The Two Babies Changing the Original Story Chapter 16

“Ah, right. Come to think of it, I heard that Oliven Atelier will start taking dress orders for the second half of the year the day after tomorrow. Did you hear about it?”

“No! How did you even find out something like that?”

“My mother is a regular customer at Jangté Jewelry. Jangté and Oliven are very close. That’s how she found out, and she told me.”

“Woooow!”

Vivian excitedly shared the information, and Juruna was touched by it.

Ellie watched them.

Ellie’s eyes filled with boredom.

“Did I talk too much? I just thought it might be helpful information for you, Your Highness….”

“Oh, no! Thank you!”

If it was necessary information, she needed to know it.

But knowing something because it was necessary and wanting to keep listening because it was fun were different things.

Ellie felt an increasingly deep sense of distance in her conversations with the two of them.

‘When I was with Cleus, I didn’t even notice the time passing….’

I wanted to stay together longer, to keep talking….

We were the same age, but so different.

“Your Highness… is talking with us boring for you…?”

In the end, she couldn’t hide the boredom on her face.

Juruna asked, her voice trembling.

Vivian also closed the mouth she had been happily chattering with.

“N-no, it’s fun….”

If I say it’s fun, they’ll keep going, won’t they?!

She couldn’t endure it anymore.

“…Yeah.”

It was just as boring as when her brother grabbed her and talked about things she couldn’t understand even one word of.

 

‘Why… why isn’t this working out at all?!’

‘Ellie, sorry, but can you listen for a moment? You don’t need to answer.’

‘So here, the Axen value came out as 8, but the Rulta line kept a longitude of 23. If you add 7 gravity here, then logically the Moonrat value should come out as 12 for it to work properly, but why—what was the problem? Ah, I’m such an idiot! No, I’m not! I’m a super genius archmage! I can do this!’

 

At least back then, her brother had been funny.

These two were so serious that it wasn’t funny at all.

“We should’ve tried to make the conversation more fun….”

“At first, everything must seem confusing, so it’s hard for you, right?”

“Unlike us, Your Highness has a royal tailor who’ll take care of everything, so maybe we said useless things.”

“N-no.”

Their apologies went on endlessly.

At this rate, they might apologize all the way until they went home.

If they weren’t going to talk about dresses, Ellie would have to lead the conversation.

They hadn’t met today just to talk about dresses.

“By the way, are you two going to become tailors later?”

“Excuse me?”

Both girls were startled by Ellie’s question.

Was it really such a surprising question? Ellie was startled too.

Her brother always asked questions like that when he was bored, so Ellie had asked without thinking.

‘Ellie, what do you want to be when you grow up?’

‘A tomato!’

‘A great dream. Become delicious ketchup someday.’

When she was even younger, they’d had conversations like that too.

But because her brother kept asking, Ellie eventually found her own dream.

‘I’m going to become a genius archmage like you!’

‘A genius archmage, huh…. Well, someone like you could do it. But “like me,” that’s the tricky part. I’m not just a normal genius archmage, you know. Still, it’s more possible than becoming a tomato. Give it your best.’

And so Ellie’s dream was adjusted to “a genius archmage who might be a tiny bit less skilled than my brother.”

Although right now, her dream had shifted to “surviving as Princess Ellia.”

Cleus talked about leading the Berndt Order in the future.

So she naturally expected these two to have dreams too. But… why did they look so shocked?

“Tailors? How could we do such lowly work?”

“You’re joking, right, Your Highness?”

Vivian and Juruna forced a smile.

It was obvious they were forcing it.

If the person asking hadn’t been a princess, they would’ve flipped the table.

“You seem to really love dresses….”

Their fondness and interest in dresses wasn’t just “What should I wear today?” or “I want that pretty outfit.”

Their knowledge was so detailed that Ellie had lightly wondered if they wanted to make dresses themselves.

“Any noble young lady is like this.”

Vivian raised her chin, speaking sternly.

Even if she was a princess, someone had to teach her this.

“To stand out in society, you need to know and manage your own dresses and accessories properly. Only then can you get a good marriage partner.”

“…Huh?”

So they weren’t interested because they simply liked dresses?

Dresses were a means to an end.

A tool to get a good marriage partner.

“M-marriage?!”

Vivian was only nine years old. And she was already talking about marriage.

Ellie covered her red face with both hands.

“Your Highness should start thinking early too. Good marriage partners aren’t many. Of course, as a princess you’ll meet the best possible partner, but even so—if you give your heart to someone else first, even a king can’t marry someone truly good.”

“So… your dream is to get married?”

“Yes, my dream is to become a duchess!”

Ellie frowned deeply.

…She didn’t understand.

A duchess is just someone who marries a duke. Why is that a dream?

Is the goal marrying a duke, not marrying someone you like?

The more she thought, the more tangled her head became.

“…I don’t get it….”

“…Ah….”

“What does a duchess do?”

“What she does… um…”

Even though she was older than Ellie, Vivian was still a kid.

She didn’t know what a duchess actually did. She just vaguely heard people saying “Being a duchess is the best,” so she aimed for it.

“Um… you can wear the most gorgeous jewels at parties!”

“And?”

“You can have lots of maids!”

“Okay.”

“And I heard you can get massages with scented oil every night!”

Vivian listed the coolest things she’d heard.

But the more she said, the less Ellie understood.

“So a duchess… doesn’t do anything?”

The word “duchess” itself meant “someone’s wife,” and unless “wife” was a job, of course she didn’t do anything.

“Um… but noble ladies don’t work….”

Even Vivian was getting confused about what Ellie was trying to say.

“But I’m going to be the king.”

“The king….”

A king was both a status and a job.

A king worked. But then… that meant Ellie wasn’t a “noble lady” who didn’t work….

Vivian’s brain started to twist.

In the world she belonged to, she’d only ever walked on the “proper path.”

Ellie’s questions felt like a shock.

Work? What is work?

“I’ll be king and study a lot and become a mage too!”

At Ellie’s determination, Vivian’s eyes widened.

“A mage?”

“Yeah! I’m going to become a mage and save the world!”

Vivian had never once thought about becoming something.

She thought living pretty and gracefully was enough. But hearing Ellie’s words made her heart pound.

“T-that’s amazing!”

Vivian’s heart moved.

All the standards she’d held about the world collapsed and rebuilt.

A duchess doesn’t save the world.

“I want to become something that saves the world too!”

“You can!”

“Do you think I can?”

“Of course! Let’s do it together!”

Vivian’s heart swelled.

It felt like a divine revelation, like a bell ringing in her head.

“Then… can I also become a mage?”

Ellie froze for a moment.

Cleus had told her that not everyone could become a mage.

Could Vivian?

But there was no need to give up before even trying.

“You can do it!”

No one knew until they tried.

“Then I want to be a mage too!”

Juruna got excited as well.

Now Ellie finally felt thrilled.

The friends who had felt distant suddenly seemed like teammates—close and reliable.

“Of course!”

“All three of us will become mages and make something like a knight order!”

“Kyaa! That’s so cool!”

“Then it’ll be a mage order?”

A mage order!

The word from Juruna made Ellie’s heart thump wildly.

A knight order, a mage order.

It was just as cool as the Berndt Order.

“Yeah, then from now on… we’re the future mage order!”

The three children’s eyes sparkled brightly.

“We’ll become mages and someday create a mage order that saves the world!”

“Okay!”

The three held their hands together and made a firm promise.

The boring dress talk had flown far, far away.