Chapter 1: The Princess of Daryth

I knew the future of this world. On top of that, if it involved characters who appeared in the anime, I could roughly guess how they’d behave with some degree of accuracy.

And yet, even with all that knowledge going for me, a few things still managed to catch me off guard. The mercenary No Face sneaking into Kirsch or Sepith Pendragon the Traitor Knight going rogue early, for instance. Still, nothing had yet strayed too far from what I knew of the anime, and the characters continued to trace the same footsteps towards their futures. I had the advantage of knowing what made them tick.

In other words, there were things that I could prepare for in advance, and because of that, I knew I had to brace myself for them.

“It’s a little late for this greeting since we’ve spoken some already, but good morning, Slowe. Sorry for visiting this early in the morning. We’ve only just arrived at Kirsch, so I wanted to finish my business before people start making a fuss about us.”

This, on the other hand, was completely out of left field for me. The girl in front of me right now with a few knights attending to her never appeared in Shuya Marionette, but she was undoubtedly an important character, nonetheless.

Even Shuya Newkern, the main protagonist, never managed to get into contact with the princess of Daryth.

“I-It is no trouble, Your Highness. I do not mind at all.”

“I’m glad. I was worried that you might be still sleeping, so... I mean, you know, it would have been rude on my part to wake you up for this.” Princess Carina flashed a reserved smile as she finished speaking. At first glance, she gave off a glamorous impression, perhaps because of her soft rose-gold hair, but there was something ephemeral about her.

I was used to looking at pretty girls since I saw Charlotte in my everyday life, but even someone like me would be hard-pressed not to find themselves drawn to Princess Carina.

She smells nice too, and her proportions are a sight to behold... I cut off that train of thought as I saw her heave a sigh of relief. With her sudden appearance at Kirsch, I was now sure of one thing.

“Um, Princess Carina... May I ask what business you have here at Kirsch Mage Institute?”

The fate of the world had changed greatly from the plot of Shuya Marionette as I knew it.

A handful of fully armed Royal Knights stood in the corridor of the fourth-floor male dorm.

“Slowe Denning, do you understand what we are requesting of you?”

“I understand well enough, yes. You are not giving me any details, which can only mean one thing.”

The princess wasn’t here in the corridor with us. While the Royal Knights were explaining the situation to me, she was snooping about my room, as if everything about the dormitory was curious to her. It’s probably more accurate to say that she’s ransacking my room, by the looks of it.

“All you need to know is that you must take care of the princess while she is here at this school. Normally, the honor of being the princess’s companion would never fall to a mere student. There is nothing more you could possibly ask for.”

To sum up what the knight was telling me, while the Cardinal and his entourage finished up their business in Yoram, they wanted Princess Carina to take this opportunity to interact with youngsters her age since she had very few chances to go out in public.

And so it was decided that Princess Carina would stay at Kirsch in the interim. While she was here, she needed someone other than the Royal Knights to attend to her during classes and such.

I turned out to be their prime candidate for that. As a Denning, my house status was befitting of the task. Besides that, this was the Order’s way of thanking me for stopping the traitorous Sepith Pendragon in his tracks. Or so the knights had told me.

“I see,” I said at length. “In other words, you want me to be the princess’s toy when she’s bored.”

In the anime, however, Princess Carina had adamantly refused to go outside and become a key player. Would she really come to this school just because the Cardinal told her to?

“Watch your tongue, you scoundrel,” the knight spat. “I will cut you down if you dare say anything rude.”

“My apologies. I’m still half-asleep,” I replied, feigning innocence.

The so-called “business” that the Cardinal and the rest of the Order were taking care of in Yoram...was, without a doubt, cleaning up after Sepith. If word got out that a Royal Knight was a traitor who’d defected to Dustour’s side, it would strain the relationship between Daryth and her allies.

As a result, they were going around and covering up any and all evidence that he had betrayed the Order. Judging from the exorbitant amount of spending Alicia had done lately, the Cardinal had obviously given her a handsome sum in exchange for her silence.

I, on the other hand, had received not a single word of appreciation or gratitude from anyone in the Order. In fact, the Royal Knights held a grudge against me for stopping Sepith. From their perspective, it was probably insulting that a Denning of all people had managed to outmaneuver a Royal Knight.

“What’s with that lineup of people?! The Piggy Duke’s talking to Sir Dalton, the One-Strike Knight, and that’s Sir Kushner, the Gemini Blades Knight, and there’s even Sir Delbane, the Berserker Knight!”

“There’s someone more important, though! The girl in the Piggy Duke’s room! That’s the princess herself! She’s still a Little Daryth right now, but it’s really her!”

“Hey, Sir Dalton is glaring our way!” a student hissed. “Be quiet, everyone!”

Further down the corridor, a crowd of students peered at us from the stairwell, eyeing our every move. Even Shuya was there. The students probably didn’t know what was being said in the tense exchange between me and the knights, though.

“So, which is it? Will you accept or not? Decide right here and now, Slowe Denning,” Sir Dalton demanded. “There are numerous other candidates aside from you.”

I mulled over it for a moment before making my decision. “I shall accept. It is a position of utmost honor.”

“You should’ve just agreed when we first asked instead of wasting our time...” the knight muttered. “That, and I’m sure you already know, but about the matter of Sepith—”

“I understand, Sir Dalton. I cannot say with certainty what my father would think of him, but personally, I hope that he will receive a second chance. I have no intentions of being thoughtless with this information.”

The knight paused. “I see. Then I shall say no more on the matter.”

My father already knew that the Order had invited me to join the Guardian Selection, and my mother had reprimanded me via a letter sent from back home. “What in the world were you thinking?!” she’d written. My mother had even scolded Charlotte for not fulfilling her duty as my retainer to stop me from going haywire. Charlotte had been quite down for a while after reading it.

Unlike me, my father would probably condemn Sepith for daring to do such an outrageous thing to Alicia. Looking back on it now, my father had doted on Alicia quite a bit when I was engaged to her, so that sort of reaction was likely. My father and the Cardinal would be having a conversation any time now in Yoram, and I could bet it wouldn’t be pretty.

I hope that I don’t get dragged into all of this for no reason, but like as not that’s what’ll happen... I sighed inwardly.

“Hey, have you finished the boring discussion?” The princess opened the door and poked her head out. Her soft rose-gold hair flowed behind her as she moved, and she was wearing a pleasant floral perfume. And...

Thinking about her well-endowed chest would be disrespectful, so I did my best to keep my attention away from there.

“It’s the Little Daryth!” a harsh whisper echoed down the corridor. “I’m from an earl house, but even I’ve never seen her until now!”

“Hey, don’t push me, Shuya! I said don’t push me! Oh wow, Sir Dalton’s looking at us!”

