Your Highness, The Lady You’ve Abandoned IS the Saintess!

Upon realizing that the closer I am to the queen, the likelier am I to be forced to wed with his son, I have, since then, politely refused all her invitations.

When I told Caroline of the circumstances, she had a hearty fit, and jokingly said that there is hardly any opportunity to come that allows one to hit a king; hence, I should have taken my liberties in walloping his head. She also said that I may as well give up and get married, which made me wonder whether she really is my friend and doubt our long-standing friendship.

‘But still, her majesty is quite formidable a lady, isn’t she?’

‘Mhm.’

Caroline keenly muttered, and I nodded in affirmation.

Our queen was formerly a princess from the kingdom of Lowales. She is the younger sister of its current king. 

‘As far as I recall, her majesty fell for his majesty, then a prince, on his diplomatic visit to Lowhales, and has, since then, forcibly intruded in his affairs.’

She is right. The story was quite popular in our country.

Apparently, his majesty couldn’t quite find a suitable fiancee when he was young but was appointed as the crown prince regardless. But his partner-less appointment has instead turned the whole thing into a fiasco. All sorts of factions clamored to jump at the opportunity, but his majesty couldn’t choose nonetheless. Perhaps, the lesson incurred from such an incident convinced them to fix my engagement with Maynard as early as possible—I digress.

Lady Lisette, whose heart was captured by his majesty at a single glance, made a lot of deceptive political maneuvers fooling everyone else and successfully securing herself the queen’s seat. Bridging a relationship by marriage with Lowales, a large kingdom, was a favorable political development for the Lambert Kingdom. Although her majesty, Lisette has completely whittled down the king, quite the notable love-marriage they had, still.

‘Now that I think about it, we have gotten ourselves quite the moronic couples in our royalties.’

Caroline, you shouldn’t refer to royalties as ‘morons’ in any shape or form.

‘I heard the previous king also loved his wife dearly. Likewise, his younger brother was also smitten with the late saintess, Lady Sanya.’

Right, Maynard told me that the previous king has now retired to the countryside with the queen dowager and are both enjoying their romantic rural life. He also mentioned that the previous king’s younger brother was desolated upon the loss of Lady Sanya and has never stepped a foot outside of his mansion since.

‘But that doesn’t mean you should call them moronic couples.’

‘My, you say that, but you shall be one among them soon.’

‘That is not happening!’

Although, I get the feeling that the road is slowly being paved for that purpose. Or am I just imagining things?

‘All that aside, thanks to the recent uproar, all the marriage proposals to you had been halted. Sir Geoffront and Orpheus merrily said that this rids all the fools in one sweep and that if any of such buffoons dared to resume their commitment when things are back in order, they shall suffer the wrath of their fists.’

Well, should I be happy or sad about that? I’m not quite sure.

Although, my mother must be feeling peevish at the loss of the gentlemen’s tributes.

This reminds me, I heard that the voices proclaiming Lina as the real saintess are growing louder by day.

Maynard he will shut their mouths close sooner or later, but I wish him not to push himself too much to that end.

Even now, Caroline is talking about dangerous things such as ‘Lina’s Night Ambush Plans’ or such—you are not kidding, are you, Caroline?

I furtively sighed when we suddenly heard a knock on the door, which Selma immediately attended. Suddenly, a voice with the sound of crumbling bells intruded into the room.

‘It is, I, Lina Wagner.’

My eyes spontaneously met with Caroline’s.

Selma opened the door, and from there came Lina, clad in a graceful blue dress with a pleasant broad smile plastered across her face.

Caroline, mend your sour face this instant.

 It’s not like I wouldn’t welcome her arrival, but this Lina invaded the room without waiting for words to allow her entry. She wore normalcy on her face as she sat on a sofa directly opposite to mine like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Selma raised one of her brows at the rude conduct, but she kept her business silence and endeavored to prepare the tea instead. 

Selma, I see you making that tea bitter on purpose. I wouldn’t stop you, but that is quite the wasteful amount of tea leaves.

Going back to the business, I wonder what Lina’s interest is in coming here. We’re not so close as to leisurely visit or converse with one another.

Caroline hurriedly herded all the snacks to her side of the table, as if saying she had not even a single spec of crumbs for Lina. Stop it, Caroline, it’s so unbecoming of a ducal lady. Sir Berland will grimace at the sight of you just now.

‘I’ve come to convey my greetings, lady.’

Lina knit her eyebrows at the deep abyss-of-a-tea that Selma prepared for her, but she immediately reverted to a smile, then spoke. 

‘Greetings?’

Since when was it Lina’s business to convey her greetings to me?

‘I tilted my head in puzzlement, while, Caroline, right next to me, asserted that, if Lina’s business was greetings, she should have finished it by the door and left, from the expressions on her face. Behave, Caroline. We are in a castle.

But even so, Lina, who could keep such a straight face under the scrutiny of Caroline’s dagger-sharp glares, must have quite considerable mental fortitude.

‘It has been decided, in lieu of the previous incident, that I shall be engaged so his highness, Savalier. I, at the very least, judged it proper to pay a visit to introduce myself to her ladyship. Lady Aileen may no longer be engaged with Prince Maynard, but at the very least, she is still the saintess, nonetheless.’

At the very least, at the very—oh shut it!

You didn’t come to greet, but to be sarcastic. What’s the deal of this lady, really?

While I was busying myself with being sour, her previous words suddenly hit me sharp.

Did this wench just declare herself engaged to Prince Savalier?

I turned my eyes to Caroline and saw the surprise in her widened eyes. I cannot blame her. What sort of meteor-of-a-business came down that pushed Lina’s engagement to his highness, Savalier?

Meanwhile, Lina, brushing her chestnut hair with care, spoke,

‘Is it so shocking, ladies? It was natural. I am sure both of you know that I saved Prince Savalier’s life, are you not? It was not some saintess who could not do anything to save her title—it was me. Apparently, it is becoming common thought amongst the mass that I, in actuality, was the real saintess; Hence, the royal family couldn’t leave me alone to my devices.’

…I knew it. I really do hate this wench’s guts.

As Lina laughs highhandedly, gouging out my recently healed wounds at her leisure, I suffer to contain myself from throwing the creamy cake in front of me to her face.

Being done with her ‘greetings’, Lina stood up and elegantly bowed.

‘Well then, good day to you, her holiness. I shall be moving her quite soon, and when I do, I hope to be in her holiness’ care.’

Like I will!

As Lina left the room along with her loud fits of laughter, I couldn’t move an inch in my seat due to the sheer shock of her news. Instead, it was Caroline who stood up and made a racket for Selma to bring buckets of salt.

Ah, what a headache.

Just what on earth is happening?

As I held my temple with both of my hands, Caroline, who came out of the kitchen after retrieving salt, spoke a single phrase.

‘Want to sprinkle salt?’

I hesitated for a good moment til I nodded in affirmation.