Chapter 25
- Whiiiiir~!
The noisy sound filled the washroom.
A strange resonance rang from the magical device held by six attendants, and the princess’s wet hair gradually dried.
“Haaah.”
Even though it was spring, mornings were still chilly.
Seventh Princess Flare had been cold after washing herself with water heated over firewood.
Before long, she melted under the warm air touching various parts of her body.
“How is it, Your Highness?”
“I wonder if I may put it this way….”
Her hair rapidly grew lighter as the moisture was blown away in an instant.
Above all, since they had consulted the manual, it did not turn dry and coarse.
Before, she had forcibly cooled and dried it by borrowing heat from a brazier, which always left it coarse.
“It’s warm and enchanting. It’s like being held in a man’s arms.”
“Oh dear. Since you’ve lied, His Majesty will give me a beating.”
“Hmph, I don’t care. His Majesty probably doesn’t care about me anyway.”
Since the blessing-that-was-no-blessing had taken root in Flare, the emperor had been half neglecting her.
Of course, it was involuntary neglect caused by the burdens of ruling….
“Your Highness.”
“I know, I know. His Majesty didn’t do it on purpose.”
Since awakening her dragon blood, Flare had become quick to notice other people’s feelings.
The emperor was no exception. Whenever he met Flare, he always….
‘Blue and pink.’
Sorrow, and love.
Because he had shown those two feelings as a father, Flare did not simply blame the emperor.
“Still, I wish he’d tell me I’m pretty, like he used to.”
“Hehe, I am certain he will.”
Beatrice, too, was proud of the Seventh Princess, who maintained self-control despite the turbulent emotions of adolescence.
At the same time, she felt sorry for her.
Flare acted lively on the outside, but she was surely struggling with worries inside.
“Your Highness, I have a suggestion….”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“In the manual, there was a message left by a maid named Goldie. It said, ‘Goldie’s dog-gone favorite hairstyle! Try putting waves in the ends, like Goldie!’”
“Dog…gone?”
That was why Beatrice made up her mind.
Today, she would make Princess Flare the most beautiful woman in the world!
“Pfft, is she making fun of dogkin?”
“Hehe, that is exactly how it was written. It means she recommends it so highly that she used the slang ‘dog.’”
“Pffth…! That Goldie girl is quite audacious.”
A genuine laugh escaped Flare for the first time in a long while.
“You brought that up because you want to try it, right?”
“Indeed, Your Highness.”
“All right. Let’s cut my hair a little too, for the first time in ages.”
Taking a liking to Goldie’s audacity, they decided to style her hair for the first time in a while.
“Can you finish before the imperial court meeting?”
“Of course, Your Highness. Leave it to us.”
To make her more spirited than ever, Beatrice and the maids set their hands moving.
*
The imperial court meeting.
“Where is the Crown Prince?”
“He has not yet returned.”
“Tsk. That lazy rascal.”
A gathering where the empire’s highest-ranking figures met to discuss matters great and small.
Of course, the emperor also used it to sort out the hierarchy among the many children he had fathered and assign them duties. That way, they would be able to live well even if they entered a ducal house or another family.
“He must have delayed his advance after hearing that the imperial court meeting was being held today.”
“Please do not be angry. The Crown Prince did just subjugate the demon-beast hordes in the northeast.”
Because of that, the imperial court meeting was held frequently, even if not every day.
Naturally, from the children’s perspective, it was a gathering where they did nothing but “read the room….”
It was not easy to be called a sage ruler, but the current emperor’s power had played a major role in creating the peaceful age they now enjoyed. In his eyes, no one was ever quite good enough, whether they had done well or poorly.
“What of the youngest?”
“She has sent word that she will attend.”
“I see. That child… sigh.”
Thus Theodore Fandragon Asterion was known as the Sage Emperor.
Even for him, meeting his youngest daughter was somewhat awkward.
He still felt troubled by the time Flare had called the blessing, “It’s all because of Daddy!”
“Your Majesty, please do not worry. There is no way the Seventh Princess hates you.”
“Thank you for comforting me, Chief Chamberlain. But I do bear some responsibility….”
“I must say once again, Your Majesty: please do not worry.”
The imperial chief chamberlain, who had served the emperor since childhood and was like a friend to him.
