Chapter 172: The Crown Princess (1) (1/2)

Sorry, this episode was supposed to come out yesterday, but I had to redo most of the translation since the MTL was so weird that I had to manually translate some of the sentences myself. As for the next chapter, it would be delayed and released by tomorrow since it is quite long. Two important characters who have been introduced earlier will finally make their appearance (and no, it’s not Daphne and Dion).

Terms used in this chapter:

Girin – This has been mentioned earlier when Lucas was first introduced in the series since it was his nickname. Girin refers to a mythical animal, but it is also used to refer to children/young people who have promising futures because of their extraordinary wisdom or talent.

Out-of-place artifact – a historical artifact that should not be found in the place or manner that they are found according to known historical knowledge. Like having a battery-looking device in an era where batteries had yet to be invented. Or finding a helicopter in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Mansour – Mansour is referring to the name of a UAE royalty, politician and billionaire. There was a rumor in 2017 that a family member of Mansour proposed to the Korean singer, Anda. But in this chapter, ‘Mansour’ is used in a sense of ‘rich person.’ So ‘Am I a Mansour?’ could be read as ‘Am I a rich person?’

When you looked at stories centered around the protagonist, whether in games or novels, events that were only indirectly handled were often not described in detail.

Because the protagonist wasn’t there.

Because the protagonist wasn’t involved with that event.

And so on and so forth.

These events were often referred to as background events or background settings, and Legend of Heroes 2 had numerous background settings.

‘Strictly speaking, the annihilation of the royal family is close to a background setting.’

Because there were no playable characters who were directly involved with it.

There were a total of four playable characters from the Sälen Kingdom, three were from the north and the last one was from the south.

In other words, there were no playable characters who started in the royal capital.

‘The only ones who could be involved were Lucas and Kajsa.’

At this point in time in the game, Jude had just cured his illness while Cordelia was still wandering in the middle of the north.

And Lucas and Kajsa, the ones who could be involved, only had the event briefly mentioned in the game.

‘The other playable characters are foreigners.’

Therefore, Princess Daphne and Prince Dion, who could be said to be the protagonists of the royal family genocide event, were characters that only existed in the background, and not characters that could actually be met and talked to in person.

‘But they were still popular.’

The genocide of the royal family itself was so important that there were five cinematic movies alone, three of which were about Princess Daphne and Prince Dion.

‘They perfectly chose the characters for the event.’

Perhaps because they were the main characters of the tragedy, Princess Daphne and Prince Dion were perfect superhumans and even had good personalities.

If these two had grown up without any trouble and the Crown Princess had risen to the throne, they would have been the ideal royals who were good, pretty, capable, and had a sense of responsibility.

‘We can save them.’

This was reality and not the game.

Theirs was not a destined fate, but a fate that could be changed.

“For a perfect happy ending.”

Jude whispered as if he was reciting a spell, and he picked up the invitation with Princess Daphne’s seal.

***

King Henry II of the Sälen Kingdom was neither a saint nor a tyrant.

He was just an average king.

Nothing much could be said of him, and his rule wasn’t exemplary.

Of course, one could say that his administration of state affairs was pretty good since he smoothly ran it without having much problems, but despite that, the public still viewed Henry II as an ‘ordinary king.’

In fact, he was a person who did not have any particularly outstanding abilities, except for his handsome appearance.

But the evaluation of his children, especially his eldest daughter and eldest son, were different from Henry II.

Geniuses.

Girins.

Children of the century.

Some said that the outstanding blood of the founder king, Lion D. Sälen, was awakened again, while others – the rotten waters of Legend of Heroes in particular, said that it was the result of the First Queen’s genes.

Because unlike Henry II who was an ordinary person, the First Queen, Justina F. Sälen, was a really outstanding person.

Born in the house of Duke Fable, one of the kingdom’s five dukes, she was a distinguished genius in both scholarly knowledge and martial arts. She was also the eldest child of Duke Fable, so if she hadn’t married Henry II, she would have become the head of the Fable duchy.

However, she chose to marry Henry II who she had been affectionate with since childhood. Thus, the Sälen Kingdom was able to obtain a beautiful, wise, and strong queen, as well as very outstanding royal children.

The jewels of the royal capital.

Royal treasures.

And now, one of them – no, the two had shown interest in Jude and Cordelia.

They wanted to meet the two people.

“Are you done?”

“No, not yet.”

Cordelia slightly frowned at Jude’s answer and pouted her lips, but Jude did not care. He just worked hard to trim Cordelia’s hair over and over again.

‘Just where did you learn this?’

His scissoring skills were unusual. No, before that, when she thought about all the things that had happened since last night, Cordelia seriously felt dizzy.

‘Did you run a beauty shop?’

The fired-up Jude said that this was the preliminary match before the founding anniversary ball, and he dolled up and beautified Cordelia with serious enthusiasm and passion.

