RFNM 09

Chapter 09

As soon as the everyday conversation began, the atmosphere quickly settled into something calmer.

Before long, Leonard—who had become shameless again—smiled faintly and spoke.

“Princess, what are you planning to make with the mana stone I gave you? If you want, I can recommend a decent mage.”

Ah, he was talking about the Tear of Deligno. Come to think of it, I had received a scam-grade item and hadn’t even thought about using it.

“That’s fine. I already know quite a few people.”

I refused outright, and while organizing my thoughts about how I had changed the original story, I recalled the mages who had become my… slaves—no, friends.

Mages were usually research-oriented people, so if you gave them money for their studies, they tended to be quite happy.

I generously lent them money and, in return, asked for a very small, modest interest of about 300%, and that’s how I made them my friends.

“That mana stone is high-grade, so it’ll be difficult to craft. And since it’s dark attribute, it could be dangerous.”

Prince Leonard continued speaking, looking as if he hadn’t expected me to refuse.

“Then even more reason I can’t leave it to Your Highness. I do have some reliable… no, some mage acquaintances, so I’ll be fine.”

“You even know a dark-attribute mage?”

“I happened to come across one.”

“In Singkester, mages are extremely rare. May I ask how you met them?”

“No. You may not.”

I couldn’t exactly say I met them while changing the original story.

I refused again without hesitation, but thinking I might have been too rude, I added,

“They’re my… reliable acquaintances. No, rather, my precious friends.”

“I see.”

“You’re not offended that I refused, are you?”

“Of course not.”

He probably was.

Even though he was smiling, the atmosphere had already grown slightly cold.

To get upset over being refused twice like that…

I mentally added a new note to my list of Leonard’s traits: a bit of a directionless handsome man, somewhat cute—but narrow-minded.

Still, as a princess, I couldn’t just let the atmosphere stay like this.

I clapped my hands brightly and smiled.

“Now that I think about it, Prince Leonard, I heard you’re known as a genius of the sword in Blake. Is that true?”

“…It’s nothing that impressive.”

“But the rumors even reached Singkester! Isn’t that already quite amazing?”

“……”

At my words, he kept taking sips of tea. His gaze kept drifting past my shoulder into the bushes, clearly embarrassed.

“I also heard you’re called the Fire Mage. To be skilled in both swordsmanship and magic is impressive. Could you show me some magic?”

It was my second compliment, so I expected him to become even more flustered.

But unexpectedly, Leonard’s expression stiffened. As he set his teacup down on the table, the air turned cold again.

“I do not use magic casually.”

“……”

Mages are usually arrogant people who are eager to show off their abilities anywhere, anytime.

So I thought a little teasing would make him happily show off his magic.

But that reaction was something else entirely.

Rather than feeling wronged, I was more curious why he suddenly became so serious. Maybe I had done something wrong.

And so we fell into silence again.

Then, I noticed a man approaching from afar—his subordinate.

The men of Blake all had broad chests and sculpted faces, and he was no exception; he also qualified as part of my “handsome men catalog.”

“Your Highness, I have urgent matters to report.”

“Eric. Can’t you see I’m speaking with the princess right now?”

“I don’t mind, Prince. Your subordinate seems to be in a hurry.”

I had learned that one should never let a handsome man’s face be clouded. Being considerate, I slowly stood up.

Leonard followed and stood up as well.

“Princess, isn’t this rather rude?”

“Then later, perhaps the three of us could—two versus one—”

“Pardon?”

“Never mind.”

Abigail’s piercing gaze shot toward me, so I quickly snapped my fan open.

Right. I am a princess, after all. I should maintain some dignity at a birthday celebration.

“Then we shall meet again later.”

During the tea time, the prince and Eric hurried away, and Abigail took their place.

Abigail, in her elegant and refined manner, once again began lecturing me—several times over—about how I should stop acting like I’m trying to “devour people’s faces.”

“But Abigail, out of the twenty gentlemen I danced with yesterday, eighteen of them were unfairly unfortunate-looking.”

“Unfortunate? What on earth do you mean?”

“Well… they just look like they’re about to cry. A face that makes me want to cry.”

“Then what about the other two?”

“They’re smiling faces. Faces that make me want to smile.”

I sighed deeply in front of the horrified Abigail and lowered my head.

“Two out of twenty… a 10% handsome-man discovery rate. At this rate, I’m not sure I’ll find handsome men even if I travel the world.”

Then it happened.

Something like a piece of paper slid into view in my lowered line of sight.

“Oh? That man called Eric must’ve dropped this earlier.”

Just as I smiled, thinking I’d have another chance to meet him when returning it, Abigail sharply widened her eyes and held out both hands.

“Please give it to me. I will have a servant return it to him.”

“Abigail, this looks like an important document. Wouldn’t it be better if I kept it and returned it myself? Look—it’s tied with a high-quality string.”

The moment I brushed my finger over the string, it snapped with a crackle. At the same time, I felt a strong static shock and dropped the paper.

“What, what is this?”

On the dried paper, a small red magic circle briefly appeared and then disappeared.

“Princess… isn’t this magic?”

Abigail looked at me in shock.

Fortunately, I had seen that magic circle before.

It was a defensive spell that prevented it from being undone and a tracking spell that recorded whoever touched it.

Such magic is usually placed on confidential documents. Why would a man named Eric be carrying something like that?

Since it seemed only Abigail and I had witnessed this, I quickly silenced her.

“Abigail, don’t tell anyone about this. I think we’ll need to inform my brother.”

I immediately headed to Erdan’s office.

However, Erdan was in a noble council meeting, and Aurora was receiving foreign guests who wished to meet the saint.

I sent a message asking them to come to me afterward, then returned to my study and stared at the paper for a long time before deciding to break the magic seal.

Of course, I strongly suspected this was an important document of Blake.

But first, the person who dropped it was at fault. Second, they dared to attack me and spark my curiosity. Third, if this truly was important, then rather than dying under mysterious circumstances while holding it…

Wouldn’t it be better to see its contents and record them somewhere?

Nodding firmly at my flawless reasoning, I stared at the unbreakable paper and activated my magic crystal bracelet to contact Slave 1.

“Sarah, come to my study.”

Sarah is introduced in the original story as a highly skilled “dark attribute” mage.

When I was ten, Sarah was a fifteen-year-old student at the Elysium Magic Academy.

To add, she was highly skilled at deceiving and exploiting others.

I valued her personality more than her magical ability and provided her full anonymous financial support.

After that, when Sarah tried to exploit me, I hired dozens of lawyers and turned the tables on her, effectively exploiting her instead and making her my slave… no, friend.

Thus, Sarah was obligated to comply with 99.9% of my requests at any time and place.

The remaining 0.1% only applied to things she was physically unable to do.

Although no such magic existed yet.

An hour later, a woman with short, casually cut tangerine-colored hair suddenly appeared in my study from empty space.

“Your Highness, you called?”

“Sarah, why did it take you an hour to arrive? Teleportation should take less than a minute.”

I asked grumpily, and Sarah replied lazily,

“I haven’t showered for ten days because I was researching magic. You wouldn’t like it if I showed up dirty, would you, Your Highness.”