The next day, Asha finished making the chocolate confetti that she had postponed the day before. The almonds coated in caramel were prepared the previous day, and all that was left was to coat them with melted chocolate. It wasn’t a particularly complicated process, but doing the same thing over and over again was quite tiring.
‘I was planning to add some flower petals to the confetti…’
Asha mumbled, looking at the finished confetti covered in cocoa powder with a serious expression. Her arms trembled lightly.
<This soft and fragile thing. That’s too much.>
‘Maybe I really should exercise a bit.’
<Didn’t Karnov say this before? It’s not a lack of exercise, it’s a lack of growth. And you, you just talk about exercising but never actually do it.>
‘Shouldn’t you take my side instead of Karnov’s?’
<Wh, When did I. I only told you the truth!>
Asha tapped Phoebe on her shoulder. Phoebe quickly turned her head.
‘Even adding flower petals one by one when selling these at the shop would be too much. It would take too long. It demands too much effort.’
It wasn’t an easy task to make enough for several people to enjoy. After adjusting her plans for the future, Asha started dividing the completed confetti into smaller portions.
“Lise, do you have the prepared pouches? Unfold them one by one.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Since the confetti was chocolate-covered and coated with cocoa powder, packaging them was quite challenging. Consequently, Asha came up with the idea of using linen pouches steeped in dark tea for a rich color.
‘They can’t be distributed like this at an exhibition, but it’s fine for sharing with friends.’
Asha carefully divided the finished confetti.
“Let’s see. One for Grandfather, one for Grandfather Number Two, Alyosha, Karnov, Ivan, Pavel… and I know. And also for the doctor who visited recently, and for Lise too. I should give one to Olga as well, and Sophia should get a taste too. I’ll give it to Lady Meura. Natalya will like it, right? I’ll give Dimitri a little bit as well. And…”
As Asha counted and sorted, she remembered Valery at the last minute.
“One for Valery, too.”
“…Will you give it to Lord Valery this time?”
Lise’s voice was a little stiff. Asha looked up and smiled brightly.
“There’s some left over. It would be nice to share a couple of them with Ilya. Just one or two.”
“But…”
Lise murmured in a voice of complete reluctance.
‘No wonder Lise doesn’t like it.’
Every time she made baked goods, she would send some to Valery, but she had never received a reply. Although Asha didn’t mind not getting a response since she sent them because of the Prasti, the emotions of an onlooker were a different story.
Lise was convinced that Valery must have discarded those sweets without a doubt.
“It’s nice to share what we made with others. There, we’re done.”
“But you’ve worked so hard, my lady. I feel bad just giving them away like this…”
“That’s why there’s a joy in sharing.”
Asha said, bouncing up and playfully popping a confetti into Lise’s mouth. As the sweet and nutty taste filled her mouth, Lise’s expression softened, and she nodded as if to say there was no other choice.
When they finished packaging and sending all the confetti, Lise briefly went outside and returned with a small parcel. It was a box tied with a luxurious ribbon.
“There wouldn’t be a reply for the confetti we just sent, right…?”
“Lord Karnov sent it.”
“Ah! It…”
Asha, who was about to say, “It must be the exchange diary,” quickly shut up. Lise tilted her head curiously, but without saying anything, she placed the box in front of Asha.
However, contrary to Asha’s expectation that there would be a diary inside, the box was surprisingly light. When Asha untied the ribbon, there was only one letter inside.
[This is the fourth letter.
I found something that matches your request as closely as possible. I will come to see you soon. I hope you like it. Please don’t push yourself too hard making confetti.]
The letter was still short, and the handwriting was rough yet the tone was polite. Asha couldn’t help but laugh. Why on earth did he send such a short sentence as a letter?
But the soft and warm air at the end of the letter was clearly telling. He tried to please Asha.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
After the exhibition’s overall format was decided, everything proceeded quickly. The venue had been beautifully decorated, and with the help of the knights, there was no need to worry about protecting the paintings. Instead, it was Tarjei’s turn to struggle, as he insisted on taking duty at the exhibition hall.
Now, with the ticket booth set up and the chocolate confetti ready to be distributed to the visitors, all the preparations were nearly complete.
“Did you give my letter to the goat?”
Karnov, who had heard from Alexei that Asha had gone out of the imperial palace today, went straight to Baroness Saratov’s patisserie, without hearing where she had gone.
The inside of the patisserie, which was closed at the end of business hours, was still shining brightly. And at the front and back doors of the lit patisserie, plainclothes knights stood guard.
Among them, Bethelnic, the knight standing at the front door, glanced at Karnov with strange eyes and opened the door so that he could go inside. Inside, Sophia, Baroness Saratov, and Asha were making mountains of confetti.
Karnov couldn’t help but brush a bit of chocolate onto the cheek of Asha, who was grinning brightly, and had to restrain his immediate desire to whisk her away.
