The Traffic Jam I Never Expected!
I never expected a traffic jam! Worrying about Erika could wait until after I actually met her. Not wanting to keep the coachman waiting any longer, I stepped out to the mansion entrance, where a four-wheeled carriage with a round, pumpkin-like body sat gleaming golden in the sunlight. If Cinderella’s fairy godmother had lacked any sense of design, this was exactly the sort of carriage she might have conjured.
Zofi noticed me squinting against the glare and spoke up. “I understand, miss. You’ve always hated anything that looked this flashy on the surface. There’s nothing to be gained from showing off. Still, this Zofi believes such things are a kind of vanity only women with beauty like yours can afford. How many ordinary young ladies dream of a magnificent carriage like this coming to fetch them? And since it’s an imperial carriage this time, it’s bound to be even more splendid. We must do at least this much to avoid tarnishing the honor of the Letia Fonk family!”
“Erika will arrive in a modest carriage.”
“How could you possibly know that, miss?”
She could ask all she wanted; the original novel had plainly stated, The imperial princess stepped down alone on her own two feet from a modest two-wheeled carriage that did not match her reputation. The fact that I remembered even these tiny details made me realize just how obsessively I had read that book.
That son of a bitch author. Thanks for the fancy carriage, at least. I still wasn’t completely sure whether you were the one who shoved me into this body…
“Let’s just call it the intuition of an old friend.”
“Hmm. This maid doesn’t know Her Highness’s personality, so I’ll take your word for it. Now, please board, miss. I’ll take your hand.”
“Since this is the academy entrance, isn’t the Pollin Baroque family sending its own carriage and attendant for you, Zofi?”
In the original novel the villainess only appeared after the entrance ceremony, so I had never seen that particular scene. Zofi gave a light shrug.
“For this Zofi, entering as the maid who serves a young lady from a ruling family is far more honorable than entering as a mere daughter of a court noble house. Don’t you think?”
“Even so…”
“Besides, another of this Zofi’s small pleasures is quietly watching miss’s sleeping face during a long journey. It’s almost pitiful that it’s a sight you could never see even if you died and woke up again.”
True enough. My own sleeping face was something I could never witness no matter how many times I died and revived. Whether that was actually pitiful, I couldn’t say.
“Looking is all you get to do.”
“Ufufu. Couldn’t I give you just a tiny pinch?”
“Only when you need to wake me. Don’t do it any other time.”
I answered rather curtly. Zofi, apparently delighted by even that indifferent reply, plopped down right beside me in the carriage.
Unfortunately, Zofi’s modest little pleasure never materialized. It wasn’t due to any accident; I was simply so lost in thought that I didn’t fall asleep once during the entire long journey.
I quietly watched my mother waving at me from outside the window until she disappeared into the distance, then began contemplating the fate this carriage was carrying me toward.
Its destination was the Imperial Magic Academy. There was no other fancy name for it. It did have a nickname, of course, though it wasn’t particularly elegant: The Mountain. The academy’s own staff seemed to refer to it that way.
In the world of High Society Young Lady, the academy was a flower garden open exclusively to daughters of noble houses. Even then, not every noble daughter qualified. Only those who had awakened mana—those possessing the qualities of a Witch—were granted special admission.
In other words, this setting was built on the bizarre premise that mana could only manifest in noble young ladies. I had always assumed it was nothing more than the author’s lazy convenience so he could write yuri romance among aristocratic girls.
Then why not just commit to that route until the end? What the hell was that ending supposed to be…?
“Please forgive any discomfort. We are about to begin the ascent up the mountain path.”
How much time had passed? The coachman spoke to me before the pouting Zofi, who had grown sulky because I neither slept nor conversed with her.
Indeed, the academy built halfway up the empire’s most remote mountain lived up to its nickname. Reaching it in this heavy four-wheeled carriage clearly required considerable effort. When the carriage began to jolt violently, Zofi asked, “Miss, shall I lend some strength?”
She was offering to use magic to stabilize the shaking. I quietly dissuaded her.
“Save it. The carriage will hold.”
