Chapter 3
Chapter 3 – What Miel Kazan Likes
[Intelligence is decreasing.]
[Emotional control ability is decreasing.]
Ding, ding. Windows appeared one after another like warning sounds.
[You will enter an abnormal state within 5 minutes.]
I reflexively jumped up. Was there something dangerous in the palace? Even if there was, Miel’s skills in defeating those apprentice knights just now were no ordinary feat.
“Your Highness!”
Even so, I had to run away. I wanted to run away.
“Why!”
“Huh?”
Contrary to my strong will, my body wouldn’t move.
Miel Kazan wanted to stay here.
“Why…”
I glanced at Ron, who was blinking in confusion. When I moved my hand slightly, her status window appeared.
Hidden Class: Assassin
Special Notes – Can lift up to 6 times her own body weight
Strength Level: A
Was it my imagination, or did the footsteps of a man with that sweet baritone voice seem almost imminent?
“Ron, you.”
“Yes!”
“Carry me and run.”
“Huh?”
“I said carry me and run.”
It was too shameless to say to Ron, a girl smaller than me.
But there was no other way. I’m betting on your strength level.
“It’s an order.”
Ron’s eyes sparkled.
* * *
What was that?
I tapped the table with a tap, tap.
“Could something like a demon possibly enter the palace?”
“No way.”
Even though she carried me and ran to the room, Ron hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat. Indeed, strength level A, a woman who can lift six times her weight.
“Right, with such an amazing maid like Ron, that couldn’t happen.”
“Th-that’s…”
“And to think you carried me straight into the room…”
“…!”
I smiled slightly while looking at her. Her face, which had been calm even while carrying me, turned pale white.
“You’re surprisingly good at taking what you need to take, aren’t you?”
Whatever the case, she was my personal maid. It probably wasn’t very good to have a somewhat strange-looking master wandering around here and there.
She must have wanted to bring me to the room and keep me there quietly. A maid who accomplishes the goals she wants to achieve.
“I feel like my evaluation of you keeps going up and down.”
“…!”
“I mean it in a good way.”
“Up and down… you say…”
“Going down isn’t necessarily bad, Ron.”
When I waved my hand lightly, Ron pressed her lips tightly shut. It’s not bad to see those anxious eyes. This seems to be Miel’s wicked personality. I’m originally really nice, you know.
“Then what was that thing that was coming toward me earlier?”
My heart felt like it would stop, heat rose to my face, and I absolutely didn’t want to leave that place. Didn’t even the abnormal state message appear?
“It was His Grace Grand Duke Sio Grande.”
Thinking my words were a question, Ron quickly answered.
“Grand Duke Sio Grande… I thought it might be.”
That sweet baritone was familiar to my ears. It was a bit different from the game, but different in a good way.
If the game had a voice actor performing the voice, the real Sio Grande’s voice felt like a complete version.
What I mean is, it was as if the voice actor had been imitating his excellent voice?
Anyway, why did I feel a sense of crisis the moment I heard that voice?
“Grand Duke Grande must be a scary person.”
“Huh? Ah… Well. There aren’t many people who can match him in terms of force.”
“Hmm.”
In the game too, various impressive epithets were attached to him.
For a romance game, this game felt like it had turned into some martial arts novel. There were countless aliases attached to him.
“I should have just looked once.”
To check his status window while I was at it.
Thinking of that baritone voice, which was an upgraded version of the voice actor’s performance, his appearance probably got buffed too.
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any of the conquest targets since coming here.
“…Huh?”
“Your Highness?”
I haven’t seen any conquest targets?
I felt something off about that.
‘You still like him, don’t you?’
Someone had whispered that to me before coming here.
My consciousness went pitch black and something bright red flashed before my eyes. And then the touch that caught me.
“My head… hurts.”
“Your Highness?!”
My body tilted slightly.
Miel Kazan was reflected in the mirror. Certainly, Miel Kazan was also somewhat different from the game. In the game, she was beautiful, but felt more nerfed than this appearance.
In fact, the illustration made Cocoa, who wasn’t considered exceptionally beautiful, appear even lovelier.
“It’s a scam.”
My body collapsed. Fortunately, Ron was supporting me.
Indeed, strength level A.
“Don’t tell anyone that I collapsed.”
“Huh?”
“It’s an order.”
And my consciousness faded to black.
* * *
I don’t know why I believed those vague memories I could barely remember.
Friends, games, beds… all of this might not be real but false or manipulated memories!
Once suspicion took hold, everything started to feel like a lie. And then, slowly, memories began to resurface.
‘You still like him, don’t you?’
