I Don't Want to Be the Dragon Duke's Maid! Serving My Ex-Fiancé from My Past Life: Volume 2 E-Book

Mashimesa Emoto

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Heart
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: I Don't Want to Be the Dragon Duke's Maid! Serving My Ex-Fiancé from My Past Life
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 304

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Mille-Feuille has gone through so much—she’s remembered her tragic past life, became a maid to the Dragon Duke, changed the lives of all dragonkin, and survived assassination attempts! Now that she and the Dragon Duke are married, it’s time for her to relax and go on a honeymoon with her beloved to the icy region of Diamant. But as expected, new challenges await her. Since her revolutionary mana depletion cure has given more free time to dragonkin women everywhere, the kingdom has a big problem to tackle—tourism?! And at the same time, she’s contending with malcontent ministers, the Dragon Duke’s old flame, and another attempt on her life! Will Mille-Feuille’s marriage survive this rocky honeymoon phase? History may or may not repeat itself in this romantic fantasy!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Characters

Prologue: Mille-Feuille’s Trodden Path

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Conundrum

Chapter 2: Will a Honeymoon Stir the Pot?

Chapter 3: Dig, Dragon, Dig!

Chapter 4: Welcome to Diamant, the Land of Snow and Hot Springs!

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Color Images

Table of Contents

Prologue: Mille-Feuille’s Trodden Path

I, Mille-Feuille, was once a lowly viscountess. But on my sixteenth birthday, my life was turned upside down.

A year ago, Vacherin—the Dragon Duke of the Dragon Duchy of Éclair—made his first public appearance in a century, and I had been dragged along to witness the event. Upon seeing the face of His Highness, I was overcome by intense dizziness and collapsed on the spot.

At that moment, I remembered everything from my previous life. A hundred years ago, I had been Princess Charlotte of the now-defunct Kingdom of Sacristain. And Charlotte had been engaged to Vacherin, a member of the long-lived dragonkin race. At the peak of their happy relationship, she had been assassinated, and their marriage was never to be.

Charlotte’s soul had ascended to heaven, and she had been reborn as Mille-Feuille Forêt Noire—me.

I was dumbfounded by the sudden return of my past life’s memories. However, Charlotte and I were completely different people. Even though I had her memories, Charlotte’s personality and feelings didn’t overwrite my own. I did not feel anything for Vacherin, the man my past self had loved so dearly.

Still, I had been murdered in my past life, and I was unable to remember who killed me. The only thing I remembered was Vacherin’s wail of lamentation.

“No matter where you’re reborn, I promise that I’ll find you!”

To me, it sounded like he was cursing someone. It was an accusation and a condemnation. What had happened between the two of them? My past life’s memories were incomplete, so many things remained a mystery. A lover’s quarrel that had led to murder was certainly a possibility, and the thought of it made me shiver. The only thing I could do was to avoid Vacherin as much as possible.

Charlotte had been a blue-eyed, blonde-haired beauty. I, on the other hand, was a run-of-the-mill Plain Jane with green eyes, hair the color of milk tea, and a dour expression on my face. I was confident that I wouldn’t be discovered based on appearances. As long as I completely severed my ties with my past self, I could live a completely normal life.

At least that was what I had thought until I met a young student from the boys’ magic academy who called himself “Van.” He hid his face with a hood and acted haughtily toward me. He was always surrounded by a large group of escorts, so I surmised that he was the scion of an influential noble family.

In a twist of fate, my encounters with Van became more frequent. By sheer coincidence, I ran into an ill Van in the city one day. I could immediately tell that he was suffering from mana depletion, so I gave him some caramel candy that helped recover his mana.

Dragonkin women would use up a large amount of mana to suppress men who had gone berserk during their draconic transformations. As a result, the women would fall ill. I had been researching a way to help women recover their mana after suppressing transformations. Until then, nobody knew how to do this, but I discovered a way to enchant caramel candies with the mana from moonlight. I ended up catching Van’s interest when I gave him one of those enchanted sweets.

