“Am I a knight?”
“No, You are not a knight. You are training like a knight.”
Dorothea corrected Joy’s exasperated words. But Joy looked very excited as if it didn’t matter.
“Stefan will teach you. Stefan is the teacher who taught me swordsmanship, so I have to learn it well.”
“The Princess’s teacher!”
When Joy looked at Stefan with wide-open eyes, she turned her head slyly.
“Can I call you Master?”
Joy asked Stefan as he walked closer. Then Stefan looked at Dorothea.
‘Why are you looking at me? You should do what you like.’
Dorothea pretended not to know and let Stefan take care of it.
Joy’s eyes twinkled and kept asking Stefan what she should call him.
Finally, Stefan nodded.
“You want me to call you master, right?”
At Joy’s reconfirmation, Stefan nodded once more.
“Master!”
“….”
“Master!”
“….”
Joy looked at Stefan with great anticipation and called him, and Stefan kept his mouth shut and looked at Joy.
“Master!”
Stefan nodded again at Joy’s momentum that seemed to call him until he answered.
“Master!”
Joy raised her arms and shouted “Hurrah”
‘What’s so good about it?’
Dorothea laughed at the blunt Stefan and the excited Joy. After Joy and Po came here, the atmosphere of the detached palace definitely changed.
Joy left the room later, saying that he should brag that he has a master to Po.
“She likes you more than I think.”
Stefan’s eyes were in agreement with Dorothea’s words.
From that day on, Stefan set aside a certain amount of time to teach Joy. Joy was very enthusiastic. She looked much more excited than when she read the book and seemed to fit her aptitude.
The problem was that she was too eager.
“Master. How do you shape your hands when doing push-ups?”
“Master, is it right for your shoulders to rise like this?”
“Master, Master…!”
Stefan was tormented by Joy, who ran up to him whenever she had time to ask questions.
Stefan, who is always silent, struggled to answer Joy’s stormy questions. He doesn’t have the talent for words, but every time Joy shows her moves, he personally corrected Joy’s posture.
It was a little funny to see the two people making the same moves and matching each other.
When Stefan is saying, ‘Like this…’ Joy whimpers about it and followed it well.
Dorothea would often go out to the garden to watch the two of them at her leisure.
After a brief break, the two of them came into the shade where Dorothea was. Stefan’s gaze, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a white towel, reached Dorothea.
“….”
Eyes staring at Dorothea quietly. It was a stubborn look that didn’t look like Stefan’s.
“I’m out of interest now, Stefan.”
Dorothea shook her head.
Then Stefan placed a sword by her side. As if to lure animals with food, Stefanlures Dorothea with his sword.
It was very beautiful with the blade shining smoothly in the sunlight. If she holds the handle that fits snugly in her hand and swings it, she will feel the thrilling sensation of a flashing sword cutting the wind through her fingertips.
Dorothea remembered the thrill of that pleasure in her body. But Dorothea, who endured her desire, fortunately, did not fall for Stefan’s temptation.
“Go, Joy is waiting for you.”
Dorothea turned away from the sword and urged him.
At Dorothea’s words, Stefan went out to teach Joy again. He glanced at Dorothea once more.
* * *
Meanwhile, in the kitchen. Chef Reniere was going through something similar to Stefan. It was because of the little kid who kept messing around with the kitchen.
“Hey, you!”
Reniere grabbed Po’s neck.
“I told you not to sneak around because the kitchen is dangerous!”
‘Dangerous for small children because hot and sharp things pass by in the kitchen!’
“If you are hungry, tell someone else. Then they will take care of you.”
Dorothea said that the first day the two children came, she asked Reniere to take care of them. Dorothea doesn’t want the apple pie to rot in the corner of the palace again. So if Joy and Po wanted something to eat, Reniere was willing to cook for them.
Besides, Reniere was quite fond of two children. This is because she was the one who made delicious dishes with the ‘Blessing of the Month’ that Joy sent every month.
‘I was quite fed up with bad ingredients, but when I tried to receive the ingredients sent to me every month, my heart swelled at the thought of my own children.’
“You don’t know if you can get burned or injured while sneaking around here?”
Po bowed his head with a pale face at the threat of Reniere.
“It’s not because I’m hungry…”
A shriveled voice escaped from between her thickly protruding lips.
“You are not hungry?”
“I want to know how to make apple pie…”
“How to make apple pie?”
“I’m going to make it… so even if I get kicked out of this palace, I want to make it and eat it.”
Renier laughed at Po’s words.
‘Did you sneak around to learn to cook?’
“kid, the ingredients to make apple pie are very expensive.”
