CH 9

Two weeks have passed since my father told me about the engagement talks. Today is the day when the Third Prince in question, Ludwig, will come to my house.

No matter how young the third prince is, I don’t think that the royal family can just suddenly decide to travel from the royal capital all the way to a border territory in just two weeks. It’s likely my engagement with His Highness Ludwig had been considered long before Father informed me about my engagement talks. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to go to my house so quickly.

And even if we were engaged, there was no need to bother to visit me. It’s neither a marriage of love nor an arranged marriage between us as individuals. From this world’s perspective on marriage, it’s not unusual for me and the third prince to never meet in person, even after the engagement has been finalized. 1

In a world where it’s only natural that we’ve never met before getting married, no matter how you slice it, it’s strange for him to go so out of his way to see me, even though my engagement hasn’t been officially decided yet. If he really wanted to meet me in person, you could just summon me to the royal capital, and there was no need for the Third Prince to make the trip himself.

In the end, I think this prince has no intention of getting engaged to me. Since the engagement talks are being brought up, it’s just a formality to meet face-to-face once and fulfill our duties, but when the time does come, he will shut down the engagement talks for some reason. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain what has happened so far.

In the aristocratic society of this world I live in now, the family’s interests are the top priority. Marriages of the children are naturally judged by whether it is in the interests of the family. There is absolutely no such thing as choosing a partner for love marriage or matchmaking as individuals. Therefore, even if the marriage partner is ugly or an ignorant fool, if there is a mutual interest, both families will decide to wed them to each other.

It’s also not a society where the Third Prince can visit the house of his potential partner to discuss things face-to-face, see who they are in person, and then sink the engagement talks just because he doesn’t like her. No, rather, it is precisely because they are royalty that their partners must be chosen carefully.

It is absolutely unacceptable that the prince’s marriage partner would be a commoner or a lower-ranking noble, like in a game or a different work of fiction. If you do that, you can foresee the downfall of the royal family from the scandal and the offense of the rest of aristocratic society.

In short, even if a prince visited his prospective fiance’s house and met her in person, he couldn’t just say “I don’t like this girl because she’s ugly.” or “I don’t like this girl because she has a bad personality.” If that was the case, there’d be no need to go out of the way to visit me, it’d be enough if he just met after the marriage.

For him to out of his way to visit the other party’s house, the Third Prince intended to refuse the engagement from the beginning, and as a minimum obligation, he would visit my family’s territory, meet me personally, and then decide to refuse the engagement.

With all of that, there is a high possibility that the engagement proposal with Third Prince Ludwig will be automatically refused by him without me having to do anything.

But it doesn’t mean I can go, “Well then, let’s just do nothing and let things run their course.” I don’t know why the Third Prince has been refusing the engagements so far, and I don’t know what he might really think; if I can’t answer the question, “Why has he been refusing all these engagements?”, I can’t just count on him breaking things off.

It would be a disaster if the Third Prince’s refusals were just coincidences because the other parties were petty power chasers, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea for him to get married to House Carruthers. So I have to personally make sure that this engagement talk sinks.

The butlers and maids are lined up in front of the manor’s entrance, waiting for the Third Prince, talking excitedly about, “What if the Lady becomes the Prince’s wife?”, oblivious to my father and I deliberately thinking about breaking the deal.

And while I thought about all that, a carriage came through the gates of the mansion. It stops before the manor, and a young boy with silver hair and blue eyes descends from it. I heard he’s 9 years old, so he’s 1 year older than me.

This boy who looks like “The Prince” is probably the Third Prince, Ludwig von Ploiss.

After exchanging greetings with Father, His Highness turned to me. I have to say my greetings, too.

“Good day to you, Prince Ludwig,” I said. “My name is Flora Charlotte von Carruthers, only daughter of Margrave Carruthers. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Today I’m wearing a dress and a skirt, so I’ll greet him with a curtsey. I’m always scolded by Olivia, so my manners may not work for the royal family, but there is a minimum standard of politeness. It is the essence of being polite to at least attempt it, it doesn’t matter whether you can do it properly or not.

Well, that’s an excuse for someone who doesn’t have good manners…

“Today is an informal occasion,” Ludwig said. “Please, act naturally.”

There was something that clicked when I saw Third Prince Ludwig smiling. If he asked me to treat him naturally instead of as a prince, and I did as he said, no matter how informal he said today was, I might get accused of taking a lax attitude towards the Third Prince.

Or even if he said that, if you don’t relax your behavior and respond with a stiff refusal instead, you might be accused of not humoring the Prince’s request. No matter which one you choose, His Highness could do as he pleased.

To begin with, my first impression of this Prince was “Fake.” On the surface, he has a smile on his face. There is nothing wrong with his manners either. It’s just that… it’s all so fake.

