The Queen's Fragile Pride
Carmel did not attend the regular council meeting the following day. Was it too much of a stretch to assume it was because of yesterday's incident? Or perhaps she was plotting some other scheme. Though I sat in my designated seat, I found it difficult to focus on the proceedings. My mind was consumed by thoughts of the Festival of the Sword rather than the meeting. The seed of mana she had planted in the weapons was highly likely to have been Carmel's ultimate trump card. After all, she had carried out the task herself, and it was a plot that would never have been discovered had I not awakened to my strange power. Beyond that, there was little room for her to interfere with the outcome of the Festival of the Sword. Just in case, I had already asked Monas to cast detection magic on the weapons of both sides. It would be impossible for her to weaken the Royal Guard's weapons again, or conversely, to strengthen those of the Direct Guard. Targeting the participating knights directly wouldn't be easy either. No one but Filgret and the participants themselves would know who was competing until the morning of the event. It was hard to imagine those knights, who had maintained their pride even in the original novel's worst-case scenarios, being bought off. How else could she move...? To figure that out, I needed to see Carmel in person. Meeting her face-to-face would give me a sense of whether she had other traps prepared besides the mana seeds, or if she was planning any further moves. Once I heard Pehart's voice announcing the end of the council meeting, I immediately made my way to Carmel's chambers.
"Um, I am terribly sorry, Princess... but the Queen has given strict orders that she does not wish to see anyone right now..." The maid spoke with a deeply troubled expression. She was one of Carmel's personal maids. Glancing around warily, she lowered her voice and continued. "To be honest, ever since she returned from somewhere yesterday, she has been shut up in her bed. When we ask if she is feeling unwell, she only yells at us to get out immediately... We are all quite bewildered, not knowing what could possibly be wrong."
It was only natural for her attendants to be bewildered. Moreover, with Carmel being a ticking hysterical time bomb, they must feel like they are walking on thin ice. But I knew exactly why she was acting this way. The extreme humiliation she had suffered at my hands yesterday. Even if it was only an illusion, she had been stripped naked in front of men and spanked—a disgrace she surely couldn't shake off. The thought of Carmel huddled in her bed, endlessly replaying those memories she so desperately wanted to forget, brought a natural smile to my lips.
"I see. I worry that she might be ill. I will go in and check on Mother's condition myself." "B-But, Princess... Her Majesty explicitly ordered us not to let anyone in..." The maid's face was pale with fear. It would be simple enough to use my authority as the princess to force my way inside. But doing so would likely result in this maid receiving a punishment even worse than what Shinia had endured. While I felt a pang of pity for her, I could hardly suppress my desire to enter. I wanted to see Carmel's face, stained with defeat, by any means necessary. Just as I was trying to think of a way to persuade the maid, the door opened from the inside.
"Oh?" Carmel stood in the open doorway. Her hair was disheveled as if she had just rolled out of bed, and she wore nothing but a thin silk nightgown. Glaring sharply at the maid and then at me, Carmel spoke. "Come in, Sera."
Had she managed to piece her shattered mind back together after half a day in bed? Either way, this was exactly what I wanted. I followed Carmel into the room. "Excuse me, Mother." Upon entering, Carmel seated herself in a chair. Her arrogantly crossed legs were quite a sight. I sat down opposite her. Now, it was time to probe her intentions. If she truly had spent the entire day cooped up in her room, it seemed unlikely she was planning any immediate follow-up moves... Wait... Something about Carmel was off. It wasn't just that she looked like she had just crawled out of bed. Though difficult to explain immediately, there was a subtle difference in her usual demeanor. Her posture was arrogant, her gaze cold. She appeared to have completely shaken off the image of her gasping for breath while I spanked her. Yet, something was undeniably different. The answer lay in her eyes. Carmel had always met my gaze head-on, with pride. But now, though her head was turned toward me, her eyes were fixed not on my face, but slightly lower—around my neck.
"Mother." "What is it?" "Why did you not attend the council meeting today?" "What does it matter to you? I simply didn't feel like going. It is my choice, is it not?" A brief exchange. Even as we spoke, Carmel refused to meet my eyes. Furthermore, her arms resting on the table were positioned in a subtly defensive posture. Seeing this, I was certain. Carmel had not yet escaped yesterday's nightmare. Letting me into her room, pretending to act as she always did—it was all a desperate bluff. At that realization, a surge of ecstasy bubbled up in my chest. Even after suffering such humiliation, Carmel was straining with all her might to stand on equal footing as my enemy. Like a young lady standing on her tiptoes to match her lover's height. The unmade bed she had been lying in just moments ago, her messy hair, the thin silk nightgown clinging to her body—everything about her looked utterly adorable. No, even setting those feelings aside, she was undeniably captivating. The thin nightgown did little to conceal Carmel's figure. Looking at her legs crossed beneath the hem of her gown draped over her thighs, I felt yesterday's excitement threatening to flare up again.
