'Has it finally come...'
'Although it's different from the direct draw during my last meeting with Veronica, and this time there's a prerequisite quest, the reward is undoubtedly much better!'
'No matter what... it's a Gold trait worth 10,000 Emotion Points! I couldn't possibly pull another major dud like "Body of the Goddess of Beauty" again, right?'
'I refuse to believe I'll pull that damn Peerless Elegance again this time!'
...
The elegant classical music had stopped at some point, and a newly arrived musician had begun humming a folk song.
The lyrics were somewhat hard to understand due to an accent, but Lynn didn't need to understand them. After all, the meaning of most folk songs was very simple: Girl, I want to sleep with you, but I have no money.
Sitting right across from Lynn at this moment was the second princess, disguised as Sasha.
She was currently feeling extremely embarrassed because her persona as Sasha, the literary girl, had completely shattered.
Aaaah, why did I have to run into this guy again of all times?!
“As the only daughter of a merchant family, I have a lot of social obligations, so it's only natural for me to learn how to drink. That's very reasonable, right?”
“Mhm, reasonable, very reasonable.”
“So, I came here beforehand to test the waters and accidentally ordered two extra glasses. You can understand that, right?”
“Mhm, I understand, I understand.”
Watching Lynn patronize her with a playful look, Anna simply gave up and slumped onto the bar counter.
“Fine! I admit it, I just like drinking a... tiny, tiny bit, okay?!”
【Emotion Points +60】
“You are absolutely not allowed to go around telling anyone! Otherwise... otherwise, I'll...” After speaking, she gave Lynn a fierce glare, though her puffed-up cheeks made her look more like an angry pufferfish than anything threatening.
“Ugh! It's not like I can actually do anything to you anyway.” Before she even finished her sentence, she deflated on her own.
“Pfft—”
“You're still laughing!”
【Emotion Points +30】
Lynn rested his chin in his hand, looking down at the girl slumped on the counter, finding the sight quite novel.
When playing Dawn in his past life, Lynn hadn't paid much attention to Princess Anna's personal storyline.
Although the second princess's character art had really hit his sweet spot, her perpetually calm and polite yet distant attitude had always made Lynn feel a bit uncomfortable.
It was like facing a tin man encased in armor, perfectly disguised without a single flaw.
Every line of dialogue was a meticulously calculated design, and every instance of so-called care was nothing more than a flawless performance.
No matter how much the protagonist Irene contributed to her faction, there was never a single chance to share a heartfelt moment.
But...
Right now, the second princess, who no longer went by the name of Anna but instead used the identity of Sasha, was caught in this awkward situation where her little hobby had been accidentally exposed.
Still young and not yet entirely consumed by royal ruthlessness and calculation, she seemed, for once, to be showing a side of herself that no one else knew.
Looking at Anna, who was completely abandoning her image and beating her chest on the bar counter, Lynn only felt she was rather... cute and charming?
The hint of snowy-white skin peeking out as her collar shifted, the holy temperament that layers of disguise still couldn't completely suppress, and the huge contrast of her seemingly venting her anger when she was actually acting spoiled...
Hiss... this damn black-hearted woman is actually so sweet!
But...
'Just having her disguised Sasha persona shatter makes her go this crazy. If she found out that I've actually known all along she is that elegant and dignified Princess Anna...'
'She'd probably blow up at me in sheer embarrassment and anger!'
Of course, it could also turn into: 'Princess Anna, you wouldn't want others to know you're a total drunkard, would you?'
What should he do? He suddenly felt a strong urge to say exactly that.
After all, ever since a moment ago, Anna had been generating Emotion Points like crazy, showing every sign of overtaking his top contributor, Lilian.
Keep it up, Haji-Anna! Hurry up and give me 2,000 Emotion Points!
“Oh—delicious! The old geezer's recommendation is indeed amazing!”
As expected of the potion master her mother had told her was living in seclusion at the academy!
Completely giving up on maintaining her gentle girl persona, Anna turned her body away and down-to-earthly downed the sake she had ordered without a care for her image.
'How does that saying go? For some people, putting on a mask... is the only way they can take off their real mask.'
Lynn felt a bit sentimental.
Perhaps this informal, heroic, big-sister-like attitude was the 'true' self of the second princess.
“Bartender, bartender, another glass!” Slapping her empty glass onto the table with a clean thud, Anna urged with a sweet smile.
“Tsk. A total drunkard~”
【Emotion Points +30】
After receiving yet another glare from Anna, Lynn guiltily looked away.
Although he couldn't flip the table and go for a massive haul all at once, there was surely nothing wrong with doing some minor teasing to farm some points, right?
“I say... no wonder you're dissatisfied with the merchant family's marriage arrangement... After all, who would want to marry a drunkard?”
【Emotion Points +50】
What marriage arrangement? That was just some nonsense I made up for my fake identity, and you actually bought it?
“No wonder you don't have many friends. After all...”
【Emotion Points +40】
Shut the hell up! The people pursuing me could line up all the way from the Eastern Territory to the gates of your Reinhardt manor, okay?
“You...”
【Emotion Points +50】
Keep going, Princess Anna, you can do it!
The little person inside Lynn's mind was shaking his head and cheering wildly.
