Chapter 211: An Unexpected Reunion

Several more days passed, and during that time, the Royal City was peaceful.

Of course, that was only on the surface. With two major incidents happening on the same day, there were bound to be some ripples.

First, Cecilia had suddenly gained a personal knight, and the King had specially prepared a ceremony for her. Before, commoners couldn’t have known about Lita’s existence, but after this, it wasn’t just the commoners—Lita’s name was known by everyone in the kingdom. Everyone wanted to get a glimpse of what the Cursed Princess’s personal knight looked like.

Second, Lilia was severely injured. Many people didn’t show it, but they secretly felt pleased, and Lita was one of them.

Lilia still hadn’t woken up, but her personal knight, Xingxian, was much tougher and was already out of bed the next day.

The King met Xingxian alone. But somehow, news had spread about what Xingxian and Lilia had gone through, and everyone knew. On the night before their return to the Royal City, a group of unidentified people secretly attacked the camp where Xingxian and Lilia were staying. Since it was late at night and a surprise attack, Xingxian barely managed to break through with all her might, delivering Lilia back to the Royal Capital by morning, before collapsing herself.

In fact, Xingxian’s return to the Royal Capital coincided almost exactly with Lita’s ceremony. Since the ceremony shouldn’t be interrupted, the King found out a bit later, but only a little while later.

The King immediately sent people to the location where Xingxian was attacked, but they found nothing except some bloodstains.

The King was furious and immediately dispatched investigators. Whether it was the evil organization named ‘Glen,’ another princess, or some other culprit, the King would not let it rest.

Many people were looking forward to Lilia waking up, and Aierteer was one of them. If a princess were to die like that, it would certainly bring even greater chaos.

Opinions were divided on these two matters, and some even linked them together. However, that didn’t really affect Lita.

There was also another rumor that spread widely, but it sounded too fantastical, so most people didn’t believe it. That was the appearance of extremely terrifying corpse ghosts in the Everfrost Wasteland of the Northlands, suspected to be the revenge of the previous King, Caesar. Some said Caesar was exiled to the Northlands and died there, others said he turned into a corpse ghost and broke out of the royal tomb, and still others said he had turned himself into an alien ghost during his lifetime to achieve immortality. There were too many such claims, making them unimportant.

For Lita, the most important thing now was—bride training.

Well, actually it wasn’t bride training, just ordinary learning of maid skills. Cecilia had once said that once Lita became a crest knight, the two of them would leave the palace together and move out. In fact, Cecilia didn’t trust others and didn’t want to hire maids to handle her personal affairs, so she decided to train Lita from scratch. After all, Cecilia held Lita’s secret, and that secret eliminated any possibility of Lita betraying her for personal gain. Although Cecilia never even considered the possibility of Lita betraying her.

Thus, Lita’s daily routine became bride… no, it should be called maid training.

First was etiquette class, but this time she was learning maid etiquette instead. Not having to face Brennie’s big wooden stick made Lita quite happy.

Next was home economics, but that was just the anime term. In reality, it was subdivided into many categories, as many as specialized courses. For example, the food and drink section included meal and beverage preparation, table setting, banquet procedures, food serving, and table service etiquette. Meal preparation was further divided into appetizers, main courses, soups, and desserts, while beverages included juice making, cocktail mixing, and tea brewing, among others.

Alright, alright, that’s just one lesson. That’s just the ‘food’ part of clothing, food, housing, and transportation. It would be troublesome to explain everything in one go. Simply put, ‘clothing’ meant helping Cecilia choose clothes, wash them, and dress her; ‘housing’ meant decorating, entertaining guests, guiding, cleaning, and reading the room; ‘transportation’ meant managing Cecilia’s travel plans.

Oh, right, besides that, there were also some butler duties, the same kind of work as that powder-faced bald man Pierre—like inventory management, paperwork, registration, accounting… In short, lots of things, so many it was despairing. Lita’s every day was filled with this.

That was just during the day. At night, Lita had to learn other things. For example, last night she learned the practice and application of Memory Extraction Magic—the same magic she had used earlier to probe the little mouse’s memory. Waerfeisi also used this method to deliver ‘online lessons’ to Lita. But the difference between them was like the gap between middle school physics and deadly college physics. Back then, Lita couldn’t use it properly at all.

This magic looked powerful and was actually useful, but the problem was it had many limitations. Because memories were delicate, careful operation was needed. It required both time and the cooperation of the target, while the caster also had to maintain intense concentration. Therefore, aside from those who voluntarily submitted or those who couldn’t resist, there was almost no chance to use it.

