Chapter 17 - Earrings if Hung on Ears, Nose Rings if Hung on Noses (1)
Translator : Elizabeth
Ah.
Saintess who carries a heavy burden and cuts through a rough path.
What do you wish for, and where are you heading?
Calling us, walking through the crowd, leading a great army.
To whom do you intend to lead us?
—Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz!
—Rumble rumble rumble rumble!
It was a scene befitting such a song.
For some reason, the Saintess was leading a large army of students and heading to the back of the Alchemy Hall.
Of course, not everyone followed behind her.
If the crowd gathered at the Fountain Plaza was 100, perhaps roughly 40, that is, about 40%, followed?
Since Saint Royal Academy is also a social venue for young nobles and successors, the plaza’s fountain was always quite full of students gathered in small groups.
If it’s 40% of that, surely it’s not a small number.
However, to say it conversely, 60 out of the remaining 100 were just looking at the bizarre scene of the Saintess leading an army with expressions that said it was truly bizarre.
Of course, not all 60 viewed such a Saintess unpleasantly.
About 20 were just looking as if it were bizarre because it really was bizarre.
There was neither malice nor hostility there particularly.
However, excluding all of them, the remaining 40 were different.
Especially Anastasia and the Duke’s daughter faction led by her were so.
“Tsk tsk tsk, what is she doing from early in the morning? So distracting.”
“It seems she still hasn't reflected even after causing such a fuss on the entrance ceremony day.”
“Truly, she has no dignity.”
“As expected, no matter if she’s a Saintess, she’s ultimately of commoner origin. Is she any different from the position of a Baronet who rose suddenly?”
The Duke’s daughter’s faction was busy clicking their tongues and badmouthing the swarming Saintess group while looking at them.
However, the reaction of Anastasia, the Duke of Rosencrantz’s daughter who was practically their leader, was unexpectedly the opposite.
“There is a saying that birds listen to day-words and rats listen to night-words. So, young ladies, it would be better for you to speak each word carefully.”
The Duke’s daughter’s caution.
Of course, the Duke’s daughter’s faction inevitably has to keep the Church in check due to their nature.
It is preposterous for clergymen to shake the land they protected with their own blood and the power they gained that way with a single word.
Being territorial nobles who mostly have the middle name ‘von’, they couldn't like the Church even if they tried.
But no matter how much that is so, there is a time and season for everything.
“There is no need to give the Church room to say anything against our Ducal faction for no reason. Remember that the important thing is always justification, the very cause.”
That’s right.
It wasn't the time yet.
In the first place, the clash between territorial nobles who own land, the Ducal family being their representative, and the Church was a long-standing tradition.
It meant there would be no end if they started nitpicking every trivial thing now.
Of course, if it were an act trying to subordinate the Royal blood to the Church with nonsensical blasphemous words like back in the campus last time, the story would be different.
But if not that, it meant watching for now was sufficient.
“More than that, giving the Tea Party invitation to His Highness Lucerius is the urgent priority right now.”
Anastasia took out the Tea Party invitation stamped with the Rosencrantz family seal from her bosom and looked at it.
Will the Crown Prince accept this invitation?
Although the relationship is already twisted as much as it could be, such a private relationship is meaningless before the great cause and justification.
In the first place, there was no love in this engagement.
It was just decided by the King and the Duke, the parents, and was merely like shackles to hang each other’s Royal authority and military power around their necks.
But because of that, those shackles were heavier than any contract, important, and also a shield protecting each other.
Of course, the Church would recklessly throw harsh words about this, calling it a union of secular powers opposing God’s authority or whatever.
Those words were nothing but typical delusion and arrogance of prayer-mongers trying to discuss the sky without a sword.
“His Highness was always on his way back to wash his jade body around this time after finishing training in the Sword Garden.”
Anastasia put the Tea Party invitation back into her bosom and headed to the location with an elegant gait that was neither fast nor slow.
To that very corridor where the Main Heroine Iris had intended to hand over the Tea Party invitation just the same.
“Heave-ho~ Hm?”
While diligently moving the Tea Party preparations along the shortest path of light.
—Thud.
Louise felt her foot stepping forward catch on something.
