ITK C323: A Princess’ Ambition

The study program launched on our farm was meant to gather youth from the human, demon, and mermaid races and educate them to become future leaders.

Thanks to this, the farm’s average age has drastically decreased, and population distribution has been dramatically affected.

Demons have increased, mermaids have increased…
And a similar increase in humans led to this one incident…

---

“This is our chance!”

Letasreit, the former princess of the Human Kingdom, has come to me for advice.

“Chance for what?”
“Reclaiming our territory! This is our chance to start a resistance against the Demon King’s Army!!!”

She’s saying disturbing things again!

Letasreit is a princess of a ruined nation destroyed by the demons. Plans for her execution were set in place, but here she is.
The guillotine was supposed to have her head, but she survived thanks to the mercy of her enemy, the Demon King.
Now, she’s here in exile, or rather, imprisonment.

She acted high-handed, just like any other princess when she first arrived, but as the days went by, she got used to life, matured, and became a simple worker.
Unfortunately, her airheaded side still hasn’t been fixed.

The only thing she cares about now is the number of beans she can grow, so I didn’t think she still had a shred of hope of being reinstated as a princess…

“I mean, think about it! There are a lot of human students here now, right?”
“Yeah.”
“If I can win them over, they will eventually revolt to reclaim the land from the hands of the demons! Then, I’ll be reinstated as a princess! Maybe!”
“Ah…”
“Aren’t they promising assets that’s why they’re here? I’m sure they can do it!”

The students’ talent has reignited a fire of ambition that I thought was utterly extinguished.

I hope she stops.

She’s in a delicate position where she could be executed for having such risky thoughts.
Please don’t talk about hazardous ideas before me, who always wants to settle things peacefully.

But the fact that she came to me to discuss things makes it hard to tell if she’s really serious.

“I thought I’d need your permission to reveal my identity to them and earn their respect, so here I am.”
“O-Oh!”
“So, can I? I can, right?”

I can’t tell how far she’s serious.
Or is she just that dumb?!

“G-Go ahead…”
“Yes!”

I gave in to my curiosity to see how severe her stupidity was and gave her permission.

“Now that I’ve gotten official permission, I’m going to turn all the humans here into my retainers! Bow to the royal family’s charisma!!!”

With that, she runs off.
I, extremely worried, decided to follow her.

---

“Stand back, everyone! Do you know who I am?”
“…?”
“I am the former princess of the Human Kingdom, Letasreit! Did you fail to recognize me?!”

Letasreit approaches the human students in full force.
The students are helping with farm work, as it isn’t school time at the moment.

Looking at their amateur work, she says, “…Ah, you mustn’t pull the weeds from their roots.”

“Huh? Really?”
“Uprooting them messes up the soil. Besides, it’s troublesome. But if you trim between the stem and the root and cover it with soil, it won’t grow back.”
“Ohh!”

After ending her lecture to her farm juniors…

“I am Letasreit, princess of the Human Kingdom!”

She boldly reintroduces herself.
But the students’ reaction is quite unsatisfactory…

“…Okay?”
“After I tried my best to turn a blind eye to it the first time…”

It’s as if their reaction was meant to imply that she’s being a bother!

“What? Aren’t you impressed? Someone from the royal family is still alive!”
“It would’ve been better for us if all of you were gone…”
“Huh?!”

Letasreit is shocked by the students’ harsh words.

“I mean, we’re much better off ever since the demons took over.”
“Taxes are lighter, no thought control, and most importantly, no more war! We can finally live in peace and prosperity, so please don’t do anything unnecessary to set back the times.”
“We like the way things are now. We don’t want to go back to those miserable days.”

Letasreit is cornered by the blunt statements of her compatriots.

“…But what about worshipping me and starting a freedom movement?”
“We won’t do that. Please face reality.”
“I didn’t want this to happen, so I pretended all this time like I didn’t notice you loitering around the farm.”

They make a good point.
The three races are about to harmonize and usher in an era of peace, so they don’t want the royalty’s selfishness to disrupt it.

“I won’t give up!” she says.

Please give up.

“I know there’s more than one way to move people! If they won’t work for the greater good, I’ll use a different approach!”

W-What?!
As you would expect from an ex-royal, she has no shortage of ways to control people!

“The most effective way to sway them is through reward!”
“I see.”
“If you follow me, you will be rewarded handsomely! How about that!”
“You plan to lure us in with money?!”

They seem a little shaken at the mention of a reward!
I guess anyone would find money enticing…

…Wait.
But what does Letasreit have at her disposal right now?
Isn’t she a prisoner?

“Go on, take as much as you want! I saved them throughout my life here…”

She takes out something from her pocket…

“Beans!”

And presents soybeans.
When she started growing her favorite crop, she became obsessed, starting with fava beans, peanuts, soybeans, red beans, peas, and more.
She grew so much that she handles our farm’s bean production now.

“Don’t be shy, you can have all the beans you want if you stick by my side!”

Letasreit appeals to her people… with beans.
In response to this, the students have a let-down look on their faces and say, “NO, THANK YOU!”

“Whaaaaat?!” she exclaims. “But why?! They’re beans; they’re so good! Don’t you want some?!”
“Um, no… Meat’s much better…”
“Huuuuuuuuuh?!”

She’s shocked.
But she refuses to be beaten here.

“Well, I, too, like cake and ice cream…”
“We’d rather have alcohol.”

Everyone gives concrete examples of food more delicious than beans.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! Noooooooooo!”

This, more than anything else, devastated Letasreit.
Thus, her mission to reclaim her land was downgraded to just making new friends.

---

“Boohoooooooooooo!” wails Letasreit in the lap of her good friend, Horkosfon.

“There, there. That must’ve been very sad,” says Horkosfon, patting her head.

“Hic… They made fun of my beans…”
“That’s what you’re sad about?!” I interject.

It wasn’t her failed plan to be reinstated as a princess that made her sad, but that her beans weren’t accepted.

“But beans are delicious! They’re vewy delijoooos!”

Where in the world did she get her love for beans, even?

“I’m very upset about it, too. An insult to beans is an insult to Letasreit and me!”

Wait, now Horkosfon’s getting fired up!

“Master, I would like to make those ignorant people realize the true power of beans.”
“Yeah! Let’s tell them, Holly!!!” cries Letasreit.

…What about your ambition to reclaim your territory?

“We’ll show them with our entire being on the line! Let it be known that beans are the best food!”

Huh, guess you don’t care about your other plan anymore. Okay then.
Thus, the spark of warfare was safely put out, and the haphazard plan of making beans popular among the youth took precedence instead.

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