An unwanted princess sold as a set along with the princess they actually wanted.
Naturally she met terrible reception.
No sooner had she arrived in the capital had they shut her up in an aged villa in one of the corners of the palace. There, she spent her days until the wedding without meeting anybody in particular.
It felt as though her treatment became worse by the day. Even the guards supposed to be watching the villa entrance grew more and more lax in their job, and the world seemed to ignore her, like something unpleasant they locked in a box to forget.
To cite a specific example, the guard shift was supposed to happen at lunch. The problem though, was that n.o.body came to replace them. And despite that fact, the two guards would still leave without a care. What’s more, at night there would never be anybody there.
Because they were sleeping.
Each day, the two of them would eat their fill at lunch, have a break afterwards, and then enjoy a good sleep when night fell.
What kind of look-outs were they supposed to be.
In fact, you could say the only one who had been doing any looking these last few days was Fii, as she watched these ridiculous guards.
Naturally, Orstoll provided her no maids.
And the maids that came with her from Déman were all a.s.signed to Fiiru.
It would be determined which of them would become the attendants to the Orstollian Queen very soon. As far as the maid profession went, it was essentially the summit. There was no time for them to waste on the princess who had been forced on Orstoll as an extra.
You could kind of say that one of the kitchenhands from Déman had followed Fii, but his aim was different.
The Capital of Orstoll, Wienne, was the centre of many things, and the culinary world was one of them.
It was said that Wienne had 50,000 chefs training and working there.
If he followed Fii then he could move there for free. After that he could just get Fii to fire him, and he’d be a free man in Wienne.
No, far from just free, he would be ‘the poor chef who was fired in a foreign land by the selfish princess’. It could even help him get a job.
And so with that in mind, for three days straight, he would bring Fii nothing but unheated soup, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Fii too had realised it, but irritated at being treated like a horse that he rode for free, she stuck to it and drank all the soup provided until he asked to quit just a moment ago.
“Umm, ermm, well… you see… I’d like… to quit…”
“Go ahead.”
Seeing his struggle to say just those words, Fii really wondered if he would be able to make it on his own in this capital city. It wasn’t related to her at all, but even she was starting to feel nervous.
At any rate, now that the farce was over, Fii was left alone in the villa.
While drinking up her cold, and obviously left-over soup, she stared out the window of the lonely building.
“Aahh~ Because of my father’s ridiculous request, I wonder if the rest of my life has gone to waste. I’m married to a husband I’ll never see, and I might spend the next few decades alone here until I die huh…”
The guards were obviously placed here to look in, and not out. In other words, they were here to watch Fii.
(In other words, they’re telling me not to leave here, right? Geez, it looks like that Ice King or whatever has no intentions of letting me out… What an empty life it’s going to be.)
For a moment her rage flared up against the husband whose face she had never seen, but even that started to feel empty, so she simply collapsed onto her bed.
(If only I could abandon this life…)
She considered sleeping, but it was still as noisy as ever outside, so it was impossible to sleep.
(No matter how happy they are, they’re clearly partying too late, right…?)
Fii might have been the only person in this entire nation that was feeling rock bottom today.
It was at that moment that the idea of talking a stroll appeared.
After all, there was n.o.body standing guard at night.
The King probably wanted her to stay indoors too, but it was his responsibility for posting such stupid look-outs. There was no reason for Fii to be over-considerate.
Having said that though, things would turn annoying if she was caught, so she decided to keep her stroll close to the walls surrounding the villa.
“So big… It’s completely different from the castle back home…”
The garden around the villa was lush with plantlife she had never seen before, wet with the night dew; the moonlight and the distant fireworks together reflected for a beautiful view.
While she was having her quiet stroll, Fii found that she had stepped on some kind of paper.
“Mn? What’s this?”
When she spread the paper to investigate under the bright moonlight, this was what she found written:
『Recruiting Apprentice Knights!
The Orstoll Knight Order is looking for new recruits!
Commoners! n.o.bles! Vagrants! Travellers!
Wandering warriors, we do not discriminate!
We are looking for able young talent!
The entrance exams begin soon!』
The moment she saw this, a lightbulb lit up in her mind.
“This is it!” she exclaimed, holding the paper up high. “If I take this exam――”
――I can live another life.
Foreigners, and even people with unknown backgrounds could apply, and if she succeeded in becoming a knight then she would be granted citizenship here.
In other words, Fii could gain a completely new name and ident.i.ty, separate from the one as the unwanted consort, the unwanted Second Queen.
After all, n.o.body would be coming to her villa anyway, and almost n.o.body knew her face to begin with.
Frankly speaking, Fii and Fiiru looked completely different.
So even if she suddenly disappeared, there wouldn’t be any issues!
If she could escape this place and live a new life as a knight… if she could succeed in joining, then she could say goodbye to this fruitless life forever.
Fii hurriedly checked the date of the exam.
“Two more weeks… There really isn’t much time.”
The exam would be happening soon.
Strictly speaking, she had some knowledge of the sword. As a child she looked up to knights, and was able to take lessons. Because her parents were too busy fussing over her sister, neither of them remonstrated her.
Eventually though, she became of age, and it would affect their reputation if they couldn’t marry her off, so they finally found it a problem and stopped her lessons. Even so, she could remember the basics.
(In these two weeks, I have to get my sense for the sword back!)
With that thought in mind, Fii hurried back towards the villa.