TSTRP 17

Chapter 17

It had only been a few days since I had started working as the First Prince’s secretary, and already the environment around me was changing.

The change in my uncle and Alice’s attitudes was astonishing.

“Solana, I always knew you were the lucky charm of this family. It won’t be long now before House Albre takes its place in central politics!”

“Solana, you know I always wanted you to do well! I thought marrying Viscount Montrache would be the best thing for you, but I never imagined things would work out like this!”

“Alice!”

My uncle immediately scolded Alice the moment she mentioned marriage. He was telling her not to bring up an uncomfortable subject and ruin the mood.

Alice looked displeased for a moment, then forced her expression to relax.

“From now on, whenever an invitation comes, I’m going with you too, okay?”

“Of course. As a secretary, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to meet other members of the Imperial Family, won’t you? Make sure you put in a good word for your uncle with Her Majesty the Empress!”

My uncle and Alice were clearly trying to get whatever scraps they could from my newfound position, pleading with me in strangely ingratiating voices that didn’t suit them at all.

It was the complete opposite of how furious they had been just a few days ago when they learned I had become a secretary.

Apparently, after receiving an invitation from the powerful Empress Nina, they had finally realized just how important the position of an Imperial secretary was.

While eating, I put my fork down on my plate and cleared my throat.

Immediately, Alice hurried over and brought me a glass of wine.

“Are you thirsty? Have some of this. It’s the finest wine I bought as a gift!”

I took a sip of the wine and pushed my plate aside.

This time, my uncle sprang into action.

“Solana, I suppose the food isn’t to your liking. Cook! Call the cook immediately!”

They’re making such a fuss…

The atmosphere was so awkward that I decided to get up and return to my room.

But then my uncle called over my cousin Pablo, who had been sitting across from me and watching all of this with an uncomfortable expression.

“Pablo, how can you possibly swallow your food when Solana has finished eating? What are you doing just sitting there instead of escorting Solana immediately?”

“Wha…?”

Pablo had been sitting quietly, yet somehow ended up getting scolded anyway.

He approached me and awkwardly raised one arm.

“Um, w-would you like me to escort you?”

“No, thanks.”

Who needs an escort inside the house?

Even though I told him I didn’t need one, Pablo followed me out of the dining room.

When I continued to sense him trailing after me, I sighed and stopped.

“Why don’t you go on your way?”

Pablo awkwardly looked out the window, pretending not to hear me.

I glared at him and was about to start walking again when he finally spoke in a hurried voice.

“It’s a relief, isn’t it?”

His face looked genuinely relieved, as though he truly believed what he was saying.

“What is?”

“That Father probably won’t make any more unreasonable demands of you. You’ll be able to live at the estate a little more comfortably now, too…”

“That is true.”

“If Father ever makes another demand like that of you, I’ll help you.”

Pablo had always been softhearted since childhood.

Whenever my uncle and Alice bullied me, he would always watch from a distance.

That didn’t mean I could expect anything from him, though.

Pablo wasn’t righteous enough to stand up to his own family for my sake.

Still, he had enough compassion to occasionally leave a dessert outside my door when I was crying after Alice falsely accused me of something.

Pablo was indecisive and possessed not even the slightest bit of charisma.

Yet now he clenched both hands into fists, wearing the expression of someone who had made a solemn resolution all by himself.

“How about we go to the shopping district together on our next day off? I noticed last time that your clothes were getting pretty worn out, so let’s go to a dress shop. And we can stop by that dessert shop you like on the way.”

Some people might have found warmth in Pablo’s words.

But sometimes, I found myself getting angry at Pablo like this.

Even more angry than when I saw my uncle and Alice behaving hypocritically.

At times like these, I couldn’t help taking my frustration out on him.

“You know what? Your table is always covered with more food than you could possibly eat, but the food on my table is whatever scraps are left after the other members of the family have been served.”

“…Huh?”

“Sometimes, when my meal is late, I even get cold soup. I suppose the cook couldn’t be bothered to heat it up again just for me.”

Seeing the bewilderment on Pablo’s face, I continued with biting sarcasm.

“Actually, I’ve never once eaten any of the desserts you occasionally brought me. There are a lot of thieves in this estate, so any dessert that stands out disappears somewhere almost immediately.”

Apparently, Pablo had never considered this possibility.

His face turned bright red.

“They dared to touch your belongings without permission? That’s an insult to our family. I’ll find out who did it immediately.”

I couldn’t help snorting.

“Who else could it have been?”

Who had stolen my necklace and purse just a few days ago?

Yet he was looking for the culprit somewhere else.

