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Strike at the Root of the Problem

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*****

Apparently, Thomas's lessons carried a different flavor of strictness compared to Sebastian's, so Magnolia spent a little time listening to Dean vent.

Despite his complaining, he was a hard worker at heart, and lately, she felt he was really settling into his role as a servant.

He was a boy who had originally wanted to be a knight.

But lately, he hadn't been bringing that up anymore.

A mix of responsibility, a sense of accomplishment, worry, and friendship—all sorts of overlapping emotions were probably swirling around inside him.

Magnolia figured he could take his time deciding; she just didn't want to become a shackle holding him back.

Whenever they were back at the Margrave's estate, the two of them still went out for training every morning. On top of that, Dean had started learning self-defense techniques from Gai to handle thugs.

When Magnolia said she wanted to learn too, both Gai and Dean flatly refused, telling her it would only make her dive into danger even more often.

「...Want to go outside for a match?」

Magnolia grinned, grabbing a wooden sword and tossing it toward Dean.

The sharp sound of wood clashing echoed from the garden.

One set of strikes was fast but light, clearly lacking weight. The other side's rhythm occasionally broke, showing they were struggling to deal with an opponent who kept darting all over the place.

Claude had been reviewing documents sent over from the military, but he closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the rhythm of the clashing wooden swords. If he concentrated, he could easily picture their serious faces, their movements, and the exact trajectory of their blades.

...Four years ago, when he'd been forced to watch Magnolia's suspicious dance (?), he hadn't known what to make of it, but it was safe to say she had gotten a whole lot better since then.

Apparently, a long time ago, the Gilmore family had a fierce warrior woman known as the "Princess General"... but unfortunately, Magnolia didn't exactly have a talent for the sword.

Still, she should at least be able to hold her own for a little while in an emergency.

Dean wasn't bad, but his nature just wasn't suited for wielding a blade. Claude felt he could understand why the boy's parents had recommended he become a servant.

Knowing the terror of weapons was incredibly important. They were tools that could both protect and take a life, not something to be swung around carelessly.

Word was he originally wanted to be a knight, and Magnolia was constantly fussing over him so he wouldn't give up on his dream... but Claude honestly thought the boy was better suited to being a servant than a knight or a soldier. He wondered how it would turn out.

Signing the document, Claude tossed it into the completed box and walked out toward the balcony. Opening the large French windows and looking down, he saw fluffy curls fluttering in the wind alongside a casually tied mop of pink hair bouncing energetically.

Being petite, Magnolia naturally lost out in brute strength against the older Dean. To make up for it, she excelled at using her agile body to launch surprise attacks.

「Magnolia, step into it more!」

Responding to Claude's shout, she took a big step forward and swung with all her might. Dean gritted his teeth and held his ground.

Magnolia leaped backward as if floating through the air, and Dean pressed his advantage, closing in sharply.

「Dean, don't back off! Strike right through!」

「Yes, sir!」

No sooner had he answered than the wooden sword sliced through the air. The strike was too fast to dodge; she could only block it.

「Hold your ground!」

Magnolia widened her stance, gripping both the hilt and the blade of her wooden sword to block the incoming blow. Her bracing feet dug into the dirt, sliding backward inch by inch.

「Gwah~! Time out, time out! My hands are totally numb!」

Letting out a weird yelp, Magnolia dropped her wooden sword and shook her hands out limply.

「Are you okay?」

Dean asked anxiously, peering down at her small hands. Magnolia shrugged.

「I'm fine, I'm fine. But if the gap in our strength is already this big, we won't even be able to spar in two or three years.」

Dean, who had turned ten this year, would probably hit his growth spurt in a few years. Combined with the biological differences, the gap in their physical strength was bound to widen even more.

「...Are you planning to keep swinging wooden swords around even at that age?」

Claude looked entirely exasperated, but Magnolia looked up at the second floor and puffed out her chest as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

「Of course I am! If I don't practice, I won't be able to move when it really counts!!」

Dean and Claude shared a wry smile at the sight of Magnolia strutting so proudly.