I had no desire to keep associating with the scion of an influential noble, but I became attracted to his sincere and honest demeanor.

For a long time, I found Van to be a complete mystery. But one day, he revealed his identity to me—he was the Dragon Duke Vacherin. He had lost his memories and was enrolled at the boys’ magic academy to relearn the fundamentals of magic. I had been interacting with him all that time without knowing this fact.

As for why he had lost his memories, it was the work of one of his escorts—a man named Duchesse. Van had been enraged at the death of Charlotte, and even after bringing the Kingdom of Sacristain to the brink of utter destruction, his rampage hadn’t stopped. At that point, Duchesse had sealed him away using an ancient stone scroll and forced him to sleep for a hundred years.

Duchesse had thought that the Dragon Duke’s wrath and grief would have faded away after such a long time, but it was not to be. Vacherin hadn’t forgotten his love for Charlotte or his vengeful wrath. Duchesse had thought that Vacherin would not be able to perform his duties if he remained that way, so he’d sealed away almost all of Vacherin’s memories. All that remained in Vacherin’s mind were things that happened until his adolescence. He had even forgotten how to use magic, so he’d had to enroll at the academy to relearn it.

I had fallen in love with the Van who had forgotten his dark and troubled past. I was relieved that I hadn’t simply become enamored of him because of my past life.

But it was too early for relief. I began to notice Duchesse’s unusual actions. He had been falsifying the results of the research Van had commissioned him to do—research on the redistribution of mana between dragonkin couples. And not only that—he had made attempts on my life.

I confronted him, and Duchesse revealed his terrible ambitions. He was plotting to consume all dragonkin women and obtain eternal life. He thought that we dragonkin women were a corrupting influence on men—including Van. That was why he had murdered Charlotte in the past and had attempted to assassinate me as well.

Though Duchesse had been the mastermind behind all these schemes, he hadn’t planned to take over the Dragon Duchy of Éclair. He only wished that Van would become a fitting ruler for the duchy, and he saw me and Charlotte as obstructions to that end.

His plans were revealed to Van, and the royal guard annihilated him. It wasn’t quite the happy ending we wanted.

Peace finally came to my life, and Van proposed to me. While I was overjoyed, there was one thing that still bothered me: Van had figured out that I was the reincarnation of Charlotte, but I was not the same person that I had been in my previous life. Even so, I was anxious to know whether he would still love me as I was now—as Mille-Feuille. Van’s answer was that my past life didn’t matter to him. He said that the sensation of his memories returning to him was similar to what I had experienced in recalling Charlotte’s. He declared that he was no longer the same person as the Vacherin in his memories.

Van and I had met each other with clean slates and still became attracted to one another. We had fallen in love in spite of our previous lives. We held each other, knowing we’d experienced a miraculous encounter.

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Conundrum

The plans for my and the Dragon Duke Vacherin’s wedding ceremony were becoming ridiculously extravagant.

“I want all of the Dragon Duchy of Éclair to see you in your bridal attire,” Van declared.

“Are you serious?” I said, unimpressed.

“Of course I am. However, I also feel like I want to keep the sight of you in a wedding dress all to myself... It’s quite a dilemma.” Van happily expounded on his ideas for my dress’s design. “I had about a hundred patterns drawn up. I hope you can find one you like out of all of these.”

“O-Oh, thank you.”

Normally, preparations for a wedding ceremony would be overseen by the bride’s mother. It was rare for the groom to be this excited about being involved in the arrangements. When I expressed this thought to him, Van became indignant.

“You mean to tell me the men of the world have been heaping all the responsibilities for such an important ceremony on their better halves?! This is a travesty! I will draft a law at once penalizing men who do not participate in wedding preparations!”

“You better not do that,” I chided him. After all, there were also brides out there who didn’t want their grooms butting in too much. Everyone had their preferences.

