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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Bring out the head of this family! I am Yerina Frost! The future monarch who will bring Yevgenia to its knees and make them my subjects!”
She had a booming voice and a commanding presence.
I wasn’t the only one who rushed outside, startled by the commotion.
But I was quickly pushed over by the crowd surging forward from behind, and by the time I got to my feet, I couldn’t see anything past the sea of people.
“Are you the prince of Palana?”
“Huh? The crown prince? No! I am the king’s eldest daughter!”
“Aha… the First Princess…”
“When will the head of this family come out?! Hurry up and greet the future queen!”
“Hahaha, we will escort you inside, Princess. The patriarch is busy, so…”
The commotion quickly subsided.
The tense atmosphere eased, and the crowd dispersed, murmuring amongst themselves.
“Ugh, what a letdown. I thought it was the Crown Prince himself.”
“A mere princess, dreaming of the throne…”
“Yerina Frost… She’s been causing so much trouble that even the king of Palana has given up on her, right?”
“Well, there’s no way the First Prince would suddenly show up unannounced like this.”
What a strange woman.
A crazy princess.
That’s what everyone thought, and I was no exception.
Palana was a strictly patriarchal society.
Since the First Prince was alive and well, having reached adulthood, the First Princess had practically no chance of inheriting the throne.
That’s why even though he hadn’t officially been appointed crown prince yet, people already referred to the First Prince as “His Highness the Crown Prince” in private.
“Welcome to the Yevgenia estate, Princess. I believe this is your first visit. Would you like a tour?”
“Hmm, yes! It is the duty of a monarch to inspect the territory of their future subjects! I will wait for the patriarch while I explore!”
“B-But… the patriarch is very busy…”
“What?! You mean to tell me he’s too busy to meet me, even though I, the future queen, have graced you with my presence?!”
“Y-Yes. I’ll inform him. This way, please. This is the garden…”
The servants treated the princess casually…
No one showed her genuine respect.
Just another eccentric act of the crazy princess.
A trivial but annoying matter that could be dealt with by gently persuading her to leave.
That’s what everyone thought.
I also thought she was a pitiful, troubled child.
A passing acquaintance, someone unrelated to me.
No, not even an acquaintance.
“What… are you doing there…?”
“Hmm?”
…That was, until I found her in the forbidden archives.
The butler who was supposed to be guiding her had disappeared and there she was, browsing the books freely, without any attendants or guards.
“You’ve been caught! What’s your name?”
“A-Alicia…”
“Alicia, huh? You can’t even give me your full name, so you must be a lowly servant in this family.”
“Ugh…”
“But I’ll make you a promise. If you help me here, when I become queen and subjugate the Yevgenia family, I’ll reward you handsomely.”
“What…?”
The grand task she entrusted to me…
…Was to be her lookout.
To keep an eye out for anyone approaching the archives.
She promised to help me in the future if I did this for her, but…
It sounded so far-fetched that I didn’t believe her.
I was just… bored.
I had nothing else to do, nowhere else to go.
‘Did the butler abandon her because she was too much trouble…?’
Poor girl.
I felt sorry for her, even though I was in no position to pity anyone.
To think that even a princess would be treated so poorly…
The fact that the Yevgenia family could be so disrespectful… meant that even the royal family had abandoned her and no longer cared about her.
No one paid her any real attention…
They just ignored her, like she was invisible.
Looking at the princess…
I thought she was similar to me.
I saw myself in her.
“Found it! The forbidden grimoire! They ordered all of them to be burned… I’ve got some leverage now.”
“Huh…?”
The princess, with a clattering sound, unlocked a hidden compartment and pulled out a book.
I was stunned…
But then she put the book back in its place and locked the compartment again.
She smiled with satisfaction and said,
“Everyone thinks I’m crazy. They look down on me, treat me like a child, a fool. But I can use that to my advantage. I can expose the secrets of this family. A forbidden grimoire is nothing. I’ve found more damning weaknesses in other families. It was all possible because no one paid attention to me.”
“…”
She put her finger to her lips and smiled, asking me to keep it a secret.
I was speechless.
I had been mistaken.
The princess and I… were nothing alike.
We weren’t similar at all.
Unlike me, who had only sought escape from the reality of being abandoned and treated as an invisible being…
The princess was actively using it to her advantage.
Even though she had nothing…
She was using people’s disregard for her to collect political weapons.
Her talk about becoming queen in the future wasn’t just empty words.
She meant it.
Abandoned by the royal family, given nothing…
She was determined to claw her way to the throne.
By playing the fool, the madwoman.
“I-Is there a-anything else I-I can h-help you w-with?”
“You wish to become my subject?”
“Y-Yes! N-No! Yes! I-I pledge my l-loyalty! I-Is that right?”
“Hahaha! It is enough! Your sincerity has reached me!”
That day, I pledged my loyalty to my sister.
I vowed to help her become the queen of Palana.
And at the same time…
I decided to stand on my own two feet.
To walk and move forward on my own.
It was the courage I gained from my sister.
Exactly three years later…
I finally managed to enter the Magic Tower, having learned Wind Magic by stealing my siblings’ books and sneaking into their classes.
And my sister, surpassing the First Prince, was appointed Crown Princess, officially becoming the heir to the throne.
We helped and supported each other… and ultimately achieved great things in our respective fields.
We were more precious to each other than anyone else… and more trustworthy than anyone else.
…Until a few days ago.
“What are you hiding? Tell me the truth. You never said you went to Elvenguard. But how did the elders here recognize your face?”
