HNSW - Chapter 10 - How to, like, Escape a Meeting?

Prince Galois watched the young lady in front of him. She gave him a pristine smile, just enough to indicate pleasure without excessively pulling on the muscles of her face. She held her dress at precisely the correct angle as she curtseyed the exact distance down for the daughter of a noble greeting royalty.

“I, Lady Lilussees of House Atreis, greet His Highness Prince Galois. How do you do?”

He put on his own perfected smile as he placed his hand over his heart and inclined in his head.

“It is an honor to meet you, Lady Lilussees.

Inwardly, though, he sighed. It seemed today he would meet yet another perfect young lady.

***

Once again, Lilussees was in hell. Every muscle and joint in her body felt stiff from holding them in precise positions at all times. The sun scorched her skin and blinded her eyes as it peaked through the trees of the garden. The scent of flowers overwhelmed her nose, preventing her from sniffing out incoming prey.

It was times like this that made her hate being born human, even with their wonderful sleep. It turned out that humans were truly the worst of monsters! After all, what other sort of hellish monster would require her to be awake at this ungodly hour? No, they were far worse than mere monsters. Monsters wouldn’t go so far as to wake her up! They’d just politely eat her in her sleep!

And it was all because of the demon sitting before her. He was the one who arrived during her usual morning nap! He was the one who required her to be awake in the…morning! He was the reason her mother and all the servants were staring at her with the eyes of hawks, promising horrific amounts of e-word later should she make even a single mistake!

“Is that so? Won’t going on a hunt be…scary?”

They were even forcing her to pay attention to his pointless drivel and make appropriate responses! Something about showing interest while appearing appropriately demure, or something stupid like that. And she was forced to drink tea! Tea! That horrid toxin only the cruelest of evil gods could have possibly concocted! A blasphemous, disgusting implement of torture that…kept people awake. It took all of her self-control not to spit at the vile thought.

No, Lilussees decided. She could not take this any longer. They wanted her to put up with this for an hour?! She would not allow that to occur.

Lilussees took stock of the situation, observing the room through a spider she had bound. Fortunately, the demon wasn’t here to stop her, so she had more cards to play. Maybe she could poison the new demon before her?

She considered it for a moment before quickly discarding that idea. She had been working on new poisons that might be able to handle the demon, but she was not yet confident in their effectiveness. The new demon before her was supposedly someone important or something too, so chances were he’d have defenses in place. Besides, the servants were handing all of the food, and the white tablecloth would make it easy to spot one of her spiders. She’d really have to come up with a good way of poisoning things without using her hands, huh…

Well, even if she could, her mother would probably raise a fuss if the important demon died, or something. Something about treason and the collapse of their house, probably involving execution. That’d probably end up causing more e-word than it would save her. Dying a second time would probably be a bad thing, unless she was just reborn again.

…she only briefly considered poisoning herself and seeing if she could be born into better circumstances. Unfortunately, her innate self-preservation instincts were still functioning, so that was off the table.

But then, if poisoning wouldn’t work, what else could she do? Adelissees wasn’t here, that traitor, and so Lilussees couldn’t use her as an excuse to go take a nap. She’d have to be punished for such a betrayal, but that would require e-word so Lilussees would handle it later. Maybe. Perhaps she’d just use her as a pillow and call it even…if she managed to survive this torment, that was.

With few other options coming to mind, she observed the important demon more closely, searching for some sort of weakness. He seemed as weak and vulnerable as any other young human at first, but on closer inspection she noticed the mana leaking off of him. It was in small portions, less than even the servants around her…but it was leaking too regularly, in patterns that repeated if she paid attention long enough. His mana control was clearly sufficient to consciously control his mana signature, which meant she could not assume his strength solely from the quantity of mana observed.

That was annoying.

Well, since it was too risky to make any moves on his person, she considered alternative means. The demon had told her something about words being weapons. That seemed dumb, besides chants and curses what sort of words could possibly compare to a good fang or spell? But there was no denying the demon was strong, so Lilussees at least considered if social manipulation might resolve this predicament.

She turned all her attention to remembering the demon’s lessons…and found that too much e-word so she decided to just take the direct approach.

“Your Highness, may I tell you something…secret?”

The important demon’s smile wavered for but a moment.

“Very well, my ear is yours, Lady Lilussees.”

He nodded at the butler at his side, who took a single step back. Lilussees stepped over to him with those painfully slow steps her mother enforced upon her and leaned over. Just enough to be within the bounds of “propriety,” whatever that meant, but enough that no one should overhear her whispers.

“Hey, can you leave already?”

The important demon’s expression froze.

“Pardon me?”

Lilussees had to hold in a sigh. Did his ears not work?

“You’re cutting into my sleep. You have other fiancés to go meet or whatever, right? So, can you leave and go see one of them?”

The important demon tilted his head.

“You want me…to cut our engagement discussion short? And visit the other candidates instead?”

Lilussees couldn’t help letting out a light sigh.

“That’s what I said, isn’t it? This is a waste of both our time, so go already.”

Lilussees then resumed her polite smile, or whatever, and returned to her seat. The important demon blinked at her a few times but she held that stupid smile she was supposed to. He then waved over his butler and whispered. The old man raised an eyebrow, but eventually nodded and walked over to speak with one of her mother’s servants.

It took an excruciating amount of time Lilussees didn’t care to remember, but eventually, finally, the important demon rose to his feet.

