268 - The Ladylike "Cry Uncle"
On the return trip from the tea party, it turned into an impromptu reflection session, as expected.
Based on Valerier's report, Hermine pointed out each of my blunders one by one, and by the time all the self-reflection was over, the carriage had reached the detached palace.
I thought there was quite a distance from the royal castle gates to the detached palace, but apparently there were that many things to reflect on today.
When I got off the carriage, Hermine graciously gave me the evaluation of "I still cannot take my eyes off you."
I have no plans to graduate from being Hermine's student anytime soon, but this is not the kind of evaluation to be happy about.
It means I am not doing what I was expected to be capable of.
...Ugh, as I thought, that last "old geezer" was the problem.
That is probably why she declared that starting tomorrow we would focus on correcting my language.
"By the way, Hermine-sensei. I would like to make Bertrand-sama say 'cry uncle'... no, to give him a thorough dressing-down... no, um..."
I searched my memory for an appropriately ladylike expression, but could not find one that fit perfectly.
Even without thinking too hard about it, Hermine is my tutor for ladylike education.
She might have deliberately avoided teaching me expressions she considered somewhat vulgar.
"I apologize, Hermine-sensei. How would a lady say 'I will make that old geezer cry uncle'?"
"As your teacher, this is not something I would want to teach my student, but a concise way would be 'I will make that elderly gentleman's blood run cold,' would it not?"
"I understand. Thank you very much."
I thanked Hermine, who despite saying she did not want to teach it, still politely answered her student's question, and immediately made use of the phrase she taught me.
Putting aside the phrasing, I was simply dying to get back at Bertrand.
"So, Hermine-sensei. Is there a good way to make that elderly gentleman's blood run cold?"
"As I have taught you before regarding gentlemanly and ladylike methods of retaliation. Think of it as information warfare as a basic principle."
This time the goal was 'retaliation,' but what you need when you want to please someone is also information.
Putting aside the rightness or wrongness of the goal, a lady does not dirty her own hands, nor does she show her shadow to the opponent.
"First, let us decide on a goal. What kind of result would be Tina-san's 'victory'?"
"I suppose... just wanting him to leave me alone..."
I wanted to get back at him, but I was not thinking of anything as grandiose as physically eliminating him or ruining him like the Eighth Princess.
It was really very simple. I just did not want him threatening my peace.
"Would not Tina-san's wish be fulfilled without us doing anything special, just by holing up in the detached palace?"
"Huh? Is that so?"
Apparently Bertrand could not get to me even if I did nothing.
I was supposed to be rejecting him, but as someone who had had him visit the detached palace multiple times, I could not quite understand.
"Even though the master of the detached palace, Tina-san, is refusing him, if he forcibly intrudes into the detached palace, he becomes subject to physical removal by the guards, just like the other day."
The problem would be after returning to Grenore City, Hermine said.
There are plenty of royals at the royal castle who can keep Bertrand in check, but not in Grenore City.
The city lord's residence belongs to the Black Knights, so if Bertrand requests to stay there as a Merit Peerage, it would be hard for the Black Knights (Leonardo) to refuse.
If it came to that, it would be difficult to restrict contact.
"If you want to keep Bertrand-sama at a distance, it is easier and safer to stay in the capital."
But in this case, it only restricted Bertrand's contact with me.
It did not really feel like making him "cry uncle."
"...If I took away the heir, Aristalf, and sent him back to his aunt's side, would that count as getting back at him?"
"It would count as harassment, but it would not make his blood run cold, and if he loses his heir, his offensive to obtain you would probably become more intense."
I just wanted to make Bertrand say "cry uncle," but it seemed like I was the one who would end up crying uncle.
I did want to return the child to Sofiya, who was worried about her son, but my cousin whom I had never met seemed to be my strongest line of defense.
...Come to think of it, what about custody rights?
Sofiya was chased out of the house, from what I heard, but what about the custody of the child?
Can a grandfather take a child away ignoring the mother's wishes when the father is dead?
...In this world, the maternal bloodline seems to take precedence, but when a woman marries in, is her position still weak?
I racked my brain, but no good ideas came to mind.
For a moment I thought I should seriously study the law, but then I felt like that might be sticking my nose too far into Sofiya's affairs.
Overdoing it might be a nuisance to the other party as well.
Instead of charging ahead on my own, I should probably ask what she wants first.
...Though Aunt Sofiya seems like the type to just suffer in silence.
First, what would be the most damaging attack for the opponent.
As I started to worry about it, Hermine gave me advice to gather information to find that out.
No matter what you do, you need information first.
"When you say gather information, do you mean at tea parties again?"