He recalled what the Seventh Princess’s chief lady-in-waiting had told him today.
“The Seventh Princess will certainly not blame Your Majesty.”
A magical device made by a genius of Enersis, one of the empire’s founding families.
With it, Princess Flare would show a completely transformed appearance today, or so he had heard.
“Therefore, ahem. As a father with several daughters, I humbly advise you simply to trust your daughter.”
“Heh heh. You’re overstepping your bounds for a chamberlain.”
“I beg your forgiveness, Your Majesty, in your boundless mercy.”
“Very well.”
Of course, the chief chamberlain had been sworn to keep it secret from the emperor, so he kept his mouth shut.
The emperor, unaware of any of this, dismissed it as a joke.
“Her Highness the Seventh Princess, Flare Fandragon Asterion, is entering!”
- Clatter!
They say speak of the dragon, and it appears.
With the knight guarding the meeting room announcing her arrival, the splendid doors swung wide open.
“Oh my.”
And the chief chamberlain could not get a word out.
Silken hair falling all the way to her waist.
And the ends were beautifully waved, though no one knew what magic had been used on them.
A fashion she had once considered shameful for exposing her neck looked wonderfully radiant when paired with Flare’s appearance and hairstyle.
“I trust you have had a peaceful night, Your Majesty.”
“U-Um.”
Even the emperor was flustered.
Wait, had his daughter always been this beautiful?
She always came to the imperial court meetings with her hair neatly arranged, but she had never cut it so dramatically and dressed herself up so beautifully.
“It seems your brothers and sisters will not be attending today. Come sit beside me.”
“Flare, Seventh Princess, am deeply grateful for Your Majesty’s imperial favor.”
The emperor felt as though he were looking at a daughter who had gotten a boyfriend and started dressing up.
- Click, click.
Every time Flare moved, no one in the meeting room could take their eyes off her.
She had dressed up with more determination than ever….
- Rustle.
Something irresistible was radiating from her.
“Your Majesty. If it would not be disrespectful, may I ask you a question?”
Once seated, Flare asked the emperor for permission to ask a question,
“……You may.”
The emperor… thought of Flare’s mother, who lay beneath the imperial family’s tomb, and granted permission.
Even after receiving permission, Flare fidgeted and hesitated, twirling her hair.
Yet for some reason, the emperor wanted to wait for her until the very end today,
“……Um, how do I look today?”
And then a somewhat private question finally came.
The bright, lively eyes befitting her age had lost their confidence, leaving behind only a child anxiously watching the emperor’s reaction.
‘Ah….’
The emperor realized what he had done wrong.
In the name of managing the empire’s affairs, he had… neglected a daughter who had lost her mother and received a blessing like a curse….
“Flare.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
He had neglected her far too much.
He might have been an excellent emperor, but he had been a poor father….
Something surged up in the emperor’s chest, but he somehow forced his sorrow back down.
“You are truly beautiful.”
And a smile bloomed, mingling sorrow, happiness, and joy.
“You look completely different. You even resemble your mother a little… ahem!”
“……!”
The chief chamberlain, attendants, and knights around them all trembled.
Any mention of Flare’s mother was the greatest taboo of all.
The emperor always avoided the subject, and it had naturally come to be regarded as taboo….
“As much as Mother…?”
“……Yes.”
The emperor had broken it himself!
To those who knew the circumstances, it was an enormous change, and everyone was bewildered.
“……Thank you.”
In Flare’s eyes, a variety of emotional colors appeared around the emperor.
A paler blue.
Navy blue, expressing longing.
And a deeper pink.
A powerful emotion from the father who had pretended to be indifferent, now strong enough to show faintly even in his expression.
In that instant, Flare remembered the time when, as a child, the emperor and her true mother had praised her hair.
“Ho ho! With hair like this, any emperor would pay billions to keep it! But Heavenly Lord, would you look at that—it’s my daughter!”
“Hehehe, Your Majesty. Flare’s face has turned red.”
She remembered the moment when her hair had become fixed.
That was why, in this situation where the emperor who had made talk of her mother taboo
had broken that taboo himself….
“Fath— ahem, Your Majesty.”
“Ahem. Yes. Let us begin the meeting soon.”
Both Flare and the emperor
were overjoyed.
*
The next day.