‘It’s my first time taking a milk bath.’

Why is a bottle of milk more expensive than cola? – was Cordelia’s serious question when she took a bath in a bathtub filled with that expensive milk.

It wasn’t over with that.

When the milk bath was over, she had to take a second bath with rose-scented essential oil while applying something on her body again.

She had to wash her hair again and again with shampoo and conditioner.

‘I think I took a bath for three hours.’

Maja and Dahlia who took a bath with me seemed to be very satisfied.

In any case, as a result of washing herself over and over again, Cordelia’s fair and smooth skin began to glow, and a subtle rose scent was added to her pleasant-feeling skin.

‘Miss! My hair is shining! It’s so soft!’

Having used it for the first time in her life, the shampoo and conditioner received great reviews from Dahlia.

In reality, she had no choice but to do so.

Shampoo could be viewed as something that was just for washing, but the conditioner that softened the hair itself was no different from an out-of-place artifact that would literally cause culture shock if one considered the standards of this era.

Cordelia was then forced to sleep.

And as soon as Cordelia woke up in the morning, Jude was waiting in front of her bed before he grabbed and made her go through a difficult time again.

She was bathed in milk and essential oil again.

Then a chiropractic massage and physical exercise.

Followed by a really long hair treatment.

‘I feel like I became a doll.’

“Yes, you’re indeed a doll. No, you’re a work of art.”

Jude said to Cordelia, having read her thoughts from seeing her eyes in the mirror. Cordelia’s shoulders then drooped as she sighed.

‘Why is everyone else excited?’

Jude had been working hard since morning, and so did Maja and Dahlia.

“You’re so beautiful.”

“Yes, miss. You’re really pretty. Ah…it feels like my childhood days again.”

“You played with dolls?”

“Yes, I did.”

Dahlia always got excited with romantic stuff, and it seemed like she was the kind to get excited with beauty treatments too.

No, she just got excited with everything related to Cordelia.

‘Ugh, alright. I’ll agree to become a doll until the tea party tomorrow.’

Because Cordelia had to impress Princess Daphne and Prince Dion.

Furthermore, it was highly likely that the influential nobles of the royal capital, or to be exact, their children, would participate in the tea party.

Because it was a tea party hosted by the crown princess and not anyone else.

‘You’re going to… dampen their spirits?’

They were children of influential families who grew up in the royal capital.

But Jude had argued that there could be another person like Lucian, so they should prevent it in advance.

‘I don’t know what that has to do with making me completely pretty or preventing it in advance though.’

But if Jude said so, maybe there are people like that.

Maja and Dahlia were also in agreement with Jude.

‘Can I be prettier than Princess Daphne though? Princess Daphne is the main character of the event, right?’

Isn’t there an unwritten rule that you shouldn’t look prettier than the bride when you go to her wedding?

‘Cordelia is already pretty, but if you beautify her like this, she’ll really become the most beautiful woman in the kingdom…no, she’ll be the most beautiful on the continent.’

The eyes of others might turn cold if they had heard her thoughts, but in the end, they would have to admit that it was true.

Cordelia continued to think quite seriously, and in the midst of that, Jude’s hair styling was finally over.

“Okay, it’s over.”

“Really? Is it really over now?”

“Yes, so we have to choose your clothes now.”

“Eh?”

I’ll be choosing clothes and wearing them?

”Don’t worry. You only have to try on 20 of them, so it won’t take long.”

“Twenty?! No, wait. I only brought three dresses to the royal capital, if I recall?”

When did it become 20?

“That’s because I brought it separately. I bought it in the royal capital.”

“W-wait. With what money?”

It obviously couldn’t be Count Bayer and Count Chase’s money.

Of course, both had a considerable income when compared to the average noble since they were from the 12 northern families, but it was still not enough to buy a lot of expensive dresses.

‘Because dresses are ridiculously expensive!’

The present Cordelia considered dresses as expensive, and if she added the opinion of her previous life too, she regarded those dresses as ridiculously priced.

So when did you increase the number of dresses like that by 17?

“We didn’t have much time, so I had to buy something that was already made… but I’m satisfied with this arrangement for the time being.”

“Wait, where did the money come from?”

They received a huge amount of money from Duke Spencer in the means of a cheque, but they had only received it two days ago, so they hadn’t exchanged it at the bank yet.

But where did the money to buy all those dresses come from?

When Cordelia asked again, Jude glanced at Dahlia and Maja before he looked back at her and said with his eyes.

‘Pink Bomb.’

‘Pink Bo-… wait, Rogue Master? From stealing?’

They had only done it twice, but those two times were really profitable.

‘I said to Dahlia and Maja that we’re just selling off the treasures that we got from our travels. But it’s also true to some extent, right?’