It was a large two-story mansion. The walls and roof stacked with cream-colored bricks were covered in purple shingles. There were round towers at both ends of the mansion, and trees with large leaves surrounded the area from the backyard to the entrance of the mansion, so every time the wind blew, a crackling sound could be heard.
It was not comparable to the mansions of nobles, but compared to the shabby cottage just before moving in, it was like a palace.
They didn’t bring much luggage, but there were so many people to help them, and the rooms were already filled with new furniture, so they finished organizing their luggage in the blink of an eye.
As soon as the arrangement was completed, Asha ran to the kitchen with a small, ripe pumpkin in her arms. The kitchen was much simpler than Asha’s palace kitchen, but it had a very similar atmosphere. Perhaps it was because the only kitchen Baroness Saratov looked into extensively was Asha’s kitchen.
“What are you trying to do, Asha?”
“Oh! Mom!”
It was a bit high compared to the imperial palace kitchen, so Asha put only the pumpkin on the countertop first and was dragging a box to use as a footstool when she heard a voice above her.
It was Irina who had just come after dealing with the knights who were clamoring for a duel. In the case of knights, especially Bethelnic, they came all the way here with the desire to confront Irina, who they had only heard rumors about. Irina, who had come from a clean shower, was looking down at Asha with a gentle smile.
“I’m going to make a tart for Mom and Dad. Since it’s late fall, pumpkin tart. This pumpkin was also brought from the city.”
“Did you know how to make tarts?”
“Of course! I’ve made a lot of them, so I’m good at it now. Well… Hmm… Maybe!”
“…Did His Majesty specifically ask you to cook for him?”
Asha, who was looking carefully at the pumpkin, contemplating how to cut it in half, looked up in amazement at Irina’s slightly colder voice.
“Oh, no… No, it’s not like that. Um, well…”
After saying that, Asha realized that it could be misunderstood. She quickly waved her hands.
“It was my own desire. His Majesty didn’t ask me to do it.”
“Asha, there’s nothing in this world that can make you suffer. I sent you to the palace, not because the emperor sent a man to get you. Mom and Dad… We thought it would be a good experience for you, even though…”
Asha nodded. Having formed a contract with Phoebe, Asha was able to see how strong Irina was. If she had made up her mind, she could have dealt with everyone who came that day, even if she had to run away.
Irina added, stroking Asha’s head.
“Your father wanted to run away, though. He probably knew back then that you might not be able to return.”
“Ahhh…”
Asha remembered Yuriev, who hugged her tightly and ran with her when the people sent by the palace first arrived.
“So when you came back…”
Asha recalled Irina’s gaze, scanning the knights by her side as she held her.
“I thought about whether we should leave with our daughter.”
“What… What kind of thought?”
“I was considering leaving like this.”
“Ahaha… Haha…”
How could they leave when dozens of people would witnessed their disappearance? Asha trembled as she swallowed her saliva while seeing a faint glimmer in her mother’s eyes.
“But my daughter’s most serious concern seems to be cutting pumpkins, so should we solve that first?”
Irina smiled brightly and pulled out a dagger tied to her ankle and washed it cleanly in water.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
The mansion that the girl had prepared for her parents was incredibly large and beautiful, yet practical. For example, the shaded area in the backyard, surrounded by tall trees, was prepared as a training ground.
Karnov, who took a tour around the mansion and even checked that the girl was talking with her mother in the kitchen, headed to the training grounds behind the mansion. The still skinny and delicate boy was swinging his sword with determination.
Bethelnic and Anne looked at the move and made eye contact with Karnov and quietly moved away. Noticing Karnov’s arrival, Ivan wiped his sweat and sheathed his sword before approaching Karnov.
“…”
“…”
There was an awkward air between the two. Karnov gazed at Ivan’s sword tip and sighed lightly.
The nobles never wanted slaves to learn swordsmanship. Because they thought if they learned it, they might be stabbed to death by that slave.
Even if a slave was emancipated, they weren’t considered a commoner. They only wore the guise of a commoner, but in essence, they were still a slave.
However, the girl committed the eccentric act of forcing this slave to be dismissed with her own hands and have him become the knight commander’s apprentice. As if that wasn’t enough, she made it her goal to have him accompany her on her trip and feed him a whole box of the snacks she made. Karnov came to look at Ivan with a sigh to help achieve the joke-like goal.
“Others say your skills improved quickly.”
