Chapter 67 · Where Do You Think You're Getting Away With That?

“You use memory magic on me.”

“What?!”

Leo’s suggested method was completely unexpected.

“If you use memory magic, you can find latent memories. So if you’re skilled, you can even pull out memories from when you were three.”

“R-weally? But obviously… I don’t know how to use memory magic. Do you, Weo?”

“That is…”

I waited for his answer with a nervous heart and earnest eyes. He answered in a slightly daunted voice.

“I was very interested in mental magic, so I studied it in my spare time before I was dragged here. But it’s extremely difficult, so I roughly know the theory, but I’ve never actually tried it in practice.”

“Then we just have to twy it! In pwactice!”

“…How?”

“We can pwactice by using it on each othew.”

“Mental magic is extremely dangerous unless performed by an expert. If something goes wrong, it could cause a serious incident…”

“Weo is a complete genius, so won’t you become proficient quickly after a few tries? I’ll be youw pwactice pawtnew.”

“What kind of child says such embarrassing things as easily as breathing…”

His face turned bright red again. I felt like teasing him again, so I spoke in a singsong voice.

“What? You’we a genius, aftew aww. Weo is a genius. A twe-mendous genius wittle pwincess—no, pwincess—no, a genius wittle pwince!”

“…Don’t call me little.”

If someone little is being called little, then what should I call him? Anyway, Leo seems to dislike that word, so I should hold back.

I was giggling, then suddenly paused.

‘What if I end up showing memories I don’t want to show while practicing that magic? I have so many secrets I need to hide!’

But I needed to get the herb of life to sprout quickly… and the summer when the plague would begin was approaching. Not stopping this plague wouldn’t immediately get me driven out of the royal palace. In my first life, I had survived until I was ten.

But with all sorts of misfortunes piling up, to safely last until twelve before being branded a ‘child of calamity,’ I had to prevent as much as possible. Only then could my escape plan proceed stably. But… was it worth risking showing Leo memories I didn’t want to show for that?

“Then once I’m ready, I’ll try it on you first and then teach you.”

“S-sure! Thank you, Leo.”

I forced a smile to hide my unease.

There was something he mustn’t see…

The memory of how I died because of Leo.

◇ ◆ ◇

Two weeks later, the king’s office in Ratio Palace.

Usually calm and elegant, Aquila looked unusually restless today. She kept sitting on the sofa and standing up again, looking at the empty king’s seat. After a moment, an attendant opened the door, and King Ferdinand walked into the office.

“Well, what brings you here? If you’d told me in advance, you wouldn’t have had to wait.”

He looked surprised to see Aquila.

“So you finally decided? To trade with Brilia?”

“Yes, I just came from receiving the resolution. Goodness, the opposition was so fierce. The meeting took six whole hours. I worked up quite a sweat!”

“Why did you go that far?”

“Aquila, what answer are you hoping for?”

The king furrowed his brow slightly and let out a sigh.

“I’m simply curious why someone who would have opposed this most in the past suddenly made such a decision.”

Aquila recalled before that bastard child came—no, before the war even broke out. The king hadn’t even listened to his cherished Beatrice. Beatrice had argued for the necessity of exchange with other continents, but her father had never once listened seriously. Every time, he’d only brushed it off with, “Let’s not talk about this, I don’t want to fight with you again.”

“I’ve thought since long ago that it might be fine to trade with the southern continent. I just never voiced it.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. This is all because of that child, isn’t it!”

Aquila’s voice was filled with bitter anger.

“You mean Anastasia? That can’t be. Surely you don’t think I’d decide grave matters of state based on the words of a young child?”

The king denied it with a serious face, but Aquila poured out sharp words without even pausing for breath.

“I have never once raised an objection to anything you’ve done in the past three years. Even when you did things so incomprehensible and absurd. Accepting a bastard was unprecedented enough, but then you left her to live at the temple and threw the entire royal order into disarray.”

“Aquila, that is—”

“And now you’re deciding matters of state based on the words of an eight-year-old child? This time, I must advise you not as your daughter, but as a member of the royal family with the duty to protect Santra—this is madness!”

“It’s not the utterly barbaric eastern continent—it’s merely a small nation on the southern continent! If Santra were going to collapse over something like this, it would have ended long ago.”

The king shook his head as if exhausted and plopped down before the desk in his office.

“Read the scriptures and calm your heart a little. Aquila, you are truly brilliant and sharp, but you have a narrow field of vision. As long as Lord Lux’s protection is with us, there are times when we must be bold.”

Aquila found the king loathsome. The man who had been more closed-minded than anyone had flipped his attitude like the back of a hand and was now belittling her. She bit her lip and spoke.

“…You will regret this.”

“Let’s discuss this matter later. Right now I’m far too tired.”

“You will regret listening to that child, absolutely.”