“Mille-Feuille... Do you mind me being this opinionated about our wedding?” he asked.

“No, of course not. In fact, I’m really happy that you are.”

Even though I thought he was being a bit of a pain, I would never be caught saying that out loud.

Mother joined in midway through our discussion and began running through options with Van. The two of them looked very excited, and I felt a bit left out.

I couldn’t help but feel that my attitude toward my wedding ceremony differed from other women’s. Wearing luxurious, eye-catching dresses had been nothing extraordinary in my previous life, and as Van’s fiancée in this life, I’d already been dragged around to all sorts of places. Dressing up and being the center of attention just didn’t excite me.

Of course, I was glad that I would get to marry Van, and wearing an all-white wedding gown was also a dream of mine. But I didn’t want to put the burden of preparing such an extravagant ceremony onto Van, especially when he was already busy with other work. It seemed that my mother had sensed my misgivings about the ceremony, and the plans started proceeding according to her directions. The discussion shifted from topic to topic, including transporting the guests to the wedding and reception, the catering, ordering celebratory dinnerware to be given to the duchy’s citizens, and so on.

Thanks to my mother, it seemed that Van’s dream wedding would become a reality.

I first saw my finished wedding gown on the day of the ceremony. I thought I was dreaming when I saw the five-meter-long train on the dress, but after pinching myself to check, I knew it was real.

Mother cried as she watched me put on the dress. “Mille-Feuille, you’re gorgeous!”

“Mother, thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

“Yes, of course, dear! I worked so hard preparing for this ceremony!”

I thought that she was crying at the sight of her beloved daughter on her wedding day, but it seemed that she was shedding tears for her hard work instead.

Meanwhile, Parfeil, my chief attendant, was sobbing at the sight of me in my wedding dress.

“Milady, seeing you on your wedding day feels like a dream!” she cried.

Parfeil, a rabbitkin, had been serving me since I was young. Though she looked like a little girl, her actual age was over two hundred years as she was a member of another long-lived race. She was crying so much that you’d think she was about to send her own daughter off to her wedding.

“I’m so happy to see you all grown up!” Parfeil sobbed.

“Oh, Parfeil, you’re exaggerating.”

Beside Parfeil was Madeleine, my teary-eyed best friend.

“I also feel like I’m sending off my own daughter!” Madeleine said.

“Oh, Madeleine, not you too!”

Madeleine was eighteen years old—a year older than me. She was an orthodox beauty, and her pure and innocent demeanor surely made her a better match for the Dragon Duke than me. However, her future partner in marriage was actually set to be my completely typical and average brother, Glacé. Their relationship was favorable, and their wedding was set to take place a year from now.

Will I also feel like a mother sending off her own daughter when Madeleine gets married? I thought about it and shook my head, dismissing the possibility.

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, it was time for the ceremony. Parfeil and Madeleine realized this and excused themselves. In their place, Van, wearing his white suit, entered the room and saw me and the train of my wedding dress.

Van was dumbfounded at the sight. Was the five-meter-long train on my dress too much after all? I worried.

“Mille-Feuille,” he began, “you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on.”

“Th-Thank you,” I stammered.

Van’s long hair was done in a braid, which fell over his chest. His white suit looked like a military uniform, and it greatly suited him.

“I’ve dreamed of this day for so long,” said Van.

“Me too.”

Counting my previous life, I had waited for over a century. I was grateful for our miraculous meeting that had transcended my rebirth.

“I really want to keep the sight of you in that dress all to myself. What if we sneaked out and went on our honeymoon now?” he suggested.

“Don’t be silly. The crowd of people that you invited is waiting out there,” I reminded him.

“Ah, of course. Then, shall I go and brag about my beautiful bride to everyone now?” Van then took my hand and whispered into my ear. “Right now, I am the happiest man in the world.”

Abashed by his words, I merely nodded in reply.

