41.1 The Groundwork
“What prestige of the royal family!? What competent national mother who can make ruthless and calm judgments!? She’s merely blaming others for her parental failures!!”
With bright red hair burning to high heavens, Angelica shouted in a loud voice that shook the entire mansion.
“I thought you’d say that, Ange!”
“Ms. Kirklight, you stole those words out of my mouth…”
In the drawing room of the Kirklight family’s villa in the royal capital. After hearing about the matter from Sharina and Riol, Angelica sat down on the couch with resentment.
“It is as Angelica has said! What value does trust restored through deception have…!”
The knight sitting next to them couldn’t control his anger either. His right fist was shaking.
“…It came faster than I expected.”
“Well, the queen had this scenario prepared from the beginning. This speed shouldn’t be a surprise.”
The eldest daughter of Count Clydea was welcomed as a member of Roland’s fiancée candidates, into the Dahlia Garden. Just yesterday, the day after the queen visited the academy to watch the magic tournament, that serious announcement was made.
It was said that after watching the match, the queen had a meeting with Sharina and once again apologized for the first prince.
As an apology, the queen promised to fulfil Sharina’s wish to the greatest extent possible.
During that meeting, it was reported that Sharina had finally confessed of her hidden feelings—her fervent yearning for the second prince, Roland. She wanted to be added to his fiancée candidate group.
In order to fulfil her wishes, the queen declared that she’d support Sharina and educate her as necessary.
A good narrative was released, and a memoir was sent to the aristocrats. By the way, Sharina’s princess education was scheduled to start tomorrow.
“If the queen truly thought we’d believe that, isn’t that foolish of her? The students already know the circumstances of Shari and Riol.”
“However, the parents only know by hearsay. Between what their children say and what the royal family says, it’s obvious which they’d believe.”
The reactions of the students who heard the news varied.
There were those whom were confused, those whom were skeptical, and also those who didn’t believe it at all. Some girls believed it and envied Sharina—however, their number was quite small compared to the incident that involved Leonardo. Overall, many sided with Sharina.
However, in regards to their parents, it was difficult.
“Besides, the queen is also outside the academy. I don’t think anyone would believe rumors spread by students all that much. Unexpectedly, the aristocrats might believe students are just impressionable and easy to deceive…”
After sipping the tea brewed by the Kirklight’s maid, Riol murmured.
Sharina was surprised at the fact that only a few students were deceived.
Only a few months ago, everyone would just take in everything the royal family had said as if it was a norm. Everyone thought there was no girl who didn’t yearn to be favored by the prince.
“How is it possible that the princess education will start from tomorrow!? Shari’s house hasn’t even been informed, yet!!”
“The documents have already been delivered. Maybe they’re arrive around this time? After all, they’d use the fastest delivery service available in the royal capital.”
Thinking of her parents’ house, which should be in an uproar around that time, Sharina gently stared at the sky outside the window, the sky which connected the royal capital to the territory of Clydea. With her parents’ Gigant Eagle flight (without gondola version), the letter would arrived in an hour or two instead of two or three days. She was filled with a slight sense of superiority.
“Shari, you shouldn’t be calmly comparing the delivery speed! Riol-kun!! At this rate, Shari will be taken by those people!? Hey, wouldn’t making a fuss, ‘I absolutely despise the idea of marrying His Highness Roland’ work in this situation!? I will cooperate!”
The only reason why the queen agreed to fulfil Sharina’s wishes was because she wanted a good story to spread regarding Roland’s relationship with the countess. It was to back the claim that the countess had been yearning for Roland for a long time. If such a premise was broken beyond repair, it’d be outrageous to force Sharina to marry Roland.
“If you do that, they’d say, ‘Even though the queen went to such lengths to ensure the success of her relationship with Roland, Sharina instead trampled on the queen’s kindness.’ Sharina would then be indicted for openly ridiculing the prince and also ignoring the queen’s kindness even though Sharina was the one who wished for it in the first place.”
Riol held Angelica whom was about to leave the room. From the beginning, the queen’s bet was low risk with a high return. The situation was high risk with no return only for Sharina and the others.
“I see… the reason why the queen didn’t just take Sharina to the castle right then and there is because she knew there’s nothing we could do to go against it.”
Tobias, who relaxed his trembling fist, muttered in voice mixed with despair towards his lords.
