RATH Side Story 6
TL: Eevee

TLN: Special thanks to anon, Rando and GDF for fixing my atrocious editing last chapter.

Side Story – A certain princess’s memories (6)

“Your Highness.”
“……”
“Your Highness.”
“……”
“Your Highness…”
“……”

I bit down hard on my lips as I refused to look at Ast who was calling for me.

Yesterday I was thoroughly toyed with.

In a game of strategy and tactics, Ast deceived me, and I fell for his traps and continued to lose to him.

To think he would order a direct charge with only knights, how much more could you look down on me?

And three times at that!

“Your Highness.”

Because of that, throughout the rest of yesterday’s games, the possibility that he would use that bizzare knight charge strategy again kept weighing down on me.

But after that, Ast didn’t use that strategy a single time.

And because of that Reia has her nose sky high in the air and extremely pleased with herself.

“Your Highness, Your Highness. Even if you lost a whopping twelve times to yesterday, you shouldn’t be ignoring Sir Ast like that.”
“I’m not.”
“Eyy, you are.”

Really, I could never have imagined Reia like this before Ast came along.

As I thought, Ast was the problem all along.

“Ast.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”

Just how could I make that emotionless face of his twist around.

What did I have to do to plant the seeds of fear into Ast, the man who would even face off against me, the imperial princess, with complete shamelessness.

“What do you fear?”
“What do I fear?”

As I nodded, Ast was momentarily lost in thought.

“Sir Ast, what about the evil god? The evil god that nearly destroyed the world!”
“Since I don’t know whether it really did nearly destroy the world or not, it’s not that very scary to me.”
“Information about the evil god is held by all the major temples, Sir Ast. Saying things like that could lead to disciplinary action from the temples!”
“There’s not even anyone from the temples here so what does it matter. They say that they even insult His Imperial Majesty where he is not present, so who would listen in if you cursed a god where no one was looking?”

Is Ast really a commoner?

As far as I was aware, the emperor and the temples were objects of fear and worship to commoners.

And yet this man was asking what did it matter if you insulted my father right inside the imperial court!

“Although I don’t know about His Majesty, the gods know everything that happens in the world! They’re listening!”

Was Reia also influenced by Ast.

Or did Reia simply act like she normally did, saying out of ignorance.

Did she even realise that she said even though you couldn’t curse god, you could curse my father?

“Then… mmm… hmmm~”

After a lot of thinking, she yelled at Ast with her eyes wide open.

“What about your family continually telling you to get married? That at this rate you’re going to be a spinster, or you’ve already lost your opportunity for marriage!”

Ah, Reia… that’s…

“So was that the case, Sir Reia?”
“Cough.”

As if she realised her own mistake, Reia clutched her non-existent breasts and collapsed.

Although in this case would you say that you clutched your heart and collapsed?

“So that was how it was. You were being pressured to hurry up and get married.”
“S, Sir Ast.”

At Ast’s pitying eyes, Reia began to backpedal while still sprawled out on the ground.

“They’re calling you a spinster.”
“Stop, stop…. Please stop…”

You could see the corners of her eyes moisten with tears.

But even so, Ast ignored Reia’s appearance and hammered home the finisher.

“You’ve passed your marriageable age.”
“Uwaaahhhhhhh!”

Tears dripped down, big fat droplets.

As Ast looked at Reia scream with his fingers in his ears, he smiled brightly.

“Ending up like Sir Reia truly is a bit scary.”
“You’re mean, you’re mean, you’re mean!”

To think that a swordsmaster would be in tears just over marriage problems.

The only place you could see this in the empire, no, the entire continent would probably be here.

“It’s alright, Reia. If you still can’t get married then tell His Majesty. I’ll make sure you get an imperial edict that lets you get married.”
“Sob… Your Highness, you don’t need to go that far! No, to begin with, isn’t that saying that it’s impossible for me to get married without an imperial edict?!”

Reia rubbed her presumably reddened eyes and pouted, lower lip sticking out, and she was as cute as a rabbit.

‘Ah, this isn’t it.’

Reia is too dangerous. She keeps emanating this aura that makes me want to tease her, and throwing my mind into chaos.

‘Something that Ast fears.’

