CH 75

She’s a beautiful girl with a calm aura about her… speaking of House Bayen, I’m pretty sure it’s the duchy in the south…

It was a duchy that governed the vast area bordering the Principality of Aust, and it should have been a House with considerable influence inside the Kingdom of Ploiss.

I remember at least the main noble Houses. Of course, I don’t remember all the Houses, including their countless retainers. That’s the job of a heraldic officer, and the Head of a large noble House doesn’t have time to bother remembering the family names and crests of small nobles.

This is by no means a lack of confidence in memorization skills or an excuse not to. A person’s time is limited and as a House Head, they have many things to do. If you have the time to remember the family name and crest of someone you may never have a relationship with, there are plenty of other things you have to do as well.

That’s why there are probably few nobles who don’t know about House Carruthers, but there are probably few nobles who know about House Caan. Did they have some sort of relationship with them, did they cause an incident, did they have something worthy of their attention?

“Ah~, Lady Helen is wonderful, isn’t she…?”

“As expected of someone who is said to be the most influential fiancée of Prince Ludwig, yes?”

Huh? Ludwig’s fiancée? Is that so?

“Oh my? Don’t you know? It seems that His Highness Ludwig’s fiancée has already been decided.”

“Don’t you know about it? The daughter of Margrave Carruthers, who is supposed to be the Prince’s fiancée, didn’t even start living in the royal capital even after the engagement was decided, and she’s barely even met him besides. It seems they’re claiming Prince Ludwig has only been engaged for a short while to stop people claiming he still hasn’t got a fiancée, so the engagement is only to ward off such people.”

Hmm…. is that so? I see.

Well, that’s certainly true if you say it like that. If the engagement between me and Ludwig had been officially decided, it wouldn’t be strange for me to be moved to the royal capital and made to live near Ludwig. It is also true that I have met him only a few times before.

“To begin with, Prince Ludwig shouldn’t have married a country girl on the frontier, right? If he didn’t have a fiancée, even more Houses would have come to try to woo him, so of course, he just got engaged for the sake of it.”

“And he’s secretly meeting with his favorite, Lady Helena.”

“The daughter of Margrave Carruthers must be so miserable, isn’t she…? It seems that she thinks she’s Prince Ludwig’s fiancée without knowing that she is being treated like that.”

Huh?! Is that so?! Was I being taken advantage of? I didn’t know that…

“Shhh! You don’t know where the daughter of Margrave Carruthers is, so it’s best not to say anything. She’s just like the country folk, no, just like the nomads, the Margrave’s House are barbarians who use force to get things done, so you don’t know what they’ll do if they hear you talking about them like this.”1

I agree. In a place with so many people, it’s best not to speak ill of others. Especially if you don’t even know the other person’s face. After all, she may be right in front of you and heard it all.

Also, Katharina, stop glaring at them with a terrible expression. I’m not going to blame them. Rather, I would like to thank them for giving me such wonderful information.

Helene and Ludwig, huh? That’s a good thing. Admittedly, I noticed there were lots of strange things about my engagement, too. I’ve only met Ludwig a few times since I became engaged. Now that they mention it, it wouldn’t have been strange for me to have been moved to the royal capital and made to live with Ludwig when the engagement was officially decided.

And yet, if that doesn’t happen, there’s nothing between our families or between us. In terms of Japanese-style nuptials, there was no betrothal, and there was no discussion about the future between the two families. It’s strange when you really think about it.

If you have a connection with a House like Carruthers, normally there should be discussions about the futures of both families. There are many things that need to be discussed, such as mutual cooperation systems and future profit sharing. Nothing could be decided on such a practical matter, just a vague engagement or a fiancée that was decided and left as they were otherwise. It is quite convincing to say I’m just a dummy.

It makes sense if I was a dummy fiancée to avoid the social climbers around them who were making advances. There is no need to discuss it with House Carruthers. After all, I don’t really want to get married.

I see~…. it might be easier to break off the engagement than I thought. Rather, even if I don’t do anything when the time comes, won’t they naturally break off the engagement?

