[Noah]

―It’s all a misunderstanding… no, it’s a misunderstanding, Your Highness.

[Crown Princess]

―No. You’re the one who misunderstood.

―You thought you were building a friendship with a Crown Princess in disguise. While expecting crumbs from the table.

―But I swear as the empire’s heir, from this moment on, I have no friends.

And after this farewell event ended, random penalties would follow, and with bad luck, all assets could be seized, leading to a beggar ending.

It was useless even if you collected all the affection events right before.

Because the Crown Princess prioritized her position and mission over personal feelings.

‘So while I can’t go greet her with Lynen.’

Rather, thanks to the Crown Princess’s personality, things might become easier. Now that she knew the Crown Princess was in charge of this harvest festival.

‘How many times did I participate in the harvest festival in <Marino>?’

Especially the opening ceremony event of the harvest festival, she still remembers clearly.

“No need to visit Her Highness. She’ll come to us instead.”

Right on cue, a quest appeared.

Ding!

[Quest Generated!]

[Increase the affection of the Crown Princess who is preparing to become your enemy.]

[Condition: Lucilia’s affection 30 or higher]

[Failure: Crown Princess’s check, greatly increased probability of Crown Princess interfering with your actions, decrease in House Offensa vassals’ support rate]

[For smooth quest completion, affection levels of key figures will be displayed.]

“…Her Highness will come to you? To approve your harvest festival participation?”

“Of course.”

To Lynen who was sending skeptical looks, Calliphe rested her chin on her hand and smiled.

“Speaking of which… darling.”

Lynen’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

[Lynen’s affection +2]

[Lynen: ♥ 12/100]

However, when he immediately frowned.

[Lynen’s affection -3]

[Lynen: ♥ 9/100]

His affection dropped on its own.

‘What? Why did he like it then hate it by himself?’

She couldn’t even question this.

Calliphe proceeded to get to the main point.

“Ahem. There are many magical beasts in the north, right? I heard you also raise various types of magical beasts for research.”

“…That’s right. So?”

“Could you express deliver one griffin?”

“A griffin? Don’t tell me you plan to attack Her Highness with a griffin?”

“No, are you crazy? Do you think I’m that violent? And I know better than to attack royalty.”

“I’m glad you know that.”

“Why are you suddenly in a bad mood?”

Ignoring Calliphe’s reaction of raising one eyebrow, Lynen asked with what seemed to be a snort.

“Is this griffin requirement also Baron Rotten’s information?”

“Oh, right?”

“He always shares important matters with you first.”

Lynen frowned in displeasure.

* * *

Behind Calliphe and Lynen, someone was listening to their conversation.

It was Noah, who was returning after finishing putting away the lesson equipment.

Lynen had known Noah was listening to the conversation for a while but let it be. There wasn’t particularly anything that needed to be hidden.

Mihail and Imelen, who ended up listening to the conversation together, said in surprise.

“Wow… so it was Her Highness the Crown Princess who blocked Lady Calliphe’s participation in the harvest festival.”

“That’s tyranny.”

“…”

Noah looked at Calliphe who was in conversation with Lynen.

‘Lady Calliphe is amazing. She’ll probably solve this problem wonderfully too.’

He knows.

He believes.

But, but.

‘I’m upset.’

Why would the Crown Princess bully Lady Calliphe without even knowing her?

…Who do you think you are!

Noah’s disloyal thoughts grew stronger as Calliphe began taming the griffin.

* * *

In the main palace where the Emperor resided.

Lucilia was having dinner with the Emperor and Empress after a long time.

The Emperor asked Lucilia, who was using her knife with a tense face.

“How are the harvest festival preparations going?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Lucilia, who had been on edge, immediately gave her prepared answer.

“As this is my first official event in charge, I’m paying close attention to ensure there is no negligence in management. To ensure everyone’s safety without injuries―”

“More important than that would be imprinting your talents on everyone, wouldn’t it?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

Lucilia quickly continued, seemingly accustomed to this.

