Chapter 21 – I have no idea, but it's amazing. (よく分かんないけど、凄いな。)

At present, I am being dragged to the Royal Palace like a sheep to a slaughterhouse.

That's right, it's for the Queen's tea party.

Yesterday, I was busted for sneaking out of the mansion and making a surprise visit to Ursch-kun's workshop.

And now, I've been loaded into the carriage, bounded by chains normally used to restrain earth dragons.

This isn't how you should treat your little sister, Brother Daemon.

The chain itself was a previous creation of Ursch-kun, meant for large earth dragons.

Come to think of it, this might be why Ursch-kun knew about a large earth dragon's HP value.

When Ursch-kun created these chains, I bet he didn't expect it would be used on his very own fiancée (Age: 6, Gender: Female).

Incidentally, the thickness of these chains are similar to those used in Japan's parking lots and the like.

For chains of this thickness to be capable of sealing the movements of an earth dragon... they must be fairly tough.

Well, it's kinda scary, so I'm not gonna use【Greed】 on it, though.

That's right!! With Ursch-kun's help, Greed-san has evolved even further!!

Being bound by the game's mechanics, I saw a different HP and MP value from Ursch-kun and everyone else. When I blurted out that I found it difficult to understand his explanation because of that...

Ursch-kun brought forth the suggestion to use 【Envy】 on his《Eyes of The Greed King》.

It was a high-level skill, and it wasn't a "unique skill" either, so I was prepared for 【Envy】 to be repelled, but...

The result was a great success, and 《Avaritia》 even evolved!!

The skill name had underwent change from《Avaritia (Greed)》to《Mammon (Greed King)》

That's amazing!! You're amazing, 《Invidia》-san!!

You're probably the biggest cheat among the "Magic Eyes of the Seven Deadly Sins" series!!

Thanks to Envy-san, the HP and MP stats I viewed was finally free from the game's set of rules, and became much easier to understand, similar to Ursch-kun's.

Perhaps because of that, the 【Status】 display had changed as well!!

...Wait... if you knew how to do it, then you should have done so from the very start, Greed King-san!!

Greed King-san's capabilities are slightly different compared to Ursch-kun's 《Eyes of Mammon》. As to how they're different, we plan on thoroughly examining that in the near future.

Before we could begin the examination, my brother had come to drag me home....

Besides that, with Ursch-kun's help, we were able to examine the abilities of the other "Magic Eyes of the Seven Deadly Sins"!!

I knew I couldn't do this on my own...

Having a cooperator was indeed a must.

After gaining Ursch-kun as a cooperator, my mental state seem to have finally settled down, as I was able to calmly head towards the Royal palace—even when I may encounter the Love Interests.

As for Ursch-kun, after hearing about my previous life, especially that I was supposed to be the Second Prince's fiancée, he was wary about the compelling force kicking in—that I would be forced to get engaged with the Second Prince to realise the future vision (a.k.a the game scenario).

If it was an order from the King, then neither me nor Ursch-kun can do anything about it, after all.

If it were just some relatives disapproving of our marriage, then we would easily choose to elope.

But if it was by the King's order, then we would be too worried about the punishment our family would receive to even think of running away.

Now then, since there's still a long way to go till the Royal palace, I'll try to remember what I can from the game's Prince Route.

The main characters of the Prince Route were....

First, the Love Interests.

The Second Prince, Christopher Ron Rosereale.
The son of the head of the Mage’s Order, Gijs Nei Torrend.
The son of the Knight Corps' Leader, Brian Nic Underwood.

Next, the rival characters in Christopher's route.

The fiancée, Isabella Ali Rottenstein.
The Marquess' daughter, Amaryllis Elli Brunst.
The prince's twin maids, Merry and Ann.

A total of 4 people.

As for the character details of the Second Prince and myself...

The game's Isabella was the fiancée of the Rosereale kingdom's Second Prince.