As she spoke coldly without even looking at the king and tried to leave the office, there was a knock.

“Um… Your Majesty. Dean Roktania requests an audience.”

“Dean Roktania? Let him in for now.”

Roktania entered with a somewhat flushed face and greeted the king.

“I greet the sky of Santra. I came without prior notice because I had something urgent to tell you.”

“What is it? I’m quite exhausted right now, so if it’s not urgent, I’d prefer to schedule something for another time…”

“It’s about Princess Anastasia.”

At his words, Aquila, who was still in the room, turned around. The king asked in a worried voice.

“What has happened to Anastasia now?”

“Well, the princess submitted a formula for review through Marquis Laselles a few weeks ago.”

“A formula review? She’s already done something like that?”

“Yes, and it passed with astonishing results!”

“Is that true?!”

The king, who had been endlessly worn out, sprang from his seat with a bright face.

“As an academy student, she is the first since Princess Beatrice. We’re holding a demonstration now, so I thought you might like to see it…”

“Of course I must see it! Guide me at once.”

The king, beaming, followed Roktania out. And Aquila watched the scene as if dumbfounded. His attitude made it seem as if she were invisible.

◇ ◆ ◇

The moment I finished class at the academy, I was startled when the king appeared at the classroom door. And with a whole entourage, no less. For a moment I panicked, wondering if I’d done something wrong—especially thinking of Leo, which made me even more nervous—but soon I understood why.

“Anastasia, congratulations. I hear your formula passed successfully!”

“Weally?”

‘Yes!’

I sprang up with a beaming smile. My head naturally turned toward the podium at the front of the classroom. In a thrilling moment like this, I had to see that man’s face. It happened to be his class, after all. That utterly pathetic Alfredo Caesar!

As expected, his face was scrunched up as much as it could be. If I could hear his thoughts, I’d probably hear all sorts of curses.

“Princess, congratulations so much!”

Mila, sitting beside me, clapped wildly and shouted. The other students also let out gasps of surprise. Everyone knew what had happened between me and Alfredo.

Hehe, he’d threatened that I’d have to apologize to him if it didn’t pass. How humiliating must this be for him?

“We’re on our way to see the demonstration now, so you should come along too. Ah! Count Caesar, please join us as well. You’ve worked hard teaching Princess Anastasia—surely we should share this joy together.”

No, that man would want to see this scene less than anyone. The king’s obliviousness was truly welcome at a time like this.

Alfredo couldn’t refuse since it was the king’s word, and he followed along hesitantly like a puppy that needed to poop. And I had to try all sorts of things to keep from bursting out laughing so I wouldn’t have to look at his face.

The king looked somewhat tired, but he didn’t stop talking the whole way to the Naritas building.

“Truly, you have never failed to surprise me since the day you arrived at the royal palace. My heart never gets a moment’s rest.”

“Gasp, I heard Your Majesty has a weak heart…”

“Haha! If it’s for something like this, what does a heart matter? This is something unprecedented in Santra. Even Beatrice, called a genius, didn’t invent a new formula until her late teens.”

Phew, I have future knowledge so it’s one thing, but my mother was truly terrifying. I felt that way while looking at her research papers too. Her research was both original and practical, and even after successfully completing one study, her intellectual curiosity for other fields seemed to surge endlessly.

To think my mother was such an amazing person—it stirred something in me, gave me inspiration. If I had been born an ordinary princess, I would have wanted to follow in my mother’s footsteps.

“I greet the sky of Santra.”

Before I knew it, we had entered the resplendent Naritas building and arrived at a laboratory full of people, where the royal mages, including Marquis Laselles, welcomed us warmly. They excitedly explained the results to the king and demonstrated the experiment once more.

“If you look here, you can confirm that the multi-communication stone made with this formula is far more efficient than Lady Rania’s formula!”

“It saves over forty percent of mana and can connect more than a hundred people simultaneously.”

“It is expected to be of great help in war and monster hunting.”

The king watched the demonstration with repeated hearty laughs, and as it drew to a close, Marquis Laselles offered me his congratulations.

“Princess Anastasia, congratulations. From now on, this formula will be officially recorded in the Magic Registry.”

After that, everyone in the laboratory offered me a word of congratulations, and Alfredo, who had been standing with a stiff face and his mouth shut, awkwardly opened his mouth when his turn came.

“…Congratulations, Princess.”

Where do you think you’re getting away with just that?

“Yes, I was worried because Professor Caesar said the results were terrible, so I’m truly relieved.”

“What? Count Caesar said that?”

The king, who had been completely unaware that he had tested my formula first, asked in puzzlement.

“Yes. That’s why he didn’t even submit it for review… I wonder if there was some kind of mistake?”

When I looked at Alfredo with an innocent face, his face turned as white as a sheet of paper.