This is how my daily routine looks like. In the mornings I study, in the afternoons I do horse riding and other types of exercises, at 3pm I have a tea break with Serea, who comes to the palace every day.
“Is your queen education hard?”
“No. Since I was hospitalized since I was little and wasn’t able to attend school very much, so it’s actually verypleasant.”
“I thought it would be difficult.”
“Not at all. Generally, I only study manners and etiquette. It’s something people should learn anyways, as for science and math it’s a lot simpler than what it was in my previous world.”
“Wow, that’s shocking too......”
The world where Serea lived until she was ten surpasses our world in science, technology and academics far beyond what I imagined possible.Even though Serea basically couldn’t go to school, she can still calculate faster than me.The more I listen to her, the more I believe her previous world existed. I mean, she even knows things that scholars are still debating about in this world.
Things like the earth revolving around the sun, or the moon revolving around the earth.
“Isn’t history bothersome though?”
“It’s like learning the backstory of a game, it’s fun. I had no idea that there was this kind of setting!”
“Hahaha...... Is that how it is.”
“I’m not good at the myths and holy scriptures though, because god wasn’t such a strict concept in our world.”
“I’m not good at them either.”
Both Serea and I groan a bit at that.
“There sure are a lot of things to be learned......”
“That’s why it isn’t that easy to become engaged to royalty. You need to receive a long education. The same goes for a prince. You can’t just become lovers and get engaged quickly.”
Serea believes that I will meet a commoner girl at the academy and, after knowing her for only a couple of years, fall in love with her, throw away Serea and take her as my fiancée.
But if we study together like this, I think that she will start believing that something like that is impossible.
“You know, I’ve been thinking. I believe that this world isn’t the world from the game you have been talking about, instead I think that this world has been made into a game in your world. Think about it, when a true story from a foreign land gets made into a book, we can then read it right? Didn’t god just make a game in your world based on this one with magic or some other power?”
“That could be......”
“Right! You think so too right!?”
“......”
I guess that won’t convince her after all. Even if is said it myself, I can’t fully believe it either. I thought that if I say it to Serea it could give her some peace of mind.
If a lot of things were to happen different from the game, Serea would be able understand that this world is different from the game. The only problem is that it can’t happen until the game starts, which is after she gets enrolled in the academy at the age of fifteen.
“I’ve brought some sweets!”
A maid with a plate full of sweets came in.
“Eh, what’s this?”
It looks like a thin and crispy cake. When I try it it’s actually salty, but it’s very tasty nonetheless.
“These are thinly sliced potatoes, deep fried in oil and salted. They have become very popular in town these days. It’s pretty hard to make them nice and crispy, and the chef said that he had a lot of trouble until he managed to get them right.”
“Wow!”
Serea happily eats them.
“Aren’t these potato chips. I used to love them.”
I never knew there was such a cooking method.
“You are really well-informed Lady Serea. Did you eat them before[TN-1] ”
The maid looks surprised.
“If you fry them in deep oil, don’t you need to use a lot of it?”
“That’s right. It’s a very luxurious way to cook.”
When the maid said that, this time Serea is the one that looks surprised.
After the maid stepped back, Serea whispered to me ‘Back in my world this was a snack for kids. Adults loved it too.’.
Even this already existed in that world......
“Oil isn’t that easy to make, so it’s pretty valuable. If you were to take a full carriage of sesame seeds and olives and wring out every drop of oil from them, it would only amount to a couple of bottles.”
“I’m sorry...... I didn’t know that.”
I think that Serea’s former world really was unbelievably developed and had an abundance of resources. It really feels different from ours......
“Right now, we are studying separately, but starting from next week, I think that the things we can study together will increase by one. I’m currently asking the teacher about it.”
“?”
“Dancing.”
“......”
Serea blushes. I’m also feeling a bit embarrassed.
“It’s part of a strategy. Look, taking precautions against the heroine trying to split us up isn’t the only thing we have to do, we have to show that get along well and irreplaceable partners to each other.”
Serea nods in affirmation.
“The best way to do that is dancing. If we are able to dance so wonderfully than no one would be able to imitate us, surely everyone would have to accept us. Everyone will think that you and I are the most well-matched couple out there.“
“......That’s a bit embarrassing......”
Serea covers her face with her hands. Her cheeks are totally read.
“Y-yeah, honestly it’s the same for me......”
Dancing is something you have to know in high society though. Who would recognize someone who can’t dance a single dance as a noble? I can’t afford to be embarrassed about it.
