective and shadows, this was a three-
dimensional landscape painting from a single point perspective that had such a touch
of realism, it made those who saw it take a breath and think they were looking at a
portal to another world.

However.

“This, even though it’s a dungeon…”

Even if such a picture were to exist, for it to be in a place where no one could see it…

The offensive smell flowing out of the dungeon was the smell of the paint. Because
Rachel had used a lot of paint in a single day, the chemical smell had fill the underground
space.

“However, it smells awful… Rachel can’t you smell, this”

After finishing some touch-ups to a flower garden, Rachel looked back over her shoulder
at Sykes’s question.

“It was amazing at first, but after smelling it for half a day, it no longer bothers me as
my nose has gotten used to it.”

“Didn’t you hate it in the beginning…?”

“I was worried at the start, but…”

Having finished, Rachel moved to the other side of the room to get as good a look as
she could…

“Perhaps…”

“Perhaps?”

The girl tilted her head.

“I wonder if my bedroom didn’t need this picture.”

“Be aware of that in the first place!”

While Rachel and Sykes were discussing the painting with each other through the
bars, George suddenly noticed there was another person here who had been quiet
until now.

“Hm? Your Highness?”

George looked back over his shoulder.

“Your Highness!?”

On the floor was the figure of Elliott who had groggily collapsed to the floor.

“Your Highnessssssssss!!”

In a hurry George and Sykes picked him up, noticing that his eyes had completely
rolled back becoming completely white.
“I wonder if the smell of this place has combined with his lack of sleep.”

“The cause doesn’t matter right now!? Get him outside quickly!”

The men left the room in a racket. In the end, Rachel made a conclusion.

“Well, was it so good that it killed His Highness in one shot?

Prince Elliott was walking down the corridor when he noticed a young man leaving
through the woodlands in the backyard towards the inner gate. There were a number
of such men traveling in this way, but by chance he noticed that this man’s apparel
wasn’t something a courtier would be wearing.

“Oi, isn’t that strange over there? I can’t see him being a servant of the royal palace.”

Sykes glanced over at the man after the Prince said something.

“That is… it appears to be a staff member from the cafeteria downtown.”

“Why would such a person be inside the castle?”

Sykes’s murmurs brought out a surprised voice from George and made Elliott want to
laugh at Sykes’s strange opinion, but there was ‘something’ that prevented him from
doing so.

“What…? What is, something strange… Uoh!?”

With a little thought, that ‘something’ about the man struck Elliott, and he began running.

“Go to the dungeon!”

“Eh? What’s going on Your Highness!”

Shouted after by the two men hurriedly following after him, Elliott pointed towards
the iron door that had come in view.

“Think about the direction that the man came from! Rachel is absolutely involved in
this!”

“Ah!”
 Ê

The three men were breathless after running all the way to the dungeon, and what
they saw before them…

“…Even if you stare, I’m not giving you any?”

Having just clapped her hands and done her prayer before a meal, there was Rachel
with a knife and fork in hand and a piping hot meal with steam rising off it in front of
her.

There were a number of elaborate dishes before her that obviously couldn’t have been
made inside a dungeon. They all looked freshly made, and the room was filled with a
delicious fragrance.

“Y, you… what is this!?”

While the Prince was raising a hellish cry, Rachel was looking down at her table.

“Nothing really… Your Highness, have you never tried this before? It’s kidney pie, herb
baked pigeon, and pumpkin potage with mint jelly. It is a very ordinary lunch.”

“I’m not asking about your menu! You, why do you have a meal from outside!?”

Rachel had begun eating without worrying about what the Prince was saying, and
after gulping down the last bit of pigeon meat, she opened her mouth.

“Is there a problem?”

“Of course there’s a problem! I made an order that you weren’t to be fed while you’re
in here!”

“Ah, was that when Sykes had grabbed your waist and was pushing your butt up the
stairs?”

“Gu…”

Wiping her mouth with a napkin, Rachel lightly tilted her glass and drank her wine.

“Surely, you definitely said that I should be starved and nobody was to give me any
meals.”

“That’s right!”

“But, doesn’t that not apply to this time?”

“……Eh?”

Rachel picked up her knife, and she began cutting out a slice from her crispy kidney pie.

“You certainly said that nobody was to feed the prisoner, but you never said I couldn’t
order food myself.”

“Wha…!? Stu, don’t be stupid! I’ve never heard of a prisoner taking an order from
outside!”

“A prisoner should not have food delivered to the prison, in what section of the law is
that stated?”

“I, I don’t know such a thing! But it’s common sense…!”

“His Highness who arbitrarily abandoned an engagement settled by the King due to a
suspicious argument and shady evidence, is that whose mouth the phrase ‘common
sense’ is coming out of?”

“…”

“If you’re talking about general common sense, then how would you describe
imprisoning someone and then not giving them and meals?”

“Ku… you’re attitude right now, you know I could prosecute you right now for your
disrespect and have you executed right!?”

“In that case, you should put me in prison until you move me to the execution stand.”

“Kuuuuuuuuuu…”

With the Prince unable to say anything else, Rachel continued to elegantly finish her
meal.
 Ê

“Hmmmm, I’ve been forbidden from delivery.”

The Prince had ordered that no couriers deliver food to the prison. Any delivery would
be stopped at the entrance.

As Rachel loved to find the loopholes in laws, she found post-legislation like this to be
unfair… well, anyway.

“Even so, His Highness is missing the point like usual. A foolish child who does nothing
at all… rather than banning deliveries, normally the first thing that should be done is
inquire on how I communicated my order outside in the first place.”

That is the normal line of reasoning. Elliott, the child who is unable to take that extra
step.

Even so…

“As I thought freshly made meals really are delicious… I’d also like to eat some fresh
meat…”

Rachel thought about the earlier lunch she had delivered to her.

“No, I won’t be able to go back to canned food without doing something to cushion the
blow.”

Although it was impossible to call it a luxury meal, the stimulus was quite strong after
not having a cooked meal in so long. She just wanted to taste a little more…

A flash.

“…that’s it. The basics of living a slow life is living a life of gathering. Right?”

Rachel looked towards the the long, narrow window that was set up for ventilation.

An elderly and a middle-aged man wearing gorgeous clothes were taking a walk
through a rough backyard that could not be said to have been well maintained.
“However Elliott is also trouble… something like this is only possible because His
Majesty is absent for such an extended period of time.”

“Although the King delegated affairs to others, the Prince caused this past incident
almost immediately after he left in order to avoid judgement.”

The King’s uncle and royal consultant Archduke Vivaldi and the Prime Minister
Marquis August were consulting each other about the current issues plaguing them in
a place where no one else could hear… or they were just grumbling out their complaints
to each other.

Prime Minister August looked around him.

“However Archduke. You’ve taken us to a strange place in our walk.”

This backyard area could be described as desolate, not a space like a landscaped
garden that nobility would normally want to see.

The Archduke was a fat and jolly old man, and looking as if he had just pulled off a
clever bit of mischief, he threw back his neck and laughed.

“Nahahahah. Here here, this is a different taste from a normal beautifully maintained
garden.”

The Archduke used his fingers to pull back some unwanted elongated weeds, and he
quietly peeked through to the other side.

“Please look Prime Minister. In this natural garden, you’ll find more wild birds than in
some public garden… there, recently my favorite has been the large duck you can see
on the bank of the pond over there.”

The Prime Minister also hid himself inside the grass and was impressed by what he
saw looking in.

“Hoh… he really is quite big. It’s coat is also quite beautiful.”

“Mmm. I’ve recently started secretly calling him Enrique, and…”

The Archduke started going into an explanation about his favorite bird.
*SCHLICK!*

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
“What!?”

temporary name
The two men noticed something fly through the air before them, and “ Enrique”
released a loud cry before stalling and falling to the ground. The surrounding birds all
flew into a panic, raising a loud outcry of caws and quacks as they rose up into the air,
while the two men noticed something rolling along the side of the open pond…

*Slide*

*Slide*

The dying and convulsing “Enrique” was, slowly moving in a direction by a will that
was obviously not his own.

If you were to look closely you could see the tip of an arrow sticking out of Enrique’s
punctured chest, and somebody was pulling a thin string tied to the end of the
arrowhead.

The Archduke and Prime Minister chased after the string that continued to silently
move, and they arrived at an old stone wall of a nearby building. It was difficult to see,
but there was a horizontal slit about ten centimeters off the ground that made a wide
open hole, and the two people arrived too late as “Enrique’s” body was pulled inside.

“…”

The two people silently looked at each other as a young woman’s harsh voice echoed
outside of the hole.

“Uwa, this thing is huge! Good, very good, this is something worth eating!”

Somehow able to guess the person’s identity from their voice, the Prime Minister
squatted down and cried out.
“Excuse me, is it okay? What in the world are you doing?”

“Eh? Me?”

After giving a slightly confused reply at being asked, the girl went ahead and explained
to them exactly what she was doing.

Elliott and his aides were walking down the corridor when from the other direction
his Great Uncle Vivaldi came running up like a child. The Prime Minister was pursuing
him from behind calling out to him.

“Hm?”

Elliott and the others didn’t understand what was going on, so they just stood there
and stared as the Archduke came running down the hall while crying and grabbed
Elliott by his collar.

“Elliott, you bastardddddddd!”

“Eh, me? What did I do!?”

“You… because of you…”

“What!? Great Uncle, I, what is it that I have done!?”

It would be easy to peel off such an intemperant old man, but the King and Queen are
absent right now, and it would be unwise to treat those at the top roughly while the
King’s duties have been delegated to others. Neither Sykes nor George could touch the
King’s uncle, so they both looked towards the Prince’s face to find out what they
should do.

“Uwaaaa… Because of you, Enrique is… Enrique is…”

“Eh, Enri… who!?”

“Rachel has eaten Enrique!”

“Racheeeeeeeeeeeeeeel!!!”
 Ê

Elliott and the others rushed to the dungeon where the prison guard was sitting at the
prison entrance looking at a loss.

The prison guard quickly rose to his feet upon seeing the Prince’s group, but from his
side you could see smoke rising up.

“Oiii, what in the world is that!?”

“That is…”

The prison guard looked back at the open doorway spewing out smoke with a miserable
face.

“The Lady is playing with a bonfire.”

“Bonfire!? In a dungeon!?”

“Because she was regulating the power of the fire, it seems like there’s no danger of
the area becoming oxygen deficient…”

“I don’t care about such a thing! A bonfire in a jail, what is she thinking!?”

The prison guard scratched his head.

“Because she had gotten her hands on some fresh duck meat, she said she was going
to have a barbecue.”

“That bastarddddddddd!”

The smoke inside the dungeon clung to the ceiling, making its way up the stairs and
out the door, so the underground space itself was surprisingly not smoky.

Inside the restored cobblestone prison, Rachel had made a small fire using some of
her broken down empty boxes as firewood. An iron plate was placed on top of the
flames where some meat was sizzling as it cooked. Sykes couldn’t understand the
situation, but the smell made his stomach grumble nonetheless.

Elliott ignored the atmosphere, thinking up several tsukkomis, before thrusting his
finger towards Rachel as she continued to seriously turn over the meat.

“Rachel! Don’t have a bonfire and barbecue in a dungeon!”

Rachel didn’t look up at the Prince, focusing entirely on the grilled meat in front of her,
and instead gave him a short reply.

“There is no such rule.”

“Of course!? Where in the world is there a prison that allows an idiot to play with a
campfire!?”

Elliott screamed while stomping his foot on the ground while Rachel gave him a short
sideways glance before continuing to stare at her meat and estimated the amount of
time before it would be done.

“Indeed… that would be on a case-by-case basis. If they were hungry without any food,
wouldn’t it be allowed?”

“I never heard about there being such a thing even in the old days of this country.”

“Well, since the first step of that earlier story would involve the rare happenstance of
the prisoner having a bow.”

“In other words only you, only you could imitate this…!”

Elliott spoke with a terribly disgusting face.

“You, you told my Great Uncle you had to catch your own food since I wasn’t giving you
any meals.”

“Yes, I certainly said such a thing.”

Rachel looked happy picking up the salted duck, and Elliott jabbed his finger at her
once again.

“Well, then so long as you quit acting so selfishly, you shall receive your meals!”

Maximum concessions!
Elliott could only slowly follow along with this wicked woman’s way of thinking, but
he didn’t have the patience… and his Great Uncle messily crying and shouting, in order
to prevent that heartbreaking scene from reoccurring, he would need to cease his
starvation tactics.

Rachel was vexating… but for now it was best to give her what she wanted. However,
her self-indulgence now had created a mess, and when the King returned, Elliott
would be able to accuse her of all her crimes.

Rachel had been making fun of him all this time, and Elliott was starting to think that
even the death penalty wasn’t going to be good enough. Those thoughts, they were
born from not knowing that Rachel hadn’t yet gotten serious.
At first she was just taking a break to relieve her stressed nerves, but in such a way,
Rachel had decided to cause as much damage here as she possibly could. To the
Prince’s nerves that is.

She was already isolated anyway. Even if this guy was remaining quiet, at best he’d
probably just throw in some old bread later on.

Towards Prince Elliott who thought he was making such a generous offer, Rachel
slowly turned around while eating the delicious food she had made for herself.

“I do not want any food from Your Highness… I don’t know what could be in it, so I
don’t need it.”
Because her shoulders would become stiff if she just read all day, Rachel spends her
time doing other things as well such as embroidery and the like.

Rachel had been sewing through a handkerchief for a while now, and after setting her
needle down, she took a look at the embroidered image she had done.

Looking at the framed flowers she had created, she murmured to herself,

“Hmm… it’s too quiet.”

Her thoughts weren’t about embroidery.

One month ago, in other words, from the time that Rachel became aware of the Prince’s
conspiracy to abandon the engagement.

But as she made her preparations, Rachel didn’t move to block them… because it seemed
interesting.

The Blockhead Prince and his lackey followers, she wanted to see how far they’d go.

If they were to throw her into prison, then she could continue to skip her Queen’s
education until the King returns and rejects the engagement abandonment.

The trouble she couldn’t cause herself that was likely to now occur left her feeling
thrilled.

Though she decided to ride along with the Prince’s conspiracy on that line of
thinking… the Prince’s base had turned out shallower than she had thought. Even
though a week had already passed, he hadn’t come up with any ideas other than
striking at her through force.
“Like this, I feel embarrassed going to such great lengths… it’s boring.”

The Prince would use a variety of dirty tricks to harass her, and she would
enthusiastically repel them as they came.

As she raised her cup to take a drink, Rachel realized that her tea had gone cold, but
even cold the refreshing fragrance of the luxury tea leaves still lingered and tickled the
nose.

Rachel blankly stared into the air for a while before laughing with a smile.

“That’s right. This wait and see attitude is unlike me. Until now I thought I’d just wait
for the Prince to make his move… un, let’s robustly move forward from now on.”

Because a jailbreak would most likely occur in the middle of the night, prison patrols
are being performed well into the night.

“Well, the palace’s prison only has the Lady inside it right now… I really don’t think
there’s going to be a jailbreak…”

Although, work was work.

The prison guard’s footsteps echoed as he descended the stone steps, and he saw the
Duke’s daughter sitting on the floor with the lights dimmed. It seems that she was still
awake. Leaning against her cushion, she was looking up at the sky through the small
window.

“What are you doing?”

Asking for purely skeptical doubts, a beautiful woman illuminated by the moon’s light
responded.

“My, Mr. prison guard. Good evening… I can see the moon right now, so I thought I’d
do a little moon-viewing.”

As she spoke Rachel held up a glass cup pinched between her fingertips. The scent
wafting out of the glass caused the prison guard to make a strange face.
“Oi oi, should a Duke’s daughter be having whiskey…”

Whiskey was a powerful type of alcohol. And it was clear through the shot glass that
she was drinking it straight. A nobleman might drink something like that every once
in a while, but it was basically a type of liquor for laborers and people irrelevant to
society at large.

“Oh, you must like it quite a bit if you can understand what it is simply by the fragrance.
Would you like one?”

“You, you’re not already drunk… um, EHHH!?”

The prison guard watched amazed as Rachel shook the bottle of good spirits in a good
mood… but he was doubly amazed to see the bottle Rachel had in her hands.

“Oi, that’s not a 30 year old bottle of Saint Valentinus is it!?”

“My, so knowledgeable.”

“There’s no way I could drink something like that… it’d cost two months of my salary
that would.”

“I took it from my Father’s cabinet, but the seal hasn’t been broken which means there’s
quite a bit here. Yes, glass.”

“No, I’m in a position where I can’t accept… no, but a 30 year old Saint Valentinus…”

“I have snacks as well.”

The noblewoman held out a tray: sliced corn beef with raisin butter, smoked cheese
with pickles, liver paste spread on crackers…

“Now now, we pour it to the rim…”

“Oooooooh… this, this thirty year old bottle…!”

Bringing the bottle closer to be seen, the prison guard refused to be tempted with this
legendary masterpiece of liquor mumbling to himself over and over again, “No, I can’t”.
Unable to resist the charm pulling on him, the prison guard dried his cup immediately
after the protruded brown bottle had filled it.

“It’s a pretty good drink. Now, three drink rush.¹”

Although he had thought it to be wasteful to drink up this gem in an instant, the amber
fragrant liquid was once again poured to the rim of his cup.

Two drink tuned to three drinks and eventually became four. As his tongue loosened
and became used to it, Rachel would always pour him another. Finally the prison guard
forgot about the job he was supposed to be doing and began drinking comfortably, but
he failed to notice that Rachel had quit drinking herself halfway through.

“After all whiskey is best straight. That afterglow after it passes down your throat
leaving nothing behind.”

“You understand!? This nose can’t pass that aroma by! Lady sure can drink.”

“Yes yes Mr. prison guard as well. Ah, how about some chocolate?”

“Ooooh, sorry!”

The prison guard had become completely drunk, and Rachel’s sweet words poured
into him as easily as the alcohol he had been drinking. Plenty of alcohol had turned
into a feast, a good deal of fun, and an unopened one was given as a souvenir…

“Nooo, let me tell you Lady, I understood our talk quite well.”

“Ufufufu, even though I haven’t done anything bad at all. But Elliott is always going on
about “Me Me Me”. Even though I try to make people understand me, I can’t… I hate it.”

“I know, I get iiiiiiiiiiit. Ish all thanksh to the Prince’s crap head. Un, Lady isn’t bad!”

With memories of a fun drinking party, a level of trust had been successfully coaxed
out as any lingering suspicions were crushed. Rachel continued to whisper sweet-
sounding input that became embedded in the prison guard’s brain.

By the time she was done, the prison guard’s alcohol muddied thinking abilities would
have {Prince = foolish and evil, Rachel = pitiable and good} seared into his subconscious
thoughts.
“Night has gradually been coming to an end I suppose. Please do be careful on your
way home. And don’t drop your long-awaited whiskey?”

“Oooooh, leave it to me! Ah, thas right! To makes talking outside the castle easier, Lady
schouldn’t talk bout our fun.”

“Yes, I understand that. And if you’d please drop off any letters or allow me regular
visits without anyone else knowing.”

“Hu can trush me. Yosh, I’ll manage somehow!”

“Thank you so much.”

The prison guard slowly walked up the stairs with staggered steps, heading straight
home while carrying his important souvenir.

And then from the front chamber of the dungeon where the light couldn’t touch, a
woman rose up from the shadows and took a step into the light.

“My Lady, we could manage even without such a petty official. Most things for us…”

Rachel made a small smile as she pulled out her bedding and prepared her cushions.

“We’ll do the same for the guards at the castle gate. It’s important that we have the
courtiers of the castle hold my shoulder over the Prince’s. Those who share my
thinking especially, we will require their sympathy and cooperation in order to best
abuse Elliott.”

“Hah, as you say, so shall it be. As for the matter of the mansion that we discussed the
other day, I shall make the preparations.”

“Thanks.”

With her servant once again melting into the darkness, Rachel pulled herself underneath
her blanket and turned off the light.
1. It’s a proverb that spans languages. What it means is, “Anybody who shows up late
to the party has to chug!”
Often on clear, sunny days, Rachel would stare out her window.

“Good weather… it makes me wish I could fly through the sky like a skylark.”

Trapped inside a dark prison, there are times where she misses the outside.

“However, I can’t go out…”

Just because she says she can’t go out doesn’t mean she can’t get out.

Rachel suddenly came up with the idea of throwing out some paper airplanes. Since
she can’t go outside herself, she thought about something else flying high through the
sky…

While searching for paper, she was able to find a bundle of backing paper for memos
she had on hand. She would use these since they weren’t something she needed anyway.

“Paper airplanes… they’re surprisingly deep and amusing.”

Depending on how you fold them, the way they fly becomes quite different. Even
folded smartly won’t mean it flies far, and just using thin paper might mean that it
catches the wind and flies over the fence.

Rachel fell into a trance, trying out various different ways to fold the paper airplanes
to see how far they’d fly. White paper was flying this way and that, and it was
interesting to see the ones that had already fallen be picked up by the wind and leave
the ground once again.

Until all of the prepared airplanes had been exhausted, Rachel continued to challenge
the sky from her small window.
 Ê

Prince Elliott suddenly looked up towards the sky, and he noticed some paper garbage
dancing through the air low overhead.

Something like that wasn’t causing him worry, but rather curiosity at the vastly
different shapes that the papers were taking. From paper plane-shaped objects to
ones that were more cylindrical, these had clearly been folded by someone.

After picking up one that the wind dropped off close by, he saw that there was actually
some kind of message scrawled across them.

“Hm?”

After unfolding it, he read the message scribbled on with elegant handwriting.

“Scoop! The Prince is hiding a bald spot behind his long hair!?”

He instinctively dropped the memo. But then he quickly picked it back up before the
wind could carry it away again.

“What, is this!?”

In a panic he ran over and picked up some more papers.

“The handsome prince with ten years of ringworm fungus. ∼His endless desperate battle
with athlete’s foot∼”

“Private rooms in the castle hall Rooms greet you with “Welcome home.” Be astounded
at the Prince’s personal life.”

“Royal palace in an uproar! All subjects shocked at the red marks, pray for the Prince
who is unable to study!”
Elliott was about to faint at just a glance of what was written down, but then the wind
was about to take away those he already had in hand, so he hurriedly held down on
the bunch.

“What is this forged gossip!? There’s no way, is it scattered all around here!?”

Looking around, the white papers had been spread everywhere.

“Oioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioi!”

From the other side of the castle walls, the Prince started hearing some of the castle
children singing a most inappropriate arrangement.

“The Prince who rode a horse

slid off after one step

fell off after two steps

stepped off after three steps

Ah~ Ah~ he doesn’t know how to ride in the first place~

because El-chan is an idiot~”

The sound of footsteps running down the stone steps could be felt throughout the
entire dungeon.

“Racheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel!”

Elliott started jabbing a spear in hand through the space between the iron bars of the
jail cell.

“Youuuuuuuuu! Die! You’ll die right now! You’ll die right away!”
Driving a spear inside many times, Rachel, who had been peacefully reading a book
while resting on her cushion, glanced up at him.

“Your Highness, even though a horseback spear has quite a bit of impact in its strikes,
the attack range is low. Shouldn’t you know that without a woman like me telling you?”

“Shouldn’t you be scared a bit you damn, impudent woman!?”

“Although your face looks quite pure, your language is quite trashy.”

“Being honest, haven’t you been saying some things that are so much worse!?”

Elliott threw a pile of crushed up paper airplanes inside through the bars.

“What is this!? This slander about me is spread all the way to my villa! Only a filthy
woman like you would spread these lies for fun in order to defeat me!”

“Once again you try to convict somebody based off of a single testimony…”

Rachel gave a glance towards the mountain of memos that the Prince had collected as
Elliott watched on.

“I have absolutely no intentions of slandering His Highness’s name.”

“Then what is this!? Scattering this stuff around, what excuse could you possibly give
me!?”

Rachel raised herself up and closed her book.

“Where exactly is this content slandering Your Highness written?”

“Where… it’s right there inside the contents of the things you just read!”

Rachel pointed towards one of the memos that were resting on the prison floor.

“Please read it carefully. There, ‘The Prince is,’ is all that’s written there. Don’t you know
that there are hundreds of princes out there in the world? I don’t really care myself,
but perhaps Your Highness is feeling a little paranoid from stress? When was the last
time you went to see a doctor?”
“Because of whom do you think is the reason why my stress is accumulating…!? What
about the disrespectful song that the children were singing outside the castle walls
about ‘El-chan’!? That refers to me by name!”

“El-chan refers to Your Highness? But it could be referring to Ellis, or Ellington, or

Eltsin right? Isn’t Your Highness just being self-conscious?”

“In this place! The Prince! Name starts with El!? I’m the only person who meets those
conditions! Don’t be stupid!”

Rachel furrowed her brows.

“You’ve been getting smarter recently… not cute!”

“Are you looking down on me!? Your behavior has already long passed the level of just
being disrespectful!”

“Well if I’m already guilty, then I suppose the charges won’t change even if I were to
continue for a little longer.”

Elliott glared towards her prison cell.

“Then you admit it, you insulted me!?”

Rachel ignored the monkey prince’s attempts at an intimidating glare and opened up
her book again.

“With that, I never did anything to slander you. All I did was make some paper
airplanes, and let them ride on the wind. But, I did use some backing paper that I had
lying around for those though.”

“Backing paper!? With what contents!? You, what kind of memos have you been
writing and having sent out!”

“It happens to be an underground publishing company, and I was doing internal jobs
as a copywriter for them. The title contender is a gossip column.”

“What kind of work is that for a Duke’s daughter!?”

 Ê

“That idiot prince will hurt his head if he keeps coming here… his job inside the prison
isn’t just to tsukkomi me…”

The Prince has, finally given Rachel her reward!… is it fine to say that?

Rachel was grumbling to herself as she sifted through the books inside one of the wooden
boxes.

“Hmm… have I already read all the things that I brought with me?”

Although she had prepared a number of interesting novels, she had so much free time
that she had already read them all. Although there was a pleasure to reading
something a second time through, it was still too early to adequately enjoy that.

“I’ve also already finished my embroidery.”

