Chapter 4: Getting Compensation from the Royal Family

As expected, the letter was a summons from the king. To summarize the contents, it said, “I want to discuss the annulment of the engagement, so please come to the royal castle as soon as possible.”

Since I couldn’t ignore a summons from the king, I decided to head to the royal castle on another day.

As I left the mansion, I said, “I’ll go and get some compensation from the royal family to fund my business!”, but father said, “Please don’t be accused of lèse majesté…” and had his head in his hands. He wouldn’t pick a fight with such a member of the royal family.

As soon as I arrived at the royal castle, I was taken to the VIP room.

The king and queen were already sitting there. By the way, Lord Cedric wasn’t there.

As soon as I entered the room, they all bowed their heads.

“I want you to forget that we annulled the engagement.”

I wondered what the king was going to say, but that’s what he said. I looked at them coldly and opened my mouth.

 “Since we annulled our engagement in front of everyone, it would be difficult to pretend it never happened.”

“…”

“In the first place, I was just doing what Cedric asked. He said you didn’t want to continue the engagement with me after all my crimes, right?”

I said with a smile. The king then slammed the table in anger.

“If that’s the case, then you should have pleaded innocent at the time! If you’d proved your innocence, the engagement would have continued!”

“…”

I felt something inside me cool down.

My father was also angry, saying “She shouldn’t have to prove her innocence.” But that was because he cared about me, his daughter.

Even though we were angry for the same reason, the king’s trashiness stood out even more because we wanted different things.

I continued speaking, pretending to be calm.

 “If I had claimed my innocence back then, our engagement would have continued. But what would have happened if I had denied Cedric’s words then?”

I could have proven my innocence then. But if I had done so, Cedric’s credibility in high society would have been ruined, and his say as the next king would have been reduced. And that could have become the source of conflict within the royal family.

The words of royalty carry weight. I must not belittle their words by denying Cedric.

Well, that was just a pretense. In truth, I didn’t prove my innocence because I wanted to break off my engagement with Cedric as soon as possible.

I cleverly hid my true feelings and continued to speak as a brave woman.

“Rather than deny Cedric’s words, I’ll take the blame myself.”

That’s a lie, though.

“I wanted to protect Cedric as his fiancé.”

That’s a total lie, though. “Do you understand?”

There was a moment of silence. After that, the Queen, who had been silent up until then, spoke up.

“That’s a noble attitude, my dear. This time, Cedric was in the wrong, so let’s not blame her any more.”

“But…”

“More importantly, what are you going to do now that you’ve annulled your engagement with Cedric? You’re not going to say you’re going to become a nun, are you?”

At that moment, the King frowned.

Becoming a nun. In other words, that means I’m going to become a member of the church.

The church and the royal family are separate institutions, and their powers are balanced. It would be a great blow to the royal family if the church took me, who can use magic with two attributes.

“If you’re willing, I’ll introduce you to a new fiancée.”

When the Queen started to say that, I shook my head in a panic.

 “No. If a former fiancee like me were in the royal capital, it would cause chaos in the power struggle in high society. Furthermore, if I were to become engaged to someone else, I could even become a threat to Lord Cedric and his people.”

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty that Lord Cedric chose is the daughter of a baron. If Lord Cedric and she were to marry, there would surely be people who would try to weaken the power of the royal family.

And those people would no doubt try to promote me, whose honor was tarnished by the annulment of my engagement (or so it seems), as a rival to the royal family.

Ah, just thinking about it makes me want to take a bath.

“In order to avoid such chaos, my father decided to banish me, who admitted my crime.”

“Oh my.”

“I will work modestly from now on.”

The king and queen were speechless at my words.

Well, it’s rare for a noblewoman to leave home to work. Especially since I’m the daughter of a duke, there’s probably no precedent.

 As someone who has memories of my past life, it doesn’t feel that strange to me.

Like a noble young lady, I put my hand to my chest and continued speaking.

“However, I am in a difficult situation as I have no funds to start a new life. I am very sorry, but could you please pay me compensation for breaking off our engagement?”

“Of course.”

The Queen nodded with tears in her eyes.

“I cannot help but support you, as you have thought seriously about Cedric!”

Oops. It seems that you have misunderstood a lot of things, but I am relieved that I will be able to receive compensation for now.

However, the King spoke with a sour look on his face.

“Lady Lydia.”

“Yes.”

“I understand your point of view. I am willing to pay you as much compensation as you want. In return, there is a condition.”

I never expected that he would give me a condition at this point. What on earth is it?

“What are the conditions?”

“That is–“

The condition presented by the King was unexpected.