The Talentless Wicked Prince Wants To Survive ~ The Only Way For Me, Reincarnated As The Punching Bag Third Prince In A Romance Smartphone RPG, To Live Is To Not Break Off My Engagement With The Duke’s Yandere Daughter Who’s Stronger Than The Heroine~

“Here, this one’s delicious too, so make sure you eat plenty of it!”

Our tea party had officially gained a new member, Princess Elyne, and ever since then, Lisette had been relentlessly urging sweets on her.

Still, this was getting a little excessive. In front of Elyne, a literal mountain of pastries was piling up.

“I-I’ll do my best! You gave them to me, after all, onee-sama!”

Elyne, for her part, clenched her tiny fists and gave an enthusiastic “Hmph!” as if psyching herself up. Honestly, even if they had just reconciled, both of them were completely overdoing it.

“Now, now, you two, calm down. There’ll be plenty more chances to enjoy tea together from now on, so… wait…”

Ah. Right. I’d completely forgotten about that.

“Haru-sama…?”

“Well… actually, during my meeting with King Salomon, it was formally decided that Princess Lisette will be studying abroad at the Royal Academy of Dehaubarz.”

“Ehh!?”

Lisette and Elyne cried out in perfect unison.

“She’s only fourteen, so her admission to the academy will be a year from now. But until then, to help her get used to Dehaubarz culture, she’ll be accompanying us back home…”

“…”

…Yeah, that reaction made sense. They had just managed to open their hearts to each other, only to be told they’d soon be separated. I really had jumped the gun on this one.

“…This study abroad arrangement, it’s by royal command, isn’t it…?”

“N-no, actually… I’m the one who proposed it…”

Unable to bear Lisette’s downcast expression, I found myself looking away.

“T-that’s terrible!”

Elyne looked on the verge of tears, no, she was crying as she protested. My stomach ached.

Agh… now I just looked like the villain separating two sisters who’d finally made up.

Sure, I could take Elyne along too and solve everything, but there was no way they’d let both princesses leave the country at once.

And since the study-abroad idea had originally been my proposal, I couldn’t exactly withdraw it now. That would all but amount to insulting the Capetien Kingdom.

“I truly didn’t expect things to turn out this way… b-but I’ll try speaking with King Salomon again!”

“…”

I said it just to give them a little comfort, but neither of them said a word after that.

◇

“Ahh… what a disaster.”

“This wasn’t Haru-sama’s fault. On the contrary, you negotiated out of concern for Princess Lisette, so you should hold your head high.”

Back in my room after parting with the sisters, I slumped in defeat while Sandra gently consoled me. No, really, the timing on this couldn’t have been worse.

“In any case, I’ll need to request another audience with King Salomon.”

“Yes… though I suspect that negotiation will be difficult.”

“I thought so…”

Lisette’s study abroad in Dehaubarz was a plan beneficial to both kingdoms. It was meant to strengthen diplomatic ties, and it was also a political success I could claim credit for.

Knowing that, King Salomon, and certainly Minister Olson, would insist on making it happen once they knew of it…

“The only real room to negotiate is probably how to handle the year before her enrollment.”

“Yeah…”

Sandra was right, that was likely the most I could manage.

Of course, that didn’t mean I’d give up from the start. I still intended to do everything I could to cancel the whole thing outright.

“For now, we’ll just have to see how things go when we speak with His Majesty again…”

I glanced toward Cass, who was grooming herself on the bed.

“…It turned out all right in the end, but you shouldn’t have started talking like a human in a place like that.”

“I-I couldn’t help it! I had to tell you something… Oh, right, I almost forgot!”

Cass suddenly perked up, as if remembering something important. What did she want to tell me?

“A-actually, while you and Monica were gone, two men snuck in here!”

“Two men!?”

“Yeah! And they put something in that drawer over there!”

Following Cass’s paw-pointing, I went to the cabinet and carefully opened the drawer.

“This is…”

Inside was a small glass vial filled with purple liquid. I knew exactly what it was.

It was the very same item that, in the Lisette Scenario, had served as the decisive evidence in the false charge of attempted regicide, the one that branded Lisette as the culprit.

One probably didn’t need me to spell it out, but this was the poison used during last night’s banquet.

In the game, Jean had framed Lisette for the attempted poisoning of King Salomon, using the chaos to divert attention and rapidly advance preparations for his coup d’état.

In EnHaza, the protagonists investigated the poison to clear Lisette’s name, ultimately uncovering both its source and the mastermind behind the plot, Jean, the scenario’s final boss, and the full scope of the coup.

“Haru-sama.”

“Yes. It seems they plan to frame me as the supposed assassin of King Salomon.”

Most likely, they intended for the investigation to “discover” this poison here in my quarters and pin the blame on me. But really… even if Cass hadn’t found it, wasn’t this a bit sloppy?

If anyone suspected me and launched a search, of course we’d examine the room ourselves first, and if we found anything suspicious, we’d destroy it immediately.

Well, regardless…

“Cass, good work. Now, if you can just identify who those two intruders were from among the palace staff, that would be perfect.”

“Heheh, leave it to me!”

My small but reliable partner and I bumped fist to paw with a satisfying thunk.