The Princess's Pathetic Inferiority Complex
The sky over the Black Mane Mountains was dyed in an eerie purple hue. The mana waves surging from the newly opened grand hot spring acted as an irresistible, sweet invitation to the continent's starving magical beasts.
Kwooaaaa—! A horde of 'Shadow Bears' that filled the horizon surged toward the mountain stronghold's entrance like a raging tide. It was a despairing number that would have forced any decent territorial knight order to brace for total annihilation. But this place was different.
"Ah, you pitiful creatures! To fill your empty stomachs only to burn away your very souls—what a tragic fate this is!"
Saintess Ivona raised both hands high. Behind her, a dazzling golden magic circle unfurled like interlocking gears.
Holy Fist: Celestial Grand Cleanup
Brilliant beams of light poured down from the sky onto the beasts' heads. An overwhelming divine power that melted flesh and purified souls on contact. Within that radiant glory, the wounds of the injured bandits healed in real time, filling the air with the sweet scent of flowers.
"Saintess, please move aside! My test subjects are evaporating!"
Lize, the Master of the Magic Tower, swung her staff. Above her head, an 8-circle spell, Nebula Judgment, took the form of constellations and exploded.
Kagang!Kwaaaaaang—!
Purple flames embroidered the night sky, reducing the beasts to ash in an instant. It was a surreal scene straight out of mythic warfare brought to life.
"Hey, Lize! How many times do I have to tell you to lower the flames?! Are you trying to cook my precious cabbage field into well-done steak?!"
Rodin grumbled as he dashed forward. He lightly swung his pickaxe and tapped the head of a beast trying to cross the cabbage field's boundary. With a sound like a watermelon splitting, the beast's upper body slammed straight into the ground. It was a casual yet devastating motion, like weeding out unwanted plants.
And at the center of that entire storm, Veronica crouched behind a rock, clutching her ledger tightly.
"......"
Her hands held neither sword nor staff. Only a worn-out pen that had recorded this morning's fertilizer costs and meal ticket sales.
In a battlefield swirling with miracles of light and stellar destruction, she felt utterly out of place—like a drab extra in a black-and-white film.
The mountain stronghold fell quiet again once the battle ended. Ivona dashed toward the kitchen, declaring, "Meat after holy labor tastes like honey!" while Lize vanished into her lab with a cry of "It's a bumper crop of mana data!"
Veronica stood alone in the living area of her bedroom, facing the full-length mirror. Reflected in it was the Third Princess of the Empire—the one who had always prided herself on being the most intelligent and dignified. But the figure she saw now was nothing more than a powerless weakling.
"......Such pale hands."
Veronica stared down at her palms. Her fingers, callused from gripping pens. She had volunteered to help Rodin, yet when he stood at death's door, all she could do was scream.
Ivona could save lives on the brink of death. Lize could reshape the terrain itself. Compared to walking beside them and Rodin, she was simply too ordinary.
What am I even doing here?
A wave of self-loathing crashed over her. If Lize could transmute gold, money calculations were pointless. If Ivona blessed the fields, food management would be solved with manipulated harvests.
When Rodin is truly in danger, what can I do? Scream? Or maybe bash the enemy's head with this heavy ledger?
No matter how she racked her brain, the conclusion was the same. She was nothing but a parasite leeching off Rodin's strength.
"How pathetic...... I really am."
A single fat tear rolled down Veronica's cheek. It fell onto the open ledger, smearing the carefully written words Today's Wild Boar Catch into a black blot.
Her shoulders shook with the terror of knowing she would be the first one expelled from Rodin's world.
The night air at the stronghold was cold but refreshing. Veronica sat blankly on the wooden bench, gazing at the Milky Way sprawled across the night sky. Her mind was too tangled for sleep.
That was when she heard the heavy thud of boots caked in dirt. It was Rodin. As usual, he scratched his head with a bothered expression and plopped down beside her. Then he pulled something hot wrapped in paper from his pocket and held it out.
"Hey, princess. What are you doing out here without even eating? You said your brain doesn't work if you starve."
"......Rodin."
What Veronica received was a perfectly steamed potato, still steaming hot. Feeling its warmth, she asked in a trembling voice.
"What if... Rodin. What if I really have no power at all and I'm nothing but a burden who can't help you...... Would you still keep me by your side?"
Rodin paused mid-bite. He looked down at her with a dumbfounded expression.
"What kind of nonsense is that? Did you get scared watching Lize fire off that meteor earlier? If you're spooked, just go to bed."