To prevent suspicion, Sharina would probably be confined to the back palace. Afterwards, in order to fulfil the queen’s aim, Sharina would need to play the role of a lovestruck lady, one who yearned for Roland with all her might—be it at school, at evening parties, and in public.
By expecting Sharina to do all of that, the queen must had taken the risk of Sharina disobeying her order and spreading the truth in front of a large number of people into consideration.
“No, it’s a bit different.”
Riol shook his words again Tobias’ words.
“With her authority as a shield, the queen is certainly trying to subdue Sharina. The queen might understand how much Sharina likes me, but is probably unaware of how madly in love she is. The queen probably thought, ‘Well, even if she has some feelings for her lover, there’s no way she won’t be attracted to becoming a princess. I’m sure she’ll lose to temptation and accept the role in the end.’”
Even if the queen had prepared an escape route in case of failure, she probably thought things would proceed in a convenient way.
The crown prince, who had everything—status, lineage, wealth, magical prowess, and appearance. By agreeing to be married with him, she’d be entitled to the title of princess, and wouldn’t lack either authority or wealth. The higher the status, the less things would appear valuable to them. Moreover, those of higher status were rarely denied their desires.
For the queen, it must had been akin to switching an old, tattered, doll that her child liked so much for some reason, with a new doll that was much more expensive and better looking. Not only were their perspectives different, the worlds they lived in were fundamentally different.
“Hey, Shari, why don’t we just let this kingdom to fall into ruin all at once…?”
Even the flames of anger that had been flaring up earlier had been vanquished. Angelica could only remark with hollow eyes. Such a serious offense was spouted by an aristocrat.
“Well, if I really were to be separated from Riol, the man I’ve sworn my eternal love to, I’d throw myself into the sea the day before the wedding ceremony while entrusting thousands of suicide notes to Apollon. He’d then scatter them all over the royal capital with a Gigant Eagle, baring the naked truth to the masses.”
Sharina came up with a concrete plan that couldn’t be called a joke.
“Afterwards, I shall be together with Riol in the afterlife…”
“Don’t kill me off in this world, either.”
“Yes, of course, Riol! Let’s be together forever!”
Riol replied very calmly.
“If Sharina is forced to do that, even if I become guilty of treason, I’ll beat down the escorts, the queen, His Highness—just to make way for the two of you to escape abroad!”
“Calm down, Tobias, I have something else for you to do.”
Riol immediately stood up and stopped Tobias, whom was about to depart for the royal palace immediately—it wasn’t even the day of the ceremony, yet.
“…What do you want me to do? Could it be, Riol-kun, you’ve planned something!?”
Hearing Riol’s words, Angelica’s eyes returned to life.
“If it’s about reclaiming Sharina, won’t you guys be the enemy of the royal family? As I thought, that role should be mine…”
“I won’t let you do that. It’s not only a strategy to get Sharina back, but also a strategy to get Sharina back safely.”
Riol sat down on the sofa and declared powerfully, turning his eyes towards Angelica and Tobias.
“I’d like to request your help to ensure its successfulness. Will you guys help me?”
“Is there anything I can do?! Say anything, I’ll do it!”
“Of course, I’ll do anything within my capability!”
Riol smiled happily and said to the two, who leaned forward and answered.
“I want unpolished magic stones. It doesn’t matter what the elements are, make as many as you can with the elements you are good at.”
He lowered his gaze a little—because that was a feat he was incapable of himself.
***T/N: Lol Sharina legit scares me with her determination in this chapter man.
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You know I’m trying to stay agreeing with all the BS the entire royal family and idiot adults are causing, but man, these are just the best friends ever. Ange over here being my spirit medium and saying my exact thoughts. The new recruit Tobias is willing to throw everything away to do what he thinks is right and give the couple happiness. Shari is willing to stick to her convictions and be happy even if that means committing suicide and my Boi Riol already got everything planned out and trusts them for help (he’s grown so much). Man, I need some friends that amazing.
Please don’t become a tragedy. Please don’t become a tragedy. Please don’t become a tragedy. Please don’t become a tragedy.
I’m kind of at the point where I don’t like anyone. The queen and second prince are obviously assholes but the queen is doing it for the good of the country, at least, so seeing all these children trying to trigger what could lead to a civil war is pretty questionable.
I know the queen is doing it for the country, but the prince isn’t. And they are so worried for their royal image that they are forgetting that just hiding the incompetence of the princes doesn’t get rid of it. They are forcing other nobles to comply to keep thier reputation instead of earning it.