There was no doubt that Alice had a major role in my belongings disappearing, desserts included. Whenever she was in a bad mood, she would pick a fight with me for no reason.

Perhaps Pablo finally realized that too, because he fell silent.

Pablo was mistaken.

Unlike what he thought, I didn’t consider them my family.

My uncle had been the one to cut that bond first.

I had no family left in this world, and I had no desire to have one again.

One morning, I went to work as usual.

But the scene that greeted me was completely different from before.

“Secretary, you’re here. Did you have a good weekend?”

The maid who had pretended not to see me and quickly turned her head away whenever she encountered me just last week now approached me and greeted me.

Taken aback by the unexpected situation, I asked,

“Excuse me?”

“Are you going to His Highness again today? Oh dear, you must have your hands full. He didn’t seem to be in a very good mood today.”

What happened to this woman all of a sudden?

The maid smiled with her eyes and began feeding me information about the First Prince’s condition.

When I failed to hide my bewilderment, she quietly moved closer and whispered,

“I heard you attended Her Majesty the Empress’s tea party on your day off? Goodness, if you have connections with Her Majesty, you should have told me sooner. And here I was, completely unaware… Hee hee!”

Ah.

So she was approaching me because she thought I knew someone powerful and wanted to get something out of me.

If I were in her position, I would have been too embarrassed to approach me.

But this maid was shamelessly straightforward.

Do you have to be this thick-skinned to work as a palace maid?

And it wasn’t just one maid who had changed.

Almost everyone I encountered along the way was behaving the same way.

“Oh my, Secretary! I thought your office might feel a little dreary, so I had a maid send some flowers over.”

“Would you like to have lunch together later if you have time?”

“Secretary, good morning…”

Secretary. Secretary!

Only after my name had been called countless times did I finally reach my office.

Was the distance to my office always this long?

Even though I had arrived at the palace on time, a considerable amount of time had passed by the time I reached my office.

It was understandable.

I had been stopped every few steps.

Damian was already waiting outside my office, with a letter tray placed there.

As always, Damian greeted me in his usual matter-of-fact manner.

“Good morning.”

“I’m a little late, aren’t I?”

“Haha, it’s fine. The palace is a little noisy today. That’s a good thing for you, Secretary.”

“A good… thing?”

The fact that everyone had completely changed their attitude toward me just because I had attended the Empress’s tea party once was already making me lose my appetite.

Damian shrugged and flashed me a grin.

“Whatever they’re thinking behind your back, goodwill is still goodwill.”

“But what if they find out that I’m actually not that close to Her Majesty the Empress and turn against me?”

“Then that’s their fault for making the wrong assumption. You haven’t done anything wrong, so what’s the problem?”

Oh…

I had assumed Damian was an easygoing young man because he had a youthful face and a rather casual manner of speaking for someone working in the Imperial Palace.

But perhaps he wasn’t as simple as he appeared.

That was certainly an answer befitting an attendant who had managed to survive at the First Prince’s side.

As I moved the tray, I noticed that the pile of papers was much higher than usual.

Did I somehow receive even more fan letters after the weekend?

The thought of having to reply to all those letters made my mind go blank, but Damian corrected my misunderstanding.

“Ah, these are the documents you’ll need to take care of starting today.”

“They aren’t letters?”

“No. Actually, last week, Viscount Serga took care of the paperwork for you because he thought it might be too overwhelming while you were still getting accustomed to everything.”

Viscount Serga was the man who had given me a ride in his carriage on my first day of work.

I stared at the mountain of paperwork and felt genuinely impressed.

I had thought he was a heartless man because he had dumped all that work on me, but now I realized he was an angel.

He had handled all the paperwork himself just to give me time to adjust!

Is he a tsundere?

Come to think of it, despite his icy, frost-covered attitude, he had given me a ride in his carriage.

If I hadn’t been able to ride with Viscount Serga on my first day, I would have been in quite a difficult situation.

This is what they mean by being tough on the outside and soft on the inside!

A cold exterior, but a warm heart—the classic Imperial Palace man!

“If you find the paperwork difficult, he said you should come visit him.”

Ohhh! Lord Serga!

Most secretaries were elites who had graduated from the academy, so they would presumably be capable of handling basic paperwork.

Since I hadn’t graduated from the academy, perhaps he was worried about me.

This is just eighteenth-century paperwork. Compared to the work I did in the twenty-first century, it’s nothing.

I confidently declared,

“That won’t be necessary.”

I’ll make sure to surprise the generous Viscount Serga who has bestowed his kindness upon me.

At my enthusiastic declaration, Damian nodded with an awkward expression.

One hour later—

I had yet to realize that my future involved desperately shaking a hand that would soon refuse to move at all.