Volume 1 - CH 24

「Haa~……」

A young girl was sighing while drinking aromatic black tea in the living room of Dandall Castle late at night.

「What’s up Clara? You are sighing.」

「……Onii-sama.」

Clara Dandall who had memory from her previous life smiled to the boy who talked to her and shook her head.

「Elena-sama will arrive soon, so I’m looking forward to it. That’s all.」

「Her highness and Clara are really close with each other after all. I’m also looking forward to be able to meet with our royal cousin after so long.」

「Yes Onii-sama.」

Clara was watching with conflicted emotion at her big brother of this life who was laughing heartily.

Her memory of the previous life……according to that, she was an existence that was called as 『villainess』 of an otome game. This big brother before her who was one year older than her was also one of the 『capture targets』.

Rockwell Dandall. He had the same red hair and grey eyes like Clara and a shockingly handsome face.

His personality was sincere and upright. And yet he had a merry personality that he was loved not only by Clara, but by the whole Dandall House. But Rockwell would fall in love for the first time from his encounter with the 『main character(heroine)』 and became unable to see anything else other than her. Even when the heroine got together with the crown prince, he would continue to wish only for her happiness with straightforward earnestness. At the end he would even punish his little sister Clara based on a weak evidence.

It might not be the case if it was with other noble, but a prosecution from her biological brother who was the heir of Margrave Dandall might be sufficient to be considered as official evidence. And then in the case she got punished, the Clara in the game got sent off to an extremely cold monastery that was located at a northern foreign country where her life would end without being able to see the outside world ever again.

She refused to end up like that. In her previous life she live an ordinary life and died young. Now she finally got a chance to be reborn like this, so what was wrong if she sought for an ordinary happiness for herself? Clara in the game had unpleasant personality that was “befitting for a game”, but the current Clara had good relationship with Rockwell, so there was a possibility that he wouldn’t condemn Clara even if the heroine got together with the crown prince. However, if Clara became the official lead fiancée of the crown prince, the heroine and the crown prince would be able to get together as long as Clara didn’t get down from the stage.

There was also the option of her not opposing the heroine and became friend with her, but even if Clara didn’t do anything, if by some chance the other noble daughters who were jealous with the heroine did something, there was a high possibility that they would offer a justification that 『it was for the sake of Clara-sama who is the crown prince’s fiancé』 and got set up as the ringleader without her knowledge.

She also considered withdrawing herself from the position of fiancée candidate, but due to her aunt being unable to become the first queen, her big brother who was Clara’s father, the head of all the knight orders and his wife were getting worked up in making their daughter Clara to be the next first queen.

Also Clara herself feared the “charm” of the main character(heroine) that could twist even the conviction of this kind big brother above all else.

It would be fine if the heroine chose other capture target. Even if she chose her big brother, perhaps Clara would only end up getting banished to other country at worst.

But this wasn’t a “game” where she could have a retry as many as she wanted. This was “reality” where there was only one chance.

(Failure won’t be allowed……)

The game’s heroine was a viscount daughter, but it was only when she got together with the crown prince that her background as a daughter of Melrose House would come to light. According to a story that she heard from her grandfather, it was an unconfirmed information but it seemed that Melrose’s princess whose whereabouts was unknown had been found.

To learn the truth of that situation, Clara also used the spy of Dandall to investigate it under extreme secrecy, but according to the spy, it was Melrose House that was in charge of this country’s dark side organization and that to investigate anymore than this would need the resolve to take on the whole dark side of Claydale Kingdom as opponent.

And most of all, the head of Melrose House and her grandfather the previous head of Dandall House were friends since their time as student in the academy, so from the beginning it was impossible for her to take the initiative to against a princess of Melrose House using Dandall House’s manpower.

She needed some kind of connection. A connection unrelated to Dandall House that could remove the heroine. Clara had to obtain such connection no matter what before her enrollment to the sorcery academy which was the time when the game event began.

There were three villainesses in the game. One was the crown prince’s fiancée Clara, while the other one was a count daughter whose father was the head of palace magicians, and the last one was the first princess Elena who was heading here right now.

But, although Elena was categorized as villainess, the most that she would do was scolding the heroine from jealousy because she got involved with her brother the crown prince. But through some events, her positivity level toward the heroine would increase and at the end she would recognize the heroine and became her ally, so in reality the main villainesses were Clara and the count daughter.

Clara began to seriously consider that if that was the case, perhaps she should make Elena removed the heroine.

「Very good. With this you have become able to at least perform the footwork at minimum level. But it’s still nothing more than the elementary level. Don’t slack off with your training.」

「Yes.」

At the morning training, I finally received a passing mark from Sera. At the ninth day of my training as bodyguard maid apprentice, I finally learned the basic of the footwork through experience just barely before the arrival of the monitoring target. Although it was only at the level where I could somehow use it for a few steps if I focused. It was still difficult to use it in battle.

But, from what Sera said, someone less than ten years old who could use this footwork even just for a little only numbered several people even in the record of her organization.

「By the way I too could use it when I was seven.」

「I too am only six years old but I can use it-」

「……Even Seo will be seven soon.」

I was continuing my training with Seo although only at the morning. Seo who was a year younger than me was using more advanced technique than me, so I thought this was the norm but, it seemed that although Seo had the talent, he had a somewhat unmotivated personality until now. Apparently he only got serious with doing the training since I joined the training, so Sera secretly thanked me. ……I didn’t do anything though.

