[instrumental music]

  Laughter and noises of glasses clinking filled the main hall. The merchant and his troop who arrived earlier probably reach the number of 50-quite a lot, I say.

  “Madame, if I may.”

  I turned my head to the voice behind me and saw a man in his 40s who is dressed flamboyantly. I am not exaggerating when I say he’s glittering.

  He raised a bottle of wine and waited for my permission to allow him to pour my glass. I nodded and watch him pour the wine into my glass. I have a feeling he is the head of this merchant group. I did not really check the list of people coming as I fell asleep as soon as I returned from the guild and only woke up when the maids forced me to prepare for the banquet. Irresponsible, I know. Don’t follow the footsteps of this old and flaky soul kids. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

  I sipped the wine and smiled. It’s delicious. I’ll get that bottle later.

  “I reckon your way here is a pleasant one.” I can smell blackberry and mocha in the wine, and it tastes like... spicy cloves? What an interesting mix.

  He laughed heartily and handed the bottle to the maid who was passing by.

  “Surely! This travel is much more pleasant than any. The negotiations with-” I raised my right hand, and he immediately stopped talking.

  Hmm, I somehow miss this kind of authority.

  “Glad to know I am right,” I glanced at the crowded hall. “Any business you want to discuss can wait. For now, we shall enjoy this evening. You spent a long time on the road.”

  He cleared his throat before responding. “Of course, Madame.”

  I pat his back and chuckled. “Don’t get too excited, you will be staying here for days! Why don’t we go join your troop?” I just don’t want to talk about business and stuff. Not now.

  As we approached the table, I noticed the ladies this morning in the guild surrounding a particular knight. The merchant stopped walking to glance at where I was looking.

  “That’s my knight, Trevor. Everywhere we go, he will always be surrounded.”

  He is an average-looking guy in my book but he passes. I’ve seen a lot of good-looking individuals that my tastes have gone bland.

  “You must be proud to have him around you.”

  He laughed and agreed. He leaned closer and whispered, “He is an ace in my deck of cards”

  That knight must be like a son to him or something to say that.

  “Don’t tell him that if he ever got a chance to talk to you.” He added.

  The knight looked our way- probably noticed us staring. I nodded my head as an acknowledgment and continued walking. I saw Adam talking to some men at the end of the table. He looked drunk.

  “Oh! Madame is here! Boys, come say hello to the Madame of the house!” He is quite a chatty lad when influenced by alcohol. A far cry from his stoic expression this morning.

  I chuckled when Adam almost fell down while trying to stand up. Drunkard.

  “No, just stay seated, Adam.” I said as I tapped his shoulder.

  “Good evening gentlemen, are you enjoying the banquet?” I sat at the empty spot at the edge of the table.

  They all yelled ‘YES’ and started telling me about their journey and spent the whole night interacting with the guests.

  “Good morning, Madame”

  I squint when the light directly hit my face.

  “Ugh, my head is aching.” How many drinks did I have last night?

  “Oh, did you hide that bottle I told you about, Lyra?”

  She nodded and handed me a glass of water. “You just woke up, Madame. You need to eat lunch first before drinking that wine.”

  “Already midday?”

  I sat on the bed and stretched my upper body. Come to think of it, why am I still here? The developers should’ve found me already. I mean, don’t they monitor the game closely to check for bugs?

  I am literally a bug- a ladybug… a ladybug…??? I want to be a beetle though…

  *shakes head vigorously*

  Ah, I’m still drunk, clearly.

  “…dame, Madame…”

  A light tap on my shoulder woke me up.

  “Adam?”

  He tilted his head and looked at me with slight worry and panic. Oh, right, I am in the middle of the meeting.

  “I received intel that Cerres is going to claim the barren land on the Eastern Aswain, and Gamaras is strongly against the idea,” the merchant said, handing an envelope to me.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I opened it and read the contents. It’s mostly newsletters from Gamaras and Cerres, ones that aren’t particularly popular in Aswain even though it is the main topic of the paper. How lax is the security of this country?

  “...that’s why I want to propose something to Madame since Aswain will surely be in the midst of chaos if war breaks out.” Obviously? A part of Aswain will be taken, for god’s sake.

  “It is stated here that you want to build a camp for your soldiers in the Eastern region of Aswain.”

  “That is correct. I have my men stationed at the border of the West Gamaras, all that is left to do is for the Madame to approve of this.” Is he planning to join the war? Isn’t he a merchant?

  I furrowed my eyebrows. His proposal has so many problems that it puts math books to shame. I looked at Adam and he nodded.

  “This meeting ends here. I will give you my response before you leave. In the meantime, do enjoy your stay in the palace”

  I stood up and left the room. I hurriedly went to the office and locked the door. Goodness, I had no idea I would be staying in here for this long!

  I thought that the developers would notice this character’s bug quickly and then eliminate it, so I did not consider studying this ‘Madame Leonora’s’ background!

  I opened the drawers to look for information about Leonora. Yesterday, I tried opening the status tab that appeared just a few days ago, but I couldn't. I’m pretty sure I am still inside the game.

