Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 30.2

When Elena was old enough to remember, her mother’s gifted education had begun.

Having never felt the warmth of a mother, the young Elena continued to receive a strict education, seeking only her mother’s warmth in return.

As a result, she acquired four magical attributes and an intellect that rivaled that of adults, but the cost of the attributes and strong magical power she acquired at the age of only four, took a toll on her young body, she was no longer able to run around with other children her age.

It was not widely known, even among the nobility, that acquiring many attributes comes at the cost of the practitioner’s lifespan, in exchange for the strong power.

In Elena’s case, if she could grow to adulthood, she would be able to live a normal life, even if it would be difficult for her to bear children. However, this would be fatal to her chances of obtaining the throne, and her mother’s interest rapidly waned from Elena.

Without her mother’s warmth and with a lack of a strong body, Elena was supported by her brother, the crown prince born to the first queen.

Elena adored him and became so attached to him that she felt she had no one else to turn to but him… Elena pretended.

If she remained at her mother’s beck and call, the country would one day split into two factions, the royalists and the aristocrats. The kindness of her elder brother, the Crown Prince, had saved her life, and she, personally, liked him as a brother and sister, but his kindness was not strong enough to unite a country divided in two. Elena was not a member of the aristocracy.

Elena, as she was, would not have been able to repel the words of the aristocrats. That was why it was necessary to show inside and outside the country that she was a member of the King’s faction, even to the point of acting as an obsessive.

Currently, this fact was known only to the king’s father, the former king, the king’s grandparents who were the empress dowager, and a few close associates including his nanny.

If the Crown Prince was deemed weak as the next king, the Crown Prince’s children must be educated until they came of age, and the Queen as Acting King must be appointed. To fulfill the role of Queen as Acting King, Elena’s royal education continued without the knowledge of her mother, the Second Queen.

The second queen, who had educated Elena to take the throne from the first queen’s son, had given her the “intelligence” to think about the peace of the kingdom, even to the point of betraying her mother.

The medical treatment in Dandol was not to cool down Elena’s head, which had gone too far, but a rest recommended by her father, who was concerned about Elena, who was adjusting the balance of the royal family at only seven years of age.

She chose Dandol as the place to rest because of her cousin Clara.

Clara had lived in Dandol for three years, from the age of three to six. During this time, she came to Dandol three days a week to play with Elena.

She was not flirtatious or violent like other children, but had the grace of a Dandol princess, and Elena loved her like a real sister.

That was why she had come here to seek her healing, but Clara, whom she had not seen for two years, was a little different now.

I guessed it would be better to call it a slight discomfort.

At first, Elena was happy to finally have someone she could talk to, but as she spoke with Clara, she felt as if she were talking to a different person.

The way she looked at Elena changed from pure affection to a wary gaze. There was something about Clara. She was hiding it.

To find out – to be honest, I wanted to return to our previous relationship – I forcefully pulled out the maid, who seemed to be the one who showed a wary look similar to when Clara had seen Elena.

It didn’t have to be different. Her peach-blonde hair was the same color as in the portrait of the previous queen, and when she was even younger than she was now, she secretly wished she had peach-blonde hair rather than gold.

The peach-blonde girl’s name was Aria, whose age I had not been told, but she was around 10 years old for a commoner, not much different in appearance from the magic-grown Elena of today.

What struck me was her eyes…even though she had a pretty face from the perspective of Elena, who was used to seeing beautiful and gorgeous people, her jade green eyes held a strong power as if she were standing up to something.

The inside of her was also different from what you would normally think of as a child. She was so calm and indifferent that it was hard to believe that she was a child, yet she watched people with great attention to detail, and whenever Elena wanted something, she would immediately notice and approach her.

Empathy…was that what they called it? Aria’s solitary attitude gave Elena a sense of relief that she was not alone.