‘And then? What happened afterward, highness?’

Sitting on a bench at the Corundum Royal Castle’s garden, Canaria who had beckoned forward.? In her hair was an amethyst hairpin, which is reminiscent of the Corundum royal family.

In the end, I decided to give her a jewelry craft for her birthday gift, which isn’t exactly the best idea for a princess of a country known for its mineral reserves. Nevertheless, women are beings enamored by dazzling things, and even though the main material was not sourced from our country, our country’s cultural designs should make up for it. Sure enough, the lady loved it. Although the red ribbon she wore already made her golden hair shimmer, the purple jewel also matched it quite well. Still, I want to give her a gift that features my own colors next year.

‘Well, I? inquired about him to the harbor jail after a few days but the boy was no longer there. The herb poisoning has made him too weak, so he was moved to the second house of House Walters for treatment.’

I was able to attend Canaria’s birthday this year too, so I was able to tell her in detail just like I did last year.

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

Being led to the House Walter’s 2nd residence, I arrived at the front door of the room where the boy was resting at. What awaited on the other side of the door, was a bizarre spectacle. The boy was bound on all fours, groaning, attended by a lady with braided sky-colored hair wearing black-rimmed glasses. She was the only daughter of the Count, Missouri.

‘What happened to him?’

‘He is hallucinating due to the after-effects of the magic herbs. He was out of control and harming himself so we had him restrained.’

As Missouri explained, I responded with the same question I had during my harbor observation.

‘What’s a magic drugs? Is it different from a magic potion?’

‘I guess the Coloflare Kingdom would not be familiar with the term. It’s created through wounding an unripe fruit of a magically-potent plant and drying out its sap into a powder. It will have the fruit’s magical effect and can be manufactured without requiring the abilities of a potion doctor. The effect will vary depending on the plant and as for Himemomobana—’

‘It’s hallucinogenic, right?’

‘Not only that, it will make them revere the person who gave them the powder as a their “princess”, turning them into faithful slaves that wouldn’t give their own lives a second thought. It has a high addictiveness, and its withdrawal symptoms is an unbearable desire to take suicide.’

Missouri explained as she read the books, “Coloflare Kingdom Botany,” and “World’s Botanical Encyclopedia,” right next to the bed. For the favourability item to have such fearsome effects, wasn’t the heroine basically just brainwashing the capture targets through drug dependence? Just imagining my older brother becoming as thin as him with the same vacant eyes made me shiver. It’s way too unpleasant.

‘Why would they leave such a dangerous plant unattended? They also use it to make candies, right?’

‘The flowers themselves are not as dangerous, highness. While the salted and candied petals have a slight fascination effect, it’s only momentarily, sir. The fruit themselves are not edible, but they are used to make processed goods in the territories where they grow wildly. But to think that they will be used as a magic drug..’

These magic drugs that are not common in our country are not necessarily poisonous. They were apparently, originally used as pain relievers. However, its high dependability and the addictions are taken advantage of by gangs to make money in foreign countries.

‘I guess there wouldn’t much to use when it comes to wild ones.’

‘A slight difference in climate conditions would largely decrease its potency in cultivation, but..’

‘gugua.. princess~!’

The yelling voice of the boy cut off our conversation. Lady Missouri immediately made him swallow a potion. It would take time to take him off from the drug’s dependency, and there are cases where it can have lifelong after-effects. What a fearsome thing.

As the boy’s breathing grew calmer, his eyes slowly opened. As I entered his line of sight, the boy’s facial expression grew into a wide smile.

‘Princess!!’

‘Who are you calling a princess.’

‘Highness, you are dealing with a patient.’

Oops, my foot reflexively..

The boy who was stupefied for a while soon realized he was being bound, and examined the entire room suspiciously.

‘Where am I!?’

‘Looks like you’ve regained consciousness. This is Count Walter’s manor, Coloflare Kingdom. You came here to our country for a Himemomobana, right?’

‘Coloflare Kingdom..?’

Looks like he doesn’t remember what happened in the harbor. I decided to just explain to him how we met in a simple manner.

‘Can I ask you something? Who are you? How did you end up here?’

‘..I’m John. I was born on a small island within the empire’s territory. We were very poor so I was made to serve an aristocratic house ever since I was little. The lord-of-the-house made me swallow a medicine called ‘princess’. It made me feel great and allowed me to work tirelessly. It even made me happily take everything that was done to me, thinking that it was the ‘princess’ love.’

As John was about to puke, Missouri took the basket near her feet and handed it to him. She will make a very good wife, judging from how fast she responded to his symptoms.

”Princess’, you say? Was your lord a woman?’

‘N-No, he was a vulgar middle-aged priest. He drank and smoked cigarettes all year round and smelled just as horribly.. and yet.. just the thought of losing his love as a punishment, makes me want to die.. That’s just ridiculous!’

‘Suicidal thoughts are also one of the withdrawal symptoms. He gave you the drugs whenever he tormented you, and it obeying him give your body pleasure.’

‘I see.. After I was discarded, wandered from one noble to another wanting another dose. I begged them saying that I’ll do anything for it, but ‘princess’ is incredibly expensive, and when I heard that the ingredients can only be found at the Coloflare Kingdom, I hitched on a pirate ship in exchange for doing their chores.’

Ugh, this is definitely not a game for girls.. It’s too nasty.

However, being played around by aristocrats resembled Shin’s case. Don’t tell me.. Was he also made dependent on a magic drug? Lady Chloe wouldn’t be using something like that, would she? If the Corundum Kingdom found out that the missing royalty survivor that they’ve been trying to find was played around with, using drugs, the alliance would fly off the window. I need to stop these drugs from circulating, for the sake of my marriage with Canaria too.