“But miss, won’t you get motion sickness? You haven’t slept at all, so you must be exhausted…”
“I rested well enough last night. Besides… my stomach isn’t going to turn from mere shaking like this…”
Not when I’m already nauseous from worrying about everything that’s coming. I couldn’t say those words in front of my maid. Zofi seemed to guess what I was thinking and fell silent.
Then the carriage suddenly stopped. No matter how rough the mountain road, there was no reason for it to halt so abruptly. Startled, I asked the coachmen, “What’s happening?”
“I-I’m sorry, miss. There’s a carriage blocking the path ahead… Honestly, what are they doing in a place like this? Wait—could their wheel be stuck?”
The traffic jam I never expected? And caused by a stuck wheel, no less?
Zofi and I stared blankly at each other for a moment, then both burst out laughing at the same time. Even to me—someone who had only experienced this world through novels—the situation felt absurd. A witch’s carriage, which could one day fly through the sky with enough practice, had been stopped by a rough mountain path.
“I’ll get down and take a look.”
“No, miss, we’ll—”
“Handling the horses is your job, but magic is a mage’s domain. With two mages present, there’s no need for you to drop the reins, is there?”
The coachmen closed their mouths at my words.
“All right, let’s get down and see, Zofi.”
“Yes, of course, miss!”
What we found when we stepped out was truly a spectacle. A petite pink-haired girl, no taller than 140 centimeters, was desperately struggling to pull a small one-horse carriage out of a muddy pit.
She only noticed us when we drew close. Turning around, she flashed a bright smile.
I definitely remembered this character from the original work. It was… um… who was she again?
“Ehet! Oh my, it seems there were people waiting behind us! Sorry, sorry! Who would have thought this carriage couldn’t even handle the path up the mountain ridge? Wahahaha!”
Ah, I remembered now. She was that young lady whose over-the-top concept I had disliked. Whose idea it was to combine that archaic “it seems” speech tic with the “Wahahaha” laugh, I had no idea—but it was clearly the limit of a third-rate writer. Still… her appearance alone was rather cute.
“Miss, she seems like a strange person. Perhaps we should avoid getting involved and return to our carriage?”
“She’s blocking our path. Avoiding involvement isn’t really an option.”
“I can hear you! I can hear every word!”
The pink-haired girl jumped in. She hopped straight over to us, but she didn’t look angry. Instead, her eyes sparkled with pure curiosity.
“Ahem. Since things have come to this, it seems I must ask for your help. You both appear neat and colorful in your attire, so I assume you are mages who have mastered the basics… Is that understanding acceptable, it seems?”
“It was cleaner until you jumped toward me and splattered dirt everywhere.”
I spoke indifferently. Zofi reacted with exaggerated outrage, pointing her finger.
“Exactly! Listen here, shorty. Do you have any idea who this person is?!”
“No, it’s all right, Zofi. I understand. We’ll help you, nameless young lady. But if you’re also heading to the academy, you must be a student there. Are you really struggling this much with such a light carriage?”
“Wahaha! Just look at this, it seems! This young lady may dress flashily, but she lacks observational skills, it seems.”
“Excuse me?”
“Can you not see that my carriage has no coachman, it seems? If I cannot even afford to hire a coachman and must travel in the smallest carriage with barely any luggage as the eldest daughter of a rural barony, would I have had the luxury of receiving basic magic lessons before entering the academy, it seems!”
When she put it that way, it was actually quite reasonable. She showed zero shame about her circumstances and carried herself with confidence. I liked that.
Well… I supposed I had to roll up my sleeves and help after all.
Before entering the academy, I decided to test the concept of “magic” at least once. I removed the gloves from both hands and extended my arms forward. Zofi stared at my profile with an excited gleam in her eyes, and even the pink-haired girl kept quiet while I concentrated.
According to the novel’s description, I was supposed to gather mana like this and then… pour all my power into it and release it forward!
Crack. Crunch.
Ah, damn it.
The pink sphere of mana that flew from my fingertips slammed straight into the small carriage’s body and shattered it into pieces. The horse that had been straining to pull it was startled by the sudden explosion behind it, snapped its reins, and bolted down the mountain.
Everyone present—even the coachmen driving our own family carriage—stood frozen with their mouths hanging open, staring at me in utter disbelief.
I shrugged my shoulders with the most composed expression I could manage and said, “The horse wasn’t hurt, was it?”