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Chapter 07
Before long, El stared at the teacup with warm steam rising from it and spoke.
“Who is in charge of managing the Crown Prince’s Palace budget?”
“I am.”
“Hand it over.”
“…Pardon?”
“Why the surprise? If there’s a mistress now, isn’t that only natural?”
Budget management was, to begin with, a matter that required the Crown Prince’s approval.
However, it was said that the Crown Prince was a monster who could only become human at night, and since he carried out no external activities at all, the head steward must have been wielding that authority freely.
If El hadn’t known, that would be one thing—but there was no way she intended to leave it as it was.
“H-however, aren’t you a young lady who’s been raised delicately?”
“Hm?”
“Are you even capable of handling numbers?”
“……”
“On top of that, managing a budget properly without indulging in extravagance is no easy task!”
When El offered no reply at all, Copari’s nose tilted upward smugly.
But El was a capable person who had graduated from university and had been treated well while working at a fairly decent company.
She was simply dumbfounded at the question of whether she could do calculations.
“Don’t women of the Empire learn mathematics?”
“…What?”
“How foolish.”
“…Huh.”
“In the Kingdom, we learn at least that much from infancy, so don’t worry.”
Of course, El didn’t actually know when the Sahad Kingdom began teaching mathematics, nor did she know its customs.
She only knew, from what she’d read, that it was a harsh and difficult land to live in, where everyone built up their physical strength and learned swordsmanship from a young age—for the sake of pillaging.
Even the nobility was no exception. In fact, there were separate pillage warehouses inside the royal palace; without plundering, the national economy wouldn’t function. It was that powerful a country.
The greatest victims of that pillaging were the Renne Empire—where El had married into and which bordered them—and the Phips Duchy to the east.
This was a world from a novel, and El knew the future.
Though the Renne Empire bore the title of “Empire,” it was in truth a dying star.
The one who would take its place was the current king of the Sahad Kingdom, Dezellion Sahad.
He was a king of immense ambition, and by sheer luck, the Empire’s First Prince was utterly brainless.
As for her husband, the Second Prince, she didn’t know—but if things weren’t bad, would the Emperor still not have named a Crown Prince?
It would all be resolved in a bloody storm just a few years from now, but that future didn’t particularly matter to El.
As long as she had Lari and Sundubu, she didn’t care what happened to this wretched empire.
That didn’t mean she wanted to return to the Kingdom either. She figured she could scrape by somehow.
“T-then we must, must conduct a test!”
And for now, rather than worrying about the future, it seemed more important to crush this insolent Copari’s pride.
What a fool, Copari.
He said he would test her on how to read accounting ledgers, so they came to the place he used as his office—but it was more lavish than the palace El herself was staying in.
The servants and maids treated Copari with far more deference than they did her.
Copari accepted that as if it were only natural.
It was absurd, but El endured it for the moment.
“If I can properly prepare the ledgers, will you hand over control of the budget?”
“Yes. I will.”
Copari answered confidently, and El began calculating the budget items written in the new ledger she had been given.
It would have been easier with a calculator, but such a thing didn’t seem to exist here.
And basic arithmetic was something even elementary school students could do—there was truly nothing difficult about it.
El wrote smoothly through the ledger, and Copari, watching her, looked as though he might suffocate.
“N-no, h-how—how is this possible?!”
Copari snatched the ledger to check it. There was no way there could be mistakes.
In fact, it was even neater than when he did it himself, and Copari was aghast.
Was such a clear, organized arrangement even possible?
She had seemingly calculated almost everything in her head, so his shock was understandable.
Those who were this skilled at the four basic operations usually became mages.
“…Th-this can’t be.”
The sight of him standing there with his mouth hanging open, not even having wiped away the blood he’d spilled earlier after being struck by El, was utterly unsightly.
“So then, where can I check the previous ledgers and budgets?”
Not wanting to see him any longer, El drove the point home. Copari stammered, rattling off excuses.
“E-even if you’re good at organizing ledgers, I still can’t trust that Her Highness the Princess Consort won’t squander the budget!”
“……”
“…That’s why I’m still necessary!”
Instead of being grateful that she’d even humored him this far, Copari continued his reckless babbling.
Lari wore a sour expression, but more than anyone, Sundubu seemed to snap. The dog suddenly lunged at him.
She had vowed to break his pride—and it truly looked like it would be broken. Sundubu accurately latched onto Copari’s face and tore into it.
“Wow, well done. That’s my baby.”
El clapped her hands excitedly, murmuring her praise.
Copari could not back down like this.
How much had he built up in the Crown Prince’s Palace all this time? How could he hand that authority over to some foreign duke’s daughter?
Thinking it through, budget allocation was handled by the Emperor, but management of the Lily Palace—where the Crown Prince resided—required the Crown Prince’s approval.
Since the Crown Prince couldn’t perform his duties, that responsibility had fallen to Copari, and he had lived quite grandly because of it.