Sepith’s betrayal had been kept completely under wraps, likely due to Cardinal Maldini’s intervention. The people at school hadn’t heard a thing about it. They didn’t know I’d been a part of the Guardian Selection, nor that Alicia had nearly been kidnapped again, nor that there was a small connection between me and the princess of Daryth now.

“Sorry, Slowe. Though we caused you a lot of trouble, I didn’t get the chance to greet you properly back in Yoram. Not only that, but I’m staying at this school for a while, as I’m sure you’ve heard from Dalton already,” Princess Carina said, bowing her head.

Immediately, Sir Dalton gave me a death glare, and his lips turned down into a severe frown behind his black beard.

Yes, yes. I know.

“Princess Carina, please raise your head,” I pleaded. “And it’s an honor to be your companion, Your Highness.”

The princess breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear that. Then, I am in your care from now on, Slowe.”

My first impression of her was that she was quite modest, a stark contrast to her striking appearance. I’d heard from rumors that the princess was a very...difficult person, but to be honest, she seemed to be quite mature from what I’d seen so far.

Though I’d been a little snarky when I spoke to the Royal Knight earlier, it was a dream come true to be Princess Carina’s companion.

The girl smiling bashfully at me was completely different from Charlotte and Alicia. So far, I had mainly been dealing with dangerous opponents like mercenaries and traitors, so this was a breath of fresh air in my life.

“Open yer textbooks,” the professor said, scowling as he looked over the class. “How many times do I have to tell ye to pay attention, kiddos?!”

“Highland! How crass of you to speak in such a way before Her Highness! Take your job seriously!” Sir Dalton snapped.

I was Princess Carina’s companion during her stay at our school. I was sure people would complain about it, but surprisingly, nobody did. Apparently, everyone thought I was the obvious choice for the role. House Denning was undoubtedly the highest status you could get in this school, at least next to Alicia. I supposed it went unsaid that status meant everything to a school full of young nobles, huh?

“So, uh... Earth magic is especially useful in construction on the front lines, as well as when making simple army bases... Ah, oops, wrong thing. I mean—”

“Highland, can you not teach with more dignity?”

“Beardo over there is an outdated guy who looks down on earth magic,” the professor quipped. “So make sure none o’ you end up like him, all right?”

Good grief, class today sucks more than usual.

Sir Dalton, a man of large build and sporting a black beard, stood watch out in the corridor. He criticized Professor Loco Moco’s teaching style out loud from the hallway, and the professor dished it out in kind. From the looks of it, Sir Dalton was probably the professor’s superior from when he’d been in the Order. Though Sir Dalton’s reaction made sense, it was heinous to have Professor Loco Moco teach Magic Studies in the first place. Some rumors said that a handful of students had gone directly to the headmaster to protest the appointment. Others said the school was urgently looking for someone to take the post of Magic Studies professor, but who knew how long that would take?

“Why are you just standing around, Highland? Hurry up and carry on with class!”

“Damn it... Why did this epitome of a muscle head have to be the one to come to Kirsch?” the professor muttered under his breath. “Oliver’s more suitable for stuff like this, right? Someone like Dalton isn’t useful outside the battlefield...”

Professor Loco Moco was clearly done with the whole situation because after that, he did little more than read the textbook word for word aloud to the class like some kind of robot.

Still, it was hard to ignore the large number of people who were trying to get a furtive look at Princess Carina. Shuya, especially. I’d lost track of how many times he’d turned around. He did it so often that Alicia kicked his foot in annoyance.

Oh. Alicia looked this way too. They’re both princesses. Maybe she’s self-conscious because of Princess Carina? But that theory was quickly shot down because rather than staring at Carina, Alicia only glared at me. What?

Princess Carina called out to me. “Hey, Slowe.”

“Oink?”

“Oink?” the princess mimicked me, chuckling quietly. “You’re an interesting one.”

Oh, oops. Whenever I let my guard down, I ended up relapsing back into the habits of a human orc.

Princess Carina’s hand was light as a feather as she wrote on the blank parts of the textbook, brushing across the paper. I peered over; her handwriting was small and modest, matching the impression I’d gotten from her.

I cleared my throat. “What is it?”

“Is Loco Moco Highland behaving like that because I’m around?”

“No, it is probably because Sir Dalton is intimidating the professor.”

“Oh, I see. Those two and their antics... They haven’t changed at all.”

Though I’d said that to the princess, the truth was her presence probably did affect him. I knew from the anime that Professor Loco Moco had left the Order before he could bid farewell to the princess he was duty bound to protect...almost as if he’d fled from it all. Perhaps that was why the professor had his eyes glued to the ground and seemed to have lost his composure.

“Teach your classes seriously, Highland!”

“Oi, yer so noisy, Dalton! How many times are you plannin’ on lashin’ out at me?!”

Afterward, Princess Carina asked me about the professor’s reputation at school. She stared at the professor as she listened, seemingly intrigued. What was going on in that mind of hers? I had no idea.

Break time was meant to be just that: a brief respite, but...

“Your Highness! Please allow me to give you a tour around campus!”

“Hey, I was here first!” Shuya elbowed the boy away. “Your Highness, my name is Shuya Newkern! If there’s anything that you are unsure of during your stay at this school, please feel free to ask me!”

I couldn’t even count how many people had surrounded her, and the classroom buzzed with activity the moment class was dismissed.

Several times more boys surrounded Carina than last year when Alicia had first arrived. I wasn’t surprised, though, considering that this was Carina Little Daryth we were talking about. A princess that rarely showed herself in public was here at our school, of all places.

This was a rare opportunity, and if you could get close to her now, there was no telling what it might bring you in the long run. Or that was the reasoning, anyway. Look, I get why you’re all acting like this, but the desperation in your eyes is intimidating. You’re coming on so strong.

“Huh? Hmm... The princess smells really nice! What is it?” one boy wondered out loud.

“Your Highness! What perfume are you wearing?! Is that possibly a limited line of Noin Oula?!”

Princess Carina answered each and every inquiry from the barrage of questions fired at her sincerely. Alicia sulked at her from across the room, her elbow resting on the table. Though she wasn’t too obvious about it, Alicia seemed upset. Is she sulking because Shuya is so eager to try and get Princess Carina’s attention?

“It would be an honor to have lunch with you, Your Highness! Ah, if the dining hall is not to your liking, my room is very much available!” Shuya exclaimed.

“Your Highness, please refrain!” Shuya’s friend warned. “The guy keeps a giant snake in his room for fortune-telling purposes!”

If I were in Princess Carina’s position, I’d lose it and start firing off spells at them. I might even have yelled something like, “Ugh, do this later!” But the princess dealt with them all with grace. I wouldn’t have been able to keep my irritation off my face if I were in her shoes.

