Former village girl and the Flag Crusher Prince

Chapter 14: The Monologue of Lilly Al. Odens

My name is Lilly Al. Odens, and this year I will be fourteen years old.
My specialty is killing wild birds by throwing stones, weakness: catching fishes in the river in the middle of winter.
A plain looking girl with brown hair and brown eyes, the eldest daughter of an earl family with no particular characteristics.

Now, even if we say "an earl family", ours is the famous Odens family with the emphasis on "poor".
The reason why we are so poor is that the Odens territory have many natural disasters that happen very often, and each time they happen, we have to spend most of the tax incomes from the residents on reconstruction.
Of course, we have received some support from the government as well... the leftovers of a sparrow, though.

Anyway, also is partly our family's fault.
In the territory of Odens, you cannot make a profit by ordinary management skills.
It's known as a cursed land, where the plagues of gods reside.

But if you are an astute businessman like my great-grandfather, you could live a life as a "modest" nobleman, even in such a cursed land.
 

However, my grandfather and father were not good as him at managing the estate, so our family's finances slumped.
 

At one point, we had a family meeting while gnawing on wildflowers to decide whether we should sell the nobility title or not, but now we've settled down and have vegetables from our farm on the table.

I spent my days hunting birds for dinner, gathering berries, and running through the mountains and forests, but the time has finally come when all that hard work will pay off.

To my surprise, I was invited to work as an attendant on the Royal Court.
 

Normally, I'll be asked to work as an adult - a knight woman or a maid - after I turned eighteen, but the reason of this proposition was just because I'm so young.

- To become a schoolmate of His Royal Highness Prince Lotus' fiancée, His Royal Highness Azalea ElSavage. -

Nobles in the Kingdom of Kabos are required to spend three years, from the age of 16 to 18, in a boarding school.
On the surface, it seems that the purpose of the game is to leave the territory where they grew up and go to the King's house to cultivate the duties and responsibilities of a nobleman, and upon graduation, become respectable nobles.
Therefore, our social debut is also held at the same time with the school's graduation party.

The school is in the royal city, so at that point it's like being a hostage in a luxurious and elegant place.
What's more, the school is funded by donations from the nobility.
The tuition itself is free, but that doesn't mean you don't pay a dime, which is a problem.
Nobles with money may be good on it, but that vague thing called "school donations" is very troublesome to a poor person like me.

Too little and the aristocrats will talk about you, and too much and it will only put pressure on our household finances.
No matter how much I pay, I'm no match for rich people and I know they'll complain, but I'm sure my father and mother will raise a decent amount of money so that I won't be criticized...
Even so, there are children like me who don't want to put their parents through a lot of trouble.

I've explained this at length, but the point is that in two years' time, you'll need a decent amount of money to start school.
And I'm the same age as Lady Azalea.
It is normal for a future Queen to be accompanied by a schoolmate or two in replace of her maids of honor.
And if you become a student for her sake, you may expect to be treated accordingly.
Specifically, salaries and donation waivers.

In other words, instead of taking care of Lady Azalea while I am in school, I will be free of school fees.
For nearly a year before you enter the school, you will serve as a royal court attendant - Lady Azalea's maid of honor.
Of course, there will be a paycheck in the meantime.
3.000 a month...
36.000 for a year...
Half of my father's annual salary as a civil server!

I can't stop laughing.

In terms of money, as well as the advantage of being able to get close to Lady Azalea, I agreed after hearing the two first words.

Actually, I have already met Lady Azalea once.
It was two years ago when His Highness Prince Lotus was choosing his fiancée.

It was a spectacle in which the courtyard of the Royal Castle was turned into a jungle by an idea from His Highness, which I, an ordinary person, could never have imagined.
I was twelve years old at the time, and I accompanied my brother to the court in place of my busy mother and father.
However, as soon as he entered the courtyard, my astonished elder brother fell and hit his head and fainted.
Fortunately, he collapsed near the exit, so he was taken to the infirmary.
I wasn't sure if I should just leave, but my luck ran out when I went to the courtyard alone, just to say hello to His Highness, didn't notice that the road was muddy and I fell down.

My head went into the mud but was more shocked by the stain on my new dress that Mom and Dad had prepared for me than by the pain in my fallen and scraped knee, and I cried in a huff without a care in the world.
At that time, it was Lady Azalea who gently spoke to me.