“…”
The moment my lie was exposed…
My eyelids twitched, and I couldn’t speak properly.
But I wasn’t too worried.
I had hidden Yoo-jin for my sister.
For Palana and for the greater good.
I thought she would understand.
I thought she would trust me.
But I was wrong.
“Ha. So that’s how it is. All the reports you gave me… were lies… I understand. You’re done in Elvenguard. Let’s go back.”
“Sister?”
“The first thing I’m going to do when we get back is deal with the Yevgenia family. They will be branded traitors, and all officials with ties to Yevgenia will be purged. Ah, right. You hated the Yevgenia Household, didn’t you? So you wouldn’t care what happens to them, right?”
“S-Sister! I was wrong! N-No, I mean… I was wrong…!”
“You knew, didn’t you? You knew all along and stole my man from me.”
“N-No… That’s not… I mean…”
“No need to explain. You’ll confess everything in the torture chamber when we get back to Palana.”
“…!”
I was the one who didn’t understand.
I had no idea my sister’s feelings for Yoo-jin ran this deep.
I thought she was just experiencing a youthful infatuation… but I was completely mistaken.
My sister was willing to destroy a family close to her, to disrupt national affairs, just to find Yoo-jin.
Or perhaps she was even willing to sacrifice everything for him.
Even though I had been so close to her… I had never known this side of her.
And so, I was branded a traitor…
…And the destruction of the Yevgenia family was set in stone.
On the way back to Palana, I managed to escape, taking advantage of a lapse in security.
I spent days erasing my tracks, making sure I wasn’t followed…
…And finally arrived in Clockwork City.
Having lost everything.
My lady’s trust.
My status in the family.
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…
Alicia finished her story.
A heavy silence fell over the lounge.
I hesitated, unsure whether to say what was on my mind.
‘Didn’t she bring this on herself?’
She had betrayed her lady and had disobeyed orders and was caught.
Regardless of the trust they had built, it was natural for it to shatter…
‘But it’s not that simple, is it?’
Well, I could think that way…
But that would be a cold, heartless way of looking at it and honestly, I was partly to blame for this mess.
From Alicia’s perspective, disobeying orders was the best course of action.
As Yerina’s closest confidante, she had served her faithfully since she was a neglected member of the royal family.
She must have been the one who had the most emotional connection with Yerina.
So Alicia must have noticed…
That Yerina had changed at some point.
Seeing Yerina after she had regained her memories from the previous loop…
…Alicia must have concluded that she had gone insane.
It was like watching a romance movie where they skipped all the build-up and jumped straight to the crazy, love-obsessed part.
Of course, it would have been natural for her to think Yerina had lost her mind.
What was a loyal subject supposed to do when their lord, having gone mad, abandoned all national affairs and ordered them to find a man they had never even met?
A corrupt official would have blindly followed orders, without question…
But Alicia had no choice but to hide the fact that she had found me and focus on getting Yerina back to normal.
“In the end, didn’t you bring this on yourself? You did betray your lady. Even monsters aren’t that quick to abandon their loyalty.”
“Hey…”
The centipede… creature… spoke up, saying what I had been thinking.
When I tried to stop her, she looked at me strangely.
She said that because she didn’t know that I was the one who had messed up Yerina through my regressions.
It seemed like I needed to explain.
“I was foolish.”
“No, I’m sorry. If I had explained my relationship with Yerina more clearly…”
“Because I was attracted to my sister’s man…”
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
Alicia’s lips, which had been fidgeting, froze.
Realizing her slip of the tongue, she peeked at me with wide, frightened eyes.
Attracted to me?
I had been mentally defending her with all my might… and she just threw away her shield.
What was I supposed to do now?
“Damn it. Attracted to who? You really did betray her.”
“N-No! That’s not what I meant! It just slipped out! My true feelings…”
Was she completely insane?
I thought she had been unjustly expelled because of Yerina’s hysterics…
But it seemed there was plenty of blame on Alicia’s side too.
“You’re guilty, damn it. I had no idea you saw me that way. When did you fall for me, exactly? When I was squeezing lemonade out of you?”
“Hey?! That’s a misunderstanding!”
“What’s the misunderstanding?”
“I-I mean… I’m not in love with you yet! It’s true that I felt a… masculine attraction towards you! But that’s only natural for a female! It has nothing to do with my loyalty to my sister! I’ve never thought about betraying my sister and claiming you for myself!”
“…”
What was she even talking about?
Was this like saying “I drank, but I didn’t drive drunk”?
I was dizzy and couldn’t think straight.
Then Alicia, her face flushed, added,
“D-Don’t get the w-wrong idea! J-Just because I f-felt a m-masculine a-attraction t-towards you… It d-doesn’t mean I-I l-like you! It’s not love just because you suddenly get horny while walking down the street! It’s the same thing! Do humans often mistake lust for love? Hmph! Huh! The nerve of you!”
“…”
Alicia’s face was bright red, and she was frantically fanning herself.
I was so dizzy that I couldn’t even think straight.
So… I had just been told “You’re hot” to my face?
Being so blatantly sexually harassed… I was dumbfounded, wondering if this really qualified as sexual harassment.
‘Is this rabbit beastman communication?’
Alicia was still flustered, unable to calm down, her face still flushed.
So this was how straightforward a rabbit beastman was without their lust inhibitor.
Powerful.
Too powerful.
No wonder rabbit beastmen had the highest birth and marriage rates in the world.
[T/N: so like umm Yerina is the Queen of Palana and she is the so called Frost Duchess idk why author did it like that but whatever sorry for the confusion.]
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to explain this chapter: +1 to harem