(Arbitrarily) she had brought in George’s good suit with her, and done him the favor
of (without permission) embroidering it for him.

The black half mantle now had a finely sewn design of a battle between a phoenix and
a dragon embedded in it in silver and gold thread. If George were to wear it with his
intelligent looking glasses, sullen face, and receding hairline, it would suit him very
well. Surely people around him will go, “Uwa, an almighty person drunk on
themselves,” and also, “How old is he… does he think he was chosen by God or
something?” and whisper his praises.

“George will surely become a popular person with this. An older sister should work
hard for their younger brother.”

He will certainly be crying and showering me with thanks later on. For now, let’s
secretly put it back in his closet.

And so, with all of her hobbies completed she had nothing else to do during her free
time.

“Both musical instruments and hunting have been forbidden…”

Of course it’s fun to daringly break such rules, but the Prince has annoyingly learned
how to deal with disturbances in the middle of the night.

“Certainly, he’d like to avoid making a fuss in a woman of age’s bedroom in the middle
of the night. The Prince isn’t lacking in modesty.”

Muttering to herself like she wasn’t the cause, Rachel began looking around herself for
something to do.

Suddenly, Rachel’s eyes feel on some stationary. She had used some backing paper
earlier to fly some paper airplanes, but there was still some blank sheets piled up.

“That’s right… if there are no novels to read, then let’s challenge ourselves to write one
instead.”

Rachel’s ability to produce good characters is nothing she would brag about. She had
tried her hand a little bit at making a book before. She would always have trouble with
length though, but thankfully this time she had plenty of subject matter to work with.

“Hmm, the protagonist will be Prince Vermouth, the prince of a small country. He’s an
idiot who is faithful to his desires and can’t think through difficult problems… right.
He falls for traps, is stupider than a horse, and chases after every girl he sees.”

As she continued to write the character settings, the story and sub-characters also
began to come out one after another. Just by forming it into a bulleted list, she had a
premonition for quite a large masterpiece.

“Un, this is really good! If there’s no novel for me to read, then I shall write one!”

Rachel prepared as much paper and ink as she could, and she held a light in one hand
while the other gripped her pen.

A few days later.

A woman rose up from the darkness and approached the iron bars as Rachel continued
to furiously move her pen across a sheet of paper.
“My lady, I came immediately after I heard there was an emergency… this stuff, what
is it for?”

The woman pushed in the baggage she had brought into the prison through the cell
doors. Four bundles of letter paper wrapped tightly in brown oil paper inside a
cardboard box along with a dozen bottles of ink. It added up to two, maybe three
thousand sheets of paper and a sufficient amount of ink for the pile. It was an amount
that one person would normally be unable to use.

“Is this all from the Duke’s house?”

“Yes, I purchased ready-made items when I was in town. They are unaware of who
they sold this to though.”

The woman shook her head while filing her report, and Rachel in turn handed back to
the woman another large stack of papers. These ones already had writing on them.
Wonderfully drawn writing and precise spelling made them easy to read… but, there
was just so many of them.

There were bags under her eyes as Rachel laughed watching her subordinate confirm
the contents.

“There are publishers who are good at distributing material without revealing the
identity of the writer correct?”

“Hah, I have some knowledge…?”

“Send that manuscript to them, and have it spread across the city at once. I’ll give you
this portion, so print out a large number of copies to push down the price to make it
readily available to anyone inside the Kingdom.”

Rachel handed over her manuscript with a recently completed ending over to her
subordinate, and then started rubbing her eyes. As expected, it was time for her to get
some rest.

“Ha… it’s been a long time since I’ve been so exhausted…”

The subordinate confirmed the contents of her package one more time before tilting
her head.
“My Lady… honestly, I believe it might be impossible to finish all this right now…”

“You don’t understand what I’ve done. I’m a creator who wants to strike on her passion
during that flash of realization before it goes cold… fu, fufu… my brush has already
finished The Stupid Prince’s Grand Adventure along with a second book from its spin-
off series His Highness is Aiming for me.¹”

There was quite a bit of actual life experience used to help create this work which
mainly depicts the exposure of Prince Vermouth’s shamelessness, but, well, “This
story is fictional,” everything will be fine so long as that phrase get published along
with it.

The spin-off idiot is the innocent boy Hanks, a story about a boy aiming to become a
knight who is able to overcome his low birth thanks to the Prince’s unexpected
assistance. Even though the young knight swears to protect the kind prince who
helped him, in truth the prince is actually gay and aiming for Hanks… so it’s a slapstick
comedy.

Now, lately the literacy rate inside the city has increased, and the popularity of novels
and the written word is vibrant. They will read anything so long as it’s interesting.

“This is something I wrote. I want as many people to read this as possible…… I will
continue writing, so will you help me?”

“Hah.”

The woman gave a resolute bow, however rather than exiting there, she instead took
a look at the manuscript she was holding.

“My Lady”

“What?”

“I have found two mistakes I wish to point out. Here where this person goes, “From
behind”, and then the following scene where Elliott forcefully presses against Sykes
and then the “Ahhhh~!?” leads into the “I’ve been dirtied…” continued scene, wouldn’t
those three scenes placed consecutively like that bore the reader? And as for my
personal impression, wouldn’t Sykes be the one on the attack?”

“…I didn’t ask you to edit it. It’s fine, properly correct the places you find strange.”
 Ê

Facing an unidentified woman who made contact through shady routes, carrying in a
book she wished to have published, the Mouse & Rat company representative
Robinson wiped his forehead with a handkerchief while making an uneasy smile.

“Then, I understand the conditions for publication. Yes, we are doing a business that
has no relation to the printing house, and you can leave hiding the identity of the
source to us. We will disperse the books so that no one will ever know who was
involved… by the way”

Robinson pointed to two places on the manuscript and then motioned to the other one
as well.

“The first work has Prince Vermouth as the main character with his knight Hanks, but
in the second one their names have changed to being Prince Elliott and his knight
Sykes. Was the person who wrote these books thinking of someone as they wrote it?
Perhaps one of them is the name for the model, but in that case wouldn’t it be better
to unify the two names?”

The common people such as Mr. Robinson lived their lives unaware of the names of
the members of the royal family even though it was the one belonging to their own
country. And then there was the maid who had been dyed in Rachel’s colors.

“Maybe they just thought that Elliot and Sykes sounded good together.”

Elliott noticed that Sykes had been acting aloof recently for some reason. It feels like
he is taking a strange distance whenever they’re together.

“Sykes, what’s wrong?”

“No Your Highness, my heart isn’t ready.”

Seeing Sykes clutch his chest, giving an ambiguous smile while taking his distance, all
Elliott could do was tilt his neck.
1. The ‘me’ in this line is boku which is a male pronoun which means the person saying
that title is a guy.
“I come to see you for the first time in several days and find you in this state… oi,
Rachel. What is all this!?”

With the already commonplace scene of Prince Elliott roaring, Rachel flipped up her
eye mask and peeked over at him.

“Nnn, Your Highness… coming into a woman’s bedroom and wildly shouting, where
were you raised?”

“I am the Prince of this country, and unlike some backwater regent my birthplace is
well known! And you keep arguing how this is your bedroom, but if that is so then
where is your living room!?”

“Well then please renovate the prison into a two room structure.”

While the Prince was arguing with Rachel, George poked his shoulder.

“Your Highness, the discussion has shifted.”

“That’s… Rachel, what I want to hear is not that! Where did all this stuff inside the prison
come from!”

“Eh… weren’t you here before? What’s so strange about it now? I, nnn, I’m really sleepy.”

“It’s not the same now! You, you’ve been opening your cell and coming in and out!”

“I haven’t left though.”

While saying she was sleepy once again, she pulled her eye mask back on and pulled
her comforter back up to her neck.

Inside the prison a number of wooden crates had been thrown together in a large pile
creating quite a mess, but the pile was rearranged now and re-stacked looking like
how it was when she first moved in. It was good. Most likely Rachel had used up some
of her free time and cleaned up a bit.

But.

“You, haven’t you been sleeping on your cushion until now!? So then where did this
canopy bed come from!?”

“Nnn… it’s been here since before.”

“Well then what about the reclining sofa with a brushed carpet and ottoman!? The
charcoal stove that can be used to boil!? And above all, what about the writing desk
over by the window that looks like it wouldn’t be able to fit through the cell door in
the first place!? How did you bring that all in!?”

“Nnn~… noisy~… it was here from the beginning.”

“Don’t lie!!!”

Feeling very sleepy Rachel rubbed her eyes from overtop her mask, and she pulled a
string hanging off of her bed. The room filled with the sound of a pulley moving, and
a curtain fell down on the inside of the iron bars.

On the sheet was a short message written on notebook paper.

《Outside Business Hours》

“……… Eeeeeeeeeh………”

There were nearly ten men gathered in Elliott’s office.

They were all the sons of high nobles like Sykes and George, and while they did serve
Elliott they also served as the elite guards for Margaret. While Elliott can be usually
seen talking to Sykes and George, these other men gathered here also converse with
the Prince on a nearly daily basis. All of these men were gathered in here today
whether they had prior business right now or not.

An event where all of these men gather together was rare, especially since the noise
from a ball wasn’t accompanying it.

Sitting at the head of the table, Elliott spoke while looking like he had just swallowed
a bug in front of everyone.

“Even though she should have been convicted for her crimes, Rachel Ferguson has
been doing whatever she wants until now. And she’s only getting worse. We’re here to
discuss some way to manage her.”

There wasn’t a single person with common sense in this room to object to the Prince
saying something so immoral.

Elliott turned a strict gaze on to his trusted retainer.

“In the first place George. Wasn’t it your job to hold down the Duke from providing
any aid!? What’s with that stuff in the prison!?”

“T-that is… inside our home, it doesn’t look like anything of the sort was prepared,
Your Highness. And there were no strange individuals coming and going from our
mansion either.”

The genius at the desk never considered the idea that the opponent had a base inside
the city.

“What about the prison guard? If he missed this, isn’t that guy being negligent?”

Sykes, who wasn’t present at today’s confrontation, spoke up to George.

“About that… that man has other responsibilities as well, so he can only check up on
the prison during his patrols. He was as surprised to see how much the room had
changed as we were.”

“Tch, stupid guy.”

The prison guard wouldn’t have wanted to be told something like that by such a
muscle brain.
“That woman’s strong point is taking advantage of the gap in the rules… Damn you,
Rachel…!”

Elliott looked like a demon striking the top of his desk.

“Usually, wouldn’t a noblewoman be beaten after being thrown in prison and want to
go home!? Two, three days after being thrown in there and she should’ve been crying
and apologizing in order to be let out… that timid woman who could only silently
follow me around, where did she go!?”

“Certainly she changed too much…”

Most people had only the previous impression of Rachel. This wasn’t on the level
where you could just say she was hiding in horse legs¹, and there were some men in
the room who had grown completely distrustful of women as a result.

“Even though I’ve done what I could to oppress that woman in order to save Margaret!
Why is it that whether I am awake or asleep Rachel Rachel0… now I can’t even sleep at
night because I’m worried about what she’s going to do next! Her face is clinging to
my mind all day long!”

Towards a Prince who was coming down with an occupational disease, Sykes made a
self-satisfied expression and winked while striking a funny pose with his finger in a
ring. It was something that completely didn’t suit the unrefined him.

“Your Highness, that fellow… you’re in love with her.”

After Sykes had been shut up with a vase to the face, Elliott turned to his other minions.

“Anything is fine, but does anyone have an idea to leave that woman speechless?”

At the words of the Prince which implied that failure was a foregone conclusion, all of
the boys looked away.

“What if we try to smoke her out?”

“Already done.”

“Then, we should bring in something smelly.”

“Already done.”

“Well, let’s get others involved and just try to harass her.”

“Already done.”

“Should we try spreading bad rumors about her from here?”

“Already done.”

Elliott’s staring was making the other boys feel embarrassed.

“You guys… are you here today to just make me feel like an idiot!?”

“Ye, Ehhhhh!? But no matter what I involuntarily think it’ll fail…”

The men hadn’t noticed they were all shaking their heads as each new idea came out.
All of their negative words were wearing away on Elliott.

But of them there was one man who’d make up for it.

“It’s fine you guys, His Highness isn’t a failure.”

George stood next to the Prince to protect him from his sorrow, and he denied the
others’ feelings.

“He just failed with this.”

“Every single one of you correct me!”

George plunged down to the floor face first after having his butt kicked and rolled away.

“However, about that first thing.”

One boy sitting to Elliott’s right slowly raised his hand after taking a deep breath.

“Ms. Ferguson, after she went to prison and her personality changed. I never would’ve
been able to predict something like that.”
“Ah, you can say that again.”

She was a fiancee similar to a doll always standing silently diagonally behind the
prince, but now that she was in prison, she was such an overwhelming woman that
you might start to call her crazy.

The air of the meeting started to change, and the once silent men became bustling.
They all started analyzing the point.

“Perhaps she is a substitute, and the real one has already been killed by the Prince.”

“If I had, then why would we be having this meeting in the first place!?”

“Perhaps that’s just a body-double, and the real one has already escaped.”

“Then this fake person is quite dark and has a crazy personality…”

In this way the purpose of the strategy meeting shifted to discerning the noblewoman’s
authenticity, and the heir to a viscount raised his hand.

“Whether she is real or not. There is something more pressing… I mean, Ms. Rachel
is… somehow from before, isn’t she sexier?”

“He said it!”

All of the underlings nodded their heads together.

“!”

Elliott continued to watch as his meeting got derailed, but he had the same thoughts
as them.

The hairstyle was the same, and there was no major change to any of the make-up she
was wearing… but her expression often changed, and she was able to give off a
bewitching atmosphere despite how she was always wearing some rough clothes now.

The boys continued to excitedly discuss amongst themselves.

“What I mean, it seems like sexiness is blurred together in the little gestures…”
“Right right! Is it because she’s become rich in facial expressions? Like this, it’s like
comparing a black and white sketch to a vibrantly colorful picture…”

The conversation between adolescent boys continued… but

“However, she changed so much… perhaps it was hard for her being engaged to His
Highness.”

“Ah… she became bright as soon as the engagement was destroyed…”

“The reason she’s become so lively is because the burden of marriage isn’t weighing
her down…”

The conversation started to take a turn into a strange direction again. They all started
feeling sorry for her, and the underlings all threw a quick glance over towards their
boss.

“You guys, whose side are you on!?”

Elliott began shouting with a blood vessel pulsing on his forehead and shrugged off all
their words.

“The change in behavior isn’t at the level where we would call her brighter! In fact we
should be seeing her as a snake who has been hiding her true colors this whole time!”

Elliott looked around to his left and right.

“Really you guys, being tricked² by Rachel this late in the game.”

“Ah, sorry…”

“It doesn’t matter how bright that woman has become! Haven’t you all noticed anything
about Rachel?”

You are the one who has been in contact with her the most, was what none of them
could reply to the Prince’s question. Then while everyone was thinking on their own,
the son of a marquis raised his hand.

“I did notice one thing.”

“What is it? Tell us!”

“Hah”

Everyone’s faces turned towards the boy curiously.

“Ms. Rachel… actually, doesn’t she have good style³?”

The group of boys kept quiet for a while. However it wasn’t long before the atmosphere
for this countermeasure meeting became something similar to one you’d fine on a
school trip.

“…No but… didn’t Ms. Ferguson always have proportions like that?”

Unable to stand the silence that had descended one person responded in a hushed
voice as the marquis’s son shook his head at the answer he received to the raised
question.

“When a young woman comes out in public, they do so usually wearing a corset.
Naturally Ms. Rachel did as well, but right now she is only wearing her indoor clothes
since she’s thinking of the jail as her own private space. In other words, Rachel’s corset
right now… there is none.”

The Marquis’s son spoke with a soft voice, but his words still echoed in the room like
the beating of a drum, providing the greatest impact to his audience despite his quiet
tone. The circumstances for the underwear of a beautiful woman whose face you’ve
personally seen… it was the largest eros that an adolescent boy could think of.

The son of an earl started breathing heavily through his nose.

“That, erotic…!”

“What are you saying about this, the problem is from there! Ms. Rachel now, in a
private room she’d be dressed with the utmost care. That’s a given… right?”

Even if they were the only ones in the room the boys gathered close, and after seeing
each other’s faces, they continued.
“In other words without any accesories, that’s her style! Understand!? There’s no
tightened corset around her waist, so there’s nothing to push up her chest. That
hateful camouflage is no longer there allowing us a sight people weren’t meant to see!
A woman with a natural hourglass figure that can keep that ‘S’ character line!”

“What the hell!?”

A roar rose from everyone around the table. The boys all lost their complexions at this,
the discovery of the century. The facts they had found left them shocked, but they each
quickly returned to themselves and began whispering among one another again.

Even Prince Elliott who had been drawn in a while ago broke down.

“What clear reasoning… as expected of the Boyinski heir which has produced scholars
for generations!”

“Your Highness, my family name is Bolanski.”

“No, no no wait wait!”

There was one man who couldn’t get wrapped up in this topic, and George Ferguson
poured cold water on the other’s vortex of excitement.

“No way you guys, do you intend to switch from Margaret over to my sister just
because she has good style!?”

Elliott and the others were instantly brought back down to reality, vehemently
denying the idea.

“No wait, that’s something else. Margaret has a different style, and I’m not switching!
It’s more like, a spiritual connection, it heals…”

Sykes nodded.

“Right, it’s as His Highness says. Rachel has a different style. Her straight, or rather, I
mean, that, what, slender… well not… well, I think she has a realistic figure.”

“No, it’s a problem with my body rather than my heart…”

Somewhere after Syke’s point the story changed, and “That’s right huh,” became the
reaction to his theory as Elliott continued to make denials under his breath…

“Ferguson. Certainly Margaret who I love is inferior to your sister in terms of the ideal
body figure. However”

“Hmph, spit it out Boyinski!

“It’s Bolanski.”

After having done nothing but praise Rachel’s body since before, Bolanski rose out of
his seat.

He emphasized his next words with a tight fist.

“Margaret’s body is something that was ‘made’ after living the lifestyle of a more
common person. She has a deep neckline that can be seen from above, breasts that
aren’t too big yet still noticeable, and hands and feet that aren’t too thick and can even
be called petite.”

“Eh? Aren’t you talking ill of her?”

“S, shut up Sykes!”

With Elliott forcing Sykes to grip his butt after his previous comment, Bolanski’s
explanation started heating up.

“However! That’s good! That’s good! When some nobles are born aren’t they forced to
squeeze parts of their body to make them grow smaller, and don’t they sometimes add
accessories⁴ to fake that appearance? This is what I want to say. So it’s fine, right!?”

The Earl’s son gave a rough objection.

“However, you were the one who was singing Ms. Rachel’s praises!”

The Marquis’s son’s response was a nod as if to say, “That’s just what I thought.”

“What is the common point between Ms. Rachel and Margaret?”

“Common point?”
One is a member of a high-ranking noble family who would naturally be considered
for the role of being the Prince’s wife, and while her personality leaves something to
be desired, she is a beauty with great proportions.

The other used to be a commoner who managed to become a lower noble, and with
an innocent and natural charm, she also has a pretty yet somewhat infantile body type.

When the personality and appearance of the two were compared, those who looked
couldn’t find anything that was similar. It was here that Bolanski made a proclamation
as if he were an oracle.

“Everything about those two is completely natural. Even if you were to take everything
away from them, their styles would not change. The human body given to them by
God, it’s not a thing that was forcefully tightened or is cheated with accessories! So, I
declare. A woman’s beauty is being natural!”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

After finishing his speech Bolanski struck a pose as if he were looking up to the
heavens, and the impressed boys gathered around him began to shout. The boys talk
ended in an impressive finale.
Elliott’s countermeasure conference adopted Bolanski’s “Naturalist Declaration” and
closed the curtain looking forward to future prosperity.

The people who participated, “We should work on an abolition of corsets,” “Let’s ban
the scam,” left Elliott’s office excitedly making plans for the future.

Elliott’s heart was also on high as he organized some documents in a good mood.

“Un, today’s meeting sure was productive. This should solve our problem… problem?”

Elliott put his hand to his forehead and began thinking.

“…Today’s meeting, what was on the agenda?”

1. The saying means hiding your true personality as you might have guessed, and it is
referring to actors who act as the rear end of a horse in those two person costumes.

0. He repeated Rachel’s name twice in the raws, so this isn’t a mistake. The screwed
up footnotes however, are.

2. I felt it was important to note here that this word can mean both trick and seduce
given their previous conversation.

3. Where I come from we call this ‘plot’ but it’s ecchi either way.

4. They actually use the word makeup here, but since I’m pretty sure that makeup only
refers to cosmetics in English, I changed it to accessories. If I am wrong about the
makeup thing, please let me know though of course.
Rachel raised her face from the novel she was reading, and she grew worried with
what she didn’t see on the wall.

“…somehow, it’s quite dreary huh.”

When she thought about it, the Ducal home had vases and paintings all over. Naturally
Rachel’s room as well had been decorated on three sides with portraits of her and the
landscape paintings she had done as a hobby.

“Hmmm…”

Rachel got up from her sofa and started to look around.

Naturally the walls of a dungeon were comprised of nothing but stacked stone. There
was nothing else to see. Only the mural she had drawn the other day provided even a
little decoration.

“Because I live in such a troublesome place, it’d be good to coordinate it in a way I

like… isn’t this the real pleasure of moving?”

An ordinary inmate wouldn’t think like this.

“It’s still too early to bring in the Dark Night Black Cats… we never expected such a
sense before, but it’s good to find new business partners.”

The non-ordinary prisoner Rachel thusly placed her hand on some nearby paper with
a *Pon* and began writing out a letter.

“Oi, Rachel”

Prince Elliott arrogantly spoke up, and Rachel reluctantly looked up at him from the
magazine she had been reading.

“What is it Your Highness? I, am in the middle of reading.”

When she raised her face, she saw that Elliott wasn’t looking at her. The Prince’s eyes
were looking over past Rachel at the other side of the dungeon.

“…In such a place, you’ve put up a decorative painting?”

Elliott’s eyes were glued to the wall, where a large picture frame was hanging on full
display. It was a landscape painting in which lilies beautifully bloomed around a river.

“My Your Highness, has your memory already begun to worsen at such an age?”

“Huh!? No, there is no such thing! Ah, but if what you said is true…”

“I put it up just yesterday. To not remember such a recent change…”

“So it was new after all!?”

Elliott wrapped his fingers around the bars, clinging to the cell with a deep frown.

“Oi… how can you afford to bring a painting in here? What appeal is there to preparing
something so nonessential and nonurgent!?”

“There was no such intention. This, it is not a picture that I brought from home.”

Elliott looked back at George.

“Is that so?”

“Haa… certainly, it’s a picture I’ve never seen at home before…”

For the source, George could do nothing besides tipping his head to the side.

“Where did you pick it up from?”

“Is Your Highness an idiot? How could I have possibly gone to pick it up?”

“…That’s right.”
It can’t be helped that Elliott gets called an idiot when he becomes absentminded
whenever somebody calls him an idiot.

“So you didn’t get it from home. You also didn’t pick it up, so then where did you get it?”

How did the picture appear… it was a question that made Elliott’s head turn, but
Rachel responded simply while turning her gaze back into her magazine.

“I bought it.”

“Where could a prisoner have bought this!?”

“Hey Your Highness”

Having watched the exchange silently until now, Sykes spoke up and pointed to the
magazine Rachel was reading.

“That novel magazine, it came out this week.”

“What!?”

Although the number of publishing companies had been increasing lately and the
number of books for entertainment purposes with it, entertainment magazines are
issued after a certain amount of content had been accumulated, so publications came
out non-periodically with a gap inbetween issues. Because these magazines come out
one after another like this, it is easy to distinguish between issues.

Sykes had seen this issue from a distance earlier which was why he knew that it had
come out only recently.

“Oi Rachel! Where did you get a brand new magazine!”

“How could I tell you such a thing? What entertainment could be had in this prison
without having the prison guard spew out guesses for what he believes the market
prices for these things to be?”¹

“What’s with that stupid story!?”

 Ê

“Strange… Rachel, from where is she bringing in all this new stuff?”

Elliott’s grumblings were natural. Rachel couldn’t leave, and even if she did know of a
way to smuggle things in through the gate, there was no movement from the Duke’s
house.

“Somewhere, is Rachel somehow opening up the walls in order to go shopping?”

At this point Elliott’s anger and hatred had caused his reasoning skills to fly away.

“There are no hidden passageways inside. There had been a previous inspection, and
Rachel wouldn’t have had time to build something since then.” It would take quite a long
time to build an escape underground. Even if Rachel was aware of the engagement
abandonment beforehand, time wouldn’t have been on her side. “However… if so then
how did Big Sis bring all that in…”

George was also puzzled. His sister was originally a slippery target, so he didn’t know
what to do now that they had already caught her.

Elliott bitterly spat out his next words.

“Anyway! We’ll perform strict checks from now on to make sure that there really are
no strangers coming in and out of the palace. To all the gate guards and royal knights,
investigate in detail every suspicious merchant and visitor that comes into the palace!”

“Hah!”

Having been permitted entry through the castle’s front gate, the man who has been
the head of the well-established Crown Company for over twenty years walked into
the backyard after confirming there were no other people nearby. Before anybody
could see him he had already quietly made his way down the steps to the underground
prison.

“Greetings, thanks for your continued patronage. I’m from the the Crown Company.”

Rachel, who had been busy reading a book at the time, raised her face from inside her
cell.

“I’ve been waiting. You’re sure you coming here hasn’t been leaked?”

“Yes, everything’s alright. I’m currently discussing official business in a court lady’s
room, but nobody saw where I went to confirm that I came here.”

The seasoned merchant then began pulling out items from the luggage he had brought
with him one after another.

“Of the items you ordered, everything that hasn’t been yet delivered to you is in here.”

“Un, thanks.”

“Thank you. With that, about the exotic lamp with the colored glass you mentioned
before… here’s the catalog. If you could choose whichever one you’d prefer, we can
have it shipped to you in a week, so please place your order!”

“Yes, I’ll look. Always so naughty.”

The elderly man bowed his head while wringing together his hands.

