Chapter: 27
“Pfft!”
I almost spat out the black tea I had been holding in my mouth.
I barely covered my mouth with a handkerchief and looked at the princess with trembling eyes.
“Th…… me?”
“Yes, Lady Ansi.”
The princess looked straight at me without even twitching an eyebrow.
Why on earth was I suddenly being brought up?
‘No, this isn’t right!’
I tried to persuade the princess somehow.
“Um, Your Highness. This isn’t simply a matter of hosting a short-term event called a salon.”
So?
As if asking that, the princess stared at me with a slightly cold gaze.
Seeing her attitude that suggested there was absolutely no problem, I continued while breaking into a cold sweat.
“This is the internal management of the Claudius Duchy. How could I possibly dare to interfere?”
“I said it’s fine, so what’s the problem? And to be precise, it’s only limited to the townhouse.”
“Even so. The budget that can be used must be on a completely different scale, so shouldn’t you avoid letting an outsider have access to such a large amount of money?”
I was only saying something completely reasonable.
Honestly, wasn’t that obvious?
Normally, the budget of a noble family was divided between the main estate in their territory and the townhouse located in the capital.
Especially since a townhouse in the capital was like the public face shown to various nobles.
Every noble family paid considerable attention to it.
Even our Ansi Viscount family allocated a fairly large budget to our townhouse.
Since I was the successor of the Ansi Viscount family, I had learned quite a bit about budgets and accounting.
‘And the Claudius Duchy is on a completely different level from other noble families.’
I didn’t know the exact numbers, but I could roughly guess how enormous the Claudius family’s budget must be.
It was far too important of an area to entrust to an outsider.
But why……
Why was the princess getting so worked up and glaring at me like that……?
“An outsider? What do you mean by that? We’re people who signed a friendship contract!”
“Pardon?”
“How can a friend be an outsider? I have no intention of asking anyone else for help besides Lady Ansi!”
Stunned, I carefully opened my mouth.
“Th-that’s because I could have bad intentions……”
“Bad intentions?”
The princess scoffed and then narrowed her eyes, glaring at me.
“So, does Lady Ansi plan to take advantage of me?”
“What? No, I absolutely don’t intend to do that.”
“Then it’s fine. What’s the problem?”
It was truly a logic of miracles……
I stared blankly at the princess, then ended up letting out a small laugh without realizing it.
“What is it? Why are you laughing?”
The princess scolded me with a slightly offended expression.
“No, it’s nothing.”
I quickly waved my hands, but it was difficult to suppress the laughter that kept bubbling up.
This was completely different from when I was Seraphina’s pushover.
How should I put it……
The fact that she was saying these things like this.
Wasn’t it proof that the princess trusted me?
‘For the first time.’
Someone who acknowledged my judgment and entrusted me with something without hesitation.
……Honestly, I was extremely happy.
Meanwhile, the princess looked full of motivation.
“Since I even received my brother’s permission, I intend to do everything I can.”
The princess counted on her fingers and began listing all the things she wanted to do.
“First, I want to decorate the townhouse garden, and I’d like to slightly change the interior structure of the living room. I also want to replace the wallpaper in the drawing room.”
……No way, she intends to do all that?
I opened my mouth wide.
But the princess’s words were not over yet.
“I also want to buy new furniture, and oh! I should ask them to send me a catalog for tea pot sets. And then……”
The princess, who had been rambling on, suddenly added something as if she had just remembered.
“About this matter.”
“You don’t have to feel so burdened by it.”
“Pardon?”
For some reason, I felt a chill run down my spine.
It was probably just my imagination, right?
At the same time, the princess smiled brightly and dropped her second bombshell.
“My brother said it was fine too. About Lady Ansi helping me.”
Gasp.
I froze right there.
“……The Duke said that?”
“Yes.”
“He approved of me helping you?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really!”
Unable to bear my endless questions, the princess finally lost her temper.
I swallowed hard.
Well, of course.
This was a matter of managing the Claudius Duchy’s household.
No matter how much the princess was loved by the Duke, she couldn’t proceed without his permission.
‘W-what should I do…….’
Because of the pressure, my shoulders felt so heavy they might fall off.
But.
‘Still, I have to do well.’
I steeled my resolve.
Since things had come this far, I wanted to meet the expectations of both the Duke and the princess as much as possible.
Above all, if through this opportunity the princess could establish herself as the true mistress of the duchy……
Wouldn’t she be able to become freer from Seraphina’s schemes?
However, before that, there was one thing I had to do.
“It won’t be difficult for me to help you, but there is something you need to do first.”
At my words, the princess’s eyes sparkled.
“What is it?”
I answered with a refreshing smile.
“Studying.”
“Ugh.”
The princess’s face, which had been bright and cheerful the entire time, finally crumpled for the first time.
Some old-fashioned male nobles tend to underestimate the work of a mistress managing the internal affairs of a household.
‘It’s just housework anyway. If you order the servants around, won’t they take care of everything?’
‘She just sits comfortably at home, sipping tea and dressing herself up all day. Isn’t that right?’
That was the same tired nonsense those people never got bored of repeating.
Ha, those annoying mouths need to be smacked around a little before they understand……
……Anyway, I got sidetracked.
Absolutely not.
To manage internal affairs, one must first become familiar with numbers.
Why?
Because whether it is commanding servants, sitting comfortably at home drinking tea, or decorating oneself—
‘You can’t do any of it without money!’
In other words.
The princess needed to become familiar enough not only to review budgets but also to create budgets herself and catch errors.
“Lady Ansiiiiii.”
The princess, who had been deeply focused on the documents for a long time, drooped down.
“I’m done……”
With her head buried on the desk, the princess pushed forward a folder with trembling hands.
It was a practice budget she had prepared for the garden.
“You worked hard, Your Highness.”
I happily accepted the documents.
The princess slightly lifted her gaze and looked at me with desperate eyes.
“H-how is it……?”
I wanted to shout, “You passed!”
But……
“I think you need to calculate this part again.”
I drew a line under the errors in the budget proposal with a red pen.
Scribble, scribble.
As the sound of the pen continued, despair filled the princess’s blue eyes.
“Again?”
“Yes. The number of garden trees here doesn’t match, and this part also……”
The princess’s face became darker and darker by the second.
Finally, after finding all the mistakes in the budget, I gave an awkward smile.
“Still, Your Highness, you’ve improved a lot compared to before.”
“Forget it.”
The princess replied sulkily and buried her face into the desk once again.
A gloomy voice came from beneath her lowered head.
“You don’t need to try to comfort me.”
“Y-Your Highness?”
“To make so many mistakes…… Someone like me, how could I possibly manage internal affairs?”
……This was bad.
If she lost her motivation to study, it would become a serious problem.
Feeling responsible for finding a way to overcome the current situation, I carefully opened my mouth.
“Your Highness, I mean it sincerely.”
“……”
When I said that in the gentlest voice I could manage, the princess’s shoulders stiffened slightly.
I began soothing her carefully.
“You had absolutely no knowledge about budgets before, Your Highness. But now you can write a budget proposal according to the proper format.”
“……”
“That alone is an incredible amount of progress. I’ve never seen a student as excellent as you, Your Highness.”
Well, actually.
The more accurate statement would be that I had never taught any student other than the princess before……
But I decided to overlook that small detail.