Keep working hard! Quickly overtake Lilian's position as the top contributor!
“Shut! The! Hell! Up!”
Her face flushed red, Anna slammed the table, picked up the glass in front of her, and violently stuffed it into his chattering mouth.
She forced the alcohol down his throat with a series of gulps.
“Drink, drink, drink! Drink yourself to death!”
“Cough—cough—”
“You... bastard... Are you trying to murder a classmate on the first day of school?”
“That's right. Tonight, your ashes will be scattered into the academy's Starfall Lake.” Anna gritted her teeth, emphasizing every single word.
If the young men who saw her as their dream girl could see this drunkard princess now, their budding romantic hearts would probably shatter into a million pieces.
Still... princesses really were filthy rich!
Lynn clicked his tongue. The price of a single glass of Northmandy No. 7 was as high as 50 academy points. As a newly enrolled freshman, with only 50 academy points left, ordering one glass would bankrupt him.
But Anna... this was already her fourth glass, wasn't it?
After their playful bickering, the bar counter fell silent once more.
After a brief silence, Anna was the first to speak. “Congratulations.”
“Congratulations?”
“I mean the sorting~ The sorting ceremony. Congratulations on being sorted into the Primordial Department.”
“...Are you mocking me? The Reinhardt family has been in the Regal Department for generations.”
“Mocking? No, not at all~” Anna shook her head repeatedly. She picked up her highball glass and gazed at it quietly.
Under the dim lighting, the pale-yellow liquid looked as noble as liquid gold.
She repeated very, very seriously, “Isn't this something worth celebrating?”
“Instead of repeating the path of your predecessors, you've broken free from the shackles of your family and gained...” She paused, seemingly choosing her words carefully. “How should I put it... freedom?”
“Yes, freedom... A white dove that has broken free from its cage, even if it only soars for a fleeting moment in that untouched blue sky. Isn't that still a fortunate event worth remembering?”
“You make it sound so dramatic... I only find it a headache.”
“You really don't know how good you have it~” She slumped on the bar counter in dissatisfaction, her fingers playing with her soft hair.
Like a child throwing a tantrum, she spread her hands and vented her grievances. “Ah—seriously, possibilities... Don't I have them too? Why do I have to follow the planned path and step into Regal in such an orderly fashion...”
Halfway through, she realized she had spoken out of turn and shut her mouth.
“Regal...? You were sorted into the Regal Department?”
“Ah... yes. Despite how I look, my family is somewhat aristocratic~”
“Aren't you merchants?”
“What merchant family isn't also noble? You're really stubborn.”
Bored, Anna gently stirred the ice cubes in her glass with a metal spoon, watching the bubbles rise and fall in the liquid.
How nice... to be able to walk on a path that isn't decided by others.
She suddenly froze and raised her aqua-blue head.
“I don't think so~”
A clear voice rang out beside her, his tone flat, as if stating an already established fact.
“Whether it's the Regal Department or the Primordial Department, in the end, they are just external platforms.”
“Just because I was sorted into the Regal Department, does that mean I, Lynn von Reinhardt, am no longer myself?”
He leaned down, staring into the girl's stunned eyes.
“What kind of person I want to become has nothing to do with anyone else.”
How... arrogant.
Anna wanted to give a sharp reply like that, but her lips trembled, and she couldn't bring herself to say it.
Through those gilded eyes, she saw her own dazed reflection.
Lynn von Reinhardt.
Completely different from the playboy waste rumored by the outside world, he walked his own path with unwavering resolve, without a single shred of hesitation.
She suddenly felt a bit reluctant to keep talking to Lynn.
Like the moon encountering the sun at dawn, meeting a more dazzling version of oneself always made one want to escape.
She tried to avert her eyes from the gaze as if fleeing.
But she failed.
“Eh...?”
A pair of broad hands clamped onto her shoulders.
The handsome face of the youth in front of her kept magnifying.
“W-Wait?”
No... wait? What is he doing?
Her eyes spun like dizzying spirals as she lost her focus. The usually decisive and elegant second imperial princess had never been in such a panic before.
“Don't move.”
Serious and unquestionable words rang in her ear, and she could even feel his warm breath.
No, no, no... even so, this is...
He clearly already has Veronica... I can't betray little Pera!
Anna took a deep breath, and her right hand behind her back secretly gathered magic power.
Tier 3 spell, Lightning Spear...
No, no, no, the power of this is too great. I should just make him suffer a little. Then...
Tier 2 spell, Lightning Bind...
But before her magic could coalesce, her eyes suddenly widened.
“Shhhk—”
A blinding flash of blade light leapt before her eyes, and the piercing sound of a sonic boom only arrived a moment later.
Wild magic erupted from Lynn's blade, brushing past Anna's ear and slashing toward somewhere behind her.
“Uwahh!—”
Accompanied by a dull impact, a thin, small monster roared in pain, then burned to ashes in a blaze of scorching fire.
A strand of aqua-blue hair drifted in the air, and Anna blankly touched her cheek where it had been brushed.
Meanwhile, Lynn, the culprit, let go of Anna without any lingering attachment and slowly sheathed his blade.
He frowned.
“I said, Miss Sasha, please don't move.”
【Emotion Points +400】
Rate on N.U.
