Only after changing out the basin water several times could Rosenitte turn from a green monster back into a human.
Even then, wiping alone wasn't nearly enough.
Rosenitte ordered them to draw water for a proper bath, because she needed to bathe properly.
"Your Highness…"
Sylvestian, who was standing beside her, looked even more troubled than Peony, who had been asked.
Because even just the water used to rinse the cloth while wiping Rosenitte down amounted to a full day's drinking water for thirty residents.
Still, Peony was an experienced maid, so she served the unreasonable demand—born of zero awareness of reality—exactly as it was.
"It's an honor to attend to Your Highness the Eighth Imperial Princess's bath. However…
At the moment, we don't have enough clean bathwater suitable for Your Highness to use."
"How long will it take to prepare?"
"I think it will be possible once our Highness returns. She said she was going to secure drinking water. You must be hungry for now—would you like to eat first?"
"Do you think I can eat when I'm in this state?"
But a body that had gone hungry for a full day was honest.
Grrrkk!
While Rosenitte was feeling embarrassed, Peony hurriedly brought sausage stew.
Rosenitte grumbled that it was like some porridge they handed out in the slums, but she still picked up a wooden spoon as if she couldn't help it.
And the moment she took a bite, all her complaints vanished.
Because the sausage—greasy, chewy, and possessing an oddly subtle flavor—suited Rosenitte's taste perfectly.
'How can it be this delicious?!'
It was as if it had been made for Rosenitte alone.
Only after she wolfed it all down did Rosenitte notice the eyes on her.
"Ahem. It's a delicacy. Looks like there's quite a skilled cook at this outpost."
With her stomach full, Rosenitte became noticeably more docile.
She even had enough room to dab at her mouth with a napkin and put on airs, but it seemed awkward to use honorifics now after the fact.
She kept speaking down to Peony.
"Is there more?"
"I'm sorry. That was the last of it. Our Highness will be bringing food soon, so please wait just a little longer."
After bathwater, now food, too—Eve had the situation in her grip.
At this point, Rosenitte's pride was a little wounded, but she couldn't not ask.
"When is Unni coming?"
"It's been quite a while since the villagers were called to fetch the meat. Won't she be here soon?"
"Fine. Bring me some tea to cleanse my palate."
"Here you are."
Maybe because she was Eve's maid, her skill at brewing tea was decent too.
Her movements were brisk and attentive, and her tone was polite, so Rosenitte found herself liking this maid named Peony.
After speaking casually for a while, she even got the illusion that they'd become close.
Of course, Peony didn't feel any particular internal closeness toward Rosenitte.
Judging that she had attended to her sufficiently, she tried to leave the barracks right away.
"Now that you've eaten, please rest well, Your Highness the Eighth Imperial Princess."
"I've rested enough."
"Mm… I think it would be good if you rested more. Then shall I bring some mud from the swamp?"
"Why mud?"
"If you apply it and then sleep deeply again, it'll be incredibly good for beauty. The plant-based nutrients of well-fermented nepenthes will make your skin fresh…"
"I'm sick of packs. I'm going to look around outside."
"Yes."
Rosenitte didn't look like she had any intention of helping the village by quietly sleeping.
Peony hid her disappointed gaze and quickly withdrew.
"Then I'll go finish the work our Highness assigned me."
"Sure. You're Unni's maid, after all."
A little later, after finishing her tea, Rosenitte stepped outside the barracks with Sylvestian.
Dandelion was a village that made the term "outpost" feel ridiculous—surrounded only by shattered palisades.
Rosenitte lost interest quickly.
As she wandered around, Dandelion's residents stole glances at Rosenitte.
As always, her dazzling beauty stood out wherever she went.
Thanks to that, Rosenitte's self-esteem recovered a little.
Sylvestian, who accompanied her, explained the current situation.
"Right before Your Highness awoke, the monsters that attacked the village were all dealt with. Right now, the White Night Knight Order is helping with logging work."
"Logging? Why is a knight order doing that?"
"There was an instruction from Her Highness the Seventh Imperial Princess to prepare lumber. When the Lucciad Construction Company comes in the day after tomorrow, it seems she plans to be able to restore the village immediately."
"Ah, I see."
Even Rosenitte could see the White Night knights outside the palisade, hard at work felling trees.
When she turned her head the other way, she also saw Peony moving busily around what looked like a clinic.
Nearby, a huge cauldron was boiling, steam rising in thick curls.
From the herbal smell, it seemed they were making potions through alchemy.
Watching everyone find their own work and do it, Rosenitte spoke.
"Sir Millard, did Unni leave any message for me?"
"Not particularly…"
At that answer, Rosenitte felt oddly sulky, so she said something she didn't even mean.
"You said the knight order is logging. Shouldn't you, the commander, be going too, Sir Millard?"
"You are always my highest priority, Your Highness."
It was a good answer in content, but heard in a voice without emotion, it was the same—there was no real impact.