And as soon as Asha finished her work to her satisfaction and came out, he practically shoved her into the carriage and returned to the palace.
“What are you talking about? What do you mean by a goat?”
While Lise immediately went to the bathroom to prepare Asha’s bath, Asha tilted her head when Karnov, who had taken her to the room, did not leave. At the same time, she tried to feel the colder autumn night air permeating through the open window. But Karnov closed the window with a thud.
“I thought I wrote down not to overdo it with making confetti, but you’re acting like you’ve never seen it.”
“…Karnov, even if you’re upset, can you not use such disrespectful language? And I want to open the window.”
It was because her cheeks were hot since she burned syrup and melted chocolate all evening. Upon hearing Asha’s plea, Karnov he gently wiped her slightly flushed cheek and reluctantly opened the window with just a crack.
“But how did you know and find the shop? Did Alyosha tell you?”
“Yeah, when His Highness the Crown Prince said that he would punish me if I didn’t bring you back, it was unavoidable.”
“That’s a lie!”
“Do you think I actually enjoyed coming to the palace, then going all the way back to that patisserie, and bringing you back to the palace together?”
Asha looked at Karnov as if something was clearly amiss but decided to change the subject to escape the situation.
“But… Karnov, you said you got the exchange diary, so why haven’t you given it to me?”
Karnov sighed, knowing that Asha was changing the topic, and agreed to fulfill her request.
“There was no opportunity to give it to you.”
“Oh.”
Asha burst into laughter. She had been busy beyond imagination. She thought the exhibition would be finished once the six paintings were hung, but it required much more work than she had anticipated.
While preparing the confetti was something she had wanted to do, there were other tasks as well. She had to meet with Mura to discuss the exhibition, decide on the ticket design, and carefully plan the operating hours and duration of the exhibition.
Although most of the experts the emperor had provided took care of everything, Asha attended every aspect of the exhibition, leaving no field untouched, and kept track of the progress.
“But it’ll be over the day after tomorrow! We finished all the busy work today. As for the diary… Karnov, when you have time…”
Since the exhibition was finally starting in two days, she felt like she could finally breathe a sigh of relief. As Asha was counting the dates and times, Karnov furrowed his brow and pulled something out of his pocket.
It was an elegant leather-bound notebook. In the center of the cover, there was a metal frame with the word ‘Diary’ written in exquisite handwriting. It meant that Karnov had been carrying it around because they had met by chance today.
“Yes.”
“Give me your hand.”
“Hand?”
Asha leaned her head and reached out as Karnov said. Karnov gently held her hand and placed it on the cover of the diary. After a brief period of time, a faint light leaked out of the diary and then faded again.
“Woo… Wow, what’s this?”
“This way, only you and I can open the diary.”
“Really? How did you do that just now?”
“I’m not exactly sure. It’s an artifact from the Otroph Era.”
“What?”
“It’s an ancient artifact used for secret recordings made back then. Anyway, now that it’s done, I’ll leave the diary.”
Asha was speechless at Karnov’s suggestion of using an artifact left by an ancient kingdom from a thousand years ago as an exchange diary. However, Karnov paid no attention to it and simply left with a casual remark, “Don’t overdo it.”
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
Finally, the first day of the exhibition was here. Asha, with a face filled with anticipation despite her slightly bloodshot eyes, and Lise, who was meticulously tidying Asha’s clothes, had completely different expressions.
“If I knew you would be pushing yourself like this, I would have told you not to…”
“Ah, I had fun, you know.”
Although they had differing opinions, the experience of dealing with a large number of people within a given time frame could be a valuable experience for Asha when she opened her own patisserie in the future. That’s why Asha was so enthusiastic about this exhibition. Just as Asha was almost finished with her preparations, they heard a knock on the door from inside.
“Are you ready, Asha?”
“Alyosha!”
It was Alexei, dressed in a neat yet stylish suit. Since it was the first day of the exhibition, they had decided to hold it in the morning exclusively for invited guests. The idea was to take the opportunity to express gratitude to those who willingly lent their paintings.
“If you’re busy, you really don’t have to come.”
“Why are you saying that when I want to come?”
Alexei flashed a faint smile and lightly flicked Asha’s nose. She covered her nose with both hands and smiled in response. At that moment, the candlelight in the hallway, which had remained unextinguished since the night before, flickered brightly.
<Our dear Alexei is sacrificing his morning for today! Oh, do you know how much he pushed himself last night?>
<Ha… This half-wit is so noisy when he’s around. Why don’t you know how to be careful with your words? You always end up causing trouble for your contractor with unnecessary remarks.>
<You’re the same!>
<Not me! Asha! Say no!>
<Neither am I! Alexei! Alexeiiiiii!>
<Hahaha! Unfortunately, your Alexei still can’t hear your voice!>
Asha closed her eyes tightly.
