The Reincarnated Princess Suffers Consternation

It was the day after my mental fortitude had been whittled away by the lethal combo attack of a discussion with my father followed by a stress interview with my mother. I’d visited the library to look for a book on herbal medicines when suddenly, yet another bombshell struck me.

“Huh...?” I froze with my mouth still half-open.

The shock had been too great for me to react at once. My arms went limp and the books almost slid out from them, so I tightened my grip and glanced back up.

The beautiful lady that stood in front of my eyes smiled awkwardly and met my gaze. I thought that she must have been joking, but the look in her eyes told me otherwise. She’d never been the type to make jokes in such bad taste either.

“Is that...true?” I asked.

“It is,” she confirmed clearly. Her almond eyes, one of which was adorned with a monocle, reflected my floundering expression. “I’m informing you later than usual due to the peculiarity of the case, but it’s true. As of today, Michael von Diebolt has become an apprentice sorcerer.”

The words of the beautiful intellectual in front of me—the head sorceress, Miss Irene von Altman—delivered my second shock of the day.

“Michael...has...”

I had trouble finding my words, and Miss Irene watched me with a pitiful look. It was only natural that she’d misinterpreted my surprise; she thought that my astonishment was caused by the revelation that Michael was a magic user.

But that wasn’t the case. Michael’s magical powers were something that I’d anticipated. In fact, I’d suspected it for some time, so that discovery wasn’t enough to surprise me.

No, what had truly shocked me was that Michael had decided to reveal his powers.

He’d lived his whole life keeping his magic a secret, which absolutely made sense, given how magic users fared in Nevel. Fear, scorn, and even persecution were commonplace. Michael had managed to live over ten years without letting anyone catch on. Surely, he would’ve preferred to keep his abilities hidden so he could spend his days in peace.

So why? Why did he choose this moment to open up about his magic?

I couldn’t understand his motivation.

“Did Michael offer this confession himself?” I asked.

“He did,” Miss Irene confirmed. “It was very courageous of him.”

I then asked Miss Irene the question that was plaguing my mind. “Why...now? He’s never told anyone, so why?”

In response, she smiled softly. “This is just my opinion, but I think that you’re probably the one who influenced his decision.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yes. His magic is...”

My jaw dropped at what Miss Irene said next.

***

After parting with Miss Irene in the library, I hurried to the greenhouse. Evening had already fallen, and the greenhouse was deathly silent when I entered. It was well past the time for watering the plants, so neither Lutz nor Teo was present. However, there was a thin figure near one of the walls.

He was standing listlessly and staring up at the domed glass ceiling. It seemed that he was observing the orange-to-blue gradient of the evening sky, and I couldn’t spot any emotion lacing the side of his face that was visible to me. However, the sight of him seemed slightly gloomy, either because of the shadows cast by the waning sunlight shining in or because of my own guilty conscience.

“Michael.”

His shoulders flinched when I called his name, but that was the only moment when he seemed uneasy. He calmly turned to me.

My eyes grew round when we stood face-to-face. He seemed completely different, even though only a few days had passed since we’d last seen each other.

His long bangs, which had always hidden half of his face, had been combed back neatly over his head, revealing for the first time his shapely nose and monolid eyes. The dark bags beneath his eyes had largely subsided, making him appear much healthier. He looked taller as well, perhaps because his hunched posture had been rectified.

Michael’s body hadn’t quite rounded out enough for his height, and he was dressed in a robe that was decorated with the same design as the ones that Lutz and Teo wore. However, in contrast to the other mages, the color of his robe was white, and the inner shirt was a dark gray.

It might be easier to understand if I borrow phrasing from role-playing games: Lutz and Teo resembled black mages, whereas Michael looked like a white mage.

Michael stared at me, remaining quiet. I didn’t know what to say at first either, so there was only silence.

I was unable to think up the right words, so in the end, I simply decided to ask what I most wanted to know—actually, no, what I had to know.

“I’ve heard that you’ve become a sorcerer.”

“I have,” Michael affirmed gently. The calm tone of his voice only served to tear at my heart.

“Is it... Did I...”

Is it my fault? Did I drive you into a corner?

