“Yes, we can all sleep in the yard. It’s still warm.”
Even though it wasn’t the most appropriate thing to say in late autumn with falling leaves, Anne spoke confidently. Meanwhile, Arten, who had never experienced homelessness, held the harp in his hand, looking confused as he alternated between looking at Irina, Yuriev, and the knights.
The situation unfolded as follows. From the beginning, this old and dilapidated cabin only had three rooms. But now, it was filled to the brim with guests. So now, who will sleep in which room?
Anne had a clear solution.
“Do not make His Highness the Prince and his wife give up their bedroom. Plus, the princess and the Imperial Army’s deputy commander are also present.”
“What?”
Arten lifted his dazed face. While it was shocking to hear Irina and Yuriev’s status again, it was a fact that he already knew. The same was true for Asha.
But…
“Deputy… Deputy Commander? Who…”
Bethelnic, standing far away, pointed at Karnov, standing next to Asha.
“He is Karnov Neustadter, who will be the next Duke Sedvoyer.”
“I see.”
Arten swallowed his breath, biting his tongue, and tears unknowingly flowed down his cheeks. Meanwhile, Asha waved her hands eagerly.
“How can you say that? Since there are three rooms, let’s see. Mom, Lise, and Anne can sleep in one room, Dad, Karnov, and Arten can sleep in one room, and Ivan and Bethelnic can sleep in one room. Isn’t that perfect?”
It was a reasonable choice. The knights would stay together, men with men, and women with women.
“Ah… Did I focus too much on categorizing people into the same groups? Should Ivan and Karnov be in the same room?”
“—!”
“—!”
While Asha was struggling, Arten was at a loss, only grinding his lips, and Anne waved her hands saying it was ridiculous.
“What are you talking about? That’s not considerate of us at all. It’s so uncomfortable that we won’t even sleep properly.”
“But…”
While Asha was in limbo with Anne’s strong backlash, Yuriev sighed and hugged Asha.
“Asha, come here. Lady Marka, would that be okay? Our house has become shabby and embarrassing.”
“Don’t say that.”
Anne waved her hands. It was said that the preparations for outside accommodations were comparable to those of most inns. At the same time, Arten let out a sigh of relief.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
There was a faint sound of a small string instrument being plucked outside. Asha received a blanket from Yuriev and held it in her arms. When she opened the intended room, Karnov was leaning against the window, looking outside with a strange expression on his face.
“Karnov! I brought more blankets in case it was cold. …Is there anything interesting out there? There probably isn’t anything.”
Actually, there was quite a bit of commotion. The locals who lived nearby saw the procession of noble-looking carriages, knights, and attendants from a distance and approached. But then they saw Asha stepping out of one of the carriages.
Seeing a noble young man accompanying Asha who was in a luxurious dress that they had never seen before, they were surprised as if heaven and earth had been turned upside down without knowing the exact status of Asha’s family.
– They probably thought we were all driven out because our house was poor.
– …
– But I guess I surprised everyone by doing this.
Karnov’s expression was a mix of amusement and confusion as he looked at the scattered gazes of the neighbors. But that must have been amusing only to her.
Karnov quickly accepted the blanket that Asha offered and said with a peculiar expression.
“If it’s something funny, well. All of this house?”
“Haha. Isn’t it cool?”
“I think I know how someone like you was created.”
“What? What do you mean?”
Asha squinted and questioned, but Karnov did not answer. When Karnov seemed unwilling to open his mouth, Asha smiled with a mischievous expression and brought up another topic.
“How does Karnov feel seeing my mom and dad? Do you still have any doubts, Lord Karnov?”
“I feel like I want to jump out of the window right now, Your Highness.”
It was a conversation that started as a joke after saying something wrong and receiving ongoing ridicule. Asha chuckled and playfully poked Karnov’s cheek several times before he finally turned to look at her with a huff.
“You’re not scared of me at all, are you?”
“Of course not?! I’m so, so scared of you~!”
Asha flung herself onto the bed and avoided Karnov’s gaze. Karnov pressed on his forehead with his hand.
“I’ll turn you into a grandmother.”
“Grandma Asha? Hmm… Sounds cool, right? I think I’ll be the best pastry chef in the empire by then. Will my baby Karnov do something cute? Grandmother will give you snacks!”
“…If you’re a grandmother, then I’m a grandfather, too. And even now, I’m not a baby…”
“Ho ho ho, in grandmother’s eyes… Anyone under sixty is a baby, baby. Ohohoho.”
Karnov sighed deeply as he watched Asha rolling around on the bed.
“Come down now.”
“Karnov, you always change the subject when you can’t win.”
“Yes, I lost. I lost.”
“Don’t pretend to lose, Lord Karnov.”
“You told me to only use honorifics when I’m in pain.”
“Haha. I learned that from you, Karnov.”
“Yes. So come down quickly.”
“Yes, yes.”
Asha came down grumbling.
“I’ll wake you up when we eat breakfast tomorrow. Can you sleep well by yourself?”
“Why? Are you going to put me to sleep if I say I can’t sleep?”
“Do you want me to tuck you in?”
