The Deal (1)
—Chirp, chirp.
"...Mmm? Mm… Hwaaaaah….! Smack…"
Roused by the sparrows announcing morning, Rosaria opened her eyes, stretched her back, and worked the stiffness from her body.
Shhhrrk—
"Hah. Morning sunlight really is blinding."
Having slept her fill, she rose from bed with a body light as a feather, drew back the curtains, and let the dazzling morning sun wash over her from head to toe.
The crisp scent of grass rising from dew-soaked lawns. Fresh morning air.
Looking out the window, she saw that even the distant mountain peaks had already shed the leaves they'd so carefully grown, spreading bare branches as they prepared for winter.
"Are you awake, my lady?"
"Bennet, one cup of coffee, please."
"Yes~ my lady!"
As always, Bennet had come to help with her morning routine, and Rosaria asked her for a cup of coffee.
"Here you are."
"Mmm~ that rich coffee smell~"
Coffee existing in a fantasy world is weird, but whatever.
Bennet, who had carefully brewed the coffee just for her, handed over the cup. Rosaria flared her nostrils lightly, savoring the rich aroma.
"...Slurp—... Mm. Delicious. Thanks for always making such good coffee, Bennet."
"This is actually my first time making coffee. Still, I'm glad you're happy, my lady! Hehe."
Rosaria extended her pinky, cradled the cup, took a sip, and offered her praise. Bennet scratched her head and giggled bashfully.
"Then call me when breakfast is ready?"
"Yes~ my lady~"
After delivering the morning coffee and leaving the room, Rosaria was alone again.
Wind from beyond the window struck the curtains, and a landscape that rolled like ocean waves unfurled before her.
"Heh heh. This is it. The composure of a victor. Sip."
Was that not refinement in its own right?
Leaning against the windowsill, enjoying her coffee and savoring a leisurely morning—
"What a show. What a show."
"Pffht?! Wh— cough! What the hell?!"
"What have you been doing this whole time? I'm embarrassed just watching you."
—or so she had been, until Felix's sudden appearance made the coffee in her mouth go down the wrong pipe and set her entire body convulsing.
"...So what?! Can't I enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee in my own house? A sudden final exam trial came crashing down on me, and I passed it with my head held high! Me! This body! Huh?!"
But Rosaria refused to be cowed.
Passing the exams meant she could come home for the break instead of being stuck in the dorms for remedial classes, and the sheer joy and sense of liberation had her doing things she normally never would—only to get caught.
Getting caught by her own little brother was mortifying and deeply embarrassing, but Rosaria stood tall.
Because she had passed her exams splendidly and returned home with her head held high—
"How proud you must be. Barely scraping by in every single subject."
"Urgh…?!"
—and that declaration of hers crumbled under a single pinpoint strike from Felix.
"What's more, out of a hundred points, with the remedial cutoff at forty, you got forty-one, forty-two… and what even is a forty-point-five? The professor grading your exam came all the way to me because he couldn't make out what he'd written and asked if he should give partial credit."
"Guhk…?!"
"And on top of that, you got a thirty-nine-point-five in Basic Economics? How many retests did you take, crying and begging them to spare you from remedial classes right up until the end of term?"
"Th-that's….!"
Exam day.
Unlike the confidence with which she'd sat for the tests, the reality that hit her had been merciless.
The moment she opened the exam booklet, she spent over five minutes failing to even understand question one. When she finally moved on to question two, that one alone ate up a full ten minutes. It happened constantly.
She had memorized everything—or so she thought. But cramming so much information into her head in such a frantic rush meant she could remember the answers themselves while completely forgetting which question they belonged to.
In the end, Rosaria somehow managed to work her brain, scrawled every answer she could recall onto one side of the exam sheet, and then randomly jammed them into the blanks.
Barely before time ran out, she managed to fill in the answer sheet. The paper was so soaked with her sweat that the proctor collecting it nearly dropped it in shock.
She repeated that ordeal several times, and at last the exams were over.
The hard-won, razor-thin passing scores.
The results had been truly catastrophic, but she had just barely avoided remedial classes.
Unfortunately, every student's grades were posted on the hallway bulletin board, so after checking her scores, Rosaria had to endure the stares of countless other students.
In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to crawl into a mouse hole and hide.
But so what?
The academy was on break, and she was home.
She had been busy winning the mental argument—whatever, as long as I skipped remedials—when Felix decided to rain on her parade.
"Shut up! Shut up, shut up!!! I passed, didn't I?! What happens after that is none of your business!"
"........"
"Those eyes! Those pitying eyes! They're disgusting, so stop looking at me like that!"
"And I hear Princess Rachel helped you study? Rachel managed to tutor you and still ranked first in your year."
".........Don't say that name."
