-Chirp chirp.
“…Ummm? Ummm… Haaah…yawn…! Smack…”
Rosaria opened her eyes to the chirping of sparrows announcing the morning, stretched, and loosened her body.
Swish-
“Hoo, the morning sunlight is dazzling.”
Having gotten enough sleep, Rosaria, feeling as light as a feather, got out of bed and pulled back the curtains covering the window, bathing her whole body in the dazzling morning sunlight.
The refreshing scent of grass rising from the dew-covered lawn and the fresh morning air.
Looking out the window, she saw the mountain peaks in the distance, already preparing for winter by shedding the diligently grown leaves and spreading their bare branches.
“Are you awake, Miss?”
“Bennet, please bring me a cup of coffee.”
“Yes, Miss!”
Rosaria asked Bennet, who had come to help her wake up as always, for a cup of coffee.
“Here you are.”
“Mmm- The smell of savory coffee~”
‘It’s weird to have coffee in a fantasy, but whatever.’
Bennet, who had diligently brewed coffee for Rosaria, handed her the cup, and Rosaria lightly flared her nostrils, enjoying the savory aroma of the coffee.
“…Slurp—…Mmm, delicious. Thank you for always brewing such delicious coffee, Bennet.”
“It’s my first time making coffee today, though. Still, I’m glad you’re happy, Miss! Hehe.”
Rosaria, who had extended her little finger and supported the teacup, took a sip of coffee and praised Bennet, who scratched her head and smiled shyly.
“Then, will you call me when breakfast is ready?”
“Yes, Miss~”
After handing her the morning coffee and leaving the room, Rosaria was left alone.
The wind blowing in through the window collided with the curtains, creating a scene that rippled like waves.
“Hehe, this is it. The victor’s. Slurp”
Isn’t that also elegance?
Rosaria leaned against the window frame, enjoying her coffee and savoring a leisurely morning—
“What a show, what a show.”
“Puhuk?! Cough! What?!”
“What have you been doing since earlier? It’s embarrassing just watching you.”
–but thanks to Felix’s sudden appearance, the coffee she had in her mouth went down the wrong pipe, causing Rosaria’s whole body to jolt.
“…What about it! Can’t I have a leisurely cup of coffee in my own house? Even though the ordeal of a sudden final exam came upon me, I passed it with flying colors! This body! Huh!?”
But Rosaria was not discouraged.
She had passed the exam and was so happy and liberated to be able to come home during the break instead of being stuck in the dormitory taking supplementary classes that she was caught doing something she wouldn’t normally do.
The fact that she was caught by her own brother was very embarrassing and shameful, but Rosaria was confident.
Because.
She had passed the exam brilliantly and returned home triumphantly—
“How proud. As if you barely passed every subject by the skin of your teeth.”
“Ugh…!?”
Rosaria’s statement collapsed with Felix’s pointed remark.
“What’s ‘s more, in an exam with a perfect score of 100 and a supplementary class cut-off of 40, you got 41, 42 on everything… and what’s 40.5? The professor who was grading your exam couldn’t understand what he wrote and even came to me to ask. Whether he should give partial credit or not.”
“Cough…!?”
“Besides, I heard you got 39.5 in Basic Economics? How many times did you beg and cry for a retest until right before the end of the semester so you wouldn’t have to take supplementary classes?”
“Th, that’s…!”
On the day of the exam.
Unlike when she confidently took the exam, the reality that faced her was merciless.
As soon as she opened the exam paper, she couldn’t even understand the first question for more than 5 minutes, and when she barely moved on to the second question, that question alone took up 10 minutes.
She had definitely memorized it in her head, but because she had crammed so much information into her head so urgently, she remembered the answers themselves, but forgot which question they were the answers to.
In the end, Rosaria somehow racked her brains, wrote down all the answers she could remember on one side of the exam paper, and randomly filled them in.
Just before the exam time was over, Rosaria managed to fill in the answer sheet somehow, and the exam paper was so wet with her sweat that the proctor who was collecting the exam papers was so surprised that he almost dropped her exam paper on the floor.
She repeated that several times, and finally the exam was over.
The result was a precarious passing score that she had fought for.
The exam results were truly disastrous, but she barely managed to avoid supplementary classes.
However, because all the students’ grades were posted on the bulletin board in the hallway, Rosaria had to endure the gazes of countless students looking at her after checking her grades.
At that moment, Rosaria felt like she wanted to hide in a mouse hole.
But so what?
The academy was over, and she was at home.
In that situation, while she was mentally 2-ing, thinking, ‘Oh well~ It’s enough that I didn’t take supplementary classes,’ Felix was raining on her parade.
“Shut up! Shut up shut up!!! It’s enough that I passed! Why do I care after that?”
“….”
“That look! That look of looking down on me! Don’t look at me like that, it’s annoying!”
“Besides, I heard Princess Rachel helped you study? Rachel was the top of the class in the same grade even while helping you study?”
