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Chapter 80 Part 3 – The women take a step forward with pride in their hearts. To protect, to fight, to compromise.

「Sca-chibi never has trouble falling asleep. She can sleep and wake up in seconds.」

「Uwah, that’s amazing. Is she a wild animal …… She’s only a 4 year old child. As expected of my master’s daughter ……」

「I – I wouldn’t force Scarlet to have such a horrible habit ……!!」

「As expected of Scarlet-san. As a merchant, I can empathize with you. Time is money. I want to make the most of every minute.」

Bradd puffed out his chest with pride as if he was bragging about himself, Arnold was stunned, mother rushed to defend herself, and Seraphy nodded deeply in admiration.

Hey, don’t treat a graceful girl like me as a monster.

You guys are far more inhuman than me.

Oops, time is running out. Switch, switch.

Fortunately, the luxurious and gorgeous carriage is okay. Let’s rework the strategy around it.
There are a number of chess pieces we can use, even if they are out of the ordinary.
…… Good, let’s go with this combination.

「W-Why is she grinning now? That’s scary ……」

「She just got a good idea. Sca-chibi is smart, but her emotions are fully on display on her face.」

「The Scarlet-san that shows various expressions …… is very charming.」

You guys, shut up.

The first punch to stun the red nobles is the imperial guards of Hydrangea who is renowned as the strongest order of knights.

There is no one among the nobility who does not know that they are the royal family’s tiger cubs. It is extremely difficult to mobilize them. When my father previously did it, it cost him so much that it even affected the national budget. If those imperial guards are escorting the carriage, anyone would surely think that His Majesty the King is backing us to the hilt. …… Anyway, that scheming old king must have originally dispatched them to make us owe him a favor. In that case, let me make full use of the authority of the royal family.

After the preemptive punch that will cause the nobles to flinch, we will quickly launch a right-hand straight punch with all our might.

The luxurious and gorgeous carriage will make its entrance.

The carriage is a status symbol of the nobility. Therefore, they have severe requirements on aesthetics, but this carriage is a masterpiece that I have created with my whole heart and soul. It is not something that can be criticized. On the contrary, I even used a technology that was developed after I ascended to the throne in the previous ‘108 times’, which was impossible to exist at this point in time.

This reminds me of that memory. When I was queen, I longed for a wonderful carriage as I was also just a woman. However, there was no surplus money in the national treasury, so I had to endure the carriage with a musty smell and worn-out interior which only had its exterior repaired to make it look venerable and continued to use for a long time. I will never forget the humiliation of being talked behind my back by the nobles who knew what was going on internally. How dare they call me wearing-pants-with-holes, stingy queen. I cut down on my personal living expenses for the sake of the kingdom. One time, I even pretended to throw away my gloves once and for all to keep up appearances, but then secretly retrieve them afterwards ……

But I never put a single penny into my own pocket. Although I could not say that I was a good queen, I never forgot my position as a public servant. It was a sad period of time where all that accumulated was stress, not money.

Compared to that, it’s great that now I have money at hand that I can spend freely. The money that I have made from my business in a fair and square manner. Although I did get a lot of help from my knowledge cheat about the future. Anyway, in order to vent my past anger, I slammed my huge buying power into the carriage production.

Furthermore, I also asked the renowned genius Princess Margaret to check the finish of the carriage in the secret workshop. After her eyes opened wide in surprise, she suddenly turned around with a smile and said, 「Anyone other than Duke Wilhelm’s family and the royal family must not build this carriage」. It seems that she recognized its value at first sight. Be that as it may, it looks like it’s decided that we have to present it to the royal family ……

「In exchange, I will talk to my father so that you can use the crest of the royal family. It’s better to have as many cards as possible, right? If that’s not enough, I’ll even add in a kiss from me.」

Margaret put her index finger to her lips and smiled mischievously. It’s a slightly tempting offer, but I’ll refrain from it. I know it’s rude to compare the two, but for some reason, I sometimes see a hint of Alisa the fool in this genius princess, and it freaks me out. Without paying any attention to my response, Margaret was immersed in her thoughts.

「Ahh, in the future, it might be a good idea to give this carriage only to nobles who have made great achievements, as a substitute for a medal. I’m sure all the nobles would be tired from hearing the cries of their wives and daughters and they would all try their best to do a meritorious deed for the royal family. Fufufu, their wives would say something like, ‘When are we going to get that carriage? Even the wife from that family has one’. A woman’s vanity is a scary thing.」

W-What’s scary is you, Margaret, who acts for the benefit of the royal family as naturally as breathing.

If His Majesty the King is a sly old fox, then this one is a mythological fox spirit. I’m surprised that she’s just a 10 year old girl.

I’m sorry to say, but she’s nothing like the puppet queen and prince of the foreign powers. Those two are being flattered by their followers and Hydrangea reformers, but what they are doing is at the level of indiscriminate imitation by suddenly trying to change the court manners and attire in the exact same way as the foreign kingdoms. Or rather, that’s not the act of a sane person.

The queen and her followers insisted that, 「Hydrangea’s culture is one step behind, so in order to be born anew, we should entirely adopt the culture of a foreign kingdom」. But the reality is that although the other large kingdoms excel at some advanced technologies, the same is true for Hydrangea. In other words, the civilization level is close to even.

Seraphy, who travels all over the continent for business, also agrees with me. His knowledge and view on the foreign kingdoms cannot be compared to what the queen and the prince is aware of.

To put it bluntly, the queen is in the mood to ridicule all domestically-produced clothing and jewelry, and appreciate all foreign products, and the rest of her faction is just following her lead.

How foolish. The royal family must first protect their own kingdom and their own people. Those who fail to do so and uselessly look down on their own kingdom do not have the right to call themselves members of the royal family. …… Besides, the real aim of the four great kingdoms is ……

「…… I know. They are trying to first invade the kingdom of Hydrangea with their culture and make us have a feeling of fellowship with them so that we will relax our guard against them. Then they will quietly enter the Hydrangea imperial court and rule Hydrangea from behind the scenes. It’s a silent war of aggression that does not rely on military force. A very obvious trick. But even when I tried to warn them, my mother and elder brother would not listen to me.」

Needless to say, Margaret had already seen through the intentions of the four great kingdoms and said so bitterly.