Chapter 123. To the battlefield.

Immediately, whispers roamed all around the room as the nobles looked at us with curious gazes. It was natural as the Windsor family was a peculiar family that didn’t want fame or publicity. The Windsor family was well-known to hide from the eyes of the public and for the family to be called all of a sudden to the palace would mean something has happened.

“We greet Your Majesty,” the four of us immediately kneeled as she looked at us with a soft nod.

“Do you know why I have called for your dearest daughter today?” Kaori looked at the Duchess and asked, throwing pressure towards the Duchess. Her demeanor was that qualified of a Queen indeed, it was like I was looking at another person and not Kaori herself which reminded me of her multiple personality disorder which could be the cause.

“We do not know, Your Majesty,” the Duchess replied while looking down as Kaori released a tiny chuckle that could be heard by everyone because of the peer pressure that kept everyone silent. No one made a single move—because no one could actually move.

“It’s simple. You see, as many of you already know, I prefer girls over men but none of the people here managed to fit my tastes which led me to roam around the streets before catching the sight of a peculiar daughter of a certain peculiar family on the streets eating some kind of barbeque happily,” Kaori smiled. Almost everyone knew her intentions immediately upon hearing those words.

it is a bit embarrassing to be proposed in front of everyone, but I can tell it was Kaori’s way of going along with the plan while also fulfilling her long-time wish which is technically the only benefit she receives from this entire plan—well, it kind of is a benefit on my side as well.

“—And so, I would like to propose a simple challenge to this girl who managed to catch my attention. Do you wish to hear?” she said while releasing more pressure.

The Duchess immediately tried to stand up, but I blocked her while smiling as I stood up and bowed as elegantly as I could before replying, “I would love to hear the challenge you have for me, Your Majesty.”

“Great attitude! It’s a simple challenge, make the town of Iana flourish whether it’d be economically or in some other way, and if you succeed with your own abilities, I will personally place a ring on your finger. What do you say?” she smiled.

“Your Majesty! I would like to contradict! The town of Iana is beyond repair, sending my daughter there is practically sending her to her own dea—” a white-haired man stood up from the sides dressed in a white royal suit.

“I humbly accept the challenge, Your Majesty,” I intervened with a confident smile.

“Ayumi! What are you doing?!” the man screamed as I looked at him with the same confident smile.

“You do not need to worry, dear Father. I can complete this challenge as the heir of the Windsor family,” I said before he frowned his eyebrows, sitting down on his seat irritated.

“You indeed have some good attitude, well then! You will receive all rights to the town of Iona, it will now be your responsibility to do what is so-called impossible by many. I look forward to your success, Ayumi Windsor,” Kaori stood up and stared into my eyes with a smile before adding, “Everyone may leave except for the Windsor heir, we have a bit more to discuss alone.”

In an instant, the full strength of her aura blasted throughout the room making it hard to refuse her orders as everyone immediately left the room with all the guards and ninjas escorting the nobles away, all of them left as if it was another normal day for them. After some time, all the nobles have left as Kaori took off the Queen mask of hers and looked at me with a smile.

“Crystal, you can come out now,” her voice echoed as a little black-haired girl peeked out from the throne, looking at me with a happy gaze.

“Mama Ayumi!” she ran towards me with tears dripping from her eyes. I couldn’t help but run towards her and picking her up in the air, planting a few kisses on her cheeks.

“Crystal! How are you, my dear?” I asked before she hugged me super tightly.

“I have been doing well—though Mama Kaori’s place is too luxurious for my needs…” she smiled wryly while looking at Kaori.

“You have gotten a bit fatter here, how long has it been since I was gone?” I pinched her arm a bit which was now a bit chubbier than before. It was around the size of Flora and I could tell from a single glance that she was spoiled to death against her wishes by Kaori who was naturally bad at handling children.

“It has been around a month since your original body was initially buried,” Kaori replied which made me smile wryly, remembering that scene where my body was being buried. It was a bit terrifying or weird to see my own body being buried after all.

“Right, I forgot to mention, that Silvia girl actually arrived on this world as an empress of a gigantic underworld empire. She appeared just after your body collapsed with an entire battalion of knights and mages ready to attack the devil,” Kaori added.

“Silvia huh, that girl despite being the author of the entire Solis storyline always manages to be late on everything she does. I wonder if she has some sort of curse that causes her to be late on literally anything,” I smiled wryly, “Do you have any way to contact her?”

“Well, she kind of forgot to leave some sort of method to contact her but she did say she will visit the kingdom soon once she manages to organize everything she needs to on her empire. It’s hard to believe that Silvia being an Empress though,” Kaori chuckled.

“Indeed, Silvia would be the last person I have in mind that would be able to become an Empress especially with how clumsy she is—anyhow do you want to accompany me to my new town, or do you want to stay with your Mama Kaori?” I looked at the poor little Crystal and asked before she looked at Kaori and me in repeated motion before pouting with frowned eyebrows.

“I don’t know—on one side, Mama Ayumi’s town is pretty deserted while on the other side, Mama Kaori’s place is a bit too suffocating because I have to act like a Princess, not to mention, Mama Kaori forces me to eat a lot…” she said with a wry smile, “I guess I will stay with Mama Kaori for now… if I stay with Mama Ayumi, I would only add to her burden…”

“Wait, did you hire several tutors for Crystal here?” I looked at Kaori and asked before she started whistling.

“I did hire around twenty different tutors but all of them immediately left after the third day saying Crystal is way too intelligent for them to teach, so in a sense, no one could teach her which is why she has been roaming around the palace and helping out with some of the staff here,” she replied.

“When did Crystal become this intelligent though, wouldn’t that be on par with Flora in terms of intelligence now?” I said with a bit of surprise. Indeed, Crystal was intelligent but compared to Flora, she was a notch below and for her to suddenly become this intelligent is one shocker for me.

“I don’t know as well—well, it could be her mind developing now which made her intelligence go up by a lot though I could be wrong. Anyhow, do you need any more assistance with the challenge or are you alright with handling everything yourself?” Kaori looked at me with a worried smile as I shook my head.

“No need, I can handle the town myself. I am fairly confident of succeeding with the basic knowledge that the Goddess had provided to me and the knowledge I have from our previous world, not to mention, if it is indeed a curse causing the drought then I still have that spell creation skill on my arsenal,” I smiled confidently.

Not to mention, I already have several dozens of ideas inside my head that could very well help me in fixing the town from food to machinery which I am pretty exceptional at in the past having built a few machines.

“You are pretty loaded, are you leaving now?” Kaori smiled wryly.

“It is better if I leave soon otherwise people will start suspecting about us. Please take care of Crystal in my place, Kaori, and also I hope you can keep the others up to date since I am pretty bad at chatting online,” I smiled before Crystal started hugging me tightly.

“Are you leaving already, Mama Ayumi?” she asked in a bit of a sad tone which made me pat her soft back a bit as I kissed her forehead one more time.

“I need to leave now, Crystal. Your Mama Kaori will take care of you well, you can always visit me whenever you like together with Kaori but always listen to what Kaori tells you, okay?” I smiled before she hesitated a bit but nodded soon after as I handed her back to Kaori.

“I will be heading off now, please take care, okay?” I waved my hand while walking towards the door as the two of them nodded at the same time. I felt happy inside being able to see at least Crystal once, it was enough for me.

From this path forward, it is now my battle. A battle to show my utmost capability and the start of my new life—not as Ayumi Ai but as Ayumi Windsor from the Windsor family.