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The Reincarnated Thirty-Something Woman’s Otherworldly Reform Life

The Tea Party Begins

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*****

Despite the late autumn season, the castle—safely nestled behind its heavily fortified ramparts and towering gates—overflowed with an almost suffocatingly sweet fragrance of blooming flowers.

This was the private showcase garden of the Ascald Kingdom, a land famously known as the Country of Flowers, and it was arguably the most spectacular spot in the entire realm.

It was right here that the seating for the tea party had been elegantly arranged.

Magnolia narrowed her ibis-rose eyes as she took in the striking contrast between the brilliant, fresh green lawns and the vibrant kaleidoscope of flowers blooming all around.

The garden buzzed with a low hum of bright laughter and overlapping chatter. It was a sea of colorful dresses, with everyone casting surreptitious glances to gauge the competition.

***

Gathered together at the tea party tables inside this beautiful garden were roughly twenty young ladies from the realm's highest aristocratic families.

Whether twenty was a large or small number for an event like this, Magnolia couldn't quite say. But if these girls had been strictly selected based on a rigid set of criteria, then perhaps it leaned toward the higher side.

They were all highborn young ladies whose ages placed them within a three-year bracket—either slightly older or younger—of the kingdom's prince, the Crown Prince.

A short-distance away, an equal number of tables had been set up for the high-ranking noble ladies. The mothers of these young girls sat there, maintaining perfectly graceful smiles while keeping a sharp, watchful eye on their surroundings.

Yes. It was a battle royale disguised as an innocent tea party to select the future Crown Princess—or rather, a high-stakes matchmaking championship.

***

The moment they arrived at the Royal Palace, Claude received an urgent summons from the military department.

Magnolia had originally planned to enter the venue alongside him to ensure the palace couldn't trap her into making any verbal commitments.

Then again, she had fully anticipated that things might play out this way.

Claude had tried to insist on accompanying her to the tea party in his capacity as her official guardian. However, once the palace officials politely reminded him that this was the single safest location in the Royal Capital, guarded around the clock by the Kingsguard, he couldn't exactly refuse the military order without causing a scene.

After giving Magnolia a long, meaningful look to tell her to be on her guard, her uncle left the room with an incredibly sour expression.

(The forecast where he's going calls for a massive storm of low pressure... My deepest condolences to anyone in his path.)

To make matters worse, Lily and Dean were also forbidden from accompanying her and were told to wait in a separate holding room.

Lily had protested, pointing out that Magnolia was still very young, that this was her first time at the Royal Palace, and that she possessed a delicate constitution (which was entirely fake news). But her arguments fell on deaf ears once the officials stated that the palace's own maids and ladies-in-waiting would handle everything inside.

When Lily opened her mouth to argue further, Magnolia simply shook her head to stop her.

(Wow... Talk about a flawless lockdown strategy.)

Faced with a quarantine so thorough it almost made her want to sigh, Magnolia simply offered a faint, amused smile and gave Lily and Dean a reassuring nod.

According to the intelligence reports compiled by Colette and Gai, the financial situation of the royal treasury was actually in quite a desperate state.

While every nation had suffered heavy blows from the prolonged wars, the King and Queen of Ascald were notoriously poor at navigating political and economic waters... and it seemed a fair number of unsavory characters were currently lining their pockets with the crown's wealth.

Apparently, there had been those who tried to advise the crown otherwise, but their efforts went exactly where one would expect.

They say that water too pure breeds no fish and that life requires learning to swallow both the clean and the dirty.

But as the old adage goes, ill weeds grow apace. The Royal Palace was currently overrun by a striking number of petty crooks.

Because of all this, the crown desperately needed the future Crown Princess's maiden family to possess *significant* resources to help bail them out. Magnolia figured they really ought to clean up their own messes, but if they had the ability to do that, they wouldn't be in this predicament to begin with.

...And from their perspective, Magnolia was the absolute perfect target.