Fortunately, she didn't fall.
Because she was walking carefully just in case she knew something like this would happen.
After all, the things inside the box were all fragile types needed for light experiments.
“Eh? Clara? Iris is here too?”
What caught her foot was Clara, who for some reason was prostrated flat on the floor bowing,
And right next to her was Iris with a pale expression, not knowing what to do.
Louise asked while looking to the side, still holding the box higher than her head forward.
“Your complexion looks bad, arrhythmia? What are you doing, Clara? Cat pose? Does your back hurt?”
“…….”
“…….”
Strangely, the two gave no answer.
It was then.
“You are…… the Saintess.”
“Whoa?! The box spoke?”
Louise almost dropped the box for a moment but caught it well again.
The experiment parts inside the box are fine.
However,
“…….”
The owner of the voice beyond the box was just dumbfounded for a moment at the Saintess’s completely unexpected reaction.
At the same time, the Saintess’s followers who flocked around laughed hohoho hahaha, saying the Saintess is cute in every action and always adorable as expected.
That’s right.
Roughly nearly a hundred people laughed simultaneously like that.
Sound overlaps, reinforces, and the sound of the many gains power like that.
“……Kuh.”
And in front of such a crowd’s voice, an individual cannot move easily.
Especially if all those gazes are directed at oneself.
“By the way, that person in front of the Saintess now…….”
“Isn't that Lady Erancia, the Marquess’s daughter of the Valmonde family?”
“What is she doing here? And behind the Alchemy Hall at that…….”
“Besides, next to her is the Commoner Special Scholarship Student the Saintess carries around and…… the one prostrating is…….”
“……V-shaped chevron pattern and crossed trumpet and flag?! Isn't that a Viscount family? Why is a Viscount’s daughter in such a humiliating posture……!”
“Mo-More than that, if it’s a Commoner Special Scholarship Student, isn't she that…… daughter of the Hermain Viscount family whom the Saintess frequently hangs out with?”
“R-Right. It’s Clara! Why on earth is she doing that on the floor…… and in front of a Marquess’s daughter…….”
“Don’t tell me…….”
—Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz!
The gazes of the Saintess’s followers all turned simultaneously to Erancia and her retainers.
The Saintess’s side looking close to nearly a hundred.
On the other hand, the Marquess’s daughter’s group of about five or six.
It was the same many-vs-many, but the numbers were incomparable.
In a far too disadvantageous position, Erancia and her retainers couldn't move easily and only flinched.
The Saintess faction is too numerous.
Therefore,
‘Kuh……! To come openly driving such force…… The Saintess, the Church side is already pressuring……!’
In this situation where they were surrounded in an instant, Erancia had no choice but to think like this.
‘As expected, openly causing that incident right in front of the Duke’s daughter with the Crown Prince in the campus on the entrance ceremony day…… was indeed close to a declaration of war…….’
Openly showing such a confrontational structure to everyone passing by the campus on the entrance ceremony day and even causing a dispute was effectively asking the students indirectly.
Whether to stick to the Duke’s daughter’s faction.
Or to stick to the Saintess, that is, the Church’s side.
Pressure toward the nobles putting the Saintess at the forefront, demanding they decide friend or foe clearly.
‘To think the painful situation our Valmonde Marquess family wanted least would come so soon…….’
Erancia bit her lip as if resentful.
‘……Why on earth does the Saintess carry around a commoner like this and complicate things, kuh……!’
From the position of a Marquess’s daughter, and in front of retainers and other nobles at that, she was pointed at by a commoner.
No matter that she is a Special Scholarship Student, acknowledged by the Academy as a fellow Academy classmate, nobles have the laws of nobles.
If one witnessed, beyond just witnessing, experienced a situation where those laws collapsed directly, correcting it is a noble’s duty and responsibility.
Otherwise, the honor of the Valmonde Marquess family would be tarnished, and at least within the Academy, only the disgrace of ‘a dishonorable young lady who stays still even after being pointed at by a commoner’ would remain.
But for some reason, the Saintess seems to carry that Commoner Special Scholarship Student around and protect her.
