The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

When I opened my eyes, I saw the ceiling of my room.

Naturally, I was lying in my bed. I didn’t even need to get up to know that. It was the bed I had consistently used for almost ten years, now approaching eleven, and the blanket I covered myself with every day.

Well, the blanket might have changed a bit, but it was clear that this one had been used for quite a long time.

So... is it all over?

Had Lucas been caught? Did the Emperor find out what Lucas had been holding? Those were the first thoughts that came to my mind.

It didn’t feel like I had slept. I had just closed my eyes and then opened them to find myself lying in bed.

“Sylvia?”

I heard a voice from beside me.

Turning my head slightly, I saw Alice's face, wide-eyed in surprise.

“Sylvia!”

Hearing Alice tightly grip my arm and shout, Claire, who had been doing something by the table, flinched.

“Big sis?”

Claire turned around in shock, her expression not much different from Alice’s. I couldn’t see Leo or anyone else. Were they all busy with something?

If Lucas had been caught, they must have been busy... I wasn’t sure what Leo was up to, though.

“Where's Lucas...?”

“That’s not the important thing right now.”

No, it is important.

I hadn’t been able to ask Lucas anything. We had fought as soon as we encountered each other.

...Looking back, I was rather foolish. The fact that Lucas had reappeared after disappearing meant he had come back to fight.

As I propped myself up, Alice stood up in concern, then sat back down.

I felt refreshed.

I raised my arm to check, but there were no visible wounds. Without needing to check too closely, I knew that as a princess, I had surely received top-notch medical treatment. Most of the wounds I had were probably just scratches, so healing them shouldn’t have been too difficult. I was likely just exhausted from everything.

After lying on a soft bed for hours, it was no wonder I felt so refreshed. Before, I hadn’t been able to sleep properly due to nightmares.

And mentally, I felt much better.

“What happened to the masked woman?”

The last time I checked, she was still swinging her sword, entangled in combat with others. I still bore the wounds, though.

“She disappeared during the process of stabilizing the situation.”

Another one.

I knew she had been unable to use her abilities. If that was the case, her vanishing was a separate matter.

Was her disappearance a result of her own will? Or was she somehow fixed to a specific timeline and could only appear like that?

Whichever it was, it wasn’t something to be welcomed.

“Big sis, water.”

While I was conversing with Alice, Claire suddenly thrust a cup toward me.

Only after seeing the cup of water did I realize my lips were parched.

I gratefully accepted the cup Claire offered and took a sip before asking again.

“What happened to Lucas?”

At my question, Alice and Claire exchanged glances before answering.

“...He escaped.”

“With his current condition—”

I stopped speaking mid-sentence.

Thinking back, it seemed plausible given it was Lucas. Considering the outfit he was wearing. He had withstood the Emperor and the Swordmaster’s sword energies, so he could probably evade the knights’ swords as well.

He surely wouldn’t come out unscathed, though.

“What about the fallen people...?”

“...”

At my question, both Alice and Claire avoided eye contact.

So that’s how it is...

“How much time has passed?”

It wouldn’t be surprising if I had been lying here for a day. That would explain my thirst.

However, the answer I received came with a hint of hesitation.

“Almost two weeks have passed.”

“...What?”

For a moment, I thought I had misheard it as two days.

“Two weeks, big sis. While you were unconscious, August almost ended. School starts tomorrow.”

“...”

I couldn’t hide my stunned expression at that moment.

“Tomorrow is the start of school?”

“Yeah.”

Alice nodded seriously in response to my question.

“Then what about the Swordmaster?”

“He’s still in the palace. He has this weirdly pleased expression, which is a bit scary.”

Claire said with a hint of hesitation.

“...Leo?”

“He’s currently training. I guess he felt it would be awkward to leave taking care of you to a man.”

If I was wearing comfortable clothes, then someone must have changed me.

“After lying down for two weeks, how did I manage to eat and drink?”

“Basically, we did it, and the nurses helped out.”

“They chopped the food finely and fed it to you little by little, and the same with the water.”

Alice and Claire explained one after the other. They seemed to be careful, as if afraid I would panic.

“...”

I lay back down on the bed.

Hah.

I had been lying here for two weeks?

Receiving care from others?

While their explanations were concise, an incredibly large number of things must have happened in the meantime. If Lucas had escaped, there would have been a manhunt, and with the sounds of gunfire echoing from the tower, news would have spread near the palace. The institution had many diplomats and embassies. Given the spies planted there, it would have been impossible to completely suppress those rumors.

Even if they hid that Lucas was the one who caused the incident, they couldn’t cover up the fact that an incident had occurred. Moreover, if Lucas had already rampaged through the Law Country, they would probably have a rough idea of what had happened.

It sounded like the fortress-like status the Empire had maintained was starting to crack.

How would the Emperor react? From my perspective, it seemed unlikely he would show a positive response.

“Well, the situation has been largely contained. At least the palace is functioning without issues...”

Alice explained as if making excuses, but with so many knights having fallen, it couldn’t be the same as before.

“...That.”

When I fell silent, lost in thought, Alice cautiously spoke up.

“...I’m sorry. It was my suggestion to go inside.”

“No.”

Before I could say anything, Claire quickly interjected.

“I suggested we couldn’t just wait below.”

I gazed at the two of them quietly. It seemed they both wanted to hide from me.

“Thus—”

“No.”

I cut Alice off, who was trying to continue.

“The one who didn’t say how this all unfolded, or what you were trying to do, is me.”

At my words, both of them fell silent.

They wore expressions that seemed to hold many things they wanted to say. Probably mostly in the realm of apologies.

But I didn’t want to hear those apologies. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t forgive them for having wronged me. It was simply that there wasn’t anything to apologize for.

It was just that the situation had gotten tangled. Mostly because of my existence.

I had claimed I would save all the heroines and yet ended up putting them in danger.

“...”

I lay back down, looking up at the ceiling. As I gazed at the overly ornate, Victorian-style decorations far removed from the word minimal, a sudden thought struck me.

Ah, my entire vacation just flew away.

*

I considered rewinding the entire vacation but decided against it.

Even rewinding briefly had already caused me pain to the point of losing consciousness; trying to rewind even further would be...

Would I end up like an egg smashed against a rock?

In truth, what I had done from the beginning had been incredibly foolish. What if I had actually died?

...

So, what would I do then?

It would be better than Alice dying. After all, I was a character that was close to being a bonus in this world. More precisely, I was a character whose true identity I didn’t even know.

...Well, as long as no one died, it should be fine.

“Hmm.”

I heard a grunt and looked up to see Charlotte. She seemed unchanged, as if nothing significant had happened during the vacation.

“I’m glad to see you’re healthy.”

“I’m glad to see you’re healthy too, Your Highness.”

“The title has reset again.”

Charlotte sat down with a wry smile.

Then, after glancing at me for a moment, she shrugged her shoulders.

She probably had heard about what had happened through the newspaper or from the intelligence network of the Bellbur family, but she didn’t pry any further. What happened inside the palace was a royal matter. Conversely, it would be a breach of etiquette for us to ask about it.

“Hello, Charlotte.”

“Hello, Alice. By the way, we greeted each other in the hallway already.”

After Alice, who had come in a bit late because she had been occupied with greeting other nobles, greeted Charlotte, Charlotte responded with a smile.

“Well, greetings in the classroom are different. There were many other people in the hallway.”

Saying that, Alice sat down behind me.

“It was such a long vacation.”

As Alice said with a sigh, Charlotte replied, “Tell me about it.”

Indeed. It was really long.

It felt like it had been ages since I had experienced such a peaceful atmosphere.