When she was 7 years old, she fell in love with the prince at first sight and asked her father for talks of engagement to take place.

The other members of royalty and nobility opposed the engagement on grounds that the Rottensteins would hold too much power, however...

Due to the Second Prince's "special circumstances", the king specifically instructed for the decision to be left up to the prince himself.

No no no, what is the king thinking, passing the decision-making to the prince. He's only 7 years old at this stage, you know?

Also, the so-called "special circumstances" weren't explained in detail even in the main storyline.

Looking at the in-game conversations and interactions, I'm guessing that the prince had a curse or something placed on him. However, the main story didn't contain any events about breaking his curse, and only foreshadowing of it was dropped. Even after completing the game, it was never revealed what those "special circumstances" of his were.

Initially, I thought I had just missed that particular event, but it turns out my friends were as clueless as me.

It could just be the storywriter forgetting to erase that part of the plot, or a convenient little detail for the prince to get engaged with Isabella, though.

For this part, I wonder if we can figure out if the prince was cursed if we ran an appraisal on him?

At any rate, with those "special circumstances" surrounding him, and the king passing the decision-making buck to the prince,

Also in part because the Isabella "of that time" bore no ill will to the prince, holding pure feelings of love,

The prince, who held no interest in others, indifferently agreed to the engagement, saying that he didn't care either way.

Hey Prince, maybe you should think about it for a little longer?

It's about your future wife, you know?

The person you're going to spend your entire life with?

If you aren't interested in other people, then could you please hold firm until you actually find someone?

A-anyway, Isabella thus won the position of the prince's fiancée.

After that, many wished to curry favour with the House of Rottenstein who boasted immense political power.

They became followers of the Second Prince's fiancée, Isabella, showering her with endless praises and spoiling her rotten.

As a result, Isabella grew to be an arrogant and selfish noble lady.

Since the enrolment into the Magic Academy which signaled the beginning of the game, the prince held no interest in Isabella, who was prideful and looked down on others.

But as the game progressed, the prince began to show interest in a certain illegitimate child of a Viscount, and a former commoner at that—the Heroine.

This enraged Isabella, who despised commoners and believed herself to be far above them.

She carried out countless harassments towards the Heroine, such as framing her and isolating her...

...and numerous criminal acts, such as kidnapping her, and attempting to sell her off at an underground slave auction in the kingdom of Rosereale, where slavery is forbidden.

However, they were thwarted each and every time by either the Second Prince, or the other Love Interests.

Looking back, the game's Isabella really was evil.

To think that she was just a normal, slightly tomboy-ish noble girl before I regained memories of my past life...

For her to grow into such a splendid villainess, those followers were no joke.

Even when her brothers were members of the Mage's Order and the Order of Imperial Knights, positions tasked to protect the kingdom, she managed to slip under their radar, and made connections with an underground slave house at the age of 15...

What kind of contacts do you even need to make that happen...

Anyways, that's how Isabella went down the villainous noble path.

After the first year of the academy ended and in the Second Prince's route, was Isabella's public condemnation and engagement annulment event, where she was thereafter exiled or maybe even executed. The Ducal House of Rottenstein then had their noble rank demoted.

Incidentally, in the Mage Order's son's route, Isabella was publicly condemned, had her engagement annulled by the Second Prince, then either exiled or married off to a middle-aged merchant as his second wife.

Even though I'm currently engaged to Ursch-kun who comes from a merchant lineage, making me an Isabella that deviates quite a bit from the original, I mustn't let my guard down!!

The Schneiver Company that Ursch-kun's family operates may be one of the biggest merchant association in this continent, but they are still commoners who hold no rank in nobility.

No matter how far news of our engagement has spread, it would be easy to pretend it never happened with just a single order from the King.

And so, Ursch-kun and I decided on the goals for today:

(1) Avoid an encounter with the Second Prince.

However, Ursch-kun says this would likely be impossible to fulfil, and that I should just "try my best".