Once again, I observed our surroundings. Jeez, there are way more guys hanging around than when Alicia first came to school. Did her wondrous chest and her compassionate aura make her more approachable? The furtive glances at her chest from boys were endless.

“Your Highness!” they all exclaimed, one after another, echoing each other’s words.

Oh... Princess Carina was quickly lost in the sea of people, and I couldn’t spot her at all. I sent my best wishes silently to Princess Carina, who’d become the most popular person at school in the span of just a few hours.

“Lord Slowe,” a familiar voice muttered. “She’s very popular.”

“It can’t be helped. Here’s a princess that rarely shows herself,” I replied. “Aren’t you going to join them to try and make an impression on her, though? You’re aiming to become a Royal Knight, right? If she takes a liking to you, that’d be one giant step towards your dream.”

Though the student I was talking to sported blond hair just as Princess Carina did, his status fell right in the middle of the school hierarchy. Lord Pauper, the heir of Viscount Greatlorde, came right up next to me and looked towards where the princess was lost in the crowd. He didn’t seem like he planned on joining the fray.

“None of them have noticed that the princess’s expression is stiff,” Valjean said, sighing. “Those guys are idiots.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You can tell?”

“Remember, I was the one who immediately noticed your change, Lord Slowe.”

“True. You observe people keenly. I have a lot to learn from you in that regard.”

Sir Dalton was as still as a statue, not even a hair in his black beard twitching where he stood in the corridor. He didn’t seem to have any plans of saving the princess from the mountain of people she was buried under.

“Lord Slowe, the princess looked our way briefly. It seems that she is asking for help. I believe that it is your job as the Overlord of Kirsch to shine in a time like this.”

“Overlord? Bah. Who’re you talking about? But yeah, I guess you have a point. They did ask me to take care of her, after all.”

“Take care of her? Oh. So that’s what that commotion in the male dorm this morning was about.”

“I’ll head over there. See you later, Valjean.”

I stood up and purposely thumped my foot on the ground as I walked. I couldn’t stomp as loudly as I could have before I’d lost all that weight, which was a shame, but it still had the desired effect. The people crowding around Princess Carina scattered like dandelion seeds in the wind, running away from me in fear.

“No matter how you look at it, you really are the ruler of the place,” Valjean chimed in.

Oh, shut up. I decided to ignore the words of the penniless brownnoser.

“Here you go, Princess Carina. This is your lunch.”

“Thank you, Slowe,” the princess replied at length.

“Are you sure that you are not going to eat in the dining hall? I believe they are still waiting for you.”

“What do you think would happen if I went to the dining hall now?”

“Well...” I hesitated. “It would be an even greater disaster than this morning, most likely.”

The princess’s face went stiff, probably because she’d remembered back to the catastrophe in the dining hall that morning. Nearly all the students packed themselves into the dining hall since the princess was there, resulting in unmitigated chaos. The people working there, including Charlotte, had to work their heads off to keep up because of the excessive crowd.

“I’m quite popular here, it seems. That surprised me a little.”

The students couldn’t work up the courage to talk to her when she was with me, so she was able to relax right now. But Princess Carina didn’t touch her meal at all; instead, she just spent her time staring blankly at the scenery around Kirsch. She was probably thrown off by the change in her environment, brought from the solemn palace to such a rowdy place.

“Alicia, the Cirquistan princess who enrolled around the same time as me, was also practically a tourist attraction when she first came to Kirsch. The students here are a little starved for entertainment.”

“Oh, yes. She was in the same class as us, if I remember right. So even Princess Alicia went through what I’m going through now. I see...”

Though the curious onlookers didn’t approach us, their number only increased as time went by. There were even people who were attempting to do pencil portraits of the princess, their hands swiftly moving across their papers. From time to time, one of the so-called artists would frown. Is that because I’m in the background as well? I discreetly glared at the offender so that the princess wouldn’t notice; the guy literally collapsed to the ground in fear.

Oh. Tina was also among the crowd of people, her eyes sparkling. For someone like Tina, who had a very romanticized image of us nobles, a princess visiting our school must’ve been something right out of a fairy tale.

“Speaking of which, thanks for noticing earlier.”

“Huh?” I mulled over it for a moment. “Oh...that.”

Earlier, during break time, I’d scared off all the students who were swarming Princess Carina with just a threatening little stomp. I still hadn’t managed to entirely shed my reputation as the blackhearted Piggy Duke; people still feared me. On top of that, people seemed to think it’d be a death sentence to piss me off, probably because of the impression I’d left when I defeated No Face.

“Everyone runs away when you come around, huh...? That’s funny.” The princess chuckled, probably thinking back on how everyone had fled earlier. Though she was one year my senior, there was something childish about her.

Next to the princess, I started shoving my lunch into my face yet again. The Royal Knight came over at the precise moment Princess Carina finished her food, accepting her empty tableware.

“Hey, take mine there while you’re at it, Sir Dalton.” I handed over mine too, since he was taking care of hers anyway. It earned me a withering glare from the man.

“Why, you...” Sir Dalton gritted his teeth. “Just as I thought, you’re as impudent as the rest of House Denning.”

I didn’t care. Using the Royal Knight as my errand boy felt good, honestly.

Now then, since Sir Dalton wasn’t around to spy on us, I supposed this was the only opportunity I had to ask this.

“Um, Princess Carina, may I ask you something?”

“You don’t have to be so reserved around me. What is it?”

“Then, I shall take you up on that offer... Princess Carina, why did you come to this school? The Royal Knights said this morning that you were mainly here to interact with students, but that is a lie, is it not?”

She paused for a moment. “Well, well. Why do you think that’s the case?”

“Sir Dalton, Sir Kushner, Sir Delbane...” I listed off the knights attending to her on my fingers. “Professor Loco Moco also mentioned this, but considering the people assigned to you, it is almost as if you are heading off to battle.”

Princess Carina paused. “Indeed, you might be right. Even though they need to be skilled as my guards, those three are knights who especially excel at combat within the Order. Well then, Slowe. What do you think we came to this school for?”

“The dungeon. Or, to be more specific, to explore the dungeon, I would assume.”

While I was in Yoram, I’d heard that the princess had gone into a dungeon and suffered a terrible experience once before. More than that, the Flower Knight Oliver had said that the final trial for the Guardian Selection would be held in a dungeon too. It must have been this dungeon he’d been referring to.

The princess blinked. “I’m surprised. People in the know would realize it, huh? Yes, that’s right. Interacting with the students is merely an aside. We came to this school to enter the dungeon found near the campus grounds.”

“Ah...” I trailed off. “My apologies, I might have stepped out of line, asking about this.”

“I don’t mind. I know that even if I hadn’t said anything, you would’ve arrived at the truth. And we are indebted to you too, so I will tell you the real reason why we’re here.”

