CH 84

It was already late last night, so I couldn’t talk to Father. Furthermore, I thought about asking after the morning training, but Father doesn’t have that much time after that, so I gave up. After returning from school, I only tell Father that I want to hear about the Lingerburg family, and then headed back to school while I waited for him to have free time again.

I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to go straight home after school today, but it’s better to tell Father that I have something I want to talk about. It’s polite to make an appointment in advance, even if it’s between father and daughter. However, I still don’t know what time I’ll be back and what time I’ll be able to hear from him, so I need to tell him that as well. At worst it may be after dinner.

When I arrive at school, I enter an empty classroom. After a while, students began to come to school, but today the usual quintet didn’t come in after me. When they finally arrived, I think they were grinning while looking at me, but I don’t mind because it’s always been the case.

I should have tried not to worry about it, but something is wrong today. Not just the quintet. I get the feeling that the other students, male and female, are also looking at me and whispering something to each other

“Aah, so you were here?”

“Lady Helene?” I asked.

Today, the rare and graceful beautiful young lady Helene spoke to me. The only time Helene would talk to me was when I was involved in that quintet. Even so, today she called out to me even though I wasn’t even involved with the quintet. What in the hell is going on?

“This is not the time for you to sit here,” Helene said. “Go look at the bulletin board at the entrance.”

“What? Huh?” I said.

There is a big bulletin board at the entrance of this school. When I passed by this morning, there shouldn’t have been any particular changes, but…

There, I suddenly met the eyes of the grinning quintet. I understand now. Apparently, they were late today because they were doing something to the bulletin board. It’s probably not a good thing anyway, but I can’t leave it alone since Helene told me directly. I headed to the bulletin board at the entrance even though I thought it was trouble first thing in the morning.

When I neared the bulletin board, there was a crowd of people. I looked from a distance to avoid the crowd.

“……I see now,” I said.

There is a newspaper pinned on the board for some time and a shocking headline is catching all the attention. It read, “The Daughter Of Margrave Carruthers Abuses Her Authority To Force A Royal Knight To Kowtow”.

By the way, there is no such thing as a kowtow in this country, kneeling with your head pressed against the ground. I just used the word kowtow as an easy translation. The closest equivalent in Japanese would be “the deepest, politest bow”. However, in terms of nuance, the article implies I forced the knight to bow and it was supposed to be humiliating.

In this country, the deep bow of a royal knight was originally used only for his master, in other words, King Wilhelm. Besides, the deepest bow is not something you do for the sake of apology, but just a sign of respect.

If I were to translate that and express it in a short sentence through a Japanese lens, it would be “I made him kowtow.”

I look through its contents. It claims that after school yesterday, the Daughter of Margrave Carruthers took advantage of her familiarity with the royal family (they probably meant to say I was Prince Ludwig’s fiancee, but they didn’t want to admit that, so they used that phrase instead), and it goes on to say that I made a Knight of the Royal Guard Division kowtow and apologize to me.

This is probably what happened with Claudia yesterday. I can hear people saying things like “Now that you mention it, I did see her taking a knight to the back of the school building.” or “I saw him bowing his head from a distance.”

Claudia called me and took me to the back of the school building, from the entrance where students were waiting for their carriage to go home. There must have been a lot of people who saw the situation at that time. I was the one who was taken, not the one who took Claudia with me, but this is what people’s vague memories and recollection errors caused by selfish assumptions will do.

I had confirmed that there was no one around me so that I would be the only one to hear her voice and what she said, but if I was secretly peeking from a place far away, I wouldn’t have noticed the fine details. It wouldn’t be strange if someone started wondering what we were doing back there.

And there, Claudia apologized to me. I didn’t tell her to bow her head, but I wonder how it would look from the perspective of those who were watching from such a distance that they couldn’t hear any words.

I might be seen as an arrogant daughter who used her status as Prince Ludwig’s fiancée to coerce the knights of the Royal Guard Division to apologize.

In the first place, even if you didn’t think so at the time it happened yesterday, reading this bulletin board newspaper will probably make you think, “Is that what happened?” This kind of biased reporting and manipulation of people’s assumptions is the same now as in the past, in this country, and on modern earth.

For example, let’s say that Mr. A’s bag was snatched by Snatcher B in modern Japan. Suppose that Mr. C, who noticed the commotion, caught Snatcher B red-handed as he was trying to flee. From Mr. A’s point of view, Mr. C is a good person who risked his life to catch the criminal. Also, from the perspective of the police, he is a good citizen who cooperated in arresting the criminal.

However, if the TV shows only the scenes where Mr. C gets into a fight, punches, and holds down Snatcher B, and repeatedly claims that Mr. C is a violent and dangerous person, without knowing anything about who Mr. C was in this situation, you’d think he was just a violent person.

How did it happen and why did it happen? It doesn’t matter what you did it for. I wonder if it would be the same if only fragmentary information was given and it was explained in words and letters. Do you think you can’t be deceived so easily? In reality, such things are commonplace in the modern world. The reality is that there are many people who are easily deceived even if they do not intend to be deceived.

It’s easy to believe that it’s true because it’s a major newspaper company or TV station, or because it’s a newspaper or station that you’ve been reading or watching for many years. That’s human. Furthermore, Mr. C is an individual, and if asked which one to believe, the individual complainer or a major media outlet, most people will easily believe the major media outlet.