“I apologize, Lady Lilussees, but I’ve just been informed of an important matter. If it’s alright with you, may I take my leave for the day?”

Lilussees nearly sighed again at how long it took but since she was still under scrutiny, she placed her hand on her cheek.

“Oh dear, that’s disappointing, but I understand. Will I have another chance to see you, Your Highness?”

He gave her a slightly wider smile than he had before. It felt annoying, somehow.

“I’m certain we shall, Lady Lilussees.”

Unfortunately, it was not over just yet.

“What, you’re leaving already, Your Highness?”

Lilussees’s mother rejoined the conversation, because of course she would. The important demon inclined his head.

“I’m truly sorry, but my butler has informed me that it’s urgent.”

Lilussees’s mother made a bunch of protests that Lilussees tuned out but, fortunately, the important demon fended them off and then finally, finally, left. And now, finally, Lilussees’ hell was over…

Her mother clenched her fists and slowly turned around.

“Lilusseesssss! What did you do to the prince!”

Lilussees barely managed to hold in a gulp.

“Nothing, dear mother! I did exactly as you taught…”

Her mother turned to look down at her, a most assuredly not appropriately polite expression on her face.

“Then tell me exactly what you whispered to him! Don’t you think I didn’t notice!”

Lilussees politely averted her gaze.

“That’s…a secret.”

Lady Atreis grabbed her and began to shake her.

“Lilussees! Do you understand what you’ve done?! That was the prince! The prince! That was your chance at becoming queen! Not only have you lost your chance, you may have insulted His Highness himself! Do you know what you might have done to this family?! I’ve truly lost my patience with you, I will not let you get away it this time!”

Lilussees couldn’t help a gulp this time. It seemed that this time, she may have made a mistake…

“Excuse me.”

One of the servants walked into the room. Lady Atreis whirled around and glared at him.

“What is it?!”

The servant politely bowed.

“His Highness once again apologizes for his hasty departure. He wishes to thank the Atreis household and the young lady for the hospitality…and wishes to inquire when next he may visit.”

Lady Atreis blinked a few times.

“Next…visit?”

She slowly turned to Lilussees. Her mouth began to curl up. A moment later, she embraced Lilussees and began to spin around.

“Lilussees! You have another chance! His Highness must not have been lying about the important business after all! No, wait…if he’s willing to return, even just to make up for the urgent business…then he must like you enough to accept the implications of a second visit! You’ve done it, Lilussees! You’ve grabbed His Highness’ attention!”

She then put Lilussees down, grabbed her hand, and began pulling her out into the hallway.

“You’ve done well, Lilussees, but we can’t grow complacent. This is only the beginning, we’ll have to redouble our efforts to ensure you can make him yours!”

Meanwhile, Lilussees ground her teeth. She had no idea why things turned out like this, but she had definitely made a mistake!

***

As the carriage rolled down the road, Avreer rose an eyebrow.

“Are you certain about this, Your Highness? You are aware the implied meaning of a second visit, half-hearted alibi aside? Are you prepared for Lady Lilussees to become your default choice? It could become a great insult to the Atreis family should you change your mind at a later date…”

Prince Galois looked out the window and chuckled.

“You heard what she said to me, right Avreer?”

Avreer nodded.

“But of course.”

Prince Galois couldn’t help a smile.

“Amongst every candidate I’ve met thus far, is there even one that would ask me to leave? That would intentionally sabotage her own chances thus? And you know? I can’t think of a single good reason for her to do so!”

Avreer raised an eyebrow.

“Perhaps she has been threatened or paid off by one of the others?”

But Prince Galois shook his head.

“Quietly failing the discussion would have sufficed for that. To ask me to leave immediately, though?”

Avreer rubbed his chin.

“Ah. Rumors will spread that something she or her family did caused you to flee. She’d have placed herself and her family in a poor position for all future engagement discussions…especially given the rumors that she is fond of dark magic.”

Prince Galois nodded along.

“Exactly. No bribery or threat would cause her to go that far, at least none that the Atreis family would be vulnerable to. Likewise, she was educated and recommended by the Lady Baillairgé herself, so she most certainly would have been aware of all this. The only conclusion I can come to is that she must have some angle I missed, but for the life of me I can’t imagine what.”

Prince Galois glanced out the window and smirked.

“But I’m going to figure it out before she gets what she wants, whatever that may be. I promise you that, Lady Lilussees.”

Avreer raised an eyebrow, but held his tongue. Instead, he closed his eyes and smiled.

“Well, I’m glad His Highness is having fun. Let us hope that will be the case, then.”

Author’s Note:

Oh look, this series isn’t dead! Well, I did say it would be whenever I felt like and, well, there was a lot going on last year haha. And there’s, like, an egregious lack of bees and horrific amount of non-bees here. Lucky you all, though, I went on a villainess story binge recently so got a bit inspired!

No promises how long that’ll last. Besides, Lilussees wouldn’t approve of extraneous e-word, you know!

Now back to the story!

Ah, yes, Prince. Lilussees was definitely plotting something. One can only hope you can figure out what devious plan she had for you. Because, um, she definitely isn’t considering the poison you plan again. Assuredly not. The scale of e-word vs execution is definitely not tipping in an unexpected direction.

Anyways!

Has Lilussees made a terrible mistake? Will Prince Galois uncover what she’s scheming? Will the risk of execution outweigh the e-word to come? Tune in next time, to find out!