Chapter 4: First Test – Iron Blooded Princess.

Victoria Erandel.

Second in the line of succession to the throne, the First Princess, and the one everyone praised with one voice as the ‘Iron-Blooded Princess’.

Beautiful golden hair contrasted by blazing red eyes.

Her appearance was so beautiful that anyone would lose their senses and fall for her, yet her strongest weapon was not something as trivial as external elements like that.

Victoria was competent.

In every aspect—scholarship, politics, art, martial arts—she displayed a genius that no one could deny and was praised by all.

She herself took pride in the fact that she had inherited the blood of the Hero King, the founder of the royal family, more thickly than anyone else.

Compared to that, what about her older brother Richard Erandel?

Outwardly he looked fine, but when you looked inside, there was not a single thing, no matter how minor, in which he was better than her.

The only thing he knew how to do was use his appearance and status to hit on the opposite sex—a complete playboy.

That was why Victoria had always thought that she should inherit the throne.

But when she thought realistically, that was a difficult matter.

The customs that had continued and solidified for thousands of years since the founding of the kingdom.

The legitimacy of succession between Richard, who was both the firstborn and a man, and Victoria, who was the second and a woman, was as different as heaven and earth.

In the end, unless a special variable appeared, it seemed only natural that Richard would inherit the throne.

She had even considered the option of ‘eliminating’ her competitor, but considering the king’s personality, she did not think he would simply hand the throne over to her even if she did so.

Rather, he might bring some commoner from a rural village, claim it was his illegitimate child, and suddenly seat them on the throne.

Even after ascending as queen it would be one thing, but before that, as a princess, rashly offending the king’s mood was an extremely dangerous action.

Therefore Victoria could do nothing and was simply spending each day helplessly watching time pass.

Then the situation was overturned overnight.

One day, King William summoned all of his children and suddenly declared that he would decide the successor through a succession test.

Whatever the reason, this was a golden opportunity that would never come twice in her life.

If only the barrier of legitimacy disappeared, it was only natural that she, more competent than anyone, would take the throne.

Not only her dim-witted older brother Richard, but even her younger brother Arthur, who still had baby fat, could never become her rival.

The moment the succession test began, Victoria was already certain that she had essentially been decided as the next successor.

Yes.

Until now, that was what she had thought.

‘Just what is that bitch…?’

One day, four pieces of trash entered the palace.

Even if they inherited the king’s bloodline, in the end they were nothing more than mongrels born from some insignificant commoner woman—illegitimate children.

That was why she had not paid them any attention at all.

The only competitors she cared about were her older brother and younger brother who had lived in the palace from the moment they were born; she regarded the rest as mere decorations roughly put there to fill the numbers.

But an unexpected variable that no one had anticipated suddenly appeared.

‘Her name was… Beatrix, was it?’

Just in case, she had thoroughly investigated the personal details of all seven participants in the test.

Beatrix.

A girl with a mysterious atmosphere who had purple hair and violet eyes.

Thanks to the king’s bloodline, her appearance was excellent, but other than that she was an ordinary village girl with no special points.

Except for her eyes, perhaps.

There was a certain nobility that made it hard to think of her as a commoner.

Even so, she was just a country bumpkin girl who had never even stepped outside the village, let alone understood politics.

She did not feel any particular need to be wary of her, so she had simply left her alone.

‘What? A large number of magic herbs were discovered? What kind of nonsense is that…!’

An herb rarer than jewels, worth over 500 Gold per root.

Magic herbs that were a miraculous elixir which increased the amount of mana inside the body just by consuming them, so rare that magicians could not get them even if they wanted them…

‘Why on earth would such a precious material be on some mountain behind a village…!?’

Simply good luck?

What a joke.

Would she simply believe such a half-hearted excuse?

She must have planned it all.

She clearly knew from the beginning that there were magic herbs on the mountain behind.

Considering the rarity of magic herbs, it was only natural, but that was not something an ordinary commoner could buy or sell.

Even if a commoner with no status guarantee or power tried to sell magic herbs, what seller would calmly pay the proper price?

It would be far cheaper to simply kill the commoner, bury them, and swallow it than to purchase it legitimately.

That was why Beatrix must have deliberately hidden the fact that there were magic herbs on the mountain behind until now, even while knowing about them.

And now that she had obtained the status of a princess, she had finally moved.

She had even used the scheme of calmly claiming that she had purchased the mountain behind her village because she liked it when asked where she had invested, so that no one would be wary of her.

If the escort knight beside Beatrix had not stepped forward without reading the room, she herself would have completely failed to notice and simply mocked her as a stupid commoner and moved on.

‘Not bad.

I will admit that I underestimated her too much…’

Victoria was arrogant, but she was not foolish.

After calmly accepting her own mistake, she raised her evaluation of Beatrix several levels in her heart.

That was why she decided not to let her guard down any longer and to give it her all.

The moment the morning banquet ended, she busily moved and checked and revised the investments she had been diligently preparing until now.

The basic amount of 10 Gold she had received when the first test began had jumped to 432 Gold in just two weeks, but that was not enough.

Since a whole bundle of magic herbs worth over 500 Gold per root had been discovered, even she needed some kind of secret plan.

Fortunately, Victoria still had one trump card remaining.

‘Yes.

With this…!!’

Wait for me, country girl.

This Iron-Blooded Princess will thoroughly trample your hopes.

*

“Hm?

