Vol. 3 Chapter 48: Records & Pausing My Training (Patreon)

I was sitting down in a chair at a corner by the palace entrance to wait for the arrival of the packages. With me of course were my three servants, but additional were the normal palace servants waiting with us. As lax as I am, I need only do nothing and let other people do the work.

Letting people do the work for you surely was the best. But I guess that sort of thing would be expected, setting aside the fact that I’m the princess, I was also a delicate lady. Surely you can’t expect someone like me to carry heavy and messy stuff. Oh my…

Let’s leave them to the ones with muscles.

We waited for a few more minutes until someone from the outside came to announce the arrival of the Marquis and his entourage of circus clowns — I’m kidding, just my uncle and his men.

The palace servants got out first followed by me, the sun touched my skin. Ugh, now I prefer to be stuck in my room rather than this, the sun’s too bright for a shut-in like me. Yes, I’m a shut-in now.

A couple of carriages pulled up in front of the entrance. My uncle emerged from the frontmost carriage wearing an annoying grin on his face. You know, I never really thought anything about my uncle, also counting before I came to this world. However, when he started acting all weird, yeah, sometimes he just ticked me, you know.

In any case, we’re gonna be working together, so I had to bear with him. I just have to not give him too much attention and brain power.

“Hello, niece. I have the first batch.”

“Hi, uncle. I am pleased that you finally accomplished that part of the plan.”

“Honestly, I pity those that’s going to be working on that pile.”

He faced the palace servants and used his hand to indicate that they’re free to get the suitcases from the carriages. When I saw the big suitcases being pulled out of the carriages, I couldn’t help but widen my eyes.

Wow, just how many sheets are in those?

Getting a hold of those must never have been easy.

“A lot, huh?” said my uncle. “Three years, everyday records, you ought to at least give me more credit for getting my hands on them.”

“Hm. How did the market react to your demands?”

“Not well. We have to promise to some of them that we would return the records. So, we have to sort them by company. As for sorting by date, we only had gotten less than halfway, given that you were in such a rush.”

“We’ll leave that to the scribes.”

“Don’t overwork them, please.”

“I’m not cruel, uncle. Of course they would get at least six to eight hours of sleep.”

“Right…”

“Oh, you do know your presence will be needed during the compilation of information, right?”

He heaved a retired sigh. “I expected a little that this would happen…”

“As the head of intelligence, your insight will be helpful.”

“And will you be assisting, Estelia?”

“I’ll leave it to the experts.”

“Guess it can’t be helped. I would hope you at least check up on us.”

“I will occasionally.”

Outside of the occasional, I would be doing nothing much! Except of course improving my abilities. Must always go upwards, no stagnation.

“Although, thinking about it, it will be hard for me to be always present.”

“Why?”

“Come now, Estelia. You gave me a lot of tasks, remember?”

“Right… Then I won’t force you. You may visit whenever you have the time.”

“I hope I’ll have plenty of free time…”

With the carriages empty, along with my uncle we followed the servants to the room that we would be using to process all of that stuff. Oh, did I say we? I meant them, hehe.

Considering the volume of documents that they’ll be going through, it was decided beforehand that one of the rooms in the library would be used. Thinking back, it was beside the same room that my mother used to research about the far history of Wisteria.

Not only was the room sizable enough to contain the documents and the workers, it should also be more secure. At first we thought of using my father’s office, but we expected we would need more space to work more freely. And we wouldn’t want to always bother him.

It didn’t take long before we reached the room and the servants immediately started placing the documents on the table as ordered.

“So, what should we do, niece? Wait for the rest to arrive?”

“No, that would be a waste of time. Start sorting everything out first, from oldest records to the newest, differentiated by company.”

“Alright.”

“My father should be coming shortly with the scribes.” I faced Vernon. “Watch them until my father arrives. I’ll be speaking with my uncle for a moment.”

I indicated for my uncle to follow.

“What do you want?” he asked.

We sat down on the chairs by one of the tables in the library lobby.

“How’s the progress on the background checks of the nobles of our kingdom?”

“Background checks were easy, but going into their present business, hidden or not, not easy to keep it subtle.”

“So?”

“We may need more time…”

“.... Nothing we can do then.”

“Why don’t we just send in the agents soon?”

“Do you have enough agents we can trust to do that?”

“... Unfortunately not yet, but it shouldn’t take long. I’m also recalling agents assigned anywhere else in the kingdom, we will have enough numbers in the next couple of weeks.”