If an ordinary girl of the same age as me sees him, they might think that looks like a charming prince’s smile. However, to someone who was a working member of society in my previous life, I can only see that smirk as a business smile. If I were to say that it’s just me being cynical, it might be so. But this smile is definitely not a child’s smile appropriate for his age, but a smile for business negotiations.

He has a well-structured face. He has a gentle demeanor and a refreshing smile. But this prince’s true feelings are surely different. Ordinary children might not notice it, but the grown-up nobles who excelled in the art of gut feelings know that his Highness’s true feelings are not of a charming young boy with an innocent smile, right?

At any rate, if you don’t know what your opponent is going to do, you can’t counter them. There was absolutely nothing wrong on my part, but as Father and I welcomed Third Prince Ludwig into our mansion, we thought of how to break this engagement talk.

I try to explore various topics while I converse with the Third Prince, but he doesn’t show any openings. On the surface, it was just a refreshing smile. I feel like the engagement talks are likely to break down going on as they were, but I want a more definitive, decisive blow. My father is also present, so even if nothing goes wrong and the deal breaks down, he won’t believe it’s because I did my best for this scheme.

If that happens, I’m afraid of what my father will do later, so I want to show him that it’s because of my actions that the deal was broken off. On the other hand, it is out of the question to anger the Prince because of fault on our part. I want to make it more… natural, that the Prince would refuse….

“Do you find conversing with me boring, Flora?” Ludwig asked.

“Huh?” I asked.

Ah… oh no. Was I neglecting the Prince by thinking about how to bring these talks to a decisive break? If the Prince is in a bad mood like this, it could be said that the problem was me.

“That’s rather ridiculous, isn’t it?” I said. “It was just that this experience is so far removed from my normal life, I got a little dazed. My apologies for making you uncomfortable.”

Well, I’ve made an excuse for now, but I can’t expect much of an effect. I can’t come up with a good lie on the spot, so this is probably a demerit for me. It’s not good if it stays like this.

“Is that so? Then what is your normal life like?” Ludwig asked

Oops! I got caught in an unexpected pinch… I didn’t expect to get that kind of reaction, so I just decided to answer him honestly.

“What’s my normal life like, you say…?” I said. “Usually, it’s time to take a tutor’s class after doing some exercise in the morning.”

There’s nothing to worry about here because it’s true. It’s good to talk vaguely about your usual life.

“What do you do when you train?” Ludwig asked. “Who is your tutor and what do you learn from them?”

Oh, come on! This prince is annoying! Why are you digging from that angle? What is it, if I had a strange hobby, would you decline the engagement because of that? Well, even though I said that it’s not a society where you can refuse for that kind of petty reason, I’m not an authority on any of this.

But maybe this is my chance? A normal young lady would probably learn manners, growing and arranging flowers, brewing and serving tea, singing, and playing musical instruments. On the other hand, what I am learning so far, is far from the image of a noble lady.

Of course, that’s all just in my imagination, and neither my father nor mother have said anything, so maybe all the daughters of the Kingdom of Ploiss are learning the same things I’m learning, but shall we still tell the Third Prince about it anyway? If he thinks I’m an eccentric young lady, that’s just fine with me.

There may be some strange rumors about the Margrave Carruthers, but it will be alright.

“Usually, I would swing my sword first thing in the morning and practice magic until I’m on the verge of depleting my magical power, and then the usual schedule at this time would be learning about history and domestic affairs from Sigmund,” I said.

“Wha?!” Ludwig said, spluttering and stiffening. “You’re already using magic?! And training in swords and domestic affairs, Flora?!”

Is it really so unusual? I’m already 8 years old, so isn’t all that normal?

I heard that children of nobles learn magic at least once between the ages of 5 and 10 to check their aptitude for it. If that’s true, it shouldn’t be surprising that I, an 8-year-old, am learning about it.

“Is there really something odd with that?” I asked. “Isn’t it natural for women to learn how to protect themselves? No, rather, precisely because they are women, in the end, they should be able to draw the line themselves. And in order to support the man who will become my husband, I must learn politics or render myself useless.”

“—-!?”

His Highness is looking at me like he’s looking at something truly strange. There wasn’t a trace of that refreshing smile just a little while ago. Father was also next to me and was moving his lips to try and form words, but as his mouth opened to speak, he suddenly shut it again. It seems he decided to wait and see what I would do.

“I, I see…” Ludwig said. “But, that’s easier said than done. Even if you say you’re learning both swordsmanship and magic, it’s no use if it’s just at the level of child’s play, isn’t it?”

“My! Fufu…” I chuckled. “Then, in that case, will Prince Ludwig please show me how he fights?”

This is it. The Third Prince’s composure suddenly collapsed. If we attack here, there is no doubt that we will be able to break off the engagement talk with Ludwig. With that in mind, I aimed for a decisive blow.

“–! Fine with me,” Ludwig said. “Let’s head to the training ground. You’re the daughter of a renowned margrave. There are about one or two training grounds here, aren’t there?”

