I wanted to twist and break Prince Tessler’s arm right then and there.

“……A welcome greeting?”

I glared at the prince’s outstretched arms and asked.

“Yes, can’t we be friendly like we used to be? Even if not an intense hug.”

Though he spoke politely to me, the prince’s eyes and expression remained the same.

Just as he had always treated me.

As if I were still Zelda von Trova, the illegitimate daughter of a powerless count’s family and a royal bath maid.

“Wasn’t yesterday’s welcome greeting enough?”

I said as I tightened the loosely tied sash of my bathrobe.

“They say position makes the man, but this is quite disappointing.”

Prince Tessler made an uncharacteristically pitiful expression.

I wanted to rush at the prince and strangle him.

By the way, how did that man get in here?

Even if the prince of the home country had come, they wouldn’t have let him into the bedroom while the empress was showering.

I stared at the half-open terrace door behind him.

So he came in through there.

The terrace door had definitely been closed before I went into the bathroom.

Prince Tessler had the athletic ability to easily enter and exit at this height.

Moreover, of the two terrace doors in the empress’s bedroom, that one faced the back garden, making it easier to avoid the eyes of the palace people.

“Don’t be so expensive, allow me a warm embrace?”

Prince Tessler said again, flexing his arms.

“I’m dressed like this.”

I refused, pointing to the bathrobe I was wearing.

“Come on, come on. This is why they say people change.”

Prince Tessler sighed as his hug was rejected.

“I knew this would happen……”

I got goosebumps at the prince’s last words, muttered like he was talking to himself.

“Your Majesty the Empress, you haven’t forgotten our deal, have you?”

“……Of course not.”

“Ah, you remember? Hahaha.”

Prince Tessler squinted his eyes and suddenly burst into hearty laughter.

“I thought you might have forgotten.”

“Pardon?”

As I tilted my head, Prince Tessler punched his forehead repeatedly, making an expression as if he regretted something.

It seemed like a fake expression, but it felt quite unpleasant.

“Our deal. I came to remind you of your role as empress, in case you had forgotten, but it seems I made an unnecessary trip.”

“Remind me? What do you mean?”

Maybe…….

I instinctively turned to look at the vanity where I had hidden the magic potion.

Thinking foolishly, it couldn’t be……

[This is the timeline separator]

“Here it is again?”

Rosie paused while turning the pages of an ancient book written in the old language of the Southern Continent.

The drawing of the sword that she had already seen throughout the book.

“What is this that keeps appearing? Is it important? The red jewel embedded in the sword hilt is pretty, but……”

It wasn’t a particularly special sword though.

“Humans go crazy for jewels, so maybe that’s why it appears often in the book. Jewels are expensive, Moiya.”

The baby wyvern, unhappy that Rosie didn’t call him by name often, started adding his name to the end of his sentences himself.

“This isn’t about humans, it’s a book about your species.”

Rosie said as she set the thick ancient book down on the marble floor.

“Really? That’s strange. I don’t like jewels. Isn’t my very existence more dazzling than jewels, Moiya?”

“Oh, geez! Let’s not talk.”

Rosie shook her head at Moiya, who was drunk on self-adoration.

As she was about to turn the page again, a kitten rubbed against the back of her hand affectionately.

“I didn’t call you, you know? Go away. This book mustn’t be torn.”

The kitten Rosie ended up raising because of Moiya seemed to have truly accepted its name as ‘Oh Geez’.

Whenever Rosie got angry or frustrated, she habitually exclaimed ‘Oh, geez!’, and each time the kitten would come and flop down beside her.

“Meow. (Just accept me. It’s fate.)”

Oh Geez gently bit Rosie’s index finger as she turned the page.

Knock knock knock−.

When there was a knock at the bedroom door, Rosie gestured for Moiya to go under the bed, but instead of hiding under the bed, Moiya entered Oh Geez’s body.

Rosie glared unhesitatingly at Moiya who had turned into a kitten, then called out towards the bedroom door.