I’d tried to ask these questions, but my voice had faltered, obscuring the ends of my sentences. My hands were gripping onto my skirt, crumpling the fabric. After watching me sputter—frozen on the spot like a child on the verge of tears—his dark, blue-tinged eyes shot me a kind look.

“No. I came here of my own free will. It had nothing to do with you.”

His denial provoked an angered response in me. “Nothing? Even though you’re the earth-affinity sorcerer I was looking for?”

Unintentionally, my questions had come out sounding aggressive. Even though he’d done nothing wrong, I’d gotten myself depressed and had taken out my frustrations on him. My words couldn’t have been more inconsiderate.

I felt pathetic and ashamed. I just wanted to disappear.

I’d more or less noticed that Michael had magical powers, but had never stopped to think about what affinity he could possess. If I had, it wouldn’t have been hard to figure it out; he didn’t have offensive powers like Lutz’s fire magic or Teo’s ice magic. He’d done a perfect job of keeping his abilities undiscovered.

But I’d been ignorant and insensitive. I’d spoken about earth-affinity sorcerers in his presence time and time again.

Wouldn’t an earth-affinity sorcerer be able to uncover the source components of the medicine? We’ll need the help of an earth-affinity sorcerer to concoct the medicine and save the lives of countless people.

I’d repeated those things over and over in front of Michael, agonizing him with pangs of conscience. And all the while, I’d been boasting about how I was merely doing the hard work that was necessary as a princess. While spouting off that he should follow whichever path he wanted, I’d unknowingly blocked his freedom of choice.

I’d eradicated his potential to choose the life of a priest in search of peace.

“Your Highness,” Michael said after a long silence.

“Michael?”

“I’ll say it again: this had nothing to do with you. Everything I’ve done up until now, and everything I will do hereafter—none of it involves you.” He said this matter-of-factly, no stutter, no blush.

With a calm look in his eyes that made him seem like someone else entirely, he quietly abandoned me.

***

A little more than a month had passed since Michael had become an apprentice sorcerer. I’d visited Julius’s mansion, and there I was given a shocking announcement.

“You’ve discovered what the medicine is made from...?” I repeated what I’d been told.

George, sitting on the sofa opposite me, heard my amazed murmur and nodded. “Although we haven’t yet pinned down where it grows.” He then handed me a bundle of papers that had been placed on the table.

I took the documents from him and flicked through them. There was a drawing of a tall tree with an unbending trunk. It was naked of leaves and branches near the bottom, but higher up were thick growths of leaves and blooming flowers. Scrupulous notes detailing the particularities of the leaves and flowers crowded the space not taken up by the illustration.

The very information that I’d wanted was in my hands, complete. But the immediate feeling I felt toward that fact was confusion rather than joy.

Julius and George’s investigation had been undertaken with great haste all along. And obviously, in the palace, I’d scoured through every book I could get my hands on that seemed likely to hold pertinent information. Even so, we’d had no luck finding any leads.

And yet...

“How did you get this so suddenly?”

How did progress come so abruptly? I expressed my doubt.

“Michael assisted us. We have him to thank.”

Hearing George say that, a part of me thought, I knew it.

Because he possessed earth-affinity magical powers, Michael would have a wealth of knowledge about vegetation. I didn’t know how he could discern features of a tree from a pill which had lost all of those details, but magic might’ve made that possible. Plus, Michael had a kind soul, so it wouldn’t be strange for him to offer George his assistance. I was sure that Michael would gladly volunteer if he knew that the venture would save countless lives.

But one question remained: why hadn’t Michael told me?

George and Julius might’ve been the primary investigators, but Michael was aware that I was the one who had initiated the inquiry.

Michael is living at the palace now, so wouldn’t it have saved time if he’d come to me, instead of traveling all the way to Julius’s mansion to offer aid? If he’d just contacted me through Miss Irene, I would’ve set aside any amount of time for him.

I think he really is avoiding me.

The worry that I’d shoved away into the back of my mind began to sound like the truth.

I hadn’t been able to see Michael even once after the day that he’d enrolled as an apprentice sorcerer. I’d thought that maybe I’d have the chance to meet him in the greenhouse since he was an earth-affinity magic user, but that expectation had been mistaken. Michael was never there.

According to Miss Irene, he was tending to plants in a different room. The explanation given was that Lutz, Teo, and I looked after the plants in the greenhouse, so our influence would interfere with Miss Irene’s ability to measure the extent of Michael’s powers.