“No no, nothing so outrageous! By all means in the future…”

“Yes, I will ask that you be allowed to come and go in Father’s house.”

“Thank you very much!”

The merchant deeply bowed his head once again upon hearing Rachel’s lip service and
left after hearing her additional order.

Rachel was alone, bringing some cookies from a famous store that had just arrived in
the dungeon up to her mouth.

“His Highness has been looking for a company that has recently started coming in and
out…”

But the subordinate that Rachel has had deliver supplies to her while she is in prison
first started coming to the palace under the guise of a merchant since several years
ago. Even if the search were widened to not include just new merchants however,
Rachel knew the Idiot Prince would never be able to grab his tail.

Even a long established group like the Crown Company wants as many new clients
among the upper nobles as they can get. Merchants aren’t the type to be satisfied with
having just a court order.

Even a big player would respond to a risky transaction if it was with someone with
Rachel’s position, and they know how to side-step regulations.

Elliott was born a prince, so he has no sense in that area.

“Well, even the ordinary citizenry wouldn’t know of something like a merchant’s
temperament either.”

It’s not normal for the daughter of a Duke to know about such things either, but upon
hearing some footsteps coming her way, she decided to not dwell on such things and
instead pulled out a new bottle of wine from its package.
Sykes was going for a walk when a group of children being led by a priest crossed his
path.

“Onii-chan, hello!”

“Ah, hello!”

“Oji-chan, hi!”

“I’ll beat you to death.”

As the procession left, he had a thought though.

Hm? Why are a bunch of children from an orphanage walking around inside the royal
castle?

In retrospect, all of the children had entered a single door. The all-too-familiar door
leading to the dungeon that Rachel is currently residing in.

“…Oi, she’s starting something again.”

In response to Sykes’s report, an emergency dispatch was once again issued, and
Prince Elliott rushed down the dungeon stairs. And there was…

“A long time ago, in a certain place. There was a small country known as the Flower
Kingdom.”
Rachel was reading a picture book to all the children sitting around in front of the iron
bars.

The dim light of the sun inserted itself inside the cobblestone room. With a girl holding
an open picture book in hand while sandwiched between a mountain of wooden crates
and a gorge mural, a dozen toddlers were excitedly looking on.

And with a set of iron bars inbetween them.

“What is with this space!?”

The children all looked back at Elliott who had involuntarily begun shouting, and after
putting an extended index finger to their lips, unitedly told him to, “Be quiet!”

“…am I in the wrong?”

Elliott asked George who was standing next to him with a downcast voice, but even if
he asked, George didn’t have an answer.

“Somehow, it’s like a slaver’s storehouse.”

Elliott hated how Sykes carefreely allows whatever idle thoughts pop into his mind to
come out of his mouth. In this supposed idea Elliott would be the slave dealer, while
Sykes would be the management cum muscle, and you could probably call George the
head clerk?

Either way it meant Elliott was evil and Rachel was the protagonist in a tragedy. Such
a story was unacceptable.

However since this was a situation where what was exactly going on wasn’t clear, it
wasn’t like the men were going to be able to figure out the answer. So beating back the
boo’s from the children for interrupting their fun time, George asked Rachel directly.

“…Sis, what exactly is going on here?”

Towards her stupid little brother who hates to listen, Rachel cheerfully answered
looking like a Holy Mother.
“Oh dear, I honestly didn’t think you would ask me. No I, you didn’t know about my
weekly visit to the orphanage for charity? But because of my future welfare inside
here, I had no choice but to cancel… until to my pleasure, the children came to visit me
here.”

The Prince’s group were then subjected to a combo strike of implied accusations like,
“What do you see your own sister as!?” and, “Isn’t it because of the Prince that our charity
has stopped!?” and, “He’s robbing a group of innocent children!”

Leaving the men to themselves, Rachel turned back to the children with a saintly smile
on her face and once again began reading from her picture book.

“There once was a Prince in the Flower Kingdom.

A beautiful Prince with blonde hair, all of the girls were crazy about him.

But, the Prince assuredly looked cool… however he was a big idiot who couldn’t help
but to love women.

No matter what his retainers said to him, the Prince refused to study or do any work.

He was a fool even to the citizens, yet the Prince staggered from one extramarital affair
to the next.

He kept doing nothing but chasing pretty girls every day to play with.

A Prince who doesn’t work. All of his retainers were extremely troubled.

All his retainers and his citizens looked down on him with cold eyes, but the sex-
obsessed Prince didn’t understand.

Finally the Prince was caught by the angry citizenry.

Everyone lectured him, but still the Prince remained indignant.

The Prince who didn’t know what he had done wrong, finally his retainers abandoned
him.
Now, what was the fate of this Prince?”

Towards Rachel’s question, all of the children who had been listening had their eyes
sparkle all at once.

“The Prince’s head rolled! The Prince’s head rolled!”

All of the children’s voices united in a happy chorus, and Rachel watched on smiling.

“That’s right, the Prince was dragged out into the city square and had his head chopped
off! The Useless Prince was killed by guillotine!”

“Yaaaaaaaaaaay!”

“Hold onnnnnnnnn!!!!”

Elliott began banging on the iron bars, stepping inbetween Rachel and the group of
children.

“What kind of book are you reading!?”

“Is there something strange about it?”

“How can you think it’s not strange!? It’s full of miserable content! Moreover the
insinuations that the book’s contents are making…”

“Oh my”

Rachel made a knowing smile.

“Don’t tell my Your Highness, are you perhaps sympathizing with the character?”

“Ku…”

Rachel’s smile showing that she had clearly seen through him was coupled with the
suspecting faces of the children who clearly didn’t know what was going on. It was
impossible for him to start making accusations or insults in front of a pack of children
who didn’t understand what was going on, so he instead menacingly pointed at Rachel
through the bars.
“This isn’t about me! About this book, it’s bad for the education of children no matter
how you look at it! Isn’t there a better book for this!?”

“Oh my, but aren’t I not reading a fairly common story book?”

“A common story book!? It has affairs and guillotines, there’s no way this content was
made with children in mind!”

Rachel turned over the book in hand. Any way you looked at it it appeared to be a
picture book made for children.

“Isn’t it pretty ordinary? Isn’t the purpose of fiction to depict good being rewarded and
evil being punished? It is a good subject for children to read.”

“This is a choice of clear ill will! No matter how I look this is clearly supposed to represent
me!”

While Elliott was angrily bleating, Rachel was leisurely laughing.

“Well Your Highness, does that mean you have been having some affairs yourself? I
suppose it’s the guillotine for you then.”

“You, how dare you impudently… maybe it’s because you were harassing Margaret in
the first place! Feel some remorse, witch!”

The blood had rushed to his head, and the Prince had finally begun shouting. Rachel
responded to Elliott’s yelling with a small sigh as the children began crawling away
from behind him.

“This onii-chan, his yelling is making me feel bad.”

“He looks like the Prince from the book.”

“Now that you mention it isn’t this onii-chan also blonde?”

“Is he also a cheater who likes to flirt?”

“Theeeeeeeen neck chop”

There were probably no bad intentions in the children’s words. They were just saying
what came to mind, but their chatter cut deep.

“Damn!? You brats, don’t you know I’m working properly!? I don’t gallivant about!?”

“You’re making excuses to children…”

“I’m not making excuses! It’s the truth!?”

“Onii-chan, so impatient~”

“Is onii-chan going to have his head chopped off?”

Being completely pushed away by the air, Elliott’s group took a step back. They
couldn’t afford to do anything while there were children here.

The children meanwhile surrounded Rachel once again to continue enjoying their
picture book, having fun while enjoying some big biscuits that were passed around.

Why is it that a person who is currently in prison is able to leisurely pass around
supplies, were the vague thoughts Elliott were left with.

It would be wrong to say something in front of children. That was what Elliott and the
others decided before resolving themselves for a retreat.

They were all allies of justice themselves after all. Kicking out a bunch of kids in front
of Rachel would only increase their reverence towards her.

While Elliott was irritatedly making his way out however, Rachel decided to hand over
a picture book to him.

“Since Your Highness’s friends don’t usually read books, perhaps you could use this to
practice your reading and writing?”

The sarcasm in the following, “Are you off to do some work?” could be plainly felt, but
since Elliott didn’t want to be exposed in front of a group of children he begrudgingly
took the book and left the dungeon.

When he arrived at his office, Elliott finally began to violently curse.

“Damn you Rachel! Each and every single time your sarcasm rears it’s ugly head!
Dragging out the fact that I don’t do any charity work in front of children…”

“We can’t get angry if there are a bunch of children there… Your Highness, ‘You’re so
cool!'”¹

“Noisy!”

Standing aside as Elliott berated Sykes, George took a look at the picture book.

“I have never heard of such a fairy tale before… what country is this story from?”

Flipping through the pages, an imprint soon came into view.

Was the story interesting? With love to Prince E

Written and Drawn by R • F

“This, it was done up by my sister…”

“Fuck, how is this a common story!? How was this not about me!!!”

The howls of a lost dog echoed in the castle’s backyard.

1. The person saying this is using a childish way of speaking, so they’re just pretending
to be one of the children.
In a place such as this, the prison guard had already gotten used to visitors making
their way here… but the hair color today was different from usual, he thought to himself.

A pretty girl with long red hair done up in twin tails, that was who came down to the
dungeon for a visit today.

Until now it had always been a Prince or some young noble man who has been the
source of the pitter-patter that came from someone walking down those steps; this
was the first time it had turned out to be a young girl.

…although when you put it like that, this might not seem that unusual…

“Miss, uninvited people aren’t allowed down here…”

Although people break in here anyway… was what the girl inside the prison cell would
have assuredly thought if she had heard what the prison guard had said.

“I already know! Please notify Rachel that Margaret Poisson has come to meet with her!”

“After all please listen…”

“What is it? Now, quickly!”

Young people nowadays really only want to show their chins¹, was what the prison
guard thought to himself as he reluctantly made his way down to the dungeon.

The young lady proudly followed close behind.

“…Miss, do you know what ‘notify’ means?”

“I know? Now, hurry up and guide me to her!”

“Already, just like this…”

When they arrived inside the dungeon, the girl called Margaret immediately ran up to
the steel bars.

“Rachel, it’s Margaret! Long time no see!”

I have no idea who this girl who starts loudly yelling out some greetings early in the
morning is… , the prison guard was already making excuses as he broke out in a cold
sweat.

He didn’t know the reason why, but lately the prisoner had been sleeping in until late
in the morning. In fact she was still in bed now. Now here she was being roused out of
bed…

Although their acquaintanceship has been short, he was fully aware that that outrageous
woman hated being disturbed (Although because she had always initiated all of their
conversations, there were no examples of her being disturbed that came to mind).
What happens if you force this my-pace woman to wake up…

The prison guard took his distance from the iron cell in the face of the unknown.

Despite the prison guard’s fears, Rachel woke up relatively calmly.

“Umu?”

She pulled her head out of its place deep underneath her duvet, and clumsily rubbed
her eyes. When the upper half of her body rose out of bed, she saw the girl who was
calling out to her.

“Rachel! It’s me, Margaret!”

“?”

It took a while for the words she was saying to make it through Rachel’s early-morning
dopey demeanor, but eventually Rachel’s eyes were able to come into focus and she
got out of bed.

“Mou, have you finally woken up!? You’re such a sleepyhead!”

The redheaded woman was at full tension as she continued to shout while clinging to
the cell bars, and Rachel gradually made her way over.

Watching on, the prison guard thought to himself, “Ah, is she a friend or something?”
as he thought that that might be why she wasn’t criticizing the young girl for waking
her up.

A wave of relief washed away the stress that had been building up for the prison guard.

“Gufwaaah!?”
Rachel’s flying knee kick dexterously made its way inbetween the bars of her cell,
being absorbed by the solar plexus of the redheaded girl.

“Hangyaaaa!?”

The visiting girl made a silent scream as she flew backwards.

The red-haired girl groaned as she painfully rolled back on the stone floor. Because
she was clinging to her stomach without worrying about the cuts and bruises she had
gotten from rolling on the floor though, it seems like the blow from the knee-strike
worked quite well.

“Wh… what, is…”

As the girl tried to choke out a question between her short gasps, Rachel looked on
visibly shocked.

“Ah, I’m sorry. Your stomach looked like it would be a good place to hit once, so I
unintentionally…”

“What kind of reason is that!?”

While the girl slowly got back to her feet with gritted teeth, Rachel gave some rough
commentary.

“No, it’s the truth? You, you give off a really amaaazing feeling. That’s why, it’s like
wanting to pull on the cheek of something cute or wanting to slap the butt of someone
you like. Mou, the whole aura you were giving off was begging me to hit you! I, I’ve
taken such great care over the last decade to make sure I don’t raise my hand against
someone… but now I’ve lost to my temptations and put my knee on another.”

Still clutching her stomach the shivering redheaded girl waved her hand and beckoned
over the prison guard.

“Wh, what is it?”

The prison guard fearfully came close as the young lady grabbed and twisted his collar
with a surprising amount of strength.
“Hey, what’s with this guy!? Providing this kind of ‘greeting’ upon an encounter, is she
truly the daughter of a noble!? Even the ‘professionals’ inside slums aren’t this
uncouth!?”

“Even if you ask me that…”

The red-haired girl was raised in the downtown streets, so she had been brimming
with youthful enthusiasm at first, however any trace of that energy had disappeared
completely in front of the prison guard as if it had all been a lie.

“That, is that truly Rachel Ferguson!? The daughter of a Duke’s house!?”

“I don’t really know the situation that well, but I suppose so?”

While the two of them were whispering their grievances at each other, the still worked
up Rachel continued to praise the girl from inside the prison.

“The longer I look at you, the more amazing you appear! Ten years, no this is a once in
twenty years talent! There’s no doubt, you have a talent as a sandbag that nobody else
could ever hope to match!”

“What kind of talent is being a sandbag!?”

What strange praise.

Rachel clung to the iron bars and began begging the young lady.

“Ten blows would be all I’d need, please, let me work some slaps on your face!”

“I didn’t like the first one!”

The contents of the request were strange again.

“Then just five! I should be able to make do with just five!”

“Can’t you listen to what people are telling you!?”

“No, you don’t say.”

The exchange continued… and seeing the young lady who was finally able to stand up
albeit trembling like a newborn deer, Rachel suddenly tilted her head.

“By the way you… have we met somewhere before?”

The angry red-haired girl once again beckoned over the prison guard.

“Wh, what is it…”

The prison guard fearfully walked forward again trying to protect his collar, but the
young lady grabbed it right when he began to drop his guard.

“What • is • with • this woman!? What does she mean she doesn’t know me!?”

“No, I don’t really know…”

“Well I’ll leave that aside for now… no, wouldn’t it be too weird if we just left it!?
Punching someone in the gut who not even ever having a conversation with before,
but who she thinks she’s never even met before, what is going on inside her head!?”

“Even if you ask me…”

Rachel is Rachel, and from inside the prison, she was resorting to bribery while using
a coaxing voice.

“Heeeey~, how about I buy you whatever you want? So, just let me beat you a little?”

“Would you just give it up!”

“I suppose… after all, you should be able to hear a snap or take a beating right? You
could enjoy the feeling as I pinch your little soft cheeks… you, understand?”

“Quit talking as if you know who I am now! Why is the genuine article so different…”

The redheaded girl whose legs finally stopped trembling pointed at Rachel with a
*snap*.

“I’m not sure if you’ve truly forgotten me or not, but if this is what you’re really like,
then you’re already black!² Don’t you know if you apologize to Elliott you’d already be
out of here? I came here just to tell you that!”

Rachel leaned up against the iron bars.

“My apology… should I apologize for using you as a sandbag first?”

“Apologize! Are you calling yourself some kind of vigilante!? You’re dangerous!”

“No, but Miss is already in jail though.”

While taking enough distance away from the cell, Margaret started yelling at Rachel.

“Hmph, if that’s the attitude you’re going to have then fine! Then you’re fine with not
being able to watch as I sweetly grow into Elliott’s princess!? It’ll be too late to regret
it later!”

The girl’s footsteps echoed outward as she ran up the steps while Rachel and the prison
guard saw her off.

After any sign of the girl had disappeared, Rachel turned to the prison guard.

“In the end, who was that girl?”

“She said she’d become a princess, so does that mean she’s somebody that the Prince
okay’d?”

“I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before but… I’ve heard her name before too.”

Rachel thought for a bit, but since she couldn’t remember, her thinking soon changed
to something else. She then looked over in the direction that the red-haired girl
disappeared.

“Ah, I want to hit those plump little cheeks with a forehand/backhand combination…
a nostalgic fire’s been re-lit and my old childhood habit is making a comeback. On this
occasion, I want to beat her even more than His Highness.”

“The other party in these hypotheticals are some big names…”

“Oh yeah? They aren’t that big of a deal. A long time ago, I sunk him in a pond.”

“Sunk in a pond… the Prince!?”

The prison guard was surprised and repeated back what he heard, but he gained no
reply in turn.

When the prison guard looked back, Rachel had crawled back in bed and put on her
eye mask.

“An idiot woke you up, so you’re going back to bed?”

“Yes. I want to dream before forgetting this wonderful feeling.”

“You’re seriously pleased with all this… I don’t know who she was, but that girl just met
with some misfortune.”

In Prince Elliott’s office, the daughter of a baron Margaret Poisson had her arms
wrapped around her darling Prince. And then she sneezed.

“What’s wrong Margaret? Are you getting a cold?”

“No, I don’t think so at least… but I did get the chills…”

“I see, what a coincidence… for some reason I did too…”

1. It’s a Japanese idiom that means you think highly of yourself.

2. As in no good or an enemy.
Even though his daughter had been thrown in prison, Duke Ferguson was busy with
his work like usual.

Normally if a criminal were to pop up in one’s family, especially a noble one, the other
members should show a modicum of self-restraint and act discreetly.

With Rachel’s case however, there was only a one-sided conviction on the Prince’s
part, and the Duke would never admit guilt to something like that. Rather, because the
final judgement from the King hadn’t been handed down yet, it was his duty to actively
fight the charges and claim innocence.

The oldest son George was on the other side, but the father Dan was still the head of
the house. And no matter what his son said, he refused to back down.

That’s why he wasn’t short on any information from the barrage of visitors that passed
through.

But then almost as if by chance during a lull of the busy coming and goings of the
Duke’s guests, Rachel’s personal maid Sofia arrived at the Duke’s Office looking as if
she were here to wait upon him.

“Pardon me Master.”

During such a time, there was two other maids waiting patiently by the door leading
to the outside hallway. Sofia alone walked forward, giving a deep and respectful bow
straight out of an instruction manual.

“It’s about My Lady’s matter”

“Ah, Rachel’s current status”

The Duke finished signing a document before resting his hand and looking up at his
daughter’s subordinate who had just entered… although to be precise rather than his
daughter’s this should be his wife’s subordinate, but it seems that any servant attached
to their daughter end up having their loyalties skewed to a certain personal preference.

Completely unconcerned with the conflict inside the Duke’s heart, Sofia stepped forward
as calm as ever.

“Yes.”

“Umu. How is she?”

“According to the report, My Lady is doing just fine.”

The young woman finished her report and gave a single thanks.

The Duke in turn stared at her for about ten seconds.

“…Is that all?”

The Duke spoke in a befuddled voice as he realized that nothing else would come out
even if he waited, and Sofia in turn answered him completely serious.

“Yes. That is the summary.”

“No, No No! No, that is far too concise a summary. What am I supposed to understand
with just that?”

“I think you’d understand that My Lady is doing just fine.”

“That’s all!? There’s nothing else!? If there are any other details then please release them.”

“Right… then, I’ll deliver them later.”

Looking somewhat unconvinced Sofia turned back.

“Lisa, could you bring the daily report from the watchman to Master?”

“Hah”

“Meia, please call the primary physician Monton here as soon as possible.”
“Hah… Sofia, should I be calling the large doctor in charge of heart surgery? Or the
young one with the psychosomatic medicine?”

“Why are you asking something so stupid!? The Master, didn’t he say he wanted to
know the details of Our Lady’s latest activity records? It should be obvious that you’d
call both. Use your common sense.”

“Hah”

After giving out instructions to her fellow maids, Sofia turned back around and gave
another bow.

“Master, when looking over the daily report, do so with a stable pulse and after lying
down in bed.”

The maid’s words went in one ear and out the other with the Duke only really caring
about one thing.

…common sense, what?

Once the Duke had managed to regain his mind, he made a small cough and changed
his instructions.

“Wait. It’s fine so long as Rachel is in good health… I’d prefer to not be confined to my
bed right now…”

…what are you doing, and what kind of results are you bringing? Things are happening
in real time right now, but there was no doubt that it’d be better for his mental health
if he didn’t ask any questions like that.

Thinking so, the Duke ended the discussion.

It’s the natural result after considering one’s priorities.

By no means did he mean to just put off opening Pandora’s Box.

…Truly?

After shaking his head and making another small cough, the troubled Duke decided to
consult with his daughter’s maid about the current matters.

“Umm, more than that… His Majesty should soon be returning from his tour. I’m sure
His Highness will be working on his case to decide her guilt. Perhaps we should start
working on some counter-measures…”

So what do you think? Before the Duke could say anything else though, Sofia’s report
caused his words to get stuck in his throat.

“If it’s about His Majesty, then he won’t be back for a while.”

“…Huh?”

Why is a maid who shouldn’t even know the schedule of the inspection in the first
place suddenly saying something like that?

To the Duke who had absolutely no idea what his vassal was saying, Sofia offered an
explanation.

“The engagement between My Lady and His Highness Elliott was due to the strong
wishes of Her Majesty the Queen. Because of this we created a summary of the events
that have happened since the engagement’s destruction and relied on a messenger
from the Nauman family to secretly send it while His Majesty was on his inspection.”

“…unnoticed…”

Far from knowing their schedule, Sofia was able to pin down exactly where they’d be
and when they’d be there. Furthermore she had the means to get in contact. What’s
with this scary story?

“In total, we wrote them a note saying, “The cats are playing happily,” and their party
ended up staying at the hot springs inside Count Fracker’s territory. Until the situation
is organized and our policy moving forward is decided, I believe they shouldn’t be
returning to the city.”
But then the expressionless maid looked like she thought of something and added,

“Or, you’re afraid that My Lady blowing off some steam might step on the wrong toes,
perhaps.”

The Duke laughed at the maid’s guess. It was a very small, quiet laugh.

“N, no… no matter how big a fire Rachel creates, there’s no way it’d affect His Majesty’s
group. Afraid that Rachel would get uninvolved royalty wrapped up in all this, that’s
ridiculous! Hahaha…”

“No, in truth His Highness the Archduke… pardon me, it’s nothing.”

“The Archduke? What about the Archduke!? What’s happened to Archduke Vivaldi!?”

“Please don’t worry. It’s already settled.”

“Is it absurd to feel concern!? What has Rachel done!?”

“It’s all okay. It’s really not that big a deal.”

“Is it really okay!? What’s Rachel done!?”

“From my mouth, it’s a little…”

“How is that supposed to make it sound like it’s all okay!?”

“By the way Master”

Having already worked through the Duke’s panic, Sofia presented to him a brochure
without any context.

“Since you’ve been building up anxiety lately, how about you and your wife go on a trip
to some hot springs.”

“Whose fault… who do you think put me in this state right now!?”

“Right. While visiting the hot springs, you might just end up running into His Majesty
while you’re there.”

Sofia’s casual words left the Duke stunned.

“…are you saying that we should discuss the final measures away from the crime scene?”

“It all just happened this way. What a coincidence.”

The maid continued talking with an absolutely unreadable face.

“At any rate, the fact that His Highness’s party has deviated from their schedule is
something that the Royal Palace is still unaware of. If Master were to depart right now
for the same hot springs, then nobody would ever have been able to predict if you were
to somehow encounter His Majesty at the same place.”

Just how far under the table is my Daughter’s hand able to reach… the Duke could feel
his spine grow cold as he thought about it.

My Daughter is growing in a way I couldn’t expect and building up a major incident.

Somebody help.

Sofia’s proposal, it’s true that it would be a good way to save Rachel.

The Royal Palace doesn’t know anything, and that No-Ability Prince’s group would
never even question the inspection group returning late. They would never even think
about hampering the Duke from reaching his destination.

But if he was going to dance in the setting that his daughter had set up, there were
some things that still had to be confirmed.

“…And what about the situation here? If I were to leave then wouldn’t George take
control of this House?”

With no Duke or Duchess, naturally responsibility would fall to George, the oldest son.
If Rachel was looking for help, she wouldn’t be able to count on her own house for any
assistance whatsoever. But since she was the one proposing the outing, Rachel must
have assuredly thought of that.
This was evidenced by the cool look still plastered on Sofia’s face, showing that this
was within their calculations.

“There are also some convenient things that can only be gained when Master isn’t here.”

“Is that so?”

“Even if the Master and Mistress were to go out on an excursion, it wouldn’t be strange
for you to appoint a substitute for a short period of time while you’re away. You can
appoint a deputy outside of your relatives since the Young Master is still a minor. And
when it comes to managing home affairs…”

The Duke and maid stared into each other’s eyes… and then they both turned their
necks towards the wall and the butler who had been as thin as air until now. Seeing
that their eyes had gathered on him, the butler dropped the documents he had in his
hands with a face looking like he had just had a heart attack… but no worries, no
worries.

“…I see”

“Yes. He’s just a servant, but if Master has entrusted all rights to him…”

“He can’t deviate from the policy I set up, and George can’t order him around.”

“No matter what Young Master says, “It violates my instructions,” or “Check with the
Master,” he can always just respond with that. And with the Young Master’s head, it’d
be difficult for him to verify any claims with Master while you’re traveling.”

“Umu, it’ll be fine for just a governmental office.”

As the master and servant began coldly laughing as if everything had been solved, a
crying butler meekly spoke up.

“Um, will I truly be alone and in charge…?”

“Don’t worry Jonathan. Sofia will also be here, and if George gets too noisy, you can
just ask Martha to throw him in his room.”