Dean's two older brothers attended the Royal Academy and usually lived in the dorms. Students who lived in the capital or whose families owned townhouses commuted from home, but those who didn't left their parents to live in the campus dormitories.

To see their younger brother for the first time in a while, the brothers visited the Margrave's townhouse. Despite the age gap, the siblings seemed close, and Dean, being the youngest, was thoroughly doted on.

When Magnolia told him to take the weekend off to spend time with his brothers, Dean lowered his brows in conflict.

「But Miss Lily is on leave too, so there won't be anyone left to look after you.」

「The townhouse has its own maids, so you don't need to worry about it at all.」

To begin with, Magnolia didn't require constant coddling like other noble young ladies. She was perfectly capable of handling her own basic daily needs.

The maid chimed in as well, urging him to go since it had been so long since they last met, so Dean finally headed off to his brothers, looking rather reluctant to leave.

Once it was just her and the maid left, Magnolia reopened Violet's notebook. The attentive maid brewed a sweet tea, gently slid it across the table, and quietly stepped back against the wall.

The room fell silent, save for the quiet rustling of turning pages.

Even if she had a few chances to encounter the prince like at the recent tea party... the game's plot wouldn't actually kick off until the heroine, Margaret, enrolled in the Academy. Compared to the impeccably groomed Gardinia, Magnolia rarely visited the royal palace until she reached a certain age.

The reasons went without saying.

Margaret was the same age as Magnolia. The *Min-Koi* game itself was set at the Academy, and pretty much all the events took place within its grounds.

It would be terrifying if some kind of narrative rail-roading force eventually kicked in, but for now, she didn't possess a single millimeter of admiration or romantic feeling toward the prince. If anything, her opinion of him was in the negatives.

Unless the royal family aggressively pushed for it, an engagement would never be finalized. Neither the Gilmore house, the Azenda Margraviate, nor Magnolia herself wanted it in the slightest; in fact, they were completely geared up to avoid it.

Even if the royals did push hard, she could probably dodge it with a very high success rate just by claiming she had a weak constitution and couldn't produce an heir.

After all, an heir was absolute to the royal family. ...In a worst-case scenario, someone else with a claim to the throne might step up. To prevent that, it was easy to guess that they would be incredibly cautious when choosing a partner for the prince, who was an only son.

The Academy was also where she would meet Prince Julius, who connected to the sequel game.

(Wait... doesn't that mean simply not enrolling in the Academy is the ultimate choice?)

This wasn't a world where graduating from the Academy was mandatory. Not to mention, Magnolia already possessed knowledge far exceeding an Academy graduate.

School wasn't just about studying. It was about group life, learning how to behave in society, and building relationships with friends. Having been an adult in her past life, she knew perfectly well that it was a place to learn, make friends, create memories, and grow from those experiences.

But the risk she'd have to take in exchange was just way too high. Another war? Absolutely not. No way.

Things like social skills and building relationships were old news to Magnolia, who already had one foot firmly planted in the working world. While friendship with peers was important, friendships with an age gap could be wonderful too. Once you entered society, you'd deal with different age groups the vast majority of the time anyway.

...If she absolutely had to go to a school, she could just study abroad at an academy in another country where neither the prince nor the imperial prince would ever cross her path.

Since her mindset was completely different now, chances were high that even if she did enroll, she wouldn't walk the same path. She had zero intention of bullying Margaret, and she didn't care about competing with Gardinia at all.

(But nipping it in the bud is way easier, more certain, and a lot less hassle.)

The prince aside, the queen was the real problem. If Magnolia lived in the Royal Capital, the queen would probably find some excuse or another to get involved with her.

(...Yup. Let's go with that.)

Magnolia pulled out a piece of paper, folded it in half, wrote "Min-Koi" and "Pre-Koi" as headings on each side, and began extracting the key points.

*****

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