I bit my nail.
I had already came home, but there were a few issues.
My reputation had already been tampered with, thanks to Ivy.
And second of all, my personal maid, whom I trusted the most out of all the servants at home, had been replaced because she recently married when I was gone.
"My name is Tasha, M'lady." A girl with red hair in braids bowed.
"I see. How did my parents pick you?" I said while another maid was unpacking my stuff.
"They thought I would be a good friend, because I our ages are fairly close."
Ha! You had the guts to say that in front of a person with status incomparable to your's. I couldn't accept this.
"Who do you swear your loyalty to?" I asked. I set up this room with a lie detector spell.
"Rosely Villinie, my one and only person that I serve." She said automatically.
She sounded like a robot. Usually, a maid would stumble at these words. Had she somewhat practiced?
And on top of that, her statement was a lie.
'Rosely Villinie, my one and only person that I serve.'
So you served someone else, didn't you?
I rolled my eyes. Ivy was making her moves.
I picked up her information paper.
She indeed worked at the Castria mansion before coming here.
I clapped.
"Alright! I hope we get along! Please serve me well, Tasha!"
Yes, how I do hope we get along.
I got up. It was time to change those rumours about me.
***
Knock knock.
"Father, may I come in?"
"Roselyn! What has brought my darling daughter here?"
I opened the door to my father's office at home.
"Father, I heard there was some drought in the south. Am I right?" I asked. I had learned of this from the maids gossiping in the hallway.
"Er...That's right. A few nobles in charge of the production of food and supplies coming from the south are having a hard time."
Thanks, Father. You really cut to the chase.
"I see. If it is alright with you, may I borrow some money and power? I have decided to go there myself to see and fix the drought."
"......What?! No! I can't let you go there! It isn't fit for a girl like you!!!" He slammed the table. Papers fell everywhere.
"But we run part of the south, don't we, Father? How could I just stay in my own little safe castle when our people are suffering?! You don't need to worry about my safety, either. I scored top of my class in magic, and even Philip Berk hasn't beat me once. If there's a person that you should be worried about, it's the people that attack me." I explained.
My Father didn't want to make me look bad, and he knew that he couldn't make me a princess in a castle forever. Soon, I would lead the Country as queen. Or at least he thought.
"I u-understand. I will let you go. But you must make sure to bring a mage or swords woman as an escort with you! No men! You can use a squad from the Dukedom!" He said through as if this was his biggest regret of his whole life.
"Ok, Father."
I left his office.
So I had to find a squad that would help me with the plan.
"Why were you in Father's room?"
"Onii-sama. I'm going to be away for a few days. I will go to the south to help out the people suffering from the drought." I said while looking around.
Tasha, the spy sent from Ivy, wasn't anywhere here. I couldn't sense her mana around where we were talking.
"But isn't it dangerous?" Onii-sama looked worried for me.
Everybody knew that the south contained a lot of bandits and thieves. There were even signs of human trafficking.
"Don't worry, I'll be safe. I'm strong, Onii-sama. Please don't underestimate me."
He looked down. He knew that I was strong, it looks like he can't stop worrying. It felt nice that he was caring for me.
"Alright. I will be going." I said after a few days of planning for the trip.
"But before that," I stood up on the tip of my toes, "Do be careful of the new maid." I whispered into my Onii-sama's ears.
He smiled and nodded his head.
His acting was perfect. It looked as if I told him a cute, little comment.
Onii-sama was smart, so he understood right away. It would be impossible for him to not investigate this matter after being told a warning by his little sister.
***
"When are we going to arrive? This is so boring." A knight name Christiana yawned while sitting next to me. She was a strong knight that was part of the squad brought with me to help the drought.
"Soon. We are passing a mountain right now." I said while examining the map.
The carriage was going pretty fast. There were 3 carriages, and each brought some materials.
If this trip was a success, then I would be only staying there for a week or so.
A envoy was sent to the south before the trip to inform the people of our arrival. We would be staying at a inn.
When we arrived and unpacked, we decided to split up in groups and walk around the town we were working at to get a better hang of the land.
I decided to go with Christiana.
"This town's food if pwetty gwood." She said as she stuffed a few cheese-filled buns in her mouth.
"Are you Roselyn from the Duke's house?" A young shop caretaker asked me as I bought a nice fountain pen and a few packaged snacks to eat.
"Yes. May I ask how the droughts been and how it has affected your family?" I asked the lady.
"Well, it's been taking for a worse turn recently. Our planted vegetables isn't really affected yet, but soon we'll have reduce the rations. We have already stored water, but the amount is decreasing significantly. And I recently heard that a farmer who worked extra outside fainted due to the heat." The lady looked down.
"Mommy, is she going to help us?" A boy by her side asked.
"Yes, yes. Now go and play with your toys." She let go of the boy and he ran inside a room in the back of the store.
I left the store with Christiana.
"So, what exactly are we going to do, Princess?" She said, then opened the pack of snacks.
"I thought I explained before we left." I told her.
"Mhhmmm." She ate a few cookies.
I looked down. How did she manage to stay so skinny while eating like a pig? Was this because she trained a lot? She didn't seem as if she had a lot of muscles because of her skinny figure. And on top of that, she was rather lazy when you had a choice of helping or not.
I figured that this went with the un-realistic game. People were monstrously strong even without muscles seen on them. And they never gained weight most of the time, no matter what.
We spent the whole day walking around the village and learning about how the drought worked.
Apparently to our calculations, it was because of the river who supplied them with water was drying up.
"Why don't we visit the river tomorrow? Cause we agreed to go back at this time. We're going to have dinner at the Inn." She looked at her pocket watch.
You're thinking about dinner even after eating that amount of food?! But the sun was starting to set.
"Alright. We'll start with fixing the drought tomorrow." I said as we headed towards the Inn to rest for the night.