I better prepare myself for the encounter later.

(2) Be disliked by the Queen.

The King is aware of our Rottenstein family holding too much power, and seems to be in favour of me marrying the second son of a merchant family, even sending congratulatory gifts upon hearing of our engagement.

The Queen on the other hand seems to be looking for a noble lady of an influential household to be engaged to the Second Prince, thus providing the prince with a strong backing, so I'll have to keep an eye out for her.

(3) Be disliked by the Second Prince.

The prince who's unfeeling and indifferent towards everything. If I catch his interest, the Queen will likely be overjoyed and bring about talks of marriage.

(4) Gathering information, including the specs and Status of the Love Interest, the prince.

This one was an instruction from Ursch-kun.

According to him, as long as I'm able to avoid the engagement with the Second Prince, there would be no need to fear the game correction as much.

Rather, if I do manage to avoid the engagement, then it can be concluded that "there is no game correction".

Well, I guess that's about right.

When Ursch-kun and I (the brains & the brawns) join forces, we can work through anything so long as there's no royal decree in our way.

However, even without my engagement with the Second Prince, considering what would happen after enrolling into the Magic Academy, it would best to take some precautionary measures. And with that, I was tasked with information gathering.

The one who will take action (eg. collecting information) is me.

And the one who thinks up those actions is Ursch-kun.

We make a pretty good combination, don't you think?

Well then, I'll do my best!!

After reaffirming my resolve, our carriage had finally arrived at the royal palace, and my mother released me from the chains.

I'm finally free.

After removing the chains, my mother pouted as she tried to get the wrinkles out of my dress.

''Geez!! That brother of yours... He's making too much of a big deal over this. You're not a wild beast, there's no need for the chains!! Your pretty dress has wrinkles on it now."

Mother, please tell him off more.

If possible, please say it directly to him!!

Rather than a wild beast, that brother of mine is treating his 6-year-old little sister like an earth dragon!!

He's probably the first imperial knight in this kingdom that would treat a 6-year-old girl like an earth dragon!! It's unheard of!!

I wonder, what in the world is wrong with my brother?

When I said that, Mother told me:

A maiden in love may sometimes behave in unexpected ways, so Daemon should better his understanding of women.

It's unthinkable to restrain their movements with chains!! And strongly agreed with me.

I did it!☆ Mother is on my side!!

Both Father and Brother are very harsh towards my actions, so I'm really happy that Mother is on my side!!

After getting the wrinkles out from my dress, Mother got off the carriage and entered the royal palace.

A servant led us the way to the greenhouse, where today's tea party was to be held.

"Have you ever visited the palace greenhouse before, Isabella?"

"Not at all, Mother. I'm sure it is a very lovely greenhouse."

Since we're currently outside, I'm speaking as gracefully and noble-y as I can, but am I doing it right?

When talking to Ursch-kun, I speak like how a normal kid would, so I'm close to forgetting my noble lady way of speech.

"It's simply splendid. I'm certain that you would love it as well, Isabella. It was my favourite spot of when I used to live here."

That's right. My mother was a former princess.

Before she married my father, she lived in this very castle...

It's kinda amazing that my mother's previous home was a castle.

How amazing is it, you ask? I have no idea, but it's amazing.

Isabella: ...Wait... if you knew how to do it, then you should have done so from the very start, Greed King-san!!

Greed: The only reason I didn't was because you were still stuck in the tutorial.

Envy: You've learned that I can activate on skills of the Deadly Sin kings as well, yes?

Greed: Now then!! Let's find the other Deadly Sin kings and obtain their power!! Greedily!!

Pride: I will not permit any power above us!! We shall seize the power of all the Deadly Sin kings!! To the point of taking pride in it!!

Gluttony: Now! Let us soar to greater heights!! It's time to feast on the powers of the Deadly Sin kings!! Devour them like a glutton!!

Envy: ...... Be silent, all of you. I'm the one who's doing all the work.