The Princess’s Summons
The inside of the Blium estate was in an uproar the moment word spread that the imperial princess had called for the servants.
Normally, even if she was a princess, this would have been the sort of thing people would try to stop her from doing, since interfering in another house’s affairs was not something one ought to do. But this time, she had good cause.
“No matter that she’s a bastard child, she must be treated as a human being with the bare minimum of dignity. This was an edict personally issued by His Late Majesty, who ruled the Empire for more than three hundred years. And what is this? If she is the duke’s daughter, is this the treatment she should be receiving!?”
The Blium family had violated the law—more specifically, an imperial law issued directly by the Emperor.
From the servants’ point of view, of course, they might have felt wronged.
After all, the law the princess was talking about was the sort of trivial decree people could ignore if they wished, and I had been refusing every offer made to me all this time.
I had lived refusing everything since the day I was born, and after I started sticking close to the princess, it was her own servants who helped me, so they had probably decided I could simply be treated as if I were not even human anymore.
If the head of the household or the duchess had put their foot down, that would have been one thing, but they had cared only that I did not die, and since I did not have attacks, they likely never thought to restrain the servants’ behavior.
No, perhaps they had even told them that if I did not behave like this, they would punish me.
That if they interfered, I might try to kill myself again, so they should just maintain the status quo.
Maybe that was why they had ignored me.
“If you have a mouth, then try making an excuse!”
What made it worse for them was that when I had first stood naked before the princess, she had looked startled, yet she had not once criticized that part of it.
She had taken me in, yes, but she had never asked the people inside the Blium estate why I went around naked, or why I had fallen into such a severe state of starvation.
She had probably wanted to hear it from me.
There was no surer way to judge information than by hearing it from the person involved.
But how had that looked to the servants?
She’s a bastard, so they’re just leaving her be. Her Highness has turned a blind eye, so maybe we can do the same.
Hadn’t they thought something like that?
Well, in the end, that was the result.
Everyone I had pointed out was dragged in and forced to listen to the princess’s shouting.
“Honestly, speak already!”
The servants kept their heads bowed low, unable to say a word no matter what the princess hurled at them.
They knew that if they spoke first, she would focus on them directly, so they were probably doing this on purpose.
The maids and servants even had a decent excuse.
They had the status-based defense that a lowly person who answered back to one chosen by God might unknowingly commit sacrilege.
Butlers and lady’s maids, who could not hide behind that shield of rank, looked as though they might vomit at any moment as they watched the princess’s face.
“……”
And in their eyes, there seemed to be a trace of resentment.
I did not know why they felt so wronged, but honestly, by the time you were in your third year of high school, you’d at least had a drink of soju or beer with your parents, and this looked like a student getting scolded for that…
They all had the expression of people asking why they were being chewed out over something when everyone treated me as less than a person anyway.
“Sigh. If you refuse to speak, then I have no choice.”
“……?”
“I’ll take your registry and, when the duke is informed of the lawbreaking butlers and maids, I’ll instruct him to send them off when they change jobs without a letter of recommendation.”
“W-wait!? Your Highness!”
“If you won’t even obey the laws of the Empire, do you think you’ll obey the internal rules of a noble house!?”
Right in front of the princess.
…Were they out of their minds?
I’d never worked at an office, so I didn’t know, but normally even toward your immediate superior you’d control your expression. Yet they weren’t even managing their faces for someone not quite above them but still high enough that you had to tilt your head back until it hurt just to look at her?
Maybe they had never learned how because there was no need to keep their expressions in check inside the estate.
Come to think of it, the head of the household, the duchess, and the young masters had all treated the servants well, so there was never much reason to get angry at them.
Even when they were scolded, it was along the lines of, This, this, and this is wrong, so I’m issuing a warning, or You’ve accumulated enough warnings, so now you’ll be punished.
And who would dare raise their voice and pick a fight with the duke during a banquet hosted by the Blium family?
This was not the age of war, when even a duke had to be bitten and torn at to survive. It was an era in which the golden age of peace had lasted so long that the duke’s house stood just below the Emperor’s name.
