episode_0108

I feel bad.

I knew that William was healthy, but I just found out that only his body is healthy.

It’s hard to believe that living on what is essentially dog food is considered a high privilege.

But I could accept this much.

Because it’s a prison.

If the treatment in prison is good, why should prison even exist?

It’s sad, but I heard that William is living relatively positively, so I can only hope he maintains that attitude until the end.

And what actually made me feel bad wasn’t William’s terrible situation.

“Your Highness, congratulations.”

It’s those sly people who secretly come and offer bribes, that’s why.

The sight of them slyly presenting a dazzlingly shiny box with a ghastly smile made me nauseous.

“……”

“Heh heh…”

I glanced at Sera, who was standing behind me, and Sera, sensing the cue, came forward and accepted the box.

Then, the sly person in front of me couldn’t manage their expression and let out an ugly laugh.

We’re both bad at hiding our expressions, but why does this feel so dirty and awful?

Suppressing the feeling that I was about to throw up, I smiled and asked the sly person in front of me a question.

“I’m sorry, but what are you congratulating me on?”

“Haha, the warm sunlight beautifully adorns the palace, how can I not congratulate you?”

The Emperor is pushing me, so he’s shamelessly saying he’ll lick my boots in the Imperial Palace…

“…I see.”

My mouth tasted bitter.

Those cunning bastards who don’t have the courage to openly support me, but want me to think well of them.

I can generously understand the neutrals or the aristocratic faction making contact, but I felt even more displeased because some of these people were nobles who had openly supported my sister in the past.

“Were you the Earl of Shieldfield?”

“That’s right.”

“Yes, I will remember you clearly.”

“Thank you, I will consider it an honor.”

So, I glared coldly at this person and said I would remember him, but this person just smiled sheepishly and kept bowing.

Ha, he wasn’t a cunning and opportunistic guy, just a stupid one.

Moths who think they are smart.

I was upset that I had my time wasted by such foolish people.

“Then, I’ll be going.”

“Yes, please take care of me in the future.”

I lightly waved my hand to signal that I was leaving, then immediately turned around and hardened my expression.

I could feel the sly bastard saying something behind me, but it probably wasn’t anything important.

“Your Highness.”

As I abruptly left the spot and moved away from the sly person, Sera, who had been standing quietly by my side, carefully approached me and called me.

I only glanced sideways, and Sera, awkwardly holding the box, came into view at the edge of my vision.

“What?”

“What should we do with this?”

“Just throw it away…”

I was about to tell her to throw it away like before, but then I thought that if this continued for a few days, the trash dump would be overflowing with valuables, so I swallowed my words and gestured for Sir Rachel, who was guarding me nearby, to come closer.

“Did you call, Your Highness?”

“As you have seen, Sir, there are plenty of impious people who arbitrarily judge His Majesty’s intentions and offer bribes in the sacred Imperial Palace.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

I spoke to Sir Rachel and gestured for Sera to hand over the box she was holding.

Sir Rachel, listening to my words while carefully taking the box, looked bewildered, but calmly waited for my next words to come out.

“I cannot stand by and watch this.”

“That is the right thing to say.”

“So, confiscate these bribes as property of the Empire, and report everyone who has given me bribes to His Majesty the Emperor and His Highness the Prince Consort without exception.”

“!”

Sir Rachel’s eyes, which had been slightly lowered without any expression until now, became intense.

“Yes, I will do as Your Highness commands.”

And a slightly louder voice than usual flowed from Sir Rachel’s lips.

Then, after exchanging glances with the other guards standing nearby a few times, she headed somewhere with subtly excited steps.

Judging by the direction, she must be heading to the Knights Order.

“Cute.”

I felt a little better because I found a knight that would be good to tease.

“Sera.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s head to the atelier now.”

“Yes, then let’s go back to the room and prepare.”

“Okay.”

_

“Have you arrived?”

I arrived at the atelier wearing a hat pulled down low and hiding the fact that I was a princess. Prince Herbert, who had arrived earlier, stood up to greet me and subtly guided me to the head seat where William usually sat.

He usually sits facing me just fine, is he feeling burdened now?

How amusing.

I wanted to tease him a little, but I have more urgent matters now, so I smiled and quietly sat down, slowly surveying the employees.

“Everyone gathered early, thank you for willingly gathering even though I called you so suddenly.”

“Sir William is in that state, so we can’t just sit still, can we? Isn’t the atelier in danger of closing down?”

“That’s right, it’s hard to find a workplace like this elsewhere.”

“I guess…”

Like Prince Herbert and Marie said, an uncommon workplace was in danger of closing down.

It’s incredibly employee-friendly, and it’s as hard as picking a star from the sky to find a place where commoners and nobles can mix this informally, so I didn’t want it to collapse meaninglessly like this.

“The situation is urgent, so let’s get straight to the point. As you all know, William is now in prison. The problem is that we don’t know when he will get out.”

“Are you saying he’s serving a life sentence?”

“No, I really don’t know when he’ll get out. If His Majesty the Emperor orders him to stay longer, he’ll have to stay in prison.”

“What crime did Sir William commit that His Majesty the Emperor is doing this?”

“That’s… it’s complicated to explain, I think it’s best to just know that he can’t get out until His Majesty the Emperor releases him.”

