CH 15

To the Academy

“I’m against it! There’s no need for you to become an adventurer, Alicetia! If you need materials, I will get them for you. If you need money, I will earn it, so you can’t be an adventurer! You can’t go to the academy either~”

A year has passed since then. My father was firmly against it from the start, and even now, as we are packing my things, he’s trying to get me to quit, but my mother’s magic is holding him back. I thought my father would be able to escape, but he apparently really cannot.

“Draco, give up already. This is Alice’s starting point.”

“No way~! Alicetia is not leaving the country. Who knows how many malicious people are going to target that cuteness of hers… besides, there’s Gilbert in the academy, you know?”

My brother is definitely at the academy, but no matter how many times I explain to Father that the girls’ dormitory is off-limits to men, siblings included, he still doesn’t understand. It’s true that with my brother’s abilities, he could probably get past the security and break-in, but I would be furious if he did, so I think it’s probably going to be okay.

Also, I’m not going to the academy to fall in love. We have agreed that Aletheia will accompany me as my bodyguard and maid, but he still doesn’t feel safe. I want you to rest assured Father, I have no interest in that.

“You worry too much Father, you should take it easier.”

“Don’t be hasty, Alicetia! You are more ignorant of the ways of the world than you think. I’m sure there will be pests that are going to approach you with bad intentions. I can’t send you to a place like that. And an adventurer? That’s no place for a woman… there’s too much danger… if you get caught by orcs or something…”

I certainly wouldn’t like that but I don’t feel like I would lose to Orcs. There won’t be any problems as long as I am not careless.

“I have learned the disguise magic from Mother, and since I’m going with a disguise and a false name, they won’t know who I am, and since I’m a child, they shouldn’t do anything bad to me.”

Right… I know that brothels exist in this world, so… I know no one would bother with a child like me. Even if they were, Aletheia is simply too strong, so there’s no need for concern.

“Nuoooooooooooh no wayy~ You don’t understand, you don’t understand the horror of a declining adventurer! Darn it, roar my muscles, this restraint is nothing!”

When Father put in a lot of effort, the restraining magic that my mother was using started to crack, but Father suddenly grew weak.

“Nggh, this is cowardly, Sylvia… stop doing that… I’m sorry, I will calm down so please stop it.”

“?”

I don’t understand what happened but Father started suddenly pleading with Mother.

“Have you calmed down a little?”

“I’m calm!”

Well, it looked like a two-person comedy act, but he really calmed down and reluctantly gave me permission to enroll into the academy and register as an adventurer. To be precise, even Father can’t apparently stop me from pursuing the training of adventurers. If he tries to change the laws, he will be rejected by the Prime Minister at the noble conference, so he wanted me to quit on my own. He confessed that since I am also a member of the royal family, I can’t easily take my words back, so he was planning to use that and make me quit. I thought it was a stupid idea and a little irritating at that.

“At least let me make some conditions.”

1. In the academy, don’t rely only on magic.

2. I must hide my real name as much as possible and go to the academy under the alias I usually use. I will be the eldest daughter of a Countess from the Arland Kingdom at the academy.

3. Always stay with Aletheia and never go out by myself.

4. When talking with the opposite sex, place Aletheia between us←this condition was rejected by Mother.

New 4. When registering as an adventurer, I have to use a different name from the one I use in the academy.

5. When doing adventurer activities, I have to conceal my face and change my voice.

6. Do not form parties with strangers, and even if it’s someone I know, ask permission from Aletheia to accompany us.

7. Do not follow suspicious people.

I was given the above seven conditions. Isn’t that troublesome? Even I wouldn’t follow a stranger and I wouldn’t share my activities with someone I couldn’t trust. Besides, Aletheia even routinely follows me to the bathroom, so I won’t be doing something on my own.

“… How troublesome.”

When I unconsciously muttered my true thoughts, Father crouched in front of me.

“… Is this how Albert feels…”

“Welcome, Your Majesty♪”

Mr. Albert appeared behind Father out of nowhere and patted his shoulder. I really didn’t notice him, when did he come?

“Albert… I’m sorry. I now know how you feel, so let’s drink together today… I will take out my treasured liquor cask…”

“Your Majesty… we are kindred souls. Let’s drink the night away tonight.”

I don’t know much about male friendship, but I wonder if it’s something that can be strengthened by alcohol. They were both in tears.

“Remember, you cannot imitate this.”

“Yes.”

As expected, I wouldn’t copy this. I will do as my mother said and pretend that I didn’t see anything, including the secret glances Father was throwing my way.

“And so, why are you here, Lord Albert?”

