Chapter 28
“…….”
He could practically feel Dante staring back at him unanswered from behind his mask.
Letier was curious about his face hiding under the dark mask.
As treatment progresses… So, the more often they meet, the more internal intimacy builds up, but the frustration of not being able to see the face of the person she’s taking care of.
“Did you not have any plans today?”
Besides, it’s been like this lately.
The prince was always curious about her day.
Letier struggled to conclude that his interest in her was just his lonely time.
‘Because the prince doesn’t seem to have a close friend in the imperial palace…’
It wasn’t such a bad thing for a person who hid himself behind a black mask to secretly reveal his feelings only to me.
It’s a bit like a stray cat…
“… This morning, I made cosmetics for the prince, and in the afternoon, I briefly met Her Majesty.”
“Your Majesty the Empress?”
His soft voice suddenly changed to stiff.
Letier, who instinctively noticed that the prince did not like the empress’ story, quickly added.
“Oh, it wasn’t a very special conversation! Just a simple greeting… Things about the prince’s treatment. Thankfully, she paid a lot of attention.”
Dante didn’t answer.
There was a reason for everything the empress did.
This time, I didn’t know what kind of wind blew and caused her to take an interest in him.
“In the future, you don’t have to go when the Empress asks you to….”
Dante couldn’t finish what he was saying.
Letier raised a slender finger and carefully stroked the disheveled hair on his forehead.
“…….”
“Ah.”
Letier, who was absentmindedly combing his hair.
“Sorry, it looks like a cat….”
“… Like what?”
“Oh, I’m sorry about that too.”
Letier quickly withdrew her hand.
There was a black cat that the chef at Lenever Castle sometimes prepared food for, and she thought of him and reached out without realizing it.
Dante managed to calm his beating heart.
“It’s the first time I’ve heard anything like that in my life.”
“But aren’t you uncomfortable? The floor must be very hard.”
Letier looked down at him with a worried look.
“It’s okay, I’ll be up in a minute…”
He couldn’t finish talking again.
It was because Letier grabbed his face with both hands and placed him on her lap.
Dante looked up at her and the beautiful tree above her with a bewildered face.
As he had felt before, this little princess was very strong.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ll lend you my lap pillow.”
“Why…”
“It bothers me that you are lying on the hard floor.”
Letier answered lightly.
In reality, the one who was lying on his knee was slowly growing feverish, while the one who had given it to him was looking nonchalant.
Dante was lucky that, at this moment, I had my face covered with a mask.
Otherwise, she would have seen the dumbfounded look on my face as all my facial muscles relaxed.
“…….”
The cool sound of the wind entered his ears.
It was a strangely peaceful time.
“Prince.”
Before long, Letier, who was looking at the imperial palace building across the street, opened her mouth.
Dante looked up at her without speaking.
“Do you know about the Memory Forest?”
“Among the people of the Trillante Empire, is there anyone who doesn’t know about that place?”
“Then have you ever been in there?”
Letier asked straight-forward.
She could have circled around the question and gotten the answer she wanted, but she wasn’t good at that.
“A few years ago.”
Dante answered very briefly.
It wasn’t a topic he wanted to talk about.
Recognizing his feelings, Letier opened his mouth again.
“Her Majesty said that prior to the founding festival, an investigation team would be dispatched there. For the purpose of exploring new demons plants.”
“It’s one of those projects that have been planned for a long time.”
“How about I join the investigation team?”
It was a rather impulsive statement.
Letier had been thinking that the investigation team had nothing to do with her until just a moment ago.
However, after hearing that the prince’s skin disease might be related to that forest, the forest kept bothering her without even realizing it.
“Why?”
Dante asked in a puzzled voice.
And in response to his question, Letier also asked herself a question.
Is the desire to join the investigation team just for the sake of the prince?
She shook her head very slowly.
No, it was obviously because of cosmetic research.
“I was curious about the new demon plant. If you make good use of it, I think you can refine them into cosmetic raw materials that have never existed before.”
“It is dangerous to enter the forest. It’s also hard.”
“But it will be a rare and expensive experience. It would be a very honorable day for a scientist.”
Dante hardened his expression under the mask.
It was impossible to guess what the empress had said and why she was suddenly calling out to the investigation team.
“You entered the imperial palace with the qualifications of my skin therapist. Not a member of the investigation team.”