“Yes. Let’s go, then,” I said.

I smiled and stood up, leading the Third Prince to the training ground behind the mansion. He gritted his teeth and stared at me like he had lost all composure, but I didn’t know that for sure. It seems that Ludwig will break off the deal if we exchange one round of blows at the training ground.

I didn’t expect it to go this well, so I headed there in a happy mood.

The Third Prince and I face each other at the training ground. I have Ludwig wear a leather breastplate just in case. According to what I heard on the walk there, the Third Prince is a swordsman who puts adults to shame, but I don’t know if it’s true, because there’s always the possibility that he had only fought in demonstration matches. Normally, one would throw a fight if they were told that it was a match with a prince.

“Flora, are you not going to wear protective gear?” Ludwig asked.

“Yes, I don’t need them, because Your Highness Ludwig’s sword will not even touch me,” I replied.

I’ve changed from my dress to my usual training pants, but I don’t have any armor. To begin with, even when I was training with my father and Erich, I never wore armor. They both say that if you wear armor, you will overestimate its protective ability and neglect your other defensive maneuvers, so if you don’t put your body at risk and sharpen your senses, you will soon receive a fatal injury on the battlefield and perish. 2

Well, anyway, whether the Prince is really strong or really weak, my baseline is not to wear armor. When I put on armor, it was heavy on me and I couldn’t move as well as I wanted. I’ll be killing my speed, which is my strong point, so I don’t need heavy armor until I grow up and gain more muscular strength and physical endurance. 3

“If an opponent were to mock me, I would not be able to hold back even if they were a woman,” Ludwig said. “This is your first and last chance. Flora, you don’t intend to bow your head in apology, do you?”

“I do not intend,” I replied. “Even a king cannot distort the truth. It’s absolutely unacceptable to bow and apologize for speaking a fact, no matter who my opponent is.

And with one final push, Ludwig glared at me like I’d killed his parents.

“Alright, then,” Ludwig said. “I will not hold myself back any longer!”

With the signal to start, Ludwig launches into a ferocious dash to close the distance. He slashes with his luxurious, slender sword, but he’s too slow. I guess he was being treated to spectacle matches, after all. Compared to both Father and Erich’s swords both, Ludwig is child’s play.

“Be this slow and I’m afraid I might fall asleep,” I said. “Besides, you’re going too easy. There’s no need to hold back because I’m a woman, aren’t I? Please, take this seriously.”

“Woah!” Ludwig yelled.

Even with the momentum from his dash, I parry his slash and it feels feather-light. And when I pushed him back with a jerk, Ludwig easily fell backward. His legs are too weak. Is this really how he trains? I guess he really was just a pampered royal, isn’t he?

“One, one more time!” Ludwig yelled.

“Yes, yes,” I said. “As many times as you like.”

Ludwig clambered to his feet and raised his sword. But child’s play is nothing to me. I continued to duel the Prince, knocking him over many times more for the next two hours.

After I beat him several times in swordsmanship that day, Third Prince Ludwig left for home with a gloomy cloud hanging over him. Father looked like he wanted to say something but when I turned to him with a big smile on my face, he wordlessly left. It seems he’s satisfied if there was nothing to be said.

Like this, the engagement talk between me and the Third Prince was definitely broken off…… or so I thought.

But what’s this? A week later, I received a letter informing me the engagement between me and the third prince has been formally decided. How did this happen? When you think about what I’ve done, isn’t it just beating the Third prince in swordsmanship and breaking his pride? All I did was make him confront reality from all the demonstration matches he’s had so far.

And yet, for some reason, Ludwig wrote in the letter that he insisted we be engaged no matter what. Is that prince a masochist? Did he feel good after being beaten up by me? I was horrified to imagine it.

Or was it something else? Was he aiming for an engagement so he can kill me in my sleep? Since he’s already a disingenuous liar of a third prince, it seems possible. Seeing that he is no match for me with a sword, he may want the engagement or marriage to make assassinating me easier.

And in the end, when Father called me and showed me the letter, I turned pale and prepared to be scolded by him, but surprisingly he just showed it off without saying anything and I was fine. I was able to leave the room safely.

The engagement was probably bad news because Father had such an exhausted look on his face. He may have been so distressed he couldn’t muster the energy to get mad at me.

I can’t help that I’ve failed once already. However, it is still possible that the engagement will be annulled from now on. If I somehow manage to make it so that the Third Prince Ludwig hates me, I may still be able to recover from hereon.

With that in mind, I started thinking about how I could have my engagement with the Third Prince broken.

T/N: For those not aware of the author’s other work, “I Was Genderswapped and Reincarnated as a Villainess, but I’m Making this My Personal Yuri Game,” this engagement with a man is also going nowhere. Ludwig and any other potential male suitors are only the butts of jokes about how dense Flora is and how totally uninterested in guys she is.