However, in that case, it would be unbearable if I was treated badly. I have to make sure that the engagement was broken off with no fault on my part. The King and Ludwig may care about the outside perception and make me take responsibility for the breakup. 2 I just have to do something about it…

“Like last year, I would like to welcome His Majesty, Wilhelm, who has made a special visit once more,” Helene closed out her speech. “Please welcome him with applause.”

And now King Wilhelm is coming out. Why is he in a place like this? I can’t say that out loud.

It’s the same as last year, but last year was the year Ludwig entered the school, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he came to the entrance ceremony. And this year he came because there was Helene, Ludwig’s fiance candidate. There’s nothing wrong with that.

“Today I am busy with some private business, so it won’t be too formal,” Wilhelm said. “This year’s new students are very important to me, to Ludwig, and to the future of the Kingdom of Ploiss. That is why I have come to see you personally.”

And with that, King Wilhelm turned towards me.

“Huh…! Me…!?”

“Dum~my. It can’t be you…”

“Yes. It has to be Lady Helene, right?”

The trio that just gave me important information was saying something ridiculous. These three are really funny. If you do a comedy trio or something like that… the world will not be so sweet as to make them popular. If they actually become professional comedians, they will surely be told by the audience to give them their money back. They’re entertaining, but they can’t make it professional comedians.

And when I followed the gazes of those three, there was the figure of Helene von Bayen, who had just finished her greetings as the new student representative. I feel like Wilhelm’s gaze is also looking around that area. After all, is this girl the favored candidate for Ludwig’s wife? In that case, I should behave accordingly and be prepared to fade out at any time.

It feels like Helene is responding to King Wilhelm with a faint smile. After all, there must be such a deal behind the scenes. Aristocrats are scary. I don’t believe in nobility anymore. As a small lord in the countryside, I want to return to my territory and quietly develop it…

When I was thinking about such things, Wilhelm’s greetings were over before I knew it. I didn’t listen to the second half or so, but it’s okay. I don’t think he said anything important anyway…

The entrance ceremony is over and the new students leave the large auditorium. I thought I was going to follow the flow, but I was stopped and when I turned around, there were a lot of troublesome people.

“Flora! Over here!”

“… Prince Ludwig, please don’t call me out like that…” I muttered.

It was Ludwig. Now that he’s called me by name, I can’t ignore him. Above all, around Ludwig, there’s King Wilhelm who just finished his greetings, Duke Dietrich, Rutger, my parents, Victoria, it’s all the people I’m not good with.

Is it a bit misleading to say I’m not good with them? I am usually indebted to them and I can’t be mad at them or ignore them. It’s not that I don’t like them or that I’m not good with them, but there are a lot of important people that I can’t raise my head or voice to.

Well, I don’t have any obligations or debts of gratitude to Wilhelm, Ludwig, or Rutger, do I…? I wonder if I am barely in Duke Dietrich’s debt. I’ve had a lot of help and support from him.

I owe both my parents and Victoria a debt of gratitude, so I can’t ignore them. From now on, I will have to do various things to return the favor.

“Finally… we can be together every day from this year!” Ludwig cried.

“Did you call me out to talk about that? New students have to go to their respective classrooms now, don’t they?” I said.

Don’t call me out for such trivial things… tell that to Helene, your beloved lover. What will she say to me, the dummy fiancée? Or is this also more grandstanding to his surroundings?

No, I see. Even if I don’t like it, if you call me and talk to me in such a public place, I’ll stand out. Did you dare to call me here and make me stand out in order to maximize the use of me as a dummy decoy? Stop it, Ludwig.

“Well, don’t say that,” Wilhelm said. “Ludwig was looking forward to this day.”

Oh, Your Majesty, that’s none of my business, isn’t it? He can flirt with Helene at school, right?

“Fuhn…! Hey! Country Girl! Prince Ludwig has someone else who is more suitable for him! Know your place!”

Ah, I see. Did Rutger already know about Ludwig and Helene? That’s why he told me this before. I now understand why. Don’t worry, even I have no intention of marrying Ludwig. I’ll let you run wild as long as you don’t make me out to be the bad guy.

