Chapter 77

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As I was held in Arshain's arms and arrived at the dining room, Princess Cremone hugged both of us tightly as soon as we entered. She smelled really good.

Then, I was hugged by Queen Leotria, the third queen, and Ingrid patted my shoulder hard. Arshain, please don't do that when you're holding me; the vibration is too strong.

We all took our seats, and lunch began.

The bread and meat in the castle are quite soft, so I can eat them with peace of mind.

The twin princes eat heartily.

Anneliese also eats heartily.

Anneliese eats heartily.

She eats more than Arshain.

At that moment, the princess slammed the table and stood up.

"I can't take it anymore! Anneliese, you've been eating too much lately! That's why you've gotten so fat! You lack the awareness of being a princess! It's so embarrassing to have a fat princess!"

She started to scold with great intensity.

"Now, now, Cremone, it's inappropriate to do this during a meal. Wait until after the meal."

"Mother Leotria, it's too late by then! As you can see, Anneliese is eating more than Arshain! We need to stop her now!"

"Rose is still in her growing phase, so it's not that bad to worry so much, right?"

Queen Leotria seems to think it's fine for children to be a bit chubby, but Princess Cremone can't tolerate it.

"No! Now that Lord Kaita has returned, he will improve the cooking with his revolutionary methods! That's a great thing, but there's a high possibility that Anneliese will get even fatter!"

Princess Cremone said this with a huff.

"Yes, indeed, that's true,"

Queen Leotria also looked at Anneliese with a serious expression.

Anneliese, who had been harshly criticized, turned bright red and trembled.

"Both of you are so mean! I'm not that fat!"

"You are much fatter than you think! Ever since Lord Kaita improved the bread and meat, your appetite has only increased. Proof of this is that your dress, which used to be the same size, has become three sizes larger. You get out of breath easily during combat training and try to skip it, and most importantly, you have a double chin!"

Anneliese was speechless.

"Therefore, from tomorrow, your meals will be half the usual amount of bread and meat, and of course, no snacks! And your combat training will be doubled!"

"That's so cruel! I'll die!"

"Half the amount is still more than what a normal young lady eats! You won't die if you eat that much!"

Anneliese burst into tears.

"No crying! This is final, and Father agrees, right?"

"Ah, yes."

The king couldn't go against Princess Cremone's intensity.

In fact, the men shouldn't interfere in such situations!

We finished our meal in silence and moved to the adjacent salon.

Anneliese, who had eaten everything despite her tears, also went to the salon.

Dessert is coming up.

Today's dessert is pudding.

The pudding I taught them.

Each person was given a strangely large piece of pudding.

It's a firm pudding, so it can be cut, but why is it a 20 cm long, 10 cm thick isosceles triangle?

And there's still a lot of extra pudding prepared!

Before anyone could take a bite, Princess Cremone said,

"Anneliese, your dessert ends with that piece."

"What?! There's still so much left?!"

"You'll get fat!"

Anneliese glared at Princess Cremone with intense eyes.

"That's so unfair!"

"Say what you will, but it's all your fault for being fat."

Anneliese, who received a cold stare, couldn't say anything back.

It was very scary.

The twin princes, reading the atmosphere, quietly ate their pudding.

I couldn't finish half of mine and pushed the rest to Arshain.

We chatted a bit and then left.

The next day, Anneliese's diet began.

She grumbled about the vegetable-heavy meals, intruded on the twin princes' snack time, and was dragged away by Princess Cremone by the collar. Her combat training was so intense, it seemed like she was releasing all her stress.

However, her fat body couldn't keep up, and she was chased around by a muscular female knight arranged by Princess Cremone. She ended up collapsing in the hallway and being stepped on by maids.

Shel laughed so hard at this that he was convulsing while telling the story.

He laughed so much at the sight of Anneliese collapsed on the ground that he was slapped on the back of the head by Duran.

Arshain worked, participated in knight training, and practiced magic, over and over.

He occasionally studied. He's too serious.

It's not a life for a 15-year-old boy.

I was dragged around by the twin princes, followed Arshain to his magic training, took naps, developed menus with the head chef, and played with Sora and Haku.

The castle was buzzing with excitement because a grand New Year's party was to be held next week.

Guests from other countries were also coming, so the children were forbidden to leave the royal family's exclusive area.

The exclusive area is quite large, though.

Amidst this, as I was being carried by Arshain to his magic training, it was unusually noisy and bustling.

Moreover, knights who were usually not around were hurrying past.

One of them ran over to us,

"Prince Arshain, Lord Kaita, please come with us immediately! The king has summoned you."

"What happened?"

"I can't say here."

We followed the knight quickly and found the king, the prime minister, the general, Director Tailsmya, and even the pope, along with the first queen, Queen Roxanne.

"Arshain, Lord Kaita, I'm sorry to ask this, but can you remove the curse on Roxanne?"

I had noticed it when we entered the room, but Queen Roxanne was foaming at the mouth and about to go berserk, restrained and held down by the general.

To prevent her from using magic, Director Tailsmya was continuously casting a spell, and the pope was trying to remove the curse, but the squiggly, wriggling thing around her neck showed no signs of being removed.

I went behind the queen and pulled the squiggly thing with all my might.

It came out with a long, squelching sound, much longer than when it was on Arshain, and I fell on my butt.

The squiggly thing, about a meter long and as thick as a rope, had several branches at the end, which were thumping on the floor.

