Chapter 19: Anastasia: Innocence has disappeared! (Patreon)

Resentment out of nowhere, no explanation given — now that's troublesome, nyah.

Anastasia twirled her purple bangs, adorned with a little star ornament, with the air of someone nursing a headache, and let out a barely perceptible sigh. She had no special fondness for being scolded without talking back, nyah — though there was nothing to be done about it. She really had stolen trade secrets first, so the fault was hers, and she supposed she ought to give a little ground.

Still, she couldn't help wanting a little payback.

Very interesting.

Anastasia's beautiful blue eyes turned this way and that; an idea quickly came to her, and she settled back into an easy, composed smile. "Well, lil' ol' me happens to be from Kararagi too, so there's a certain hometown fondness for that other Anastasia. Wouldn't Miss Felt maybe go a little easier on her tongue?"

"Like I care. You're a merchant too, so how convenient — you can go croak right alongside Anastasia!"

"Felt, isn't that a bit much—"

"What, got a problem with it? You're just one little Subaru Natsuki — tell me, are you on my side, or on the side of some Anastasia you've never even met? You're the one who bragged about becoming king. Don't tell me you're siding with your own rival."

"Shh! You can't say that out loud— Ohh, death to Anastasia, that scoundrel, pound the black-hearted merchant flat, heave-ho, heave-ho."

Ever the fence-sitter, Subaru Natsuki threw a flurry of punches and kicks at the empty air. His delivery was flat and wooden the whole way through, but a statement was a statement. Seeing this, Felt planted her hands on her hips and nodded in satisfaction.

Subaru knew well enough by now that one had to keep a calm face before acting. From all the history of emperors and kings he'd pored over lately, one thing held true across every age and every land: those who accomplished great things, the rulers who pulled off successful rebellions, were always the ones who kept their secrets best.

Anyone who went around shouting about rebellion before even raising an army wasn't a king — that was just a suicidal lunatic.

If it came down to it, for the sake of ultimate success, he might even have to cosplay as Goujian — swallow his pride and endure hardship, going to serve under the several now-famous royal selection candidates of the Kingdom of Lugunica, gathering intelligence on them, and finally striking their weaknesses with a single fatal blow, leaving them powerless to resist him.

(Walnut's note: Reference to Goujian, an ancient Chinese king who endured humiliation and servitude to spy on his rival, striking him down when he least expected it.)

Heh heh, ahaha...

"You want to be king?"

Anastasia looked genuinely surprised — my, what a rare thing to hear. Still, she didn't take it too seriously. After all, trying to become king without being a royal selection candidate meant standing against the entire kingdom, and setting aside everyone else, there was no way past the Sword Saint Reinhard alone.

More than that, she was far more interested in the abuse Subaru Natsuki had just heaped on her.

Time to jot it down in her little notebook, nyah — page one of the grudge book was Felt, and page two was now Master Subaru!

But Subaru panicked, terrified Anastasia might spread word of it, and lunged forward, clapping a hand straight over her mouth. "Shh!"

"—!"

Anastasia's whole body went rigid, her small eyes wide with shock and some other unnamable feeling.

This was a first...

Even though she'd built herself up from nothing since childhood, clawing her way through countless dealings with men along the way, she'd always kept herself proper — nothing beyond words exchanged, never anything more. A touch this intimate was, from childhood until now, the very first time. The only time.

Even Ricardo, who was something like a foster father to her and had watched her grow up, had only ever held her hand back when she was a small child — never once since she'd grown up.

Time seemed to stretch on and on, endlessly long.

Dazed, Anastasia felt her own breath strike the back of Subaru's hand and bounce back to her, carrying with it the particular scent of a young man — warm, dense, but not unpleasant.

She could even feel that her lips, not having drawn back in time, were pressed firmly right into the palm of his hand.

Wasn't this basically her kissing his palm...?

It didn't count as a first kiss in the strictest sense, but for Anastasia, who had never shared anything intimate with any man, it was more than enough to flush her cheeks red, weaken her legs, and send a tingling shiver through her whole body.

To Anastasia it felt like an eternity, as if at least a minute — maybe even ten — had passed, until Felt came storming over, hackles raised and hissing, and viciously knocked Subaru's hand away from Anastasia's mouth. Only then did time return to its normal pace.

"What do you think you're doing?! You just said you're into the big-sister type, and now look — making a move on someone! I really might have to report you to the Knights."

"This is your fault for blabbing the secret! I did it on reflex... um, Miss Anastasia, are you all right?"

Lil' ol' me feels like calling Julius and Ricardo over to chop you clean in half — so does that sound like "all right" to you, nyah?

Anastasia, finally shaking off her rigid stupor, blinked her lashes faintly, pressed her legs together, and only just managed not to collapse with Mimi's help holding her up.

No matter how Felt had slandered her to her face earlier, no matter the veiled digs, Anastasia had held it together and kept smiling through it all — but this time, just this once, she couldn't hold the mask. She pouted, her lips puffing with a resentful, sulky sort of gloom.

"Lil'... ol'... me... is... fine. Not... a... single... problem."

"That expression doesn't look 'fine' at all..."

A smile.

Only a smile.

Anastasia puffed her cheeks, forcing herself into a cheerful smile — one that never quite managed to form — but even so, it was enough to melt anyone watching.

Cute as a cream cake, cute enough to kill just by looking at her. Subaru had genuinely felt nothing toward her before — well, not exactly nothing; Anastasia was certainly pretty, but he'd never imagined he could actually fall for her.

But right now, all he could think was: how could there possibly be such an adorably good girl in this world!

Anastasia: endure it, endure it!

If some random man she had no connection to had pulled a stunt like that, she'd have called in muscle without a second thought.

But of all things, curiosity had gotten the better of her just now. She'd come purely to see the slum that had undergone such a dramatic transformation, hoping to strike up a partnership with the increasingly famous business-legend duo of Subaru Natsuki and Felt — to spread their "magic tricks" through her merchant guild's reach into other countries, and rake in money from the whole world.

Yet she just couldn't help herself. When she'd crept up close behind Subaru, she'd happened to overhear him letting slip a trade secret, and she'd gone and asked him another question on top of it.

She'd already resolved to send over a whole cartload of gold coins afterward to settle the debt fairly and not take advantage of him — but as it happened, she hadn't done that yet, and Subaru had no idea she meant to. Which meant, right now, she happened to owe Subaru a favor.

Subaru hadn't even asked for anything after she'd eavesdropped on his secrets — just an apology. If she went and did something to him over this, wouldn't that just make her a thoroughly bad girl?

This mess was of her own making; all she could do was choke it down with tears in her eyes.

But still... there was just no way to pretend nothing happened. Lil' ol' me's purity!!!