Chapter 32

Since it's boring to just stand still, Emma was idly reminiscing about last night's bath.

The three brothers were allowed to enter the hot spring because it was a special sleepover. This was a natural hot spring that the Barley region boasted of, a rare direct-flow hot spring in this country.

The skin-beautifying water, certified by Lady Rose, was clear and smooth, yet made the skin soft, smooth, and lustrous.

The bathtub was spacious and offered a great sense of openness, even when the three of them—Rose, Jadwiga, and Emma—stretched out to enter. During the bath, the harbor's beauty sensor rang out.

With nothing to obstruct the view except for the steam, it was as if everything was on full display, something that couldn't be discerned through clothing.

"Lord Rose... truly remarkable! Your stomach is so beautiful! Your navel is vertical! Your buttocks are well-toned! But above all, the huge breasts! Huge! Breasts! What? Such a perfect shape! Gravity? Why don't they sag?"

Next to the wall was the men's bath, where Prince Edward, Georg, and William were also bathing, so they tried to keep their voices down as they praised Rose's beauty.

"Roe-chan's body has no blind spots. It's perfect from every angle!"

It's not just envy; I can only say 'thank you' over and over.

Rose swam over to Emma, a slightly mischievous smile on her face, and asked,

"Do you want to touch them?"

It's obvious where...

"R-really!?"

Rose nodded with a seductive laugh, and without conscious thought—no, driven by instinct—Emma's right hand reached out to the huge breasts.

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah"

A soft, bouncy feeling. Soft yet elastic... What is this? What is this? I've never felt anything like this. In my previous life, I never experienced such volume, and a wave of sadness washed over me. God's favor is too unfair.

"Jadwiga is going to play too!"

Jadwiga hugged Emma from behind. After squeezing once, she said, "Huh?" and started touching Emma's body.

"J-Jadwiga! It tickles!"

"Mommy! Emma is so smooth!"

"Wait, let me touch too!"

Jadwiga and Rose both started touching Emma.

"Hey, stop that! That's not okay!"

With a concentrated attack on her weak sides, Emma writhed. Jadwiga was playing, laughing "Hee hee," but Emma noticed that Rose's eyes were serious.

"Emma, what is this smoothness? Even without the hot spring, I want to touch it all the time... What is this smoothness?"

"Roe-chan! Try to lower your volume a bit? Ah! That place... Stop! No, don't!"

Her feet were touched too. Is it too early for a girl to have her heels checked? It seems that the beauty sensor isn't just in the harbor.

"Tell me the secret of this smoothness."

The sudden commanding tone made Emma a bit anxious.

To seriously ask an 11-year-old girl about beauty methods, Lady Rose, isn't that a bit greedy? But with the pressure, she seriously thought about it. One thing came to mind.

"When we extract silk from cocoons, we soak them in water. At the palace, water is a precious resource, so the water used for soaking is reused in the bath. I think that's the reason..."

The palace's water supply mainly comes from groundwater. In a land with few large rivers or lakes, water must be drawn from wells and used carefully. The water used in Emma's cottage is high-quality water bought from other regions, which is quite expensive, so it's reused in the house. It requires less effort to reuse it than to draw new water from the well, making it popular with the servants. The proteins and other substances that dissolve from the cocoons might have a beautifying effect on the skin, but without component analysis, which is difficult in this world, there's no certainty.

"Is silk good for the skin?"

Rose, who never stops pursuing beauty, latched onto this. Emma, unable to withstand the pressure, reverted to formal speech.

"Yes. I recommend silk nightgowns for sleeping! I have one made today, so if you like it, I can send a few to the capital."

"Emma, you're really the best!"

Silk is an expensive material, usually only used for party dresses, but the Stewart family has an excess of various silk types, including Emma Silk, so it's helpful to put them to good use. Plus, Rose's eye for beauty is reliable, so she would make an excellent tester. It's a win-win situation.

...chan...! ...Emma-chan...!

"Emma-chan!"

Called by Jadwiga, Emma's consciousness returned.

"Sorry, Jadwiga, I was just thinking. Ah, I was found out, huh?"

She had hidden well in hide-and-seek, but her thoughts about the huge breasts were discovered by Jadwiga.

"Emma-chan, you're the last one! Georg-sama and William and Mommy are already in the garden! What's next? What do we play next?"

Despite playing all morning, Jadwiga showed no signs of fatigue and was happily playing. Holding hands, they went to the garden, where Prince Edward was chatting with Georg and William. They had become close without her noticing, which always amazed her.

"Big brother!"

Jadwiga ran to Edward. Since they were holding hands, Emma quickened her pace too. When they reached the prince, she bowed to show respect.

"You don't need to bow. Treat me the same as Mother and my sister."

Previously, even though she had visited several times, she hardly ever met the prince. She had felt like she was being avoided, but it seemed to be her imagination. Perhaps Georg and William had won the prince over.