The princess of this country took a deep breath, and then she started speaking.

“I am sure that you know the Guardian Selection was suspended because of the incident with Sepith. Originally, we were supposed to return to the capital immediately after it was canceled, but, well... An intriguing report reached our ears. Apparently, a soldier spotted a dragon hatchling in the dungeon.” The princess paused, waiting for my reaction. “Ah, that face... Yes, I agree, that’s impossible. But finding a dragon hatchling is one of Maldini’s dearest wishes.”

“The Cardinal’s?”

“If someone were to tame a dragon hatchling, we might be able to raise it like the Guardian Dragon of Huzak, or so he says. It’s a silly story, isn’t it? But Maldini is serious about this.”

The monsters in this world were creatures that originated from dungeons. Even dragons, the kings of the skies and the epitome of flying-type monsters, had also once come from dungeons. However, it was very, very rare for a dragon hatchling to spawn in a dungeon nowadays. If there were confirmed reports of a dragon hatchling, the Adventurers’ Guild would’ve probably been a lot more eager about exploring this dungeon. In the past, there’d only been a handful of confirmed cases where hatchling dragons were successfully tamed. Those dragons, once matured, would obey humans’ orders.

“That’s why I came. You know dragons tend to take a liking to light mages, right? Like how the Guardian Dragon of Huzak once did.”

“The dungeon is currently under the jurisdiction of the army,” I said slowly. “Even if the Cardinal wills it, doing such a thing without permission is...”

“I suppose so. But I figured if I came to the school myself, they couldn’t do much to stop me, right? Or so I thought, thinking that there was no way they would prohibit me, but it turns out I was wrong. Apparently, if I don’t have the duke’s permission to enter, they won’t permit my entrance, even if it is me making the request, you know? The soldiers are truly loyal to House Denning. It’s almost as if the authority of the royal family doesn’t mean anything at all.”

“Uh, well... Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. In exchange, I figured I might as well see to the other business I had in mind.” The princess paused. “Hey, Slowe. Why do you think you were chosen as my companion?”

“That’s...” I trailed off. “Probably because I am from House Denning if I had to guess. I currently have the highest social standing in this school.”

That was why nobody complained about me, even though I had Princess Carina all to myself right now.

“That’s wrong.” The princess flatly denied that line of reasoning.

“I don’t know what the knights said to you this morning, but I chose you as my companion. In fact, I was the one who requested for Maldini to ask for your participation in the Guardian Selection in the first place.”

“You did, Princess Carina?”

“Yes, I did. I asked Silva to tell me about House Denning, and at first, it was just to ease my boredom. While he talked about the various things that happened, though, you intrigued me. He was your personal knight once, so...” She trailed off with a shrug.

“Did the guy say anything weird about me?” I asked after a beat of silence.

Silva was currently getting an earful from the Cardinal in Yoram, apparently. From what I heard, he frequently flouted regulations, and the Cardinal had seized this opportunity to give him a thorough scolding.

Yeah, sounds about right. That guy would be pretty eager to talk about me.

“He talked a lot about you, about how the Prodigy of Wind suddenly transformed one day: neglecting Alicia, your fiancée at the time; playing pranks so severe that they couldn’t be laughed off; polishing off all the winter rations all by yourself... That was around the time that I heard the rumors of you capturing No Face with your own two hands. I thought this was a golden opportunity, and I—”

“Sir Dalton! There you are!” A soldier with a pale face came over and cut her off.

The aforementioned Sir Dalton had just returned after throwing away our empty lunch boxes, and he listened to the soldier’s report. His expression quickly changed.

“Look who’s talking! Who was the one who said that the dungeon was no longer under our jurisdiction? If it has anything to do with the dungeon, leave it to that man.”

“We weren’t able to find Sir Highland, and...”

“Tch, that man is utterly useless.” Sir Dalton spat. “Understood. I will go.” The Royal Knight turned to address us. “Your Highness, there is something I must report.”

Apparently, a powerful monster had crawled out of the dungeon, and the soldiers wanted Sir Dalton to subdue it. Normally, defeating monsters would be Professor Loco Moco’s job since he was experienced at it, but they couldn’t find him. Or so the soldier said.

After receiving permission from Princess Carina, Sir Dalton departed the area with the soldier.

After they left, the princess turned to me and said, “Even if a strong monster came out of the dungeon, the school has nothing to worry about. You are here. You were able to stop Sepith’s rampage, Slowe.”

“Not at all. I’m just a pig that knows things on paper but not in practice... Oh.” At that moment, I spotted Charlotte weaving her way through the crowd that had gathered to see the princess. There was a hint of joy in her gait. She was definitely heading off to the training field to practice magic.

“Hey, Slowe. Let’s head to the classroom. I chose to take a lot of the same classes as you.”

“The afternoon classes? Oh... My deepest apologies, Princess Carina. I am actually excused from all my classes this afternoon.”

The class was a lecture-based one that first-years could choose to take in advance. Since I’d done very well on the end-of-year exams last year—too well, in fact—the teacher had declared that there was nothing more I could learn in that class, and I was exempt from taking all of those classes in the second year.

I gave a rundown of the situation to Princess Carina, and her expression went stiff.

“Now then, please stand up, Your Highness!”

In the place of Sir Dalton, who’d left to deal with the monster, a slender, handsome Royal Knight approached. It was Sir Kushner, whose defining traits were his pleasant, husky voice and the Gemini Swords equipped at his hip. He had a cheerful demeanor, and he had been talking to a couple of girls for a while before he headed our way.

There were all kinds of Royal Knights, apparently.

“I graduated from here, so I know where most of the classrooms are! You don’t have to resort to relying on the boy from House Denning. Now, let us head off!”

The Royal Knight’s cheerfulness knew no bounds, and he dragged an unwitting Princess Carina along by her hand. It was quite a surreal sight.

I stood up, snorting as I stretched thoroughly. Now then. Normally, I would do only one thing when I had free time: work on my weight-loss regimen, of course. I needed to lose as much weight as possible to prepare for my father’s arrival.

But exercise was the furthest thing from my mind today. I could only think about Charlotte. Like how the Royal Knights attended to Princess Carina, I had to stick to Charlotte’s side too. As her guardian, it was my responsibility to watch over her so that she didn’t cause other people trouble with her wand.

The training field was completely barren of trees or buildings. It was a spacious plot of earthen ground made for the sole sake of practicing magic. It was here that I found Charlotte, practicing diligently on top of the dense, slightly elevated earth.

“Hey there, Charlotte!”

“Huh?” She turned to me. “Master Slowe! What are you doing here?”

“I was worried about you causing trouble for other people.”

“Jeez, you’re such a meanie! I’ve never caused trouble for other people!”