  “…servants profile… guild… finances… there should be a file about me…”

  The whole room is now a huge mess but I’ve yet to find anything that may be related to my character.

  I reached out for the last box I can find in the room, and there I saw it.

  “The members of the house…” That’s the title of the book.

  The first half of the book only told the foundation of the Stryker family. The introduction of the family members followed. I skipped the other members and stopped when I saw ‘Leonora Stryker’.

  So, Leonora is married to Idris Stryker who is apparently her cousin…? Ew, that’s disgusting. And he’s already dead, good riddance.

  Since he is dead, the title of the Archduke was transferred to me because we don’t have any children, thank god, nor any relatives left. The maid told me that I had been here since I was a kid, so Idris and I got married at a very young age. Looks like the greediness of this family is to no end.

  That was the only information about Leonora in this book. Her information is a mere sentence compared to the detailed information about the other members.

  I continued reading the whole book but that’s the only part where Leonora is mentioned.

  Is her background story supposed to be locked somewhere, and the players can only recover it after doing quests related to it? Haah~ this complicates things.

  As I placed the books and papers back in their original state, someone knocked at the door.

  “Madame, it’s me, Lyra.” Is my presence needed again somewhere?

  “Give me a moment.”

  [clattering noise]

  I opened the door and saw her pushing a trolley.

  “Mr. Adam informed me that you might want to have an afternoon tea.” So it’s just a tea.

  “That’s smart. You can place it on the table.”

  She bows her head as soon as she finished setting up the table.

  “Can you call for Adam on your way out?”

  She left the room and moments later, Adam arrived.

  “The maid said you called for me, Madame.”

  “I did. I need to talk to you about something,” I took the paper that the merchant gave me earlier. “that merchant is Earl Yosef.”

  He nodded.

  “So you knew.”

  “Nayeli informed me the other day. I thought she also told you.” He thought? What kind of butler would not personally inform his employer of what’s going on? Tsk, forget it.

  “She didn’t. But she did tell me that an Earl would be coming. So the merchant is the earl himself.”

  “Only a few people know that he is an Earl. Nayeli even said that she had a hard time confirming that.”

  “Now that I think about it, I didn’t see her at the banquet.” I only saw the ladies that I spent the morning with.

  Adam snapped his finger. “Oh right! I forgot to tell you. She was sent to the borders to confirm something.” This guy.

  “You were smashed last night, it’s all right.”

  He fixed his monocle that was about to fall out. “Smashed?” He should consider changing to an eyeglass.

  “Drunk.” I corrected as I roll my eyes. Right. Their information is limited to whatever the developers added.

  “Where did you learn that?”

  “Somewhere. Anyway, let’s talk about the papers. The merchant wanted us to aid in this war. He knows that Aswain isn’t a powerful country, but he wants to drag us into this.” He just wanted a willing bait, not an ally.

  “He contacted the guild beforehand and confirmed that he distributes illegal armor in the West Gamaras. That alone is enough to know that the King of Gamaras does not know about this war.”

  I obtained that information the first time I entered Nayeli’s guild as a ‘Novice Traveler’. I really had no idea what that was about, but I guess I do now.

  “The Earl is also collaborating with the Marquess. What he is asking to do is basically putting our country in jeopardy.”

  This tea is delicious. That maid, Lyra, brewed it so well. I need to ask her how later.

  “Madame, what are you planning to do? If we disagree, the Earl and the Marquess will be displeased by it, surely.”

  Hah, the burden that comes to people in power. As the current archduke, I hold significant power in Aswain, and any consequences that may arise will be attributed to me. Suddenly, I want to be transported to another body.

  “Cerres is also a huge problem- if they’ll know that we are collaborating with Gamaras, our country will be the first one to be in danger.”

  Adam is right. Cerres is the most powerful country in this world. Even if Aswain ask for help from other countries, it would be in vain. I’m pretty sure they would only turn a blind eye. Let’s get real here, Aswain is not powerful.

  “How about building a massive wall surrounding Aswain so none of our enemies can enter our land?”

  “That’s impossible, Madame. The war could happen anytime soon.”

  Tsk. This game is starting to get annoyingly realistic. And to think I got this palace barely 10 minutes in.

  “Right.” Apart from being a weak country, Cerres doesn’t want any negotiations with Aswain because of the issues that the past kings created. I read about this in the book earlier. Oh lord, I want to take a nap.

  “Then I guess we have to decline. It’s better to face the Earl and the Marquess than to go against the Empire of Cerres. Besides, the King of Gamaras does not know about this war. I don’t even know if it’s considered a war. This is more like border skirmishes.”

  Adam looks troubled by my answer. I understand his worries, but there is nothing they can do if I don’t want to do it. You get it.

  “Why don’t you have some tea? Lyra brewed it well.”

  Although making these two countries kneel before me is too easy, I’m going to let them do whatever they want. I don’t want to deal with this world’s problems.

  Ah, I can hear my old bones creaking.