Bianca and Leo exchanged a quick glance. The calm, intelligent voice was unmistakable—it was Natalia. Despite being cousins, they were in different grades, and to top it off, they had been at odds until recently.
Bianca, who had never been visited in her room this late at night, tilted her head in curiosity as she opened the door.
“Natalia, my dear sister? What brings you here?”
“Oh, you’re still awake—… Bianca!?”
Natalia, who had started to speak with relief, suddenly choked on her words when she saw Bianca. Her eyes widened in shock as she scanned Bianca from head to toe, her cheeks turning as red as an apple. She quickly stepped inside and shut the door behind her.
“Goodness, sister. I don’t recall inviting you into my room,” Bianca said, her voice playful.
“What are you talking about! Who in their right mind would open the door in such a state! It’s scandalous!”
“Well, considering you showed up without any notice at this hour, it’s rather unrefined of you to criticize my attire,” Bianca retorted, unfazed, running a hand through her luxurious golden hair. As she did, the hem of her chemise fluttered, drawing more attention to the seductive design of her lingerie.
“Bianca! This is precisely why… such things happen. And that lingerie—where on earth did you get such a daring piece?”
Natalia’s eyes, which had been squinting as she muttered to herself, suddenly caught sight of a small lace rose sewn onto the right shoulder of Bianca’s chemise. In that moment, her intelligent tawny eyes widened in recognition.
“No way… is that from the Polda workshop…?”
“Oh my, Natalia, you know your stuff. Yes, it’s their latest creation.”
Though Natalia’s taste in clothing was chic, it was by no means dull or unfashionable. In fact, her sense of style was nearly on par with Bianca’s. In this instant, the two of them engaged in a silent fashion showdown.
‘How do you like this stunning lingerie?’
‘What a scandalous choice, but I see your eyes can’t look away.’
‘Yes, it’s indeed innovative and enchanting…!’
In just a brief exchange of glances, they conveyed this wealth of information. It seemed that in this fashion duel, Bianca had come out on top. Natalia bit her lip in slight frustration and hesitantly asked,
“Could you perhaps… let me see that chemise more closely?”
Bianca, feeling pleased, took a step back and began to invite Natalia further into the room, but then she paused and looked up, realizing something.
“That’s fine, but—didn’t you have some reason for coming here?”
“Th-that’s right!”
Natalia snapped back to attention and let out a small exclamation.
She seemed ashamed of herself for accidentally letting her true feelings slip out in front of the beautiful undergarments.
She quickly regained her expression and regained her usual mature face.
It was only then that she finally noticed the familiar girl sitting on the bed, hiding behind Bianca’s body, and looked surprised but after a moment of hesitation; she finally spoke.
“As a member of the student council, I have an urgent message for the other members. It appears that there is an underwear thief on the academy grounds.”
“An Underwear thief!?”
Natalia tried to whisper as much as possible about the thief so as to not frighten the girls, but her efforts were trampled over by Bianca. However, shen she glanced over at the girl, she didn’t seem particularly scared or confused, so she sighed for the time being.
“How on earth could something like that happen? The academy is guarded all day, isn’t it?”
“But..”
Natalia frowned in confusion and explained the following.
At the academy, laundry is basically done in the linen room. Students are supposed to leave their laundry there and pick it up once it’s washed and dried.
However, there are some students that don’t use this service.
Bianca and the other royals adorned in luxurious clothing—and the students from civilian backgrounds who couldn’t even afford the prices set by the academy—faced a stark contrast. Bianca and her peers had dedicated maids and attendants who meticulously handled their laundry.
But for the civilian students, who couldn’t afford to use the linen room or any outside services, it was a different story. Since they could only leave the academy on rest days, these students had no choice but to hand wash their clothes in their rooms and hang them out to dry secretly at night.
Recently, several pieces of underwear hung out by these female students had been stolen during the night.
“Given the nature of the stolen items, the victims were mostly from the upper grades, so we thought it best not to unnecessarily alarm you and your peers, Bianca. However, the number and range of stolen items have increased, and the thief seems to be getting bolder. We feared that the lower-grade students might be targeted next, so I hurried to inform you. Could you announce this at the lower-grade assembly tomorrow morning?”