Maybe they really had never needed to manage their expressions before, and so they simply had no skill for it.
Even so, punishment consisting of nothing more than legally barring them from writing recommendation letters and informing the other noble houses of it was, well, a bit much.
Couldn’t she at least cut off a finger or burn something?
I thought that, but the butler and the maid, hearing the princess’s shouting, went white with terror and immediately began pleading that they had been wrong. The princess, meanwhile, flew into a rage, shouting that were they only sorry when their own safety was threatened? Then, as if she were growing dizzy from it all, she wrapped an arm around me and sat down on the sofa.
“Haaah… If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have insisted on hearing it from you.”
“……I’m not bothered at all, though.”
“Tch! Be quiet, young lady. Whether you’re all right or not, I’m not all right.”
“Y-yes…”
Was this still an act?
It was so painfully convincing that I began to wonder if the princess had forgotten her original purpose entirely.
“Your Highness.”
“Hah, Duchess. You’re late.”
“I apologize, Your Highness.”
“You say the child you gave birth to isn’t yours, and yet what have you done while the child carrying Blium’s blood has lived like this?”
“I am truly sorry. She was never fond of using our family’s name, so I ordered the servants not to approach her.”
“Then would you want to use the name of a family that gave birth to you only to kill you and raise you like livestock? And even so, should you not have answered the question when asked? Or do you intend to stage a bastard’s revolution?”
“No, I have never harbored such thoughts. I am truly sorry.”
The duchess bowed her head to the princess, who was no more than a dozen or so years younger than her, apologizing again and again.
Watching that, I unconsciously worried at my lip, and after taking a few breaths to steady herself, the princess said that since the other nobles did not know, there was no helping this—she would have to make me known publicly.
“There’ll be a ball before long, so I’ll bring the young lady with me then. I’ll even choose a name for her, so don’t worry about it.”
“……”
“There shouldn’t be any problem for you even if she becomes known, should there?”
After all, if you needed an excuse, couldn’t you always say it was an illness or an accident?
As she said this, the princess looked at the duchess, and the duchess’s gaze flickered for a moment before she lowered her head again.
Probably not visible to the princess, but the duchess had made her hostility clear.
“Understood.”
Her voice was strained, seeping with malice she had not quite managed to hide.
The princess half-lidded her eyes as though savoring the duchess’s tone, and when the duchess lifted her head again, she immediately smoothed her expression and said, “Let me know when the ball or banquet date is fixed. I’ll need to settle on the young lady’s name by then.”
“Yes. Thank you for your mercy.”
After bowing once more, the duchess gathered the servants and led them out.
She shot me one glance on her way out, then disappeared beyond the door, and I stared after her for a while before turning to look at the princess.
She was frowning.
“Displeasing. What did she have to be so smug about?”
It seemed less that she was bothered by the violation of the law and more that she disliked the fact that they had created a person and then refused to take responsibility for her.
Considering that this was the same princess who had abandoned a life ruined by pain and the threat of death in order to pursue fairness, perhaps that reaction was only natural. Or maybe she had sensed the hostility the duchess had revealed at the end and was reacting to that.
“Hff.”
“……Your Highness?”
It was then that I noticed her breathing had begun to quicken a little, and on reflex I grabbed a handkerchief from the table and held it over her mouth.
“Kheh! Cough! Cough!”
“Your Highness!”
“Please bring warm water and a towel. A blanket too, just in case.”
At the same time, blood came pouring out.
It bled through the handkerchief and clung damply to my face, and I ordered the maid to bring the duke at once while the princess’s own maid, unlike the ones from Blium, obeyed my instructions despite her panic.
“Ah, dear me. Kheh, cough, cough… There’s blood on your face.”
“I get blood on me all the time.”
“Pfft! That’s true enough. And still, young lady.”
“Yes?”
“What’s my condition?”
“……It would be better for the head of the household to look at you.”
“I asked how it looks to you. You have some knowledge yourself, don’t you?”
The princess looked at me quietly as she asked.
She was looking at me with those same clear blue eyes she always had, but for some reason I could not meet her gaze for a very different reason than usual.
My chest felt heavy.
“So what is it?”