Ten years ago. When my soul was dropped into a world I knew absolutely nothing about, my goal was simple.

Laze around and enjoy life.

The draw wasn’t bad at all.

I was the youngest daughter of a fairly well-loved noble family, and I had connections that most characters would struggle to obtain.

The Emperor and Empress were my godfather and godmother, and my mother had been the Emperor’s childhood friend.

Compared to the unremarkable life of an ordinary citizen, it seemed like a future someone had ironed out perfectly flat for me, didn’t it?

There were a few problems that made me think “is this even real,” but I figured I could handle them well enough with some effort.

I had scientific knowledge and common sense a little ahead of this world, plus the intuition of an adult. So I thought living as the youngest daughter of a wealthy family wouldn’t be difficult.

Ah, but here’s the thing.

Now, out of nowhere, the god of this world (stand-in) has started demanding something utterly unreasonable from me.

“……I’m supposed to catch what?”

“A dragon.”

“I’m not exactly a supremacist about the Imperial language, but I’m not sure I know any other languages……”

“I’ve been speaking Imperial this whole time, friend.”

A black bear standing nearly two meters and thirty centimeters tall was addressing me in clean, fluent human language, completely ignoring the fact that its mouth wasn’t built for it.

This is the god of this world.

Currently trapped in a black bear for reasons, but anyway.

“The errors in this world have gone past the point where patching them up will do. It’ll only end once the dragon causing it all is caught.”

“Do I look like some legendary hero to you? Can I use Aura like the knights? I’ve never lifted anything heavier than a parasol since the day I was born, or rather, since I was dropped into this world. And you’re telling me to catch a dragon?”

The black bear lifted its right paw, thicker than my entire waist, and scratched the back of its own head with an awkward, sheepish look.

“I’m not asking you to physically catch the dragon yourself. You’ve got people who’d do anything you say, don’t you? The Emperor’s son and the Grand Duke of the North. Talk to those two.”

“You want me to throw both of my only two childhood friends straight into mortal danger?”

“You can’t see their structure, but both of them have more than surpassed human limits. Especially the Emperor’s son. He’s practically a demigod, you could almost say……”

“A demigod who can’t string three words together with a woman without me around is hardly a demigod!”

I snapped, and the black bear curled one side of its mouth in a smirk, as if my outburst was utterly beneath it. That thing?

“Oh, I’ve been calling you good and cute lately and now you’re really…!”

“Rose, what’s going on? Are you alright?”

A familiar male voice reached me.

At the same time came the sound of twigs snapping underfoot.

He does that on purpose so he won’t startle me. When we were young, I told him “it’s scary when you come up without any warning,” and ever since then, he always does this.

If there’s carpet indoors, he’ll tear off a coin, or at the very least a sleeve button, and toss it onto the floor to make a sound. This utterly baffling person is none other than the one and only Crown Prince of this country.

“Ah, sorry. I was trying to make some noise first, but I heard your voice rising. I thought something might have happened and that would be terrible, so……”

“I wasn’t startled, so I’m fine, Your Highness.”

“Really?”

A storybook prince in every sense. Dazzling golden hair, blue eyes, a sculpted physique built through years of training was flustering himself over whether he’d startled me.

His exterior is quite impressive, but why does he get more and more dense with every passing day.

Wait, but why is he here?

“Your Highness, as far as I knew, you had audiences backed up all morning today. That’s why I thought I wouldn’t see you until the evening banquet……”

“Ah.”

The one and only Crown Prince of this country, who has had a screw loose since childhood and has always looked a bit vacant, heard my words and broke into a wide smile.

Then, keeping his gaze fixed on me, he pointed behind his own head with his thumb and said:

“I jumped.”

“……From the fourth floor?”

For reference, The Audience Chamber, opened for the Crown Prince’s external audiences, was also on the fourth floor of the main palace.

I looked up to check, and the words of the deranged Crown Prince turned out to be true.

A cluster of people had spilled out onto the protruding balcony railing of the fourth-floor outer wall. Staring down at us with expressions of utter bewilderment.

“……I have one question. You heard my voice from that height?”

“Because I knew you were here. But I couldn’t quite make out what you were saying from that distance.”

“……”

At this point I glanced sideways.

The expression on Teddy, the black bear publicly known as my pet was something to behold. It was a look that said “what did I tell you?” and mocked me even more than before.

“I’m glad you’re not hurt, but why on earth would you do something so dangerous……”

“No knight gets hurt jumping from this height, Rose.”

No.

What frightens me is that he jumped from that height and yet, before he deliberately made a sound, there had been no presence at all.

Teddy mocked me once more, his expression saying:

Didn’t I say he’d surpassed human limits?