“You really have a habit of saying that.”
“I can’t get rid of that habit. Karnov, don’t you have the habit of going ‘That’s enough’?”
“Whoa…”
“Don’t sigh.”
“Ha…”
“You never listen.”
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
Yuriev glanced up upstairs, where the little girl’s laughter was heard.
“The princess is doing really well.”
“Thank you very much, Lise. If it wasn’t for you…”
Lise shook her hand with a rather awkward expression when Irina said so with wet eyes.
“Even if it was any other maid, I think she would do well…”
“But why did His Majesty not send Asha away from the palace?”
Yuriev shook his head.
“The crazy old man must have left Asha to provoke Alexei. To toughen his naturally gentle temperament. What would have happened if it wasn’t for you?”
Lise smiled awkwardly with an embarrassed face at the title of “crazy old man,” when referring to the emperor, and the gaze of gratitude toward her.
“Did the child cry? I was so worried that she would be upset about not being able to come with us.”
“Huh? Ah, no, that wasn’t the case. She’s so smart… she seemed to understand everything.”
“Oh, well, she didn’t cry much even when we were together. I used to worry because she didn’t cry as a child…”
Lise laughed quietly at Irina’s words. If that well-behaved girl cried, it was probably just pretending to cry to tease someone.
“But why did His Majesty allow Asha to come with us this time?”
Lise nodded.
“His Majesty… really cares for her. She asked to go down and His Majesty agreed.”
“My princess is so lovely that he couldn’t help it.”
Yuriev breathed a deep sigh and murmured, and was hit in the back by Irina and coughed in vainly.
“But why did Deputy Commander Karnov come along?”
When Irina murmured in a rather worried tone, Yuriev folded his arms and furrowed his eyebrows.
“At first I thought it was because of Alexei.”
“Why the crown prince?”
“Even if that crazy old man gave up on me, wouldn’t everyone think that anything could happen if I moved again to the city?”
Lise decided to get used to this level of recklessness.
“If our Asha has come to see us so adapted with the Imperial Palace that she can afford to buy us a new house, then I believe the crown prince should be especially more attentive.”
“Ah…”
“Anyone who supports Alexei would want to take a look at us, right? I thought that’s why Deputy Commander Karnov Neustadter came, too.”
Lise was a little taken aback. Yuriev, who lived in a rural area, seemed to know all about the affairs of the palace. Yuriev, who noticed her expression, smiled. He told her Maxim told him news of the city.
“It is possible to get only one question wrong, but in order to choose the wrong answer in all the questions, shouldn’t you know all the answers or know what the wrong answers are?”
And since he’s decided to choose only the wrong answer for the rest of his life, Yuriev smiled when he said so. However, Yuriev stopped laughing while thinking about Karnov again.
“So, I thought he came down for that reason. But…”
When Yuriev repeatedly frowned and agonized, Lise smiled gently and gave him the answer.
“Lord Karnov and Her Highness are close… That’s why he came with her. Karnov was worried about the princess.”
“Wasn’t Karnov Neustadter supporting Alexei?”
“That’s… Her Highness is close to His Highness Alexei, and she’s close to Karnov. They’re all close to one another.”
How could she convey a fairy-tale-like story that all the children of the imperial family and the children of the high aristocrats have become friends without any opposition from either side?
As Lise was considering an unprecedented dilemma, Yuriev murmured in a serious voice.
“Oh my. It’s not just the crazy lunatic who fell for the loveliness of our princess, but also Commander Karnov Neustadter, isn’t it?”
“Yuri, what are you saying? They are just children, so they can quickly become friends.”
Yuriev shook his head at Irina’s scolding remarks.
“The children of the imperial family are not just normal children, Irina. Look at me. That’s what I grew up to be.”
“I married you because you were a normal child.”
“Oh, dear.”
Lise looked at the bickering couple with a subtle smile.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
The next morning.
Asha finished her meal with the food ingredients she brought from the palace and immediately began preparing to move. The old and dilapidated shack was so worn out that there weren’t even a few boxes to pack up after all the belongings were cleared out.
Irina and Yuriev stood in front of the old shack for a while, lost in their thoughts, before turning around. Together, they left the shack and arrived at a place not far away called Lake Bishti.
Lake Bishti was a beautiful lake with a small forest on a small island in the center, and the water looked like transparent jade. When they arrived at the lakeside, the group initially marveled at the beauty of the lake but soon fell into a quiet silence.
It was because the contrast between the shack they stayed in last night and the mansion in front of them now was staggering.
“Oh? Was the house this nice?”
And among the surprised was Asha. The two-story mansion along the lake certainly looked similar to what Asha said, but it was twice as large as she thought.
“Your Highness, this is a letter that as given by Baroness Saratov. She told me to give it to you when we arrived.”
Amidst everyone’s astonishment, Lise handed Asha a small letter. Asha blinked in surprise and quickly unfolded the letter.
Having gone through Baroness Saratov for the construction of this mansion, she must know something.
[To my beloved princess.
I put a little bit of my heart into it. Please consider it as a birthday present for His Highness and the Princess. I hope we will have many successful contracts in the future! Love you!]