Whether it’s because they are from the same commoner origin, or because she really protects her as a retainer of the same Church faction since that Special Scholarship Student can use Light attribute.
Whatever the case, since the Saintess was involved, she stepped forward as the Marquess’s daughter herself, not a retainer, to handle the matter directly to match the rank, but…….
‘……In the first place, why did that commoner resist uselessly? Things like this are obvious, aren't they? It’s obvious?! If I, a noble, threatened a bit, if a commoner just cried moderately and said sorry, I would have shown moderate generosity and educated her; I had no intention of hitting her with a real whip!’
As an example, the whip was still only held in Erancia’s hand and hadn't been swung yet.
‘But why did the Hermain Viscount’s daughter suddenly pop out of the bushes and protect the commoner so much?! Why did she prostrate flat on the floor as soon as I said to pay the price instead?! No matter what, I don’t hit a fellow noble with a whip! Rather, then this side becomes the problem……!!’
Just as Erancia was wrapping her head in agony inside, in fact, the Hermain daughter, Clara, was also rotting her head while prostrated.
‘S-Saintess, Saintess……! Louise! I’m happy, really really happy that you came to help us, but, n-no matter what, if you bring such a huge army, wh-what becomes of me who is prostrating right now?! Come alone! Like this, I’m too embarrassed to even stand up again……!!’
The surroundings were still buzzing due to the great army the Saintess brought,
And Erancia and Clara’s sides couldn't respond at all to such a far too sudden situation and could only watch the situation quietly.
“I knew there was someone in front, ahaha. Sorry~ I couldn't see. Could you move?”
The Saintess, who quickly grasped the situation from the information extracted from the surrounding murmurs, laughed brightly ahaha as always and asked so.
But no matter how brightly she smiled in this situation, there was no way a request would be accepted as a request.
To Erancia right now, “Could you move?” sounded only like “Could you get lost?”.
“…….”
There is no retreat.
The terrain forces one to go forward or run away backward because it’s behind the Alchemy Hall and blocked by a wall.
But in front, the great army brought by the Saintess is blocking the way.
Either the Marquess’s daughter runs away backward with her tail between her legs, or conversely, this side begs forgiveness from that side.
Effectively a composition forcing one of those two choices.
In a situation where naturally neither choice could be selected as a Marquess’s daughter,
‘……Kuh! I never expected the Saintess, the Church faction to come out this strongly and openly…… Huh……? Wait, come to think of it, that box is…….’
—Twinkle twinkle!
Something sparkling visible through the gap in the box.
An already familiar box, and that familiar sparkle; Erancia knew it all too well.
‘Th-That is……! Isn't that the goods from the Glass Workshop operated by our Valmonde Marquess family?!’
It was certain.
That box was a box used for warehouse storage before proper individual packaging, and the sparkle seen through that gap was undoubtedly the goods of this side’s glass workshop no matter how one looked.
‘M-Mirrors and jewels, that many……?! W-Why on earth?’
Recently, due to the Hosan Merchant Guild from the South suddenly storming into the capital, the deficit has worsened, and there was even talk that they might have to significantly reduce the business in the capital.
In such a situation, if she purchases that huge amount, it’s beyond simply good; it was a level that could perhaps even tide over this crisis.
‘But why specifically the Saintess, the Church side……? Moreover, carrying it directly heavily and with difficulty, openly showing it like this, just what…….’
No matter how one looked, it wasn't an amount one person could use alone.
In the first place, the jewels and mirrors of the glass workshop operated by the family are luxury goods.
One doesn't buy in bulk like that, nor bring the wholesale box as it is without proper packaging.
However, the Saintess did so.
She is doing so right now and pushing it right in front of her eyes openly.
‘……You are coming out directly without even an intention to hide acting like it’s not, Saintess…… Does this mean to overlook the commoner’s rudeness with this? Or furthermore…….’
Erancia raised the corners of her mouth in a smirk grin with a sigh of relief, as if she finally understood the situation.
A single ray of light like hope still sparkling through the gap in the box.
‘……Fine. Saintess, this board you meticulously prepared…… Just this once, I will dance on your palm as you intended!’
A retreat was visible.
And a retreat prepared directly by the Saintess, where everyone could be happy.