Shortly afterward, we exchanged our vows of love before the divine. We held each other close as we left the cathedral. Upon exiting, we were greeted by a large crowd and thunderous applause. My white squirrel familiars scattered flower petals as Van and I made our way down the path. We could only smile at the dreamlike scene that unfolded before us.

Thus, I married Van and became the Dragon Duchess consort.

I knew that with Van by my side, I would overcome all the challenges that stood before me. That was what I had thought, at least, but we immediately faced a difficult problem.

Once the issue of dragonkin women’s mana depletion had been solved, women were no longer bedridden for long bouts. As a result, travel had become a fad within the Dragon Duchy. However, the only notable tourist destination in the duchy was a lake to the west where people could go boating. The lack of tourist destinations was a problem that had persisted since the days of the Kingdom of Sacristain. Since the kingdom had spent most of its budget on its military, there was little left for its citizens’ entertainment.

Van had ordered his councillors to think about the recreational needs of the state at their next council meeting. Things like hunting grounds, horse racing, and gambling had all been suggested, but Van had rejected all of them. He wanted a tourist destination that people of all ages and genders could enjoy. Even though Van made himself clear, his geriatric councillors could only come up with places that would appeal to men. These meetings had borne no fruit, so Van had brought the topic to me.

It was now autumn, the season when colorful leaves danced through the air, but I still had no time to relax and prepare for the coming winter.

Deep wrinkles formed on Van’s face as he furrowed his brow. “My council’s suggestions were giving me a headache. I’ll have to think about replacing everyone sitting on it soon,” Van muttered.

“That’s something to think about. Still, it’s a difficult problem to solve,” I replied.

“It is.”

Duchesse, the man who had been handling the nation’s political affairs, was no longer here. But even so, Van was still surrounded by men who had been handpicked by Duchesse, and their ideas were too biased to consider.

“Things had been going smoothly until recently, but ever since Duchesse died, some of them have started becoming rebellious,” Van complained.

Roche, Van’s impassioned, enthusiastic friend and knight, was also adamant that Van replace all the councillors picked by Duchesse. While Van understood where Roche was coming from, such a drastic change would certainly ruffle more than a few feathers. He couldn’t afford to do such a thing right now.

He had lectured Roche afterward, explaining that replacing the councillors needed to happen slowly and over a long period of time. There was no need to rush, for dragonkin lived long.

Still, whenever a problem like this came up, it only caused Van’s headaches to intensify.

“When I informed the council that I wouldn’t need their help, those old men all started complaining...”

Though he called them old, they all still looked quite young and were full of vitality. Van complained that he was sick of appeasing them and it took too much of his energy to do so.

“Since Duchesse has been gone, I really feel like their egos have only grown. I hope I’m only imagining things. What do you think, Mille-Feuille?”

“From what I’m hearing, I don’t think it’s just your imagination,” I answered. I knew that there were several among the council who had opposed our wedding. They wanted Van to marry someone of higher status—a noblewoman with a robust pool of mana. While their opinions were certainly within reason, Van had gone against all of them and selected me to be his wife anyway.

My very existence weakens Van’s standing. Every time that thought crossed my mind, my heart ached.

“Mille-Feuille, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It doesn’t seem like nothing to me. What’s wrong?” he asked again.

Now that he was prying, I could no longer hide my thoughts from him. I revealed my honest feelings to him: I had been thinking it was my fault that Van’s councillors were turning against him.

“Mille-Feuille, it’s not your fault. It’s mine for being so inexperienced. I don’t have enough experience to be able to tell off those aging councillors.”

Van had left most of the daily administration of the nation to Duchesse. Now that he was in Duchesse’s position, Van surmised that his councillors were still getting used to the change.

“I do hope that it’s nothing more than needing to get used to me,” Van added.

Van then embraced me and patted my back. This must have been his way of telling me to pay those old men no mind.

“In any case, I can’t think of anything on how to boost our tourism sector. Mille-Feuille, do you have any ideas?”

“Hmm. Let me think...”