Backed by the twin pillars of the Gilmore Marquisate and the Azenda Margraviate, she was a literal cash cow who had launched a string of wildly successful enterprises. Her family commanded a private knight order, and her grandfather was a heavyweight in the military. Her father, though he currently spent his time artfully dodging responsibility, would normally hold an equally powerful position among the civil servants.

On top of all that, she carried the bloodline of a fallen royal house and might very well possess a mysterious inner power.

(If I accidentally give them even a single wrong answer, it's all over for me...)

Magnolia quietly cast her gaze toward the sky for a brief moment before turning back to the lady-in-waiting to signal her compliance.

***

The gathering of young girls felt like a literal flood of bright pastel colors.

Every child wore an outfit carefully designed to make her look as adorable as humanly possible. They were a flock of fluffy, radiant little things, looking just like fairy-tale princesses.

With almost everyone already seated, the highly anticipated daughter of the House of Gilmore finally made her entrance.

Her facial features were so perfectly formed and placed that her face looked entirely flawless. Her hair, eyes, and skin tone possessed a soft, delicate palette, making her look like a dainty spun-sugar confection.

Yet, despite her sweet appearance, she wore a dress of deep indigo—a shade so dark and rich it bordered on iron-black. The stark color provided a striking contrast that anchored her overly soft impression, serving instead to beautifully highlight her elegant, graceful features.

***

Magnolia scanned the remaining open seats.

She had been assigned a spot at the lower end of the tables.

Given that the room was packed entirely with high-ranking nobility, the slight variation in seating hierarchy was technically negligible...

However, on paper, the Steizen family held the highest rank here, while in terms of actual geopolitical influence, the Gilmore family stood at the absolute top.

(Is this supposed to be a petty little insult? Like a 'do you understand your place?' kind of thing? Or are they making an example out of me, acting as if a flawed child belongs at the bottom?)

Personally, Magnolia didn't care where she sat.

In fact, she would have happily skipped the event entirely if given the choice... but she wondered if the palace staff wouldn't face a massive backlash for a blunder like this.

「Are you certain this is my assigned seat?」

Magnolia anchored her core and let her voice drop to a low, quiet tone.

The lady-in-waiting who had guided her looked visibly flustered and darted an anxious glance toward an older woman, who appeared to be her superior.

(Ah, so that one is the boss of the maids.)

Magnolia directed her gaze toward the older woman, but the senior lady-in-waiting simply kept her eyes fixed straight ahead, pretending not to notice. *I see how it is,* Magnolia thought.

As a test, Magnolia shifted her eyes toward the table that normally should have been hers. A striking young girl with magnificent, flame-red hair was quietly observing her, while the other three girls at the table tilted their heads in confusion.

Recalling the list Colette had provided, Magnolia began matching the faces of the mothers seated in the guardian section with the noble directory in her head. She locked eyes with each of them in turn and offered a sharp, knowing smile. A few of them flinched or looked away guiltily—a surefire sign that they had a hand in this arrangement.

(I'll be sure to keep this little stunt in mind during our future business negotiations. Thanks for the heads-up, everyone.)

She glanced over to locate Lady Wisteria, who was sitting comfortably in the upper section reserved for high-ranking guardians. Her mother wore a slightly troubled expression.

...Well, given that high society assumed the family had hidden Magnolia away until age six, Wisteria would likely draw a barrage of criticism if she spoke up out of turn. Given the nature of the event, causing a scene would be highly inappropriate. Consequently, her mother had chosen to remain a quiet observer.

「Very well. This seat will do just fine... Pardon the intrusion, everyone.」

As she offered a polite nod to the young ladies who were already seated, a few of them returned the gesture with small, hesitant nods of their own.

Among the children, some clearly understood the underlying political tension while others remained completely oblivious, but their mothers in the back looked utterly pale.