High-quality butter, refined white flour, eggs, apples, sugar, and cinnamon powder.
The ingredients could never be obtained in the Black Village, where they were fought with a single potato.
Po then pouted his lips as if to cry.
“I can’t even make apple pie…”
‘It’s hard to buy, so I tried to make a small one.’
Po cried, and Reniere panicked.
“Chef! Why are you making a child cry!”
The assistant chef, who was by her side, scolded Renière. Everyone treated Leniere as a criminal.
“No, that’s…That’s not what I meant.”
‘I said it like a joke, but he was going to cry like this.’
Reniere hurriedly sat down on her knees and patted Po on the back.
“Ah, I got it. I’ll teach you.”
Reniere hastily promised to teach Po how to make apple pie. Then Po raised his round eyes and looked at her. It was so cute that Reniere thought of her rabbit-like children in the house.
“Really?”
“Yes! You won’t have to leave the palace, but even if you do, I’ll help you make an apple pie and eat it. Ah, maybe you can run the apple pie business on your own.”
As Reniere promised, a smile spread across Po’s gloomy face.
Po imagined.
A little pie shop with the words ‘Po’s Apple Pie’ written on the wooden signboard!
When you open the wooden door with a chirping bell, the smell of sweet jam and savory bread is wafting out, and on the shelf lies a dainty apple pie.
Among them, Po, with a white hat like a chef’s and a floured apron around his waist will stand beautifully!
‘Then I’ll present Princess Dorothea’s apple pie every morning.’
“It’s cool…!”
A happy smile spread across the lips of Reniere and the people in the kitchen as Po’s brightened eyes looked.
“Then after you eat breakfast tomorrow, come to the kitchen.”
“Thank you!”
Po hugged Reniere wide. Reniere opened her eyes in surprise and then smiled.
Po bowed to the kitchen people one by one and ran with a small step to tell Joy the news. The people in the kitchen couldn’t stop smiling when they looked at Joy’s small back.
“Cute.”
“He’s cute, right?”
“Like a hamster.”
“It’s like a squirrel.”
When everyone was happy to see Po’s small back. Renière opened her eyes when she noticed that all the people in the kitchen now.
“But why are you all here? Aren’t you busy? Get out here!”
Reniere, who was infinitely gentle when dealing with Po, suddenly shouted out loud
* * *
“Princess!”
From a distance, Po called Dorothea and ran.
It had been a long time since Po called her and ran to her first.
Unlike Joy, Po seemed afraid of Dorothea after the handkerchief incident. The little guy was depressed, so it caught her heart.
‘Maybe he was scared and hated me? I shouldn’t have been angry…’
She was so worried, but Po grabbed her arm.
“What’s going on?”
Dorothy asked a question, but Po didn’t answer, grabbing her arm and dragging her somewhere.
It was the dining room where Po took Dorothea. In the dining room, Joy came first and waited.
“Come here, Princess!”
The two sat Dorothea down in front of a large table in the dining room.
“It’s not time to eat.”
It’s been about an hour since they had lunch, and they are in the dining room again.
‘Do they want a snack?’
Before Dorothea could ask a question, Po ran back and forth towards the kitchen. Then, holding something in both hands, he cautiously stood in front of the table.
Po carefully placed it on the table.
“It’s a gift.”
Po looked up at Dorothea in her chair and said.
“Last time, we made the princess angry. So today we really prepared a gift.”
“Hey, this isn’t our money.”
Po spoke in an excited voice, but Joy noticed and whispered in his ear. Then Po stopped and corrected his speech again.
“Well, the ingredients were given from the kitchen. Chef helped me make it…”
Po glanced at Chef Reniere.
“Then it’s not a gift…”
Poe muttered, rubbing his lips in despair.
‘So, did you feel sorry for what happened back then and kept it in your mind until now?’
Dorothea giggled because he was so cute and Dorothea was grateful.
Instead of asking Po, Dorothea looked at Reniere. Renier nodded her head.
“Can I open it?”
“Yes!”
Po and Joy answered Dorothea’s question at the same time. The two of them looked more excited than Dorothea who received the gift.
‘Would it be so exciting to give a gift?’
Dorothea carefully opened the gift.
* * *
CUTE. I wanna pinch Po’s cheeks.
I’m so glad Dorothea has people around her her age who don’t make her feel depressed by remiding her of the past or by treating her like shit.
Also poor Stefan. He was so eager to teach Dorothea only for her to put down the sword without any explanation😭 I love him.
Thank you for the translation!
I really do hope she can continue to train with them and enjoy swordsmanship without having too many burdens from the past <3