[Episode 6] - Affection Gifts Are Mighty.
“...Ainsel, want to run away with me?”
I wanted nothing more than to flee this castle right away, but the truth was, running away in this body wasn’t an easy thing. I couldn’t even step outside the castle without an escort.
In effect, the moment I left my room, I was under surveillance twenty-four hours a day. Ever since I’d been possessed into this body, I honestly hadn’t once been alone outside my room.
Even if I tried to take a short walk, the maids followed me. Even if I tried to look around the garden for a moment, the maids followed me, so I’d given up long ago. Normally, queens should have plenty to do... but for some reason, I had absolutely nothing.
-Where do you plan to go after running away? And if you’re saying you’ll run from here, I can’t help you. Have you forgotten? I told you I had something to do in the royal castle.
...Come to think of it, she had said that.
-In any case, even after that’s finished, I was planning to leave for somewhere else. Even if you leave the royal castle, I won’t help you.
“Wow... you’re seriously cold.”
-What can I do? You haven’t made a ‘contract’ with me.
“A contract?”
-A familiar contract. After Vivian died, the contract between Vivian and me was severed. In reality, the reason I’m helping you here is just an ‘extra’ on top of my own personal business.
“Then make a contract with me—”
-Come back after fixing your face first, and I’ll think about it.
Ainsel rejected me as sharply as a knife and looked down at me with an expression that said she truly hated the idea. Then what was I supposed to do? In effect, even running away had been blocked off. I did know this world to some extent as a game, but...
That was only the content inside the game. Reality was completely different.
“Then... what if I help you with that? Could you help me a little more?”
-...I’m sorry. To be honest, I don’t know when my work will end. And I still have no idea what ‘problem’ caused all this to happen.
“What in the world is going on?”
-...I can’t tell you yet. It’s only a ‘guess,’ after all. But if you stay here, you’ll find out someday. What’s happening in this place.
I was completely stuck.
In this place, I couldn’t run away without someone else’s help, His Majesty—my faint thread of hope—was a shut-in layabout, and I had absolutely no confidence in winning over the old men of the Council of Elders.
“Heuheuheu.”
It wasn’t even a marriage I’d wanted, yet here I was struggling desperately not to get divorced. At the absurdity of the situation, laughter slipped out before I knew it.
‘...Even if I don’t have confidence in winning over the old men of the Council of Elders, I should at least do the bare minimum.’
Lying on the bed, I glanced over at the dressing table beside me. On it were things I didn’t really know much about, but they looked like expensive cosmetics, along with jeweled accessories scattered all over the place.
“As expected, when it comes to buying affection, a gift offensive is the best.”
-What?
“First, even if I can’t get people on my side, I need to raise Vivian’s reputation.”
Whether in reality or in a game, if you wanted to raise affection no matter what, giving expensive gifts was the best. In any world, there probably wasn’t anyone who wouldn’t be happy to receive an expensive present.
“First... should I start with Ellie?”
*
Ellie was currently extremely bewildered.
‘I’m full, so share these with the other maids.’
‘Pardon..?’
‘Do I have to say it twice?’
‘N-no! I’ll e-eat them gratefully!’
In the room of Her Majesty the Queen, where she was usually lucky if she came out having only been beaten, she had come out not only unscathed but even carrying luxury snacks said to be hard for nobles to eat. Ellie found this reality difficult to accept.
Standing blankly in front of Her Majesty the Queen’s room, Ellie looked down at the cake on the plate. One, two, three. There were exactly as many slices of cake, each of a different kind, as the number of times she had slammed her head down earlier.
“Is this a dream..?”
She tugged hard on her cheek with one hand, and sure enough, it hurt. To think this wasn’t a dream but reality—was it really all right for something like this to happen? The corners of Ellie’s mouth soared high into the sky.
If she followed her greed, she wanted to eat them all by herself, but if she did, she was afraid of the aftermath once her coworkers found out. There were five people in charge of serving Her Majesty the Queen, including herself.
Thinking it would be fine if they each had a bite, Ellie hurried off toward her coworkers with excited steps. On such a happy day, even sharing wasn’t enough!
And so they shared the cake, and one day, two days, and then a week passed.
Only now could Ellie and her fellow maids understand. After coming back from the brink of death, Her Majesty the Queen had finally gone mad. Otherwise, something like this could never happen.
One day, it was perfume.
‘I’ve grown tired of this perfume, so you may have it.’
One day, it was bath salts.
‘I bought something else, so you may have this.’
One day, it was even jeweled accessories.
‘They’ve gone out of fashion, so I no longer need them. You may have them.’
This hadn’t happened to just one person; it had happened to all of the maids. Now, fights were breaking out among the maids over who would be the one to attend Her Majesty the Queen.
It was something they could never have imagined just a week ago. The maids, now with some breathing room, were able to experience spending money on themselves for the first time.
The same was true for Ellie. Because of her family’s debts, Ellie, whose wages had always been completely confiscated by her family home, was able to order a dress for herself from a dress shop for the first time.
The clothes she had worn until now had always been hand-me-downs from her older sister, so the satisfaction of buying new clothes with the money she had earned was beyond words.
Now, she even looked forward to the days when she served Her Majesty the Queen.