"I doubt you came all this way just to ask why I missed a simple council meeting. State your business." "You put on quite a pathetic display yesterday, Mother." Carmel's face flushed a deep crimson. It was as if I had forcibly ripped open a wound that had barely begun to scab over. With a vividly red, incredibly arousing face, Carmel glared at me. Yet, there was no malice or venom in her eyes. Instead, she looked like a victim, a sacrifice struggling desperately to resist. Biting her lip, her eyes trembling, Carmel barely managed to squeeze out a voice. "You..."
"Hehe. Fondling you was wonderful, but seeing you get spanked was truly the best, Mother. The sensation of striking you, your sweet groans... I can still vividly picture your flushed, red bottom right before my eyes." Normally, she would have snapped back with a sharp retort, but Carmel kept her mouth tightly shut, merely enduring my provocation. It wasn't just a simple tease; every single word was a critical blow, systematically breaking down her mental defenses. I leaned in slightly toward her. In an instant, Carmel flinched and jerked her upper body backward. "...Ah..." It was proof of her fear of me, proof that she had not overcome yesterday's humiliating memory—an undeniable mark of defeat. Perhaps Carmel realized this herself, as her face burned even hotter. In contrast, a triumphant smile spread across my face. Well, perhaps I should stop teasing her for now. If you push too hard, things tend to break. Even Carmel would be no exception.
"Well, it seems you haven't forgotten yesterday's humiliation. In that case, why don't you tell me, Mother? What was your purpose in infiltrating the Knight Order barracks, even going so far as to use dark magic?" At those words, a shift occurred in Carmel's expression. The life seemed to return to her face, which had looked so cornered just a moment ago. She even let her lips curl up slightly as she replied. "My reason for going to the barracks? I simply wanted to look around." "Don't lie to me. A woman as meticulous as you—who pushed for the marriage alliance with the Grave family and set up a stage as disastrous as the Festival of the Sword—would never move without a reason. I had the entire barracks searched thoroughly that day, but we found nothing. What exactly did you do?"
"Hehe." Carmel straightened her posture. Her usual confidence had returned in an instant. While a defensive Carmel was incredibly arousing, she was truly at her best like this. "Ahahaha! Why on earth would I tell you that? I will tell you just one thing, Princess Sera. At the Festival of the Sword, your Royal Guard will suffer a miserable, humiliating defeat." "What did you do...?" My anxious, trembling gaze seemed to elevate Carmel's mood. Just as her agitation was my pleasure, my distress was undoubtedly hers. Of course, my current anxiety was entirely fabricated. Behaving as if she had completely shaken off yesterday's events, Carmel spoke with a triumphant air.
"Then let me ask you something, Princess Sera. How did you see through my spell? Even if you knew I could change my appearance... it should have been impossible to tell by looks alone." "I have told you multiple times, haven't I? I can read your mind." "Hmph, don't make me laugh. If that were true, you wouldn't be so anxious right now, clueless about what I've done." Carmel's gaze drifted toward my neck and chest. Spotting the chain of the necklace slipping down into my cleavage, Carmel murmured as if a sudden realization had struck her. "The necklace..."
In a flash, Carmel's hand plunged into my bodice. Groping between Princess Sera's ample breasts, Carmel quickly located the Necklace of Truth and pulled it out of my clothes. I raised my voice, feigning panic. "W-What do you think you are doing?!" "Ah, you did take control of the Roberts merchant guild, didn't you... The Luistie Kingdom truly possesses some convenient items. Is this something that pierces through illusion magic?" I snatched the Necklace of Truth back from Carmel's hand and tucked it back inside my clothes. Having figured out how I had exposed Shimasa's Spell, Carmel was regaining her confident smile. "You shouldn't rely too heavily on magical items, Princess. There are plenty of ways to bypass them."
Carmel elegantly swept back her raven hair. Thanks to her haughty demeanor, she exuded a queenly nobility despite wearing nothing but a silk nightgown. Watching me put on my best performance of a defeated foe, Carmel continued, a satisfied smile playing on her lips. "Fufu. Just give up on the Festival of the Sword. Or perhaps I should congratulate you? After all, you will be receiving a proposal from a dashing knight." "Urgh...!" As if unable to contain my frustration, I bolted upright from my seat. I stormed toward the door, mimicking a defeated general fleeing the battlefield. Slam! The maid looked utterly startled as I slammed the door shut behind me. Her shock only deepened when Carmel's high-pitched, triumphant laughter echoed from inside the room.