The difficulty lay in finding a tourist spot that everyone couldenjoy, regardless of age or gender. When it came to activities that appealed to women, I thought of things like the theater, concert halls, museums and art galleries, as well as making small talk with friends over tea and shopping. But just like the councillors’ suggestions, these were not things that people of all ages would enjoy.

“Now that I think about it, this might be a pretty difficult problem to solve,” I concluded.

“Right?”

Apparently, children thought the boat rides at the lake were boring.

“Perhaps asking children to sit there and enjoy the scenery is too much,” I said.

A memory from a year ago flashed in my mind—the day when my parents had told me that we would be going to see the Dragon Duke’s glorious personage. I remembered having thought that it would be very boring and giggled to myself.

Van gave me a quizzical look upon seeing me laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“Do you remember that huge event when you first showed your face in public again?” I asked. “Frankly, that was really, really boring!”

“How rude of you. Being able to glimpse my visage is an honor!”

“Stop it! It’s even more hilarious when you pump yourself up like that!”

“On that note,” Van said, lowering his voice, “I’ve been secretly planning a wedding reception parade to make our marriage known to everyone.”

“That sounds like you just want to show off,” I said.

“That’s not true. I just think that it would please our subjects to see us happily married... Well, just showing our faces to the public would be boring, huh?”

Van looked dejected, so I apologized. “I’m sorry for saying that.”

“No, it’s all right. Arranging security for a parade would be very difficult anyway.”

Even before we had gotten married, I’d been surrounded by a number of indomitable female knights. Though I had felt that it was overly cautious, I hadn’t complained. Since then, however, I had needed to bring a large convoy with me wherever I went. I even had a body double who acted on my behalf for visits to facilities such as orphanages and hospices. That was how tight the security was around me.

Hearing that there were people who were vehemently against our marriage made me worry about my safety. Right now, I didn’t feel that having this much security was being overly cautious.

“I ended up restricting your freedoms by marrying you. I’m really sorry about that,” Van told me.

“No, you don’t have to feel bad about it.” It was true that I found some aspects of my new life somewhat inconvenient, but just being by Van’s side was making my life so fulfilling. “Van, I’m really happy to be with you.”

“I feel the same way, Mille-Feuille.”

Van kissed my cheek. The spot where his lips touched my skin felt warm. Even though we were husband and wife, I still wasn’t used to such displays of affection. I spent my time with Van immersed in warm feelings, doing my best to subdue my embarrassment.

The next day, I called in Parfeil and Madeleine to help me come up with types of entertainment that people of all ages and genders could enjoy. It was apparently a difficult task for them too, as they both furrowed their brows thinking about it.

“Uh...”

“Hmm...”

My white squirrels also circled around me, squeaking as they gestured in ways that suggested they were also thinking about the problem. It was up in the air whether they actually understood the assignment, however.

How vexing. How could the duchy be so lacking in tourist spots and entertainment options? Has everyone been struggling so hard to get by that we’ve had no time to have fun?

Among all of us, Parfeil was the only one who had experienced life outside of the Dragon Duchy or the Kingdom of Sacristain. I decided to ask her about what she’d seen.

“Parfeil, did you encounter any entertaining places during your time as an adventurer?”

Parfeil’s long ears swayed left and right as she thought about it. “Hmm... I remember that going to the circus was pretty enjoyable.”

“The circus? I’ve never heard of that,” I said.

“Me neither,” Madeleine added.

According to Parfeil, circuses were very common in other countries, but she had never seen one in the Dragon Duchy of Éclair.

“What’s a circus?” I asked.

“It’s difficult to explain, but it’s an event that takes place in a gigantic tent, much like a theater. The circus performers do various tricks for the audience,” Parfeil explained.

People swung about in the air, phantasmal beasts jumped through hoops of fire and balanced on balls, jesters threw knives, and pantomimes were performed for the crowd. According to her, watching this fantastical scene unfold was thrilling and exciting.

“I do occasionally spot such performers on the city streets. Does the circus just gather those performers and make an event out of it?”