You may think that this is not the case, but there are bound to be many cases in which people are taken in by such things without realizing it.

What about here? This wall newspaper doesn’t say who wrote it, but it must have been written and pasted by the quintet. No, I don’t think they wrote it themselves, do they? Someone must have written it. I don’t know if it’s another student at this school or their family servants. I wonder if everyone knows that it’s just those five people.

That quintet has the highest family status even in this academy. There seem to be a lot of fellow groups, and they are probably the most popular girls in school. Compared to that, if my family’s rank is lower than theirs, in the world of the political center they think of me as a savage waving a weapon in the countryside, such was the reputation of the margraviates.

We may be respected for our military strength and territory, but aristocrats spoiled by the luxuries of and pageantry of the political center despise the rugged countrymen outside their social circles.

Which of these two claims do you believe? No need to think about it. Even if there were people who understood that the gossip rag on the bulletin board was a lie or an exaggeration, there would be no one on my side. After all, if you say anything, you’ll turn the quintet into your enemy, too.

It is not a matter of which is right, the top of the political center or the savage from the countryside, but which one is more profitable and advantageous for me? Considering that, even if there are people who think the contents of the wall newspaper are suspicious, they won’t raise their voices.

“Hey, that’s…”

“She’ll force us to bow, too.”

“Let’s head out.”

The students who noticed me disappeared from the front of the bulletin board. It’s really easy to understand. Those who believe the contents and criticize me. Those who judge that it is better to be on the side of the quintet regardless of whether the content is correct or not. People who try to keep a distance from being involved in this mess. It can be roughly divided into these categories, but the one thing that is clear is that no one is on my side.

Well… the contents of this wall newspaper are not wrong either. The individual facts themselves are true. I met Claudia at the entrance yesterday, went to the back of the school building, and Claudia bowed to apologize. There is no lie, per se.

I can’t insist on Claudia’s reason for apologizing to me yesterday. Claudia still pretends to be a man named Claudio in public. Since she is the same age as Ludwig, she has been accompanying Ludwig to and from school since last year.

The students at the academy know about the Royal Guard Division Knights who have been coming as Ludwig’s escorts since last year. If I tried to assert my legitimacy, it would definitely turn out to be “Then why was Claudia bowing to you and apologizing?”.

If you ask me that, I can’t tell the truth. That’s because I’ll end up telling a lot of people about things that were deeply related to Claudia’s private life.

I don’t know if Claudia has gender dysphoria or if she’s just a woman who also likes other women. One thing that is clear is, is that Claudia was at one point a woman who likes women and that has caused her trouble in the past.

That’s why Claudia lived her life hiding it, even trying to become a man because of the contradiction in her mind that she liked women but could not. I can’t go around whispering about such a serious matter to a lot of people. I will have to keep my mouth shut on this matter.

“You, is this for real?”

“Lady Helene…” I said.

Helene came from the classroom while I was vaguely thinking about what to do next. Her question is very troublesome. It was hard for me to answer because I was still thinking about what to do.

“There are some parts that look true from an objective point of view, but the contents of this wall newspaper contain intentional distortions and misdirection,” I said. “There are some things that are true but as a whole it’s false.”

It is true that Claudia came to me, took me to the back of the school building, and bowed her head to me. There are many eyewitnesses, so it can’t be lied about. However, most of the content is written strangely as this article is mixed with biased reporting and distortion. Or rather, that group of five is deliberately making others think their way.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” Helene said. “If it’s false, why don’t you assert so?”

And why do I have to be interrogated by Helene like this? She may be number one in our year, but if you ask me, Helene and I are nothing more than students of equal standing. It is unacceptable to have an attitude of one side interrogating the other when nothing wrong has been done.

“I have been personally acquainted with this knight for some time,” I said. “In the past, we had a misunderstanding and I came to the royal capital for the first time in a long time and met him again, so I received an apology for that incident. I didn’t ask for it, and I didn’t even take him to the back of the school building. It’s just that this knight voluntarily came up to me, invited me to the back, and then apologized of his own volition, as well.”

I cut off my words there and stare at Helene. Helene is also looking straight at me.

“So you’re saying this article is true?” Helene said.

“I just told you it’s not true,” I said. “This article claims that I used my authority to summon the knight and make him apologize. In reality, this knight is an old friend of mine. And he came over to apologize for what happened in the past. However, I thought it was my fault, so I apologized to the knight as well. So the matter was resolved between the two of us. It’s nothing like what you read in this article.”

No matter how much I explain, they won’t understand. They don’t want to understand. Or do they understand but they’re not totally convinced to believe it? Or are they doing it on purpose so that some unnecessary words come out of me?

“What is that matter he’s apologizing for?” Helene asked.

“It’s a personal matter, and it’s also related to this knight, so I can’t say tell you,” I said.

“You… it’s unreasonable for you to ask me to believe you…” Helene said, shaking her head.

But when did I ask her to listen to me? Did I ask her to believe me? I don’t remember saying that.

“You don’t have to listen to what I say or believe me,” I said. “I’m just stating the plain facts. People who don’t understand what I’m saying and accept only one side of the story, won’t think what I’m saying is true. Even so, those who are keeping their mouths shut probably have their principles and ideas, so I have no intention of saying anything to them. If you want to think that way, why don’t you think that way?”

Helene gave me a serious look as I spoke so indifferently.