“Huh? Really?” I muttered doubtfully. She must’ve completely forgotten about all the trouble she’d caused me during the speed-eating contest a while back.

“Any! Way!” Charlotte exclaimed as she pulled at my sleeve. She giggled. “Don’t have a heart attack when you hear this!” Her voice bubbled with excitement and exhilaration.

“Did something good happen?”

“It’s about my magic, of course!” Charlotte said, exasperated. “I’ve gotten better at magic!”

I didn’t know how often I’d heard that same phrase come out of her mouth. At this rate, I thought I might end up in another endless tug-of-war with her over her wand. But...

“Take a look at this!” Charlotte said, drawing in a breath in anticipation. She tightened her grip on her wand in one hand and threw a small pebble up into the air with the other.

Huh. It’s unlike her to start immediately with a demonstration. Ah, she’s using a light spell to make something stop in midair, eh? Within light magic, stopping objects in motion was a relatively difficult feat to accomplish, but Charlotte had a tendency to dive right into the deep end with harder spells. I see, I see. But I know what’s gonna happen next. She’s going to fail, right?

“Here I go! Clock Lock!”

The small rock froze in the air. One second passed, then two, three... Then the glow around it dissipated, and the rock fell to the ground.

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. What? What was that? An illusion? When did Charlotte learn to use a spell as advanced as Illusion?!

“Master Slowe, did you see that?! I’ll do it again!” Charlotte threw the little pebble up into the air and waved her wand as she chanted. And then she did it again, and again, over and over. She didn’t succeed every single time, but she wasn’t half bad. At least half of her attempts were successful, and those successes were pretty consistent, to boot.

Not only that, but there was one thing completely different compared to her spells before: the light spirits were helping Charlotte. Though she was a princess, the light spirits hadn’t been interested in her up to this point, and yet now, the spirits were paying attention to her.

“Th-Th-Th...That’s amazing, Charlotte!!!” Though I knew the students around us would be disgusted by me doing this, I seized Charlotte’s hand.

“Whoa! Master Slowe!”

“It’s a miracle! A miracle, I say,” I exclaimed in delight.

“A miracle?! That’s a mean thing to say!” Charlotte complained. “Oh, w-whoa!”

I clung onto her hand and jerked it around in excitement. I showered her with every single compliment I could think of. Charlotte’s pride dissolved into bashfulness and her eyes flickered between the various appalled gazes of the students around us.

“We’ve got to celebrate! Let’s have a feast today! We could even make this an anniversary! To think that such a day would come... It’s your anniversary today, Charlotte! The day a miracle happened!”

“This is embarrassing. Master Slowe, please calm down!” Charlotte pleaded. “Stop it already!”

Flushing crimson, Charlotte shoved me away from her.

“Oiiink!!!”

“Um, anyway, Master Slowe. I saw you with Princess Carina earlier. What’s it like being her companion? Is it hard?”

A silence fell over the training field. Even though everyone had been diligently training away at their magic, the moment the topic of Princess Carina came up, they all stopped to listen in.

“I’m not with her all day and night or anything.” I shrugged. “Plus, I’m not the one who’s having a hard time, it’s Princess Carina. Charlotte, you remember what happened to Alicia when she first came to Kirsch, don’t you?”

“That was quite the stir. I’m almost amazed that Alicia didn’t have a nervous breakdown during all that.”

“What the princess is going through is worse than that. Comparing the second princess of Cirquista and the crown princess of Daryth... Though I feel bad towards Alicia for saying this, they are on two completely different levels. On top of that, Princess Carina doesn’t go out in public often, so a lot of students want to become acquainted with her during this rare opportunity.” I paused. “There are swarms of them during breaks between classes. I guess I get where they are coming from, though.”

“Oh wow,” Charlotte said slowly, “that sounds like a hard time.”

If word got out that Charlotte was the lost princess of Huzak, though...the resulting uproar would be tenfold that of the one surrounding Princess Carina. After all, one of Charlotte’s ancestors was famous for being so beautiful that she’d even made a dragon fall for her charms.

“The Royal Knights will probably do something about it.” I decided to change the topic. “So show me that spell again, Charlotte.”

“True, Princess Carina has a lot of strong guards around her. Okay, understood. Here...I go!”

After that, Charlotte continued to practice her spell with me until she’d exhausted her mana. I was captivated the whole time. She’d always dreamt of becoming a proper mage, and I had watched her struggle towards that goal all this time; this was a moving sight. But the clock in the training field marched on mercilessly, and...

“Slowe Denning. You didn’t show up at the appointed hour to meet with the princess... Do you have a death wish?”

I completely forgot about my promise to pick Princess Carina up after classes and earned myself a royal chewing out from the Royal Knights for it.

At that point in time, I still didn’t know a thing. I didn’t know what was going on in the wonderful princess’s head, and I politely left our meeting place to let her deal with the surrounding students on her own.

So far, Princess Carina seemed like the ideal princess. So why didn’t she ever appear in the anime? It took only one single day for me to realize the reason for that.

On the second day of Princess Carina’s stay at Kirsch, the incident happened.

“Hey, has anyone seen Princess Carina today?” one student asked.

“Apparently, nobody has seen her at all!” another replied.

Princess Carina was nowhere to be found.

Students had already doxxed Princess Carina’s course schedule and it quickly became common knowledge. Everyone knew exactly where she’d be and when she’d be there. There must’ve been an extreme pervert at this school who enjoyed spying on people’s privacy.

“The princess overslept! That must be it!”

“Seems like our princess has a playful side. Tell everyone on the team! The princess overslept!”

Jeez, being a princess was a tough gig. Even though it was only her second day here, she already had a group of rabid fans following her every move, one that kept growing as time went on. She was different from me; people celebrated whenever I wasn’t in class.

But the princess didn’t show up to her next class either, nor the one she was supposed to take with me, so I started getting worried about her. Then...

“News hot off the press! Apparently, the Royal Knights are still standing in front of the female dorms! She didn’t oversleep! There’s a real possibility that she’s sick!”

“Shouldn’t we go to visit her to give her our best wishes? If we all went as a group, those scary Royal Knights might actually hear us out,” Shuya chimed in.

“Are you an idiot, Shuya? Boys are banned from the female dorms. You’d be kicked out immediately.”

Rumors about Princess Carina flowed from all directions as I walked down the corridor, and everyone was talking about the princess. Feeling sick, huh? Well, considering the environment of the palace the princess is usually at...it’s way too loud here.

“The princess isn’t coming out because of all these thoughtless people. I’m sure of it,” Valjean said.

“Hey, Valjean, be more careful with my lunch. You’re spilling the soup,” I complained.

