Chapter 48: The Rose Princess Hates Long-Legged Beauties

The speaker was, of course, Leticia.

Tarasha’s appearance had made her a little unhappy.

First, she saw Christine whispering with Hall for a long time, and then that woman Christine had leaned in and whispered something ambiguous in Hall’s ear.

Although Leticia couldn’t hear, she could roughly guess from Earl Lied’s expression that the words were as ambiguous as the gesture.

But she held it together, because she couldn’t go up and question Hall directly, asking him what Christine had said to him.

Then Himan went up. Leticia was more accepting of Himan, because she knew Himan didn’t trust Hall and wasn’t a rival.

So Leticia held it together, thinking she would just wait for the competition to start, thinking she would wait for Hall to display his transcendent swordsmanship just as he had when he saved her and Moyel that day.

She imagined that when he was dazzling, and the reporters captured the moment of his victory with their magic cameras, she would, like a princess presenting a flower wreath and medal to a champion knight, become a part of that photo, become the person by his side.

But unfortunately, Hall got involved with Tarasha, and even said he liked long-legged beauties.

Although Leticia was a beauty, her rose-colored long hair and pupils added a lot to her charm, and she carried sweet and princess-style clothing with great elegance.

Even the most vibrant clothes wouldn’t look gaudy on her.

But Leticia had a fatal flaw compared to women like Himan and Tarasha: her legs were short.

Her height wasn’t short, but she needed to wear ten-centimeter high heels to be comparable to long-legged beauties like Himan and Tarasha.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be taller, but the education she received from a young age was that being shorter was cuter. The maids at home and everyone at the noble balls she attended always said she looked like a doll.

But today, when Hall said he liked long-legged beauties, she suddenly thought.

Hall had never praised her for being cute.

Could it be that Hall didn’t like cute girls?

So, Leticia’s mood was low, not very good.

But when Tarasha suddenly and arrogantly declared that she was a marquis of Cateline, and that Hall hadn’t inherited his family’s estate and thus wasn’t a duke, she decided to take action.

After sensing Leticia’s hostility, Tarasha’s first reaction was confusion. She hadn’t intended to provoke Leticia at all.

As someone who specialized in assassination and intelligence work for the Kingdom of Cateline, she certainly knew how necessary it was to maintain good relations with the Child family for the countries of the Western Continent.

In the perception of many countries, it was better to be an enemy of the Papal State than an enemy of the Child family.

In a generally peaceful era, making money was the most important thing.

Moreover, most of the time they were competing for territory with the remaining demon kings, and competing with the demon kings required an army and equipment.

And all of this required a large amount of money, to ensure the country’s economy could function well.

So Tarasha was flustered. Few things could make her worry, but she couldn’t accept Leticia’s impression of the Kingdom of Cateline worsening because of her.

When she learned that Leticia would be attending this swordsmanship exchange, she had even thought it would be best to befriend this little princess who didn’t have many friends.

“Duchess Leticia, is there something wrong?”

Tarasha wanted to understand the reason.

But to Leticia, this sounded like a provocation. Would she repeat that sentence for no reason?

“Nothing.”

The rose-colored girl said coldly.

Tarasha became even more panicked when she heard this. Of course, there was something wrong. As an intelligence operative, guessing the other party’s mood was a basic skill.

But she didn’t understand why.

For someone who had been trained as the dark sword of the Kingdom of Cateline since childhood, had never had a romantic relationship, and was not interested in love, she couldn’t figure out that Leticia was angry because Hall had called her a long-legged beauty.

Tarasha became even more terrified. Leticia was in a bad mood because of her, but she didn’t know why.

It was a dereliction of duty.

Time passed, second by second, and Tarasha could only choose the words that would minimize the damage.

“I apologize, Duchess Leticia. If I have upset you, please forgive me.”

“There’s no need. Marquis Tarasha doesn’t need to apologize to me. It’s my own problem.”

To Leticia, Tarasha’s words didn’t sound like an apology at all. It was sarcasm, and the use of the formal “you” was even more pointed.

She thought, ‘Weren’t you so arrogant just now, Tarasha? Saying if you upset me, please forgive you. Can forgiveness shorten your legs by ten centimeters?’

“…”

Tarasha was speechless. She thought, ‘How could it be your problem?’

‘I deserve to die a thousand deaths. Your Highness, please don’t be angry. If the Child family reduces the scale of their companies in the Kingdom of Cateline, causing unemployment and economic recession, she would be a national criminal.’

But she didn’t understand why Leticia was not satisfied with her sincere apology. Was it because it wasn’t sincere enough?

Tarasha began to wonder which part had gone wrong.

At this moment, Marquis Chekhov began to give Tarasha a look.

The two communicated using the special code of the Kingdom of Cateline’s intelligence department.

Tarasha generally understood, but still not quite.

She just looked at Hall.

‘What does that mean?’

‘Could it be that Leticia was angry because of her attitude towards Hall?’

Leticia, on the other hand, saw Tarasha exchanging glances with Hall again and became even more displeased, thinking that the other party was indeed being sarcastic towards her.

But it was actually Leticia’s misperception. Hall hadn’t looked at Tarasha at all. From the moment Leticia appeared, he had a feeling that the plot was going in the wrong direction.

It seemed that Leticia wanted to stand up for him.

But in the game’s plot, when Leticia stood up for him, it meant that she was beginning to gradually approve of him.

Like Himan’s approval, it was easy to increase the death rate.

If the heroine developed a certain degree of affection for him, it would be very dangerous. There was a probability of a mana-replenishing event happening.

This kind of plot was usually only played by pure love players, and not to mention that because of the game mechanics, he, Hall, would definitely die, and this setting didn’t support a pure love route.

And this game itself was a yuri game with an unorthodox path. Why would anyone buy it and not find some other kind of stimulation, but instead play this kind of route?

Fortunately, Vice-Principal Earl Lied spoke up.

He said that the time was about right, and everyone could start preparing for the order of appearance.

The rule was that the Cateline delegation and Holy Light University would each send three people, and there would be three one-on-one matches, with the winner being the one who touched the opponent first.

At this time, although Tarasha was still纠结 why Leticia was angry with her because of Hall, she still remembered her real mission for this visit to the Papal State.

So she asked.

“Excuse me, Vice-Principal Lied, which position will your school’s Hall Faxtius be competing in?”

“This… according to the rules, I can’t disclose it.”

Earl Lied could also see that Tarasha was aiming for Hall. He didn’t dare to let Tarasha and Hall have another incident.

Leticia was watching.

But Tarasha suddenly cleared her throat and said.

“I have just received the approval of Marquis Chekhov. I will be the only contestant from Cateline and will challenge the three contestants from your school in turn. If I lose, Cateline loses.”

As soon as these words were spoken, not only did Himan and the others show expressions of surprise.

The reporters outside were like sharks smelling blood.

This woman, she was going to fight one against three?