Although I didn’t expect it to begin with, of course he didn’t say anything with his own mouth.

Aside from Reia, there wouldn’t be any idiots that would reveal their own weaknesses by themselves in the imperial court.

In that case, I need to find out what Ast fears on my own.

Being snippy even to me the imperial princess with that iron face of his, the one who sold out my name to raise his favourite tea in the palace gardens…

“Ast.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”

As Ast bowed his head with perfect etiquette I rarely ever saw from him, I smiled brightly at him.

“Looking at Reia, I think I’m afraid of ending up like that as well.”
“Y, Your Highness!”
“Yes, any person would be afraid of ending up in that horrifying state.”
“Sir Ast! Horrifying! You two are talking about me right now right? Right?”

As I looked at tearful Reia and Ast who had his head bowed and shoulders quivering from trying to hold in his laughter, I said to Ast those ultimate words that I had thought of.

“So, Ast. Marry me.”
“Your Highness?!”
“Your Highness?”

Grit.

He clamped his lips tightly shut, and ground his teeth.

That was it, that was the expression I wanted to see from Ast.

Ast’s two eyes were dyed in horror, and his expression was contorted as if someone had told him the world was ending.

And shortly afterwards, his expression changed to someone wondering whether I was insane.

“Even if it’s me, that kind of face does hurt a bit, Ast.”
“Then before you have the capacity to think such things, would it not be better for Your Highness to consider your bu… I mean your statement you just said?”

No matter how wild Ast ran rampant, perhaps even he didn’t have the courage to choose the word bullshit right to my face as he hurriedly changed words.

“Yes, that’s right. That makes absolutely no sense, Your Highness! Please reconsider! No, before that, was my appearance that dangerous to you?”
“Yep.”
“Cough.”

I ignored Reia collapsing while clutching her diminutive chest again and continued on the offensive against Ast.

“To think Reia would collapse grabbing a chest with nothing to hold on to, she might as well grab onto a nearby man and marry him instead.”
“Ugghhh…”

As Reia groped her small chest and muttered she still had hope, literally holding onto hope, she glared at Ast.

“Your Highness. There are two things that Your Highness is mistaking. The first is that Sir Reia does not have small breasts.”
“S, Sir Ast?”

Reia stopped her groping and looked at Ast with expectant eyes.

Reia really is an idiot.

“Sir Reia’s breasts are not small, but absent. Therefore, Sir Reia does not own small breasts, but no breasts! Although she has reached the peak of martial ability as a swordsmaster, her breasts are non-existent! Your Highness has just declared that something existed where in reality it did not!”
“Awawawa…”

And betrayed as deeply as she believed, Reia stood blankly with her mouth agape as she burned out to ashes.

“Then the second?”
“That she should grab onto a nearby man, that is, me. Are there not many men around Your Highness?”

That’s, I get what he’s saying but the phrasing is a bit out there.

“You do realise you’re saying something very weird, Ast? You’re saying that as if I, a girl barely ten years old is actively hunting for men?”
“I simply said the truth. There are numerous men guarding Your Highness’s vicinity. Am I the only man around you?”
“Hm~ the romance between a personal steward and a princess, don’t you think that would sell quite well as a novel or a ballad?”
“It seems Your Highness has not kept up with the trends. Lately the love between an emperor or crown prince and their maid, or a queen or princess and her knight is what has been popular.”

“Really, now?”

As I looked at Ast with my head tilted crookedly, Ast made a face as if he had enough of this.

“Your Highness, I will ask you directly. You just said that in order to annoy me, didn’t you?”
“Yep, I did.”

As he looked at me breaking out into laughter, Ast sighed deeply.

“What would you have done if someone else heard that, I have no wish to die.”
“Why, you think that one of the pathetic nobles that keep sending me engagement letters will dispose of you?”

Even if I looked like this, you could count my position to the throne on a single hand’s worth of five fingers.

Meaning, if one could get engaged with me, then they would earn the right to aim for the emperor’s throne.

Because of that, I had imbeciles blinded by ambition, and the idiots also throwing their hats into the ring to stop the imbeciles’ families.

Then there was also those trying out because why not like the Ten Great Families.

Perhaps not for the families with power like the Ten Great Families, but there are some smaller marquis houses who actually could move to dispose of Ast just over rumours.