“Lord Slowe, have you heard? Apparently, afternoon classes yesterday were just as bad. I heard that during one period, so many people went to gawk at the princess that the professor couldn’t teach a thing. Oh, the poor princess...” Valjean sighed. “Oh yeah, Lord Slowe. How about we deliver Princess Carina’s lunch to her room? Since you’re assigned as her attendant, they might allow you in. I’ll accompany you while you’re at it.”

“Who are you calling an attendant? And boys aren’t allowed in the female dorms. It’s unlike you to say something that silly, like Shuya would...” I shook my head. Ugh, even Lord Pauper’s all worked up.

But then Lord Pauper went silent. I raised an eyebrow at him. “What is it? Why are you suddenly so quiet?”

“Master Slowe,” Valjean began slowly, “behind you.”

“Hm?” I turned around. “Whoa, Sir Dalton. What are you doing here?”

Behind me, standing stiff as a board, was the Royal Knight with a magnificent, rugged black beard, Sir Dalton. I was so surprised that I nearly fell out of my seat. “Slowe Denning,” he barked. “Follow me.”

This turned out to be an SOS from the one they called the One-Strike Knight.

“Hey, look at that! Why is the Piggy Duke coming into the female dorms?” one girl exclaimed.

“D-Don’t say that. If he sets his sights on you, you’ll be in for a world of pain!”

“Hmph. House Denning is nothing. My house is just as scary, and naughty children cower at the mere mention of our name—” The girl cut herself off, switching to a welcoming tone. “Ah, hello, Lord Denning.”

I can’t hear anything. I don’t know anything. I chanted that mantra in my head and emptied my mind. Oink, oink, oink.

Before my eyes was the large back of Sir Dalton. If I weren’t with this man, I’d have been immediately kicked out of the girls’ garden paradise, and I’d have a new legend following me throughout the rest of my school days: the legend that the Piggy Duke had finally snuck into the female dorms.

“But...he’s a lot thinner than he was before.”

“Hey, you, go talk to him! This is your chance to marry into riches! Well, I mean, people from House Denning have nothing but battle in their heads, but they say that he’s nearly been disowned, so you wouldn’t have to head to the battlefield...”

All these gazes digging into me... They hurt. But the comments I heard weren’t all insults. Their reaction was a little different from before. Some girls even bowed to me as I passed by them, and I got fewer looks of visible disgust too. Some girls went as far as debating amongst themselves whether to talk to me.

“Charlotte, this reaction is...” I hesitated.

“You are a member of House Denning, so this is the norm! Anyway, Master Slowe! Is it okay for someone like me to visit the princess’s room?” Charlotte asked.

“What are you saying, Charlotte? We share our fate with each other!”

“But I won’t be of any use!” Charlotte protested.

“You’re being loud, young lady,” Sir Dalton warned.

“I-I’m so sorry!”

The Royal Knight chided the two of us for talking the whole while as we climbed up the stairs one step at a time.

Under the request of the Royal Knights, I followed Sir Dalton towards the princess’s room. She must not have been feeling very well. Maybe they wanted me to use a healing spell on her?

We passed by the door of Alicia’s room and finally arrived at the princess’s room. The moment we did, Sir Dalton opened the door without hesitation and entered.

“Wait, can we really go in without asking first?” I asked, puzzled.

“It doesn’t matter,” the knight replied curtly.

“We haven’t gotten the princess’s permission, though, from the looks of things...”

“It doesn’t matter,” he repeated after a moment’s pause.

It would matter to the princess! It seemed that the scowling knight had no intention of saying anything further on the matter, though.

The layout of the room wasn’t too different from mine, but it was a few times larger. A plush carpet lined the floor, and the bay windows let in tons of sunlight. Even the boys who lived in the slums that were the first-floor boys’ dorms probably couldn’t find it in themselves to be jealous at how extravagant this place was. It was that mind-blowing.

“Slowe Denning, you are the only one allowed to proceed any further.” The knight dragged me in front of the door leading to the bedroom before turning to Charlotte. “You go stand in the corner of the room and wait for the boy there. It will depend on the princess’s mood how long he’s in there, but it shouldn’t take too long.”

Huh? I’m going in alone? No Royal Knights with me either? Hold up a hot second, nobody told me about this.

“Slowe Denning. You must keep everything you see in the room to yourself. If you even attempt to speak of what you saw—”

“Ugh, fine! I know that! You Royal Knights are such a troublesome bunch!” I said, exasperated.

The self-centered Royal Knight opened the door to the princess’s bedroom. “I wish you the best of luck,” the knight said. He forcefully shoved me into Princess Carina’s bedroom without knocking, and by the looks of it, he definitely didn’t have her permission either.

A pleasant smell hung in the air. This was an entirely different world. This was a paradise on earth known as Princess Carina’s bedroom.

But instead of finding the rumored-to-be-ill princess...

Someone was humming cheerfully.

I witnessed a girl in light pink pajamas sprawled out on the bed. Her face was the picture of laziness, and her bedhead was sticking out all over the place. It looked like she was snacking on something.

Oh. My instincts told me that I must not witness this, the princess’s true form. Immediately, I did a right-about-face. But...

“Ow!!!” That Royal Knight had closed the door without making a sound, and I ran face-first into it, smacking my forehead hard!

“Wh-Who’s there?!”

“Ow, ow, ow... Princess Carina, it is me.”

“Huh...?”

There was a stretch of silence. I looked into the princess’s eyes as she lay on the bed clutching a cookie in one hand, and she looked into mine in turn.

“Huuuh?!?!?!” The cookie was crushed in her hand. She swished her head up, and her rose-gold bangs waved in the air. And then, Princess Carina covered her head with the bedsheets, and she hollered, “Dalton! Why did you let Slowe into my room without permission?!”

But there was no response.

“Jeez! Dalton, you’re the worst!” she yelled.

Sir Dalton was supposed to be still waiting outside the bedroom, but it seemed that he was purposefully ignoring the princess.

“Um... Princess Carina?”

There was a pause. “That’s...not my name.”

“Uh, even if you say that...” I trailed off.

I still couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. Was this really Princess Carina? She reminded me of a sulking child, hiding under the bedsheets like that. She didn’t seem at all like the same person who had politely answered the students yesterday.

There was another long stretch of silence before she spoke up. “Leave.”

“Uh... Um... Everyone is waiting for you. There are a lot of people worried about you, Your Highness, thinking that you might not be feeling well.”

But I could hear only indistinguishable mumbles and groans coming out from the bundle of sheets. Princess Carina didn’t seem like she planned on leaving her shelter any time soon, and judging by her cheery mood earlier, she probably wasn’t sick.

Still, I persisted, trying to talk to the girl who made a protruding lump on the bed. But I got no reply. So this is what people mean when they say that someone wouldn’t give them the time of day. I put my palm against my forehead and looked helplessly towards the white ceiling.

Still, I had no idea how or why Princess Carina had turned into...this.