That terrifying maid chief used to be George’s nanny. And George hadn’t grown big
enough yet for her to not be able to pick him up by the scruff of his neck.
The butler’s shoulders drooped as he realized there was no getting around this for
him, but the Duke was feeling especially lighthearted all of the sudden and went out
jovially calling for his wife.

“Iseria, we’re going on a hot spring trip vacation right away!”

“Well Dan, what’s going on so suddenly!? Right now shouldn’t be the time for such a
thing!”

“We’re going out precisely because it’s right now!”

“?”

While collecting some documents that had fallen on the floor, the butler weakly looked
over at the maid with grievous eyes.

“If all this anxiety kills me, could I apply for worker’s compensation?”

“Hm? Please check with Master for that.”

At a small noble house in a suburban area at the city’s edge, a simple black carriage had
returned.

The light clopping of the horses’ hooves beating against the stone street echoed in the
air as they pulled the carriage along and through the slid open gates of the small
mansion.

Hearing the loud neighs of the horses, the mistress and a maid appeared at the front
door to greet their arrival.

One of Baron Poisson’s daughters who had been at the royal palace had finally come
home.

The person who was inside the carriage wanted the door opened faster than the two
coachmen could meet up with her though.

“Come on!”

The twin-tailed beautiful girl forcefully pushed open the door hard enough to almost
break it from the inside,

“Toh!”

and faster than the coachman could bring out the stepping stool, she jumped out of
the carriage to the ground and landed bowlegged. At the same time without moving
she decided to strike a pose to mark her grand entrance.

One man, “Perfection… ,” uneasily praised her while the other elderly servant thought
to himself, “I’m just going to stay quiet (LOL),” and carefully removed the unused stepping
stool.

“My Lady, you could end up hurting yourself, so please stop it.”
Even when the coachman does tell her to be careful, ‘My Lady’ doesn’t listen. The
Baron’s daughter Margaret Poisson laughs at the concerns of her servants.

“It’s fine~! A great human being wouldn’t get hurt even if they were to fall from a high
place!”

The two coachmen both tilted their heads to the side, drawing a large (?) as they tried
to pull out any recollection of such an idiom being true… but they decided to give up
on pointing out the flaws.

It’s pointless for anyone associated with this Lady to respond with, “That’s somehow,”…
above all, she’s bursting with energy and probably just means that it’s fine even if she
falls from a great height because she’d still be beautiful.

The Mother called out to her daughter who had returned home full of energy.

“Welcome home, Margaret.”

“I’m home Mama!”

Margaret and the Baron’s wife, Anita Poisson, hugged each other. It’s unclear how this
energetic girl came from such a fragile, ephemeral beauty.

The Lady continued on, doing away with the common mannerisms and loudly greeted
the maid as well.

“My Lady~, welcome back~!”

“I’m home Bennett~”

The maid with a physique similar to Margaret gave her a high five.

“Alright!”

Their warcries synchronized. It seems that these two are somehow related.

Without any territory, the Poisson Barony is a lower class noble house with few
members that relies on the stipend they receive from being a baron house. There are
four people here right now, and if you add the Lord of the house you get five.
The second that someone returns home, a cozy atmosphere envelops you as even the
servants feel like family here. The Baron would secretly boast to others about his cozy
home.

With the usual unsuited-for-a-noble greetings finished, the girl handed over her
baggage to the maid and started looking around.

“Papa is?”

As she asked Margaret peeked behind the curtains next to the sideboard. Of course a
Baron wouldn’t normally be in such a place to begin with.

The Madam of the house made a small smile looking a little troubled.

“Milord has not yet returned from the office yet.”

“Muu. I wanted to tell him about how Elliott was praising me.”

“My my. Then how about you tell Mother first then? You could try practicing telling
your story before you talk to Papa?”

“Okay!”

With the sun setting at her back, Margaret walked into her house while casually
talking with the Baron’s wife. Meanwhile the carriage driver began preparations to
put the carriage away as the maid closed the mansion’s gate. In this small home of a
baron, the peaceful air of a close family was everywhere.

Returning home after finishing all of his work, Baron Poisson asked the maid who met
him at the door about his wife and daughter.

“Bennett, how are Anita and Margaret?”

The maid who was the same age as his daughter took the Baron’s bags while giving
him a military-like salute.

“The Madam and Lady are having a lively discussion together in the living room.”
“Right…”

The Baron wanted to say something about the pose and overabundant respect that
the maid showed him, but he wanted to see the faces of his wife and child even more
than that.

The Baron peeked into the living room where his lovely wife and daughter were excitedly
talking to each other.

“I see… so pestering Elliott for a bracelet was a bad move after all!”

“That’s right Margaret, you shouldn’t do that anymore. You’ll draw His Highness’s ire
even if he does favor you. His favor could easily wear away, and you might get a bad
reputation as someone who is only after his wallet.”

“I don’t want that!”

The Mother gave a warm smile as her daughter nodded her head.

“That’s right, you have to be smarter. You need to make his heart tremble a little when
he sees you looking at it unhappily, but when His Highness asks if you want him to buy
it for you, you have to give him an immediate rejection!”

“Really!?”

“Your mouth has to say no, but the expression on your face will clearly show what you
really want… that way, His Highness will see you as lovable and won’t be able hold
himself back from buying it for you as a present. You have to let the man sell you his
favor! He pays tribute to you without you even having to ask, that’s a first class
technique!”

“I see! I will study more!”

Somehow, I feel like my wife and daughter are having a slightly scary conversation…

Feeling uneasy about joining in with them, the Baron was hesitating at the living room
entrance.

…then, Madam Anita noticed his gaze.

“Well Milord, if you had come home then it would have been nice if you had said
something!”

“R, right”

“I thoughtlessly got wrapped up in my conversation with Margaret and was unable to

meet you at the door…”

“N, no, that’s perfectly alright.”

Standing up right away, the loving wife quickly made to start the cooking.

“Papa, welcome home~!”

“Mm. Welcome home Margaret.”

“Listen listen, today I was at the royal palace!”

Acting unlike how a girl probably should in her later teens, the cute girl’s eyes started
sparkling as she began recounting the events of the day.

“Now Margaret, isn’t Milord still wearing his outdoor wear? You can tell him all about
your day after we’ve had something to eat.”

“But, I want him to hear about it right away.”

A situation where your lovely wife and adorable daughter are arguing over you.

Right. That conversation I overheard must have been something else, a mistake in my
hearing since I’m getting older.

“Now now you two, my stomach’s already grumbling. Let’s start eating early today.”
The Baron had met his wife in a slightly weird place, but she was a good woman who
fit in well as a noblewoman, and the daughter from a previous marriage that she had
brought with her was a lovely girl who loved him deeply.

…This type of happy family was more than a dull, small-time Baron could wish for.

What doubts could he possibly have? Isn’t this the picture of a happy home?

The Baron continued to convince himself so, and he pushed the backs of his Wife and
Daughter towards the dining room.

After finishing dinner Margaret headed upstairs, opened her window, and stared out
at the descending darkness. There weren’t many streetlamps in this area, so the
scenery wasn’t that great, but the faint breeze that blew past her face felt pleasant.

This was the place where she could be the most relaxed, and while staring into the
night sky, she was finally able to ponder about that thing.

“…I never knew Rachel was such a crazy woman.”

Originally she had gone down in Prince Elliott’s dungeon in order to convince his
former fiancee to surrender, but she had never thought that that woman would force
her out in such a way.

…no, it’s possible that she’s just pouring on the vilification, and anticipated that I’d
leave after slapping me once… in what world does the daughter of a duke knee kick
someone before even thinking about talking to them?

“Moreover, the person in my head isn’t so dangerous…”

She had talked and talked, but it was impossible to follow along with what Rachel had
been talking about.

It was impossible for Margaret to follow along with what Rachel was thinking.
“That woman, I wonder what… in the first place, I can’t understand the idea of putting
yourself in jail all alone.”

This was probably what everyone would think.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Margaret had almost zero acquaintanceship with Rachel Ferguson, but as expected,
the other party was the fiancee of the Prince. Even a lower noble like Margaret would
know her face.

Well, all of the previous impressions Rachel gave off were, She’s like a doll.

During a ceremony Rachel had stood diagonally behind Elliott, and while he smiled
and waved to the cheering crowd, she was… just standing there not doing anything.

In the first place Elliott had never really even acknowledged her presence there, making
her seem like she was just a part of the background.

Love means moving together, but instead they were actively acting on their own.

As she tried to get closer and become more familiar with Elliott, Margaret realized that
the Prince’s impression were the same as her own.

Although… Rachel’s presence may be thin causing her to seem like just a background
character, but she was still the daughter of a top noble family and the Prince’s fiancee.

There were a lot of girls other than Margaret who were aiming for the glittering Prince
Elliott, but it was clear to see that their family, career, and education couldn’t compare
to Rachel’s.

Without the strength to go on the attack and the status of being at least a marquis,
earl, or maybe even a princess, you wouldn’t be able to brush Rachel aside.

If you’re trying to appeal to Elliott, then simply trying to replace Rachel who is
superior in every way is just impossible.

What’s more, Margaret was at the bottom of noble society, a baron’s daughter. When
compared to the other girls with a decent pedigree, her handicap is massive, and it’s
only the starting line.

But after pushing forward with a spirt forged from being a downtown grown girl
(physically), she was able to successfully Elliott’s eye.

What’s more is that those other noble girls who don’t know how the world works and
lacked that ‘service spirit’, an edge which allowed Margaret to increase her favorability,
making her look like excellent stock and pull ahead from her rivals… but that was it.

With the sole exception of love, Rachel had an overwhelmingly high score with a base
that couldn’t be shaken, and there’s no point in fighting over second place.

So… what’s there left to do from here?

Margaret was confident that Elliott loved her more than Rachel.

If the Prince could choose who he wanted to marry, then Margaret would definitely be
his queen.

Or so Margaret thought at least.

“…If Elliott had a good reason to end the engagement with Rachel, then wouldn’t
everything be fine?”

If you can’t overtake someone, then you should trip them up.

If you can’t beat a person fairly in a competition, then you just need to take them out
of the competition entirely.

That way Rachel doesn’t even have the option of getting back up and overtaking her
again.

So, that’s why

Margaret took all of the harassment she had been subject to from all of her rivals, and
she gave a detailed report to Elliott claiming it was all Rachel’s doing.

Well, having grown up as a commoner, all the secret harassment from a bunch of noble
girls left her dripping wet, but it wasn’t anything unbearable… but Margaret was able
to effectively use these incidents by claiming they were no big deal with tears in her
eyes, and the results were outstanding.

Elliott and all his aids were enraged over the sneaky abuse being laid on Margaret, and
they felt sympathy for her.

We have the cute Margaret, and the un-cute Rachel is jealous of her.

What naturally followed was a resounding roar for how Rachel was an unsuitable
match for Elliott.

Meanwhile words of support for Elliott taking Margaret instead gradually grew.

…The natural conclusion drawn was that the next queen should be the angelic Margaret.

And those terrible that were confirmed from Elliott and George’s investigations were
to be revealed that night during the evening party… but then…

“No, what is that woman really thinking…”

Even thinking about it calmly, there’s no way that girl is like that.

Even though she should have been suddenly thrown in jail, there was already food and
other daily necessities inside, and she’s now standing her ground inside her cell,
refusing to leave, and making the Prince look like a fool…

“…In the first place Rachel, if you knew about the plot to throw you in prison in
advance, why wouldn’t you stop it?”

The very idea went against Margaret’s common sense, and her head tilted to the side
unable to understand.

“And it really seems like she can’t remember my face…”

Even though she had been sticking to the Prince’s side for over half a year now, she
hadn’t remembered Margaret’s name, and there was no sign of recognition in her eyes
when she had seen Margaret’s face…

Disinterested, no, it was like Rachel had been completely indifferent to her. Just
because Margaret had been hanging around the Prince apparently meant that Rachel
felt there was no need to remember her face.

Not knowing such a Rachel’s heart… after thinking about it for a while, Margaret was
able to see a truth when she looked at it from another angle.

“…perhaps Rachel, maybe there really is just something wrong with her head?”

There were a mound of issues besides her memory. Mainly in how she thinks.

Margaret, bit her nail while watching the cityscape sink into darkness.

“Anyways, I won’t hand my position next to Elliott over to that woman.”

That woman might actually be hiding herself away while mocking Elliott and the
others to make Elliott obsessed with her and eventually turn the tables thinking all
Margaret could do was watch. It was misdirection at its best.

“I don’t think Elliott would ever change his mind about Rachel though… hmm, well I
also don’t know about any lingering affection on Rachel’s part that might drip out…
because Elliott looks so cool!”

Margaret demonstrated her extremely poor eyesight.

“Well, the super cool Prince is crazy about me… Uoh~! I just can’t bear it~!”
The sixteen year old Margaret began acting completely Deredere, her body wriggling
around in a way that it probably shouldn’t when it’s the body of a beautiful adolescent
girl.

“Ufufu, Elliott is so handsome, so tall, and acts just slightly pompously… yet he always
acts so kind to me!

Ah~, just thinking about Elliott’s sweet smile makes my nose run.”

For Margaret, young handsome men were greater than gold.

Having accidentally entered her own world on that line of thinking, Margaret clenched
her fist and got back to what she had been thinking before.

“Well it’s fine. Rachel’s like that, and it’s too late to change how things are moving now.
Elliott and I are the best couple in the royal palace! This is the common sense of the
world! By the time the King returns, I will have made our relationship a solidified fact!”

The King may believe that Rachel would be better, but all the surroundings will believe
that Elliott and Margaret work together well, and that the previous engagement
shouldn’t be restored. That was the culmination of Margaret and Elliott’s plan.

“Rachel might try once again, but she’ll find there’s nothing she can do. That woman
is in prison. She might think she can pull some maneuvering in court, but good luck
doing that from inside a cell.”

But then, Margaret began to think.

In Rachel’s cell where she should be locked up and unable to move, why does it sound
like there is an increasing amount of furniture?

It must have all come from the mountain of supplies in the back whose contents remained
unknown, an idea with a problem that Margaret couldn’t understand.

Not noticing the hole in her theory, the twin-tailed girl only thought so far before her
face suddenly became loose.

“In addition, Elliott is only looking at me… no matter what hand Rachel has, she’s already
lost the round one.”

The belief that there was no way Elliott would go after Rachel. The strength of this
belief might be Margaret’s greatest strength… but it was also a weak-point.

“What, Elliot would never go for that woman. Because…!”

Turning her head up towards the cloudy night sky, Margaret proudly laughed,

“Because Elliott has me! Because there is the super beautiful girl Margaret by his side,
he doesn’t need to ask for anyone else! Should I admit that she does have a slightly
good face? But there is no way there will be a round two! Ahahahahahaha!”

Margaret’s laughter resounded in the night sky, overlapped by only the loud *BANG!*
of a window being wildly thrown open.

“Noisy! Is it the Poisson’s stupid daughter again!? Do you have any idea what time it is!?”

“Sorryyyy!!”

Thrust back into the ‘Human world’, Margaret began furiously apologizing to her
neighbors, and lowered voice after shutting her window… once again vowing victory.

“…fufufu, Elliott should be making me his own any time now! To ensure that, how
should I go about making Rachel say, ‘I’m beaten,’ before Elliott’s Papa returns home?”

Elliott had tried out various different harassments against Rachel until now, but it
seems like they weren’t enough.

Maybe because the Prince hasn’t been subject to this kind of abuse, he keeps choosing
methods that are ineffective against Rachel?

“Fufu, it looks like the time has come for me to make use of my technique forged from
my time growing up downtown.”

She wasn’t proud of this… she really wasn’t proud of this. In the Elliott Wars her handle
was Born in the Ghettos Margaret, but she was also able to make the most out of her
talents. She had the know-how to crush the hearts of those other ‘noble girls’, and
triumphed in winning over Elliott and all those other young masters.

“Just you wait Rachel… I’ll have you eat my attack, and you’ll never see it coming!”

Margaret began laughing once again… but suddenly threw her hands over her mouth
and started worryingly looking around her neighborhood out her window.

“Hey Mama. Last night I made just a little noise and the neighbors got angry… I didn’t
wake Mama and Papa up right?”

“Oh, is that so. Milord and I slept very well though.”

“Were you that tired? Although Papa and Mama seemed fine in the evening.”

“Let me see… I guess Papa and Mama were fine then. But afterwards the two of us
were busy trying to make Margaret a younger brother, so we went to bed quite tired.”

“Huh? What do you mean ‘make’ a younger brother?”

Margaret is actually surprisingly innocent to the world.

Seeing the countryside town outside the carriage window, the atmosphere hanging
around felt somewhat more stylish compared to its rural surroundings.

Duke Ferguson’s carriage moved slowly through the dense crowds while he looked out
at the rooftops of the buildings lined up in the Fracker hot spring town.

“Hoh… so this is why Count Nauman boasts about his territory as being the highest
earning.”

Everything looked like an ordinary countryside town at first, but there were a number
of shops lining main street which itself had a large number of people passing through.

It looked like there weren’t many people who actually lived here as many of the people
here were equipped for travelling.

Those people who were here to visit the town were most likely the ones swarming
main street, moving around the carriage while lightly dressed. It felt like a lot of them
were there to do some window shopping, sightseeing, or looking for somewhere to
have lunch. It was what you’d expect from a very popular hot spring town.

The Duke was impressed… but he also had his doubts.

“…given the economic scale here, it looks pretty obvious that Count Nauman has been
underreporting his taxes…”

“Dan, working right now…?”

As the Duke’s mind unintentionally drifted to his work, the Duchess brought her
workaholic husband back to the more pressing matter. Yes, what matters today isn’t
another person’s tax evasion, it’s the cancellation of their daughter’s engagement.

This irregular couple’s carriage continued forward, being lead by their escort, and
entered the area of town for upper class visitors where high-class baths are lined up.
 Ê

Having enjoyed the outdoor open-air bath, the King began drying his hair as a
chamberlain came to inform him of a visitor.

“Duke Ferguson and his wife have arrived from the capitol. Since they heard Your
Majesty had come to enjoy the hot springs, they wanted to meet with you.”

“I see. Since I am just about to get out, guide them to the living room.”

“Yes sir.”

The King finished changing his clothes and entered the parlor of his suite, where his
old friends the Duke and Duchess were waiting for him after their long trip. The King
coolly responded to the two quickly rising and giving him a bow, taking a seat on the
sofa and motioning for the husband and wife to take a seat.

“You don’t visit that often Duke. Now now, this is just a temporary lodging away from
the Royal Palace. I haven’t seen many people since coming here, so feel free to relax a
little.”

“Hahah, excuse me.”

“Hmm. I’m still enjoying the hot springs, so I’m hesitant… argh, you. The Duke will be
telling me the situation in the capitol now, and since this’ll probably get complicated,
don’t let anyone else interfere until we’re finished.”

“Understood!”

The King told his chamberlain to bring in some tea and drank up the well-refined iced
tea that was the specialty of these hot springs. The Duke and his wife finally took a
seat sitting across from him, and enjoyed some of the iced tea before their discussion.

Giving them a single bow, the chamberlain then left the room, closing the door behind
him.

“Hey Robert, WHAT ARE YOU LETTING THAT STUPID BRAT DO!?”
The Duke began throttling the neck of the highest power in the country.

“Wait wait, calm down a little Dan!”

“That’s right Dan! Whatever the circumstances might be, strangling His Majesty when
someone might walk by is no good!”

The Duchess Iseria, is it fine to not reliably step forward?

The words of his old friend’s wife made the King feel all the more anxious although
that was slightly besides the point from what was currently happening.

Heeding the words of his King and wife, the Duke begrudgingly released his grip off
his boss’s neck.

“Sorry, thanks to someone’s stupid son I’ve had a lot of anxiety pile up lately. I slightly
apologize.”¹

“You, you strangle a King, yet are only slightly…”

The King retook his spot on the couch while fixing his collar.

“Tell me the situation… I mean, I already read the quick report you sent me. No, that
stupid son is… I’m truly sorry about all of this.”

“Really… the type of incompetence where you don’t know your right from your left yet
still do something this absolutely ridiculous could only have come from the type of
idiot son who appears once in a lifetime!”

“Oi you… I probably shouldn’t point this out myself, but you’re saying all that in front
of your King and the father of that stupid Prince…”

“It can’t be helped since it’s the truth after all!”

After irritatedly making a rough breath from his nose at the constant abuse being flung
his way from his childhood friend, the King finally made a wry smile and brought his
cup to his lips.
Indeed, the King and Duke of now had the same relationship that Elliott and George
have. Well, they weren’t (supposedly) a couple of stupid lords.

They played together from time to time before they had even reached the age of ten,
and they took classes together. After all this time their relationship as best friends
continued even to now.

There is such a relationship between the parents… the engagement between Elliott
and Rachel should have been ideal as there would also have been no dynamic change
in political standing… unless the other party awoke to ‘true love’ and selfishly broke
off the engagement.

“However, about that matter…”

“First you’ll get on your hands and knees to properly apologize to the two of us and
our daughter, and then we’ll think of something.”

“I don’t care about your annoying grudges. I’m more worried about how public Elliott
is making this whole affair. The societal world is probably trembling.”

Turning her gaze on the King, Iseria’s brow creased slightly as she made a bitter smile.

“Among the girls who have reached a marriageable age ∼ the lower class nobles are
all seeing this as their one chance, and their excitement is boiling over. Not only has
the engagement been destroyed, but apparently the replacement is the adopted
daughter of a baron who was born from a previous marriage.”

Rachel and Elliott were definitely the top of the top of their generation amongst the
noble families. Meanwhile Elliott was lavishly spending money on Margaret Poisson,
the daughter of a Baron who was the lowest both socially and financially. And when
the lowest are able to successfully push aside those on the top… there’s a card game
called ‘Revolution’ that has a similar ending.²

The other nobles not involved with this will look on and think about possibly performing
their own giant killings… it’s natural for them to dream so. This Margaret is capable of
doing it. So why wouldn’t they be able to do it themselves?

The standard ways mean that it isn’t unusual for a person’s child or grandchild to not
move up in the ranks, so they would be very excited to learn about a one-shot reversal
to elevate their own daughters up. Right about now both parents and children should
be making their paltry efforts to enter into Elliott’s view.

“I suppose so. And then the tendency for other high-grade people would be…”

The husband and wife duo took over for what the King wanted to say.

“It’s just as you think. The Prince’s stupidity goes far beyond what we were expecting
leading to the complete destruction of the next-generation’s order, and people who
were already upset are now on the verge of panicking.”

Iseria’s words were quite hard.

Elliott
“Your Highness doesn’t seem to be fully aware of how much this overflowing trash heap
is stinking up the place… Robert, you must live a long time and skip the next generation
of inheritance because as soon as that idiot comes into power, we’ll have a huge
population outflow while some of the higher lords will inevitably revolt.”

And in the end, Dan had no intention of restraining his abuse.

The real problem, the Duke’s words were certainly exaggerated, but they were true
enough that it was impossible to laugh at.

The higher noble houses would obviously have some desire to replace Rachel with
their own daughter instead. If the realization of this possibility were originally there
for medium-class and smaller nobles as well, then they may act without thinking
instead of taking realistic, carefully planned calculations.

And the results.

The lords would inevitably conclude that the merits of having their daughter be wed
to the future King would heavily outweigh the demerits of society being thrown into
chaos. Elliott had made his plans in secret, so the background situation is still
muddled… but he enacted his plan in front of a large group of people without any
explanation, and the societal world has already become quite messy. If he had
controlled the mouth of the Royal Palace, then the airheaded Prince could have had an
official already working on restructuring order from the very beginning… instead
because Elliott showed his greed this early in the game while his predecessor is still
active, he’s more likely to just be crushed before even having a chance to take the
throne. If you’re a nobleman with a basic ability to weigh gains and losses, then they’ll
know there’s no reason to start a war.

But since this is a matter of houses, there will be many including the lower houses
who will try to curry Elliott’s favor with just the sex appeal of their daughters… well,
that’s the moral of the Duke’s story.

It all seemed plausible when his friend laid it out there like that, but the King ended
up making a cynical smile.

“Dan, there is a hole in your theory.”

“What’s that?”

The King pointed at his childhood friend’s face.

“You’re saying to bet on the next generation… but there’s no guarantee that Elliott’s
children will be decent either.”

“Ah, you’re right. They would be Your Majesty’s grandchildren after all.”

Towards the King’s own self-inflicting damage, the Duke plainly nodded.

“By the way. How is Rachel doing really? It sounds like she was rather happy in the
secret letter I received.”

The King asked while pulling out an envelope from a mailbox sitting on a nearby
nightstand, and the Duke had a sour look on his face.

“Yes, it’s a parent’s selfishness to pull her out of a jail cell even if she is enjoying herself.
That’s what I was expecting… but she’s done so much in her preparations that it scares
me.”
“Really? Like what?”

The Duke pointed at the envelope in the King’s hand.

“That letter, I didn’t send it.”

“…you didn’t?”

“That’s right.”

The Duke slowly nodded his head when the King checked to make sure he didn’t
mishear. And so the Duke began to slowly spin a tale in an easy-to-understand way.

“A dark organization under Rachel’s rule had already investigated the overflowing trash
heap’s conspiracy without my knowledge,

When the problem became clear, she had a large amount of supplies brought down to
the royal palace’s dungeon in advance,

After her imprisonment she managed to maintain contact with her agents and have
them carry out any future policies,

I also have no idea how she was able to get ahold of Your Majesty’s schedule and nail
down exactly where you’d be and when,

Secretly sent instructions to a locally acquired agent to deliver the letter,

Figured out you’d move yourself here when you found out you couldn’t yet return to
the city,

and also already arranged to have me sent here to clarify the situation.”

The King silently listened until here, but the Duke quickly added something on as if it
had slipped his mind until now.

“By the way, I learned that this dark organization existed the night Rachel was thrown
in prison, after they revealed themselves to me.”

Saying that much, the Duke took a sip of tea to moisten his dried out throat.

“I also don’t know how many members there are in her organization. With Rachel’s
attendant and her maids I have a count of at least three, but let alone the people inside
my own house, it’s impossible for me to even imagine the ones living in the city.
Honestly, I think Rachel has more subordinates than our Ducal house has vassals.”

