Chapter Chapter 75.3: Side Story 7 (1/2)

RATH Side Story 7

TL: Eevee

Side Story – A certain princess’s memories (7)

This lad, no, lass was thoroughly insane.

“If you keep doing this then I’ll really seriously send in a request to my father to marry you?”

Was it because of my slip up last time where I showed her my shocked expression.

This little brat, every time she’s at a disadvantage she always pulls out marriage.

“Your Highness, even so, you cannot do what you cannot do.”

“Really? Reaally? Is that so? Alright then. Then I’ll go and tell Father I’m going to marry you.”

“Although the laws of the empire do not yet permit Your Highness’s marriage.”

“Heeh~ so you’ve been in and out of the imperial library lately whenever you had some spare time, so you were learning the imperial law?”

This little squirt, before she used to taunt me with an expressionless face, but goodness knows where she learned it from, lately she’s been pressuring me while wearing this evil look.

“Yes, you never know when you might need something you’ve learned, after all.”

“Alright, then you should also know that according to imperial law, although marriage is impossible, engagements are very well within the law, right?”

And why wouldn’t I. There were cases where families that would engage their children together even though they hadn’t even been born yet.

An engagement at ten years old was quite an acceptable age to get engaged at.

But the condition for that was very strange.

“Your Highness. For an issue of the imperial family, and moreover, an issue that affects the empire itself, isn’t the reason why a member of the imperial family seeks engagement too flawed?”

There was a reason why the princess who normally teased me just enough for me to be troubled before pulling back was saying this.

And that was…

“Are you not being too petty over threatening me with engagement just because you do not want to eat carrots and cucumber.”

“Ast. I don’t like what I don’t like.”

Indeed. The reason why Her Highness was going as far as to use her own engagement to threaten me was because she didn’t want to eat her vegetables, carrots and cucumbers.

Her Highness that was throwing a tantrum with a giant scowl looked exactly like her age, but to me who knew exactly what was inside that appearance, it was all but a disgusting act!

And so I need to push strongly here.

“Even if Your Highness threatens me, as a personal steward that must also look after your health I cannot acquiesce to Your Highness’s request.”

“There’s no problem to my health just because I don’t eat carrots and cucumbers?”

Although of course since she’s being fed all sorts of things good for the body in the imperial palace of course her health wouldn’t deteriorate even if she didn’t eat cucumber or carrot.

But, the only time where I can openly get revenge on Her Highness that keeps on giving me annoying work on a daily basis is this very mealtime.

I can’t miss out on this!

“Your Highness. Among the duties of a personal steward is the duty to ensure Your Highness grows up well. And so in order to fix Your Highness’s eating habits…”

I was going to convince(fool) Her Highness with a somewhat logical reason but beside me, Sir Reia bit into a sandwich she was eating as a light snack before lunch and she shouted.

“Ahh! Hang on a second, Sir Ast! When you don’t have cucumbers in your own sandwich, your argument to Her Highness has no merit behind it!”

Tch, I got found out.

“But why is Sir Reia eating my sandwich?”

“I finished all of mine.”

“And so is it right for a lady to eat someone else’s food whenever they want?”

“Oh my, since when was I ever treated like a lady here.”

Sir Reia who was eating my sandwich with an expression that nothing was wrong had definitely gotten stronger.

Not physically. She was already a swordsmaster when I first met her, so her martial skills were already strong.

But her mental growth over just this single month was so bright it was almost blinding.

Was this, the mental power she gained after getting rejected by all 15 men I introduced to her!

“Ast, it’s nice that you’re playing with Reia, but don’t you have something to say to me before that?”

While I was enraptured by Sir Reia’s growth, Her Highness was looking at me with the same look I so often looked at her with.

What look, you ask?

The gaze of someone looking down on unsalvageable trash?

“Your Highness. Cucumber is an ingredient that simply cannot be saved. Cooking is an art where you combine each ingredient to bring out the best in the others, and the thing called cucumber is a very poor ingredient that infects other ingredients with its smell and taste.”

“Mm. I think so too Ast, but why are you putting cucumbers in my food, and not in yours?”

That? Well that’s obvious.

“Your Highness, I am an adult. Children may not be fussy eaters for the sake of their growth, but I am an adult that has already finished growing up and therefore I do not have to eat cucumber.”

“What sort of bullshit is that?”

“Meaning, Your Highness is still in your growth period so you cannot be a fussy eater, but I have already finished growing up so I am allowed to be a fussy eater.”

“Do you realise just what kind of bullshit you’ve been spouting out for a while now, Ast?”

Of course it sounds like bullshit even to my own ears, but the moment I admit that I’m liable to be eaten whole by that monster with a girl’s appearance.

Damn it, other kids that’re treated like this in other worlds are usually orphans and soldiers so if their superior tells them to jump, they have to ask how high.

But our monstrous Imperial Highness is a princess so she has no superior to tell her to shut up.

“Your Highness. I lost my parents at a young age, and shortly afterwards my country was also destroyed because of our territory lord’s stupidity.”

“So, want me to say I’m sorry?”

This stubborn princess.

Although of course if she treated me with pity then that would send shivers down my spine in its own right.

“No, I do not wish to blame my poor luck on other people. It’s just that, since that was how I passed my childhood I could not be a fussy eater when I was young.”

“Sir Ast…”

Sir Reia was looking at me with very sad eyes.

But, isn’t that sandwich in her hands mine? I only ate one, so half of my lunch has already vanished?

“And?”

“Since I was not a fussy eater when I was young, I could grow up as I have done. And so Your Highness may not be picky about your food.”

“Really, now?”

And as if she understood me, Her Highness nodded, smiled brightly at me and said.

“So enough of your bullshit, and swap your sandwich with mine, Ast.”

And at the same time the hand that reached forward to steal my sandwich was none other than Her Highness’s!

Whack!

“I refuse.”

And I reached my own hand out to knock away Her Highnesses to protect my sandwich.

“Are you mad? Slapping the hand of the imperial family?”

“Your Highness. In the laws of the empire, there are clauses that state for people that take care of young members of the imperial family, such as stewards like me or wet nurses. As well as teachers brought in for education all have the right to apply mild discipline as we see fit.”

“So you’ve memorised all those annoying things. But was there a clause that included picky eating among those necessities for discipline?”

“Your Highness, picky eating can be included under education related to daily life.”

Her Highness leered at me, or more accurately my sandwich with narrowed eyes, before her gaze turned to Sir Reia.

“Reia, were there carrots in Sir Ast’s sandwich?”

“Munch… ye, yes? Ah, Sir Ast’s sandwich?”

At Her Highness’s sudden question, Sir Reia hurriedly gulped down the sandwich she’d been chewing on before she nodded.

“Yes, there were.”

Well, I didn’t like cucumbers, but since I didn’t mind carrots I left the carrots in.

“Alright then, Ast. I will try to fix my dislike of carrots at this opportunity. They always say that small steps are always the beginning, right? So change your sandwich with mine.”

Ohh, to think that she would try to fix her pickiness against carrots that failed last time because of Sir Reia!

“To think you would try to fix your eating habits yourself, I’m proud of you, Your Highness.”

“I know right? So…”

Her Highness was saying with a slightly aggrieved look.