I’d accepted that reason, but something had still gnawed at my mind. Michael kept his distance from the greenhouse, even on his days off and during his breaks. Is it because I’m there? I’d consider this possibility each day before telling myself that I was overthinking it.

“Your Highness.” A call from behind me dragged my focus back down to reality and away from my anguished worries.

I turned around to find Sir Leonhart looking concerned. I must have been pulling quite the distraught face.

“Are you feeling ill?” he asked.

“No, I’m fine.”

I forced myself to smile, but Sir Leonhart’s disquieted look didn’t disappear. However, he left the matter there, probably realizing that I didn’t want to talk about it.

I also apologized to George, who was sitting opposite me. “Sorry. Please, continue.”

He was looking at me with concern, but I urged him to resume the conversation.

This isn’t the time to be caught up in my personal emotions. Pull yourself together, Rose.

“Although we’ve discovered the principal ingredient, the method of manufacture and the other ingredients remain unknown,” George explained. “Therefore, our next action will be to locate the medicine’s place of origin.” He sprawled a map across the tabletop. “The information that Michael has provided us suggests that the tree is usually found growing in high-elevation areas.”

“By ‘high-elevation,’ do you mean near these mountains?” I pointed to the mountain range on the map that straddled the borders of Nevel, Schner, Vint, and Skelluts.

However, George cupped his chin with his hand and frowned. “As the medicine treats fevers, I’d expect the south to be the more likely origin, rather than the north.”

After a few seconds of thought, I slid my finger down from its place north of Nevel on the map toward the southwest part of Flanmer.

“A mountain range in the south... There’s one in the southwest of the Kingdom of Flanmer.” I raised my head from the map and looked back to George.

“There is,” he replied with a large nod. “Not to mention, the sailors who initially possessed the medicine were sailing on a ship from Flanmer. Our investigation should start there first.”

I expressed my agreement with George’s explanation. “That makes sense.”

Still... Flanmer, eh? Obviously, I’ve never been there before.

As I stared at the map, I recalled some text from Hidden World that I’d filed away in the back of my mind.

Flanmer was a kingdom located to the southwest of Vint. Any land expedition from Nevel to Flanmer would necessitate crossing the Vint-Skelluts border. Flanmer was a massive country that possessed the third-largest amount of territory on the continent, but one-fourth of its land was dominated by a desert that expanded across the southeast. Surrounded on three sides by the sea, Flanmer boasted thriving fishery and shipbuilding industries.

Since it was one of the few matrilineal societies on the continent, the right of succession to the throne was passed down through their princesses. My understanding was that, at present, the husband of the current queen had passed away at an early age; Flanmer’s queen had then assumed the role of sovereign for the intervening years while the young princesses and princes grew up.

However, this situation was incredibly rare—usually, the husband of the princess who’d inherited succession rights would become the reigning king.

But that was all that I could remember. I only had the sort of surface-level knowledge that you’d pick up in history class.

I need more. We’d better have a language in common with the locals. And how does it fare for law and order? What’s the current political climate? And the actual climate? Are there any safe roads leading to the mountain range?

I think I’ll start with some information gathering...

“Before we go, I’d first like to research Flanmer a bit more,” I declared, my mind made up, but George looked astonished for some reason.

“Huh...?” A dazed sound escaped George’s throat.

What’s got you acting so shocked? Don’t stare at me so much... It’s making me uncomfortable.

“Is something the matter?” I asked.

George’s brows furrowed. He suddenly looked more serious. After mulling his words for a moment, he opened his mouth to speak.

“Lady Mar—” George started to say my name but then tried to obscure that by clearing his throat. “Your Highness. I ask you to leave what follows to us.”

“Sorry?”

“We don’t know what dangers await us in Flanmer. It’s not safe enough for you to go.” George said this softly, but decisively.

The look of fierce determination that I saw in his eyes reminded me of Michael.

It’s the same look, I thought.

George’s eyes seemed to quietly abandon me, just as Michael’s had in the greenhouse.

And there was another sense of déjà vu that flashed across my mind, beyond even my conversation with Michael from a month before: it was the feeling that I was being cast out and excluded, just as I’d been during the sorcerer abduction plot.