I Don’t Care About the Story, I Want a Cat ～Transmigrated into an Otome Game～ - Chapter 39

Going to the Stable Without the Prince

Except for the Academy, it was customary for a chaperone to accompany a young noble when they went out.

Whenever Amy went to the Palace she was either accompanied by Isabel, or by the butler of their household.

However, sometimes a carriage would arrive from the Palace with a Royal Knight and a maid on board. In these cases, Isabel didn’t have to accompany her which was convenient for when she had some other appointment, so Amy was quite grateful for them.

At first Amy had been hesitant to let not just a maid, but a Knight as well to escort her. However, Edward had told her that it was necessary for her to have guards if she traveled in a carriage provided by the Palace, even if the carriage was made to look as inconspicuous as possible. So she had consented to it.

The carriage that arrived today came with Alissa and a Knight she had never met before.

Alissa had been the maid stationed at her table during the tea party where she first met Edward, and she had accompanied Amy every time she came to the Palace.

Alissa was waiting in front of the carriage, her red bangs swaying with the wind. Amy smiled at her as she stepped out of the entrance.

“It’s been a while, Miss Amy. I’m glad to see you’re well.”

“Alissa! Thanks for coming to pick me up. Ah, this is the first time I’ve met you. Nice to meet you, Sir Knight.”

“I will be in charge of security today. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”

The knight stepped forward and introduced himself as Scott Callaghan. After exchanging greetings with him, Amy got into the carriage and they rode off for the Palace.

Alissa was the daughter of a Viscount, and was well acquainted with the rules of the Palace. She was currently assigned to work under the Third Prince. She had never laughed or judged Amy’s body which was heavier than the other fiancee candidates, in fact the girls were on good terms with each other.

Amy felt like her mother Isabel had a hand in Alissa always being assigned to accompany her at the Palace. She had found out after the tea party that the head maid, Hannah, used to be her mother’s governess. So it was possible that Isabel may have used that connection to make a request for Alissa to be assigned to Amy.

Amy did feel it was a bit overprotective of her but she could understand the need. Some of the maids she passed by in the corridors of the Palace had a gaze that pierced her like daggers. They might be related to the other ladies that had been nominated to be Edward’s fiancee candidates. Or they might have been hoping for the position of Princess themselves.

She often conversed with the maid accompanying her. If it was one of those maids Amy felt like she wouldn’t be able to talk to them with their hostile attitude towards her.

This was why she was quite grateful for Isabel’s interference. However, in truth, it was Alissa herself who had requested to serve Amy; she had taken a liking to the young lady after seeing her at the tea party.

Currently, they were chatting freely inside the carriage where they didn’t have to worry about the eyes of other people.

Amy was still not of age so she couldn’t go outside freely. And on days when she could go out, she spent most of her time surrounded by animals.

Alissa, who was up to date on all the recent news around the Palace, took this opportunity to share information with Amy. She was excitedly telling Amy about the new Bakery that had opened in town.

I went there a few days ago with a maid who works under the Crown Prince. She often prepares Bakur sweets for Princess Sameen, and she said the sweets at the bakery tasted pretty close to the real thing.”

“Oh really!? I want to try them but I don’t know if I can visit right now. I was thinking of going after the tournament.”

After the Crown Prince married Princess Sameen, a lot of shops in the Capital started selling food and items from The Crown Princess’ Kingdom of Bakur.

This shop was one of these newly opened bakeries that sold such food items.

“The interior cafe is also really nice so I recommend it. It’s not too flashy so a lot of men go there as well, and it’s full of couples who go there together…… it’s a shame, His Highness, Prince Edward can’t come to the stables today, right, Amy?”

“U-uh, y-yes it is. Ah he’s taken Hannah and Vintus with him to the inspection as well right?”

“Yes, he went with everyone this time.”

Amy was so relieved that she managed to change the subject successfully, that she didn’t notice Alissa sneakily hiding a smile at her reaction.