Oh. Now that I thought about it, people did call Princess Carina a hermit.

The beautiful princess poked her head out of her sheets at long last, looking very much like that hermit she was rumored to be. “Slowe, this is all your father’s fault.”

“What do you mean, if I may ask?”

She glanced around the bedroom nervously, making sure that there was no one else in the room before she started explaining bit by bit.

“Maldini contacted me and told me that Duke Denning gave us permission to explore the dungeon. However, there’s quite some time before we’re allowed to go in... Which means that I have to stay at school for a while... How many more days do I have to put on a smile like a princess...and wave around my hand?!”

“Um, what in the world...?”

“Ugh, don’t you get it?! Yesterday was all an act! All of it! It was just me trying my best to act like a proper princess! Okay?!” Almost as if she were taking her anger out on me, she lobbed a pillow in my direction.

“I am not leaving this room, Slowe. Not ever!!! I acted like a prim and proper princess! I tried my best, so I deserve to have a break! Not only that, but all the boys here always look at my chest and my waist! If today goes the same as yesterday... No! I refuse!!!”

“W-Whoa! Violence is bad!” I protested. “Wait, huh?! Why is there broken glass on the floor?!”

When I first came in, I’d thought the room was messy, but I hadn’t gotten a good look. Now that I had, I saw that the floor was a mess, littered with the broken remnants of all kinds of things: the curtains, the window panes, the clock, some textbooks... It was as if a hurricane had swept through and wrecked the place.

“I will resist to the bitter end until you get out of here! Out with you!”

Hey, who called this girl modest and refined?! She isn’t like that at all! Ah. That’s why Sir Dalton looked utterly exhausted. No, wait! Did that damned beardo leave me to persuade Princess Carina all on my own?! It’s impossible! I’m not a counselor for shut-ins!

Since everyone knew I was her attendant, bad rumors might’ve started about me if the princess had kept holing up in her room. I need to get her out of here somehow.

I waited until Princess Carina calmed down before I spoke to her again. I told her positive things about going outside, like how the food in the dining hall was nice, and how the air around here was fresh.

“Princess Carina, uh... School is fun, you know?”

“What’s fun about it? I had a terrible time yesterday.”

“Ummm... You... You can have fun with f-friends?”

I didn’t even agree with what I was saying, to be honest. School being fun? What was I talking about? School was just a safe haven I’d taken refuge in after I ran away from House Denning, and it was a place where I could live happily with Charlotte. Nothing more.

And friends? I’ll be honest. I have very few of them. Even during break times, there was only silence around me. But I ranted about all the fun things about school I could think of to try to persuade the princess to leave her room.

Despite my best efforts...the result was a complete failure.

“Oink...” I muttered sadly. Feeling utterly pathetic, I slunk down the stairs. All the while, everyone in the female dorms looked at me with judgmental eyes since boys were not allowed in on principle. Those stares made me feel even worse. “Oink... Oink, oink, oink.”

“Oooh... I see, I see.” Charlotte nodded.

Like I thought, it’s impossible for someone like me to persuade a hermit to come out. I hunched over my slightly chubby body, shrinking into myself. Charlotte walked next to me as I explained the gist of what had happened between the princess and me while leaving a lot of the details unsaid. Basically, I told her that the princess had detested the frenzy yesterday and wanted to avoid it at all costs, so she might not come out of her room anymore.

“But you tried your best to persuade her, right? Then everything will be all right.”

“All right?” I muttered, puzzled. In the end, I’d failed to persuade her to leave. That’s how I saw it, but Charlotte didn’t seem to have the same opinion.

“I don’t really know why the princess decided to shut herself in her room, but I’m sure she will come out eventually,” Charlotte declared confidently.

I was taken aback by how sure she sounded. “What makes you say that?”

“After all, Master Slowe...you were the one who got me to go outside!” she said, her smile brimming with confidence as always.

Loud, staccato thuds echoed out into the air. Was this an orc marching onto campus? No. It was the sound of my footsteps. It was the sound of me darting around campus first thing in the morning at an incredible speed. My jogs up to this point couldn’t even begin to compare!

“Th-That’s amazing, Master Slowe! You’ve broken your record too! Even orcs can’t run that fast! With this, nobody will call you a human orc!” Charlotte exclaimed.

“I’ll head over really quick and cut across the training field! Nobody should be around right now! Oiiink!” I was sick and tired of my normal running course! By springing through that uneven ground at the training field, I could improve my sense of balance!

“Oh no! Master Slowe, in front! Look out!”

“Huh?” A certain black cat was crossing the road ahead of me. “What the... Aaah!”

It seemed like the Great Spirit of Wind had been enjoying a morning stroll. But hey, don’t stop there! Get out of the way with that nimble body of yours! But the cat stopped right where it was and stared at me with a look that seemed to say that it wouldn’t move an inch.

At this rate, I would kick the Great Spirit away! Though the Great Spirit could easily blow me away with a single spell, they were pretending to be a normal pet in front of Charlotte. Even now, they were pretending to be a normal, surprised cat!

“O-Oiiink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

This is bad! I’m going to step on them! If I piss them off, I don’t know what kind of pain lies in wait, and that would be a pain in the neck. So... To avoid the Great Spirit, I slid on the ground, and...

“Ow...” I winced. Seriously, why were they here, of all places? They were probably here to check on Charlotte, but there was no reason for them to be in the middle of the path! My hand moved automatically to my wand, but I quickly decided against using it.

“Master Slowe, aren’t you going to heal the wound on your foot?”

“As self-punishment for being careless and neglecting to watch where I was going, I’ll leave it as it is for a while.”

“Amazing! You’re so admirable! You’ve become such a respectable person!”

Hmph, that’s only natural. I’m a goody-two-shoes. My reputation around school has improved tremendously lately! Hey, wait a minute!!! Where did that demon cat go?! I was about to complain to the Great Spirit of Wind, but the culprit behind this whole mess disappeared. Damn that spirit!

“I’ve got a morning present for such a remarkable student! Okay, here you go!” Charlotte held out something to me.

“Present? Oh. That.”

Charlotte handed me the weight-loss potion she’d made. More than half of its contents were depleted, and the earthworm poked its head out of the liquid. Hi. Perhaps it understood that the day of its release was near, and it squirmed around energetically in the bottle. It’d been doing that a lot lately.

“Charlotte, where’s the juice?” I asked after a pause.

As the liquid decreased in the bottle, the potion itself gradually became more concentrated, and its taste worsened accordingly. It was like drinking sewage water. Lately, even just a small amount was enough to make my head hurt and my tears flow, and leave me nauseous the rest of the day.

It was so bad that I’d begun to fear for my own safety, so I’d thought of a way to drink it that would lessen the side effects. At last, I’d finally found a solution: I would dilute the potion in a large amount of sweet juice. It was simple and effective.