"It's not that I'm scared...... I'm jealous."
Veronica lowered her head.
"Those people can watch your back when you fight. They can even protect you directly. But I...... I can't do anything."
Rodin swallowed a dry laugh, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Protect? Who's protecting who? Those two are just freeloaders here for the food. You're my chief administrator. Compare things that make sense."
Rodin took a big bite of the potato and grumbled. But his eyes were more serious than ever as they met her tear-filled gaze.
"Listen. No matter how good Lize is at magic, she doesn't know how much fertilizer costs. And even if Ivona prays well, she has no idea how many eggs our chickens laid or which one is sick."
Rodin pointed beyond the bench at the neatly organized buildings of the stronghold.
"Forgot what this place was like when I lived alone? It was just a dusty pit crawling with rats. But after you came, it actually feels like a 'home' where people live."
"Rodin......"
"There are plenty of guys swinging swords across the continent. But the one who manages my fields, dresses and feeds my idiot subordinates like actual humans, and lets me live as a real farmer—that's only you."
Rodin roughly tousled Veronica's hair in his usual bothered way.
"So stop acting so pathetic. It's bothersome as hell. You're playing a completely different game from them."
"But...... when you get hurt, I can't do anything......"
"Don't cry. If your eyes swell up, you won't be able to read the ledger tomorrow and I'll mess up the tax calculations. Then I'll end up in jail. Aren't you my shield? My financial shield."
At Rodin's clumsy joke, a small smile finally touched Veronica's lips.
"Not a shield...... I'm the lady of the house."
"Sure, lady of the house or chief administrator, call yourself whatever you want. Just eat the potato. It gets nasty when it cools."
Rodin turned his head toward the night sky, looking slightly embarrassed. Veronica bit into the warm potato and realized once more that her place wasn't at the front lines of battle—it was right beside this blunt man.
The next morning, the dining hall's atmosphere was three times colder than usual. It was because Veronica—who had perfectly erased the swelling around her eyes—slammed a thick stack of documents onto the table with a loud bang!
The gloom from yesterday was gone without a trace. Her eyes now burned with venom and vitality.
"Saintess, the wide-area healing mana you expended yesterday exceeded our hot spring's mana recovery rate by twenty percent. We will be charging additional fees for excessive territorial energy usage."
"Eeeek?! Oh Lord! The merciless princess has returned! Healing is for the public good!"
Ivona screamed with a meat dumpling still in her mouth.
Veronica didn't even blink as she turned to Lize.
"Lady Lize, you are aware that the cost of restoring the western forest burned by your meteor yesterday, plus the expense of incinerating the beast corpses, will be paid out of your own pocket? It cannot be offset with experimental data. Please deposit the funds by today."
"You...... you vicious woman! Where did that gloomy girl crying in the corner yesterday go?! Was that an act?!"
Lize shouted, her staff trembling.
Veronica smiled sweetly and lifted her teacup.
"My only weapons as someone with zero combat power are 'viciousness' and 'financial therapy.' Now, if you want to see meat at dinner tonight, sign without complaint."
Faced with Veronica's overwhelming 'economic killing intent,' the continent's two strongest women whimpered and bowed their heads.
She finally understood. No matter how much they soared and crawled, in the end, the one holding the keys to this stronghold's rice bowl was her.
Rodin, who had been pulling weeds in the field, heard the women's desperate screams from the dining hall and let out a short laugh.
"......Now it really feels like a house where people live."
Beside him, Veronica was humming as she checked the cabbage yield list. Her fingers moved the pen with more energy than ever.
"I told you, didn't I, Rodin? I said I'd manage your life. I'll hold onto the rice bowl tightly so those outside freeloaders can't steal it. So don't worry."
"Yeah, manage it. I'll just keep planting cabbages."
Rodin answered in his usual bothered tone, but he didn't brush off the slight weight of Veronica leaning against his shoulder.
It was a peace different from the blood-soaked battlefields of the past—a peace mixed with the smell of earth and people. What maintained that peace wasn't Rodin's aura, but Veronica's meticulous ledgers and stubborn tenacity.
"Rodin, by the way, who are those people on horseback coming this way? Did they come for the fertilizer bill again?"
Veronica pointed down the mountain. Rodin's eyes narrowed. An ornate carriage bearing the imperial crest was approaching the stronghold.
"......Looks like they're something even more bothersome than a fertilizer bill."
Rodin adjusted his grip on the pickaxe and stood up.