Other than that I managed to learn the incantation of the other level 1 spell of darkness sorcery, Weight. Weight was a sorcery to increase the weight of an object the size of what you could hold in your arms by around ten percent. Its incantation was 『Mobasa Ooiaa Niderekuresu』──it meant change the weight of that object.

I also began learning this incantation by searching the single character word in it so it was a pain, but by obtaining darkness magic skill, I also became able to detect the faint sign of activation so I was able to manage to learn it in several days.

When I decompressed the shortened incantation, I found two words, 『Optional(Iaani』 and 『Direction(Direkuresu)』. I confirmed that this spell wasn’t a sorcery of 『change the object’s weight』 but 『move the object』.

From there I learned that there was no word of 『Weight』 in the incantation and I was finally able to activate the spell of Weight. ……Who was the one who made this kind of sloppy liberal translation?

Just as could be seen, this too was a sorcery with bad utility, but I noticed with perception of my dark magic that the effect still slightly remained even when the object left my hand, so in the end I became able to increase the flying distance and accuracy of my projectile weapon if I focused and used it.

The illusion of 『touch』 using darkness magic that I envisioned was also slightly taking shape. Right now its effect was still weak, but I would be able to make someone who got hit with this illusion for the first time got their attention diverted for an instant.

.

▼ Aria (Alicia)   Race : Human  –  Rank 1

【Magic Power : 111/115】△ 3 UP【Stamina : 55/64】△ 4 UP

【Strength : 4 (5)】【Endurance : 5 (6)】【Agility : 7 (8)】【Dexterity : 6】

《Short Sword Skill Level 1》《Martial Art Level 1》》《Throwing Level 1》

《Light Sorcery Level 1》》《Darkness Magic Level 1》《Non-Elemental Magic Level 1》

《Daily Life Magic×６》《Magic Power Control Level 2》

《Pressure Level 2》《Stealth Level 1》《Night Vision Level 1》《Search Level 1》

《Simple Appraisal》

【Overall Combat Strength : 62 (With Body Strengthening : 66)】△ 4 UP

.

My status didn’t really change but, I was growing in the small details of my skills, so I got the feeling that my martial art and stealth would level up when my body grew up.

There were only monsters at my surrounding so my growth seemed slow compared to them, but it was already astounding that a kid below ten years old had a level 2 skill. In fact my combat strength was higher than Seo. Even so it was difficult for me to win against Seo in our sparring, so it made me keenly realized once more just how important the basic was.

But I was still unable to learn the light sorcery spell Cure. I had asked Sera to teach me the meaning of the spell as much as she knew, and when I chanted it there was sign of activation, and yet it didn’t show any effect.

I had found the words 『Regeneration(Ridiisu)』 and 『Proper Form(Osutoorii Suten)』, but perhaps I was still lacking something.

There was some kind of trick for it. But I didn’t know what this “trick” could be.

I wanted to take my time to thoroughly investigate and research the sorcery, but it was already the time when the “honorable guest” could arrive anytime now, so the maids including an apprentice like me were getting very busy.

I too had been made to learn etiquette although it was only the bare minimum, so I was given work at the castle instead of the mansion. But, from what Sera told me my etiquette level was truly still at the minimum level, so fundamentally what I needed to do was only standing silently as long as a noble didn’t address me directly. My work was only consisting of behind the scenes work.

But Seo told me that in this castle there was a scary high ranked butler who was also a colleague of Sera. This high ranked butler was the one in charge of coordinating the butlers. I had a chance to see him from afar just once. He was a black haired butler who looked to be around his forty. I felt a dangerous atmosphere that made me felt it was a danger even to just approach him until a distance where I could cast appraisal.

「…………」

Even at night I trained by myself until late at night, so I would get sleepy if I was standing doing nothing.

Right now I was doing a work of sewing a frayed linen sheet in a room alone. I knew how to sew from the “knowledge” but this was my first time actually sewing for real, so it took a lot of time even with Meena teaching me.

「……tsu」

I felt sleepy for a moment and pricked my finger with the needle. It seemed to prick deeply that a glob of blood oozed out. As I pondered whether to stop the bleeding with Heal or used Cure for training, the blood started to trickle and the unbleached string got dyed red.

「Haa……」

I didn’t concentrate. I didn’t know what would happen so I had no leeway to let my guard down. It couldn’t be helped, so I cut the part of the string that got dirtied with blood. When I was about to put the string in my pocket to throw it away later, the string suddenly moved.

「……This is」

My magic power was flowing into the string through the blood, just like with my hair?

.

And then, the noble child who would be the monitoring target finally arrived.

A carriage arrived with multiple knights riding horses arrived. Butlers and maids lined up at the right and left to welcome the visitor. I also lined up with them at the end of the line of the maids. I kept my head bowed while strengthening my eyes with magic power to observe the situation with a sidelong glance.

A knight opened the carriage’s door and a pretty red haired girl got down with the help of a butler.

Her age was around ten years old. If she was also growing because of magic power then her age wouldn’t be that different from me. So this girl was the monitoring target……when I thought that, a girl with beautiful blonde hair wearing even more gorgeous dress appeared from behind her.

There was no particular reason but, I understood that this girl was the “monitoring target”.

The blond haired girl who was escorted by a high class butler walked forward with the red haired girl following behind her. The blond haired girl looked like she was going to directly go into the castle, but she suddenly stopped in front of me who was bowing. She gracefully looked around before her voice that was like chiming bell softly flowed into the wind.

「You there. You have a pretty hair. Can I have this girl?」