“Of course,” Bianca agreed, though her beautiful face was creased with concern. She understood why Natalia had come herself rather than sending her brother.
“Bianca?” Natalia prompted gently.
“If we truly want to resolve this issue, we must reconsider the linen room service itself. It’s unfairly expensive for the civilian students.”
Natalia’s eyes widened at Bianca’s sharp observation, then she smiled slightly. Bianca’s approach to looking beyond the surface to address the root cause of problems was a trait she had only recently begun to develop.
“Indeed,” Natalia replied, her tone thoughtful. “Addressing the underlying issue would be a far more effective solution.”
Bianca nodded, a determined glint in her eyes. “We’ll need to work together on this. Let’s ensure all students, regardless of their background, feel safe and supported.”
It seems that by befriending a girl from the lower town, Bianca was gaining a perspective beyond just being a princess. While she knew it wasn’t the time for it, Natalia couldn’t help but be pleased with her cousin’s growth.
“You’re absolutely right, Bianca. I thought so too, which is why I brought up the discussion of lowering the prices at the linen room in the student council. We’re considering outsourcing to a private cleaning service like the Minnitz Company, and Albert is currently assessing the feasibility. Also, there’s a recommendation to improve security at the dormitories for civilian students.”
“Feasibility assessments and security reassessment…”
Truly fitting for upperclassmen. Bianca hadn’t immediately considered these options and bit her lip in slight frustration. She still couldn’t match her brother or cousin.
Seeing Bianca’s frustration, Natalia smiled softly. “Don’t rush, Bianca. If you grow up too quickly, where will that leave us? Just knowing and considering these things is already enough for now.”
“Natalia, sister…”
Natalia chuckled softly at her cousin’s silence, then dramatically sighed as if to change the mood.
“Isn’t it irritating how the academy seems so adept at handling such incidents? We can’t simply allow underwear thefts to happen so frequently. Honestly, I can’t understand the mentality of those who steal underwear.”
Seeking agreement, Natalia asked, “Right?”
Leo nodded earnestly. “Yes, that’s true.”
“And Leonora, you think so too, right?”
“Yes. What could someone possibly do with stolen underwear?”
“Uh… what?” While Natalia and the others were dumbfounded, Leo tilted his head in deep thought.
He wasn’t trying to be obtuse. Leo simply didn’t understand the motive behind underwear theft.
(You hear about bread thieves or money thieves all the time, but stealing underwear? I’ve never heard of such a thing.)
Ironically, in the lower town where underwear wasn’t readily available, incidents like robbery and burglary were common, but underwear thefts were unheard of. The idea of stealing underwear was completely foreign to Leo.
(Why steal fabric instead of money? Oh, maybe it’s for something naughty… but wait, wouldn’t it be better to have the real thing instead of just the cloth covering? Besides, in the lower town, if someone fancies a girl, the custom is to charm her the old-fashioned way. When feeling bold, it’s straightforward—no need for modesty, just take off the cloth covering a naked body.)
Leo, who was raised in the lower town, had a straightforward approach to relationships between men and women.
(But, ultimately, if you’re committing theft, isn’t it all about money? Haha, here I am pondering such obvious things, still so naive.)
In the end, not understanding her motive, Leo gave up trying to think about it and settled on a simple conclusion.
“Well, there really was underwear out there that cost two silver coins, so it was probably a rational course of action,” he roughly dismissed it.
“Le…Leonora…!”
In contrast to Leo, who had finished his thoughts and felt relieved, it was Bianca and the others who were at a loss for words.
They had realized from her previous statement that the girl “could not even imagine a shred of a man’s desire.”
The two of them turned around in a flash, leaned close enough that their cheeks were almost touching, and hushed to each other in a whisper.
“W-wait- w-what are you going to do?! What should I do, this innocent girl! This innocence! I was hoping to instill in her a sense of feminine self awareness and caution, but I can’t talk to such an innocent girl about men’s dirty desires!”
“Lady Bianca, you’re being rude! Actually, don’t you think you need to teach her anymore?! Leonora should stay an innocent maiden like this, forever…!”
“No! If we continue like this, she’ll definitely run away crying on the wedding night when she gets married! We must be hardened and not put it off…!”
The two of them had no idea that the girl had such wild values as “it’s quicker to push her down than to steal her underwear,” and simply paled at her innocence.