“No, that’s not quite the same. I heard the circus is a group that travels all over—they don’t get hired to stay in one place,” Parfeil replied.

“I see... So it’s like a troupe but with a group of performers who know tricks.”

“That’s right, milady.”

Nobody knew where the circus might’ve been at any given time. Like migratory birds, it never stayed in one place and traveled most of the time.

“That means it’ll be difficult to find them and invite them over...”

“Indeed...”

“Do you have any other ideas?” I asked.

Once more, Parfeil’s ears twitched as she racked her brain for ideas.

“Oh, yes!” she said, suddenly coming up with one. “What about swimming?”

“Swimming? What about it?”

“You know, like going into the sea and swishing about in the water.” Parfeil motioned with her arms. Madeleine and I were confused at the unusual suggestion and gave her puzzled glances. This was the first time we’d heard of people swimming for any reason other than fishing.

Madeleine seemed curious. “Um, do you mean that people swim in the ocean with their clothes on?”

“Regular clothes are too heavy and make it hard to move around, so people just swim in their underwear. In other countries, they make special underwear for swimming called ‘swimsuits.’” Parfeil then drew a picture of what a swimsuit looked like to illustrate her point. She wasn’t exaggerating when she said that it was underwear; it left most of the wearer’s chest and all of their limbs exposed to the elements.

“Wearing such clothing would certainly require some...no, a lot of courage,” Madeleine remarked.

I couldn’t help but nod in agreement. The Dragon Duchy of Éclair was a country where exposing one’s ankles was considered quite scandalous. Swimming in something that was basically underwear would be unthinkable.

“Also, Parfeil, aren’t there monsters in the sea? Isn’t it dangerous?” I asked.

“It is. That’s why everyone brings a harpoon while swimming.”

“Where’s the fun and relaxation in that, exactly?”

“You can harpoon edible fish, and if you encounter a monster, you just kill it,” she explained.

“That’s such a violent pastime.”

Apparently, swimming in the ocean was mostly popular with adventurers. Since it was so dangerous, regular citizens couldn’t enjoy it.

“However, there were a few nobles who had these large tanks of water called ‘swimming pools’ where they could swim,” Parfeil continued.

“In their swimwear?”

“Of course.”

That solved the problem of monster attacks, but it would still be difficult to convince this country that still disapproved of exposing skin to anyone outside one’s family or spouse to adopt such a pastime.

I tried asking Parfeil for more suggestions, but I was met with total silence. I was about to suggest going to the library for ideas when the door slammed open.

“Knock knock!!!” Van’s sister, Lady Opera, seemed in high spirits as she barged into the room. “When I say, ‘Knock knock,’ you should all be replying with ‘Who’s there?’! That is the tradition!” she said, scolding us. She seemed upset that we were taken aback by her sudden intrusion.

“A tradition in which country?” I asked her.

“Why, a country in some other world, I suppose!” Lady Opera exclaimed.

I was so confused by her greeting as I didn’t expect it to be one from a nonexistent nation. I politely informed her that I would never have been able to respond correctly.

“Forget about all that. My attendant has brought you all some confectioneries, and I would like you all to partake in them with great enthusiasm.”

The attendant behind Lady Opera was holding a silver tray with a number of sweets on it, and she lined them up on the table. Among them were a small cake and a number of pastries filled with jams and chocolate. I was impressed that the dough used in these was fluffier than what was used for typical confectioneries.

“This is delicious! The dough is just slightly moist and very soft!” I exclaimed.

“Right? Right?!” Lady Opera nodded enthusiastically. Apparently, these sweets were the latest fad on the city streets. People were lining up for them every day, and the queues were practically five hours long.

“Lady Opera, what do they call these sweets?”

“They call them ‘steamed cakes.’ As the name suggests, they steam the dough instead of baking it,” Lady Opera explained. By being cooked with the heat from steam instead of a direct flame, the dough became very fluffy.

