Redemption of the Blue Rose Princess - Chapter 7.1

Chapter 7.1 – Marquis of Rozen, Jude Nicole

“Please name me as your successor.”

“I’m afraid that now isn’t the right time to do that.”

That was her father’s answer when Alicia met him directly.

It was an ambiguous reply that neither denied nor accepted her request, but at the very least, his tone was leaning toward accepting her request.

And that fact alone was enough for Alicia.

In the first place, she never expected him to immediately agree to the matter since it directly involved the future of the kingdom. In addition, he heavily implied that depending on Alicia’s future actions, he would readily give his consent.

I have to prove myself first, that’s what you’re trying to tell me, right, father?

Even though the hurdle was too heavy for a normal ten-year-old girl to bear, the Princess was burning with fighting spirit.

“So, what are our future plans…? Before, after the Ealdar expedition, I remember you were saying something about ‘abolishing social position in regards of promotions’… Should we try to realize that?” 

The day when they usually had Clovis reporting his activities had turned into the day when they would do a strategy meeting. Remembering the matter that he had previously proposed in the past, the black-haired aide unexpectedly shook his head in response to Alicia’s suggestion.

“As King James previously said, there are too many hurdles to implement that proposal in Heilland. We should address it later after Alicia-sama successfully became the Queen instead since it would take a long time to implement it.”

“I see…”

Alicia, whose suggestion was shot down, rested her cheeks on the desk. She thought that it was a great idea, but since the person who wrote the idea itself said so, then it must be true that it was too difficult for the current her to achieve it.

Clovis held out a stack of papers from under his arm to his dejected master.

“If you don’t mind, I have a suggestion, why don’t we start with this case instead? It seems to be something that Alicia-sama would have an interest in, though it’s still a pretty difficult case to solve.”

.

“Isn’t this the proposal that was rejected by the Privy Council?”

“Yes, it is.”

The black-haired young man smiled at Alicia, who looked up at him while tilting her head after she finished skimming through the documents he gave her. Like any other day, the young man took care of his naturally good look properly. It was part of his loyalty, keeping up a good enough appearance to make sure that he wouldn’t embarrass his master, except that his appearance was a little bit too good. If he were to attend a ball somewhere in the kingdom, he would definitely steal everyone’s attention with his good look.

Normal young women would probably fall for the perfect image that Clovis exuded. His neat-looking eyebrows decorated his already handsome face, his clear gaze filled with an intellect that had been previously proven by his feats.

However, Princess Alicia wasn’t a normal young woman. Instead of being intoxicated by her aide’s natural charm, she instead sent him a curious gaze, wondering why would her aide show her a proposal that was previously rejected by the council.

“Haven’t Dreyfus and the other civil officers looked over the case already? If they rejected it previously, wouldn’t that mean the proposal is unnecessary to be brought up?”

“Yes, but Dreyfus-dono could only perceive things as either black or white. I was curious if there were any interesting cases among the rejected proposals, so I looked them up.”

I see, this proposal was something that caught Clovis’ attention, thought Alicia. Curious to see what was it about this particular proposal that stole her aide’s attention, Alicia turned her gaze toward the documents in her hands once again.

A while ago, she would only spare a glance if someone were to present a document that was written in a flowery language like this to her before eventually throwing it away, but she had long changed.

What should she do to prove that she was worthy to be a ruler? To look for the answer to that question, Alicia had been reading all kinds of books she could get her hands to, from books about domestic affairs to foreign affairs, she would indulge herself in them. Thanks to that, reading through one or two proposals written by the regional government should be an easy task for her.

–After a few minutes of flipping through the documents, Alicia’s breathing somehow became ragged.

With tears in her eyes, she looked up at her black-haired aide.

“…Clovis…”

“It’s okay, Alicia-sama. Being able to read doesn’t mean being able to immediately understand the thing you read. If you don’t mind, let me briefly explain the contents of the documents for you.”

As if he had anticipated this reaction from his master, Clovis quickly bowed his head with reverence.

This frustrated Alicia, but it wasn’t like she could help it. No matter how hard she tried to maintain a mature image, she was still a ten-year-old girl. She sulked for a second, but she quickly regained her composure and moved their conversation forward by presenting a question to her aide.

“Firstly, who wrote these documents?”

“It was the Marquis of Rozen, Jude Nicole, Princess.”

Alicia tilted her head, clearly, the name sounded familiar to her. As she remembered a certain event, the Princess gasped in realization.

“Ah, right. Wasn’t he the guy who became the subject of the surprise test that Nizel gave you?”

“You remembered it well, Princess.”

Clovis’ eyes widened, taken aback by Alicia’s answer while the latter clasped her lips as she tried to remember the things that she heard about the Marquis previously.

Jude Nicole.

The Head of the Regional Council, Dreyfus, was known to hate the Marquis, so much that he would often send proposals for the Privy Council to confiscate the Marquis’ territory.

Marquis of Rozen… I’ve read a lot of articles about him lately.

Alicia tried to recall all the knowledge she had gained from her visits to the library over the past few days.

The Marquisate of Rozen was located in northeastern Heilland. Most of its territory was filled with farmland, but a part of it was adjacent to the sea. For example, the Port City Held, which was built next to the sea. It acted as a major trading center where people, goods, and money from all over the world gathered.

The territory was controlled by the Nicole family, a noble family with a considerably long history behind it. The current head of the family, Jude Nicole, was a 30 years old man who was known for his eccentricities.

“When I first read the proposal at the council, I found it quite interesting… But, there was no way for me to determine the credibility of the proposal, which was probably the reason why the proposal was rejected in the first place.”

“And so? Will this benefit me in some way? Can you explain the content to me concisely?”

She especially emphasized the ‘concisely’ in her sentence as she urged her aide. She wore an impatient expression on her face, driven by her curiosity over the contents of the documents.

Clovis smiled at the Princess as he started to concisely summarize the contents of the documents just as he was ordered to by the latter.

“He proposed to establish a large-scale trading company specialized in distribution, separate from the noble houses’ jurisdiction. He claimed that it would save the kingdom in the future.”

TL: Iyo

Join the Discord