“Oh my?” Mother said. “Lord Rutger? Did you just say my Flora dear is not suitable for Prince Ludwig? My, oh my? Did I hear you wrong, perhaps?”

“Rutger! Watch your mouth!” Dietrich yelled. “My apologies for my son’s rudeness, Lady Maria.”

Mother… can you stop intimidating Rutger with such bloodlust…? Even Duke Dietrich is frightened… for those who know Mother’s true nature, this is nothing short of terrifying.

“She’s so close to His Majesty and His Highness…”

“What House is that girl from…?”

It’s not good…. the surroundings began to talk in whispers. If you talk casually and so openly, you will stand out too much.

“Well then, I have to go to the classroom, so please excuse me. Good day to you,” I said.

I said my goodbyes quickly and ran off in a hurry. I’m pretty sure the rumor mill is already spinning this…

Attendants are not allowed in the classroom, so I enter alone. The class division is determined by family status, and the group I belong to is made up of only the top-ranked Houses of the year. Naturally, Helene is at the top of the group, therefore she leads the class, and Margrave Carruthers is at most in the middle or at the bottom of this class.

There are two ducal families this year, and most of the other students are marquisates, but there are two margraviates in Class 1. Class 2 is the remaining marquisates, and Class and Class 4 seem to have the counties.

Looking at it this way, it can be seen that margraviates are positioned quite high compared to marquisates. Not only Margrave Carruthers, but also the other margraviate is in Class 1, so we’re probably higher than most marquisates.

Of course, some marquisates are higher than the margraves, so it cannot be generalized, but there is no doubt that successive kings have placed importance on the margraves.

By the way, I said they’re big deals, but I don’t know their faces or names. The name list and seating order were posted and I looked at it. They’re ordered by your family’s rank, and that number is your seat as well. I’m number 14 out of 25. The other margraviate is number 22.

Each class has a maximum of 25 people, and only 4 classes can enroll 100 people. Also, it is not always the case that 100 people will be filled every year, and if it is a year where there are not enough children of the appropriate status, it is normal for the school to be less than capacity. Classes 3 and 4 are assigned to counts, and the rest are assigned to 1 and 2.

When I sit in my seat and wait, I can’t help but feel like I’m being looked at, or rather, I’m the subject of noisy rumors. After all, I was talking to Ludwig and the others a while ago, so I wonder if they are paying attention to me and suspect me of being the daughter of Margrave Carruthers.

“Are you the daughter of Margrave Carruthers? You should know your place!”

“What are you up to? Do you really think that Prince Ludwig is taking you seriously?”

Oooh?! I don’t know what it is, but I’m surrounded by girls, aren’t I? I can’t put faces to their names, but judging from my guess from the seats they were at just now, I think they’re probably members of the marquisates who rank higher than my family. Could this be bullying?

In this academy, men and women are not separated into different classes, so even though there are male students in the same classroom, everyone looks like they’re ignoring each other. It seems that the aristocrats who are even higher than these girls are also going to ignore them without hesitation and keep their heads down.

“Stop that, ladies. What are you doing!?”

“Lady Helene…”

“Let’s go…”

And when Helene stood before me, the girls surrounding me ran away, cowed. As expected, the very top of the pecking order is different than the second-highest rungs.

“Are you alright?” Helene asked.

“Yes. Nothing has been done, so don’t worry about you. Thank you for your help, Lady Helen,” I said.

I want to say thank you to Helene who cut in front of the others and helped me. House Carruthers, which is the highest rank among the margraviates, is not the highest rank in the whole Kingdom of Ploiss, even if we are a prestigious House. The next three years are not very promising.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. Feel free to talk to me about anything,” Helene said.

“Thank you,” I said.

And this beautiful girl. It’s not sarcasm, or rather, she’s acting naturally, but she’s very elegant. She’s different from a fake princess like me, and she makes me realize what it’s like to be a real princess. If Katharina had seen her first, she would have had a very different idea of what princesses must be like.

Thus began my school life.