In fact, when she first learned this magic, Lita had considered how she could extract the King’s memory. But the King had actually been good to her. The rumors in the city seemed to have died down quickly because of the King’s attitude; otherwise, who knows if someone might have continued to fan the flames.

Besides studying these things, Lita had nothing else to do. Actually, it was because Cecilia forbade Lita from doing anything else.

“Even though the rumors will die down on their own after a while, we must keep a low profile during this time. No one knows how many eyes are watching us. Even if we don’t intend anything, someone will always misinterpret our actions.”

In fact, Lita’s several teachers had surely been investigated. Several times during lessons, Lita felt eyes watching her from the shadows.

‘Should I tell the teacher that someone is “auditing” the class?’ Lita even had this unrealistic thought several times. But she was genuinely attending class seriously, and if others wanted to listen along, Lita didn’t mind.

Unfortunately, the investigation into the mansion where the corpse ghost appeared had to be shelved for now. It was still under the Church’s surveillance, so she couldn’t very well go in.

‘If only life could continue like this.’

“Lady Lita, your learning speed is very fast. I believe you’ll be able to stand on your own before long.”

The woman, over fifty years old, smiled. Time hadn’t left many traces on her face, but her smile already made Lita feel her kindness. The several teachers Cecilia had found for her must have had considerable reputations, but unfortunately Lita hadn’t heard of them. That didn’t affect their willingness to teach her everything they knew.

“Thank you for your teaching, Ms. Mazi. Please just call me Lita in daily life.” Lita respectfully performed the knight’s salute she was best at, even though the other was teaching a maid’s course.

Mazi kept her gentle smile. “Alright, Miss Lita. See you tomorrow.”

“Alright, see you tomorrow.”

Lita turned and left, but instead of hurrying back to the palace, she took another path. Cecilia had been considering buying a new house, and Lita would help give advice when she had free time. But her days were packed with lessons, so she only had time after class. Her personal matters had to wait until after lessons. Come to think of it, it was just like that period in university when she had a full schedule.

Soon after, Lita stopped at a street corner. Someone was already waiting for her there. Seeing the other’s attire, Lita couldn’t help but be startled.

‘A nun?’

Nuns all belonged to the Holy Church. The locked church Lita had seen in Mushroom Village was the Holy Church. Since Lita was technically part of the royal family, she had almost no interaction with the Church. She only knew of its existence and knew nothing about its doctrines. But she still knew that this Church was similar to those in typical games, providing purification, healing, prayer, and the like. Incidentally, when Lilia was injured, she was taken to the Church for treatment.

Despite her doubts, Lita stepped forward.

“Hello, may I ask…”

“Ah?” The nun exclaimed. “You must be Lady Lita!”

Lita nodded. The nun immediately clasped her hands solemnly and greeted Lita with a prayer-like gesture, offering her blessings.

After all, Lita was a crest knight, truly above others. It was normal for people to bow to her. But she had to admit, this feeling was just too good!

After the greeting, the two exchanged a few words, and then the nun guided Lita in a certain direction. From the nun, Lita learned that this was originally Church property, but it had been left unused for years, and the Church was currently facing financial strain. Coincidentally, Cecilia wanted to buy a property, so they were taking the opportunity to let Lita inspect it.

“The Church also faces financial strain?” Lita asked out of the blue as they walked.

“Of course. The Church’s expenses are actually very large. Although there are many donations, building maintenance, personnel costs, ceremonial items, daily supplies, and so on all require money. The smaller churches below also need our support, so in reality, the Church is not wealthy.”

Those naturally cost money. But whether the Church had other expenses or if there was embezzlement, Lita didn’t know and wasn’t interested. Although in games, very few Churches had good people.

The rest of the walk was silent. Before long, the nun led Lita to the entrance of a certain building.

The building wasn’t very large—at least not as big as the Lord of the City’s mansion in Angushi. From the outside, it looked like the typical Japanese-style rich girl’s house seen in anime. But it was more than enough for just Cecilia and Lita, and even a few times that many people could live there.

So far, Lita thought this place was quite suitable.

The nun took out a key and unlocked the heavy chain on the gate. Then she hung the chain back on the door and gestured for Lita to enter.

Well, let me revise my opinion. So far, Lita felt that coming here was absolutely terrible. At least the nuns Lita knew couldn’t easily do this—