The Duke finished talking, and the King pressed his hand to his head.

“Hey… if it’s like this, wouldn’t it be better to have Rachel executed?”

“As a public official I want to agree, but as a parent I’m absolutely against it. As a person
involved in this administration however, I cannot accept putting national security in
danger like that.”

“National security?”

The Duke noticed the disrespect in the King’s tone and stared directly back into his eyes.

“…Robert, think carefully. If you do it, what about the organization whose presence we
cannot confirm and whose ability is completely up in the air? After Rachel is gone,
what will happen if those guys go underground and plan their retaliation?”

“…the royal palace is known to bring in quite the large amount of supplies.”

The King turned his mailbox upside down and dumped out all the remaining letters
onto the table. Most of them seemed to be urgent reports from courts or other
government officials.

“That excellence is quite enviable. Compared to Rachel’s subordinates, the ones inside
the royal palace are no longer… reporting on Elliott’s reckless action and asking what
they should do. That’s all they write about.”

“Rather than calling Rachel’s subordinates excellent, wouldn’t you say this is just too
much for a simple courtier to handle?”

“Maybe so… but along with that each of my departments are falling apart and sending
me the same stuff… I’m going to have to perform an administrative reform when I get
home.”

“Something like that should be done in advance, then this matter’d already be finished.
We have to quickly put a stop to that stupid Prince… of course, I’m not saying we
should hang him. I’m just saying that would probably be for the best!”

While the Duke’s voice was rising up, the King was conversely silent while staring out
the window.

“…Well, whatever. We can slowly discuss that… Dan, for now unpack your luggage and
stretch your wings in the inn. The private open-air baths here are spacious and
comfortable.”

As his old friend tried to suddenly brush off the discussion, the Duke gave him a
reproachful look in lieu of a witty rebuttal.

“You should go for a swim.”

“You don’t swim in a hot spring, I’m not like a certain uncouth fellow.”

“Disagreements aside, think about the weight of my position, His Highness.”

The King suddenly started to look very tired sinking down into the seat of the couch.

“That idiot Elliott’s made a complicated problem… Dan, isn’t this a situation without a
clear answer? While I think, the situation continues to change.”

“…and if Rachel were to become determined?”

“I don’t think it’ll come to that.”

The King started laughing at the speechless Duke.

“How to say it… Rachel’s preparations will be fine. She’s probably already considered
me not helping.”

As he expected, Rachel intended to barricade herself in for as long as possible with

little thought about the His Majesty.
“So if we just stay here and think carefully enough, we’ll figure out what type of ending
she wants.”

The King seemed to be acting fainthearted… but he was quite casual listening to the
Duke’s cynical response.

“Incidentally Dan, it’s a good thing that your daughter’s subordinates shipped you off
to these hot springs… have you already made reservations at this inn?”

“Huh?… No, I don’t know what place is best since I’ve never been here before, so I
figured I’d look for a room after our meeting.”

“I see.”

The King slowly put his cup back down on the table.

“When we first arrived at this hot spring town, the chamberlain spoke with the lord
for lodgings… a reservation was made at a, ‘high class inn for those with the highest
status,’ and when we got here, the place was almost empty. As a precaution we did
make a reservation for another room though, it’s yours.”

The three of them all fell silent.

After a little while, the Duke began to grumble.

“So then, Rachel hated the idea of being married to the idiot Prince.”

“Isn’t that because of how she grew up so twisted?”

“No…”

The Duke picked up one of the King’s reports off the table.

“If you listen to what those guys said… it seems that her activities didn’t begin in
earnest until her engagement to that fool became certain…”

“…Maybe if married life didn’t work out, she decided she’d take the throne herself.”
“Perhaps… ugh, she should have just refused instead of being forced to become queen…
if so then Rachel’s insanity would have been contained to just a noble house.”

“I think that’s bad enough. By the way, are you implying I forced her?”

“It was your worthless idea, and as it is you’re forgetting who drove us into this trash
can.”

“That, you really are a number one bastard.”

The Duke then threw the report he was holding onto the table and looked up at the
ceiling.

“…Or, if only Rachel had sunk that Idiot Prince’s plans instead of just watching on.”

“You, if you had called Father a number one bastard… usually, even a toddler would be
finished at this point and be facing the death penalty.”

The Duke listlessly waved his hand.

“I know, it was just a joke… around twenty percent of it.”

“If it’s eighty percent then I’d say you were being pretty serious.”

Inbetween the silence that had finally fallen between the Duke and the King, a cheerful
voice rose.

“Sorry I’m late… oh Iseria, long time no see!”

The Queen, who wore a matching bathrobe to her husband, came into the parlor late.
She exchanged greetings with the Duke and his wife who rose to greet her before
sitting down on the couch next to the King.

“No, I’m really sorry.”

“You’re late, what happened?”

The Queen answered her husband’s question rather indifferently.

“Wouldn’t it be rude to not swim in such a large bath? I set a goal of twenty laps, but
by the time I was finished, it was already late.”

A couple too similar to each other, the Duke and Duchess thought to themselves.

After the Queen had been filled in to the story up until now, she gave an immediate
response before the Duke could even close his mouth.

“Rachel will be the next queen. This will not change!”

“However, this just isn’t possible anymore. Rachel’s against it herself…”

“Then Duke, let me switch the question.”

The Queen sat up.

“Without Rachel, do you think the country can run with that as King?”

A simple question that makes a sound argument, the Duke and King completely shut
up. The Duchess meanwhile was politely staring off towards the day after tomorrow.

“…It seems that there are no objections then. With that being the case, we’ll have to
surmise Rachel’s demands even at the risk of pissing her off… at the very least we must
find a way to keep Rachel’s trust in the royal family as we try to convince her.”

“You’re, that’s unreasonable…”

The King tried to argue with her, but the Queen cut him off.

“It’s unreasonable, but we have to do it. ‘You pass away in five years, and destruction
will come to the kingdom,’ can you honestly laugh at this hypothetical?”

Hearing the Queen’s words, the King and Duke’s thought-process left them holding their
heads…

“…Hey, isn’t our goal far off? How about we go take a bath?”

“It’s not easy to think about… for now I should probably go check in.”
“Iseria, this inn has a weight loss beauty spa you simply must try!”

“My how nice!”

In the name of hot springs, the four raised their hips and escaped reality.

1. The italics are just here to show that he’s putting a lot of emphasis on these words.

2. Another name for this card game could be Millionaire, President, or Capitalism. It
has a bunch of different names, and quite a few variations to its rules.
When Margaret arrived at the entrance to the dungeon, the Prison Guard was not at
his lookout point.

“Mr. Prison Guard? Mr. Prison Guard!”

No one called back.

“…Huh?”

She confirmed there were no other guards in the passageway leading to and from, and
since Rachel was the only prisoner in the royal palace’s dungeon, Prison Guard only
worked here part time. It seems that he only comes down here on the occasional
patrol.

“Is that so~?”

Giving the guard a polite thank you, Margaret headed into the prison.

“Hmm, there’s no key~.”

Even without the key Margaret was able to laugh about the good fortune of her success
when the iron door still swung open after being pushed on.

“That blockhead Prison Guard is pretty clever! Letting the damn woman go unchecked
means she doesn’t get to harass him as much as she wants.”

During that first visit the other day when she had eaten a swift beating, the Prison Guard
had become upset and inadvertently turned his eyes away towards the ground… it
meant he was unable to spread any rumors since he ended up not seeing anything.

“But well, I wonder how frequently Elliot or Sykes come by the prison. I’d hate for
them to show up.”

The young lady then cheerfully descended down into the dungeon.

Margaret was a woman with guts, and she would send back an appropriate response
without fail.

Having stayed up late writing the night before resulting in her oversleeping once
again, Rachel had herself a brunch of potato pottage with biscuits and had just finished
her fruit cocktail.

way to kill time

At first she thought her visitor coming down the steps was the Prison Guard,
but it turned out to be Sand Bag who had visited just the other day. Having always
wanted to see her again, Rachel was very happy about the visit.

“Well, welcome Miss Bag. I’ve been waiting for you to come see me!”

“Hah!? It’s good to be welcomed… but who’s Bag?”

The red-headed young lady frowned, and suspicious, she checked behind her to see if
there was anyone else there.

Seeing this person act and talk as if she were being mistaken for somebody else, Rachel
funnily tilted her head to the side.

“Eh? You’re Sand Bag.”

“Haaah!? I am!? What kind of name is that!?”

“Eh? It’s yours. When you’re the owner of the number one punchable body in the
world, when you are being widely talked about as, ‘the most beautiful sandbag’, then
it fits that your name be Sand Bag right?”

“What is going on in that head of yours!? Have you been locked in a prison for so long
that you can no longer see the line between reality and fantasy!? What the hell is ‘the
most beautiful sandbag’ supposed to be!?”
The cute twintail young lady vehemently yelled, looking furious as she violently stuck
her finger out at Rachel.

“Remember me properly! I am Margaret Poisson, the eldest daughter of the Poisson

Barony! I am the one you continued to harass and who stole Elliott’s love from you,
the woman who shall be the next queen! How about it? All right? Do you understand
your position? Do you regret how you addressed me? Then show me your tear-stained
face as you whimper like a dog!”

So far at this point, if Margaret were to look at herself she’d see the tear-stained face
that she wanted.

Rachel closed her eyes, and she began to think.

After a little thought she opened her eyes back up, and she laughed at the irritated
red-haired young lady.

“Well, leaving all those good things aside, how about for now you let me have just one
shot?”

“Is it no good!? My name!? My engagement to the Prince!?”

As the girl began stamping her feet in frustration, Rachel hesitated on how best to
explain… and then decided to just tell it to her straight.

“I’m not particularly interested.”

“Interested, what’s with this damn noble!? That’s why I hate people who grew up
wealthy!”

“More importantly, I’m more curious about how an open palm would feel against your
soft skin. One good hit on your jaw, and your neck’ll probably turn with an outstanding
amount of momentum, or there’s also the sounds you’d make if you’d eat a hit to your
stomach, I’ve already grown a tremendous amount of interest in you!”

“It that’s the case then why can’t you remember my name!?”

Blood rushing to her head, Margaret took a step forward towards Rachel… but jumped
to the side in the next moment. Escaping by the skin of her teeth, where Margaret’s
foot had been just a second before, a lasso that had been set on the ground was reeled
back into the prison cell.

“Tch!”

“Close!? This bastard, you set traps to sweep me up!”

“Just a little more and you would’ve been caught… your intuition is surprisingly good.”

It was a contradiction of a prisoner trying to catch an outsider.

Having bounced off the floor from the momentum of her fall, Margaret slowly picked
herself back up, brushing the dust off her knees.

“Heh, heheheheheheheheh… that’s right. I looked easy to you… Pretending to be an

idiotic, sadistic woman, you were trying to capture me and hold me hostage right?”

“No? More than beating you, I wanted to capture you and have you make a good sound.”

A gust of wind blown through the ventilation window passed between the two silent
people.

Remaining silent, Margaret tried shrugging her shoulders in a futile effort to laugh.

“…As I said you were trying to take me hostage, and then in the exchange terms, you
were trying to get Elliott to release you or maybe even reinstate the engagement right?
I know it to be true.”

“No, I like living in the prison, and becoming engaged to His Highness again would be
a nightmare, so I’d like to avoid that. But… you’re right, the exchange terms for releasing
you would have to be you yourself.”

“Huh? Eh?”

A large question mark floated over top Margaret’s head as Rachel moved her hands to
her cheeks making a flirtatious expression.

“Because. If I manage to get you into this cell and it’s alright for me to do what I want,
I’m saying I’d let you go right after.”

“…Wait a moment. I don’t understand your reasoning.”

As what was said was troubling Margaret’s head, Rachel sighed from behind the iron
bars.

“Well, I can’t negotiate with you since I failed at capturing you in the first place.”

“…yeah! That’s right, I wasn’t caught to begin with! Aaaaaaaaaah, impatient!”

Margaret was just starting to feel relieved one moment when in the next she was flying
through the air, rolling against the cobblestone floor. A lasso meanwhile grabbed the
air where Margaret had once been in vain.

“Tch!”

“YOOOOOOOOOOU! ACT PROPERLY!?

Rachel began to mutter.

“Does Sand Bag have something to do? I’m pretty busy myself, but not so much that I
can’t keep her company.”

“I flew away because of you! I didn’t have the spare time to say anything!… and how
exactly, are you busy when your in jail!? Crushing lice?¹ Trapping mice? Shouldn’t a
daughter of a Duke House be annoyed by insects and rodents… Hahaha, I’m laughing!
I’ve suffered horribly as well, but it happening to a well-off noble girl is too good!”

A former commoner, rather as a person originally destitute until she was adopted by
a Baron, the thought of someone as high up as the daughter of a duke falling to ruin
was something Margaret found hilarious. She had to clutch her stomach she was
laughing so hard while Rachel made a blank expression.

“Eh? But no bugs or mice come out here?

“…Hah?”

“Or should I say, it might be because in the luggage I brought with me I have some insect
repellent.”

“…they don’t come out? In this type of place?”

Rachel looked at Margaret as if she were looking at a pitiful little thing.

“In the Baron Poisson home… do they come out?”

“Don’t look at me with such eyeeeeeeeeeees! That’s a story from a long time ago!
That’s not my home now! Now I only see them every once in a while!”

Margaret’s confused yelling continued on until after a short gasp, she noticed something
important.

“…You! Didn’t you remember my name just then!? You’re making fun of me!”

“Well of course I remembered since I just heard it.”

Rachel was acting timidly, giving an honest smile.

“But you know, I don’t mean any ill will. Look, wouldn’t you want to call a close friend
by a nickname…?”

“…you”

Margaret bent down and picked up the chair the Prison Guard usually sits on… and
threw it at Rachel with all her might. Naturally it was stopped by the iron bars and fell
pointlessly to the ground.

The daughter of the Poisson Barony cried out to the heavens.

“How is there no ill will in a nickname like Sand Baaaaaaaaaaag!!!?”

“Well! It’s a pity that my sincerity just can’t seem to get through…”

“Try having your brain washed once, then have a doctor fix the parts that are broken!”
“Different idea, take in a little pain. After a careful examination, I promise to take good
care of you.”

“You’re not thinking about curing your head at all!?”

 Ê

Just as she was on the verge of shaking off her reason, Margaret remembered her
purpose for being here from the weight of the bag she was carrying.

“That’s right! Because of you, I almost forgot the reason why I bothered coming to a
place like this.”

Her cute face smugly distorted as she set down the bag she was carrying.

“Ufufufufu, today… because of the poor, pathetic eating habits of Rachel who has been
locked away in a dungeon, I came by to give her something ni~ce.”

Margaret took out a towel and a mint scent bag from the bag on the ground, putting them
both over the lower part of her face. In a muffled voice she began laughing at Rachel.

“I got some money from Elliott, so I bought some fresh fruits from the market. They’re
very nutritious and good for your health.”

Wearing some thick gloves along with her makeshift mask, she now took out a tightly
sealed, irregular shaped object from her bag.

“I chose one that was particularly ripe. It will certainly work wonders for your body
that only eats preserved food in a dungeon where no sun shines~.”

Margaret took a knife and cut open the packaging, pulling out its contents. The intense
odor of rot quickly spread in the room. Along with the odor, a thorny, yellowish gray
object appeared.

“It’s a fruit from a southern country called a durian. The smell is a li~ttle bit strong,
but a strong smell is just proof of its ripeness. Ufufu, fresh fruits have such a fu~ll
flavor don’t they?”

Margaret carried over the durian², placing it near the cell just outside of Rachel’s reach.

“Since it’s wrapped in such a hard shell, do you think Mr. Prison Guard could open it?
I don’t know where he’s gone, so I’ll just leave it here until he’s back.”

As Margaret spoke, she looked down on Rachel and let out a nasty laugh.
Elliott tried to make her yield, but he lacked a level of severity.

He was awful at harassment. It doesn’t matter if Rachel apologizes.

Everything’s fine so long as this woman suffers. If you strike without thinking, she
might not actually give up.

Meanwhile the Duke’s daughter looked down at the durian calmly, but there was
excitement in her eyes.

“Uwaa, how nostalgic. A long time ago, I saw one of those when I went on an inspection
overseas.”

She was looking at the fruit that reeked of death as if it was something truly interesting
having not recoiled from it at all.

“…you, are you fine with the smell?”

“It’s a smell similar to an onion that has gone rotten. Well, this is actually quite pleasant
to the locals apparently.”

“……”

Rachel, in her time of need has already built up a resistance.

As Margaret was angrily grinding her teeth underneath her mask, Rachel opened a
wooden box at the back of her cell and began digging through its contents.

“Hmmmmmm, it’s around here somewhere… here it is.”

Rachel soon came back with a large can.

“Ms. Poisson, I’ll give you this as thanks.”

“Hm? What’s this?”

The can Rachel was offering looked foreign-made.

“Before, when His Highness Elliott and I went overseas together, His Highness was
very pleased with this. Well, you can’t see it since it’s in a can. But since I have a little,
I’ll give it to you.”

“Is it something unusual?”

“It’s something rarely seen in this country.”

“Huh…”

It sounded like something awesome and valuable. Moreover, it was one of Elliott’s
favorite foods that couldn’t be gotten domestically.

There was a sense of weight to it when Margaret took it.

“I’ll have him open it right away!”

“I’m happy that you’re pleased.”

Margaret left like the wind, and Rachel was left alone.

“I thought I had seen her somewhere before, so she was that sucker fish who was stuck
to His Highness during the party?”

Because Rachel had only cared about the transition after the disengagement and held
no interest in Elliott himself, she hadn’t confirmed who was going to be his new
partner. Thinking about it now, it was an unexpectedly basic mistake.

Frankly, with the story being that Rachel was imprisoned after Elliott declared the
cancellation of the engagement… everyone else was just a mob character.

“Ms. Margaret of the Poisson Baron House… we’ve only talked twice, but she seems
like a carnivorous girl who changes her attitude whether she’s dealing with a man or
woman. The type who thinks on simple terms whenever she gets excited. She’ll receive
gifts even from her target and take them back with her thinking nothing of it.”

Rachel put her hand to her chin and nodded her head while whispering… ,

“In summary, she’s a child who can only think on the level of a shallow fool.”

Rachel was alone thinking in a prison that had just begun to darken when a trembling
light emerged and the Prison Guard showed himself.

“What!? Oi Miss, are you awake? What is that awful smell!?”

At the Prison Guard’s friendly tone, Rachel laughed a little and looked relieved.

“A young lady came to visit me and brought a souvenir, but it looks like it’s already
rotten…”

The Prison Guard came close, and seeing the cause of the problem, made a disgusted
face.

“That girl is really hopeless… wouldn’t you notice something like this before you brought
it!? Who, such a stupid bastard is”

“It was Sand Bag, the visitor from the other day.”

“Ah, her…”

The Prison Guard made a face like he was strangely convinced of something, and left
with the rotten (probably) durian wrapped in some rags.

Seeing him off, Rachel looked around for the largest plank she could find and dug around
for the mask she used when she was painting. She then got to work doing what she
could to ventilate the room.

Rachel had received some vigorous education when she was to be the next queen. The
results of that education was a first-class poker face.

While carrying a large can, Margaret came running into Prince Elliott’s office while he
and his entourage were having tea.

“Elliott, I got you this. Would you like to open it!?”

“Margaret! Eh? What is it?”

Elliott rose up with a smile plastered on his face at the visit of the beloved girl until
the rare object in her hands caught his eye.

“I was told that when Elliott went abroad, this was one of your favorite foods!”

“Something I ate abroad? Hmm, what…”

He had been abroad many times, but was there such a food that had left such a lasting
impression on him?

George took the can and read the label.

“Let’s see… Sir Straming? Streaming? It looks like a fish dish as far as I can tell from
the picture…”³

It was impossible to understand from just the description. Sykes took the can over
from George and gently patted the slightly bulging surface.

“I’ve seen canned food before, but never something that causes the can to swell so much.”

None of them had any knowledge about fermentation.

“Your Highness, what kind of food is it?”

“That is, I don’t remember at all… To begin with, this is my first time seeing canned
food before. What is it?””

Elliott and George tilted their heads curious as Sykes began to laugh.
“Won’t we understand what it is as soon as we’ve opened it? If it’s like this I’ll just pop
open the lid with my knife.”

“I see. Yosh, let’s open it up.”

Elliott, Margaret, and George all watched as Sykes held the can down with his left hand
and drew his knife with his right.

But when something suddenly started to bother Elliott, he peered over towards
Margaret and asked her something while keeping the can in the corner of his eye.

“Who did you get this from?”

“From Rachel.”

“Sykes! Hold…”

Just as Elliott began to scream, Syke’s knife became deeply embedded inside the can.

1. So this is some word play here. In Japanese they say shiramitsubushi which means
crushing lice in katakana, but it means ‘to search for contraband’ in hiragana. Both
phrases are equally apt here.

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian For anyone thinking this might not be that

bad, it’s apparently illegal in some places to ship this in public, and the smell can linger
for days. As far as pranks go, I’m putting this up there with putting a bee’s nest in
someone’s car.
“Okay, don’t let even a single mouse pass through! Tighten security and make a proper
blockade around Rachel!”

At Prince Elliott’s direction, a number of knights were placed around a certain dungeon.
Several knights from the Knight’s Order took alternating shifts, concealing themselves,
and waiting to seize Rachel’s contact with the outside world.

“No matter how you think about it, Rachel must’ve opened her cell in order to receive
new supplies. If not, then there is no way to explain all that new furniture she has.
We’ll seize the guy bringing things in from the outside, and in front of her eyes we’ll
make her feel our starvation tactics.”

Sykes was explaining the strategy to his fellow knights. He dared Rachel to listen from
inside her cell.

Each knight would hide in the shadows of some nearby plants or trees, keeping an eye
on the ventilation window in a plan to capture any of her essential agents who
carelessly approached. If her last ray of hope were to be captured before her eyes, then
Rachel would assuredly give in.

“Absolutely… it sounds like there is still no movement from the Duke’s house, just what
is going on?”

Elliott was muttering to himself feeling irritated. Not only was the Duke’s house not
making any moves to rescue her, but the Duke and his wife have gone in the exact
opposite direction and gone on a trip.

“Are they unable to grasp the current situation!? Don’t they realize their daughter has
been accused of a crime and arrested!? Normally you’d send in at least one care
package!”
“Your Highness, do you want them to send supplies to Sis? Do you not want……?”

Elliott was stunned for a bit at George’s point, but he eventually managed to work up
a reply.

“Of course it is out of the question for that care package to reach Rachel. However I
would like those parents to try and show their feelings by having some sweets
delivered. Seriously, what is the Duke doing!?”

“…Should I have something delivered from the nearby store under Father’s name?”

“Hmm, I’ll eat them right in front of her eyes.”

“Ah, you were thinking of some proper harassment……”

In the meantime there was someone who wasn’t paying much mind to the fuss being
made outside. Today as well Rachel had put on her eye mask, diving into her bed and
making a pleasant sigh as she drifted off to sleep.

Being busy today just like every other day with his own work plus the work of his
Lord, the butler was just finishing up when Sophia appeared before him.

Their Lady’s attendant looked ready to go out wearing a nice mantle with a hood
pulled over her head.

“Jonathan, I’m going to meet with My Lady.”

“Ah, is that so. Please be sure to tell all the other servants.”

The butler’s hand quit writing as he raised up his face. And then hardened at what was
said next.

“Meia and I will be going on a business trip together for two or three days, so don’t
expect us back until then.”

Even though there’s no Lord present, why would a couple of maids have to go on a
business trip?

Thinking about it for a little bit, Jonathan once again began signing documents without
saying anything.

“Alright. Take care.”

It’s pointless to worry about details when it comes to the Lady.

Sofia headed towards the royal palace, walking into the side entrance of a store at a
nearby city block.

Showing her face in the office, she received a report from the representative of the
company.

It was a front masquerading as a legitimate business. This was where they covertly
made contact with remote areas. Where they prepare supplies for their Lady. Where
they work to fulfill the requests their Lady has specifically asked of them…… so, this
shop close to the Duke’s home was the Black Cat Firm, base for Sofia and the other
members of the Dark Night Black Cats.

After confirming there were no problems at all, see immediately took out the wagon.
It had already been prepared for departure upon Sofia’s arrival, so with an escort
accompanying her, she could load herself into the back of the wagon. With the carriage
making its way through the backyard’s wicket gate, the store didn’t look any different
from the usual.

Although you’d think that being the gatekeeper for the royal palace would be a busy
job, this was only true until around midday. Everybody there to do business would
already be inside, and any visitors wouldn’t come by this late. That’s why when it is
late in the afternoon, you will see almost no visitors to the castle or wagons delivering
goods.
At such a place, a small wagon with no notable characteristics appeared.

“Halt!… um, to which station are you delivering to?”

An elderly gatekeeper met it. As that elderly gatekeeper tried to find out where this
wagon was going, the elderly coachman smiled from his seat and tipped his hat to say
hello.

“Yes, I’ve got a delivery of cat food here.”

“Understood, proceed!”

The gatekeeper made a signal while handing the driver a pass permit, and another
gatekeeper removed the barricade that blocked the way. The coachman offered a nod
to him as well before the wagon continued on its way into the royal palace.

It seems that a notification had been sent ahead from the first gate as when the wagon
reached the second gate, it was allowed a free pass through.

The vehicle eventually passed by the front of the dungeon, and stopped at the back-
facing door.

Sofia jumped out from the luggage carrier of the carriage. The coachman and escort
meanwhile pulled back the canopy and began unloading the luggage.

A knight then suddenly ran towards them from out behind some nearby foliage.

The knight came right up in front of Sofia and gave a standing bow.

Sofia kept calm and asked,

“Are you a dog?”

“Right now everyone on duty is a cat. The others are keeping watch nearby. Today’s
patrol won’t make it’s way to the prison cell for another three hours.”

If you look around, you’ll see that several of the Royal Palace’s lower clerks had
gathered to help unload the goods. Sofia left the delivery to them and made her way
down into the dungeon.
 Ê

Having already become aware of the situation up top, Rachel removed her cell’s
padlock and unwrapped the chain from the bars. As for the lock to the jail cell itself,
she was currently in the process of trying to dexterously pick the lock with her hand
poking out from between the bars.

