I Don’t Need Them Anymore — Abandoning the Family That Never Loved Me, I Find Happiness in a Neighboring Kingdom - Chapter 24

More than ten days had passed since I began living in the royal castle, and as I gradually grew accustomed to life here, my way of thinking also began to change.

Until now, I had lived craving love and the need to be needed.

That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I had come to realize that the parental love I had continuously sought was something I no longer needed.

I stopped bothering with formal honorifics and began referring to my parents as Father and Mother, and my elder sister simply as Sister.

With the investigation into the truth making little progress, Father and Sister, growing impatient, chose to pin all the blame on Mother and ally themselves with the Duke of Zerath’s family.

Loin, who had initially claimed it was a royal command, changed his testimony, stating that he hadn’t received the order directly from His Majesty the King but through a message from a close aide, who in turn had acted on orders from Her Majesty the Queen.

Arguing that even if it wasn’t a direct royal command, Loin couldn’t possibly defy an order from Her Majesty the Queen, who outranked him, the Zerath ducal family was petitioning for Loin’s punishment to be lightened.

Just as I was beginning to worry that Sister and Loin might end up being dismissed as victims manipulated by Their Majesties, an incident occurred.

“Everyone was saying bad things about Princess Ramula.”

Lord Fandar, Lady Edith’s younger brother, had grown quite attached to me and would come report to me whenever he heard something.

With the same hair and eye color as Lady Edith and an utterly adorable face, he was a favorite among the servants.

Around the time Lady Edith stopped hiding her face, Lord Fandar began attending the academy. Seeing him happily talk about making friends brought joy to everyone.

Being a very kind person, he likely meant no malice with this report and probably came to tell me because he thought it concerned me.

“Bad things, you say?”

“Yep. That she ‘stole’ him, right?”

Lord Fandar’s eyes were sparkling, so he clearly didn’t understand the meaning of “stole.”

While I stood frozen, a maid cried out.

“Lord Fandar, you mustn’t say such things!”

“But everyone was saying it!”

“Think carefully, my lord. How would you feel if you heard someone saying bad things about Lady Edith?”

“I’d be super mad!”

“Exactly. So, you shouldn’t say such things to Lady Dahlia either, right?”

As the maid and his nanny scolded him, Lord Fandar’s shoulders drooped dejectedly, and he apologized to me.

“Sorry for saying something nasty.”

“Please don’t worry about me. But you mustn’t say such things to others. Please tell your friends that too, alright?”

“Okay.”

Nodding, Lord Fandar, perhaps feeling embarrassed, took the maid’s hand and ran off. The nanny who remained behind spoke to me.

“My deepest apologies. It seems not only were people speaking ill of Princess Ramula regarding Lady Edith, but some parents were also discussing her… intimate relations with a man. The children who heard the story—that she betrayed Lady Edith and ‘stole’ Lady Dahlia’s fiancé—seem to have concluded, without understanding the meaning, that Princess Ramula is a villain.”

“They’re discussing such ‘stealing’ talk in front of children?”

Shocked, I asked, and the nanny gave a wry smile.

“It’s a minority, but it seems some children listen even when adults think they aren’t. The parents likely talk freely, assuming the children are too engrossed in play to pay attention. I suspect those children are then repeating what they heard at the academy, without understanding it.”

“I see.”

“Even among nobles, many families of viscount rank and below don’t employ dedicated childcare staff. I’ve heard that’s why some children end up overhearing adult conversations.”

Come to think of it, the reason I had to stop attending the academy was also because of a baron’s child.

In this case too, the children probably sensed from their parents’ expressions that Princess Ramula had done something wrong.

The nanny bowed deeply.

“I apologize once again. I will report this to His Majesty and lodge a complaint with the academy.”

“Thank you.”

Not just the ‘stealing’ talk, but publicly badmouthing a foreign princess is truly unacceptable. If Father heard such talk, he’d probably try to have the entire family executed.

If I don’t strip Father of his power soon, it’ll just be a waste of time.

If I told Mother about Father’s affairs, her heart might waver. But if her love for Sister hasn’t diminished, it would ultimately be pointless.

That night, I consulted Lady Edith, and she told me that, bit by bit, her elder brother was gathering evidence.

Nana was still by her elder brother’s side, and it seemed it would take more time before she returned to us.

“There’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“What is it?”

“How do the nobles of the Rofeus Kingdom know such detailed information about internal matters in the Yusers Kingdom?”

“About that, it seems yesterday’s Yusers Kingdom newspaper is the cause.”

“Yesterday’s newspaper?”

“Yes. A newspaper company funded by the Duke of Zerath’s family published an article with the headline ‘The True Nature of Princess Ramula.'”

Apparently, the article detailed the recent events and various aspects of Sister’s past.

Loin’s family invests in two newspapers: one mainstream and one that deals in gossip. They must have had the gossip paper publish this article.

So, the Zerath ducal family was pretending to cooperate while actually writing off the Yusers royal family.

With her clean image shattered, Sister must be screaming in frustration about now.

“Right now, it seems His Majesty the King of Yusers is busy doing damage control, but it’s probably tough.”

Father probably thinks he can manage if he just silences Loin and the others, but I won’t let that happen.

Since meeting Lady Edith and starting my life in the Rofeus Kingdom, I’ve come to know happiness, and my feelings have been steadily changing.

I’m tired of just being the victim.

“What do you want to do?” she asked.

Asked directly, I answered clearly.

“I want to clearly show them that I’m different from the person I used to be.”

The me who longed for my parents’ love is gone.

I’ll make my parents and Sister, who think I’m incapable of anything, see the error of their ways.