“That is good. But ultimately, I want information. I don’t want to go in blind without knowing anything about our nobles, especially in the remote regions. We need to at least know who they are…”

“... It’s your plan. But can we really track down who’s working with the enemy this way?”

“That’s not really the main objective. It’s to find out who will be the most loyal, and also… well, hold them back from doing something damaging to our kingdom.”

“And those we find suspicious?”

“... We’ll cross that bridge when the time comes. Oh, how’s the investigation about Marquis Vekena’s death going? Any news?”

“Nothing much. But from his wife, we knew a few of the times when the Marquis left in the middle of the night. And there have been a couple of witnesses seeing unknown men walking down the road not far from where the Marquis died.”

“And those unknown men happen to appear the same night Marquis Vekenas left?”

“Yes.”

“Have you tracked them down?”

“We only know they appeared a few times, but we have no idea where they went.”

“... I see.”

“We have been thinking that the Marquis is involved in something… unwanted.”

“Such as?”

“Unknown men? Something not good… Could be something that goes against the kingdom’s interests.”

“Mm… keep investigating these strangers. But prioritize nobles that may betray our nation in times of… direness.”

“Right. But, if the Marquis would ever be found as a traitor… what would we do with his family?”

“That is a problem for another day. Still, his family would have nothing to do with it.”

“... We’ll see… Your father has arrived.”

I turned around to see my father with the rest of the scribes, beside him was my mother, smiling so pleasantly. My brother Eleden and his assistant Lucious were also with them. As for Estevan, come on… can’t expect him to show up in a place full of papers.

I greeted all of them while standing up, then my father faced my uncle.

“Meril… Is everything good?”

“Yes… Well, your daughter just added another job to my pile. Please tell her to take it easy on me.”

I faced him with a frown, but he merely smirked at me. He really gonna start complaining straight to the head boss?

“I’ll try telling her that. But as she had already given it to you, I’m afraid I can’t do anything about that.”

“Of course…” Uncle Meril turned to look at me again and smiled.

“... Father, you ought to check the papers that arrived.” I said, ignoring my uncle.

“Yes… I’ll get right on it.”

“Uncle, please assist my father, in case he has any inquiry.”

“Right, right.”

As for me, I’ll hang back and wait until they have started, and I’ll take a closer look at things.

“I will be outside to practice my magic.”

***

It had been a peaceful few days, what a time to be alive. To think I have fewer things to worry about, aside from a potential war with a big empire, but let’s not think about the negative things, shall we? At the moment, I was outside the palace, the usual spot with a tree where I train for more dangerous things.

A place where I cannot be disturbed, where it was only me and my all reliable servants. This was a nice place where it would be safe if my magic goes wrong. And oh, it often goes wrong.

Holy shit it’s cold!

Yup, I kinda fucked up it up already. Dammit!

Why is it so hard to make small snow that follows my whims? And not unleash a flood of cold whiteness. Like a true blizzard.

But nooo, all I spawned were piles of condensed snow!

“Princess! Are you alright?!” Rogan shouted from somewhere within this snowy plane.

Yeah, he was caught up in it, and I sort of accidentally blew him away with my snow. And now, along with this fog, wind, and piles of snow, he lost me and I lost him. I couldn’t control this spell perfectly and I was even caught in the intense cold.

Looks like winter came in early, hehe.

What was I trying to do exactly? Basically control the wind, the fog, the snow, and well, mix in some sharp shards of ice within the storm in a specific spot — and also move them around. But apparently, it was easier said than done.

Now, for where was I exactly? Buried in snow, with my head only poking out. It was quite comfy to be honest. My dress was not wet either, considering that this was merely my magic — but I’m planning to make them real snow when I get more used to it.

The fog disappeared and everything became clear, the wind normalized and what remained was the snow that piled up in the once greeny area.

“Milady, we’ll remove the snow!”

No Mera, no need for that, it’s actually pretty chill here.

While Mera was about to start digging through the snow along with Rogan who just pushed himself through it all, Vernon stepped forward and looked around.

“It’s amazing you are able to manage something like this.”

Everything around us was covered in snow, almost like winter only fell here where I was. It would seem I was too precious for the world that it gave one of its beautiful seasons to grace me first before everywhere and everyone else.

Then he continued, “Shouldn’t you be able to remove these snows, your highness?”