"Yes, Your Highness? How are you feeling?"

Last night, the prince had come out of the bath red from the heat. Adolescents can easily overheat, so she was concerned. The prince's face turned red again.

"Your Highness! Are you okay?"

She instinctively reached out to support him.

"I-I'm fine. D-don't... t-touch me any more!"

His face turned even redder as he backed away. Was he okay? Did he have some strange illness? He seemed to trust Georg and William but not her. It was a bit disappointing. They hadn't really talked much, so it was understandable.

"..."

Georg and William looked at the prince with pity. Rose was grinning at the sweet scene.

"Next, let's play house! Edward big brother will be the father, and Emma will be the mother! We're newlyweds!"

Jadwiga, a 5-year-old who reads the room well.

"Wh-What!?"

The prince's face turned even redder. Do people really turn this red?

"Then! Georg and I will be the neighbors. William and Jadwiga will be our children!"

Rose joined in, finding it amusing.

"Will you play with us, Your Highness?"

The prince, who rarely did anything, was trembling.

"Emma and... newlyweds!? Emma as the bride!?"

He was muttering something, but it was hard to hear.

"Your Highness? Are you okay?"

"Emma-chan!! The game has already started!"

Jadwiga, who plays with full commitment, especially in house games, reminded her. She needed to play seriously. Since the husband seemed unwell, it was right to take care of him as the wife.

"Husband? Let's lie down a bit."

She laid the prince down on the grass in the garden, worried about being arrested for disrespect. It was thrilling, even though it was just a game. At least, she would use her lap to keep his head from hitting the ground.

"Whoa!!!"

When she placed his head on her lap, the prince let out a strange sound and froze, not moving at all.

"Oh dear, oh dear."

Rose watched her son with amusement. Georg and William were holding their heads.

"Emma... this innocent angel!"

"Brother... she's a demon. Unconsciously, she sends people to a hell called heaven."

In the midst of this, Jadwiga approached the prince and Emma curiously.

"Neighbor husband... did he die?"

With that, a dangerous game of house began.

"Th-This!! Almond smell, potassium cyanide!?"

Georg joined in, and the sound of a suspenseful theme could almost be heard. Emma, who was supposed to be a newlywed, was now a widow, and suspicion fell on her.

"S-Such a thing! I killed my beloved husband!?"

The prince twitched at the mention of "beloved husband" but ignored it since he was supposed to be dead.

"But only Emma could have poisoned the food! She mixed it into the dinner!"

Rose also suspected her.

"Edward had a large insurance policy. A miser like... no, Emma might have killed him."

Georg's attack was relentless. Had she made some enemies in her past life?

"S-Such a thing! Emma didn't love Edward!?"

Rose's acting became more intense. The prince twitched again, but everyone ignored it.

"Wait a minute!"

William and Jadwiga intervened.

"We will solve this case!"

Unexpectedly, a mystery broke out in the game, and the child detectives appeared.

"Because! Body of a boy, mind of a..."

"Freeloader?"

Georg and Emma interrupted the catchphrase.

"Harsh!!"

William lost his momentum instantly. Jadwiga asked, "What's a freeloader?" to drive the point home.

"Well, I don't understand, but William and Jadwiga are saying there's another culprit."

Rose corrected the situation.

"Yes. The culprit... is among us!"

William delivered the template line with a serious face.

"Wh-What! A locked-room murder!?"

Georg added the template line for effect. Emma looked around, wondering if there was a cliff, but there wasn't.

"Father... why did you think it was poisoning?"

Jadwiga, who was strict about the game, asked, remembering the setting.

"Edward smelled of almonds. It must have been the deadly poison potassium cyanide! Emma mixed it into the food!"

Georg concluded, unable to escape the template plot.

"Hmm... Father seems to have a misunderstanding."

William's eyes gleamed.

"The almond smell of potassium cyanide... often used in suspense, but it's the smell of unripe almonds. Have you ever smelled unripe almonds?"

"Eh? Really?"

"Moreover, even if a lethal dose of potassium cyanide was mixed into the food, it would be impossible to eat it all due to the intense irritation!"

"But Edward loved Emma!"

Georg's words made the prince's body twitch again, but no one noticed.

"No matter how bad the food, he ate it out of love!"

Hold on, that's a bit much, saying someone can't cook...

"That's right, that's right. Edward loved Emma so much that he ate it even if his mouth was irritated!"

"Such heavy love is not necessary."

Despite feeling sorry for Rose, Emma didn't want such love. Also, the prince's twitching was becoming too frequent to ignore.

"Look, Emma didn't love Edward! She had a motive to kill!"

Georg's behavior became suspicious, as if he was the culprit.

"Father... it's time to tell the truth. You killed him, didn't you?"

William was leading the resolution.

"W-What