“Don’t worry. At the very least, I don’t like people touching my things.”
“Although I’m fine as long as Your Highness isn’t the one poking me around.”

As I burst out into laughter again, Ast sighed deeply as if to sink into the earth.

“Your Highness, my case aside, I think Sir Reia’s damage is quite significant so I believe it would be for the best to stop here.”
“Eh, Reia?”

I took a look over at Reia who would normally have recovered on her own and be sulking in a corner.

“…This time really is pretty bad.”

Looking at Reia who was staring blankly at the ceiling with a dropped mouth and unfocused eyes, I actually was kind of surprised.

Was I too harsh this time? No, hang on a second.

“Wait, wasn’t that because you called her breasts non-existent, Ast?”

I at least had stuck to the very thin line of calling her breasts small.

Since this was true, not even Reia could say a word otherwise.

Because considering she’s nine full years older than me, my breasts have already caught up with hers.

So what turned Reia like that was definitely Ast’s no breasts declaration.

“You were too harsh, Ast. Even Reia doesn’t have no breasts. Even men have them if you’re human.”
“Your Highness knows perfectly well that was not what I was talking about. You can easily find ordinary men that have breasts bigger than Sir Reia’s. In that case it would not be incorrect to say she has no breasts.”
“Mmmm… that’s true.”

To think she would lose to men, Reia really does have it bad.

“And therefore Your Highness, I have done nothing wrong. I simply said the truth.”

Well if he puts it like that then I don’t have anything to say either.

Even if Ast was in the wrong by calling her ‘no breasts’ but Reia was the problem for not even being able to argue if she was called that.

“But Reia’s no fun if she’s like that. Since it’s Ast’s fault that Reia turned into that, return her back. If you don’t then there really will be a beautiful story of a princess and her steward floating around the imperial court.”
“Does Your Highness really wish to see me dead?”

As I shrugged while hiding a grin, Ast made a face as if he was done with this as he whispered something into Reia’s ear.

This, is working better than I expected?

Although I felt a bit miffed that Ast rejected me like that, but Asts’s face of torment was more amusing than I’d expected.

I watched on as whatever magic words Ast was whispering into Reia’s ears brought her dying eyes back sparkling with life.

“Done.”
“Already? Reia’s condition this time was pretty serious, what did you say to her?”
“Well, it was simple. Since she became like that because she couldn’t get married, I said I would introduce her to a few men I was acquainted with.”
“Ast, you had things such as acquaintances?”
“There were a few people who tried to use my connection to Your Highness.”
“And you’re introducing those kinds of people to Reia?”
“It’s impossible for Sir Reia anyway, isn’t it? Anyways she’ll feel happy for a while as long as I say I’ll introduce someone to her so it’s alright.”
“You never know? There might be some insects that are really aiming for Reia’s position and endure really well. And if it’s Reia right now, then she could even marry those insects.”

The higher rank of a noble you were, the more common arranged marriages were.

And in Reia’s case, her family as one of the Ten Greats was an awfully big one.

Moreover Reia’s only alright because of the fact she’s my bodyguard and a swordsmaster, aside from the students that attend the Four Great Academies near the capital, the majority of noble children marry at around seventeen years of age.

And even if they weren’t, most of them would be engaged.

When you considered Reia’s background, nineteen wasn’t too bad, but when you considered all of her meetings have failed so far it might be dangerous.

But to my slight worries, Ast made a face as if nothing was wrong.

“Isn’t it alright?”
“Aren’t you winging it too much just because it’s not your life?”
“No, it really is alright, isn’t it. Either way both Sir Reia and I are Your Highness’s toys, are we not.”
“Hearing someone call themselves a toy with their own mouth, it feels quite quaint.”
“And yet you do not deny it?”
“It’s true after all.”

At my words, the corner of Ast’s mouth curled up as he said.

“Then the moment insects try to approach Sir Reia, would Your Highness not be the one to dispose of them?”
“Even if Reia would be very disappointed?”
“Since when was Your Highness the type of person to care about that.”

Although he said it like it was nothing, just how many commoners exist that would say these things to a member of the imperial family?

As I thought, this man, was thoroughly insane just the way I liked it.