With black and navy-blue hair and pale golden eyes, she looked like a person descending from the night sky.
At the time, I couldn't say thank you enough.
As soon as she helped me to stand up, she seemed to be angered and rushed across the vines to His Highness, and after some trouble, was taken away by Master Creek, so I couldn't thank her.
Lady Azalea is the daughter of the duke family who is the descendant of the royal family.
On top of that, His Royal Highness Lotus's official fiancée, the Duchess, is not a mere Countess like me.
It was even more so immediately after the selection of the fiancée.
After the incident in which Lady Azalea slapped His Highness and made him cry, it seems that the high ranking people condemned her.

My elder brother said that no matter how insane His Highness Lotus was on that occasion, it was not good to criticize the royal family directly.
The main claim of the criticism was that there was no penalty for her actions, and she even became his formal fiancée.
It's a fair argument, but since the people who protect His Highness Lotus, didn't stop Lady Azalea, and only watched the exchange between the two of them, that speech of the aristocrats seems filthy.

It's often overheard others say that their daughters were more suitable for Azalea's position, even my own brother said that about me, but he also admonished me to stop meeting that person because it was dangerous since the blame was focused on Miss Azalea, even when I stopped crying thanks to her.
Well, those accusations were quickly withdrawn.

The trigger was the famous "Maiden of the Holy Dragon" riot.
It happened two years ago, three months after Azalea was announced as her official fiancé.
When a shocking incident demonstrated that earl Jeter was a spy for the Demon King's army, and it upset society and politics, there was a rumor circulating in the city streets.

It is said that other than His Royal Highness Lotus, there was another person who controlled the Holy Dragon, the White and Silver Dragon, and bravely stormed into the Count's mansion.

The Holy Dragon is a being that is equated with a god in the founding mythology.
Even in the state religion, Wallahuism, the white and silver dragons are revered as incarnations of the gods.

A dragon is a proud creature.
It is famous for not take kindly to humans, and only those whom it considers to be its master will ride on its back.
Even more so, the white and silver dragon called the Holy Dragon was even prouder among them.
Therefore, in the church, His Highness Lotus was revered as a messenger of God.
Even the mere existence of one rider is something that will go down in history, but a second rider...
The people at the church were half-heartedly skeptical, but when they looked into it, there were plenty of sightings.
And that person turned out to be Lady Azalea.
The church immediately confirmed that it was true that Lady Azalea could ride the Holy Dragon.
I heard that she proved it by riding the Holy Dragon and circling around the royal city.
I wasn't able to see it because I was on the estate at the time, but Father, who was at court on business, said it was amazing!　
She flew in circles while riding the Holy Dragon and performed a number of acrobatic tricks to the cheers of the people!　
After the ride, Lady Azalea smiled without arrogance at the praise of the priests and left gracefully with His Highness.

That's good... I would have loved to have seen that.
Not only do you get to see Lady Azalea's bravery, but a Silver and White Dragon is something that you don't get to see very often.
You could have made a decent profit by painting the picture and selling it at a reasonable price.
Because of this, Lady Azalea was able to attain a certain "status" within the church.
Setting aside, that the church has a large amount of money.
With it, I mean, Wallahuism has been issuing bills of exchange since long ago.
There are many churches in the country, so the advantage is that you can always do the procedure in each place.
And when money is collected in large quantities, it is inevitable that loans are also provided.
I suppose there are many aristocrats who are indebted to the church.

Dealing with money can be scary.
Especially the debt.

The fact that Her Majesty Gabriella, evaluated Lady azalea as the "maiden of the holy dragon" make her position in the church improve greatly, and it was amazing.
I'm still learning about politics, so I don't know what it exactly means, if there was any kind of correspondence between Her Majesty Queen Gabrielle and the Church, or she has some kind of power over it.

In any case, one thing is certain: With Lady Azalea's acquisition of authority into the church, there are fewer nobles to criticize her overtly.
It's not completely gone.
However, it is also true that there have been fewer and fewer of them in the last two years.

Lady Azalea's accomplishments are not only one, but I've only learned some from the rumors that flies through the City.
Surely not all of that is true, so, I'd like to see her in person.
I haven't even been able to say thank you for helping me at that time.

There are four years of school life and apprenticeship combined.
I'm sure that's enough time for us to become friends.

... by the way.
The invitation to become a royal court attendant is a story brought by father, but there is one puzzling point.

The reason for this to take place was that the person in charge of choosing Lady Azalea's maids of honor was puzzling over the matter, and her daughter enthusiastically recommended me or something like that.
And Father was called to consult him over the matter.
It was something really nice to happen for me, but there's something I can't overlook.

The lady who so enthusiastically recommended me, I have never met her before.
What in the world had happened to a Lady to recommend the name of someone she had never even spoken to before as a candidate of honor's maid for Lady Azalea?

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