“Come in!”

As soon as her words fell, the bedroom door flung open.

“Let’s go on a picnic!”

The Second Royal Concubine Melanie barged in without notice.

‘Picnic? Going out to play? Then this body must go out too!’

Moiya’s red eyes sparkled as he entered Oh Geez’s body.

“Lady Melanie, what’s this sudden picnic?”

“The weather is nice, isn’t it? I was originally going to suggest we go next week when Emperor Adrian Meltin of the Tevelo Empire arrives, but I can’t stand it anymore. We can go on a picnic today and then again at that time!”

“On the day Emperor Adrian of the Tevelo Empire arrives…… why?”

“Don’t you know? I heard he’s an incredible beauty? Though not as handsome as our emperor, of course.”

“Handsome men have already come from other countries……”

Rosie mumbled to herself, unconsciously thinking of Prince Norton.

“Where, which empire? Who?”

Melanie asked with her eyes wide open.

She shook Rosie’s shoulders vigorously, demanding why she hadn’t been told such important information.

“Um, Prince Norton of the Petsha Empire……”

“Meow?!”

‘What’s so handsome about that prince? This great Moiya is much better.’

Moiya let out a sharp cat cry and raised his tail straight up.

Startled by the cat’s sound, Melanie looked down.

“Where did this cat come from?”

“Would you like to raise it, Lady Melanie?”

When Rosie asked nonchalantly, Melanie jumped up.

“Oh my? I don’t like anything cuter than me!”

“……Ah, I see.”

“By the way, did you get permission from the imperial family to raise it?”

“Ah, not yet. I was going to inform the administrative office… but the cat has been deathly ill lately, so I had no choice but to postpone it… Now that it seems to be better, I should let them know.”

When the flustered Rosie spoke in a pitiful voice, Melanie bent down to examine Oh Geez closely.

“Ah, I thought the little one looked a bit scruffy.”

‘That skinny twig… says some pretty correct things?’

Moiya wagged Oh Geez’s tail and daintily approached Melanie.

“You poor little thing, you were sick? The weather’s nice, so you should come out too.”

Moiya was inwardly moved by Melanie’s words.

‘Wow, this twig has a generous heart?’

“But don’t just stay cooped up in the basket, run around here and there. That way your owner will get in trouble for secretly raising you. Right? Puhaha!”

Melanie patted Oh Geez’s bottom and quickly plopped him into the picnic basket she had brought.

‘Krr, you know how to have fun, human cub? I quite like you!’

Moiya, who had been happily wagging his tail, saw Rosie’s increasingly grim face and flattened himself against the bottom of the basket.

“Lady Rosie, let’s hurry and go out. We’ll eat sandwiches by the lake. Ah, bring that book too. We need to use it as a pillow for napping!”

Melanie even put the ancient book Rosie had been reading into the basket.

[This is the timeline separator]

Rosie and Melanie arrived at the lake garden about 15 minutes by carriage from the West Palace.

The water of the lake meets a long and wide canal, which in turn connects to the large river that extends outside the Raphion Imperial Palace.

In summer and autumn, quite a few nobles enjoyed boat rides along the large canal from the lake to the entrance of the imperial palace.

“Shall we sit here? Let’s eat first.”

As the servants spread a checkered cloth over the grass, Melanie sat down as if collapsing and spoke.

“……We’re eating already?”

“Of course, it was tiring coming all the way here.”

“You say it was tiring when we just came here by carriage?”

Rosie glanced at the imperial inner carriage waiting far away from the lakeside and refuted Melanie’s words.

“Even if it’s a short distance, isn’t it a trip the moment you get in a carriage?”

Melanie rummaged through the basket placed beside her by a servant and offered Rosie a sandwich she had prepared from her palace.

“Eat this while reading your book.”

“Thank you. It looks delicious.”

Rosie smiled as she accepted the sandwich.

“How is it? It’s good, right?”

“Mmm, it’s delicious.”