But, I see.. John was from the empire, himself. The magic drug called ‘Princess’ was made from the Himemomobana plant that can only be found in our kingdom. Now Canaria’s concerns had ceased from just needless anxiety.

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

‘That’s about it, I guess.’

‘Huh? But Keith is just eleven, right? Is it fine to talk to him about such immoral things?’

Canaria muttered to herself with such a serious look on her face, but the game data she sent might have obscured them, but it had that kind of vibe. Although, I was only able to understand their meaning after gaining more knowledge about it. Also, I’m about to become twelve soon.

‘Neither of the game had magic drugs as an item, right?’

‘No, sir, none at all! However, if you use psychede- magic drugs, it might be possible to weaken a country before attacking it.’

‘Well, it makes people crazy, suicidal, and it furthermore, it also shaves off both physical and mental health. The effect is magic in nature too so dispel would not work either. Although magical potions will somehow allow them to pull through, I wonder if there’s anything that could heal them right from the root cause.’

I haven’t heard of any news about mysterious drugs circulating within the capital for now, but because our kingdom has the main ingredients, it wouldn’t be strange for anyone to try to manufacture and sell them here. I already proposed to my father to regulate its cultivation, but I want to prepare a response when a case of addiction arises.

‘..I think it’ll work out somehow, sir.’

‘Huh? Really?’

Canaria nodded, then she took me to a small research room inside the castle. In there were royal apothecaries compound medicines and examine their compositions. The lady called out to one of them and brought them a small bundle of medicinal plants.

‘Sir Keith, do you know about ‘status disorders?'”

”Status’, is your personal information that you could examine in the adventurer guilds, right? Like levels, hp, and mp.’

‘That’s right. Even if you were poisoned, you could immediately heal it on the spot so it’s barely seen in the status, right?? The game of the Coloflare Kingdom had poison but they are resolved during events and battle sequences so they don’t appear on status either. The game’s focus was the romance, after all.

However, the Corundum Kingdom one is mainly an action game, so it has status disorders. But of course, they have recovery items for it too. Although, we are a hundred years in the past so we likely wouldn’t find one for now.’

Which is the purpose of these herbs, huh? They smell poisonous.

‘This herb was cultivated with dragon excrements for fertilizer. It hasn’t met approvals yet, but it was being confirmed to be effective towards all ailments and not just to a specific one.’

‘So it can erase the status ailment itself. That’s amazing, we’ll test it. Does it have to be fertilized with dragon excrement?’

‘Unfortunately, sir. The medicinal plant itself is normal, although, we shouldn’t have any troubles with supplies because dragons dwell within our kingdom.’

A few of the countries surrounding the Coloflare kingdom coexist with dragons. Perhaps the reason why our kingdom has none has to do with the environment. We were able to borrow some under the pretext of clinical studies but, I want us to be able to produce ones on our own.

‘Dragon’s sure are nice.’

‘Sir Keith, do you like dragons? Sir is a boy, after all, fufu.’

Canaria who was two years older said and giggled, so I sealed her mischievous lips with a kiss.

Now then, I’ll test it right away after coming home, so I bid my farewell to Canaria behind me, who was still beet red and panicking, and returned to my country.

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

A month after, I contacted House Walter and went there to meet John. Lady Missouri was the one to welcome my arrival.

‘How’s his condition?’

‘I was surprised, sir. Just a few days after drinking the herbal decoction, he completely recovered without any after-effects. What was that, sir?’

‘Confidential.. is what I want to say, but because I owe the Count House, I’ll tell you about it later on. Give ma a full report on his progress later, alright?’

I opened the door as I said that and right after planting my feet on the floor, John walked towards my direction and knelt, placing his lips on the back of my hand.

‘I waited for your arrival, princess.’

‘Lady Missouri, he doesn’t seem cured though?’

‘No, sir.. John, apparently, wants to serve his highness. He’s already cured of the effects but because of the perverse conditioning of the empire’s nobles, he has a fixation on the word ‘princess’, instead of ‘lord.”

I would need to correct that one fast! But before that, if he wants to serve me, I need him to get adopted by a noble. Not only was he a pirate underling, he technically illegally entered the country, after all. I guess I’ll just say that I picked him in the slums like Shin, and create a new family registry from scratch.

After beckoning him to stand, confirming his facial features anew made me widen my eyes in surprise. The corners of Lady Missouri’s mouth also raised at my recognition of him.

‘That’s quite surprising, I did think that we are close in age and height.’

‘True, he looks just like you, save for the color of his hair, sir.’

Now cured of the status ailment (drug dependence), John who had now recovered his weight through eating healthily looked eerily similar to me. I couldn’t tell when I first met him because his eyes caved in and he was skin and bones. Although he still looked haggard and had the same menial look on his face much like before.

‘John, how old are you?’

‘I just turned fourteen this year, sir.’

So he’s two years older.. His circumstances likely stunt his growth. Fourteen, so he is as old as Lady Chloe, as well as the game’s heroine—

(Hmm? So there’s only a year left before the game starts!)

The game’s prologue is set a year before the start of the academic year, so I don’t have the time for leisure. I tried asking Jonh if he doesn’t mind becoming an aristocrat, telling him that there’s something I need him to do. I was about to give up thinking he’d refuse but.

‘I am deeply indebted to the princess and the Count House. I shall make it happen, even if I put my life on the line!’

‘Wait, is he really cured? Hey..’

After that, John was included in the second prince’s faction. He was adopted by House Brian who had no successor and was severely drilled with aristocrats’ education. I ordered to have him instilled the right conduct and refinement in a short time, enough to allow him to attend the royal academy.

He will be my way of checking the activities of the heroine and her capture targets when the ‘game’ starts,’ something impossible for me to do being two years younger.