An imprinted homunculus was truly an indifferent being.
'Sir Agnito is different when he's with Unni.'
That thought suddenly surfaced, and her mood soured again.
Because it started to feel like a matter of dominance.
"I'm going back to the barracks to rest."
Rosenitte no longer felt like looking around the village.
She didn't like the logging site where the homunculus knights were cutting trees, and she didn't like the clinic where potion alchemy was in full swing, either.
Rosenitte had no talent for alchemy, so there was nowhere here for her to go.
All she wanted was to hurry back to the Imperial Palace and hear the praise that she was the White Rose of the Empire.
It was then.
One of the villagers shouted.
"The Savior has returned!"
'The Savior?'
Residents stopped what they were doing and began gathering at the entrance.
Wondering who this praised person even was, Rosenitte stopped mid-step on her way back to the barracks and stared toward the village entrance.
Soon, she saw someone riding in on horseback like a triumphant general, leading a line of carts behind.
It was none other than that half-sister Unni of hers.
'Eve Unni?'
That alone would've been surprising, but what came next was even more shocking.
Eve had said she was going to secure meat to use as food.
But the carts rolling into the village one after another were piled full of magical beast corpses.
And the residents happily rushed toward the carts, shouting.
"It's meat! The Savior brought back so much meat!"
"Let's make tons of sausage!"
"So we can eat sausage stew again tonight!"
With her sharp hearing, there was no way Rosenitte wouldn't hear them chanting "sausage."
"M-Millard…"
With a face gone pale, Rosenitte turned to Sylvestian.
A homunculus might be expressionless, but at this moment, even Rosenitte could read Sylvestian's face.
His complexion wasn't fine either.
That face gave her more than enough of an answer.
Instead of spitting out a question, Rosenitte spat something else out.
"Uweeeek! Ughk! Oweeeek!"
"Y-Your Highness! Your Highness!"
Rosenitte vomited and then fainted.
With the enormous amount of game hauled in, Dandelion was in an atmosphere as if a festival had opened.
To butcher meat and make sausage, residents bustled about washing knives, carrying water, and more.
Eve received a report from Peony about what had happened in the village.
"Rozy fainted again?"
"Yes. Sir Millard said that she learned what the sausage is made of and was badly shocked."
Peony, saying that, must have only just learned herself that it was magical beast sausage—
Yet she showed no sign of being shaken.
She was the owner of an open-minded view of food.
She even declared an ambition to collect magical beast blood and make black pudding for them.
Eve thought briefly about Rosenitte, then decided.
"I won't cast sleep magic. Still… I'll have to get her to eat something and put her to bed."
"Yes, Your Highness. But even if she wakes up next time, won't she refuse sausage stew again?"
"Who knows. For now, when she wakes up, give her fish stew instead of sausage stew. There were some fish we caught while exploring the lake. I burned them all, though."
"So there are normal ingredients here too?"
"No. The fish were magical beasts too. Don't let Rozy know."
"Yes."
Master and servant calmly finished conspiring.
Eve was extremely tired from the long exploration, but she couldn't go into the barracks and rest.
There was still an important thing she had to do.
After instructing Peony to prepare the ingredients needed for alchemy, she called for Helione.
Just then, Helione also had something to consult Eve about.
"Your Highness, because we suddenly have to butcher so much meat, I think we'll run short on rainwater."
"I was going to solve the drinking water issue anyway. Come with me to the nearby swamp."
"…Pardon? The swamp, you say? Not going back to the lake?"
Helione asked again, as if she didn't understand.
The swamp's muddy water was one of Dandelion's major drinking water sources.
In the village, they even had a purifier installed—like a wooden tank with a huge funnel fitted to it—to clean muddy water.
The purifier was made by stacking charcoal, needles, and gravel in layers by size inside a wooden tank, then adding a bit of magical purification function.
If you poured muddy water into the top, clear water would trickle out below.
The problem was that no matter how much muddy water you poured in, the time it took for purified water to come out was fixed.
Of course, Eve wasn't unaware of the purifier's efficiency.
To correct the misunderstanding, she said,
"The lake is too far, so I intend to use a closer water source. But I have no intention of using the purifier."
"Then how…?"
"I'll show you directly instead of explaining. Trust me and guide me. Is the swamp far from the village?"
"No. It's where we're moving the game to right now. We use the area near the swamp as a butcher's yard. It's convenient for washing away the waste left after butchering the meat."
"Ah, so it's essentially a sewage facility."
They would be in the middle of butchering about now, so the swamp would be packed with residents.
'Everyone's eyes will be on me.'
It was then that Eve's face turned grim, as if she had made up her mind.
"Your Highness?"
Eve took a deep breath.
Calling inwardly for Alben—far away in the capital—to lend her strength, she opened her mouth.
"Chief, inform the residents. Tell them I'm about to show a miracle."