The Reincarnated Princess Prepares

“Will this shade be all right?”

Slender fingers ran through my hair. I looked up, and through the pristinely polished mirror, my eyes met those of the beautiful lady. She was standing behind me, and she wore a silver-framed monocle over her right eye—it was Miss Irene.

“I’ve colored it slightly darker than Sir Behlmer’s,” she continued while looking at my reflection in the mirror, “but your hair is soft, so it should look like the same color beneath the sun.”

Peering into the mirror, I saw that my hair was now a dark brown, dyed just a modicum darker than Klaus’s. For a moment, the reflection of my own familiar face seemed like a stranger’s. I nodded while marveling at the drastic difference a little hair dye could make to one’s appearance.

“Thank you very much, Miss Irene.”

“The pleasure’s mine. Thank you for participating in my experiment.” Miss Irene removed the cloth she’d used as a makeshift hairdressing gown from my shoulders, folded it up, and then smiled.

She had invented the dye herself to turn my hair dark brown, hence her use of the word “experiment.” Of course, henna, indigo, and other dyes existed in this world, but with some drawbacks that kept amateurs like me far away: namely, they took five hours to set, and they were permanent. And they smell horrible too.

In contrast, Miss Irene’s invention could dye hair in half an hour, and the color could be removed with water as well.

“Make sure the water’s warm when you want to remove the dye,” she advised, “or else the color won’t rinse out.”

“That’ll help. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if a splash from the waves washed out the color,” I said as Miss Irene handed me a bottle of the dye.

She forced out a smile. “I’m more worried about the waves washing you overboard than their effect on your hair. Be a good girl and stay inside your room, away from the water.”

“I’ll...keep that in mind.”

I couldn’t admit that I had intentions to explore every bit of the ship. The expression on my face probably gave me away though. Miss Irene looked at me, and her smile seemed even more forced than before.

When I stood up from the seat in front of the mirror and looked over my shoulder, Lutz and Teo spoke up. Until now, they’d been waiting quietly.

“Hey, what’s this all about?” asked Lutz.

“Huh?”

“Are you really traveling abroad?” asked Teo.

They’d practically broken through the door and into the room about ten minutes before. However, a single cool glare from their teacher, Miss Irene, had shut them up before they’d even had a chance to barrage me with questions. Miss Irene had them well trained, as evidenced by the way they’d sat quietly in the corner of the room until we’d finished.

“I am,” I confirmed.

“Where? Why? Who with?” came Lutz’s rapid-fire volley of questions.

I swiveled to face them and looked into their eyes. Both Lutz and Teo wore severe expressions.

“I have business to attend to in Flanmer, and I’m going with Klaus.”

“In Flanmer?! Is that some sort of joke?!” Lutz shouted, aghast. A sense of urgency shone in his indigo-blue eyes, which were opened as wide as saucers. Lutz rushed over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders. His menacing look overawed me, and I instinctively lurched backward. “Do you know how far away Flanmer is?!” he exclaimed. “It’s not like going to the next town over!”

Lutz, you sound like a mother telling her kid off... He’s right though. It is a ridiculous distance to travel for a shut-in like me who barely ever leaves the palace.

“And you’ll be alone with a man! Are you out of your mind?!”

My eardrums were on the verge of bursting with him continuously shouting so close to me. “I don’t know what you’re worried about,” I said, confused. “It’s just Klaus.”

“I’d like to know what’s so reassuring about that—you’re to be accompanied by a crazed dog who’s so devoted to you that he’d chew up and spit out anyone who gets near,” came Lutz’s impassioned counterargument.

I can’t believe that’s what he thinks of Klaus... No wait, yes I can.

Teo tapped Lutz’s hands a few times and removed them from my shoulders. “Calm down, Lutz. Sir Behlmer wouldn’t harm the princess. He can be trusted on that count alone.”

Teo’s acting like he’s sticking up for Klaus, but it sounds more like scathing criticism. “On that count alone”? So you’re saying that he can’t be trusted for anything else?

“What I’m more interested in, Princess, is why you’re only taking a single guard,” Teo said.

“It...has to be that way.”

Teo gave me a pointed look. “So that you don’t stick out?” His expression and the tone of his voice were both firm, a clear departure from his usual cheerful demeanor. “You’re going as far as to dye your hair, so this can’t be an official mission. At the same time, Flanmer isn’t close enough for a quick, secret day out. Just what trouble are you getting yourself into?”

Nothing gets past you, Teo.

My shoulders twitched a little. His red eyes grew even more serious when he saw my slightly panicked reaction.

“Look, Princess—”

A graceful hand darted into the space between Teo and me. “Enough, my foolish students!” Miss Irene had been patiently watching our exchange, but now she stood in front of me as if to guard me from the boys. “You’re not children, so stop asking every question that pops into your heads. Speak only after you’ve given your queries due consideration.”