The Queen might be scheming to save the country, but all it does at this point is delay the inevitable of the second prince ruining it. He is already creating evidence to support his own views, what do you think a king like that would do to any opposition? And every other noble is just complying out of fear instead of looking at the bigger picture.
Even after the Leonardo incident they are prioritizing their pride over the future of the country.
True enough, but it still leaves me unsympathetic to Sharina, since she seems worryingly indifferent to the amount of people that would probably die in the event the royal family remains discredited after the death of the king. Since Riol actually has a brain I assume he’s going to cure the king or something to sidestep the issue entirely, then they make the third prince the heir since he’s actually competent, just too young.
Uhh please enlighten me, Arha, which chapter said the third prince is competent??? I seems to have forgotten.
Chapter 37-1 show that the 3rd prince is currently working as the king’s right hand man.
While what you said make sense, and Riol would most likely plan out even the aftermath to be as great a happily ever after as possible, I for once love to go the civil war version instead.
We all know about the 3rd prince suppose competent thank to not being relate by blood to these idiot. And let not forget about Sharina’s house of OP character.
Let face it, this series is like a rom-com, there isn’t going to be any actual bloodshed. That is exactly why I want to see the royal family to be revealed as the idiot that they are to the public.
You forget that the queen isn’t just doing this for the country, she’s doing this for herself. The country during HER reign. If things go to shit while she’s still the nation’s mother or even just shortly after her son is crowned, her name will be blackened throughout history. She will be a failure of a mother which doubles as being a failure as the nation’s mother. If the second prince takes the throne as king for long enough and fucks up, that’s his shitty moment in the history books, it’s no longer hers. She just needs to hold out long enough and get her son on the throne to stop the third prince from becoming king. This plan accomplishes that.
Uhh… I don’t think it’ll go so far as to create a civil war, though? Even if the second prince is discredited, at worst the politics will be divided into the second prince faction and the third prince faction. It’s very unlikely for civil war to happen unless the third prince himself wants to take the crown by force. Moreover, even if the civil war will happen, it’s the fault of the royal family for abusing their power, not Sharina’s fault for not wanting to marry the prince. The fact that they have to force an average count’s daughter to marry their prince instead of fixing the fundamental personality flaw of their prince just shows how untrustworthy they are?
Omg.. sharina is showing yandere tendencies.. she was just a cute and slightly obsessive girl in love.. but that’s heading towards scary territory
Many thanks
I lowkey want to see the end where Sharina died and spread her suicide note to the whole country, but Riol will be too tragic, so…(;^ω^)
I’d actually be pretty happy so long as it leads to the kingdoms downfall, the royal family getting beheaded in a revolution, or both. That and I’d need the story to give some closure by confirming there is an afterlife in this setting or that they were reborn into a much better situation with their memories intact and happiness secured.
Oh boi~ Riol bout to get serious!
P.S. Thnx for the chapter!
So. Like I said two chapters earlier : The only reasonnable ending is an opposition between Shariol and the Royals. Now the author show a lack of wisdom as with an event as major as the disinheritence of a crown prince is not only known but also heavily investigated by the nobility, so if they is someone that know and understand what happened it should be the adults. Moreover, the Clydea household will not let this bullshit stand while standing still as they obviously dote on Sharina. The lack of insight of the author (either that or Ange is likely naive) is worrying.
The author most likely wrote themselves in a corner from the start to maintain the first prince conflict (he’s surroundings were far too unaware and complicit and his personality too fundamentally broken to be the result of anything but poor parenting). There was really no other logical direction to go in from the start (unless the main characters just escape and watch the kingdom fall to ruin from afar). The other answer would be to go heavy on the power fantasy with everything just kinda “working out” because for whatever reason the king/queen are awesome now and adopt Riol to be next king (and Shari marry him to be queen). But it seems like the author wants neither and to instead focus on a “realistic” political ending, which isn’t super possible when all the adults in the kingdom are this fundamentally stupid.
Of course this is all speculation so who really knows. Also, I’m not saying this as an insult or even really criticism. Just my observation. And writing yourself in a corner is pretty common (especially for authors who like to write on the edge and have the story develop as it goes). It’s also not the end of the world. Writing is a craft that by nature improves through countless failure. So far, I’m still enjoying the story because of the main cast and their great characters. There are also much, much worse developments and stories of this genre, so I’ve just built up a resistance.