“I’m still working on that!”

I still needed to make myself appropriate, who knows how messed up my dress underneath the snow. Don’t want any indecency~. I cast some wind from my hands and feet to gently push away the snow enclosing me. When I finally got a bit of room, I pulled down my dress and fixed myself up.

With that done, with the power of the mind, all the snow in my surroundings vanished into thin air, as if they were never there in the first place. Yeah, I prefer real snow. Gonna need a lot of work, and I think I have to cause more colds with magic.

But patience, we’ll get there, at least I can cause some snow in some way.

“Wew,” Rogan sighed as he looked at me closely. “At least you’re not injured.”

“Still, it’s nothing a little healing magic can heal.” I smiled.

“What happened? I thought everything was going well. And, I have to say, the power right there was impressively strong.”

“What about you Sir Rogan? Are you hurt?” I asked him, face filled with concern. He, after all, got the brunt of all of it.

“Me? No, I’m completely fine. They were just a bunch of snow, anyway.”

“Good, that’s good… Alright then I will need to rest.”

I feel a bit dizzy already.

Hm, is it just me or it’s getting a little worse?

Maybe I should minimize using my magic for a while. My tolerance for using magic has been shortening lately, and thinking back, I have been using my magic more frequently and more intensely lately. The magic must be tearing through my body, like a wound, and like it, I may need to rest for a while and let it heal.

Unless of course it forever stays this way. Fuck.

I walked towards the tree and slowly sat down on the green grass.

What would be the best course of action here? Rest and take the chance that I would get better? But that meant pausing my training, resulting in the stagnancy of my skills. But if I kept going, I fear that the amount of mana I can spend at a time would decrease. I may get knocked out more easily.

Hm, my skills have been decent lately, so I guess it’s fine to take it easy for the time being. And, considering I would be having my vacation, I guess it just fits to pause training too.

I suppressed the urge to sigh in exasperation. Why was magic making it so hard to progress? Or rather, specifically my body. Wasn’t I supposed to be special or something? Ugh, whatever, I guess that’s just how it is.

“I… I will be stopping my training for now.”

“What?”

“Huh?”

My servants stared at me in confusion.

I then continued. “... My body cannot seem to bear using magic as much as before.”

“Why, princess? What’s wrong?” Vernon asked as he crouched in front of me. “Should your parents know about this?”

“There’s no need. Besides, no one can do anything about it. And, it has always been this way. Have you forgotten?”

“If you mean your suffering because of mana, that was different. You were not in control. But in this case, you are in control, and your body is still being strained… that is a cause for utter concern.”

“I’m working on it and trying to figure it out. But resting is the best answer…”

“This is just like in the city, isn’t it? After the fight with the beastman and the elf, you sat down on the street floor and closed your eyes…”

“... Yes…”

“... I never heard of something like this, where even when mana is controlled, the body still weakens after use, despite having plenty of mana left.”

“I suppose I am built different.”

“... Then you are so different. But if you wish to rest, then I concur with that as well. You need it.”

“Indeed I do.”

But alas, vacation was still weeks away.

“I’ll be shutting my eyes for the meantime. Vernon, you can continue training Mera.”

Without waiting for his response, I hugged my knees close to my chest and lowered my head, hiding my face. I didn’t really need to rest this urgently, but I just wanted to. Need to be at least in tiptop shape.

I heard faint sounds of noisy steps and huffs, a bit distant from me. It was Vernon and Mera. Mera had left the path of a mage, leaving me behind to fight a lonely battle of development. But that was to be expected, she was not efficient in magic, compared to physical enhancement that she had been showing promise. And thus, I let her focus on that, no need to force her into something she was not good at when there’s an alternative.

Sometimes it’s best to focus and work on your own strengths. And it’s good, it’s good for Mera to learn at least of a way to defend herself when pushed to a corner. Considering the situation, mine and the kingdom’s, she might need it… no, she will need it.

Around half an hour later, I slowly raised my head. My eyes were a bit irritated, I suppose I did manage to sleep. All in all, I’m satisfied, it was meant to be a simple nap, not falling into a deep slumber.

“Princess… You’re awake.”

Still feeling a bit drowsy, Rogan spoke from beside me, and I slowly turned my head towards him. I noticed that he was courteous enough not to sit too close to me. Hm, imagining why in truth, I think he would say something along the lines of he didn’t sit close to me because he’s scared of me.

“Mmm… How are they doing?”