“My Lady… please use the key to open the door.”

Sofia voiced her complaints, but Rachel responded showing little care for her servant’s
words.

“If you don’t use your skills occasionally, then they’ll surely rust over time.”

“They’ll realize the trick when they notice the strange scratches around though. And
what will you do if you accidentally crush the keyhole?”

“Don’t you think it’d be interesting if you could just slide these bars off and set them
against the wall?”

“Please save it for next time.”

“I, you’ll be coming in again……?”

Sofia pushed her Lady aside as she opened the cell door with a key that only the Prison
Guard should have. By the way, Rachel also has a copy of this key. She just doesn’t use
it. It was a lockpicker’s pride (Lie).

“Madame’s life, are their any inconveniences?”

“Nothing in particular. I’ve been able to sleep well ever since we switched out my
cushion for a bed…… and my writing is going well also.”

“We’ve loaded the sample from the Mouse & Rat Company on the carriage. Please take
a look later…… It hasn’t been a month yet, so why have you already written ten
volumes?”

“Fufu, the story moves on its own when the characters are alive.”

Rachel walked through the doorway, leaving her cell for the first time in almost a
month.

“Nnmmm! It’s been too long since I’ve tasted the air of the outside world!”

“You’ve just stepped outside the bars; the air here isn’t any different from what you
were breathing before. We don’t have a lot of time, so please quickly come and sit
here.”

Sofia sat Rachel down in the Prison Guard’s chair, placing a prepared brunette wig on
her head and passing a comb through it. Rachel originally has long hair, so it has to be
blent in with a darker wig to be hidden well. It’s also necessary for her hair to be done
up for her to meet with people.

“Here, tickets for a box seat at the Royal Theater. The program is, The Prince and the
Homeless Boy. Since the Young Master will be home today and tomorrow, we’ve
reserved you a twin bed suite with a living room at the Green New Leaves. We’ll have
Meia wait for you in the hotel for when you’re ready to return to the dungeon. Please
inform Lisa through Meia should you have any business inside the mansion.”

Rachel smiled satisfied checking her hair in a mirror after changing into a new outfit
as well.

“It’s been a long time since I met with Alexandra! It’s already been over a year since
she followed her father when he moved for a new job……”

“We’ve already received a message from the other party that they really wanted to see
you and hear about everything that’s going on. We’ve also received a letter from
Martina apologizing for not being able to come in time”

Sofia took off her mantle and hood as she spoke.

Her gray-white hair had been dyed a chocolate brown, and had also been done up to
match her Lord’s. The clothes she was wearing were also the same as Rachel’s. Along
with the deception that came from them wearing the same clothes and giving off a
similar atmosphere, these two actually had similar heights and figures as well.

“I wish you would have changed your clothes here. Is the size okay?”

“But then there wouldn’t have been enough time to set up the right atmosphere inside
the prison. The little extra space in the chest is leaving me irritated.”
“Wouldn’t it be fine to say you’re reasonable? You have a better shape than Sand Bag.”

“That usually peppy young woman huh”

The coachman came down and informed them the loading and unloading had been
finished.

Rachel put on Sofia’s mantle and hood. Sofia meanwhile walked into the cell, making
sure that nothing was being overlooked.

“……By the way My Lady, there wasn’t any trash-like garbage around here last time
either. What do you do after you finish eating?”

“Hm? Isn’t it good hygiene to do away with it? If you throw it out the window into the
backyard you’ll hear someone complain…… but if you throw it into the front room
outside of the cell, Mr. Prison Guard will come by to collect it.”

The person who said something was probably somebody who loved the backyard very
much.

“Is that so? That’s fine then.”

Sofia ended the topic without prying into it too deeply. So long as the problem is
solved, a trivial detail wouldn’t bother Rachel at all. The two of them are basic; a
master and servant who are very similar to each other.

Rachel locked the cell from the outside, and Sofia wrapped the chain around the bars
and replaced the padlock. Only at this time did Sofia, who had been the epitome of
composure until now, almost drop it before quickly recovering.

“My Lady, lifting this lock up……

“If you can’t lift that up, then you won’t be able to ready the crossbow and won’t be
able to live up to the gossip.”

There is probably only one noblewoman in the world who would threaten a prince
and then spread the gossip.
Rachel also checked to see if there was anything left behind.

“Recently I’ve changed my lifestyle and been staying up late into the night, so long as
you have the futon pulled over you the Prison Guard won’t call out to you. You might
have to respond if His Highness’s group makes one of their occasional visits…… but
you’ll be fine right?”

From inside the cell Sofia put her hand to her throat and made a small cough. And
then.

“Our appearances are pretty similar with a bit of make-up, so as long as the lights are
off, there shouldn’t be anything off…… for His Highness and Sand Bag at least right?”

She was able to answer perfectly mimicking Rachel’s voice and tone.

Rachel’s satisfaction showed through in her smile, and she signaled for the others in
the room to start up the stairs.

“Alright Sofia, I’ll see you around the same time the day after tomorrow.”

“Yes, please enjoy your pajama party.”

“I’ll try even if the topic is His Highness and George.”

Rachel left the dungeon, taking a nice long look at the open sky for the first time in
almost a month before boarding the wagon.

While the carriage rattled as it began to move, Rachel narrowed her eyes while resting
her chin in her palm.

“Well then…… let’s start out by going for the limbs.”

“Now, what shall I do……?” Sofia muttered to herself while getting out from her futon.

Sofia had replaced Rachel inside the dungeon, so of course she didn’t hesitate to use
her Lady’s bed the previous night. Although it was just a simple, temporary bed, it was
designed and manufactured to satisfy the daughter of a Duke.

The spread out sleeping mat was made from luxury down that naturally released
moisture such as the sweat from when you sleep.

There was also a canopy and silk curtains put up in consideration of her privacy, and
the mat was spread out widely along the floor to make it easy to use and useful overall
in a place like a dungeon where moisture can easily accumulate on the floor. To be
clear, Sofia and the other maids usually sleep in their own high quality, fully furnished
personal rooms, yet this bed still offered a more high quality level of sleep.

In other words, what else can be said besides,

It had been eleven years since she had come into Rachel’s service.

This was the first time Sofia had ever overslept.

Teehee, is what she would have said, but…… this, felt a little stupid coming out of her
mouth like this.

Well there’s nothing for it now, and it’s not like there was any problem with it since
her job right now was to pretend to be Rachel and act sluggishly anyways.
Rachel had brought in a lot of books with her, and both the tea leaves and the cookies
had been recently refilled. It would be a two day vacation with her only having to
watch out for the rare visitor…… carrying an expectation that something would happen.

That’s how it was supposed to be.

And then while she was oversleeping and enjoying her rest, that was when Prince
Elliott and company stopped by.

Rather than waking up after Prince Elliott’s group came, it would be better to say they
kept making noise until she woke up…… and Sofia was at a loss.

(It’s fine since she had lowered the curtain on her bed just in case…… but it was a
blunder for her to have removed her makeup before going to sleep……)

The silhouette between Rachel and Sofia is quite similar, but the difference in their
faces would be clear to see under the light of day.

So Sofia developed ‘natural makeup that makes you look like Her Ladyship’…… but that
technique is worthless if they show up before she’s put any makeup on.

Because they cannot see her face directly, it is necessary to get a handle on the situation
without her leaving her bed.

The silhouette can only be seen as a hazy outline through the curtains.

“What’s this Rachel, your attitude is so bad today you won’t even show yourself?”

That’s your fault dimwitted Prince. Dimwit.

Sofia was in a bad mood, but there were things that had to be done before hurling
abuse at the Prince.
She had to get in control of this situation.

If things were made to seem different than usual, then she would lose meaning in being
a shadow warrior.

“It’s a big deal breaking into a maiden’s bedroom and making such comments. How
would you like to try going bald?”

Sofia was attached to her Lady day and night. The manner in which she talks has been
perfectly copied.

All the nuance behind her malice and ridicule, Sofia spoke, but it was Rachel’s voice
that came out. Yes, perfection.

From what could be seen on the other side of the curtain, the figure that somewhat
looked like the Prince stirred.

“W, what the……? Aren’t you being awfully direct today?”

After being seen in a state of confusion, she acted slightly different from her Lady. Bad,
this must be fixed.

“I’m in a bad mood right now. I feel irritated when someone suddenly wakes me up in
the morning.”

“The morning…… but aren’t we already quite far into the afternoon? What time did
you go to sleep?”

Damn it. She made a suspicious statement that draws into question her societal
common sense.

“If you calculate back from the time I slept, then it’s currently morning.”

“You, so at last you believe the world’s standards are your own……?”

She went too far and now she’s become someone strange. What should she do?

The Prince? on the other side of the curtain is shaking his head.

“No, that doesn’t matter right now! Rachel, after all this time you still trick the innocent
Margaret!?”

“……Margaret?”

It’s a name Sofia felt like she’d heard before, but she was having trouble matching the
name to a face. It was certainly a name she had seen recently concerning the Prince’s
relationship…… but who was she again?

It seems that Sofia’s involuntary confused mutter was overheard. The Prince-ish
human figure was visibly angry.

“You…… you’ve seen Margaret and I together, so why is it that you’re acting like you
don’t know her!? Don’t you know that thanks to the rotten can of food you gave her,
Margaret is still in bed!? George and I were only able to recover yesterday! Letting
your own brother and the weak Margaret meet with such a terrible experience, don’t
you feel guilty at all!?”

Such an experience…… rotten can…… can?……… Oh!

“Ah, Sand Bag!”

“Hah!?”

“I remember! Oh dear Your Highness, people might not know who you’re talking about
if you don’t use their real name you know?”

“Eh? No…… I, I don’t know who this Sand Bag guy is……”

“Your own girlfriend’s name? You shouldn’t forget something like that. It’s because of
this that Your Highness”

“Girlfriend……?…… tha, are you talking about Margaret!? Her real name is Margaret!
What do you mean Sand Bag!?”

It was as he said. She made a mistake this time because her information was too good.
Sofia had tried to keep things peaceful with the societal garbage, but it seems like she
had said something wrong somewhere. Now the garbage Prince was even angrier.

“Bitch, constantly you……!? In the first place Rachel, when a person is seriously angry
you should come out of your bed and seriously face them! Come out and sit straight!”

“Tch”

The Idiot Prince had a sound argument…… that being said, Sofia couldn’t afford to
leave. While sealing the other side’s argument, the Lady would continue talking as if
she were in a state of superiority……

“You click your tongue!? You, what’s with that attitude towards the Prince of this
country!?”

“……”

Sofia responded with silence. Such people would connect after this.

“Pay attention Rachel! I’m angry, so come out now!”

As to be expected the Prince was fiercely repeating his orders… but, Sofia was thinking
about what he looked like angrily shaking the prison bars. Just as the Lady had said,
he really did look like a monkey.

Sofia raised up her upper body while holding on to her futon. The only thing the other
people on the other side were able to see was that she was hiding her body behind the
futon.

“……Your Highness”

“What is it!?”

“You really don’t understand a woman’s heart……”

“…… What!?”
Sofia deliberately made a suggestive sigh, something made of a mix of anger and
anxiety… Elliott clammed up.

Sofia had to completely embody the Lady…… and let the sweet poison flow.

“While Your Highness is here, I can’t afford to come out…… I, I don’t wear anything
when I go to bed……”

“!!”

Elliott…… no, the entire front part of the jail shook. Murmurs and whispers filled the
room, and the air behind the Prince seemed to wrap around him.

“Y, Your Highness…!?”

“D, don’t get flustered!? T, this is probably one of Rachel’s tricks……”

This is certainly a trick… unfortunately, it’s not the Lady’s though.

After having a strange coughing fit, Elliott began speaking with a heavy tone.

“Hahaha, you can’t trick me Rachel. There is no such thing.”¹

You can pretend to be calm, but you slipped up and changed your pronoun, Your
Highness.

So, let’s turn up the pressure.

“Oh, Your Highness doesn’t know? Isn’t this quite the common practice for the
noblewomen of this country?”

“!!”

Already Elliott and his happy little friends could no longer hide their panic.

“Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Your Highness!? T-T-T-T-T-T-That’s, that girl, and that girl, and this girl, and-
and-and-and-and-and……!?”

“W-W-W-W-W-W-Wait, c-c-c-c-c-c-calm down-n-n-n-n-n-n!”

“B, But! But that’s!? We, if we know such confidential in-in-in-in-in-in-information……
ouh, I can never lift my face up in court ever again!”

“No wait, calm down! There’s nothing wrong with us, so gain peace of mind! Peace of
mind, peace of mind, OK? OK, why do I keep picturing all those noblewomen!? Okay!?”

Seeing their all too naive reactions, “These guys unexpectedly don’t play around that
much,” Sofia thought to herself while dealing the finishing blow.

“Well Your Highness, do you doubt me?”

“Eh? No, there’s no way that’s a thing though!?”

“If you can’t trust what I say, then how about ‘confirming’ with ‘Margaret’?”

A silent storm blew through in the wake of Sofia’s words.

The sexual image born from her words blew them all away. There was one man who
started hitting the others for what they were picturing, but that just showed he was
having the same idea… Elliott and the Halfwit Squadron broke apart mid-air after a
single line, annihilated by their own delusions, and became no longer able to battle on
their own.

They were overwhelmed by their own delusional power, so after confirming that
everyone was left staring up towards the stars, Sofia softly urged Elliott forward.

“Um, Your Highness? Before we talk, I, would like to put on some clothes……”

“Huh? Oh, oh right! Um, we’ll get out, so call us when you’re done!”

While there was nothing to be ashamed of in what he said, what the Prince had
imagined was betrayed by the shame he showed.
With his head swinging like a broken bobblehead doll, he drove back the hanger-ons
before leaving himself.

“It’s useless even if you peek from the ventilation window~”

“We know! We know right!?”

After the busy shuffling up the steps finally disappeared, Sofia was finally able to take
a relieved breath.

“Haa, so nerve-wracking… it’s good that I was somehow able to finish without
anything being exposed.”

Of course Sofia was wearing pajamas. She’s a servant after all.

Sofia has helped her Lady change her clothes a countless number of times in the
morning as well; not once has she slept naked, or so she says in her heart.

Yes, such customs do not exist in this country’s noble society.

After so much trouble Sofia got the Prince’s group out and changed her clothes……
before going back to bed for a second time.

Of course she had no intention of calling Elliott back.

Rachel seemed really happy coming back the day after, her face was positively glowing.

“I’m glad I stayed at that inn. I was able to stay up late into the night talking about a
bunch of different things. And since we weren’t at the house, Martha wasn’t there to
throw us into bed.”

“It sounds like it was a lot of fun.”

“I bought grilled skewered meat from a stall, and after buying some ale with room
service, we shared a toast. For the first time a dinner like that… it was fun.”

“Could it be because you’re both nobles?”

Because there were no supplies being imported today, Rachel and Sofia were having a
spot of tea together while exchanging information. Of course they were being cautious
of others, but they’d finish quickly if they heard any rustling.

“But Sofia, couldn’t you have been a bit more reasonable?”

“You think so? I did think I managed to separate myself from the Prince rather
peacefully when he and I quarreled though.”

“I don’t disagree with you but…… now His Highness and all his friends believe I sleep
naked. If someone were to speak of this, it’d be a small scandal.”

“Ah, that’s true.”

Sofia held up the teapot and responded with a smile that didn’t quite suit her usual
demeanor.

“Because the scandal doesn’t have anything to do with me, it’s really easy to not care
though.”

“I don’t hate that part of you that acts makes a place cold from every direction.”

“Hah~… it was fun staying overnight and having a walk through town for the first time
in such a long time……”

Rachel spoke her thoughts aloud, taking a long sip from her now slightly warm tea,
and as if finally satisfied by something, she leaned back in her chair and stretched out
her limbs.

dungeon
“After my home is the best place to relax!”

“……My Lady, seriously?”

1. Elliott used the ‘watashi’ to refer to himself here instead of the more masculine ‘ore’.
The Ferguson Ducal House’s oldest daughter Rachel’s personal attendant Sofia, she
was actually quite busy with the absence of her Lord. Even without having to provide
personal care for Rachel, there were still many things to do.

Of course it’s not just simple housework liking cleaning a room.

A closely guarded secret is that cleaning isn’t actually very high up on a maid’s list of
duties, and there was a specialized department set for doing laundry, so there isn’t
that much work for an attendant to do when their Master is away.

Well there’s not usually much work, but Sofia is still always busy. For the people
working in the other departments inside the house, one of the great mysteries is what
she could possibly be doing running around all over the place when Rachel isn’t here.

“Well, I guess it’s natural that those in charge would wonder. As you could guess,
Helena over in laundry asked me just recently, ‘Why does she have so much work to
do?'”

Hearing Lisa’s story, Sofia nodded as well.

“I suppose…… generally, you wouldn’t think that a noble family’s attendant would be
checking over a trading firm’s account books.”

Sofia and Lisa were checking the income and expenditure over the last month for the
Black Cat Firm. It’s not like they believed there was anything out-of-sort with them. It
had just become a common practice to look the books over every month to check for
errors.

Really. Being around Rachel means being brought in to her secrets. Sofia and all the
others with Rachel all have business as members of the Dark Night Black Cats even if
their Lord is away.

While the two maids were intensely staring at the mountains of documents that
surrounded them, Mimosa and Meia came walking in.

“We have some good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear?”

Mimosa’s words made Sofia and Lisa share a look, before Lisa wearily urged her to
continue.

“Why are you separating them anyway? Just give us a summary.”

“Lisa, so hostile… the good news is we received a delivery from the Zenoya Kingdom–
four cases of mud masks have arrived.”

With the exception of the unemotional Sofia, everyone was throwing their hands in
the air.

The mud from Zenoya is very popular in this country, known for its tremendous effects
on beautifying skin, and since it has to be delivered abroad, it usually costs a lot of gold
coins just for a single bottle.
This is the case for both nobles and the bigger merchants…… it’s not something you
would buy unless you’re a house with a lot of money, yet Rachel pays the expenses just
for her subordinate’s comfort. Because it gets brought in on the gaps of the regular
deliveries, they’re able to buy it at almost the regular local price though.

Giving the women’s camp these high value cosmetics, while offering the men’s camp
rare foreign liquor at cheap prices was just one of the skills Rachel used to capture a
person’s heart. For people, pressure isn’t the only way to make them do what you
want.

By the way, because they also have the general support of the border stations, they’re
able to bring in all these goods without having to declare it to the country…… the
general public would call something like this smuggling.

If it wasn’t something that all the young women wanted to use themselves, it could be
sold at the Black Cat Firm at quite the high price. It’s a perk classified as foreign
souvenirs. There’s nothing to be unhappy about.

Inside this giddy atmosphere, Mimosa added on a few words.

“As for the bad news, with the arrival of this delivery our overseas information network
has significantly grown…… everyone please hang in there……”

Everyone, including Sofia this time, hung their heads low.

The Black Cat Firm is a medium-sized store located in the back streets of the city.
Despite the fact that it has numerous customers consisting of nobles and significantly
wealthy citizens due to its fine quality overseas products, it’s a store that could easily
be overlooked.

It is actually not that big of a store since one of its signature services is bringing foreign
products right to the customer’s home, so there isn’t that much of a reason for anyone
to visit the store directly. Nevertheless, those in the know all know it’s a high-end shop
that specializes in high-end customers. That is the evaluation given by those who
know the Black Cat Firm.
But, Sophia and the rest on the inside would tell you something completely different.

While their public reputation isn’t technically wrong, it doesn’t cover the full story
either.

Rachel serves as the primary investor for the trading company, and the buying and
selling of high-value products isn’t its main function.

While appearing as a legitimate business and earning work funds, the overseas
branches actually gather information, shipping it back to Rachel alongside the goods.
Then inside the capitol they lie and intrude on the powerful families, learning about
their internal circumstances, and bringing back information that could prove useful to
the Duke’s House and the Royal Family.

Naturally they prioritize those entities hostile towards the Ferguson Ducal House and
Rachel personally. Everything from what Prince Elliott had for dinner to how Margaret
arranges her cosmetics on her mirror stand, all Rachel needs do is ask, and they’d find
out.

Of course she’d look stupid asking for something like that, so no such order has ever
been given.

Sofia is responsible for managing the members of the Black Cat Firm and Rachel’s
troops inside the Duke’s mansion with those people inside the Royal Palace and other
high noble houses that Rachel has influenced. Of course she’s busy.

To make matters worse, she now has to look through the incoming information from
the inside out, and make decisions on the documents in Rachel’s absence…… no
matter how many bodies she has it won’t be enough.

While drinking the tea that Meia had brewed for her, Sofia released a long sigh.

“Perhaps I, this couldn’t be divine punishment for receiving the wage of three people
could it…”

“At the very least our work, it’s not supposed to be the work of a maid right……”

Even with all of the maids working together, their exhaustion was obvious on their faces.
Sofia was in charge.

Meia was responsible for domestic politics.

Lisa was responsible for domestic economics.

Mimosa was responsible for foreign affairs.

Heidi was responsible for work in the Royal Palace.

These five along with on-site face of the Black Cat Company President Campbell, Boss
Waters from the underworld, along with an anonymous knight, courtier, and official
from the Royal Palace made up the ten executive members of the Dark Night Black
Cats.

These ten people lead together in order to drive the organization forward through its
duties. If you were to include the end of the command line, those who perform their
jobs without knowing what it’s for, then the Dark Night Black Cats member count
numbers in the hundreds.

“What about that young maid halfway down, would she be alright?”

“My Lady said we could put her to work, but there is no shortage of classified
information we couldn’t divulge if she were to ask.”

“The lower ranks don’t really know about us in the first place. Some of Waters’s
subordinates actually misunderstand and take us for a criminal organization.”

“Waters thought we were there for that as well in the beginning, but after My Lady
took him in to another room for five minutes, he came back sweet as a kitten……”

“My Lady can’t hide her own criminal scent when she’s working you over……”

“You, I won’t hesitate to throw you to the Lady.”

After all the tabulation work had been finished, Sofia wrote out a note for the butler
Jonathan and left the room with Lisa. After a recent rainfall the streets were still damp
and musty, but with the sun already out, it was the perfect setting for a walk.

“Such a wonderful location, a regular maid would rarely be able to go out and enjoy a
day such as this.”

“Indeed…… but since the Lady has me going out to complete her tasks around the
clock, it doesn’t feel special at all…… in any case.”

“I suppose. Back alleys at midnight were already on the level of a promenade by the
time I became a young woman……”

The two girls headed over to the Black Cat Firm in order to pass along their regular
report.

Immediately forcing themselves into the president’s office, they found a kindly looking
old man busily sorting through documents at his desk and an evil looking man with
his feet up and back to the door blowing a puff of smoke into the air from his cigar.

As Sofia entered the room, she casually took a seat on the edge of a sofa, crossing one
leg over the other, and kicked the middle-aged man up out of his chair making it topple
right along with him.

“I told you not to smoke in here when I’m coming Waters.”

“You’re too suddenly violent Sister!”

No matter how you look at it an evil-looking forty year old man calling a young girl
still in her teens ‘Sister’ is wrong. But neither the kindly looking head of the Black Cat
Firm who was still working away at his desk nor Lisa who had calmly taken her own
seat showed to be even a little perturbed by the incident. Today was when the regular
report was to be delivered and when the executive meeting for the Dark Night Black
Cats would take place.

Glancing through the report the two older men had made, Sofia filed it away inside the
envelope already carrying the one she had finished. She then passed the envelope over
to Lisa.

“Well then, today Lisa will be infiltrating along with Campbell.”

“Understood. The horse-drawn carriage has already been prepared.”

The horse-drawn carriage that brings in the supplies and reports to Rachel are always
mixed in with the other deliveries that are brought to the Royal Palace on a daily basis.

Of course that’s only half camouflage. Naturally the Black Cat Firm had its own
carriage it sent out regularly. So in fact all of the supplies sent are addressed to the
kitchen, and when there’s nothing to be delivered it gets diverted to Rachel. That was
the case today and as such Rachel’s subordinates would lie in wait in the back.

People under their influence had been considerably mixed in inside the Royal Palace
and around Prince Elliott by now, especially gatekeepers and knights assigned to
guard duty. The Black Cat Firm’s carriage has only ever been the subject of very basic
inspections whenever it was carrying inside an assortment of goodies.

“If Lisa is bothering to go herself is there something big going on?”

In response to Campbell’s question, Sofia pulled out a new document.

“For this meeting…… hm?”

Campbell and Waters sat across from each other looking the paper over…… but when
their zig-zagging gazes finally reached the bottom of the page, they both let out a sigh.

“No but……”

“I’ll go like I always have…… dungeon, I’ll do it.”

Having already taken such a reaction into consideration, Sofia indifferently put out a
list and began to talk.

“Campbell, please prepare and deliver to me all of these materials.”

“I understand that…… but what about the people in question? We can handle the
installation.”
“We’ll have you come under the banner of the Duke house and the Lady’s name. That
person would probably come then.”

It is possible for Sofia to use Rachel’s name at her own convenience purely because of
the trust that Rachel puts in to her.

“So, as for me… you want me to call out to these people?”

Waters was also looking over his own list himself. Sofia had passed him a list of people
to be scouted. All of them were the among the very top…… and none of them would
come for chump change.

“I think we still have some time, but convince them somehow.”

“That’s easy to say Sister. But all these guys are big deals in my industry, so wouldn’t
it be better to talk to my own colleagues instead?”

“I’ve been thinking about that as well. For now try to make an appointment, and if that
doesn’t work, contact me.”

Waters started to feel a little nervous, remembering that Sofia had had a hand in his
recruitment as well.

Anyway, faced with a proposal from some otherworldly noble servants, Waters
continued with a doubtful look on his face.

“Why Sister, does her old man have a thousand gold piled away somewhere?”

“No. But if you’re successful, My Lady will gladly lower her head to you.”

“What!?”

Campbell and Waters were shocked at what they heard, but soon they hardened
themselves like a couple of sly old soldiers.

That’s how it would be.