“So I decided to take charge of the harvest festival opening ceremony myself.”

“Excellent. The opening ceremony is indeed when all eyes will be focused. So, what have you decided to showcase?”

“I plan to draw magic circles in the air with fireworks. I’ll demonstrate magic that shoots dozens of fireworks into the sky simultaneously.”

Magic was a field Lucilia enjoyed. Delicate mana control was her specialty.

However, when the Emperor’s expression immediately became unimpressed, Lucilia’s heart sank.

“Is that all?”

“Ah, well…”

“Haven’t magical fireworks been shown at other events before?”

“But this time it’s not pre-made scrolls, I’ll be demonstrating it myself…”

“The result is the same. Why do you try to follow the same path as others?”

“…”

Lucilia, at a loss for words, closed her mouth.

The Empress, who had been reading the atmosphere, quickly jumped in with a smile.

“A-Actually, the Crown Princess has another plan prepared.”

“Is that so? What is it?”

The Empress squeezed out an event that would suit the Emperor’s taste.

“Magical beast… yes, magical beast flying! If we show our Crown Princess taming and commanding magical beasts that threaten our empire’s people, it will demonstrate her extraordinariness and strength not only to our citizens but also to foreign envoys.”

“Magical beast flying!”

The Emperor finally looked satisfied.

“Will the Crown Princess ride the magical beast herself? You must not choose some ridiculous magical beast.”

“O-Of course. Among magical beasts, it should be something powerful… like a griffin at least.”

The Empress agreed. She had never actually seen a griffin.

“Right, Lucilia?”

“…”

Lucilia’s mouth gaped.

‘That’s a bit… scary.’

No! Don’t show weakness!

‘Are you going to hear again that your brother is better than you?’

I am the Crown Princess. I’m the one who will rule this empire. I can do something like this!

Eventually, Lucilia smiled confidently.

“Look forward to it. You definitely won’t be disappointed.”

As soon as Lucilia returned after dinner ended, she sought out a griffin along with a veteran magical beast trainer. This person would teach griffin riding.

The instructor who arrived in haste at the Crown Princess’s contact earnestly advised:

“I have tamed many powerful magical beasts including wyverns. If you follow my teachings, even the most vicious griffin will obey Your Highness.”

And the instructor set traps on the test flight route to deliberately injure the griffin that the Crown Princess needed to tame.

“Now please take care of this griffin. The griffin will be touched and follow Your Highness like its mother.”

“Are you sure?”

“This is the method I used to tame many ferocious wyverns. I’m certain.”

Gulp. Lucilia followed the instructor’s directions nervously.

“…”

The injured griffin looked back and forth between the instructor and Lucilia.

Its yellow eyes narrowed meaningfully.

* * *

A few days later, a sturdy male griffin arrived at the front yard of Calliphe’s annex.

“Grrrr.”

The griffin was a magical beast as large as a wyvern.

Especially male griffins were larger than wyverns and more aggressive.

True to its nickname as the king of magical beasts, it held its head high with pride.

The black pupils fixed in yellow eyes looked down at Calliphe who stood far below.

With its head held stiffly, only rolling its eyeballs downward.

‘Look at that gaze.’

Like a thug picking a fight, saying ‘Who do you think you are, human?’

However, when Lynen approached from the side, it flinched and looked at distant mountains.

The more intelligent the magical beast, the more it avoided recklessly challenging the strong.

“As explained earlier.”

Lynen spoke while looking at Calliphe who was fully equipped with protective gear.

“Because griffins are very intelligent and strong, if you can have them as allies, they’ll be more reliable than most knights.”

But cases of successful taming were extremely rare.

The reason was simple.

“The reason they all failed was because they tried to tame the griffin.”

Most animals, even magical beasts, rarely showed aggression toward those who tended to their injuries.

However, griffins were an exception.

“Because griffins are smart enough to figure out who injured them.”

This was proven by the humans who were eaten after caring for injured griffins.

Now for the question. Lynen asked, “What method should be used to handle a griffin?”