“..Don’t mention that name.”
Then, Felix, unable to watch Rosaria, who was getting angry and jumping around at his criticism, mentioned Rachel’s name, and Rosaria froze on the spot.
In fact, Rosaria’s skills alone would have made it as difficult as picking stars from the sky to get even that precarious 40 points.
However, thanks to Rachel’s help, whom she had accidentally met in the library, Rosaria was able to come home like this.
But.
“Musclesarebodycomponentsinanimalswhich, alongwithbones, providetheoverallshapeofthebodyandenablemovement. Bonesandm usclesarecollectivelycalledthemusculoskeletal system.Itiscomposedofbundlesofmusclefibers, andsmallinjuriescanberepairedbynaturalhealing, andifadeliberateamountofdamagei sdonethroughintentionalexercisetodevelopstrongermuscles….”
“? What’s wrong?”
“Hiek!? You didn’t sleep! So please, no more blank paper assignments…!”
In order to cram exam knowledge into Rosaria’s empty brain, Rachel had no choice but to take special measures, and Rosaria panicked at the mere mention of Rachel’s name,
remembering that if it was difficult to memorize, she would have to forcibly cram it in, and she had written the same sentence, the same word, dozens, hundreds of times.
It was hard.
Writing the blank paper assignments themselves was not tiring for someone with inexhaustible stamina, but the process of writing the same letters over and over again was mentally exhausting and difficult.
In addition, she was too tired and tried to escape by making up appropriate excuses, but she failed every time due to Rachel’s pursuit, who accurately found out where she was hiding, and she had to write the blank paper assignments while crying and eating mustard.
“Anyway, let’s stop and go eat.”
“Uh… okay…”
Rosaria followed Felix, who looked bewildered at Rosaria’s panic, and walked away with her shoulders drooping pitifully.
“…..”
‘… It was hard, but isn’t it okay? After all, I’m at home now, not at the academy… so I won’t see her, right?’
‘Yeah, I’m invincible now. What’s the problem?’
“…Ah~ I’m hungry! What’s for breakfast today?”
“…Brother. Is there something wrong with you since earlier? Why are you acting like you have schizophrenia?”
“Shut up, you brat. Let’s just go quickly.”
Then, Rosaria suddenly realized that she was at home, not at the academy, and realized that she didn’t need to be so scared and intimidated.
“What’s for breakfast today~”
Bang-
Thinking that, Rosaria immediately perked up again and walked vigorously to open the dining room door.
“Oh my, you’re late?”
“Gheak?!”
However, as she entered the dining room with a beaming smile, Rosaria let out an animalistic scream at the sight that unfolded right before her eyes.
Even though it was supposed to be her home and not the academy, Rachel, the very person who had caused her to panic so much, was sitting there enjoying dessert.
“Wh, wh, wh…why is Rachel…?”
“Since the academy is over, I visited to proceed with the story we shared last time.”
“But…was that scream just now, perhaps, because of me?”
“Hikkup…!”
“Oh my…Rosaria Senior…no, Lady Rosaria seems to dislike me very much?”
“N, no…it’s not like that…I…well…Gheak!?”
“Oh my.”
“Brother?!”
“Miss!?”
Rosaria, who had been relieved, was hit directly by a dagger that flew in, and stammered in confusion, then fell backwards with a strange noise and fainted.
“The tea smells wonderful. You have excellent tea-making skills.”
“It is an honor beyond words to receive praise for the tea of a humble butler from you, Your Highness.”
As Rachel lightly put down her teacup and raised the corners of her mouth in a smile, Gordon, who had bent his waist perfectly
vertically, bowed his head as if honored.
“I envy you for having such an excellent butler, Countess.”
“It is embarrassing for the sun of the empire to say such a thing, Your Highness Princess Rachel.”
Then, Freya, who was sitting across from her and sipping tea as well, smiled and replied to her compliment.
“By the way, I would like to apologize for the commotion this morning. Please forgive my daughter’s rudeness.”
“It’s okay. She’s still the same. I’m also interested?”
“Oh my, Your Highness is interested in our daughter? How glorious.”
“I’ve been watching her since the academy. I didn’t know we would be connected like this.”
“What a coincidence, I’m so glad. Hoho.”
“Haha.”
It was a scene that seemed like a graceful and dignified tea party of the ruling class.
A scene where they smiled at each other, exchanged pleasantries, and laughed softly.
But.
“….”
“….”
The two put down their teacups as if they had made a promise, and kept silent for a moment.
Unfortunately, this time was not just a tea party to enjoy the aroma of tea and cookies and laugh.
“Then, may we move on to the main topic? Countess?”
“Of course. Fifth Princess.”
A smile spread across Rachel’s lips as she opened her closed mouth, but her eyes were faintly trembling.
An unknown chill swept through the office, where warmth had lingered until just now, and the air was cooling down.
Now, the meeting taking place in this office would be the cornerstone of everything that would happen afterwards.