“Mera’s still learning how to stabilize the technique while moving excessively. But she seems to be doing well.”

“I see…”

Rogan stared into my eyes, and he grinned a little.

“... W-What?”

Do I look so cute that you would stare at me like that?

He pointed his finger at the corner of his eye. “You have morning glory.”

“Ah!”

I glared at him while my face was visibly flustered, and I instantly looked away to quickly rub my eyes clean.

I could hear him chuckle from beside me.

That was fucking embarrassing, shit…

I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes. “Forget this happened.”

“Hehehe, I’m afraid people cannot just forget something like that pretty easily.”

“Hmph!”

“But I won’t be telling anyone, if that’s enough for you.”

With a little pout, I said. “That’s fine…”

Else I’ll knock you out!

“Then I’m safe!” he chuckled.

I shook my head. “A-Anyways, we need to go. I need to go check on how things are going in the records.”

I sighed as I grasped my forehead, yeah still felt a bit drowsy.

Rogan stood up and presented a hand to me. “Need help standing up?”

I nodded and I grasped his hand, after which he slowly and carefully pulled me up.

Yeah, that’s better.

“So… um… please call and tell the two that we’re going.”

I watched him head for the two before closing my eyes as I took a deep breath. All kinds of problems just popped up in my head. That vacation sounds pretty good right now. I’m playing the game of patience, and I hate it. You know, I am a patient girl, but sometimes, impatience just gets me, you know.

Especially if I knew what was about to come would be pretty good. I mean, come on, it’s a vacation!

I snapped back my focus the moment my servants came walking towards me. Mera was sweating quite terribly.

“Mera, you are free to clean up and change your clothes. We’ll meet back in the library.”

“Is that alright?”

“Of course.”

We returned to the palace and the moment we entered inside, Mera separated from us to change. Me and the boys went straight to the library, and outside by the entrance assigned were a couple of knights as guards. The library at the moment had tremendous amounts of documents, and thus it was only natural to have guards. Almost like having a server room where data was being stored… hm, was that a good example? Anyways…

The knights greeted me as I entered inside, then we headed straight for the chamber that was being used to sort things out. Another pair of guards stood outside.

The knights guarding the door opened it for me to enter, and behold, a world of white and papers! Piles of paper sheets were grouped and separated, people picking up one and reading through the letters and a flood of numbers. Then writing them down to save them for later.

My mother was leading them all, she sat down by the table in the middle. On her desk though, she was spared no mercy from the documents. All these, three years worth of records, each day, and from different companies, big and small. This would have been easy, things easy to track down, if everything were digital. But oh well…

Also, we expect some records, or some days, were gone and never recorded. But that was fine. What I needed was the bigger picture.

Then by the wall was a wooden board. Lines were made for every month up to three years. None has been drawn yet as things were still being compiled.

I shifted my eyes to see Eleden and Lucious working together in their own corner. Everyone’s working so hard, how admirable. Surprisingly, my father wasn’t around. He often helps here when matters could be set aside for later. He must have something else to do. I’m fine with that, we have enough manpower here.

“Hello, my dear. Came to check up on us?” my mother asked as her eyes left the documents to look at me with her tender eyes.

“After a time of practice, I wanted to rest, and I might as well look at how things are going.”

“I see. Where I’m looking, there have been some strange parts.”

I approached her. “Such as?”

“Arms sale… there are records of retailers which they sell them to. However, I found multiple that had no retailers, nor any destination.”

“Have you checked in the transports companies?”

“Arms business usually handles their own transportations. I have low hopes we can find something, but we’ll try.”

Hm, weapons delivery with no destination in writing. Where did they go, I wonder?

“Thank you. Anything else?”

“Well, I consider dangerous reports strange… but we still need to dig through them. I’ll tell you when we have more information. The weapons are more concerning for me. Swords, armors, bows and arrows… this needs to be looked into out there.”

“Not yet, mother. All pieces are not yet in place. Once you are done here, we’ll take them all.”

“... If you say so. At our pace, I expect we can start drawing some initial information on your line graph the day after tomorrow. By some miracle, perhaps tomorrow afternoon.”

“Great! Graphs make things easier to understand. Oh by the way, mother, is father busy? He’s not here.”

“He was here half an hour ago. But, there is a matter he needs to address.”

“I wonder what that would be…”

“… It would seem the Holy Kingdom sent a message.”

Oh no…