“This much sugar?”
“Yes, pour it in the pot.”
Asha stood next to Dimitri with a water jug. Dimitri poured the sugar he scooped up with a ladle into the pot.
“Did you have a nice visit with Grandfather?” (Asha)
“Ah… well.”
After pouring water over the sugar and placing it on the fire, Asha asked. Dimitri, who heard that Asha had been to the palace and was in the kitchen, shrugged his shoulders.
“We talked about what we talk about every day.”
“Ahaha. Did you say something like, ‘Asha is bothering me every day! Please scold her!’?”
“You’re really!”
Although Dimitri shouted loudly, he didn’t raise his voice any further. Asha poured butter into the boiling syrup, smiling.
Dimitri, who looked curiously at the melting of butter through the boiling syrup, raised his head with a stern look on his face.
“By the way, it’s time for you to decide on an escort, but I heard you’re still delaying it.”
Asha shook the pot gently, boiling the syrup, pouting her lips.
“It’s not really necessary. There’s no danger inside the palace.”
“I need it when I go outside. You know, what do you look like… an ant’s favorite sugar bag.”
“What? You look like some underbaked bread dough.”
Indeed, it was a harsh remark, for Dimitri, a boy with sparkling dark blond hair and sky-blue eyes, inherited the imperial bloodline.
“What did you just say?”
“Why? Whether it’s a sugar bag or dough, aren’t we cousins? Isn’t that right?”
Dimitri’s face was strangely distorted. While saying that they look alike since they are cousins wasn’t a bad thing, comparing him to dough was an entirely different matter.
“Oh, whether it’s dough or a sugar bag you need to choose a escort! You go outside often! Always going to the opera, buying some chocolate cake, and so on.”
“But when I go outside the palace, I’m always with Karnov anyway. Is there a knight in the empire who is stronger than Karnov?”
“That…”
Dimitri chewed his lips, and when he couldn’t bear the anger, he grumbled, but at Asha’s words saying, “Give me the heated cream,” he suppressed his anger and handed over the pot.
As the warm cream was poured into the pot full of brown syrup, a sizzling sound was heard, and steam rose steadily.
“Wow, what is this!”
“Stay calm, Dimitri, why are you so restless?”
“You’re really…”
Dimitri made a strange bubbling expression like boiling syrup, but Asha didn’t even raise her eyebrows and evenly poured the cream.
The caramel was completed when brown syrup was mixed with soft cream, boiled, and hardened. Asha, who laid paper on a square frame and poured the caramel in, busily searched for salt.
“Where is the salt bottle?”
“Isn’t it this?”
Dimitri pointed to a ceramic salt shaker that matched Asha’s kitchen. Asha shook her head and, after a while, found another salt shaker from the cupboard.
“Is this salt different from that salt?”
“Yes, this is the salt that Karnov brought from Lumen Vasilice. They found a salt mine.”
“…”
Dimitri’s expression distorted indignantly. Asha looked up as she gently sprinkled salt over the caramel before it had completely hardened.
“Dimitri, what’s wrong? Why are you acting like this?”
“I’m not acting like anything!”
“That’s not true.”
“Are you out of your mind to sprinkle salt on sweet things? Huh?”
“It’ll be different if you try it.”
“Whether I try it or not…”
“Oh! I suddenly remembered. ‘When Princess Anastasia was about ten years old, shortly after coming to the palace. Prince Dimitri, who ate cookies made by the little girl…’”
Asha recited dramatically, and Dimitri, with a face that seemed like he was about to scream, raised his arms as if to punch her. Asha burst into laughter.
“You said you wouldn’t talk about that time!”
“Huh? When?”
“From now on!”
“Okay, okay.”
“All right, all right.”
With a look of a child being appeased, Dimitri made a pouting face and was about to form a fist, but he noticed the remaining sugar on his palm and quickly wiped it off.
“That…”
“Yeah?”
As Asha, who had filled the square mold with caramel, contemplated where to cool it down, Dimitri opened his mouth a little hesitantly.
“You, um… Father is soon going to bring in a tremendous… amount of fabric from the south.”
“Wow, really? Dimitri, are you going to wear a nice coat this winter?”
“Oh, that’s not it. Well… well, if you want one too, come along.”
“Where to? Dimitri’s place?”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“Maybe around early winter?”
“Oh, can I go a little later? That’s when I go to Lake Bishti.”
“Oh…”
Dimitri looked like he blamed himself, but quickly hid it. In the palace, ‘Lake Bishti’ was not much different from the term ‘Asha’s mom and dad.’
“Oh, no. Then, let’s really bring an escort this time! The journey is long too.”
Dimitri shouted for no reason, trying to turn the conversation. Asha smiled with a satisfied expression.
“That’s okay, Dimitri. Even if there’s not an escort, a knight from the order will come with us. And Karnov will come too. Nothing to worry about~!”
Dimitri, hearing those words, made a teary-eyed expression.
“That darn Karnov, Karnov…”
“What?”
