How to Survive as a Princess in a Reverse Harem Game - Chapter 57

At Evgenia’s words, I couldn’t help but feel excited. While I tried to compose myself to hide my expression, Evgenia gestured to a maid beside her.

“Bring it here.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The maid approached respectfully and placed a small box on the table. With a click, the lid of the box opened, revealing a beautifully crafted key.

It was pretty, but what is this……? Could it just be a decoration?

“Why are you giving this to me……?”

“You said you were giving me an award. You really do know how to recognize things.”

Huh? When did I ever recognize anything?

I was flustered, but it seemed I shouldn’t respond that I didn’t know. I couldn’t tell Evgenia, as I did to Killis, that I had lost my memory.

Regardless, Nepheli was a candidate for the throne. How could a grown-up heir candidate not only have her mana circuits damaged but also lose her memory?

While she might show concern in front of me, urging me to take care of myself, behind the scenes, she would be weighing things on a scale. After all, this was Evgenia we were talking about.

“Feel free to use it as you wish. As I said before, you can spend it for the people of the kingdom, or it can be used for your personal assets, I won’t mind.”

Evgenia probably wouldn’t genuinely care how I spent this money.

However, wouldn’t she evaluate me based on how I used it?

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Just as I reached for the box.

Ding!

[<System> You have obtained the ‘Royal Treasury Key’.]

The royal treasury key?

I was a bit surprised but tried my best not to show it as I finished my tea time with Evgenia.

As I exited the garden, Reno quickly followed me from where he had been waiting at the entrance. It was customary for the guardian to stand outside during a private meeting with Evgenia.

He seemed quite curious about what had transpired during my meeting, and once we were somewhat away from the garden, he began to interrogate me.

“I can’t tell you how bored I was since I couldn’t hear anything. Why did Evgenia call for you?”

“It was about prunes. She said she wanted to give me an award for the successful outcome.”

“An award?”

“Yeah. I’ll show you when we get back.”

No matter how I looked at it, saying I’d show it in the street was a bit questionable, but Reno readily accepted my words.

Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that my steps had somehow quickened. Maybe it was just my imagination.

* * *

When I returned to the princess’s palace, Killis happened to be there as well. Even though I had sent a letter explaining that I would be late due to my tea time with Evgenia, he seemed to be waiting for me in my palace as usual.

Since I had planned to discuss this with Killis anyway, I willingly showed the key to both Reno and Killis.

“Really…… she gave you the treasury key. This must be worth about 1,000 gold.”

1,000 gold…… well, that’s a tricky amount to convert. According to the knowledge Killis had passed on to me, it was a significant sum, considering it was roughly equivalent to five years’ salary for an ordinary male citizen. However, it was also an ambiguous amount when it came to doing anything meaningful. For instance, maintaining Nepheli’s dignity as royalty costs about 2,000 gold each month.

Furthermore, the value of the Uollo Plains that Meliana had proposed was 30 million gold, which was 30,000 times the worth of this key, making the amount feel trivial by comparison.

It seemed that Killis and Reno were having similar thoughts as they looked at me and asked,

“What are you going to do with this money?”

“Are you going to help the less fortunate, as you mentioned to Her Majesty Evgenia before? While it is a decent sum, it will be gone in no time.”

“But you told Evgenia that you would help those in need, right? This doesn’t seem like money you could spend for personal use.”

“That’s not true. Her Majesty said it was fine for me to use it as I wish.”

Of course, I didn’t really believe that. Ever since I received the key from Evgenia, a series of quests had arrived that seemed to directly reflect what I had anticipated.