“I’m sorry for distracting you in the middle of an important audience. Teddy was being difficult for a moment, so I raised my voice. I’ll calm him down and take him somewhere else.”

Klaus was silent for a moment, then looked away from me and muttered as if sulking:

“It wasn’t that important. Even if I’d stood Teddy in my place, it would have been fine.”

Come on, that’s not right.

I know perfectly well it was an audience the Emperor handed off because he was busy with a state council meeting to deal with foreign ambassadors.

“Really. They called me in to receive the ambassadors, and then they started fighting among themselves. If I’d stood Teddy there instead, it would have been quiet.”

“……The ambassadors were fighting with each other in the audience chamber?”

I asked in disbelief, and Klaus answered with a perfectly blank face, as if it were the most natural thing in the world:

“Yes. It seemed like it was supposed to be a time for each of them to tell me how wonderful their country’s princess was, but they started picking fights one by one, and it turned into accusations, and by the end it had become an exchange of exposés.”

“……Wasn’t that a marriage proposal meeting for you? You didn’t receive them one by one you called them all in together?”

“I was going to refuse anyway, so gathering them all at once is more convenient.”

Setting aside the outrageous disregard for the forms and customs of marriage negotiations.

He was going to refuse?

“Are you perhaps not planning to marry? If you refuse proposals this loudly, what do you intend to do next?”

No matter that there’s no country larger than the Empire in this world.

These are still formal marriage negotiations between nations. Trampling on their dignity like this is an enormous diplomatic affront.

They’ll want to retaliate somehow, and he’s acting like this?

“The person I intend to take as my wife isn’t in another country.”

“……Oh, really? Who is it?”

When did this hopeless case, who can barely manage three words with a woman other than me, his childhood friend, develop feelings for someone?

“That……. I can’t say right now.”

“Wow……”

In the middle of this early-autumn moment, a spring breeze settled only on the Crown Prince’s cheeks and ears.

The instant I asked who it was, he turned crimson and couldn’t even meet my eyes. Impressive.

But setting aside the danger of that spring breeze, if I’m to help him get together with the woman he likes, I need to start laying out a plan carefully from now.

If I leave him like this, the girl might get fed up and run away first.

“At least give me a hint. I might be able to help things along. And I’ll keep it secret from Her Majesty the Empress and His Majesty the Emperor.”

At this point it’s just a first love, and if the imperial elders get involved already, even something that could work will fall apart.

Living as his childhood friend all this time has had its share of ups and downs, but I’ve built up solid trust with him.

I’ve trained him well so that no matter what happens, he can trust me.

Sometimes it went too far and I wondered how he’d ever manage without me, but it’s a relief in its own way that he actually has someone he genuinely likes.

It’s a little bittersweet, but is this the feeling of a mother bird watching her baby leave the nest?

I don’t know if Klaus feels the same, but he couldn’t hide the look of dejection on his face.

“……It’s fine. There’s probably nothing Rose needs to help with.”

Oh my, even his voice has gone flat. Why is he so low-energy?

“What do you mean there’s nothing I can help with! At the very least, let’s try to fix that chronic condition of yours where you can’t open your mouth in front of anyone but me!”

In the middle of all this, Teddy was shaking his head left and right as if he couldn’t bear to watch. Right, even you must find this Crown Prince frustratingly hopeless.

“To make the person I love my wife, I don’t need that kind of help, Rose.”

“Then what kind of help do you need? Let’s hear it.”

I was thinking he’d probably say something nonsensical again, as usual.

“I need an extraordinary trophy. For example, if I were to catch a legendary dragon and present it……. probably? Her family would need something like that before they’d acknowledge me.”

“Are you saying there’s another family as insane as mine?”

“Uhehehehehehehe!”

A strange sound erupted beside me, and when I looked over, the enormous black bear standing two meters and thirty centimeters tall was not only cackling but rolling on the ground, reducing the imperial garden to ruins in real time.

“Ugh, Teddy! I’m so sorry, Your Highness. I’ll take responsibility and compensate for the garden he’s wrecked.”

“It’s fine. If Rose permits it, shall I give Teddy a flick on the head?”

“No, please. He’s actually much more sensitive than he looks……”

If that divine nuisance sulks even once, he’ll pretend he can’t speak to humans for months. I’m the one who’ll suffer for it.

Ah…… But anyway, the dragon…….

“Your Highness, are you serious about catching a dragon?”

“Haha, yes. If one exists, I’d very much like to catch it.”

He means it more than I expected.

Should I act reckless and ask if he’d go catch a dragon, like Teddy suggested?

It’s absurd, but it’s true that this world is going wrong with errors, to the point where even that divine nuisance says “it can’t go on like this.”

Ah, honestly.

How did I manage to make my second life this much of a headache too?