“How novel,” I remarked.

“I knew you would all think as much, so I decided to share some with you all.”

Thanks to Lady Opera, I had discovered a new type of snack. I was grateful to her for this discovery, and we all bowed to her in gratitude.

Lady Opera covered her face with her fan. “Oh, you are all quite welcome!” she replied with great enthusiasm.

I found it to be a miracle that I was here having a normal conversation with Lady Opera. As Van’s sister, she had treated me with hostility ever since she first laid her eyes on me. She’d even harassed me with a full-course meal of monstrous “delicacies.” I imagined that she didn’t like it when women became close to her brother.

However, that was now all water under the bridge, and our relationship had become quite pleasant. She would frequently come to visit and spend a few hours just chatting with me. Though she might not have said it out loud, she had given her blessing to my marriage with Van, and she had even become one of the people I could confide in.

“In any case, you all looked quite troubled before I came in with these steamed cakes. What have you all been talking about?” Lady Opera tilted her head in curiosity.

Parfeil and Madeleine glanced at me. It seemed they were both hoping that I would explain the situation to her.

I straightened up my posture and began to summarize our previous conversation. “We had been discussing the severe lack of tourism in the duchy and were trying to come up with some new ideas.”

“A lack of tourism, eh? I see. It is indeed quite troubling that the only noteworthy destination we have is the lake...” Lady Opera said.

The lake was a scenic place—beautiful apple blossoms bloomed in the spring, verdant leaves were a refreshing sight in the summer, colorful autumn leaves were a sight to behold in the fall, and the misty lake in the winter was a scene straight out of a painting. However, word had been going around that the rapid influx of visitors to the lake had been taking its toll on the environment. The water quality had started to suffer, and algae had been spotted on the lake’s surface.

“The lake has been in a terrible state as of late. Tourists have been littering without restraint, and fishermen have been introducing foreign fish to the waters.”

“This is the first time I’ve heard of that,” I said. It would seem that the rush of tourists visiting the lake was causing tangible damage.

“I was about to suggest a lake tourism ban to the Dragon Duke,” Lady Opera said, though she hadn’t pushed it through as she knew that it would bring about protests from the populace. “Now that the Dragon Duke has returned to ruling directly, it would be a faux pas to announce such heavy-handed measures.”

Lady Opera then praised us for contemplating new alternative destinations to the lake.

“Still, we’re at a loss as to what exactly those other tourist destinations and attractions should be,” I confessed.

“Hmm, let’s see... Why don’t you think of what attracts people to the lake and work from there?” Lady Opera suggested.

I took her up on that and started thinking about what made the lake popular. “Whenever I think of the lake, I think of its beautiful scenery and being able to relax on a boat...”

After bringing up those two points, I turned to Madeleine for her opinion.

“Hmm... I think it’s popular because it’s only three hours away from the capital by carriage. It’s quite convenient to access,” she said.

Finally, I turned to Parfeil. Perhaps because we had already offered several opinions, she seemed to be struggling to think of anything. Her brow furrowed and her ears trembled a bit.

“I think it’s because people want to take a break from their daily lives,” she said. “They want to experience something unusual in an unfamiliar place.”

Lady Opera nodded, and Parfeil let out a sigh of relief.

“So, to summarize your opinions: the people just want to enjoy something!” Lady Opera said.

I was unsure if that was an accurate assessment of our statements, but I still nodded in agreement.

Lady Opera then asked us what we’d come up with so far, so I told her about the circus and swimming in the ocean. While she seemed interested at first, her expression clouded over once I mentioned the kinds of performances the jesters did at the circus and again when I described the swimwear.

“We cannot go with anything too novel,” she said. “The majority of our subjects are quite conservative. While the nobles are more adventurous, they are merely a small portion of our populace. Anything too unfamiliar would no longer be an attraction that everyone could enjoy.”

