The Failure Marquis Is A Genius [EN]: Chapter 106

14. Selection: The Prodigal Son Who Studied Overnight

Nine days before the princess’s birthday party.

After returning to Andre’s mansion following the audience with the King, I met with Zion and Campbell to explain everything that had happened.

Zion’s expression showed his concern upon hearing King Alfonso’s message to protect Princess Rebecca’s happiness, regardless of the outcome of the royal consort selection.

“Your Majesty has made a difficult request.”

As expected, the intelligent Zion immediately understood how challenging this demand was.

Campbell, having grasped the situation after listening to Zion’s explanation, scratched the back of his head and muttered.

“If what the Vice-Captain says is true, shouldn’t we just secretly poison Charlie, the most likely candidate for royal consort?”

Normally, Zion would have scolded him for talking nonsense, but this time, he couldn’t bring himself to criticize Campbell.

She probably also believed that there was no escape other than an extreme option like assassination.

Campbell, displeased with the gloomy atmosphere, crossed his arms and grumbled.

“What bad luck. At this point, I want to see that princess’s face. I’m curious.”

“Watch your words.”

“What’s wrong with that? It’s not like the princess or the king is here. Back in the day, when I was stationed in the North, I used to sit around at Black Honey [presumably a local tavern or gathering place] and badmouth superiors all the time, didn’t I?”

“That’s different from this.”

“What’s different? It’s the same.”

It looked like they were about to bicker again.

In the meantime, I felt that Campbell’s words made sense.

“Campbell isn’t entirely wrong.”

“See? The Vice-Captain is on my side.”

“No. You still need to watch your mouth. I’m not talking about that, but I think we need to have an audience with the princess.”

Come to think of it, we had only received the mission from the King, and there wasn’t even a small clue about Princess Rebecca, who was related to the mission.

I didn’t even know what she looked like, so I decided that it was necessary to gather information on this.

I immediately called Andre and, omitting the story related to the King, simply told him that I wanted to meet Princess Rebecca.

Andre shook his head with a skeptical expression.

“It’s around the time of the selection ceremony. Whether you want to be the royal consort or not, meeting the princess is strictly forbidden.”

“Is it because unfair solicitations might occur?”

“That’s also true. But the most important thing is the princess’s temperament. She finds it burdensome to meet strangers.”

It was a story that I couldn’t meet her even if I wanted to.

Come to think of it, how many people would want to have a cup of tea with Princess Rebecca?

If she responded to these requests one by one, there would be no end to it, and it would be ambiguous to meet only a few selected people.

I would have a headache too.

Campbell grumbled from the side.

“So, we have to appeal to be the royal consort without knowing what kind of tea leaves the princess likes, what animals she likes, or what her hobbies are? What a ridiculous system.”

“Haha, that’s how it is.”

Andre gave an awkward smile.

On the other hand, my face hardened.

Zion sensed this and asked.

“Young Master, is there anything that makes you uncomfortable?”

“No.”

It wasn’t that I was uncomfortable, but I had just had a flash of inspiration after hearing Campbell’s words.

As Andre said, no nobleman can currently see Princess Rebecca, and there is no way to know her personality or preferences.

But I thought that I might be able to do it, even if no one else could.

Because I have a Druid skill that is optimized for gathering information.

I haven’t used it yet, but it seemed like it would be worth a try.

* * *

The next day.

I took Zion and Campbell to the outskirts of the city.

And then I gave an order.

“Catch a rat.”

“…Pardon?”

“Catch a rat.”

It was a sudden instruction, but it wasn’t the first time this had happened.

Zion and Campbell sensed that I was up to something again and went to catch a rat without complaint.

Is it because they are both Experts [referring to their skill level or profession]?

Before long, two or three squeaking rats were placed in front of me.

“We caught them as you said, Vice-Captain. What do we do now?”

“Hold them still.”

I grabbed the body of one of the rats and lifted it up, and the rat struggled to escape from me.

I used the Druid skill on that rat.

[Life Control]

[Share Vision]

[Taming]

The rat became docile as Taming succeeded.

Also, through Share Vision, the information that the rat was seeing, hearing, and feeling came in real-time.

The method of Share Vision was like watching CCTV on Earth.