Is someone talking behind my back?”

When my ear suddenly itched and I muttered without thinking, Mana, who was sitting across from me, suddenly hiccupped and jumped up.

Unable to simply let that reaction pass, I narrowed my eyes and stared at her, and Mana waved her hands vigorously as if she had been hit right in a sore spot.

“Ah, no…!!

I absolutely did not curse Princess as a kidnapper or grumble that you were petty for getting so worked up over just eating a few weeds…!!”

Shing-.

“Hi, hiiik…!!!”

Mana voluntarily confessing her own sins and Kaled silently drawing his sword.

At that ridiculous sight a headache surged up, and as I pressed my throbbing head, a voice came from the coachman’s seat in front.

“Princess.

We will arrive at the palace soon.”

Hearing that, I slightly opened the curtain and looked at the scenery outside the window, and the streets of the royal capital came into view.

I was starting to grow used to this scenery as well.

It was hard to believe that it had only been two weeks since I first came up to the royal capital.

“Wow…”

Mana, who soon turned her head toward the window following my gaze, began looking around the royal capital while letting out pure exclamations of admiration.

“Is this your first time in the royal capital?”

“Yes…

I was locked up in the laboratory every day studying with my master…”

Hearing that made me feel a little sorry for her.

At an age when she should be running around outside, if she was only forced to study nonstop, even I would want to run away.

“But is it really okay for you to follow me like this without saying anything to your master?”

I was happy to have recruited the best talent, but if the master was that scary, wouldn’t she get scolded even more severely later?

When I rested my chin on my hand and asked, Mana answered with a bright smile.

“It’s fine since I’ll never meet them again for the rest of my life anyway!”

“…Yeah.

How you live your life is something you choose for yourself.”

Unlike me who respected Mana’s opinion, Kaled spoke without hiding his uncomfortable expression.

“Princess.

Are you really going to take this little brat into the palace?”

“We’ve already come this far, so what can I do?

I can’t turn back now.”

“Even if taking her is unavoidable for the sake of punishment, hiring this child as a torture magician is still a bit…”

“I can’t help it because my magic herbs are too precious.

I at least need to break even.”

When I calmly spouted nonsense, Kaled eventually gave up and let out a small sigh.

While we were talking like that, the carriage that had entered the palace sometime ago came to a stop.

After expressing thanks to the coachman and about to take Mana to the lodging where she would stay for the time being.

A woman who had been approaching from the other side of the corridor suddenly stopped walking and blocked our path.

Realizing her identity, I first offered a greeting.

“Hello.

Lady Victoria.”

“……”

But the other party did not accept my greeting and only stared this way with a strange gaze.

Since she blocked the path and suddenly started a staring contest, I simply returned the gaze without saying anything particular.

How much time passed like that?

Princess Victoria suddenly snorted and began mocking me.

“Ha.

Interesting.”

What did she mean by that?

I did not really understand, but for the sake of forming a smooth relationship I decided to appropriately empathize and respond.

“I don’t find it particularly interesting, but I’m glad that at least Lady Victoria finds it amusing.”

“……”

Somehow the surrounding air felt about 2°C colder than before.

Biting her lip and letting her expression stiffen slightly, Victoria barely maintained a smile and spoke.

“I am curious how long that high-and-mighty attitude of yours will last.

I heard the news.

I heard that all the magic herbs were lost.”

I was genuinely surprised.

I had just returned, yet the news had already reached the palace?

When I slightly shifted my gaze, Kaled beside me was also frowning and showing signs of bewilderment.

It seemed the princess’s information network was quite excellent.

But she did not seem to know the detailed content of how the magic herbs had disappeared.

If she had heard that story as well, there was no way she would show no interest at all in Mana who was beside me right now.

She spoke in a sneering tone with a clear mockery on her lips.

“How pitiful.

You must have dreamed of proudly winning the first test, yet it has turned into bubbles.

But there is no need to worry.

Even if your magic herbs had been safe, I would have been the one to win the test anyway.”

Saying that, Victoria took something out from her bosom and showed it off to us as if boasting.

“Do you know what this is?

Well, of course you would not.

This is a mana crystal orb, a prototype currently under recent development at the Magic Tower.

I poured in all the profits I earned this time and even took on debt to invest the entire amount.

The moment I heard the explanation, I judged that it was worth that much.”

I blankly looked down at the small crystal orb shining on her palm.

I did not know what it was, but seeing her boast like this, it must be an extremely expensive item.

In that case, it was rather something I should rejoice over.

If I had lost the magic herbs and on top of that Princess Victoria had succeeded in her investment and hit the jackpot, it meant the gap had widened so much that it could no longer be overturned.

“In the end the gamble was a success.

Do you know how much this is worth?

A single crystal is comparable to a full 5,000 Gold.

Hehe.

You may be astonished.”

Good heavens.

While being shocked at the unrealistic unit of 5,000 Gold, I felt like laughter might leak out.

The princess’s appearance of purely rejoicing like a child showing off her treasure was so pleasant to look at that I was about to smile brightly and sincerely congratulate her.

But before that, Mana beside me suddenly made a fuss and opened her mouth.

“Ah!

I have those too!”

Then Mana rummaged around her body and took out a pouch from her bosom.

When she untied the pouch, inside it…

Crystal orbs that looked to number at least a dozen sparkled and flaunted their presence.

“……”

At that moment, Princess Victoria and I both lost our words at the same time.