BXBX NOVEL Chapter 107.1: Queen Maker (7)
Originally, the kingdom’s succession structure was impeccable because there was only one prince. Consequently, Francisca was allowed to go to the Imperial Academy to study in peace.
Those who enter the academy were divided into two categories: those who really want to learn and those who come to build a network.
In Francisca’s case, it was the latter.
Born to the rich royal family that provided her with all lavishness available, she had no dreams or ambitions of her own.
So, she was in the midst of her search for a candidate for marriage while building her personal network.
When a letter came from Lupus, and the letter contained the full story of the terrible incident that had occurred in the city.
She wasn’t a psychopath.
When she read that her family had died, she was shocked and cried for a while.
As moments passed, and she got out of her sorrow, her feelings boiled down to uneasiness.
The letter was urging her to return to Lupus as soon as possible. It took her, her identity as a royalty, to put an end to the chaos in Lupus, the letter said.
It was clear what it meant.
They were calling her to inherit the throne.
Unbelievable and appalling.
She had spent her life in lavishness — an affair of easy and unbounded lifestyle.
Unlike her brother, she had never received any training for kingship.
But she would have to go and take over the Kingdom?
She neither had the ability nor the responsibility to do so.
So Francisca vowed that she would return to Lupus, but would not inherit the throne.
No matter what anyone would say, she wouldn’t change her mind!
That was two days ago…
‘Why am I here?’
A shabby hovel made of bricks and straw.
Moos of cattle could be heard from everywhere.
Compared to Lupus’s huge castle walls, even the wooden fence was flimsy.
Francisca looked around and her head hurt.
She had been living at the Imperial Academy until just a month ago. In the splendid academy that even she, who had lived in a royal palace, was astonished by. But now? Standing in the middle of a shabby village.
She was wearing a ragged dress, not the cambric she always wore.
“We have something to do today. Let’s go.”
After speaking with the village chief, Cloud approached and said.
Francisca glared at Cloud.
‘It’s all because of this man.’
The day she arrived in the capital and declared that she would not succeed the throne.
Cloud came to visit her and asked if she was willing to change her mind. He tried to persuade her by giving her various reasons, but of course, she didn’t budge.
Then he dragged her to this downtrodden village.
He even created a strange backstory.
– Are they the brother and sister pair who came a while ago? Those from Lupus?
– He said so.
– What a pitiful pair.
The village women chattered while watching Francisca and Cloud walking down the street.
Yes.
The strange backstory that Cloud had created was that he and Francisca were brother and sister who lost their family and property in the accident in Lupus.
The compassion of the villagers granted them a stay in the village, playing on the backstory.
Of course, they couldn’t stay for free.
In exchange for receiving a place to stay and food, they had to help the village.
“I guess you are the brother and sister village chief spoke of?”
A middle-aged man spoke to the two on a field outside the village.
He was a slightly robust man, just short of being stout.
“Yes, that’s right. I’m Carl and this is Frena. We look forward to working for you.”
Cloud naturally gave out a pseudonym and bowed his head.
Then he turned his head and stared at Francisca.
‘Huh? What?’
He didn’t want her to bow her head, did he?
No, can’t be.
That’s absolutely impossible.
With that thought in mind, Francisca frowned at him. However, her thoughts didn’t matter. Cloud squeezed the back of Francisca’s head, forcing her to bow her head.
Consequently, she became the first royalty in the history of the Kingdom of Prona to bow her head to a peasant.
Francisca strained her neck, trying to free herself from Cloud’s grasp, but her head, hunched by him in place, remained immobile.
“Ah..!”
Just when she was about to burst out in indignation and anger.
Cloud glared at her with a half-lidded glare.
“…”
Her mouth, which was about to open, closed on its own.
She quietly turned her gaze to her floor.
“As I heard, you are polite. Come with me. I will tell you what to do.”
As the middle-aged said, the chore itself was not difficult to understand. All they had to do was water the potato sprouts.
The only problem was…
“We have to water all these fields… really..?”
The potato fields were filthy big.
They didn’t stretch beyond the horizon, no; the ends were so far that the borders were too blurry to distinguish between.
While Francisca was shocked at the seemingly unattainable amount of work, the middle-aged man nodded.
“If you two start now and work diligently, you should be able to finish it before the sun goes down.”
“Ah, no matter, this is too much…”
“Then work hard.”
The middle-aged sauntered away, leaving Francisca no time to argue.
Cloud placed a hand on her slouching shoulder.
“I’ll do it from here to there. You do the rest.”
“…You cut it in exact half.”
“That’s fair.”
Fair?
Was it fair for a freaking Hero and a frail Princess to do the same amount of labor?
“Did you eat your conscience with your dinner last night?
“It was delicious.”
He clapped Francisca on the shoulder and fetched water from the well, before pouring water from the bucket onto the potato sprouts little by little.
Francisca blankly stared at him.
“How did I end up here…”
She sighed heavily, picked the bucket and walked to the well. She worked the pulley system to pull the water, but that was not as easy as she’d thought.
‘I saw it work earlier, other women were making it work, why can’t I?!’
Could it be that there was some kind of magic that made it difficult for outsiders to use the well?
As she mused about it, it seemed supposedly plausible.
Water was also the property of the village, so maybe they didn’t like outsiders hauling it easily like themselves.
‘They didn’t seem like that kind of people. Tut.’
She grumbled inwardly, pulling against the unhinged enchantments that seemingly attuned the well.
She used her body weight to pull on the rope until she got a bucket full of water. She lifted the bucket of water she had with difficulty scooped out.
“What?!”
It was ridiculously heavy and she almost staggered.
“Ha, I almost fell over.”
She broke into a cold sweat. She had almost spilled the water she had worked so hard for. She carefully lifted the bucket and tottered to the potato field, leery not to stumble.
She whimpered, exhausted.
Pak.
Her foot got caught in a rock.
“Kyaaak!?”
She doubled over. The bucket flipped.
As if her face plunging into the clump of soil wasn’t bad enough, even the water she had fetched spilled onto the floor and pooled around her, getting her muddy.
“Ahhh…”
How hard had she worked to haul the bucket of water…
Almost ready to cry, she held back her tears.
“Julis… help me…”
She had come with her escort knight.
During the battle of nerves with Cloud, she was frightened and fled apace.
What was Julis doing now?
Was she living comfortably in Lupus?
Damn it.
‘I’ll see you when I get back.’
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