After a long long father to daughter talk, Charlotte decided to go for a stroll in the flower garden when Iris and Lilly came jumping onto her.

They had been worried about her the entire time and even found her hat that she had dropped in town at the festival. Lia also seemed somewhat worried and wished her good health despite still being so timid around her. They needed to get back to work and so Charlotte was left alone once again.

As she hummed a tune of her old world, Leila and the other two arrived. Leila also jumped onto her with tears flowing from her eyes. Complaining and grumbling about how she made them worry when she didn’t come back after so long only to come back unconscious with injuries all over her and a stranger carrying her at that.

“I’m sorry about that you three. I somehow ended up in a trapped room. Well, at least I am still alive, am I not?”

Lei sighed “That isn’t the problem. Do you know how worried we were? And when your father found us only to see his daughter missing…I’m afraid if your teacher and Walter weren’t there at the time, he would have gone mad.”

“T-that bad…? I’ll need to thank them later.”

“But what happened to you? Do you know how worried we were!? And afterwards, we heard from the adults that the name of the dungeon was actually the ghost dungeon!” Leila was still freaking out even after five days had passed. But that was just how it was. Being scared and shaken by that, the abnormal one was still Charlotte.

(…I probably shouldn’t mention anything about that snake huh…for their sanity’s sake.)

“I guess you were right when you said it would have been better for us not to know too much. Next time, I won’t ever doubt you again!” Terence said with respect as he gave her a thumbs up.

“I pray that there won’t even be a next time. Really, if possible, let that be the last time. ”

“But, why called a ghost dungeon?” Leila still couldn’t understand that after all.

Leo and Terence too “Yeah, it’s not like we saw any ghosts at all.”

“Haaa…you three, haven’t you had enough yet? ….the reason why they call it a ghost dungeon isn’t because of ghosts or anything, but just figuratively speaking. Researchers and adventurers who had entered would rarely return alive and knowing this, the miasma inside the dungeon will play tricks on their minds and they ‘think’ they hear the voices of the dead. Well, something in short like that.”

They let out an oh~ and began to mumble amongst themselves.

“But, especially you Leo, are your parents alright with you coming over after what happened?” she doubted that the king and queen were so reckless and he couldn’t have sneaked out either. That would be irresponsible on his part.

“No, I just used the excuse about saying I was worried about my fiancé.” He gave her a sheepish smile.

“I see you really have royal blood in you, Leo.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Ah, I almost forgot to mention. …my father and I had a heart to heart talk and I told him about you and Leila. We can’t keep up this pretense forever, so I needed to tell him eventually.”

Leo and Leila gulped. He hadn’t even told his parents as he was afraid they would use drastic measures to pull them apart, but Charlotte was also right. “W-what did he say?”

“You two needn’t worry. It seems like my father had already found something suspicious for a while and I simply confirmed it. He didn’t seem to mind and said if that was what I wanted, then he was fine with it.”

“Wait, what did you even tell him!?”

They couldn’t even begin to imagine that scary duke being okay with him having a ‘lover’ while his precious daughter was his fiancée.

“Hey, my father may be scary at times but he isn’t unreasonable. I just said that I only thought of you as a friend, wished for your happiness together; hate the queen training and some other stuff. Apparently the king had also been worried since I was the only child of our blood line too, so it shouldn’t be that difficult.”

“But…”

Charlotte clasped her hands around Leila’s as she carefully gave her some advice “Leila, you need to have more confidence. I’m not saying to be like Marionette and act haughty, but you’re the daughter of a marquise, a rank only below duke! And, as I had said before, if you really wish to stay by his side you also need to be able to help him and lead the people as the future queen. A queen who is backed to a corner by a group of little girls, how you will survive in that den of wolfs called ministers!? Do you know how scary they can be?”

Although she may not have witnessed it personally, she had seen countless cases on TV and movies. No matter what time period, world and even the world she had been living in, places such as royal castles, etcetera are all filled with conspiracies. She for one hates politics. Thus, she wants to avoid the eyes of powerful and influential people at all costs.

Well, she sort of already failed after befriending the crown prince. No, this plan had already failed the moment she realized she was the daughter of a duke.

“L-lotte, you’re kinda scaring me…”

“Yeah, how do you even know all that? Even I know that much….”

(Oi, that’s not helping Leo.)