“Here it is,” she said, taking the potion back from me to add the juice. “Is this enough?”

“Ah, just a little more... Charlotte, put in a little more!”

“Oh, don’t be such a whiny child. Here! Take it!” Charlotte handed the diluted weight-loss potion back to me. I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to look at it, and I frowned hard. There wasn’t any reason for it; I was just putting on the act of someone deep in thought while I braced myself.

“Master Slowe!” Perhaps Charlotte noticed my silent protest, and she called me out on it with a gasp of realization.

I wasn’t making such a face because I didn’t want to drink the potion. It’s just that...the taste is...

“M-Master Slowe, Princess Carina is...!”

“That’s right. I’m impressed that you were able to guess that Princess Carina was on my mind, Charlotte.”

Indeed, I had been thinking about the princess who’d turned into a mere hermit. It was only the third day after I had been assigned to be her attendant. My mission had changed from taking care of her to bringing her out of that room somehow.

Still, how do you get someone to stop being a hermit? Do I lure her out with good food? With money? Or rare and pretty rocks? Bah, no. The only people that would take those baits would be me, Lord Pauper, or Shuya.

“Master Slowe. Master Slowe!”

I groaned, thinking hard. “I’m a little busy right now, so...” Charlotte had begun to shake my shoulder hard, causing me to rock back and forth. “Fine! I get it, Charlotte, so don’t shake me so hard! I’ll drink it!”

“No, not that! Over there! Look! That’s Princess Carina! Over there!”

No way. Princess Carina had been very stubborn about not going outside. There was no way she would come out after just one day.

Like Charlotte said...there she was.

It was early in the morning when most of the students were still sound asleep. Though she didn’t have her guards with her, it was none other than the princess herself; she skulked about suspiciously, her head swiveling back and forth at her surroundings.

She scrutinized the individual branches of tall trees, seemingly looking for something. Wait. Did Princess Carina come here to look for the small talking bird in the legend I told her yesterday? Charlotte and I stood, stupefied, observing the princess’s every move silently. After a while, she finally realized we were there.

“Slowe, what are you doing here so early in the morning?! And, uh, this is not what it looks like! Um, I slept so much that I woke up early, that’s all! I didn’t come here to try and catch the talking bird, nuh-uh!”

Princess Carina fired off excuses one after the other until she ran out of breath. That she’d suddenly wanted to breathe some fresh air, or that she had nothing to do and was bored. Though she didn’t really get to the point, basically, she tried to convince us that she wouldn’t believe a silly children’s story, and that she certainly didn’t believe that a bird no larger than her hand could talk like a human.

“Well, as long as you get my point...” the princess muttered before looking at Charlotte. “Hey, what’s that in her hand?”

“Oh, that thing is, uh...it’s my weight-loss potion,” I said, and I felt tears forming in the corners of my eyes at the admission.

“Am I imagining things, or is that an earthworm floating inside?”

Looking at the undiluted weight-loss potion in Charlotte’s hands, the princess was very taken aback. Thinking about it logically now, I had to have been missing a few screws when I drank that liquid straight. Even if Charlotte had made it for me, that was still an earthworm’s...fluid.

“This is, um, well. Princess Carina, this is a weight-loss potion I brewed personally! I bought the monster inside it from Hawk Claw Company, and— Ah, my name is Charlotte, and I am Master Slowe’s retainer!”

Charlotte’s every move was exaggerated as she explained, and she bowed her head repeatedly as she spoke. The princess, on the other hand, only stared at Charlotte, speechless.

“That’s how Master Slowe was able to lose weight so quickly! Right, Master Slowe?!”

“Y-Yeah, I get it, but... Are you serious? Slowe, this is your fault too. That shady company obviously scammed your retainer, and she’s still convinced that it’s legit. You shouldn’t lie to her and say that it was effective.” The princess ignored my painstaking consideration for Charlotte and bluntly laid out her opinion.

“H-Heeey! Princess Carina, come over here for a sec!” I led the princess by her hand and moved behind a tree.

On the first day of her stay at Kirsch, Princess Carina had whispered questions to me about anything she didn’t know during class, but I’d immediately realized that she was quite knowledgeable. The princess received special education in the capital, so she must’ve realized right away that the potion didn’t have any of the effects Charlotte claimed it had.

Hurriedly, I explained the situation to the princess. “Charlotte thinks that potion is the real deal, so please refrain from saying things like that!”

“What? Really? She really thinks that thing is a weight-loss potion? Does she see everything through rose-colored lenses or something? Even though I don’t know that much about society, even I know that much.”

“The rose-colored lenses are fine! That’s part of her charm!” Charlotte didn’t know how to be suspicious of people at all, so she’d probably had no idea that she was being deceived. But...that was fine! I wanted Charlotte to keep her pure and trusting heart!

“It’s pretty awful of you when you put it that way, you know,” the princess said at length.

“I know that! And I know it’s completely ineffective, but Charlotte believes in it with all her heart!” In general, I didn’t object to what Charlotte did. Even if she did something that seemed off to a bystander, I tended to keep my silence on the matter.

“Ah... Slowe, behind you.”

“Huh? O-Oh!” I turned back and found my retainer sulking from behind a couple of trees. I’d been so busy explaining to the princess that I’d completely missed Charlotte sneaking up and listening in on us.

“Uh, Charlotte, please don’t get the wrong idea,” I pleaded.

“Master Slowe, I am not being deceived! And I don’t look at the world through rose-colored lenses!” Charlotte exclaimed.

“Charlotte, that’s not it! I don’t think that at all!”

“Hawk Claw Company isn’t a scam either! And my weight-loss potion is definitely effective!!!” Charlotte exclaimed. Her voice echoed out over the morning campus; as it faded, so too did she.

After I could no longer hear her footsteps, silence fell over us save only for the quiet chirping of the birds. Princess Carina stood still, only moving her eyes around to look for the birds, and when her eyes met mine, she flushed a little.

“Slowe...” the princess trailed off. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No... It’s fine. In truth, I didn’t want to drink it, so...”

“But I would hate it if this strained your relationship with your retainer.”

“It’s all right. Charlotte only left because she is heading off to help out in the dining hall after this.”

“Helping out? Well, well, even the retainers of House Denning have money troubles...” The princess thought for a moment. “Oh, in that case, I have a great idea, Slowe. Why don’t you invite your retainer to tag along, and you two join me on a trip down into the dungeon? She might be happy about that. The dungeon is a great place to earn money.”

“We students are banned from going down into the dungeon until my father arrives, so that will be impossible.”

In reaction to my words, the princess placed her index finger on my forehead, smiling at me. “Slowe, I am the princess of Daryth, remember?”