Human greed was sly, so she couldn’t help but look forward to it, wondering, ‘What gift will she give me today?’ But even if Her Majesty gave her nothing, it was fine now. Because now, she no longer ordered her to slam her head down like before.
Feeling as if she had finally become a real ‘queen’s maid,’ Ellie headed toward Her Majesty the Queen’s room with cheerful steps. Carrying warm washing water, she gently knocked on the door and opened it.
When she entered, she saw Her Majesty the Queen still sound asleep. Ellie smiled brightly as she approached Her Majesty the Queen and whispered in a soft voice.
“Your Majesty, it is time to rise.”
At Ellie’s voice, which had come to wake her, Vivian opened her eyes with a frown, as if displeased. That face was still frightening enough to make Ellie tense, but that tension did not last long.
“...Good morning, Ellie.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
After all, now she didn’t get cursed at for waking Her Majesty the Queen!
*
To say that my affection-gift operation was a huge success would still be an understatement. Now the maids didn’t just follow me—they were practically on the verge of worshipping me. As expected, expensive gifts really were the best.
There were plenty of affection gifts in the game, too. If you gave certain gifts to certain NPCs, their affection rose sharply, or if they didn’t like them, their affection went down.
If you gave an NPC the gift they wanted, their affection rose to the maximum... Anyway, that kind of system existed. For example, for bald Vin Chaud, was it a wig given by the princess? I think that was it.
Seeing as the princess gave him a wig instead of a hair-growth remedy, I guess even in this world with magic, hair loss was an incurable disease. Poor Vin Chaud.
In any case, over the past week, I focused on handing out gifts to the maids. I asked the chancellor, Vin Chaud, to use the ‘dignity maintenance funds’ set aside under my name and ordered as many things as possible that the maids would like.
Cosmetics like cream so their hands wouldn’t get chapped, perfume that smelled nice, jeweled accessories, and things that would fetch money even if sold—I scattered them around as often as possible.
Once I launched that gift offensive, the maids’ attitude toward me changed completely in a very short time, as if flipping over the palm of a hand. After all, the only method I could use right now was throwing money around.
This much could be called a huge success.
“Your Majesty, what are you thinking about so deeply?”
“Hehe, nothing much. Do I have any appointments today?”
“No, nothing yet for today. In that case, since the weather is nice, how about taking a walk in the garden? The garden is full of the scent of roses.”
See? Ellie, who had trembled in fear at the sight of me at first, was now even suggesting that I go for a walk first. At this change, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh and looked at Ainsel beside me.
For some reason, Ainsel didn’t seem pleased by the maids’ change in attitude. Pouting, Ainsel muttered as if grumbling.
-What’s so good about those bat-like girls who change their attitude as easily as flipping their hands over... Even if you keep maids like that close, they’ll betray you someday...
Mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter.
What on earth did she dislike so much...? I was worried that at this rate, she might really sulk and run away without me, so I decided to cheer Ainsel up.
I looked at Ellie, who had beautifully arranged my hair, and smiled softly. Ellie, seeing my smile, blushed as if embarrassed and lowered her head.
“As expected of the child I trust ‘second’ most. I truly like it.”
“Second..? It’s a shame I’m not first... Then could you perhaps tell me who Your Majesty’s first is?”
“You wouldn’t know even if you heard the name. There is a child named Ainsel, the one I trust most.”
Ellie tilted her head as if she had never heard it before, but Ainsel, reflected in the mirror, had the corners of her mouth twitching as if they might soar into the sky.
Really, what an easy mirror.
-H-hmph! Even if you say that, you won’t get anything from me, you know? Honestly! Every time you open your mouth, it’s a lie! Ehehe!
Though she said that, Ainsel was in such a good mood that she was even humming. Now that I had eased Ainsel’s mood, and since the weather was so nice, I thought I should go walk in the garden as Ellie had said.
“As you said, I should go for a walk. Will you come with me?”
“Of course! I’ll prepare the parasol!”
While Ellie went to fetch the parasol, I took an earring out of the dressing table drawer and put it on my ear. It was an earring designed like Ainsel’s full-length mirror, only made smaller than the palm of my hand.
-Great! Then shall we go take a walk together?
As soon as I put on the mirror-shaped earring, Ainsel’s voice came directly from beside my ear. When I looked in the mirror to check if I had put the earring on properly, a tiny Ainsel poked her head out from inside the small mirror.
It was an earring Vivian had apparently always worn whenever she went outside, and it was said to be a mirror that allowed her to take Ainsel outside with her. The mirror earring was heavy and made my ear hurt, so I didn’t want to wear it, but...
Last time, when I said my ear hurt too much and that I would go out without wearing the earring, Ainsel cried, so I had no choice. She wailed so sorrowfully that I was the one who felt sorry watching her.
“I brought the parasol!”
“...All right, let’s go.”
-Departure!!
Ainsel was extremely excited, perhaps because it had been so long since she had gone outside. Come to think of it, this was also my first time leaving the building since coming here.
It was only a garden that could be seen from outside the window... but still, for some reason, my heart felt light. Looking at Ellie, who was trotting beside me with the parasol, I took one step outside the room.
...Not knowing what kind of encounter awaited me after this.
Simply with an excited heart.