(Sorry about that,) Magnolia thought, feeling a twinge of sympathy for the parents as she offered them a flawless, radiant smile she had practiced under Rosa's strict tutelage.

***

A short while later, the Queen, the Prince, and the Chancellor made their grand entrance.

The Queen wore her magnificent golden hair swept up in an elaborate style, complemented by a chic gray gown.

While she possessed an undeniable aura of aristocratic refinement, Colette’s blunt description of her as a "bizarre creature" felt entirely accurate.

Given that her child was only ten, one might expect her to look quite young, but she showed visible signs of maturity. Although she was meticulously groomed and appeared youthful at first glance, a closer look revealed she was likely fast approaching her forties. In a land where a royal woman's primary duty was to secure the line of succession early, it was clear she had given birth quite late in life.

The guest of honor, the Prince himself, turned out to be a sharp-witted, somewhat mischievous-looking boy.

His deep brown hair and bronze-colored eyes gave him a relatively grounded appearance, but true to Colette's assessment, his eyes constantly darted around the room and he couldn't seem to sit still. He struck Magnolia as an incredibly restless child.

(Wait... the Prince isn't wearing pumpkin pants?)

He wore a formal dress uniform designed like an adult's, which felt like a bit of a letdown. Then again, Magnolia figured she should just be glad she didn't have to suppress a laughing fit at the sight of actual pumpkin pants.

True to the expectations of an otome game, the boy possessed an exceptionally high facial-beauty rating. As expected of a provisional capture target.

At just ten years old, he still retained a boyish cuteness, but the overall structure of his face was sharp and dignified. It was easy to see that he would eventually grow into a fierce, intensely handsome man.

Magnolia could feel a wave of excitement ripple through the young ladies as they gazed upon the handsome prince. She studied him intently herself... but internally, she simply tilted her head.

(Hmm. I mean, sure, he's definitely good-looking, but...)

The problem was that Magnolia's everyday environment was practically crawling with abnormally attractive men.

Her father possessed a soothing, fairy-tale prince countenance; her older brother was the sharp, athletic type (and she suppose she could throw Grandfather Servas into that category too); and Dean was the textbook definition of adorable.

Even Prince Ernest, a genuine foreign royal traveling incognito, was a masterclass in gentlemanly charm, not to mention Yugo and Ethan. Ethan, much like her father, looked exactly like a soft-spoken prince from a storybook.

And to top it all off, she had an uncle with an exquisitely beautiful, coolly elegant face.

Having to look at faces like those on a daily basis meant a literal prince didn't strike her as anything particularly special.

(Character matters a whole lot more than a pretty face...)

Holding a conviction that ran bone-deep, the young girl quietly lifted her teacup to her lips. Unfortunately for the Prince, a handsome exterior alone wasn't enough to make her heart skip a beat.

Looking past the main group, Magnolia spotted Brian standing toward the rear. Her brother noticed her gaze and quickly shifted his eyes away, looking thoroughly awkward.

Now fourteen, Brian was reportedly treated as a member of the Prince's inner circle. Between his classes at the academy, he was undergoing training as an apprentice in the Kingsguard, which meant he served as an escort knight a few times a week. He looked noticeably sharper and more mature than he had two years ago, steadily closing the distance to adulthood.

(And the Chancellor... must be that man over there.)

Duke Bristol was a slightly portly, balding middle-aged man—or perhaps an old man.

His gaze was incredibly piercing, a trait likely honed by his profession. However, he looked distinctly uncomfortable surrounded by a sea of women at a tea party, his eyebrows drooping in a slightly troubled expression.

Magnolia wondered what he was even doing here. Was he acting as an observer? A witness? Or was he here to provide damage control? She tilted her head as she watched the middle-aged man fret with an anxious expression.

And so.

With every table thoroughly scrutinized and the Queen kicking things off with a highly cheerful greeting, the matchmaking party disguised as an innocent tea party finally declared its commencement.

*****

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