Chapter 9

Oh, honestly…

Difficulties had already begun even before I reached the royal castle.

How should I handle these self-appointed gatekeeper ladies blocking my path?

There were three of them.

As expected, they were presumably summoned for the Crown Princess selection.

They must have marched in here with the ambition—or rather, the dream—of becoming Crown Princess, so if that were the case, they should have just focused on themselves and left a nobody like me alone.

The biggest problem of all was that the lot of them were looking down on me with vile expressions.

That kind of condescending gaze. It had been quite a while since I last had to endure it.

“Milady, step back…!”

Noah spoke up courageously, though her voice trembled.

But it was painfully obvious she was just putting on a brave face. It was only natural for an ordinary woman to be terrified when glared at by noble ladies whose status was vastly superior.

“It’s fine, Noah. You stay behind me.”

“But Milady…!”

“These people seem to have business with me. It would be discourteous not to hear them out directly.”

At those words, the three noble ladies right before my eyes let out mocking titters of laughter—hohoho.

“It seems you have a minimum of courtesy for a noble. Rather bold for a fake.”

“You girls are the ones lacking even basic courtesy. Ganging up on a single person in a group and trying to intimidate them is entirely unbefitting of a lady.”

“What did you say?!”

The moment I answered provocation with provocation, their expressions changed instantly.

Why is it that the people who love to provoke others get so furious when you fire back?

Of the three noble ladies, one began to bristle with anger while the other two tried to restrain her.

“Lady Kicina, calm yourself! Remember what we came here for!”

“We didn’t come to rise up in righteous indignation just because we heard this ‘one with no magic’ was daring to aim for the Crown Princess position!”

“That’s right! A wicked woman intruding where she wasn’t even called! This is no place for the likes of you! Be gone at once!!”

I’d do just that if I could, you know.

Getting entangled with people like you who refuse to listen to reason—coming here really hasn’t brought me a single good thing.

“I was summoned to this place by an official royal decree. I merely followed orders. If you have complaints, I would prefer you direct them not at me, but at the person who decided my summons.”

“Are you questioning a decision of the royal family?! What an utterly arrogant person!”

Aren’t you the ones questioning it, though?

People who truly refuse to communicate at all.

“Besides, for someone like you, ‘one with no magic’ to even be considered a candidate for Crown Princess is disrespectful in itself! You should know your place and decline!”

“The pride of our Spiritual Kingdom is magic! A noble who cannot use magic should not exist! And you expect that blemish to be chosen as the Crown Princess standing by the apex of the nation? Stop dreaming!”

Such self-righteous people.

When I knew that fact better than anyone else in the world.

“Duke Eldenvalk must be a foolish man as well. He should have quickly disposed of a family disgrace like this, but keeping her around for no reason is just piling shame upon shame.”

“He’s praised as an exemplary lord, but rumors are just rumors after all. Leaving someone with ‘no magic’ un-disowned is the ultimate proof of his folly.”

“Hmph, since she’s useless and only has a pretty face, he probably figured she still had some value as a tribute.”

The ladies’ gazes were tinged not just with contempt, but with vulgarity as well.

“It’s true that even your chest is needlessly large, isn’t it? Planning to seduce even His Highness the Crown Prince with that?”

“To think you could wrap His Highness around your finger with mere seduction—how audacious. Loyal subjects like us must punish such a country-toppling vixen.”

“If you gracefully withdraw right here and now, perhaps we could introduce you to a suitable husband? How about the fourth rear wife of an elderly gentleman in his sixties? …Eek?!”

A single glare from my eyes.

That alone froze the throats of those chattering sparrows, stopping their squawking dead in their tracks.

“When did ladies of the royal capital become so vulgar? They say trash is contagious, so truly, living in the territory was the right choice for me.”

“What did you say?!”

“Whether I have magic or not, I am the eldest daughter of the Eldenvalk Duke family—a bona fide duke’s daughter. To think that spoiled brats who aren’t even heirs granted a peerage themselves think they can insult the beloved daughter of a duke standing at the apex of the five peerage ranks… you are remarkably full of yourselves.”

Don’t ever assume you can beat me in a war of sarcasm and insults.

I had spent the last eight years of this life growing up as a proper noble lady, but that didn’t mean I had forgotten my past life’s misdeeds.

Cornering opponents with verbal assaults and breaking their spirits had once been my greatest specialty.

“You… how dare ‘one with no magic’ speak to us so insolently…!”

“I won’t forgive you! If it comes to this, we will punish this impudent wretch in place of the royal family!!”

The moment one of the trio muttered something, her palm flared up in a grand display of flames.

She used magic, didn’t she?

“Peerage ranks don’t matter! Whether one can use magic is the true measure of a noble’s worth! Now, ‘one with no magic’, let’s see me scorch that pretentious face of yours to a crisp! If you don’t like it, you can cry and apologize!”

“How shortsighted.”