…said by that person I saw just before waking up in this place.
“Handsome dust…”
“Huh?”
Ron, who was cleaning the room, looked at me with a somewhat flustered face.
She still not only feared me, but had become more anxious since I collapsed like that.
If before it felt like dealing with a wicked and violent villainess, now it felt like handling a pitiful villainess. A pitiful villainess, really.
“Right, I definitely thought it looked like handsome dust.”
“Wh-what…”
“Don’t worry about it.”
However, when I say this, she pretends not to worry about it.
Leaving behind Ron, who pressed her lips shut, I rack my brain.
“Ah.”
Suddenly, a memory flashed through my mind like lightning. Though the details are blurred, the face is unmistakable.
“Aah!!”
It was the moment when a handsome man from a 2D drawing appeared in reality.
Normally, this would be dismissed as seeing something that wasn’t there.
But now, I was in a situation where I had become Miel Kazan. What part of this could I possibly dismiss as mere fantasy?
‘Tsk.’
Before coming here, I heard a voice that seemed displeased.
Between jet-black hair, bewitching purple eyes sparkled.
Indeed, I thought he was worthy of being a character the heroine would describe as “beautiful” upon first sight.
Such a character was implemented in reality and looked at me expressionlessly. He was unrealistically beautiful.
‘…An angel?’
At my words, the young man momentarily frowned.
‘As if.’
…he said, with that sweet voice that would absolutely never exist in reality.
‘If I had to choose, I’d be a demon.’
A self-deprecating murmur, followed by a strange question.
‘You still like him, don’t you?’
Before I could even express my impressions, everything flashed before my eyes.
“I remembered…”
Honestly, the circumstances before and after are still hazy, but I definitely saw the hidden character before coming here. In reality, right before my eyes.
It wasn’t friendship. It wasn’t even ‘Do I still seem like your friend?’ What on earth was that?
Besides, the question was even stranger.
Do I still like him?
Like what?
Whatever it was, that guy was definitely the culprit who brought me here.
My heart pounded and my head got tangled up in a complicated mess.
“It’s afternoon tea time, Princess.”
“Afternoon tea…”
A sweet smell stimulated my nose. Before I knew it, Ron had wheeled in a tray.
“Ah. From the top, Earl Grey scones with kumquat jam and clotted cream.”
Ron began explaining with clear pronunciation like a chef from a luxury hotel.
“Below that are milk tea choux, chocolate cake, vanilla mousse, caramel cookies, apple jam éclairs, and whiskey ganache cookies.”
At the parade of sweet things continuing like poetry recitation, I unconsciously frowned.
Eating only sweet things like that might make my blood vessels explode. But contrary to such a reason, my salivary glands and stomach seemed to be rejoicing. Differently from “me.” That bothered me.
“Today’s tea is soft peach tea.”
“Soft peach tea… even the tea seems like it would be sweet.”
“Ah, well.”
A bitter smile came out at Ron’s seemingly flustered reaction.
According to the information I acquired, Miel likes sweet things.
I naturally drank the sweet tea and took a bite of the chocolate cake that seemed the sweetest.
It’s delicious.
That hurt my pride. But with Miel’s taste helping, the above-average sugar made my complicated mind soft and malleable.
“…Especially this caramel cookie, it’s incredibly delicious.”
“Ah, th-thank you.”
Ron’s face turned red. Among all this food, it seems Ron baked this cookie.
That information was among Miel’s memories downloaded yesterday.
‘She is cute though.’
I’m talking about Ron.
Originally, Miel Kazan was cold, picky, and hysterical.
But the direct violence and tyranny were limited to the heroine. When her personal maids or subordinates displeased her, she would quietly fire them or kill them. Those standards were also inconsistent.
Even so, staying attached for a long time meant that Ron pleased Miel in one way or another.
Looking at Ron’s attitude, it seems Miel never showed it at all though.
“I guess I like sweet things.”
“Yes, the head chef is also mindful of it.”
Again, the original me didn’t particularly like sweet things. This small but definite difference feels unpleasant.
“Do you happen to have any spicy food?”
“Spicy food… would Albarn-style work?”
“So Albarn food is spicy. Good, good.”
“Then I’ll prepare dinner with Albarn-style meat dishes. For dessert, a tart using seasonal fruits…”
“For dinner, leave out tarts and other sweet things.”
“Huh?”
“Leave them out.”
“Yes.”
Ron’s eyes rolled anxiously, but I won’t give in.
I need to see which wins between food I rationally think I like and Miel Kazan’s taste buds.
“Good.”
I nodded while taking another sip of the sweet peach tea.