As mentioned in the letter, Edward had gone to the outskirts of the Capital for the inspections that occurred every year. The schedule this year was pushed forward a bit after a few more places were added at the last minute.

Hence, Edward had to stay there for one more night, and was expected to return tomorrow.

“Ah, it’s about time.”

The carriage had begun to slow down. Looking out the window, Alissa noticed that they were already pulling up to the stables of the Royal Palace. Once the carriage came to a stop, Scott opened the door to reveal the stablemaster, Marvin, and Derrick waiting to greet her.

“Hello! I hope everyone has been well?”

“Welcome, Miss Amy. By ‘everyone’ do you mean the horses?”

“Of course not! I mean you and Derrick as well!”

As Amy stepped down from the carriage, Fenti, who was on the other side of the field, saw her and came running to the fence to greet her.

Amy reached both hands up to the horse. The fawn coloured horse stretched its neck over the fence and allowed Amy to pet her cheeks. Amy smiled as she stroked the horse’s neck.

“Sorry I haven’t been coming to visit recently.”

“It’s fine. I heard you are busy preparing for the tournament at the end of this month.”

“Yes, I thought I would only be helping on the day but I need to help with preparations too…… It would have been good if I could see Vintus too. Fenti, you’re as beautiful as always!”

Amy had requested to participate as a medical helper for the tournament, and she thought she would only have to work during the tournament. However, it turned out she had to accompany Sir Dion to the grounds almost every day ever since the preparations started.

Magicians who could use healing magic were scattered all over the continent. They each had their own patients to see, and even though the tournament was a grand event, it would be difficult to expect them to leave behind their patients to come work only in one place for the duration of the tournament.

It was decided that they will take turns to work in the tournament, but before that preparations had to be made. And the person for these preparations needed to be someone who ‘lived in the Capital but was not on active duty, and someone who was responsible’__ in other words, it was Sir Dion who was put in charge of it.

There was no doubt about Sir Dion’s capability.

However there was one problem. Perhaps he took himself as the standard, but he tended to expect other people to perform way beyond the ability of a general healing magician. However, there were not a lot of people who fit his high standard.

One of his apprentices who had recently returned from a research trip was acting as a coordinator according to the preparations schedule, however he had a lot of details to look at so he had been vacant from the Capital for a while.

Amy had just happened to be at the sight at that moment and had offered to help out after seeing the predicament Sir Dion was in. And that was how she started helping out at the grounds every day.

Attending meetings with adults, checking medical equipment and progress on the preparations…… Amy had only been a high schooler in her past life, and all she’d done was a part time job at a supermarket. So this was all a new experience for her.

She was so busy that she sometimes had to take a day off from school, but in the end it felt good to be useful to other people.

“Sir Dion has another matter to look at today so he’s given me a day off. I’ll be here till the evening so let’s go for a walk later, Fenti.”

Fenti stamped the ground happily with her front legs as if she had understood Amy’s words.

The stable staff looked at Amy with fond eyes as she talked with the horse.

It was common for aristocrats to visit the Royal stables as an outing to look at the horses or to consult the stablemaster about horse breeds. However, most of them would act arrogantly, complaining about unreasonable things to the staff or picking a quarrel over small things.

Their children would act mischievously and pick on the horses, taunting and provoking them.

In contrast, Amy was always gentle with animals. Her behaviour was rare for an aristocrat, she never looked down on the keepers and the staff at the stables and always talked to them politely. For this reason, she was getting increasingly popular among the commoner staff members.

Moreover, unlike his brothers, Edward would often visit the stables ever since he was a child. So he was close to Marvin and the other staff members. The people at the stables could not show their support openly due to the policies at the Palace, but they were all extremely partial to the Third Prince.

Amy was the fiancee candidate of their beloved Prince, and her own personality was so good. So they always treated Amy with kindness whenever she came to visit.