“Yaaawn, Bae. Today’s schedule—”
“Y-Your Highness! Your hair!”
“Hmm? What about my hair…?”
Flare was rubbing her slightly lighter dark circles while receiving Beatrice’s fussing.
“Huh, wha?! Why is it shorter?!”
“Congratulations, Your Highness!”
Because the hair reflected in the mirror had set itself in yesterday’s wavy style.
* * *
Meanwhile, in Count Enersis’s domain.
“Son.”
“Yes, Father.”
Count Delford was a rather cold man.
However, thanks to Akion’s consideration and kindness, he had recently been working to improve his relationships with everyone, including his wife.
Thanks to that, laughter was gradually blossoming throughout House Enersis.
“About the hair dryer.”
“Yes.”
But… this was something no one but Akion could ask about.
No one else.
“I understand it is for drying hair.”
“Yes.”
“But for a man, you know, ahem. Between the legs… ahem!”
“Ah, I dry that with a hair dryer too.”
“I knew it!!”
There was no one else who could field the question except Akion, both a man and the device’s developer!!
“If moisture builds up, the skin down there breaks out. In that case, drying it with a hair dryer is the right thing to do.”
“Phew. I thought I had been using it incorrectly. Son, thank you!”
“Is this really a conversation between a count and his son? And is this something to discuss in front of a lady?”
And the Tower Master, who had been listening nearby, was dumbfounded.
What an indecent conversation to have in front of a woman!!
Of course, Akion, who was triggered by the word “lady,”
“The Tower Master… a lady?!”
- Clang!!
passed out as the price for his erroneous remark.
“Count.”
“Of course it’s not something to discuss! Yes, yes!”
“I’ll let you off this time. I’m taking Akion with me.”
“Yes, yes! I’ll leave Akion out of dinner tonight!”
And because he wanted to live, the count sold out his son.
“Damn you, Father….”
Of course, Akion was still conscious, so he cursed the count as the Tower Master carried him away on her back.
“Now, now. Is it right to curse your own father?”
“That man abandoned me for seventeen years, though.”
“But he has given you the most support these past year and a half. To use your words… he is your ‘chairman,’ then.”
“Damn it, let’s compete with facts, not propaganda and fabrications!!”
“Since you’re talking nonsense, you must be able to walk. Get down.”
“Yes ma’am.”
In fact, Akion had plans with Goldie and the Tower Master today.
“Young Master! Tower Master~!”
“You did come dressed, right?”
“Hehe, yes! I put on the clothes you bought me, Young Master!”
It was a street date!!!!
……Or rather, it was the result of two women dragging out Akion, who would otherwise have holed himself up in the workshop again all night.
They had lured Akion out with the deal they made when sending the hair dryer to the imperial family!
“Still, the weather has warmed up, so I was thinking of going out once.”
“You were, Young Master?”
“You, Akion?”
Naturally, the two of them ignored all of Akion’s resolve to go out.
“What exactly am I in the eyes of you two?”
“A weird alchemist who lives in a corner?”
“A disciple who would even take a reclusive dragon as a friend.”
“Damn it. Let’s go, then!”
Did he really have to endure this kind of treatment as the owner of the lab?!
Feeling dejected, Akion walked ahead of them.
“Tower Master, Tower Master. Goldie is wearing such pretty clothes too. How about buying some for yourself?”
“F-For Akion to b-buy me clothes?! I’m perfectly fine in this outfit—”
“Please give up on your beauty trap. There must be clothes that suit you better than sexy ones.”
“Ahem. In that case….”
And so, the three of them slowly emerged onto the streets of Ridasid as the sun began to set,
“Thief!!!”
“Someone stole the incandescent bulbs from the streetlamps!”
“Ours too!!”
“Huh?”
They found the streets half-darkened, with the incandescent bulbs gone.
In fact, people occasionally removed the free bulbs they had received and resold them, or stole and resold them.
Incandescent bulbs were quite expensive for outsiders, after all.
Of course, the count caught such petty thieves quickly, so Akion had not paid much attention to it….
“……I said you could take them for free, not steal them.”
Taking even the streetlamp bulbs… that crossed the line big time.
“Y-Young Master. Your face is really….”
“Akion, calm down. Your lovely face has twisted into a demon’s.”
The evil professor in Akion’s heart began to rear its head.