"The tea parties that Lady Felicia holds almost daily really do gather people of various social standings. First, it would be good to build horizontal connections at Lady Felicia's tea parties."
Since I had finished what I thought I should finish first, starting the next day I began showing my face a little more actively at Felicia's tea parties.
I was already called the 'Owl Princess' at Felicia's tea parties and doted on, so everyone found it amusing and shared various information with me.
Some gentlemen, perhaps picking up on Hermine's educational intent for me, shared information mixed with lies.
They must have meant to train my discernment so I would not be fooled by lies or false rumors.
...The theory that Alf-san and Alfred-sama are twins... where would I even use that information?
Surely that was a lie, I thought, pushing the freshly heard information to the corner of my mind.
They certainly did have frighteningly similar faces, but if you looked closely there were differences, and if Alf and Alfred were twins, that meant one child was missing.
They said Alf's mother was Alfred's wet nurse, so to produce milk she would have needed to give birth.
As I collected various rumors, I also learned about the man who had impersonated Godwin the other day.
He claimed to be Godwin of the Staff Peerage, but apparently he was from a Flower Peerage family.
So at least the part about being a noble was not a lie.
He was a sycophant of Staff Peerage Godwin's political enemy, and it was probably harassment from that political enemy.
...So they have already investigated that far. Fast work.
For Godwin, whose name was being used, this concerns his reputation.
It is only natural that the investigation would be thorough.
...I hope the child taken in believing he was Staff Peerage is safe.
They seemed to have investigated who the perpetrator was, but no one would tell me what happened after that.
If it was still under investigation, that was fine, but I hope it was not content they could not tell me.
By showing my face at Felicia's tea parties, the acquaintances I gained were mostly adults, but I was still steadily building horizontal connections.
Around the time the full arrival of autumn began to be felt, with the Harvest Festival approaching, Timon delivered a letter from Leonardo to the detached palace.
"Your brother sent this along with his work report."
He handed me the letter, but today it seemed to be given directly to me.
Usually it went through the maids or Aaron, who opened it and checked the contents before bringing it to me, so I thought it was strange, but looking at the envelope, it had indeed been opened.
I thought it had not been censored since it was given directly to me, but since it was sent along with the report, it was probably just censored when the report was checked.
"...He has safely arrived at Lugmilama Fortress."
Sent along with the report, so the contents of the letter were truly brief.
Just that he had arrived safely at Lugmilama Fortress and I should not worry.
That was almost all it said.
"If you have a reply, I can deliver it along with it..."
"Leonyaldo Big Brother went to Lugmilama Fortress for work, so I cannot send a letter if there is no urgent business."
"...Just as you would expect of Leonardo's sister, you are inflexible."
Unlike before, Leonardo had become a little more flexible lately, Timon said with a wry smile.
The idea of such a word being used for Leonardo seemed so incongruous that my head filled with question marks instead.
"I do not think there is anyone as inflexible as Leonyaldo Big Brother..."
"No, he has become more flexible. The proof is that letter."
"This letter?"
He pointed at the letter from Leonardo, and I reflexively lowered my gaze.
The white envelope was nothing special, just an ordinary envelope you could find anywhere.
"In the past, Leonardo would never have slipped a personal letter into a work report. Leonardo has changed a little now that he has a sister."
"If it is a good change, then that is good..."
I tilted my head, wondering.
I was honestly happy he was worried enough to send a letter, but slipping a letter into a work report... was that not mixing public and private?
Thinking about it, I realized he was right.
He certainly would never have mixed a personal letter into a work report before.
He once left the eight-year-old girl he had just taken in alone for over a month because the fortress was busy.
For better or worse, he was a fair and just person when it came to work.
Even when I tried to leak information to Aurelia, he was the kind of person who would enter the cell with me because it was what his sister did.
And now that Leonardo had shown flexibility to send a personal letter.
...Maybe I am a little happy.
I pressed my cheeks that wanted to relax on their own, and Timon, who met my eyes, smiled warmly.
Feeling a bit embarrassed, I hurriedly decided to end the topic of the letter.
"If I write a reply, can you send it along with something else?"
"If you have it ready by tomorrow morning, I think I can slip it in along with the report."
"I will prepare it tonight."
After thinking long and hard, the reply I asked Timon to send to Leonardo was barely more than a single line.
I want a cat-shaped hot water bottle as a souvenir.
From Leonardo's perspective, it would be a request with no explanation.
...I do not want to worry Leonardo far away by honestly writing about Bertrand-sama or that idiot White Knight.
After considering content that would be innocuous yet convey that I am doing well, this was the result.
A casual, truly simple request.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.