Even when resorting to violence, to think they believed mere magic would solve everything.

Without any warning or even a preamble, I thrust both hands forward and loudly clapped them together.

Right at the tip of the opposing lady’s nose.

“Ahhh?!”

Startled by that, the noble lady lost her concentration, cleanly cutting off the flow of her magic, and the flames vanished into dust.

And I wouldn’t miss the opening I just created.

Catching her hand, I yanked her forward to upset her balance, twisted her arm up, and pushed it backward against her joint’s natural range of motion.

“Gyaaaaaah?! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, st-st-st-st-op?!”

Once I locked her joint, an unseemly shriek unbefitting of a lady echoed out.

As expected, sheltered daughters have zero tolerance for pain.

“It is true that I cannot use magic, but precisely because of that, you didn’t really think I’d neglect my preparations, did you?”

During my time living in the territory, I had learned a wealth of knowledge, but right alongside it, I had also mastered self-defense.

Taught directly by the domain soldiers serving the duke’s family, no less.

“Magic requires chanting incantations dedicated to the spirits and mental unification to gather magical power. There is always at least a split-second ‘gap’ before it can actually be released. When the distance is closed this tightly, punching you directly is always faster.”

“Guaeeeeegh?! It hurts, it hurts! Let me gooooo?!”

“Doesn’t it hurt? Do you think you can achieve the mental unification needed to chant a new spell amidst this kind of pain?”

I had successfully neutralized one of them, but the problem was that there were still two more.

The other two had already emitted magic of their preferred attributes and locked their aim onto me.

I was keeping them at bay by using the captured lady as a human shield, but this was a total stalemate.

I couldn’t advance, and I couldn’t retreat.

Well, this was still the grounds of the royal castle, so if we just stared each other down, someone would surely intervene sooner or later to change the situation?

Though in that case, since I was the “one with no magic”, there was a real risk I’d be treated as the unconditional villain…

“That is quite enough.”

…As I was thinking that, someone arrived, right on cue.

And what’s more…

“—Crown Prince Kistihart?!”

Why, it was none other than the star of tonight’s gathering… Crown Prince Kistihart himself.

There was no mistaking him.

The shining golden hair and sweetly chiseled beauty that I had gazed upon with adoration so many times in my past life were still entirely intact in this life as well.

Yet why on earth was the Crown Prince in a place like this?

The noble ladies, too, were startled and panicked by the appearance of the supreme authority figure they were supposed to serve.

“Y-Y-Y-Y-Your Highness Kistihart!”

“Please listen to us! This ‘one with no magic’ suddenly committed acts of violence against us!”

And just like that, they smoothly tried to pin every single crime on me.

Far smoother than casting any spell.

“This woman! Despite being a good-for-nothing ‘one with no magic’, she dares to harbor delusions of settling into His Highness’s consort seat, completely lacking any self-awareness!”

“When we tried to caution her about that, she flew into a rage and resorted to violence! Look at this state! A violent ruffian like this is entirely unfit to serve as Crown Princess!”

“Please order this woman to leave at once!”

Well, if you tell me to “get out,” I’ll gladly comply, though.

How would the prince respond to this?

“Count Arpan’s daughter, Kicina.”

“Huh?”

“And Mitwell’s second daughter, Salshuwa, along with Count Sesamint’s younger sister, Bisent, am I right?”

“Y-Yes…!?”

Apparently, those were the respective names of the three noble ladies.

Well, considering they were candidates for the Crown Princess selection that the royal family itself invited, remembering their names was the bare minimum of courtesy.

Normally, having a member of the royal family remember one’s name would be the height of honor, but in this situation, they couldn’t afford to be happy about it.

“First, I would like to clear up a misunderstanding among you three. Not a single young lady gathered for tonight’s evening party forced her way here of her own volition. Everyone was summoned by royal command. Eltriede, the Eldenvalk Duke family’s young lady standing right there, is no exception.”

“Y-Yes…!”

“Therefore, she bears zero responsibility for being here. She merely followed the royal family’s orders… or rather, she simply behaved as any noble should. If you have complaints, you should direct them not at her, but at the royal family who issued the command. Just as Lady Eltriede was saying a moment ago.”

Oh my.

Knowing that much meant he must have noticed this dispute quite a while ago and watched how it played out from the sidelines, didn’t it?

He has quite the mischievous personality.

“And I, as the Crown Prince, am the royal family itself second only to His Majesty the King. If you have any dissatisfaction, let me hear your remonstrations right here and now.”

“Th-That’s… dissatisfaction, how could we possibly…!”

“Then why on earth were you surrounding Lady Eltriede and threatening her? As she herself stated, she is a duke’s daughter, yet the relatives of mere barons are ganging up on her?”

“Eek?”

Oh my.

What is this turn of events? If anything, these noble ladies are the ones being reprimanded?

I had braced myself to be the one scolded, so this completely swept the rug out from under me.