“…Just not enough.”
“What’s not good enough? To be the escort knight of the princess?”
“…”
His silence was an affirmation. Perhaps this boy truly wanted to become the girl’s knight, and she would be happy with it. When he thought about it, his mouth went dry from discomfort for some reason.
But Ivan’s dream was, in some context, what the girl wanted, so Karnov felt relieved that he at least had the thought of wanting to become a knight. If Ivan had truly had no aspirations or dreams, the girl would have narrowed her eyebrows and looked melancholy.
Just thinking of that expression on the girl’s face made Karnov not only feel uncomfortable in his mouth, but also made his heart beat uneasy and his sleep escape him.
Because of that, Karnov was about to leave after mentioning to Ivan that he should eat all the cookies the girl had given him on time, in case she couldn’t sleep at night. But then, Ivan, who had been quiet all the while, suddenly spoke up.
“Thank… you.”
“…?”
Karnov paused. Ivan looked up at him with slightly opaque eyes.
“For saving my life in the north… Thank you.”
“Ah.”
Did you know?
Karnov blinked slowly.
“…I didn’t save your life. It is natural that innocent people are not punished.”
“I… because I had done wrong…”
“Can we call it a crime if it was done unknowingly? Doing something that didn’t have any harm in itself, just because it was forced upon you under the threat of whipping, can’t be considered a sin.”
“…I knew.”
Karnov frowned. Ivan was expressionless.
“…What?”
“I knew what Igor Akimpe was telling me to embroider. I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but I could feel that it was something like a living blade. But I couldn’t… tell anyone…”
Karnov stared at Ivan. In fact, the first thing he thought was that if the girl heard the boy talk this long, she would have been deeply moved.
His second thought was that she might have shed tears because of the content of his words. But Karnov pushed that thought aside and spoke.
“How did you know?”
Igor Akimpe, a man from the north, had committed atrocious acts during the war with the Noctis Elves. He had forced slaves to embroider a sentence to summon ‘darkness,’ and the darkness that was summoned had swept through indiscriminately.
“…Yes?”
“How did you know that the sentence he told you to embroider was something like that?”
“Just… a feeling…”
“A feeling… Well, and?”
“Yes?”
“Just because you knew, it doesn’t change anything, does it? Even if you, a lowly slave, knew that something felt strange, do you think you could have explained it to someone and stopped anything?”
“But…”
“If you told someone, he would kill you, and another slave would take your place.”
“…”
Karnov glanced down at Ivan.
“Are you seeking forgiveness for a nonexistent crime because you have a wish?”
“Yes…?”
If this boy had revealed his true feelings, using some wicked trick to alleviate his guilt and gain sympathy, Karnov would not have responded like this. But seeing the vacant expression on his face, it was clear that there was no possibility of that happening.
“Since you are innocent, it doesn’t mean anything for me to say that I saved you. And you shouldn’t speak of it to the princess.”
“…To the princess…”
“Because it would hurt her to know about your thoughts. She doesn’t have the strength to bear it, even if you can.”
As Karnov crossed his arms and spoke with a spitfire tone, Ivan nodded calmly, taking in his words.
“Did you eat all the snacks the princess gave you?”
“…”
“You didn’t eat it?”
Karnov squinted. There had been a time when the girl had questioned him about it, asking if he had eaten the snacks she had given.
The implication of the phrase “even Karnov” was that there was someone else who didn’t eat the snacks given by the princess. It was likely Ivan.
“They must not have tasted bad.”
“…”
Not only did it not taste bad, but there was nothing he had eaten that was tastier than those snacks. But the boy, who dedicated himself to training every day in order to become the girl’s knight, didn’t eat the snacks she gave him. Karnov didn’t really want to know, but it was like looking at himself in the mirror, he could see that sentiment.
“Why, did you keep them because you thought they were precious? And did you also keep the previous snacks the princess gave you?”
“…”
His expression became even more distant. Karnov sighed.
“They must have gone bad by now.”
“Because… they were precious…”
“If the princess finds out, she’ll be sad thinking that the snacks she made weren’t tasty.”
“…!”
“I actually already have a feeling that she already thinks that.”
“…!”
“From now on, make sure you eat them well. I’ll make sure to remind you.”
Karnov said that and immediately regretted it. It felt like he had shown a childish attitude. And what was with this awkward atmosphere now? It was then that an unexpected savior appeared.
