CHAPTER 64…………..
. Subduing Without Magic (2)
Lette gave a cold sneer.
“To think they dare not believe what the Princess herself has done.”
In the absence of the king, foxes were running wild as though the world belonged to them.
If that was the case, all it would take was some timely support to keep them in check.
As Lette added another house to the invitation list, she turned to the lady beside her.
“Which families are leading those rumors?”
“It seems to be two old native houses of the South,” Lady Terraine recalled, ticking off her fingers.
“House Altine and Count Stenel.”
“Hm…”
“Every time they host a gathering, the rumors flare up again.”
With a grave expression, Lette scanned through the guest list.
Those two houses were scheduled to be invited to the tea party as well.
“I’m not sure if it’s right to present such people before someone so young…”
But Minte merely shrugged cheerfully.
“Don’t worry. Once they meet our Princess face to face, they’ll all come to their senses.”
Lady Terraine also nodded vigorously.
“Sir Epikus is right. Her Highness speaks so wonderfully, and she overflows with the dignity of a true successor!”
The Epikus sisters blushed and smiled as if they themselves had been praised.
Recalling past events, Lette murmured,
“I only worry Her Highness might take it to heart. She’s far too kind.”
“Exactly, exactly,” the Epikus sisters sighed in unison.
“She even forgave that shameless Count Nestor’s daughter.”
“Indeed. The youngest of us all, and yet the most mature. I fear she’ll only grieve over it…”
“Our Princess must not be hurt!”
What the hell did those pests just say?
I had been eavesdropping on the conversation spilling from the drawing room and let out a soundless laugh.
“Ha. Hahaha. Hahahaha.”
When disbelief escapes you, the ceiling starts to spin.
Sure, when I had first opened my eyes in “Elysion,” I had lived with my mouth tightly shut.
“Wow. Who knew that would come back to bite me like this?!”
I never saw this coming.
“Do they know what kind of torment I endured keeping silent back then?”
Contrary to the Epikus sisters’ fears, I didn’t feel hurt at all.
Instead, I was boiling with rage.
I clenched my little fists and ground my teeth.
“Altine and who else? Stenel, was it? They’re the ones spreading this filth?”
The house that owned the bloodstone mine, if I remembered right.
Whatever the case, who the hell do they think they are, pitying me?
“Should I just use a little magic…?”
It felt like only a heavy blow could smash these rumors.
But just before I left, I had made a pinky promise with Father.
That I wouldn’t do anything dangerous.
“That means, even if I know it’ll hurt, I’m not to use magic recklessly.”
In that case…
“This time, I’ll really have to break those nobles’ pride with words alone.”
This was nothing like the birthday festival, nor like the Madame Clotho salon affair.
At the birthday festival, Father’s presence had shielded me.
In the salon affair, my standing had been upheld thanks to Ares and Kallion.
“And as for the Belled incident… well, that’s not exactly a shining example.”
Building prestige on the cost of another’s life was hardly desirable.
Maybe this was, in truth, my very first step as a real princess.
“…Heh.”
I crawled into bed with a wide grin.
“The Epikus sisters are worried I’ll be heartbroken… but I wish I could tell them not to worry at all.”
My so-called compassion was reserved for children only.
Everything in Tartarus belonged, without exception, to the Demon King.
All that was born of that land, and all its harvests, were the property of Erebus, the sovereign of the demon race.
Not once in twenty-four generations had rebellion broken out.
But the farther one strayed from the capital where Erebus resided, the more room there was for disloyalty to fester.
“I hear Princess Elysion has arrived at the Autumn Palace.”
So it was now, among the guests at Count Stenel’s night gathering.
But their expressions as they spoke of the princess’s visit were far from bright.
It was Countess Altine who first sighed aloud.
“A tea party in just three weeks. I won’t even have enough time to order new gowns.”
“Quite right. How reckless of her to announce it in such a rush.”
Countess Stenel quickly joined in the grumbling.
In truth, tea parties were often arranged within two weeks’ notice.
Compared to a grand ball, the schedule was far easier.
But since the young princess herself was coming, they were nitpicking for the sake of it.
Countess Altine let out a mocking laugh.
“Well, without a proper queen to guide her, what can one expect?”
“Indeed. And where was Her Majesty the Queen from again? The East—House Isid?”
“A house that exists now only in the genealogy.”
“Precisely. With no strength left to support an heir.”
House Isid had died out with Queen Asteria, who left no descendants.
Most eastern noble houses were in decline, their lines cut short by the ravages of monsters.
At that point, the host of the night, Count Stenel, snorted derisively.
“Compared to that, how prosperous we Southerners are. Why, we even produced bloodstones without fail…”
His lips twisted bitterly for a moment.
The war had made him rich.
But then came the order to shut down his bloodstone mine.
The war was over, and it was to prevent any risk of the stones leaking to foreign lands.
Every time Count Stenel thought of that command from Erebus, his blood boiled.
“There’s still so much left buried in the ground!”
The royal court had promised compensation in other forms, but he didn’t care for them.
Yet no one dared complain to Erebus directly.
So instead, their resentment settled on the infant princess.
The princess born of the queen who had caused the war.
A child favored by the Demon King, but weak and without backing.
Would such a princess truly make a worthy monarch?
They comforted themselves with the thought: “Surely His Majesty Erebus will change his mind once there’s a second child.”
But then, Count Altine spoke hesitantly.
“Still, Lord Stenel… didn’t you say you saw something during the birthday festival? That… the Princess displayed power.”
“…Hmph.”
“Before the High Priest of Halcyon, no less…”
The room fell suddenly cold.
Those few who had been in the capital back then had indeed witnessed it.
But Countess Stenel scoffed at once, following her husband’s lead.
“Ha! Just because she showed power once doesn’t erase all her childhood frailty!”
“My wife speaks true.”
Count Stenel slapped his knee.
“A sickly heir—that must be why they granted her the Belled District.”
“Why else would they spread rumors that the Princess herself saved someone?”
At that, laughter rippled around the room.
How desperate must the royal family be, to fabricate such nonsense about the heir apparent?
One by one, the nobles grew bolder in their mutterings.
“I hear Lady Terraine is supporting this tea party?”
“Hmph, how shameless of her to cling to that side.”
“She’s not native to these lands, what else could she do?”
“And the Epikus sisters are said to have arrived too…”
“Unmarried, aren’t they? Hardly fit to care for a princess properly. No wonder the girl’s so frail.”
“Ha ha.”
“At the tea party, we must show the strength of the South!”
And so, the gathering had transformed into a plotting ground for “finding fault with the weak princess.”
Late into the night, each noble returned home with malicious delight.
When all had left, Count Stenel picked up a sealed letter awaiting him.
“Tch. As if I didn’t have enough troubles, now the humans…”
The cobalt-blue envelope bespoke its sender—surely from Iliod.
And indeed, just as he thought, it was a message from the Burten Merchant Guild, which plied the southern border.
But the request written inside was most unexpected.
“Hm? They want to buy bloodstones…?”