Rosie took a bite of the sandwich and tasted it, then made a satisfied expression.

“Meow? (You’re eating alone?)”

Seeing the sandwich, Moiya jumped out of the basket.

“You eat this.”

Melanie rummaged through the basket beside her and tossed a small piece of bread to Moiya.

‘That twig is really kind!’

Moiya eagerly caught the bread with both paws and began to nibble on it intently.

Rosie wanted to smack Moiya on the head, but she couldn’t hit him now that he was in Oh Geez’s body.

“The weather is so nice, shall I sing a song for you?”

As they were about to finish eating a sandwich, Melanie asked out of the blue.

“No, thank you.”

Rosie refused as she pulled out the ancient book from the basket, but Melanie warmed up her voice as if she had received a song request.

“Ah-ah, voice test! Ah-ah, if you can’t sing, you can’t be a royal concubine. Oh, cruel Your Majesty~ If I can’t be a concubine, I can’t bear a prince. Oh, cruel Your Majesty~”

“……”

“Now that I’ve warmed up my voice, I’ll sing properly.”

Just as Melanie was about to open her mouth wide to sing,

“Lady Rosie, we meet again here.”

A sweet male voice was heard from behind them.

Rosie put both hands to her forehead to shield the sunlight and turned her head.

“Oh? Hello!”

The man who greeted them was Prince Norton, whom she had met in the empress’s back garden last night.

Rosie stood up abruptly.

Moiya seized the opportunity to snatch the sandwich she had left half-eaten and ducked into the basket.

“Prince, what brings you here……”

“I was out for a walk.”

Prince Norton smiled slightly and touched his mouth with his hand.

Only then did Rosie realize that bread crumbs were stuck to her lips, and she hurriedly brushed them off.

“The other side.”

Prince Norton precisely pointed to the side where the bread crumbs were stuck.

“……I, I know.”

Rosie retorted as she wiped her entire mouth with the back of her hand.

She belatedly noticed that there was something shimmering behind Prince Norton.

“By the way, who is that person?”

Rosie asked curiously, glancing at the beautiful person with fine pink hair standing behind the prince.

Princess Resilia, who had been standing behind the prince, slowly walked forward.

The princess looked down at the seemingly naive Rosie.

“Ah, this is the Princess of Shatraunil Kingdom……”

As Prince Norton was about to introduce Princess Resilia, she stepped forward impatiently.

“The weather is quite nice.”

‘They’ll be under me later.’

With that thought in mind, a condescending tone naturally came out of Princess Resilia’s mouth.

“Were you having a picnic?”

Melanie stared up at the princess, whose ambiguous attitude was neither a question nor a soliloquy.

The extraordinary gazes of the two women met in mid-air and sparked.

Rosie, watching this scene from between them, was inwardly surprised.

‘The two of them…… are somewhat similar!’

The somewhat similar women exchanged glances for a while, as if exploring each other.

“Are you the emperor’s concubines?”

Princess Resilia looked back and forth between Rosie and Melanie, speaking in an ambiguous tone that was either a soliloquy or a question.

“We ‘are’ the concubines.”

Melanie emphasized each word.

“Ugh.”

Then, as she tried to stand up without using her hands, she seemed to step on the hem of her dress and fell back down on her bottom, exclaiming ‘Shit!’

Melanie fell backwards, almost lying down, and part of her long hair was dunked in the lake water and then pulled out.

Rosie quickly grabbed the ends of Melanie’s hair and wrung out the water.

“Wring it out, wring it out. I don’t want my dress to get wet.”

Melanie glanced back at Rosie and said.

“My, what a show I’ve seen……”

Princess Resilia looked askance at Melanie and sneered.

“Then pay money to laugh.”

Melanie shot back at Princess Resilia as she stood up with Rosie’s support, as if nothing had happened.

“What?!”

“Who are you to speak so curtly?”

She was completely unaware of the fact that she herself was speaking just as curtly as the princess.

The sharp gazes of the two women, ready to devour each other, clashed at eye level.