CH 2.12

As the curtains were lifted slightly, a splendid garden came to my view as we passed by. Since she is a princess with great authority, her wealth was elaborately displayed on the exterior of this place.

‘This time, I must never become her enemy.’

I made a promise to myself for now. Even if I don’t want to, becoming friends is the best route. That’s right, ‘Even if I don’t want to’.

“You can get off now, my lady.”

After a while, the carriage came to a complete stop. I nodded, while admiring the majestic wall behind Lacius.

“Yes, Honey Darling.”

“… … I wish you would use just one title when you call me.”

“Alright, honey.”

I think I’m in trouble, because I’m having fun teasing Lacius these days. I giggled as I looked at Lacius’ frown.

With that, the tension that I felt at the thought of meeting the princess was relieved.

I took Lacius’ hand and stepped down proudly.

“Wel— Wel-come.”

“I have been invited to the tea party of the Imperial Princess.”

“Cough, p-please give me a second.”

An old man who seemed to be the chamberlain came out of the Imperial Palace and stuttered when he saw Lacius.

Well, I guess he didn’t expect Lacius would come with me.

I laughed and snorted at his quickly disappearing back.

“Let’s see. If you didn’t come with me, it seems like he would try to stop me here and make me wait forever?”

“Make you wait? Why?”

“What why? It’s because I am hated here.”

Of course, there’s no way I would have waited quietly because of my personality.

The chamberlain returned in a hurry, and after him, ladies dressed like flowers followed one after another.

“Sir Lacius!”

“Ah, how is sir Lacius here…!”

“Are you here to see us?”

I was amazed at the words these ladies uttered. Are they treating me like I was invisible even when they saw me?

“I really wanted to see you.”

“Have you been in good health?”

The two ladies, who ran ahead, stepped forward and hit me with their shoulders. I twisted my lips wickedly, as I quietly backed away from my position and made myself closer to Lacius.

Oh, so they want to experience it?

I pretended to touch my elbow and pulled out a piece of paper. It was cut extremely thinly and rolled up. It happened to have a centipede the length of the paper drawn on it.

“Lacius, I—KYAHHHH!”

“W-What the hell is this! Servant, come on. Come take this off!”

The lady who was about to approach him flinched and was startled. Looking down, she then started screaming. As soon as they saw the centipede with thousands of legs clinging to the hem of her ample skirt, the two ladies began screaming in chorus.

“Ah, Lashin. I am so scared.”

I staggered as I put my hand on my forehead. Of course, Lacius supported me without paying any attention to the other two. I fluttered my eyelids without missing the momentum.

“Are there centipedes in the Imperial Palace..? Don’t tell me it’s because it hasn’t been cleaned at all..?”

The centipede I drew was a little too big to just call it a centipede. It was so thick that it was impossible to step on it. The color drained from the chamberlain’s face turning white.

I covered my mouth viciously.

“Ah, it’s really messy… I can’t stay here any longer. How can it be so messy when this was supposed to be the place where the princess stays?”

The chamberlain’s expression was amusing. I enjoyed it.

With every word I spit out, he gave me a look of hurt as if his heart had just been pierced. He was a person who took pride and pleasure in keeping the palace clean, so of course he would feel hurt.

I leaned on Lacius and watched the centipede make the two young ladies jump around as if they were playing around with each other.

“Hoo, hoo. It went there.”

After a while, the centipede that couldn’t be caught disappeared somewhere, and the chamberlain rushed to call a servant. Meanwhile, the ladies with their red faces and hair sticking out threw sharp glances at me.

“As soon as you appeared, a centipede appeared. Doesn’t that mean you must have been wallowing in a dirty place?”

“That’s right. I don’t know where you’re from, but it’s very rude. To insult the Imperial Princess’ palace is the same as insulting the Imperial Princess!”

They are usually the ones who would normally attack others while sitting elegantly around the tea table. However, when the initial suppression failed and they were greatly surprised, they easily revealed their true colors.

I looked back and forth at the young lady with thick wavy brown hair and freckles and at the blonde lady with pretty green eyes. Then I scoffed with a triumphant face.

“Well, I did roll around.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Isn’t that right, Darling?”

“…..?!”

“We’ve been rolling around.”

“……!”

When I looked back at Lacius and asked a question, the faces of the young girls who understood it, immediately turned red. I glanced sideways at the girls and whispered into Lacius’ ear. Of course, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“It was a little hot this morning, wasn’t it?”

Pang! Boom!

It’s done. They exploded.

The faces of the virtuous young ladies turned red when I said something reminiscent of a peculiar thing. Their quivering lips seemed to want to shout, ‘This vulgarity!’ at any moment, so I quickly beat them to it.

“You didn’t let me go, Lashin. Right?”

Do. It. Right. Now.

I sharpened my eyes and looked at Lacius. Then Lacius, who had been hardened, forcibly gave an answer appropriate to the situation.

“That’s right.”

What a textbook way of speaking. It would have been nice if he could go one step further and dig their souls out of surprise, but that would be asking for too much. However, when Lacius admitted it, everyone was rendered speechless.

The oppa you like so much said he liked it. What can you do?

With a brutal smile, I walked ahead with Lacius. Originally, I was planning to come alone and deal with them by myself, but Lacius decided to come along, so I have to use this opportunity well.

I was not ashamed of being a fox escorted by a tiger.

And why would I? This is how you live in this world.

“Hey you, where is the tea party?”

“Y-Yes?”

“Where is the tea party being held?”

I grabbed a random servant and asked where the tea party was. You can’t just go around to a place you’ve never been to alone. The servant stared blankly at my face for three seconds before he suddenly slapped his cheek. His blushing red neck fully explained why he did that.

“Oh, I’m sorry, my lady! I was staring at you so rudely—!”

“It’s fine. I’m used to it. So, can you answer my question?”

I answered quite generously and patiently asked once more. Then the servant whose ears turned bright red stiffly moved.

“It i-is over there.”

“Thanks.”

I followed the servant and looked around. Looking at the faces of the ladies, this seems to be the right path. It was also good that we didn’t have to ask them anymore.

I looked at Lacius filled with great pride for myself.

‘Uh?’

But his eyes were cold. To be precise, his eyes that were staring at the servant.

“Lashin?”

I tapped his elbow questioningly, but he looked away.

The servant looked normal, so I wanted to ask if he found anything special about him, but by then, we arrived at the tea party venue.