Asha opened her eyes wide.
“You, you! I’m worried like this, and every time you talk, it’s just Karnov, Karnov!”
“Oh, no… What do you mean, Karnov is always brought up? I was just saying that Karnov is okay because of his spirit…”
“You won’t go to the opera or Lake Bishti with me!”
“You only sleep when you go to the opera!”
“Do you like Karnov Neustadter that much?”
“What, what?”
“I’m your cousin, and he’s just a man! Why are you closer to Karnov than to me?!”
“No… Dimitri…”
Asha was stunned and reached for Dimitri, but as his face turned red, Dimitri, who seemed to have tears in his eyes, turned around and ran away from Asha’s kitchen.
“Di… mitri? Dimitri! Where else would you find cousins who get along so well! You fool!”
Asha squealed from the empty kitchen.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“… So, that’s how this ‘outing’ was organized?”
“I really don’t know what the problem was…”
The special compartment of the newly completed train was splendid, even the corridor was adorned. The walls were covered with elegant silk wallpaper, and the glass on the windows was engraved with geometric patterns. The inside of the special compartment was even more luxurious. However, Asha was now standing in the corridor, leaning against the wall, burying her face in her hands and murmuring.
To soothe Dimitri, who was sulking, she asked him to accompany her on an autumn trip to Lake Bishti with her. She thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea for him to meet her parents since he was their nephew.
Since Dimitri was going, Ilya decided to come too. Natalya, Asha’s best friend, also joined in, saying that she should say hello to Asha’s parents. Coincidentally, Lyudmila, who happened to be there, expressed her desire to join as well.
“That’s why they call you a plum that’s fallen from grace.”
“Karnov! Really…”
This time, Asha’s words trailed off. Thanks to this, the inside of the room was almost like a market. They booked each person’s room, but one by one, they came to Asha’s room and did not leave.
Feeling suffocated, Asha had managed to escape just a while ago, claiming that she needed some fresh air. She pulled her long pink hair, gripping it with both hands and biting her lips.
“How surprised will Mom and Dad be?”
“No matter how surprised they may be, they won’t be as surprised as when you first went down.”
“At that time…”
It was a day when there were only two chairs at home… Asha murmured nostalgically. Karnov spread Asha’s fingers one by one, releasing the grip on her hair, and then swept it down, smoothing it with his hands.
“Is my hair a mess?”
“It’s like a burst bag of flour.”
“…”
“The princess’s compartment is even more like a burst bag of flour.”
“I can’t deny that…”
As a result, they couldn’t fully enjoy the lingering feelings of the train ride this time. Asha, leaning against the wall where her back touched, looked silently at the rapidly passing scenery outside the corridor window.
This year, due to the lack of rain, the once-dry autumn leaves swiftly approached and then receded, sketching a pattern. As they were absorbed in it, the noise inside the compartment was somewhat diluted. Karnov, standing next to Asha in the corridor, quietly spoke.
“But it’s not bad that it’s noisy, right?”
“…It’s like a picnic together.”
“Then it’s settled. It’s like a group outing. It’s a pity that Alexei is left alone in the palace. He must be sulking a lot.”
“After coming back, I’ll have tea time with Alyosha every morning.”
“If you’re matching Alexei’s time, wouldn’t that be early in the morning? It would be more like dawn. Can you get up?”
“I have to… Phoebe said she would wake me up…”
After eating five salted caramels brought by Asha, Phoebe was full and sleeping sweetly, occupying Karnov’s room alone.
“It’s fortunate that Olga built a big mansion from the beginning. It would have been troublesome if there were only two beds at home.”
In response to Asha’s murmuring, Karnov agreed with a low, laughter-filled voice, saying, “That’s right.” The two of them leaned against each other, and the train, creaking, headed toward Lake Bishti beyond the distant mountains and fields.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
Although many more people than the usual number of people who came every year arrived, Irina and Yuriev welcomed the young guests with bright faces without showing surprise.
Even for those accustomed to a luxurious life on the island, the mansion by the beautiful lake seemed exceptionally exquisite. Especially Dimitri and Ilya, despite greeting their uncle and aunt for the first time with the utmost politeness, blushed from ear to ear, seemingly embarrassed for some reason.
“But Asha…”
Natalya, who had finished touring the mansion, stood by the window and spoke to Asha.
“Isn’t that person playing the harp outside the one who arrived first? Why does he keep playing the harp outside? Isn’t it cold?”
“Oh…”
Asha looked at Arten, who has been playing the harp in the backyard since a while ago, with a face mixed with sadness and laughter. Arten, who usually came to Lake Bishti around this season before Asha, seemed surprised by the unexpected arrival of a large group of high-ranking nobles and the appearance of the imperial grandchildren.
However, even if he was surprised, given his experience playing at the imperial court dances, he could quickly compose himself. But Ilya offered to listen to Arten who was bringing down the harp from upstairs…
“That person sometimes… sometimes likes playing outside. Very occasionally…”