Director Tailsmya quickly came over, enveloped it in a barrier, and called for several knights to track the barrier.

The squiggly thing moved like a rolling barrier.

The knights followed it out of the room.

What about the queen? She had fainted.

"Father, why was Mother Roxanne cursed? It seemed to be a stronger curse than the one on me?"

"Ah, I'll explain, but let's move to another room first."

The king carried Queen Roxanne in his arms and left the room.

In the room we were led to by Duran, we drank tea, and the king came in, took a sip of tea, and said,

"Actually, Roxanne started feeling sluggish after returning from Cremone's greeting rounds and went on a knight expedition without permission. During the expedition, they discovered a suspicious group of carriages.

When they approached to inspect them, several knights suddenly collapsed and lost consciousness. Roxanne judged the situation and cast a spell at the group of carriages.

The carriages were destroyed, and when they approached to inspect them, the survivors threw cursed objects at Roxanne and the knights. Roxanne protected the knights and took all the cursed objects herself. The knights immediately headed to a nearby church to try to remove the curse, but it didn't work, so they split the group and rushed back to the castle."

The branches at the end might have been several curses combined.

"So, how is Queen Roxanne now?"

"The presence of the curse has been removed. She should be fine once she wakes up."

The pope answered the prime minister's question.

The heavy atmosphere lightened a bit.

"What about the other knights?"

"The ones who fainted woke up with no problems and didn't receive any curses."

"Only Queen Roxanne received the curse?"

"The queen protecting the knights was meaningless!"

"But it's Roxanne."

The prime minister asked, and the general answered.

While it's questionable to accept a queen who acts like that, it's not the issue right now.

"What about the bandits?"

"Out of 33 bandits, 27 were killed by Queen Roxanne's magic, and the remaining 5 bandits who threw the cursed objects at the same time fell into a coma."

"What about the last one?"

"………………It was Lady Kushria."

"Are you sure?"

"We confirmed it when she was put in prison. No mistake."

"We couldn't find any traces of her after she fled the castle. Was her goal to escape the country?"

"Probably, likely to the neighboring country of Sasanasura."

"I see, Sasanasura. The duke's family in that country has Lady Kushria's sister married into it."

"It's good that she was caught before she left the country."

"Why are cursed objects appearing around Lady Kushria?"

The prime minister's muttered question was answered by the pope with a bitter expression.

"In that case, we need to thoroughly investigate the Rugaria family."

"If so, it would be best to conduct a secret investigation during the party."

"Agreed. We can't let them hide the evidence."

"We must also consider the possibility of an insider."

"I understand. This time, I'll conduct the investigation with my direct subordinates."

As the prime minister and the general quickly decided on the plan, the king called a halt.

"That won't do. If the general doesn't attend the New Year's party, it will be like announcing that something is wrong."

"But this operation needs to be conducted quickly and secretly. The general and his subordinates can act swiftly."

"If both the general and the prime minister are absent from the New Year's party, other countries might suspect that there's a problem in our country."

"But what should we do then? The palace guards are not entirely trustworthy. They are skilled, but many prioritize the interests of the nobles."

－Bang－

"Then I'll go!"

"“Queen Roxanne!”"

Suddenly, the queen who had just been cursed entered the room and interrupted the conversation.

Ignoring the maids and knights trying to stop her, she marched into the room, put her hands on the backrest and armrest of the king's one-seater sofa, and glared at the king.

"I'll go to the Rugaria family. If you want to stop me, put me in prison."

The two glared at each other for a moment.

The prime minister and the general sighed.

Duran, seeing this, had the maids and knights who came with the queen leave the room and closed the door.

"Phew, you were just cursed and lost your self. How can you go?"

"I'm fine now."

"What will you do if you don't attend the New Year's party?"

"I was cursed in a barony under the Rugaria family. Since I was taken to a church in the same barony, the Rugaria family must already know I was cursed. If I don't attend the party due to the curse, they won't be as suspicious as if the general were absent. Don't you think so?"

"They will be suspicious either way, now that we've captured Kushria."

"Still, it's better than the general going."

"What if you get cursed again?"

"If I get cursed, I won't lose my mind immediately. I can cut off my limbs while I'm still sane. I can even wear a magic device to control my magic power."

"………………………………"

"Julius! I'm not strong enough to keep living as a failure?"

"………………Alright. But if you go, take my shadow with you."

"What? That would put Julius in danger! The enemy can use curses freely, and as the king, you should be protected!"

"If you don't take the shadow, I won't let you go to Rugaria."

"Stubborn!"

"I don't want to hear that from you."

The argument was turning into a marital spat.

General's cough interrupted the argument.

The king and queen, with a calm face and a smirk, respectively.

The queen sat on the armrest of the king's sofa.

"So? Who else will go with me? I'll take a few of my attendants, but can I leave the rest of the selection to the general?"

"Ha, alright. I'll gather the best."

"In that case, no one must see Queen Roxanne until the operation. We'll set up a double and move her to the palace retreat, saying she's recuperating."

"It's fine. I used a secret passage to get here! The only ones who came with me are the maid from my family and a knight attendant, so I can vouch for them!"

The top officials, overwhelmed by the queen's pushiness, reluctantly came up with a plan.

It was decided that a few people from the Magic Bureau and the Church would also participate in the operation, and the meeting ended.

As we were about to leave the room, the queen thanked us for removing the curse and kissed my cheeks so hard that they turned red with lipstick.