I suddenly remembered something. The dragonkin had formerly been a minority within a larger nation and had lived in a small, close-knit community. Most of our people were slow to accept anything new and lived modest lives. Most dragonkin wouldn’t be interested in novel forms of entertainment.

“Investing resources into a new tourist destination would be completely meaningless if it didn’t succeed...” I muttered. If I failed, Van would certainly be reprimanded by his council. The gravity of the responsibility that I had taken on suddenly dawned on me.

“Hmm... What should we do...?”

“This is quite a difficult problem...”

The circus might be too terrifying for children. Swimming in the ocean was too dangerous and involved exposing too much skin. I had to think of something other than those two ideas that would be enjoyable and let people experience something unlike their daily lives.

I think I know about something similar to swimming in the ocean... I tried to remember what it was. Suddenly, my vision went white, and I was assaulted by a wave of dizziness.

A memory flashed before me. It was from Charlotte—my previous incarnation. I voiced it out. “Hot springs... What about hot springs?”

Lady Opera looked confused at my sudden suggestion. It was no surprise as I had never seen the words “hot springs” in the history of all dragonkin. “Mille-Feuille, what are these ‘hot springs’ you speak of?”

“It’s a type of bath that springs up from underground. If you dig deep into the ground, hot water will come up from below. It’s quite refreshing,” I explained.

“Oh?” Lady Opera seemed curious.

Madeleine couldn’t seem to imagine it, but Parfeil was apparently aware of their existence. The rabbitkin’s expression brightened, and she gestured as if a thought had just fallen into place.

“Hot springs! I’ve heard people talk about those! It’s when you dig down deep and a stream of hot water wells up, right? I heard the water is good for the body too!” Parfeil seemed to have heard of them during her time as an adventurer.

“Yes, that’s right,” I replied.

“Going to hot springs was a pastime for nobles, so commoners couldn’t enter them at all,” Parfeil added. Nobles referred to those closed-off hot springs as “spas.” They were popular due to their rumored health benefits. “Wow, hot springs, huh? I’ve always wanted to go to one!”

There had been no hot springs in the Kingdom of Sacristain either, which was probably why Charlotte had been so interested in them.

“But how does hot water come out of the ground?” Madeleine asked, tilting her head in puzzlement.

“There are usually volcanoes near them,” I answered. The chambers of magma underneath volcanoes usually contained water, steam, and hot gasses. The heat warmed up those underground springs, allowing for hot springs to be made on the surface.

“There are also ones without volcanoes near them,” I continued. Those would be called nonvolcanic hot springs, and they were usually due to underground pools of water from rain or floods that were heated up by the natural heat underground.

“I see! Mille-Feuille, you sure do know a lot,” Madeleine said, impressed.

“No, these are just all things I found out from Charlotte. I didn’t learn any of that myself,” I corrected her.

“Oh, I see.”

Lady Opera didn’t know anything about my past life, but she completely ignored my explanation. I wasn’t trying to hide that my previous incarnation had been Charlotte, but I tried not to bring it up as long as it wasn’t touched upon in conversation.

Regardless, Charlotte’s memories had helped me again. She’d had several different and unique interests, and she’d learned a lot from all of them. I was frustrated that I could never come up with any of those ideas on my own, but this time I was grateful to her.

“Hot springs, eh? That sounds quite pleasant,” Lady Opera said.

“Indeed...”

A hundred years ago, Charlotte had apparently suggested digging up a hot spring to her father, the king. If they had done that, she’d wanted to set up a facility for relaxation. However, it seemed that the Kingdom of Sacristain had regarded hot springs as something foreign and unknowable, so her suggestion had been rejected and it had never gone any further. Though she’d been disappointed, she had quickly recovered and found something new that piqued her interest.

What an enviable personality. If that were me, I would have locked myself up for three whole days.

I tried to recall Charlotte’s knowledge of hot springs. “If I’m not mistaken, there should be a spring source within the duchy!”

Without a word, Parfeil fetched a map that had been stored in the room and spread it open on the table.