That was why, when her maid first came to see him, he brushed her off with vague excuses.
He’d half-expected her to come in person—but never imagined she’d throw a punch.
On top of that, the Princess Consort had even ordered a change of palace.
Of course, he had no intention of obeying, so he ignored it—only for her to brazenly say that if he didn’t mind two households under one roof, he could stay.
No matter how barbaric she was, did she lack even basic common sense?
No one seemed likely to care, but if he got entangled with a noble for no reason, it would be his own neck—a commoner’s—that would be on the line.
In the end, Copari had to compromise. Among the Lily Palace residences he’d occupied so far, he gave up the best one.
He had never cared about the Crown Prince, nor even known where he lived. The man himself didn’t want to show his face and barely wandered around even at night.
Though Copari was the head steward, even he had never seen him.
The Crown Prince’s wet nurse had been framed and driven out simply for being an annoyance, so no one knew where the completely isolated prince was anymore.
The Emperor also had no interest in the Second Prince and didn’t care how he was treated.
In fact, the Emperor had never once summoned the head steward to ask how the prince was living.
At first, Copari had acted cautiously, but since no one stopped him, he’d grown completely brazen and no longer felt any guilt.
That was why the duke’s daughter strutting about calling herself the Princess Consort was laughable. He had thought she knew her place and would lie low like a mouse.
If she were a normal woman, she wouldn’t have married into such a place to begin with.
It was unexpected that she could do arithmetic, but the rumors about the duke’s daughter spreading beyond Sahad and into the Empire were true.
Thinking he could use that to his advantage, Copari smiled slyly—until a sudden pain made him clutch his face. With murderous eyes, he muttered,
“That damned mutt—I’ll kill it, no matter what.”
His face, torn up by the dog, still throbbed painfully. Even if he couldn’t do anything about the Princess Consort for now, a dog was another matter.
“From now on, you are to watch closely how the Princess Consort lives.”
“Yes, Sir Copari.”
A meek-looking maid prostrated herself and replied. The Lily Palace was filled with his own hands and feet.
Copari still had power.
Whatever schemes Copari might be plotting, El quickly adapted to the new palace.
The reason she had lived silently in that filthy palace before was simply because she’d been listless.
Even now she wasn’t exactly brimming with energy—but it was better than before.
Thinking about it, it might really have been depression.
She hadn’t been diagnosed, and she wasn’t a doctor, so she couldn’t be sure—but standing out on the terrace, basking in the sunlight, she recalled how gloomy she’d been just days ago.
It was hard to say she’d completely shaken off the depression.
El still drooped whenever she had the chance and found it bothersome to move.
She didn’t want to do anything, and her appetite was still small.
Still, she was starting to move little by little—so maybe someday she’d be okay.
To survive here and take responsibility for Lari and Sundubu, she needed to grow strong to some extent.
She’d thought she was living “well enough,” but now that “well enough” wasn’t good enough anymore.
Raella could live that way because of her high status and infamous reputation—but Lari and Sundubu couldn’t.
Raella had to protect them.
But how was she supposed to become strong?
“…Lari.”
“Yes? Would you like more tea?”
“No. What defines strength?”
Physical training? Wealth? Power?
But how long would it take to achieve any of that? Power especially—impossible. Completely impossible.
As for wealth, she did have a few years of experience working in a company back when she was Song I-rin. Maybe she could get a job as an accountant at a merchant guild.
It wouldn’t be luxurious, but she could probably support Lari and Sundubu.
But honestly, it was a hassle right now. There was nowhere to show off her skills, either.
Physical training, on the other hand…
“Ahhh…”
Just kill me instead…
“El? What’s wrong all of a sudden? Are you sick?!”
“Lari, why do humans have so much to do?”
“…Pardon?”
“I want to live as a background extra instead.”
“An extra?”
Raella was technically a fairly important extra, but what if she’d had no presence at all—barely even a fingernail’s worth?
Sometimes she thought she was only half-alive thanks to Lari.
Given this laziness and gloom, if she’d been reincarnated as some ordinary extra, she’d have either starved to death already or been brutally killed in the savage Sahad Kingdom.
She’d thought she needed to grow strong and survive—but the moment she tried to think of concrete methods, a magic spell made her want to do nothing at all. She was hopeless.
“Lari, just hypothetically.”
“Yes, El.”
“If an offer comes from another palace to serve there, you should leave immediately. Loyalty can go to a dog—no… give it to Copari instead.”
“What are you even saying? Why would I ever leave you, miss?!”
“I said hypothetically. And if you take Sundubu with you, even better…”
She’d thought too much today. It was still only afternoon, yet she already felt completely drained.
“I need to sleep…”
“Are you sleepy? You were just talking in your sleep, right?”
“…No, I mean it.”
“El!”
“Mmnh…”
El half-hunched over, shuffled to the bed, collapsed onto it, and buried her face in the pillow.