“It is, but…”
“Instead, when the investigation team returns safely, I will give you the right to receive and view related materials to your heart’s content. Anyway, the report of the Demon Plant Investigation Team in the Forest of Memory comes to me too.”
There was a clear nod of disapproval.
“Very well.”
Lettier nodded, as if he had no choice, and leaned back against the tree.
She hadn’t been that eager to join the survey team anyway.
* * *
“What is this, Lucy?”
The next day, after returning to her room after eating at the dining room, Letier found a piece of paper on the table in her room.
She picked up the stiff paper and read the title carefully.
“The Demon Plant Investigation Team… Supporting documents…?”
“Ah, that’s what the chief chamberlain brought to me when the princess was away!”
“Chief Chamberlain?”
Letier recalled the pale face of Patrick, the chief chamberlain of the imperial palace.
These days, Patrick has been helping the prince with his work in place of Roizen, who was away.
‘Then the prince…?’
No, before that, Patrick belonged to the imperial palace.
If that was the case, it would have made more sense to have brought this paper to me by Her Majesty’s order.
“Investigation team? Are you going to apply for the investigation team?”
Lucy, who had come to the side before I knew it, asked, sticking her face into the paper.
“huh? Ah… well…”
Anyway, it was true that both the prince and her majesty were the people who had talked with her about the Demon Plant Investigation Team, so it wouldn’t be strange even if someone gave it to her.
“Let’s see, Memory Forest… The Forest of Memories, the Magical Plant Investigators? The one I know about?”
Lucy, who was going through the application documents, asked with her eyes wide open.
Letier nodded.
“Perhaps….”
“No, never! They say there are all sorts of incredibly terrifying monsters swarming there!”
Lucy screamed in horror.
Letier quickly opened her mouth before her face turned whiter.
“I thought so too, but now there are few monsters living in the Forest of Memory.”
“What? why?”
Letier gave Lucy a brief explanation of the conversation she had had with the empress.
In response to her story, Lucy’s hardened face gradually loosened.
“And… How amazing. That’s why you started researching demon plants….”
“It sounds like a good opportunity. Personally, I am curious about the inside of the Forest of Memory, and there is a possibility that the hemp plants I learned through research can be used for our business.”
“I see. I’m just worried about something.”
Lucy looked down at the application form once more.
“Well, why don’t you just fill it out for now, even if you decide later whether or not you’re going to get it!”
“Is that so?”
Letier sat down and took out a pen.
As Lucy said, it wouldn’t hurt to fill out the application form first.
After all, even if she submitted an application, it was uncertain whether she would be accepted.
* * *
Dante was sitting in his office, looking down at the tightly written application.
“Prince….”
“Throw this away.”
“… Yes.”
Patrick, standing in front of him, bowed his head.
While passing through the hallway carrying Princess Letier’s application documents for a demon plant investigation, he was about to be taken to the prince’s office without knowing why.
The application documents were intended to be submitted directly to Her Majesty the Empress, but since the Prince caught him first, he had no choice but to follow his wishes.
Patrick looked down at the application papers with a wistful look.
Knock-
Just then, I heard someone knocking on the office door.
Patrick put the application papers of Letier, which he was quietly holding, on the desk for a moment and turned around.
Outside the door he opened, Reuter stood, looking exhausted.
“Your Highness, I’m here.”
“You’re early.”
“I’ve been out for over ten days.”
Reuter gave Patrick, who opened the door, a slight pat on the shoulder to show that he had worked so hard.
He was the one who asked Patrick to help the prince when he was away.
“Patrick, good job. You can go.”
“All right. Prince, then I will go back.”
“Yes. You suffered a lot during that time.”
Patrick bowed his head and left, and Reuter, who strode into the room, shook his shoulders and immediately began preparing for work.
“As soon as I return to the imperial palace, I will start working again.”
“I left a lot of work for you.”
“Why?”
Dante stood up from his seat and immediately took off his mask and rubbed his eyes.
He brushed back the messy bangs over his forehead and stepped out through the side door into the garden outside.
It was a tired face.
Thinking that he had been away from the Imperial Palace for too long, Reuter sorted out the scattered papers on his desk.
As he shared between the papers he needed to check and the papers that had already been processed, he saw a piece of paper lying alone at the edge of his desk.
“… What is this?”
He picked up the stiff sheet of paper filled with letters.
