It has been a busy several days, and I have been a little stressed ever since. A lot has been moving, all preparing for the operations that were to come. And guess who was to oversee the preparations? Yeah, me. I never had to manage an operation of this scale before, I was only a goon in my past life. Good thing I’m coping nicely… I think.

But nothing can be done about it. What can I say? It's just a day in my life. I'm up early in the morning, in bed early at night. To be productive at work, I got to be well rested. Yeah, motherfucker, you heard what I just said.

I'm just a regular everyday normal motherfucker.

Ahem, now that’s familiar.

Now, what am I doing at the moment? Well, it’s about time for me to have my little reward after all the hard work! Not the kind where I would receive like some flowers — ahem, give me some flowers — or some teddybear — give me that too — it was my vacation! Oh yeah, it was time to chill around!

Of course during that time, I would not be worrying about the operations taking place at the same time. I will leave it to the reliable people! My mind will be free and clear of all the troubling things. Yesterday, I was working with the family, and of course that includes uncle Meril, to tune out the details.

So far, nothing was amiss. Although it was a bit tense when they asked me a lot of questions. Take it easy on the fragile little old me.

But seriously, all things seem to be in order. I’m confident they’ll do well without my personal sightseeing.

‘But Estelia, why don’t you just focus on those instead of going somewhere?’

Sssssshhhh, shut, shut it! If that thought crossed your mind, don’t even think about it. What? You don’t ever have vacations after some tiring work? No paid leave or something? We all take that, don’t we? Gotta rest sometimes. Otherwise, we’ll die of overwork or something. Sometimes I just wanna crawl under a rock and hide, you know.

Besides, as I mentioned before, I’m gonna enjoy some parts of life! And that includes taking a break! I have done everything I need to keep things going smoothly in the background while I take some vacation. And when I come back, all should be done. Then go back to stressing again.

Hm.

“So how is Mizia?” I asked my uncle.

At the moment, we were walking down the hall. With I heading for Mother while he was leaving the palace. So much that I didn’t want to have a casual conversation with him, I was just curious about my dear cousin. She has been given somewhat a heavy responsibility for my sake. I could at least inquire how she was doing.

“She has been working very hard for your arrival. I never saw her this enthusiastic in a while.”

“Mm. I have not seen her for some time, and I’m quite excited to see her again.”

“Are you ready to socialize? You have never done that before.”

“I-I think I can manage.”

“... Remember what I said, Estelia. Make true friends.”

I frowned. “You’re still hung up on that? That’s the purpose of socializing, to make friends.”

He mildly shook his head. “No need to pretend you don’t understand what I mean.”

I sighed. “True friends… are not easy to come by.” I quietly said that only he could hear.

Everyone around, the people, how could I be truly friends with them? They were outsiders. How could I fully trust someone that has not shared my torment? We were not equal.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

At least, that was how it had always been with me. All my friends in the past life, we all have gone through the same hardship. Only them I would care about. Why should I care for outsiders?

“Not easy, but they can be found. Sometimes…they are already around us.”

I looked at him, and he merely smiled before waving his hand.

“See you, Estelia. I may get a chance to greet you at home tomorrow.”

Hmph.

He should be somewhere else at the time of my arrival, so no. He would not be greeting me at his home. Can’t say it would be a loss on my side though.

Now that he was out of the way, I made my way to the lobby on the first floor, where Mother said she would be. When I arrived, she was with a knight, supposedly one of the elites. I expected Estevan would be here with her, but I guess he’s busy with something else.

“Mother.”

“Ah, Estelia. I’m just finalizing the knights that will be guarding you.”

“Oh, can I see?”

“Certainly.”

I moved beside her, and she gave me a sheet of paper with the list of knights. My eyes widened for a moment when I saw a particular name on the list, I didn’t expect him to be here.

“Alzen Welford… he’s staying in the Order?” I looked towards Mother.

“I heard he was adamant about staying. He wanted to prove that he would still be effective, so I will give him a chance with this.”

“Will he be alright?”

“We’ll see.”

“And what about Alan, his brother? I don’t see him here.”

“He’s in quite a difficult spot.”

“What do you mean?”

“His blunder earned him the ire of his Father. And so, the Count asked to keep Alan out of any activities outside the palace while they thought about what to do with him.”

Even now? That’s a long time to think. But damn, Alan really fucked up big time, huh. And Alzen… surprising that his family let him stay. Well, it’s not like they have any choice, I guess. They wanted someone at the palace to serve as knights. They can’t pretty well get rid of Alan now that Alzen was pretty much impaired.

How’s it gonna be fighting with one hand? That would be hard. Even I wouldn’t want to have one hand all my life, I couldn’t imagine. Okay, so let’s not think about that!

“Very concerning, please have someone watch Alzen at all times.” I said to the elite knight.

“Yes, your highness.”

“Thank you.”

I skimmed through the list again, nothing wrong, they were fine. Although there was one I was particularly interested in, and it made me smile a little.

“Mother, I would like to have Elson Metrial to be one of my close protectors in my travels.”

“Him? Why?”

“He helped me quite a lot during the recent operation. I found him reliable.”

She mildly nodded. “Very well.”

“Thank you. And that is all. I have no other concern with this whatsoever.”

“Then we’ll send this out.” Mother gave the list to the knight. “Give this to Estevan, let him handle it.”

And with that, the knight left the room.

“Now, shall we figure out your luggage?”

“Yes.”

“To your room, then. Oh, and the suitcases, we’ll start placing your things in.”

She commanded some nearby servants to bring the suitcases to my room before we headed there. Mother seemed pretty energetic today, was she excited that her daughter could finally go out and have some fun?

Careful, Mother, you might find your daughter at a party, dancing around, wilding, kissing random guys, drinking — kidding! I’m kidding. I’m a good girl. I would never do something like that. I would rather be at home, reading books or something, or sleeping. Estelia’s a well-behaved girl.

When we arrived at my room, my Mother immediately went on to open my wardrobes.

“I think we’ll pick the dresses that are easy to wear. We might also need the extravagant ones for your tea parties.”

Don’t know how much I would really need. I expect Mizia already got my outfit lined up of her own choosing, outfits that she would definitely like me to wear. However, I’ll let Mother decide on things, she seemed to be enjoying herself, I’m not going to ruin her moment.

“This looks cute.” She pulled out a dark outfit.

“Mizia gave it to me.”

“Then we’ll bring this, I’m sure she’ll be proud to see you bring her gift.”

Um, do I really need to bring that?

The dark outfit was the gothic-like outfit. Yeah… can’t believe Mother just said it was cute. I thought you liked my white and pure look, where I was supposed to be the cutest. Was I the weird one here? Was I the one with a different perspective with this?

“Come here.”

I approached closer and she held up the hanging clothes in front of me. “Truly interesting. Now I want to see you in this.”

“Maybe next time...”

I’m too lazy to dress up right now. So please Mother, focus on the main objective.

“Alright…” She smiled and placed the dark outfit on the bed.

She’s really gonna make me bring that?!

At that moment, the servants that were ordered to bring the suitcases have finally arrived. They brought a total of three.

“Perfect,” said Mother. “Alright help me fold and place them in, unwrinkled.”

I only watched as Mother and her servants pulled out outfits after outfits. Folding them carefully into the suitcases.

Even my underwear… It's embarrassing! Good thing they were all women, and of my servants, Mera was only here.

It took a while before all the suitcases were full and they closed it. Mother nodded in satisfaction.

“Alright, most are ready for tomorrow.” She approached me and held my hand. “But are you?”

“... Yes. I’m ready.”

She smiled fondly. “You’ll be alright.”

“Yes…”