“I want the heroine to think something like ‘Ah, there is nothing I can do here’ when she sees us dance. I want us to be able to dance good enough for her to think ‘there is no way to break those two up’.”
“Yes.”
“Cooperate with me. No that’s not the right way to put it.Let’s do our best together.”
“Thank you very much.”
But first we need to actually get to know each other better.
“Next time we have a break, let’s go on a date.”
“Da-date? A date, what does a date look like for nobles?”
“Basically, we go outtogether.”
Lovers go out on dates. Even I know that much.
The thing is, I’m a prince, and she is a lady from a ducal household. There are various troubles even for something as simple as going out.
And so, first I have to get approval from his majesty, the King, then from duke Colette, then I have to send letters all over the place for approval and then wait for replies, it’s really troublesome.
The Colette mansion, where Serea is currently living, is located in the city. The Duke usually resides in his estate, but he was staying in the mansion because of our engagement and my elder sister’s wedding.
He has now returned to his estate, and now the person in charge of the mansion is the eldest son of the Colette family, in other words Serea’s older brother.
I am now headed to that mansion to pick Serea up.
She goes from this mansion to the castle every day for her queen education, but today is our one day off we get per week. So, the two of us decided to go out together.
“I will be in your care today miss Bell!”
“As will I be in yours lord Shreegan.”
...Of course, accompanying me is the guard with the scary face Shreegan.
As for Serea’s attendant, her personal maid, miss Bell, came along as well......
“So, what are we gonna do now little bro?”
“Don’t you have a better way to address me?”
“Prince and your highness wont to, and Lord Shin *is* a little brother so...”
“......Forget it, that will do.”
All of us have changed into commoner clothes. Serea has her long hair up in a bun and is wearing a hat. Commoner children wouldn’t have hair as long as Serea does, since they can’t take care of it properly.
I’m wearing a hat as well. So are the guard and attendant.
It’s common among commoners to wear hats.
“How should I call you?”
Miss Bell asks Serea.
“......I didn’t think about that. Bell can I call you big sis?”
“My lady...... that would make me overjoyed. By all means do.”
The four of us walk out of the mansion towards the city centre.
“It’s my first time walking in the capital!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, I lived at my father’s estate before the engagement, when I came to the capital I could only look at the city from the carriage I came in and after I arrived at the mansion I couldn’t go out to the city.”
That’s how it would be.
As for me, when my elder sister started attending academy she used to drag me around the city with her, but before that I have never gone out to the city alone.
“Then, let’s go to the church first bro.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
We need a pretext even for something like going out.
This time, our justification was that we want to go to the Sunday mass at the church. Since it happens in the morning, let’s get it over with quickly.
There are food stalls all over town, selling all kinds of food.
“Wow, it’s like a festival.”
Serea looks happy. She is so cute when her eyes sparkle like that.
“Would you like to eat something?”
“Uhh, since its bad manners to eat while standing,I’ll get scolded...... ”
“You don’t need to worry about that. Today we are just commoners.”
After looking around, we ended up buying some meat skewers.
It looks delicious with sauce dripping from it.
“Here you go.”
Miss Bell went to buy them for the four of us, and the first person she gave one to was Serea.
“It’s so tasty!”
She looks so happy with just one bite!
“Miss Bell, over here.”
Shreegan takes one of the skewers from Miss Bell and takes a bite.
“Sure is tasty, here little bro help yourself.”
“Don’t give me a half-eaten one!!!”
“It can’t be helped. Anything that a prince eats has to be tasted for poison you know.”
“......”
“Sh-Shin-sama.”
“Yeah?”
“......You can have mine.”
Serea gives me her skewer that she took only one bite out of.
“Serea......”
“I’ll do the poison testing for Shin-sama. Would that be acceptable?”
I ate the skewer that Serea gave me. It was delicious.
I returned Shreegan’s skewer back to him, and Serea took another one from miss Bell and ate it.
The remaining one was, of course, eaten by miss Bell.
[TN-1] No ide why the maid asks this since Serea just said that she loved them but ok.
[TN-2] I try to remove the honorifics everywhere I can, but I had no idea how to coney the difference between name and name-chan, so I left it in. If anyone has a better idea feel free to tell me in the comments.
[TN-3] Honestly I probably butchered this sentence.It’sprobably supposed to be a pun, but I can’t find a good way to translate it, if anyone has any suggestions please share them and I will fix it. (「ひゅーひゅー、憎いっすね弟。肉だけに」)
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