A separate space like a security room was created in one corner of the cerebral cortex, and I took care of the information that the rat acquired.

“Huh? The rat has become docile?”

Campbell and Zion looked surprised.

I took the tamed rat and rolled it around to experiment.

As a result, the range was wider than expected, about 2km to 3km from me, and I could do quite a bit of reconnaissance.

The rat was small, so it freely went in and out of the floor or ceiling of the house and sent me people’s every move.

If I tamed a creature that was larger or stronger than a rat, I thought that the reconnaissance range would be reduced, or the quality of the information or sound quality would be reduced.

Anyway, it was a stalking-level privacy invasion skill, but as the situation was, I decided to observe Princess Rebecca with the Taming + Share Vision combo.

“I’m going to the royal palace.”

I hid in the bushes behind the Elden Royal Palace with the tamed rat.

The inner palace where women usually reside was in the back, so I took a position here.

Taming has a range, so it was advantageous to get information by using it as close as possible.

[Share Vision]

[Taming]

As expected, it was a royal palace.

Even though it was the back, there were a lot of guards.

But the guards were wary of strange ‘humans,’ not strange ‘rats.’

Squeak!!

The rat, which had received a major mission, began to roam around the royal palace with a determined spirit.

At first, it took about an hour to get used to the way because the royal palace was large.

“Vice-Captain, it’s a bit boring.”

“Eat something.”

I put a piece of bread in Campbell’s mouth, who was complaining, and continued to observe.

Two hours passed.

Finally, I found Princess Rebecca’s room.

I barely found out through the maids’ conversation.

“Is she eating alone again today?”

“Yes. She doesn’t even let me in.”

“I don’t know why Princess Rebecca isn’t bored.”

“What does she do, always locked up in her room?”

“I don’t know either. She said she would clean it herself, but there’s no way to know.”

Following the maids, I arrived at Princess Rebecca’s room.

A firmly closed door.

The maids stomp their feet in front of the door and desperately call the princess.

“Princess! I steamed a potato. Please eat this!”

“Are you going for a walk at night? If you don’t exercise too much, your body will be ruined! Even if you’re young, you have to take care of yourself from now on!”

“Are you doing laundry? Please give me some clothes. I’ll put in new clothes.”

Oh my god.

At this point, she’s almost a hikikomori [a Japanese term for a recluse or shut-in].

After seeing it in person, I realized that Princess Rebecca was living a much more secluded life than the maids were talking about.

“…Yes.”

With a simple answer, the door opened slightly.

Old clothes and empty dishes came out.

Instead, new clothes and potatoes went in.

The slightly opened gap is an opportunity.

I rushed the tamed rat in.

“Kyaaa!!!”

“Oh my!”

“A rat came in.”

The surprised maids screamed.

Princess Rebecca was also surprised and her eyes widened.

“Princess, please open the door. I’ll go in.”

“No! Don’t come in! I’ll take care of it myself!”

The princess slammed the door shut.

Finally, I was alone with Princess Rebecca, or rather, my rat was.

First of all, I quickly went under the bed to hide because there was a concern that the princess would catch the rat.

At first, Princess Rebecca seemed uncomfortable because she was worried about the hidden rat, but soon she didn’t care because she was absorbed in something.

Grumble

I felt that the rat was hungry.

I had to feed it something.

The steamed potato that the maid put in came into the rat’s eyes.

‘I have no choice. I can run away if something happens.’

I carefully came out from under the bed and headed for the potato.

My eyes were fixed on Princess Rebecca.

Princess Rebecca, who was sitting with her back to me, was scribbling something with a quill.

‘What is she doing?’

Come to think of it, the room is a mess.

There was no room to step because of the half-open books.

Even on the bed, parchment filled with letters was stretched out like a roll of toilet paper, and a half-spilled ink bottle was thrown carelessly on the floor.

Usually, girls’ rooms are messy.

Usually, it’s messy because of the dresses and socks, hairbrushes, or cosmetics that have been taken off.

This place is messy because of books or quills, so it was difficult to tell whether this was a young girl’s room or a quirky scholar’s lab who was extremely reluctant to clean up the room.

First, I checked the titles of the books scattered on the floor.

[Kalon Empire Advanced Administration]

[Chronicles of the Arnia Continent]

[This is How I Raised the Country]

[Kingdom 200 Years Financial Statement Summary]

‘What? This?’