“Oh, I forgot, I have come to report on what Your Majesty has asked to investigate. So, Your Majesty, this way…”

“Oh, alright.”

Father and Mr. Albert left the room. It seems that the door won’t get broken today. The door gets changed once a month… and they are gradually getting more luxurious and heavy, so this saves the trouble.

“He seems to be scheming something bad again… oh well. Alice, have you decided what to bring?”

“I can live anywhere with a pillow, 200 books, materials, and a minimal amount of clothing.”

“… There seem to be quite a lot of my grimoires mixed up among the books, though… this! I haven’t read this yet!”

I have been hiding the grimoires among the books. As they say, if you want to hide a tree, you have to hide it in a forest…

To the Academy

“Alice? What might this be~? Don’t I always tell you not to read my grimoires without permission? You need to get punished.”

“Hiya~~”

When I tried to escape at high speed, Aletheia caught me. This traitor!

“I serve the country, so♪… Princess getting punished… haahaah.”

“You get 20 times today, let’s start. 1, 2, 3.”

What was the punishment? A spanking. Since we are royalty, how could a spanking be a thing, Mother? Aletheia was breathing roughly for some reason too… and my butt hurts…

“… I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.”

“What do you really mean?”

“I won’t get caught next time.”

“… Why don’t I give you 20 more?”

Crap! Guided interrogation is cowardly… there is no way for me to escape now that I lost the feeling around my waist… it’s over.

The first day of packing ended like that… all of the grimoires have been confiscated. I still have some hidden though.

Day 2 of packing.

Today we are going to continue packing from yesterday. I need dresses and other accessories with my belongings. There are parties at the academy, so I will be laughed at if I don’t have proper clothes as the child of nobility, and what would the people at home do to me if I don’t bring them… shiver.

“This… I don’t need it. I don’t need this either. This is heavy so I don’t need it even more.”

“You choose things based on ease of use rather than value, don’t you Princess? Moreover, all of it is so plain-looking, you should have at least this and this. Oh, you need this too, don’t throw it away like garbage, it was expensive.”

Aletheia picked up all the unnecessary things I threw out of my bag and put them back in her bag. We have been doing this for about an hour now.

“I won’t wear it even if I bring it with me, so it’s unnecessary.”

“If you keep saying that, you will have to replace these ero-looking black panties too, you know? You are royalty Princess, you won’t wear simple underwear too, would you?”

“I hate things that are over the top and the room at the dormitory is not that large to begin with, so I won’t bring anything that would simply be in the way.”

In fact, it’s about the size of my room, but since I will be living together with others, the less stuff I have, the better.

“Even if you say that, you will get a single room when you become a top-scorer, right? That should be easy-peasy for you. In the first place, what do you really need to learn? You already learned the knowledge and magic by yourself, and your stamina… there’s none at all. Please don’t tell me you want to become a macho like His Majesty because that would call into question the dignity of our country.”

“I don’t know if I can take the top-scorer seat and I won’t have a closet room as I do now, so I will have limited space.”

“Then let’s decrease the number of these distracting books by one-tenth so we can have more room for the closet.”

You don’t understand, Aletheia. Books are more important than clothes and accessories. It’s a great way to pass the time, and I generally stay away from people who aren’t from this country. What am I supposed to do with my time? Books and stuff are better than clothes, of course.

“Rejected. If you do that, I will erase everything with magic.”

“If you don’t like it, I can bring this with me. I will take care of it so it doesn’t get in the way.”

Aletheia will be accompanying me and she will apparently keep my belongings in her room. Well, I’m fine with that because I won’t be using it much, but it will reduce Aletheia’s living space, right?

Even though I had a lot of opinions, Aletheia packed some small things and accessories in her bag and put it on a shelf out of my reach. I could have used magic to remove them, but there was a chance that the contents would have a disastrous end, and Aletheia knew that, so she mixed in a few of my favorites. It was obviously heavy and I wouldn’t be able to reach it and take it down.

“Let’s call it a day here. You don’t really have to help Princess, you know? This is a maid’s work, after all.”

“I don’t know what you will put in if I leave it to you, so I will decide myself what to bring.”

There was a plush toy in my bag during the time of Stampede… we slept together, though.

“Why don’t you have any trust in me, Princess? Alas, there’s nothing I can do but throw myself out of this window. Princess, thank you for taking care of me up until now.”

Saying that, Aletheia approached the window.

“Stop!! I got it, I will leave it to you as long as you don’t put anything strange in it.”

“Yes, leave it to me.”

Her change in attitude is too fast… was I deceived… no, Aletheia wouldn’t do something like deceiving me, I’m sure she was just shocked like that. I will be more careful with my words in the future.