Even without any promise of marriage, a Duke house is second only to the King/Royal
Family in terms of prestige, so a daughter in that position lowering her head to a
commoner would leave that commoner with quite the level of fame among their peers.
Given the difference in status and the honor of a noble, it’s something that shouldn’t
happen even if you were to turn over heaven and hell.

Do it. If that’s to be done, certainly anybody who would ask would have their spirits
lifted. At any rate……

“Seriously……!?”

“I am quite serious. My Lady isn’t one to pointlessly hold high her pride.”

“That may be…… but even so, have you already received her permission?”

Sofia gave an instant reply to Waters’s question in a tone that sounded almost
invigorated.

“Lisa will be going to get it after this.”

“Huh? I am?”

Having not even told the contact person yet, Waters and Campbell both had their jaws
drop at just how amazingly unplanned this was.

“……you…… what are you going to do if you make a promises that your boss hates……”

When Waters was finally able to squeeze out a question, Sofia responded plainly.

“Ohh of course, what I promise will be realized. If My Lady grumbles about it, then feel
free to step on her head as she performs a dogeza for you.”

“!!”

Everyone besides Sofia hardened at her words.

“…this feeling of distance with My Lady, it’s not something I could imitate……”

“……what, rather than childhood friends you sound more like foster siblings”

“…normally you’d hold back a bit more though”

The three people carved it into their hearts once again.

Inside the Dark Night Black Cats, Rachel wasn’t the only dangerous one.

Seeing off the carriage after leaving the Black Cat Firm, Sofia stretched out her arms
towards the sky and began walking.

“My my…… I worked a lot today”

There was just a little more work to be done today. But if you were talking about
tomorrow, then the commotion would start up again first thing in the morning.

Sofia stopped at a crossroads, turning to move towards the mansion…… but then softly
put her foot down.

“……going back to the mansion like this, but I’m reluctant to have my work just pile
up.”

Part of Sofia wanted to leave those still pending documents to her numerous shrewd
subordinates.

Sofia ended up turning right, going in the opposite direction of the crossroads. Beyond
that was a shop she recently discovered that had wonderfully fluffy chiffon cake and
some highly fragrant tea.

“I worked more than enough today, so a small tea break should be worthwhile.”

In the end Sofia herself is a talented, shrewd subordinate. Which is why she fully
intended on expensing the cost of this tea back to her company.

“Oh, damn it!”

A maid who was wiping down a vase when she suddenly let out a cry, and a colleague
who was standing on her tiptoes to dust a picture frame on a nearby wall ended up
losing her balance.
“What’s wrong Theodora?”

“Lisa went out earlier, but I forgot to give her that letter!”

“Letter? To the Lady?”

Rachel is generally very friendly to her servants, but still, it’s a little unusual for a
single maid to write her a personal letter while she’s locked in a dungeon.

“What’s it about? Are you asking for some time off?”

“Groan, it’s much more important than that!”

The maid wearing glasses, Theodora, clenched her fist to emphasize her point.

“I had prepared a fan letter, written around the concept of Sykes reversing the
situation on his Lord that I had hoped would happen in her next work! Ah, even though
I had poured all my heart into that letter…”

“I have failed!” the maid let out another cry, jostling her dirty rag around while her
maid coworker almost dropped her feather duster, her shoulders dropping.

“You, how are you so excited about a novel that the Lady only wrote while killing some
time? Moreover, the content… your hobbies are rotten……”

“What did you say!? All women are rotten!”¹

“Are you lumping me together with you!?”

The two maids continued their quarrel until the head maid passed by.

1. Something fun I learned when I was translating HTG, a fujoshi–a woman who enjoys
yaoi–translated into English means a ‘rotten woman’. So when she says that all women
are rotten, she’s referring to fujoshis.
Elliott is also a Prince, so there are various events and jobs that have to be done every
day. Lately his paperwork and inspections have been rapidly increasing, creating a
mess of busy days that made him completely forget about the dungeon that had been
plaguing his mind until recently.

During one of his tea breaks he just so happened to glance out his window, and he
couldn’t help but be forced to remember that woman…… he discovered it.

A plume of smoke rising in the distance.

No matter how you look at it, that was definitely coming from an area that had become
all too familiar.

“Ah, it’s such fine weather today……”

“Can you see? Your Highness, the smoke is”

“For a change of pace, it might be good to take Margaret for a long ride to the hill.”

“Over there is where the dungeon is right? I wonder what, is she burning some
firewood…”

“Now that I think about it, my body’s feeling a little stiff from all the work lately. That’s
no good.”

“Huh? The smell of burning meat…… oi oi, that girl has quite the appetite.”

“Yosh, let’s go to the suburbs today! We’ll leave as soon as Margaret gets here, so go
prepare the horses at the stables!”

“Your Highness, are you listening? It looks like Rachel is up to something.”

“Sykes, His Highness is pretending he can’t see anything……”

 Ê

With one half unwilling to go and one half feeling obligated, Elliot arrived at the
entrance of the dungeon to find two young men tidying up a barbecue stove. Judging
from their clothes they appeared to be apprentice chefs.

Elliott ignored them both and entered the prison.

“Huh? Your Highness, aren’t you going to question them?”

Surprised, Sykes pulled on the Prince’s sleeve, but Elliott shook his head while making
a face like he was chewing on a bitter tasting bug.

“They’re underlings no matter how you look at them, they are. The underground is the
main source of whatever’s going on. At the very least, we’ll find the cause down there.”

“Sis is unable to leave the prison.”

Elliott and George nodded towards one another, but still not convinced, Sykes wanted
to hold them back.

“But, Your Highness”

“What, is there still something?”

“If we go see Rachel without stopping them all from tidying up right now, then won’t
they have gone home before making ours?”

“Your primary concern right now is food!? Food!?”

In front of the cell, a girthy chef was facing the iron bars and giving a cooking lesson
to the person inside.

“Today’s main course shall be, a rare beef filet steak, prison style. Usually I cook this
on an iron plate so that the meat appears more beautiful, but with the image of your
cell bars in my mind, I dared to grill it today instead. I decided not to add any gravy for
the sauce as I believe the fragrance from the charcoal that’s seeped in gives the dish a
certain wildness to the taste instead.”
With the first cut brought to her mouth, Rachel raised a lively voice.

“Delicious! This sauce is different from what I ate in your shop before.”

“Yes. This time we took the beautiful image of a daughter of the Ferguson house, and
melted some dark chocolate for the sauce instead.”

“Well, you flatterer!”

As the customer and chef harmoniously shared their impressions on the steak, Elliott
called out.

“Could I hopefully be included in your little chat?”

Huh? What did he come here for? While saying some astonishing words he was
making a face that said he was already used to this. Elliott exchanged a glance with his
entourage, and George lightly bowed his head at the front.

George looked proudly down on his sister and pointed at the dish sitting in front of
Rachel.

“Sis, that cooking there…… how did you get such dishes inside the jail?”

“That’s what you want to know!?”

The chef gave a bow.

“I had an assistant hold the plate we had put in earlier steady, and after using tongs to
set the plate, I made the finishing touches through the bars.”

“Ah, so that’s how!”

“That doesn’t matter!”

Elliott began shouting after pushing George out of the way.

“Rachel, what did I tell you!? No delivery”

Rachel swallowed the food that was still in her mouth before giving an honest nod.
“Yes, that’s what you said.”

“I see. Then, what is this?”

Rachel looked down at the plate in her hands.

“Well Your Highness, this isn’t delivery.”

“Hoh? So what is it then?”

Rachel answered with a pure, innocent smile.

“It’s catering.”

“That’s the same thing you idiot!”¹

Elliott’s eyes were turning red as he started violently looking around.

“Almost every single time, what is the Prison Guard doing!?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, his eyes landed on the Prison Guard who was
sitting at his desk.

The same food was served in front of him, and his mouth just so happened to be filled
with meat.

When his eyes met with the Prince’s, the Prison Guard quickly swallowed what was in
his mouth, smiled, and gave him a thumb’s up.

“It’s all right! No suspicious objects have been brought in! I also properly made sure
that nothing was poisoned!”

“Aren’t you not checking for poison with yours but rather sampling!? You were
wondering what type of food this woman was having! You were bought with a piece
of meat……!”

“No Your Highness, he isn’t the kind of man who could be simply bought for one or two
pieces of meat. That’s why we properly served him the full course from the beginning.”

Elliott was just thinking about whether to do something about that Prison Guard when
Rachel set down her fork after finishing off the last of her steak.

“Your Highness. I did it separately, but deliv…… aren’t you going to have some catering?”

“Just now, you, didn’t you just call it delivery?”

“Because the Ferguson House is to be holding a party later on, I was just taste-testing
some of the food that’s to be served.”

Elliott’s good point was completely ignored.

“Even though my sister is in prison, they still have her taste the food instead……”

George’s grief was also ignored.

Immediately after hearing Rachel’s answer, Elliott began to laugh.

“You’re taste-testing food for a party!? Even though you can’t go yourself!? What, are
they going to hang a banner to symbolize your support!? Or are you going to pray for
its success from afar and have those in attendance pass along your greetings!?”

As Rachel had been found severely guilty, obviously she wouldn’t be able to leave and
attend a party at her home.

There’s a humor in preparing for a party that you can’t go to. But does Rachel understand
this idiotic situation?

Because it had been such a long time since he had felt such intense pleasure concerning
his relationship with Rachel, Elliott’s laughter just wouldn’t stop.

While watching the elated Elliott, Rachel smiled, remembering the correspondence
that was hidden underneath her plate.

If you like the taste, then I’m sure His Highness will be pleased too.

Of course, you’re welcome to attend as well.

 Ê

Seeing the cute Margaret beautifully dressed, Elliott and the rest of her fans were
nearly tripping over themselves in their love for her.

“Beautiful Margaret. You look just like a Flower Fairy.”

“Oh, Your Highness!”

Even looking embarrassed she was too cute.

Rather than a grown adult beauty, hers was a dangerous charm that came from the
impact of being in the middle of your growth. Since hers is still a childish beauty, they
had thought that the sight of her in a low-cut evening gown would have been too
flashy… but rather, that unbalance is good!

Elliott quietly laughed to himself, thinking about what a wonderful reward it was that
this beauty was just for him, when with a large smile spread ear from ear (in short his
usual face), Bolanski came walking up.

“She’s such a wonderful beauty, Your Highness.”

“Ah, Margaret truly is lovely.”

“Yes, indeed. In particular, that tube top dress with no shoulder straps is quite the
meritorious achievement.”

“Is it good? I was troubled how it would be when she put it on, but I made the resolve
to hold back on any frills and ribbons and thought it would be better to have a simple,
adult design.”

Elliott felt pride at having his choice complimented when Bolanski pointed his finger
up towards the heavens.

“Yes. By tightening the top so much so that it doesn’t slip off, her modest chest is
emphasized really well!”

“……isn’t your opinion rather strange?”

“Really? I think I’m pretty normal but…… I am the president of the Kingdom Petaism
Association, and we want to make Margaret our Peta • of • the • Year!”²

This guy was saying something really strange.

“……so, I think I’m going to have to say no.”

“Ah, what is someone of Your Highness’s station saying!? To be called Peta is to claim
your meagerness! Saying mountains or cutting board is no good! Don’t you know that
if Your Highness can’t understand the subtle differences, you’ll never be anymore than
a second-rate petaist!?”

“No, I feel like something in me would die if I were to become first-rate……”

Then, Elliott made a rough snort while watching Bolanski.

“You, you’re family name is Boinski right……”

“Bolanski, Your Highness.”

Margaret was enjoying her new dress, finally deciding on the pose she’d take when
she ran back into Elliott.

“Elliott, I’m really thankful to you!”

“It’s nothing Margaret. I’m more than happy to help you become even more beautiful.”

Elliott’s imagination grew as she embraced him.

……that happiness, with one word it was shattered in an instant.

“Yosh! Well then, I’m going to boast to Rachel. She’ll see just how very kind Elliott is to
me.”

“…… Margaret. You don’t need to bother showing off to that woman……”
When Elliott tried showing his disapproval for Margaret’s plan, he received a shocking
response in turn.

“But Elliott. Since Rachel is hosting a party, I want her to know who the person is that
Elliott loves most when I show up in this dress!”

“A bunch of dressed up guests have made their way into the castle and are already at the
dungeon.”

In response to the information Margaret had given him, Elliott and the others rushed
to the scene.

“Damn, I should’ve noticed during the day……”

“That’s right…… Rachel’s doing something really strange, Your Highness isn’t receiving
any damage from this whatsoever.”

“What kind of standard of judgement is that!?”

The door to the dungeon’s entrance was wide open, and dazzling lights and a fun-
sounding commotion were already leaking into the backyard.

“Damn, what kind of idiot holds a party in a dungeon……!”

“Well, Rachel.”

“Sis would……”

The men then ran down the stairs.

The room was lit up as bright as day, a wide chandelier set on the side.

Though it’d be a stretch to call this an evening party, all of the ladies and gentlemen
there were certainly dressed like it was.
A number of tables that shouldn’t be here were set up, and a boy was going around
serving more and more food.

And on one end wearing a bow tie and suit over his usual dirty work clothes was the
Prison Guard who was serving wine from a barrel.

……Prison Guard.

“Oi. You!”

“Ah, it’s Your Highness.”

“It’s Your Highness, not! What are you doing!?”

“Serving alcohol. I’ve already tested both, so we have both red and white to choose
from. We have a rose as well, but there was only one bottle in the case, so it’ll be all
gone if you drink it too soon.”

“Is that so!? Your job is managing this dungeon! Why haven’t you stopped these people
from entering!?”

“No, because……”

As he spoke the Prison Guard looked around him……

“More and more of these groups of important people showed up, could I really stop
them?”

“If that’s your job then it’s fine to turn them away!”

“But, they all had written invitations, and I was completely overwhelmed…… also, they
kept prattling on using words I didn’t understand.”

“Haah!?”

Weaving through the crowd of influential people, Elliott came to have a pleasant chat
with Rachel.

“Oi, Rachel! What is this commotion!?”

“Ah, welcome Your Highness.”

Rachel was also dressed up. It was a deep blue evening gown, a conservative dress
with pearl jewelry. It was a different dress from the one she had been wearing when
she was thrown in prison.

This certainly wasn’t something she had in the cell from the beginning. It was absolutely
prepared somewhere along the way.

As Elliott glared at her with a look that could kill, Rachel responded calmly as if talking
to an ordinary acquaintance.

“When I thought about it, I never had a moving party.”

“Moving party!?”

“But, as I am right now, what would my future be?”

“So you haven’t forgotten that……”

“So for ordinary nobles and politicians, I thought it’d be too difficult for them to attend
a party before Your Highness…… so with a little self-control, I limited today’s guest-
list to only foreign ambassadors, clergymen, and merchants who I’m on good terms
with.”

“What’s with that half-hearted consideration!?”

When Elliott took a look around, it was true that he didn’t recognize many people
native to this country. And all of the clergymen were wearing their proper dress. There
were some people there wearing formal wear speaking the kingdom’s language, but
he was unable to recognize them so they were probably the merchants. If they were
all friends with the Duke’s house, they were probably all people of import as well.
George seemed to recognize some of them as evidenced by how dreadful his complexion
had become.

Frantically holding back the urge to scream, Elliott cast a glance backwards where
Rachel was excitedly giving an intimate greeting to the guests who approached her.
Not a single one of them seemed to care that these greetings were happening from
behind the bars of a cell. Rather, Elliott’s group felt like they were the one’s out-of-
place, relegated to the sidelines.

“Rachel……!”

Foreigners, business people, and the religious world. In other words, everyone here
were people who couldn’t be influenced by the Prince’s power. No wonder they
pushed the Prison Guard to the side.

Seeing the state of this group, it doesn’t need to be said who they’d support between
Rachel and Elliott. The other side, Rachel, is making the smart move of holding a party
to raise her position, but interrupting them by acting as a stickler for the rules here
would have the opposite to the desired effect.

The noise of Elliott grinding his teeth echoed as Rachel had a good time toasting
glasses with an affluent old man with a white beard, talking about something he didn’t
understand in front of him.

“Hooray for prison!”

“Hooray!”
Elliott finally involuntarily raised a cry at the two’s excitement.

“Oi! What’s fun about being in prison huh!”

“Wait! That’s no good Your Highness, hold yourself back! That man is a cardinal, so
starting a fight is out of the question!”

George desperately held him back, convincing Elliott to back off, swallowing his bitter
tears.

“Shit, I can’t complain to Rachel about all this with these people here……”

“I’ll dispatch someone later to each position for an explanation…… but this number of
people, who could remember everyone that’s come……”

Standing in a corner as the party venue swelled, Elliott and George whispered to each
other about the current state of affairs while hiding next to the wine barrel.

Hmph, and then taking a deep breath through her nose, Margaret rose up.

“Elliott, I will explain!”

“Margaret!?”

“Because this isn’t funny! Elliott is on the side of justice, so we have to do this for
Rachel who is supposed to be bad!”

“To do…”

That’s right, but the way Margaret says it……

While George was taking care of and calming down Elliott, Margaret had glided over
to another end of the room and stood up on a box.

“Everyooooooone, please listen!”

Margaret made an unthinkable appeal during the party, and the gazes of all the visitors
gathered on her.

“Everyone, you don’t know what you’re saying, Rachel is really the bad one! In order
to help me, Elliott dared to break off his engagement with Rachel and sent her to
prison! Don’t be fooled!”

For a moment, the venue was silent.

Then in the middle of that silence, Margaret cockily puffed out her chest.

After a few seconds the noise returned.

But Elliott didn’t welcome it.

“Bwahahahaha!”

“It’s a nice joke!”

“Yay prison!”

Applause began to ring as the audience believed this was all some entertainment
derived from too much alcohol, and with Margaret unable to understand what was
going on, her head swiveling around after all the tension had disappeared, she had lost
all persuasive power.

In the end, Margaret was also dragged into the fuss, made to have a toast with the
other guests.

“Hooray for prison!”

“Hooray!”

Margaret came back with sparkling eyes and a plate with a mound of food heaped up
on top.

“Elliott, I did it!”

“Ah, yeah……”

It can’t be said that she had no effect at all, but Elliott still stared at Margaret strangely
as she started shoveling some of the food into her mouth.

George noticed.

“Hm? Where’s Sykes? He came with us.”

The Prison Guard pointed towards the middle of the venue while pouring another
glass of wine.

“If it’s that knight you’re talking about, he’s been enjoying the party since the start.”

Eating food and having delicious wine since midday, Sykes had been worked up,
happily conversing with a bunch of old men he didn’t know.

“How niiiiiice, I don’t get to do this too often.”

“Bwahahaha, me neither!”

“Same!”

Sykes and the ambassadors from the neighboring country all brought their glasses
together.

“Hooray for prison!”

1. It really is the same thing. The word 出前 means both delivery and catering. When
she says catering, she says it in English though to differentiate the two.

2. Pettan is Japanese slang for flat chest, so Peta would be a shortened version of that.
Petaism then I suppose would be the study of flat chests.
A soothing afternoon when the sun was shining its brightest. Two small tables
sandwiched the cell bars, and one noblewoman inside the cell sat directly across from
a noblewoman outside as both enjoyed a spot of tea.

“The moving party was a great success, Alexandra. Thank you for helping me set it up.
You really saved me.”

Sitting opposite the delighted Rachel was an impressive looking girl with loose, wavy
blonde hair and clear blue eyes like sapphires. The corners of the girl’s mouth uplifted
with Rachel’s acknowledgment, answering with a strong, daring smile.

Daughter of a Marquis Alexandra Mountbatten. She is a friend with whom Rachel does
not need to put on airs, a special companion who is like family. Rachel usually shows
a more plain, neat, and clean-cut appearance. In contrast, Alexandra is more flashy
and has a gorgeous face that typically shows a look of confidence. She was wearing a
formal dress with pants and a sword strapped to her waist. You could call her an older-
sister type who looks like she’d take care of others… a different type of beauty to
Rachel.

“Just leave the foreign matters to me Rachel. Those matters especially I can take care
of.”

Thanks to her father being a senior official in charge of foreign affairs, Alexandra’s face
was known far and wide by top officials in foreign nations. This was the reason why
so many foreign ambassadors participated in the moving party and how all the
necessary arrangements had been prepared so that the scandal from the Prince’s
actions hadn’t spread beyond this country’s borders.

“However it looks like it would be fun to abuse His Highness. If things are this interesting,
then I wish I had returned home earlier.”

The appearance of that broad, defiant smile really did make her look cool. Couple that
with the background of the dungeon’s dreary stone wall and you had someone who
looked just like a female hero from an adventure story.

But in reverse Rachel’s eyebrows moved to a ‘ ハ’ shape, and she made a small smile
like she was troubled.

“I would have liked that as well, but if you beat him too much…… I’ll be troubled if the
other side accumulates too much stress and ridiculously explodes.”

“I see…… then, what will you do? Well, will you forgive him?”

Knowing that there was no way Alexandra asked an empty question. But hearing the
question of her close friend, Rachel made a weak smile and shrugged her shoulders.

“Un, gradually things will have to be concluded…… therefore, I’ll have to smash it
before it explodes.”

Rachel only looks weak.

“But I really wanted to enjoy spending my time carefreely~”

“It’s wasteful, but…… before His Highness loses all reason and takes action, I have to
beat him down until he can no longer recover.”

“Well, I’ll do my best to support you as well.”

“Fufu, thanks.”

The two young maidens then started elegantly laughing between each other while
taking a small sip from their tea cups.

George Ferguson jumped down from the carriage and handed over his bag to the
butler who had come to greet him at the entrance.

His footsteps sounded especially loud in the spacious corridor as he stomped down
towards his room.

“Damn, every last one of them…”

The plan to corner his unworthy big sister was progressing slowly.

The light harassment wasn’t having any effect. But if it were to become flashy and
cause actual harm, then the righteousness of their actions would be drawn into
question. He had to look for the line where he could break the sister’s nerves while
still not being judged too harshly by third parties…… he wasn’t confident that such a
convenient reality could exist though.

To make matters worse is the fact that the courtiers of the Royal Palace were showing
a weak attitude for fear of getting involved.

They all wished to remain unrelated before the King hands down his decision, and
won’t do or say anything against the sister until then. At most they’ll alert the knights
near the prison if they notice some possible spies…… and yet, security hasn’t even
caught a mouse yet despite that his sister, for whom it is impossible to contact the
outside world, threw a large party.

He was also trying to stop any support from the Ducal House from reaching her, but it
was impossible to know how much of an effect this was really having.

By appearances, there have been no such movements inside the house. But, George
was certain that his sister was still receiving relief supplies. There is no one in this
house who opposes him openly, but there was a feeling in the air that everyone was
just pretending to listen to him, waiting for their moment to move.

Honestly speaking, George had reached a stalemate. He and his friends’ dazzling sun,
they were unable to see clearly how to take revenge for Margaret.

“Hah, really……”

Thinking that for now he should just get a night’s rest, George opened the door to his
room.
Taking one step into his room, George mindlessly took a quick glance around…… and
there was something there he couldn’t express in words.

“!?”

George wanted to praise himself for not raising a scream. At the very least, he thought
it was good that he hadn’t fallen over on his butt.

In the middle of his room.

On the corner of the living room area, books and pictures were beautifully displayed
on his desk and chair like a stylish bookstore…… all things George should have hidden
away.

Erotic novels, and certain unladylike pictures of sexy actresses.

There was his open diary whose contents were never to be seen by people and a fan
letter he had written but never intended on sending.

Besides this there was also etc. etc……

So as not to be found by any maids cleaning, George had skillfully hidden (supposedly)
these treasured possessions here and there inside his room.

“No, no, no……”

George looked through his black history that had been so suddenly gathered together,
his mind in a panic thinking where he could hide it all… not trying to find out who had
decorated his room this way…… but as the owner, it can’t be helped he’d react like this.

Anyway, these weren’t meant for human eyes, so for now he would stuff them inside
an appropriate bag and temporarily store them underneath his bed.
“…Damn, who…!?”

Displeased with his actions, he figured it was most likely the work of one of the servants
who sympathized with his sister.

But who is likely to do something like this? The faces of all the servants ran through
George’s mind as he gathered the books off his desk.

Then.

George found an unfamiliar envelope tucked away inside a book. A womanly, pink
envelope.

“……what the? I have a bad feeling about this……”

But, if he didn’t look, nothing would begin.

George opened the envelope. Inside was just a single piece of stationary.

He spread out the paper…… and after a quick glance, this time he did scream.

Nighttime in the front chamber of the dungeon.

George was facing the iron bars, prostrating himself on the ground inside the prison.

“My sister, I’m truly sorry!”

Seeing the form of her younger brother, trembling as he rubbed his forehead into the
cobblestone floor…… Rachel though about lying back down in bed and going to sleep.

“Oh my George, is something wrong?”

The general claim alluding to how you don’t know anything, of course there was no
such thing. Zero chance.
George continued to simply and painfully rub his forehead into the cold, uneven
Rachel
cobblestone, yelling at the Great King of Fear.

“For declaring that the blame for Margaret’s bullying rested solely on my honorable
sister’s shoulders, I am truly sorry!”

“Oh dear. Suddenly saying such a thing, I wonder what could have possibly happened?”

While the other side was busy feigning ignorance, George could do nothing but keep
his head lowered to his sister.

“……please, please Big Sister…… everything written in that letter is private……”

As her brother desperately pleaded with her, Rachel once again asked what was going
on.

“What’s wrong? Why is George, the heir to the Duke House, kneeling on the ground?
And speaking of letters……”

Rachel’s words trailed off, and finally tilted her head in the other direction claiming
defeat.

“Are you talking about that September when you were five years old, and I had to wash
your pants? Or maybe that February when you were seven years old, and you became
so scared of the fireworks that you wet yourself? But, that “pleasant” time was such a
small part of your life.”

Rachel smiled as she stared down at her terrified younger brother.

“That was such a small part……

Perhaps instead you’re talking about that day in May when you were eleven and awoke
to sex, deciding to stroke and caress the dresses in your sister’s closet so that nobody
else would see you?

