Chapter 10.4

Crown Princess (Tentative) (4)

The noblewomen asked questions in such a roundabout way that I usually didn’t understand what they were asking, but if I didn’t answer them smoothly, I would be met with mocking laughter. There were many times where if Estecia wasn’t behind me discreetly telling me how to respond, I would have been in a pretty tight spot. Truly, all hail Estecia. I thank the entire Caliente family who assigned Estecia to me from the bottom of my heart. If she wasn’t with me, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to overcome all these evening parties with my recently acquired superficial knowledge.

The only thing I looked forward to in these evening parties was the dancing part, and I especially liked the dances that required fast and intense stepping and twirling. It was the only part of my day where I could kind of exercise, when the rest of the day consisted of me being forced to move slowly and gently. As long as I honored the structure of the dance, it was okay for me to improvise a bit, which was much appreciated. There was some conversation while we danced, but it was custom for it to be simple small talk. After doing my first dance with Cermiane, I proactively danced with many other noblemen. Since there was basically no end to the noblemen who wanted to dance with the (temporary) Crown Princess, I danced for as long as possible in order to avoid conversing with the noblewomen. In the end, I was known as the (temporary) Crown Princess who was addicted to dancing. Cermiane simply laughed wryly.

For that matter, I had so much pent-up stress that I almost fell ill. I wanted to go to the forest. I wanted to go hunting. I wanted to face off against strong prey. At the very least, I wanted to run freely and jump around. Dancing simply wasn’t enough. I was distressed everyday. Then, one day, when I slipped into bed to sleep, Cermiane whispered in my ear:

“You look bored.”

“I’m not bored per se, but I haven’t exercised in forever. I want to run to my heart’s content.”

Then, Cermiane laughed wryly and whispered:

“I sometimes wake up early for work, and when the knights switch shifts at dawn, that is also when the maids for the first shift come in for work. There’s unexpectedly quite a few people moving about in the imperial palace at this time. Hm, let’s see. Around this time of  the year, is it right before the sun comes up?”

What is he trying to get at? When I tilted my head in confusion, he continued:

“From then to when you get woken up, there is, let’s see, about three hours?”

Great. So what?

“If you sneak out when everyone is busy at dawn and come back before they come to wake you up, I think it would be fine if you go out and exercise.”

Huh? When I instinctively looked up at Cermiane, he laughed and placed a finger on my lips.

“Of course, you cannot get caught, my darling.”

“Leave it to me! I’ll be back before they know it! Literally!”

However daring a statement to make — telling your wife to sneak out and go have fun, a typical husband would prohibit their wife from sneaking out to have fun rather than encouraging them to do it. Moreso if she was the (temporary) Crown Princess.

“I completely understand how you are feeling, and if I make you hold it in and cause you to explode from the pent-up stress later, that would most likely bring about dire consequences. It would be much better to let you relieve some of that stress every now and then.”

As expected of Cermiane. He understands me so well. I was so elated that I hugged him tightly.

Once I had Cermiane get me a custom-made military outfit, I tried sneaking out the next dawn. I changed my clothes as quietly as possible in bed, discreetly slipped out of bed, and hoisted myself up into the hole I made beforehand that let me into the ceiling. From there, it took me a couple of days to figure out a route that led me outside the palace, but this was also part of the fun of sneaking out. Once I made my way outside, it was a piece of cake sneaking past the guards. Once I left the detached palace region, since I was wearing a military outfit, I was inconspicuous enough that it was no problem if some people saw me.

I explored the vast inner palace, ran around the gardens, climbed up the palace walls and admired the view. Even getting a chance to go beyond the inner palace walls to tour the government buildings and marketplace. Since it was dawn, most of the shops weren’t open, but I was able to see and enjoyed the rowdy importing and stocking that the store-owners were doing. Between the inner and outer palace walls was a small forest, and there, I climbed trees, ran between branches, relieved some of my hunting desires by setting up small traps and capturing rabbits and squirrels. I sold my prey to the shops.

Since I was cross-dressing, no one suspected that I was the (temporary) Crown Princess, but since I was short for a man, military personnel kept trying to pick fights with me. I welcomed them with open arms. I was able to let loose and beat them up without restraint, so I was able to relieve a lot of my pent-up stress that way. Unfortunately, even with Cermiane distracting the maids, I could only sneak out for at most four hours. I needed to go back within that time and nonchalantly return to being a princess. However, as my sneaking out became more streamlined and as I figured out the guard’s patterns, I was able to do more things while I snuck out. With a little bit more effort, I could definitely sneak out past the outer palace walls and wander around the capital’s plaza. There wasn’t enough time for me to seriously hunt, though. Actually, if I can get my hands on a horse somehow…

This way of relieving my stress was extremely effective, and I was able to even start enjoying my life as a noble, albeit very slightly. I guess it is true that humans cannot function well if they have accumulated extreme levels of stress. It was better to let loose at times and fully enjoy the things you like to do. I made sure to be very cautious when sneaking out so as not to get caught. It would be very bad if I was found out and they prohibited me from sneaking out anymore. Since this fear was always on my mind, it helped me make sure to not get caught. Although, Ariess wondered about how I would end up with scratches and damaged nails. Since it was her duty to take care of my body, she would always adorably scold me, “Please be careful!”

As I started to get adjusted to my new life as the (temporary) Crown Princess, the event we were all fearing, transpired.

His Highness the Crown Prince passed away.