[Ideal Depreciation Expense Derivation Based on Changes in Farm Acquisition Prices]

[Analysis of Factors Determining the Increase or Decrease in Trade Volume Between Countries]

[Simulation of Membrane Water Purification System Introduction According to Urban Development Plan]

I was speechless.

In this era, there were papers that wouldn’t be strange to be published in Nature magazine [a prestigious scientific journal] all over the room.

The surprising thing is that each paper was underlined and memoed in a cute font.

In particular, next to the papers that required calculation, there were traces of complex formulas and attempts to derive formulas and results on parchment.

‘Crazy…’

“Squeak!”

Oops.

I made a rat sound without realizing it.

I was surprised and looked at Princess Rebecca, but she didn’t seem to hear the rat’s cry.

No.

She didn’t hear it because she was crying.

“Sob… Sob… Sob…”

I couldn’t see her face because it was covered by her long hair, but the tears that fell down made people’s hearts ache.

I wondered why she was suddenly crying alone, so I sneaked up on the desk.

There were a lot of books piled up there, but they were mainly these kinds of liberal arts books.

[Women Who Lit Up the Continent]

[Can Women Also Become Heads of Merchants?]

[Her Thousand Efforts to Turn the Impossible into the Possible]

[Gender is Not the Problem. Mindset is the Problem.]

Princess Rebecca’s beautiful hand was holding a quill stopped at a line in a liberal arts book.

The tip of the quill trembled because she was crying.

― Since the history of the Arnia Continent began, women’s efforts to advance into society have continued steadily. But even if it’s another position, it was virtually impossible to become a monarch. This was because there were too many obstacles to overcome.

So the method chosen indirectly was to run the country through marriage. But this also had clear limitations.

As an anthropologist, I cautiously predict that it will take at least two thousand years for women to become ‘real’ monarchs on the Arnia Continent. ―

“Sob… Sob…”

Princess Rebecca cried really sadly.

After checking what she had been doing alone in her room, it became clear what kind of life she truly wanted.

Rebecca de Arianne Elphon.

She was already a prepared leader and monarch.

Except that she was a woman.

Squeak squeak!

Why did I do that?

Without realizing it, I reached out and patted her on the shoulder.

Her crying gaze turned to me.

“Kyaak!!”

Oh right.

I was a rat.

Surprised, I avoided Princess Rebecca’s gestures of flailing her arms and landed on the floor.

The good thing here was that the rat I tamed wasn’t a disgusting rat.

It was small like a hamster and had fluffy fur.

“Squeak?”

I raised my front paws and tilted my head, trying to be as cute as possible, and Princess Rebecca’s wariness collapsed at once.

As expected, cuteness is invincible for girls of this age.

When she realized that I was docile and understood what she was saying, she soon held out a plate of steamed potatoes with a tearful face.

“Do you want to eat this?”

It would be a lie if I said that her appearance of recommending potatoes with a nasal voice wasn’t cute.

The tamed hamster was also hungry, so I squeaked and buried my face in the potatoes.

“You eat well. Eat a lot and grow up.”

She gently stroked the back of my head with her finger, and I stubbornly ate all the potatoes without running away.

Still, she could have been scared of seeing a rat, but seeing her feed the food that she had to eat, she seemed to have some compassion and innocence.

The potato eating show is over.

Only then did I lift my head and see Princess Rebecca’s face properly.

Her tear marks were dry and she had no makeup, but she was a beauty in herself.

Rather, the appearance of crying earlier added to her frailty and weakness, creating a pureness.

But more than that, the first thought I had after seeing Princess Rebecca was this.

‘Huh? Where have I seen her before?’

Princess Rebecca’s appearance was somehow familiar.

It wasn’t unfamiliar.

But I don’t know where I saw her.

I tilted my head and rested my chin on my hand, thinking hard.

“Hehe, you’re a strange rat.”

The princess smiled slightly and looked at me again, perhaps because she found my appearance funny.

As I looked at her smiling face, lightning struck my consciousness and a fire flashed.

‘Ah! I remembered.’

I was sure who this woman was.

The boss that Zion, the main character of , meets in the middle of the game.

Rebecca, the vampire princess of the ruined country.