The things that happen in the Imperial Palace are not simple, so it was hard to say anything.

In fact, they did this while concealing some facts from me, so the complete truth is probably only known by my mother and father.

“Then what should we do?”

“First, I’m going to check William’s last words. According to him, he has a paper with countermeasures written in his desk drawer in preparation for times like these.”

I found out while eavesdropping on the conversation between William and Emily.

Of course, I didn’t listen because I wanted to, it’s just that what they were saying in the workshop flowed into my ears, so it wasn’t my fault.

“Then let’s check it quickly.”

“Okay.”

I got up from my seat, listening to Prince Herbert’s urging, and approached William’s desk.

Then, I opened the drawers from the top and looked inside.

“Ah.”

It wasn’t hard to find the paper.

There was a letter envelope standing out on its own among the sewing tools and writing instruments.

I took it out and returned to my seat, then stretched out my hand so that the employees could see it and tore open the envelope near the center of the table.

What came out of the envelope was a paper the size of my palm.

Judging from how thin it was, it seemed to contain only one or two sheets.

“……”

An unknown anxiety rises.

The paper was too small to contain any countermeasures.

Still, believing that it contained information that would help us, I took out the paper and placed it on the table with the side with writing facing up.

The contents of the note revealed while everyone was looking with expectant eyes.

[Act as usual, I believe you will do well on your own.]

“Ah…”

Everyone who witnessed it lost their words and simultaneously averted their gaze from the note, using someone’s sigh as a signal.

“”……””

A silence so cold that it was almost stinging settled inside the workshop.

Adelheid started tapping the floor with her foot as if she was uncomfortable, and Marie’s claws came out and went back in.

Aside from the two who were showing the most dramatic reactions, everyone else was openly expressing their discomfort as well.

“Marie.”

“Yes.”

“Tear it up.”

“Yes.”

Marie tore the note to shreds with her sharply raised claws as if she had been waiting for this, and then crumpled it with her soft cat paws.

Really, why did he write something like this when he could have just said it, what a waste of paper.

“Then what do we do now?”

“It’s annoying, but what William said isn’t wrong. If we show signs of wavering, customers will stop coming, so we have to at least pretend to be fine until William returns.”

“But we don’t have enough people, especially tailors.”

“It’s fatal that two people are missing…”

The most critical thing was that I couldn’t properly spare the time.

As long as my mother and the nobles keep being hostile, I can’t come to the atelier comfortably.

In other words, I wasn’t a free person until William’s problem was resolved.

“Hmm…”

I took a deep breath and organized my thoughts for a moment.

Neither my mother nor Earl Hume would want to drag this anxiety out for long.

The fact that William’s sentence is initially 2 weeks also shows my mother’s intention to end it quickly.

So, assuming things go smoothly, William will be back before November.

“Let’s make a plan assuming William will be back in November.”

“Um… is that okay?”

“If it drags on longer than that, it’s practically impossible to recover, so it’s right to think that way. Do you think a person’s body will be healthy after enduring almost a month in the Knights Order prison?”

“Ah…”

No matter how young someone is, they’ll come out half-crippled if they spend a month in that prison.

The meals are poor and the environment is harsh, so they will need as much or more time to recover as the time they spent in prison.

“So, we need to think about how to survive the next two weeks well.”

“Yes.”

Prince Herbert nodded as if he understood.

The other employees were also looking at us, nodding slightly to show that they had no objections.

“Then, anyone have any opinions?”

“How about adjusting the order volume?”

“I’m thinking about it, but I can’t reduce it too much. We have to look like we’re running normally on the outside.”

“Then we need to redistribute roles.”

“Redistribute roles?”

I tilted my head and waited for Duchess Fannie’s opinion.

There shouldn’t be anyone else who can redraw them to fit the measurements, so how can that be redistributed…

“Right now, the tailors draw the designs on the fabric, cut it, and pass it on, but if they only draw the designs and leave the cutting to someone else, we can continue without hardly adjusting the order volume.”

“Then who will do the cutting? It’s not like anyone can just do that?”

“Walter and Elin are here. Except for corsets that use special fabrics, the two of them can cut cotton or silk well enough.”

“Hmm~ That’s true.”

It comes with the premise that Adelheid is in charge of all the sewing, but if possible, it wasn’t a bad role distribution.

“Adelheid, is it possible?”

“Of course, I’ve been wanting this moment.”

“Okay, then we’ll redistribute the roles as Duchess Fannie said, and Duchess Fannie will be in charge during that time. Can you do it?”

“Yes.”

I appointed Duchess Fannie as the person in charge for the next two weeks and slowly looked at the employees.

William is amazingly good at finding strange people, so even in this situation, their eyes were full of fighting spirit.

I smiled at them and said.

“Everyone, just hold on firmly for 2 weeks, then William, and I, will give you some kind of reward.”

“There’s no need for that, please just bring Sir William back quickly.”

“That’s right, rather than rewards, we want to work with the President and the Princess.”

“……”

There are these crazy people who are refusing when the Imperial Princess of the Empire is offering to give them a reward…

“Ha.”

A hollow laugh came out.

In order to see these crazy people for a long time, I must do my best to quickly bring William back from prison.