“Well, even if hypothetically they were to face their first night together, if Leo were to realize that he’s now on the side of being ‘seduced and pushed down,’ he would surely scream and run away. So, Bianca’s statement might not be entirely wrong.
The two, being cousins, communicated with each other using their advanced skills, relying solely on subtle gestures and glances.
‘But even so, are you suggesting exposing Leonora, who is so young and has such a tragic past, to the desires of gentlemen? Even Lord Albert refrains from hugging her out of consideration for such matters!’
‘That’s why you shouldn’t be so carefree! A noble daughter, especially a candidate for the main wife, wouldn’t it be strange if she hadn’t received instruction in such matters from around the age of ten?’
‘Besides, her brother’s dragon blood is said to be thicker than that of others, and yet…!’
‘That’s true, but… There’s no helping it. In that case, let me lend you some romance novels from the Duke’s family’s secret guide to bedroom arts…’
‘Calm down, older sister. That’s not reality; it’s fantasy.’
She cut her off decisively.
Bianca, deciding her cousin couldn’t be relied upon for this kind of instruction, quickly turned to the girl.
She cleared her throat as if to cover up her embarrassment and approached the girl casually.
“Hey, Leonora?”
“Yes.”
“Earlier, our conversation was interrupted. Here, I’ll give you this lingerie set as a present.”
With a radiant expression, the girl eagerly accepted Bianca’s gift, who smiled warmly as she said, “So, put it on right away.”
“…What?”
The large-eyed girl’s gaze widened almost to the point of spilling over.
But Bianca insisted without yielding.
“I’m telling you to wear this lingerie full of femininity right here, right now.”
“Eh…? Umm, no way! I can’t!”
To her protege’s protests of “such a waste” and “absolutely not,” Bianca responded with a slightly stern yet amused look.
“Why do you refuse? I appreciate your sentiment of wanting to treasure it, but I gave this to you to wear. So wear it now, there’s nothing strange about it, right?”
“It’s totally strange! I absolutely refuse!”
Leo, trying to grasp why Bianca, normally gentle as a spirit giving luxurious lingerie, suddenly changed her attitude, was bewildered. Why did he have to wear women’s underwear, especially such frilly ones? Even though the other party mistook him for a girl, wearing it even once would drastically decrease the lingerie’s value.
In the midst of this, Bianca was puzzled by the girl who clung to the underwear like a family heirloom yet stubbornly refused to wear it.
“You liked the underwear, didn’t you?”
“I did like it! But that’s why I absolutely can’t wear it! It’s too precious!”
“Oh goodness! Sometimes you’re overly stubborn due to your excessive modesty!”
Growing impatient, Bianca’s tone sharpened, causing the girl to flinch back in fear.
Driven by her instincts, Bianca closed the distance and reached for the girl’s slender arm.
“If you won’t, then I’ll just have to take off that plain chemise!”
“Wa… wait!”
Unbelievable. The noble First Princess had transformed into a tyrannical magistrate assaulting a maiden.
“Natalia, please stop! No! Absolutely not!”
Panting heavily, Leo ran around the room. But caught up in the chase, he accidentally stepped on the long hem of the chemise and stumbled headlong.
“Oof!”
A voiceless scream escaped him, but Bianca didn’t overlook it.
“I’ve got you now!”
In an instant, Bianca’s magical hands reached for Leo, who had instinctively braced against the window glass.
She was aiming for the luxurious underwear he clutched tightly, intending to forcefully dress him in it.
“No way!”
He had to protect this silver-scented luxury underwear at all costs.
Instinctively, Leo thrust both hands holding the underwear high above his head, beyond Bianca’s reach.
Misjudging the distance, Bianca’s arm swung off course and ended up reaching Leo’s chest instead.
“Kyaa!”
“Whoa!”
As a result, Bianca was thrown off balance and sent flying, while Leo, still reaching out desperately, lost his footing.
His delicate frame crashed violently against the window glass!
But at this moment, Leo couldn’t care less.
The real problem was—
“Fwooosh!”
The massive window, left slightly ajar for ventilation from the fireplace-heated room, provided just enough space.
“Ahhhh!”
In that moment of stumbling, Leo’s grip loosened, and mercilessly, the underwear fluttered away into the night’s darkness.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
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