Or maybe that June when you were fourteen, and after checking to make sure that
nobody was watching you lied down on my bed, sniffing the sheets after I had slept on
them.
If not those…… then perhaps the July when you were fifteen, in other words last year,
when you snuck into the laundry room, stealing my still dirty underwear to make into
your treasure?”

“I’m so sorry! Big Sister, I’m sorry! Sorry, so sorry!”

George was terrified, and there was nothing else he could do but apologize.

That pink envelope George had found.

That stationary inside described several fragmented episodes that George would
never be able to live down if others were to know.

There was no doubt that it was his sister who had written it. That beautiful cursive
script was all too familiar, but if even one of these events were to leak out it would
bring his ruin, let alone a whole chronology.

They were all scenes he did after confirming that nobody else was there.

They were all events he didn’t even remember himself until they had been brought up.

What shouldn’t have been seen by his sister or even any of her servants was all laid
bare like a business presentation before him.

And if they know all of that……

Even in George’s memory, the contents written were just the ‘entrance to the valley’¹,
and it is impossible to know what else they are aware of.

In other words, this pink envelope letter is just an excerpt.

Here was an older sister who could pin down George’s entire black history with
excruciating detail.

As if puzzled by the trembling state George was in, the elder sister continued to feign
innocence on his distressed situation.
“Oh my my George, you’re so frightened. Your sister just, since I don’t know when His
Highness will have me executed, the memories just kept coming, so I wrote them down
in a letter. All those “pleasant” memories just kept coming back to me…… I just thought
I’d share a little of those memories with my younger brother.”

older sister
And then splendidly…… with her elegant mouth, that absolute family soldier made a
broad grin and laughed.

“George is also already at that age. You’ve fallen in love with the lovely Margaret, so
what you did in the house
it’s no wonder you forgot how good your sister’s memory is. The very same sister who
has no idea how long she’ll be locked in prison, who stands alone form her splendid
brother, but remembers for just a moment…… even if her body were to disappear, she
would live on in her beloved younger brother’s heart.”

“Th, that is……!”

There is absolutely no way that this sister would sit back and be quietly executed by
Prince Elliott. It’s something easily understood despite what she is saying…… but
George wasn’t a fool who didn’t know his place, so he avoided pointing that out.

With a lovely expression that would never make you think she was worried about an
execution, the captivating older sister showed a bright, radiant smile. She then
gestured towards a notebook she had in hand.

“Ah, but George is crazy about Margaret, so there’s no more space in your brain for
your sister right? Then, this little booklet where I wrote everything I remembered……
yeah, perhaps I should give it to Father and Mother? That way when it comes time for
the two of you to get married, they can read off a couple episodes to show off how
you’ve grown? That way your sister can watch from up in heaven, and I can look over
your future with the confidence that I did a good thing.”

“I beg of you Big Sister! Please…… what you have written in there, please don’t show
it to Father and Mother!”

“Big Sister? In the old days, I always thought it was so cute how you’d always call me
‘sissy’.”

“S, Sis”
“Hm?”

“S, Sissy…… please, please don’t tell Father and Mother all my embarrassing secrets!”

“Eeeeeh? But, as an older sister, I won’t be able to watch over George anymore……”

“His Highness made a mistake about Bi…… he will never lay a hand on Sissy because I
will always stop him!”

“But, George loves Margaret as well as me…… very strange, don’t you think I did a
terrible thing?”

“No, there is absolutely no way!”

George desperately denied his sister’s deliberately leading questions.

Margaret’s things being destroyed and even being pushed down some stairs.

Until half a day ago, there wasn’t a doubt in George’s mind that this had been his
sister’s work…… but, he’s singing a different tune now.

……… a human who could arrange all of this form inside a jail cell just to harass George,
there’s no way she’d partake in that kind of lukewarm bullying against a love rival.

Really, if she really were in love then she’d never resort to bullying in the first place.

If his sister were to have gotten serious…… then by now Margaret would no longer
even be around anymore.

“I believe that Sissy has never laid a hand on Margaret! I’ll write a note swearing it!……
So, so Big…… Sissy, just please don’t pass along what you’ve written to Father and
Mother! Please!”

“Oh my, really?…… so all I have to do is not inform Father and Mother?”

“Y, yes!”
“Really? Isn’t there anybody else?”

“Eh……?”

George was left confused at his sister’s strange reminder.

He was appreciative of the now silent atmosphere…… but who else?

Thinking about it though, his sister could definitely muddle things up because it would
seem ‘interesting’.

“T,then… the chief maid Martha…”

“Anyone else?”

“Eh? Umm… His Highness and Margaret……”

“Anyone else?”

An older sister who continued to ask every time to the bitter end.

George was sure there was a pitfall hidden here somewhere, but he couldn’t figure out
what her intentions were.

With a cold sweat running down his back, George continued to desperately try and
think if there was anyone else.

“O, other…… t, then, Sykes and all my other friends……”

“Is that so?”

The sister wasn’t asking anymore. Then in front of George who was breathing a sigh
of relief that this relentless pursuit had finally finished.

Rachel came in close to the iron bars. She then shoved the notebook from between the
bars in a complete different direction from where George was.

“I understand. I will completely respect George’s feelings.”

“T, thank you very much……”

“Since she already heard everything right now, I was worried about what I would do
if you had said that she was also no good.”

“Huh?”

Before even having any time to ponder on his sister’s strange words…… George’s
attention was caught by a steady drumming going on behind him.

“Huh!?”

Turning back and taking a look, from the dark side of the stone steps.

A girl with an extravagant appearance showed herself.

The girl was a little queen-like, with a style different from his sister yet was
comparatively beautiful, and she slowly walked over towards the cell with a smile,
picking up the notebook Rachel had passed over.

A mixture of surprise and fear kept George from saying anything coherent.

“A, A, A, A……”

George had fallen on his butt, unable to move or stand as the girl approached him
while floating the same, daring smile she always wore as she spoke with an elegance
suitable for a refined lady such as herself.

“It’s been much too long George. Since I accompanied Father, visiting foreign countries,
has it already been a little more than a year……”

Her expression was that of a maiden…… however that beautiful girl floating a full smile
had the eyes of a bird of prey.

“I am your childhood friend, the one you forgot about after only a year, your worthless
fiancee, the cuckolded girl Alexandra Mountbatten. It’s been a long time…… or rather,
I wonder if it would be ‘pleased to make your acquaintance’ now? Is this your first
time seeing me?”
“H…… Hiiiiiii!?”

“Come now George. Even a good woman who doesn’t care that you’ve forgotten about
your ten year relationship would feel hurt if you were to suddenly scream at them as
if having seen a monster in the dark…… which reminds me, isn’t it pretty dark here
too? Fufufufufu”

Seeing the reunion between two wonderful fiancees made Rachel smile as well.

“George’s various, ‘nostalgic memories’, after all it is best left with the companion who
will be sharing his life with him. Alexandra, for George please?”

“Yes, Sister-in-law.”

“George too, be sure to always listen to what Alexandra says.”

“Hiiiiiiiiiiii!?”

“Something about your reply worries me…… it’s a reunion of two fiancees after a long
time, so your older sister will draw away from you two. There’s a lot for you two to
talk about, for example…… educational guidance.”
Rachel ignored the echoing screams, hoarse voice, and tears sounding from outside
the iron bars, choosing instead to enjoy the tea she had made.

“Now, hm…… if I don’t cut off the other wing, then the balance will be off.”

1. I.E. Breasts
My older sister is beautiful, but for some reason she casts a thin shadow. You could say,
“She’s a beautiful woman if you look closely.”

If you really observe her you can see how beautiful she is, but she is someone who
won’t enter your field of vision unless you’re consciously looking for her. While all the
other young noble women who were aiming for His Highness and that status of
princess continued to call her the “Daytime Moon” as an insult, I can honestly say I
thought it was a little strange.

Because His Highness Elliott, despite being a man, really was sparklingly beautiful……
meaning that my older sister who liked to stay in the background really did fit the
name Daytime Moon.

“Oi, isn’t that George!”

George made an ever-so faint smile upon hearing Sykes’s slightly impatient, loud voice.

“Ah, Sykes…”

Sykes ran up to the garden steps where George was sitting.

“I’ve been getting worried since you haven’t shown up at His Highness’s place lately……
you look so awful what happened!? Is it lack of sleep? Are you eating enough?”

“No, it’s not because of…… I’m just a little tired…”

“Times like these you need steak. All your fatigue will recover with a little steak. I think
for most bodies eating around 500 units of cooked rare red meat will improve physical
condition.”

“No no, that’s not the problem……”

George forced a smile while explaining to his friend.

“Alexandra returned home suddenly…… so, she said she was going to give me strict
training in order to be a man worthy of her, and I’ve been crammed with intense
education on foreign affairs ever since…… my head is already unable to handle it and
feels like it’s about to burst.”

“I see! At times like this…… yeah, steak. You eat a lot, around fifty servings, and your
mental fatigue will disappear before you know it!”

“Only you could solve your problems like that.”

“But Alexandra…… it’s been over a year since she left with her parents overseas.”

“Yeah.”

“What. Did you get excited the moment you two met up again and kiss?”

“How is that possible you idiot? It wasn’t that kind of situation.”

There’s no way George could say she had been hiding, watching as he groveled in the
dirt towards his older sister while begging that she not reveal every shameful thing he
has ever done to their family though.

“Ever since, I’ve been unable to show my face in His Highness’s room even when I did
have the time……

“I see~.”

Sykes made a knowing grin and lightly punched George’s shoulder.

“Well, you and Alexandra get along well. Meanwhile I just escorted Margaret.”

“Margaret is different from a fiancee, a more noble existence…… oi, before saying
anything about me Sykes, aren’t you in the same position? Does Martina know about
you losing your head over Margaret?”

A villainous smile floated across George’s face.

“Martina loves you so passionately. Compared to His Highness and Sis, and Alexandra
and me, don’t you have your own burdensome political engagement? Well, you could
never marry Margaret anyway since she has His Highness, but wouldn’t it be bad if
Martina were to find out you were putting in so much effort for Margaret?”

Although Sykes’s fiancee is another engagement through politics, it seems as if she has
been in love with him ever since they were children. She had moved away from the
capitol, living along the country’s border because of her father’s new job, but that
doesn’t mean her eventual marriage to Sykes was dissolved.

Before making fun of others, shouldn’t he be thinking about himself? George looked
down on Sykes feeling just the tiniest bit of revulsion……

Sykes was vibrating.

That huge body of his, it was shaking with hyper fine vibrations like some kind of toy.

Looking closely, a good amount of sweat was pouring down his skin, his hands had
gone stiff, and his eyes were completely hollow.

“…… sorry. I should have never mentioned Martina.”

Sykes eventually settled down.

George then muttered a few words to him.

“……that past uproar, I just remembered it.”

“What the? You remembering the old days or something?”

“Yeah, I guess you could call them memories…… though they’re a little strange.”

George picked up a pebble near his foot and tossed it away. It lightly glided through
the air for several meters before digging itself into the lawn like a stake.
“For some reason I can’t remember what happened before or after, just that one scene.”

He couldn’t understand if that was something he actually saw himself, or if it was

something he experienced in a dream one night.

Perhaps it was a visual hallucination from a scene that had shocked him from a book,
or it might have been a completely different scene, and it has just been transmuted
into something else inside his head.

“The weather was really good, the garden spread out beneath the blue sky……”

Perhaps he was remembering something from a garden party. There were children in
George’s vision. However……

“The problem is, there’s a disconnect, and I only see the middle of the scene.”

A girl with reddish brown hair stood on the bank of a pond in a large garden.

The little girl was in a pretty dress, and she was staring at the surface of the pond for
a long time. In her hand were some pebbles which she occasionally threw into the
pond. It was something that little children often did…… if there was nobody already
there.

There was a boy in the pond, and he was drowning away from shore. He desperately
reached out his hand, but the water pouring into his mouth prevented him from calling
for help. He desperately struggled to rise up out of the water, but he just couldn’t make
it to shore…… because the girl kept throwing those damn pebbles.

Whenever that drowning child tried to make it to shore, that young girl threatened
him with some sharp stones, acting nothing like how a child would. It was only at those
moments when the little girl threw a stone that you could hear the boy scream.

“So strange, that girl’s face……”

That girl was making the boy drown, but she was so calm, with no emotion in her
expression.

She wasn’t sneering at the boy, looking down on him like a bully, nor was there any
anger or hatred in her eyes. Just indifference, as if she were forced to watch her
parents’ lecture about, “Make sure the bonfire is out completely”…… as if she were
doing some trivial task in an office, a business face.

Then around the girl, there were a group of boys whose clothes had gotten all muddy.
They were all sitting down, crying.

All of the boys were bigger than the girl, but with tear-stained faces they were all
yelling, “Please, forgive him already,” “He’s going to die. Stop it already,” trying to
convince the girl…… but the girl ignored all of them, continuing to watch the drowning
boy.

Sometimes one of the children would try and get close to the girl…… but she was too
quick, and the boy would always be repelled by another pebble.

“That’s all I can remember. Nothing before or after. Only that scene is seared into my
brain.”

“……what are you saying, that’s a pretty surreal scene.”

“Yeah. It’s even more surreal that I can’t say it’s just a nightmare. It might have really
happened, but I don’t understand what I saw. I heard from a scholar that it might be a
metaphor or something, but I just didn’t get it.”

“You remembered it…… Hahah, maybe it has something to do with these recent events
with your sister.”

“Maybe…”

George’s head dropped, crestfallen.

“……I realized myself. This, my heart is being gouged out in the same way……”

That vision, it wasn’t a dream.

That was reality.

“No part of that strange memory was a dream. I was simply remembering what had
happened before my eyes.”

“…possibly right?”

“Yeah… for some meeting, Sis threw sanctions on a boy simply because she didn’t like
him…”

The two men fell silent, leaving the only noise to be heard the cry of a passing swallow,
trying to induce a more cheerful atmosphere.

After a little while George lifted his head up.

“Because of that. When I remembered that, I did notice one thing.”

“……What? If it’s another scary story, could you spare me?”

“You can’t ask that when I don’t even understand it…… I, am not good with Alexandra.

Although Alexandra is a childhood friend, honestly we aren’t that close.

From the beginning she was cruel, abusive, and loved to play pranks. She always
seemed like she was hard to deal with, and I remember her as a bully.

As you’d expect she calmed down recently, but even now she has a condescending
attitude and is verbally abusive, so when she traveled with her parents on their
overseas inspection, honestly, I was relieved I wouldn’t be seeing her for a while.

“But, that was also part of my misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding? I only knew her from a certain age, but hasn’t she always been
like that?”

“Yeah. But when I think about it and connect that to the memory I remembered
earlier… I realized I got various memories confused with one another.”
The girl who did things to George wasn’t alone.

“When I think carefully about what was done to me, I realize it wasn’t just one girl. I
can’t remember her face, but there are times when the girl doing things to me has
blonde hair, and times when she has reddish-brown hair.”

“Oi, that’s…”

“That’s right. It was the blonde girl who would always abuse me verbally. Meanwhile
the reddish-brown haired girl would always silently do something…… pranks,
experiments she called them. Alexandra wasn’t the one doing those experiments though.
It was Sis.”

Sykes stared up into the sky. Today too the sky was high.

“……Alexandra too is a victim of a misunderstanding.”

“That’s how it is. I did a bad thing to her…… the number one memory that made me
dislike her, wasn’t even her.”

“……what happened?”

“……I can only remember one scene from this memory too.”

How old would I have been? In the garden, I was spending my time looking for, and
playing with some snails.

Then before I knew what was going on, a girl came next to me, grabbed my hand, and
took me to the back of the garden……

That girl with the reddish-brown hair took me to a place where nobody would see,
and suddenly pulled down my pants.

“Wh, what!?”
“Right, a little… could you lend me your butt?”

Like that, in the girl’s hand was a box of firecrackers……

“Wait, hey that’s… What happened!? What did she do!? What the hell…… No, as you’d
think! I’m too afraid to even ask!”

“Hahahah, don’t worry about it! That’s all I can remember! I can’t remember what Sis
did to me……… I can’t remember……”

The strange, high pitched laughter of two men echoed in the gardens as a passing maid
tilted her head to the side, wondering what in the world was going on.

Recently Sis has become more beautiful.

Perhaps it’s because she’s living as she’d like now, or maybe I’m just stereotyping her
and putting myself in her shoes.

But the true her genuinely sparkles, a person who is radiantly beautiful. At the very
least she has a beauty that wouldn’t be outdone by His Highness.

The true Sis, she isn’t a Daytime Moon.

She’s a supernova whose explosive power is just about to devour the sun.
The cool light of the sun shining down signaled it was time to wrap up the afternoon’s
grand merriment. Inside Rachel’s dungeon the iron bars were sandwiched between a
pair of desks.

Today was the first time in a while that Alexandra had any free time, so she came over
to the dungeon to visit Rachel. The girls hadn’t seen each other since they crushed
George together, so Rachel met her friend with an open smile.

“So? Will George prove himself useful?”

Having fun shaking her cup slightly to take in the scent of the tea, Rachel laughed softly.

“Fufu, I’d be troubled if he doesn’t.”

Alexandra arced her brow as the corners of her mouth lifted up.

“That boy always looks so smug in his reporting yet he always trips up in the end, is
there any work you’d entrust to him? Don’t sign any documents until you’ve signed
them.”

“Yes, I understand what you mean. He is so self-important every time he brings me his
work, yet there is always something he overlooked…… well, that part of him is cute.”

“Ahaha, you can say that again.”

The two laughed together about the topic of their fiancee/younger brother respectively
before both calling out to a young boy standing next beside Alexandra.

“By the way George, these tea leaves were steamed too long this time. Shouldn’t you
have pulled them out a full minute earlier? Did you read my explanation properly?”

“The way you made mine was equally as coarse, you wouldn’t serve this to a customer
would you? If you can’t even make a proper cup of tea, you can kiss any hope you have
of becoming a diplomat away.”

“…… sorry.”

Today’s tea party consisted of just two girls. And one server.

If you’re going to talk bad about someone behind their back, you should do it right in
front of them, was the policy these two girls lived by.

While George was requesting that somebody replace him, Alexandra remembered
there was something she needed to tell Rachel.

“Speaking of which Rachel, the other day I heard something from George……”

“What?”

Rachel tilted her head slightly to the side as her future sister-in-law shrugged her
shoulders.

“That guy, apparently he couldn’t tell the difference between you and me when he was
young.”

“……seriously?”

Her eyes opening wide in surprise, Rachel looked over and stared at her brother’s face.

George began squirming in discomfort as his sister was brought in to a topic he really
didn’t want touched.

He really didn’t want to make his sister angry over that matter, so he tried drowning
out her gaze by focusing on making the tea…… but when he went to replace the tea he
had made, Rachel’s stare had only intensified.

George was beaten down by her persistence and reluctantly nodded.

“……that’s right.”

“Really? Why?”

“……because, I wasn’t as well put together when I was small…… and the two of you
were so similar, doing similar things……”

“Now George, Alexandra has blonde hair while I have dark brown.”

“Well sure, but…”

“The two of us would always share a table and eat together while Alexandra was only
occasionally invited over you know?”

“When you say it like that, you’re right, but……”

“In addition, Alexandra only ever used her mouth to abuse you while I used only
corporal punishment.”

“So you understand exactly how my memories work!? The reason why I avoided her!?”

After all, my older sister is still ill-natured.

Being able to once again recognize this unpleasant face, George let out a sigh.

His life was now caught between this older sister and her friend Alexandra who shared
her same interests…… although they say what goes around comes around…… this is
the worst.

A male servant would be green with envy if he were allowed to be sandwiched by a

pair of such beautiful women, but anyone else who would say they be willing to take
his place would undoubtedly be soon agreeing with him that this was the worst.

Ah, how he missed spending those fun times around Margaret with His Majesty……

……that’s right. Because he’d already said this much……

George brought up that other topic with his sister.

“Now that you bring it up Sis, my memories are a little fragmented……”

The other day he had told Sykes as well about those mysterious scenes from his
memory. That story where Rachel pulled down his pants, firecrackers in hand, and he
was unable to remember anything that had happened before or after…… even Alexandra
drew back when she heard that one.

“Rachel… I’m all for childish mischief, but for it to become like that……”

“Because it’s you Sis, I was thinking you probably tried something half for fun, half out
of interest……”

As the two’s blame-filled eyes turned on her, Rachel growled back with a frown.

“Why are the two of you talking as if it’s some sort of strange story? With that time,
there was a preface for it!”

“……and, it is?”

“George started it!”

It was the night before Rachel had pulled George’s pants down in that garden. Until
that following day, Rachel had actually held a grudge on some mischief that George
had pulled himself.

“Right when I was thinking it was time to go to sleep, I went to my bed……”

But when Rachel turned over her bedding, five frogs that George had gathered up
jumped out.

“Because I was only four then, of course I panicked.”

Flustered by the jumping, when she recovered from her surprise and realized what
had happened, she quickly climbed into bed, grabbed the frogs, and threw them in the
trash.

“Rachel…… you used to grab frogs with your bare hands……”

“That’s not the point.”

Rachel gathered all the frogs in her garbage can, placed a large book over the top so
that none of the frogs could jump out to escape, and then finally went back to bed.

And then the next day.

“After a good night’s rest I began to think carefully, and I knew that this threat couldn’t
be simply forgiven. The perpetrator needed to be taught a lesson. A crack was made
in the relationship between me and my futon from a horrendous act of terrorism,
aimed directly at disturbing my good night’s sleep by some monster who needed to be
sentenced and punished.”

“……I could have done what you said, but Sis, you’re boiling point is way too low…”

“Rachel, you’ve always hated it whenever somebody disturbs your sleep since long
ago……”

Rachel held a one party trial¹ inside her mind with no closing arguments. A judgement
was brought down instantly, and Rachel formed a special investigation group–made
up of a single person–and found George in the garden looking at some snails.

“I found the fiendish criminal who would dare disturb another person’s sleep playing
around without a care in the world, and any hesitation I felt disappeared as my anger
exploded out.”

“Isn’t Sis’s boiling point just a little too low!? You’re safeguards are flimsier than the
wings of a bird!”

“Rachel, to a three year old kid……?”

“If you say it like that then I was just four years old. I could smile because in the end I
wasn’t grown up either.”

So George, the main perpetrator of the terrorism was caught, but Rachel clearly
declared something before pulling George’s pants down.
It goes without saying the frogs would receive some firecrackers as their punishment……
but, of course George also had to take responsibility and was guilty of the same crime
that the frogs had committed……

“Right? So I followed the law that has stood since the times of old, and since you were
guilty of the same crime, you received the same punishment. So I stuffed my supply of
firecrackers up the criminal’s ass as well……”

“How horrible is your way of thinking that you ended up there!? Isn’t it way too scary
for a four year old kid to think like that!?”

“Rachel… what ‘supply of firecrackers’……?”

“And after I went through so much trouble to try and give a cute explanation.”

“Where!? Hey, where!?”

Rachel drank down the half a cup of tea that she had remaining.

“So in conclusion, I didn’t really do anything that I should feel guilty over.”

“You may not feel guilty over it, but anyone who’d hear you speak would feel a chill at
just how absurd……”

Clasping her hands together as George grumbled to himself, Rachel looked out her
ventilation window towards the blue sky above.

“Well, if I dare to say my one regret…… it would be that the firecrackers didn’t blow in
time for George. With the frogs it was a flashy pop, but George’s ended with a big
*mumble mumble*”

“Sis, what’re you mumbling? Huh? What words are supposed to be there instead of
that mumbling!?”

After a deep breath, Rachel struck a pose like she was deep in thought. It didn’t seem
like she was going to give any further explanation at what she had mumbled. Finally
Alexandra rested her cheek in her hand while wearing an amazed expression.

“Well, huh… a firecracker, even if it could blow a frog away, I suppose that’d be
impossible for a human.”

“I was still so young… that’s the limit of a four year old.”

Rachel stood up from her seat and began digging around in one of the wooden crates
in the back of the cell before returning with what she had been looking for. In her hand
was a cylindrical “something”.

“Nowadays I can get even dynamite if I need to……”

“That, no way…… it’s the real thing!?”

“Hmm, I wonder?”

Inside the dungeon, the little brother’s nerves shattered, and his screams echoed off
the walls.

While watching George walk up the stone steps somehow exhausted both mentally
and physically, Rachel whispered to Alexandra.

“Alexandra. George still has yet to notice…… right?”

The siblings’ childhood friend made a complex smile mixed with loneliness and
unease before looking up at the tired back of her dear fiancee.

“Right. That sarcasm demon hates to show any fear, but in truth he’s just lashing out
because of his own shyness…… still, it’s not like George would be able to just accept
and laugh about all this.”

Rachel looked up at the back of her little brother as he left the dungeon as well.

“So in other words, George is still just a kid.”

“Yes…… but when you put it that way, isn’t he cute?”

“Should I force him to grow up?”

“Could you not? If ‘Sister’ does any more than this, that guy might end up becoming a
shut-in.”

“Wouldn’t that be fun? A shut-in.”

“For you.”

After leaving the dungeon and arriving above ground, George took a moment to take
a deep breath of freedom before the Prison Guard came walking up with his keys
hanging at his waist.

“Oh? Sorry, you haven’t been coming around lately. Is His Highness here too?”

“Huh?…… No, I’m escorting someone else…… Sis’s close friend came by for a visit.”

“Ah, I see!… Well!”

George grabbed the Prison Guard by the collar as he tried to turn around and leave as
if it was natural.

“……oi, didn’t you come to inspect the dungeon? Why did you suddenly make a u-
turn!?”

“Please let me go! If the Lady and a close friend of hers are together, then something
absolutely no good is definitely going on!”

“I completely agree with you, but it’s your job as a watchman to go check it out! That’s
what you get paid for!”

“If the Lady catches me, then it won’t matter how much I get paid!”

“That’s perfectly understandable, but it’s unfair that I’m the only one having their
nerves chipped away! You can play with Sis too!”

“Noooooo!”
The two men continued to struggle with each other until Alexandra finally came out
herself.

1. A type of Japanese trial system where the ruling is final and cannot be appealed.