Watching Rosaria thrash about in fury at his criticism, Felix finally brought up Rachel's name—and Rosaria froze solid on the spot.
The truth was, with Rosaria's own ability alone, even scraping those precarious forties would have been like plucking stars from the sky.
It was only thanks to Rachel's help, after a chance meeting in the library, that Rosaria was able to come home at all.
But.
"Muscle is a component of an animal's body that, together with bone, shapes the overall form of the body and enables movement. Bone and muscle together are called the musculoskeletal system. Composed of bundles of muscle fibers, minor damage repairs itself through natural healing, and by deliberately inducing an appropriate amount of damage through exercise, one can develop stronger muscle…."
"? What's wrong?"
"Eek?! I didn't sleep! So please, no more writing lines…!"
To force exam knowledge into Rosaria's completely empty head, Rachel had been forced to take extreme measures. The mere mention of her name dragged up memories of being made to write the same sentences and the same words dozens—hundreds—of times, on the grounds that if she couldn't memorize them, they would simply have to be jammed in by force. Rosaria plunged into full panic.
It had been hard.
Writing lines themselves hadn't exhausted her—she had endless stamina—but the process of repeating the exact same characters over and over had been mentally draining beyond measure.
On top of that, whenever she got too tired and tried to escape with some half-baked excuse, Rachel somehow always found her hiding spot with uncanny precision. Every attempt failed, and she had been forced to write those lines through tears of pure resentment.
"Anyway, enough of this. Let's go eat."
"Uh… yeah…."
Following a bewildered-looking Felix, Rosaria trudged along with her shoulders slumped in defeat.
"......."
...It was hard, yeah. But it's fine, right? I'm home now, not at the academy… so I won't run into her anyway?
Yeah. Right now, I'm invincible. What's the problem?
"....Ah~ I'm starving! What's for breakfast today?"
"...Noona. Have you had a problem this whole time? You're not schizophrenic, so why are you acting like this?"
"Shut up. Just hurry up and walk."
Then it hit her—she wasn't at the academy, she was home—and Rosaria realized she had no reason to be scared or cowed.
"I wonder what's for breakfast~"
Bang—
The thought alone restored her energy at once. Rosaria strode forward and flung open the dining room door.
"Oh my, you're late?"
"Ghek?!"
But the moment she walked in with a bright smile, the sight that greeted her tore a beast-like scream from her throat.
This was supposed to be home, not the academy—and yet the very person who had driven her into such panic was sitting right there, calmly enjoying dessert.
"W-wh-wha… Why is Rachel…?"
"The academy is on break, so I came to follow up on the conversation we had last time."
"But… that sound just now—was that because of me?"
"Hic..!"
"Oh dear… Senior Rosaria… no, Lady Rosaria, it seems you truly cannot stand the sight of me?"
"N-no.. it's not like that… I… I mean…. Ghek?!"
"Oh my."
"Noona?!"
"My lady?!"
Struck dead-center by a dagger of words just as she was starting to relax, Rosaria stammered in flustered confusion—then let out a bizarre noise, toppled backward, and fainted on the spot.
"The tea has a lovely fragrance. Your skill at brewing is excellent."
"That Your Highness would praise a humble butler's tea is an honor so great I scarcely know where to put myself, Your Highness the Princess."
Rachel set her teacup down lightly, the corners of her lips lifting into a faint smile. Gordon, his waist bent at a perfect right angle, bowed his head as though receiving glory itself.
"To have such an outstanding butler—I'm envious, Countess."
"That the sun of the Empire would say such a thing is almost embarrassing, Your Highness Princess Rachel."
Seated across from her and sipping her own tea, Freya answered the compliment with a gentle smile.
"Incidentally, I must apologize for the commotion so early in the morning. Please forgive my daughter's discourtesy."
"It's quite all right. She hasn't changed a bit. I find her rather interesting, actually."
"Oh my, Your Highness takes an interest in our daughter? What an honor."
"I've had my eye on her since the academy. I never expected our paths would cross like this, though."
"What a delightful coincidence. Truly wonderful. Hoho."
"Haha."
At a glance, it looked like a warm tea party among elegant, refined members of the ruling class.
Smiles exchanged, compliments traded, soft laughter shared.
But.
".........."
".........."
As if by prior agreement, both women set down their teacups and held a brief silence.
Regrettably, this was no mere tea party for enjoying fragrance and cookies and laughter.
"Then, may we move on to the main subject, Countess?"
"Of course, Fifth Princess."
When Rachel next opened her mouth, a smile still played at her lips—but her eyes trembled, faintly yet unmistakably.
In the study where warm coziness had lingered only moments before, an unnameable chill began to sweep through, and the air grew cold.
The meeting taking place in this study now would become the cornerstone of everything yet to come.