My Lord’s Engagement – Q of Diamonds (Part 4) Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.
One Day I Became a Burikko Villainess n.o.ble Girl, . Honto tutorial .
Think of it as throwing money at the author and Alphapolis, and getting a book with squiggles and pretty pictures as a pleasant extra.
“Ehhh? Miss Camille… You married Achille? And what’s more, it just happened recently?”
Almost as soon as I invited her into the room, Miss Camille gave me a shocking confession.
“Right, right.”
With my shock being completely unrelated to her, she was currently in a daze eating the candied flowers that the maids brought. Miss Camille bringing the pet.i.te and colourful flowers to her lips was extremely picturesque. In Topageria where there are many desert, flowers were a high cla.s.s luxury, and so sweets like this were new and fresh.
“When, exactly…?”
“After we came back from our expedition, I got proposed to by Achille. Before I knew it, I’d signed the papers though.”
“Eh-… Miss Camille?”
‘Before I knew it’… Wai-, aren’t you a little bit too careless? Didn’t you fall into a trap set by His Highness and Achil-…
“N-, No, nevermind. Congratulations on your marriage.”
If the person herself has no complaints, then it isn’t my place to say anything. The two of them seem to get along.
“Thanks, Beatrix.”
Camille gave me a smile as she once again stuffed her cheeks with sweets.
“By the way, Beatrix. There’s something I’d like to talk to you about, but is that okay?”
After having tea and having a breather, Miss Camille fixed up her posture. Rare for her, today she wasn’t wearing a robe for once, but was instead wearing a dress. Seeing her like this, she really looks like a n.o.ble girl. I say that it’s a dress, but unlike the thing I’m wearing right now, hers is just a simple one though.
“What is it?”
“You know how we took leave from school to recuperate and rest?”
“Yeah… You mean how the three of your fell ill?”
She nodded at my words.
“It actually wasn’t an illness… The truth is that we were attacked by that game Heroine, and had forbidden magic cast on us. We were resting to recover from that, and take up countermeasures.”
“Ehh-?”
“Achille covered me, and in the end I was saved by Royce-sama.”
Without me knowing, the relationship between the Heroine and the Hearts Faction has turned into something incredible. I’ve never talked to her before, but she even used forbidden magic on somebody else without hesitating, so she might have quite the personality.
“Why did you become enemies?”
“It has to do with the Revolution End that I talked to you about before.”
Miss Camille told me about the acts of the commoner extremists, and the things that the Heroine did. From the way she spoke about things, it seems that the Heroine was one-sidedly antagonistic with Miss Camille. Judging based on the activities of the commoner extremists, she probably has more of a problem with n.o.bles in general, rather than Miss Camille personally.
The Heroine who can’t be matched even by an elite magician of this country, Miss Camille… Although it was a setting from the game, she really is a frightening existence.
“And so, it seems that she’s hiding in Topageria at the moment.”
“I see… I heard that soldiers were sent into the academy to catch the Heroine. I also heard that she escaped though.”
I didn’t know the circ.u.mstances behind it because they were concealing it though.
“Royce-sama asked for the Topagerian King’s cooperation… or rather, it was more like saying ‘because the Heroine comes from Topageria, take some responsibility’.”
“Speaking of which, the Heroine was adopted by Topageria’s Cintron family, wasn’t she.”
“You know about it?”
“A little… When I entered the academy, I was curious about each character, so I did a little research. It was just their official history though.”
Thinking that it wouldn’t do if I by some small chance fell into the same disaster as the in-game Beatrix, I roughly researched all the characters of the game. On the surface, there didn’t seem to be a problem. However, with the Heroine and her complicated background, I’m regretting not researching further.
“Once we settle the chaos in our country, we plan on capturing the Heroine and the remnants of the extremists.”
Miss Camille’s gaze pierced right through me.
“And so… if possible, I’d like it if you cooperated too, Beatrix. I do feel sorry for asking for a favour on top of getting you wrapped up into this though.”
“Now that I’ve become His Highness Royce’s fiancée, it certainly isn’t another person’s problem anymore, huh…”
I placed my hand to my brow. Things have really become troublesome.
“This is about your engagement, Beatrix, but I’m wondering if it isn’t also somehow related. Only Royce-sama and Achille know the details though.”
“…”
Because Miss Camille’s specialty is magic, it seems that she’s estranged from the details of diplomacy. Or rather, she’s just tossed it to them wholesale and left it all to them.
It seems… that I’ll need to speak to His Highness Royce one-on-one. If possible, I don’t want to get involved, but this time it can’t be helped. His Highness and Achille… I need to make clear their motives. Being used and having my life swung left and right without me knowing is something that I’m long sick of. Unlike Camille, there’s no way that I can just trust them completely.