She looked at them with disappointment in her eyes and heaved a sigh. “The princess may call you her friends, but that doesn’t give you license to treat her however you like. Her position entails certain responsibilities and duties. Discard the impudent notion that she can let you in on everything.”

Teo opened his mouth to argue, but then he closed it again. He bit down on his lips, appearing frustrated.

Lutz sulkily looked away.

I hadn’t wanted to upset them, but to be honest, I was grateful to Miss Irene for her intervention; I couldn’t possibly fill them in on every little detail of my plan, and I didn’t want to lie to them either.

“Sorry, you two,” I said.

“Princess...”

“I’ll be all right, and I’ll try not to put myself in danger, so don’t worry about me.”

“You’re not a good judge of when you’ll be ‘all right,’” Teo said in response to my vague assurances, looking bitter.

I just smiled awkwardly since I couldn’t dispute that. After all, he was right.

Lutz stared at his feet, his brows furrowed. “I wish we could go with you.” He’d grown up a lot over the last few years and his face was more mature than it used to be, but his expression looked like a sulking child’s right now.

I stood on my tiptoes and stroked Lutz’s hair. “You’re apprentice sorcerers, so you can’t just leave the palace. I’ll come home safe and sound, so please, be here for me when I get back.” The strands of his hair were as fine as silk, and they felt lovely and smooth in my hands.

Lutz’s eyes widened like he’d been caught off guard, but then he began to fidget uncomfortably. “Don’t treat me like a kid,” he muttered irritatedly while pouting. His ears were burning with embarrassment. However, he didn’t push my hands away.

Ah, this is what it’s like to have a little brother, I thought jokingly. I kept that to myself though because I knew it’d annoy him.

“Princess...” Teo called.

I took my hands away from Lutz’s head and turned to Teo. His face was a jumbled mess of emotions, each vying for supremacy in his eyes, and his gaze seemed to be pleading with me. But he was pursing his lips tightly and restraining himself from putting his feelings into words. “I cannot say what I want to, I mustn’t”—that’s what the look on his face told me.

“Teo?” I called, trying to urge him to speak his mind.

But after a sharp flinch of his shoulders, he disguised his sullen frown with a smile. “I’ll give you an amulet later, to keep you safe. Could you take it with you?”

The words that came out of his mouth were obviously not the words he’d been holding back; he had swallowed those, and they had vanished forever. I was annoyed that I was both aware of that fact and powerless to do anything about it.

“Ah! Me too! You’ll get one from me!” Lutz barged past Teo and reentered my vision. The awkward atmosphere that was hanging in the air dissipated. “If you won’t take us, then take them instead.”

I was practically intimidated into nodding my assent, after which both of them sighed with relief.

Oh, I’ve got them so worried about me, I thought once more.

They both knew how big and scary the world really was, so to them, my actions probably seemed quite careless. I was a princess with no idea how the world worked, embarking all of a sudden on a journey abroad. To them, that’d be as reckless as—no, more reckless than—sending a three-year-old child out on their first errand.

Teo had probably wanted to ask me not to go.

He was worried about me. But regardless, in the end, he’d done me the favor of leaving it unsaid. He’d respected the decision I’d made.

I expressed my heartfelt gratitude. “Thank you.”

Both of them began to look cheerful.

“The amulets are gonna be great,” Lutz said, holding his head high. “We’ll make sure of that.”

My thanks had been for more than just the amulets, but I didn’t correct him.

Still though, I didn’t realize that amulets were a thing in this world too. The rectangular omamori design popular in Japan entered my mind, but theirs would probably be different. The Japanese version didn’t mesh with the European Renaissance aesthetic of this world. Maybe it’ll be more like a talisman? Or some other Western amulet?

“I can’t wait to see them,” I said, and they both smiled and nodded.

Teo changed the subject. “By the way, Princess, do you know where your traveling companion is?” He asked this as though the thought had only just entered his mind.

“Oh yeah,” Lutz said in response, glancing back at the door. “Now that you mention it, the guard posted outside is someone different.”

As they’d said, another knight from the royal guard was accompanying me today instead of Klaus.

“I suspect that he’s getting ahead of the tasks that he’ll miss while we’re gone. Recently, he hasn’t stopped working.”

My eyes glazed over as I recalled the day I’d told Klaus about our trip.

“I’m going on a journey and I want you to come with me.”

I’d told him this out of the blue, and he’d accepted without a moment’s hesitation. I knew that desk work would pile up in his absence, and he’d need to prepare the people who’d be covering that work for him. But despite how thoroughly inconvenient my request had been, he’d beamed from ear to ear.

It was creepy how pleased he’d been. Honestly, it had frightened me a little. I didn’t like the thought of a journey alone with Klaus when he was that excited.

While picturing the face of my ecstatic personal guard, I prayed, Somebody please bring his mood back down to normal levels.