“How dare you misunderstand my intentions and try to snatch my wine bottle so easily?”
“Misunderstand?”
“Didn’t you think I intended to use you for a marriage alliance with the Kirelete royal family?”
“Grandfather, did you really think I even remotely considered that? Really? Seriously?”
The girl squinted and looked at Mikhail with her hands on her waist. Mikhail grew angry.
“I didn’t! I’ve learned very well over the past few years that you’d devour me if I did.”
“Really?”
“If I did, would you be the only one? Alexei would be ready to inherit the throne tomorrow.”
Thinking about my brotherlike cousin, the girl looked embarrassed for no reason and wiggled only her fingertips.
“Hmm. What if I told you to marry that prince?”
The girl opened her eyes wide.
“I thought you didn’t even think about it.”
“If, I said if.”
The girl crossed her arms and squinted.
“That’s just you being tricky again. Grandfather, if you want me to do something, you should say it directly. Like, ‘I want you to do this and that.’ That’s how it should be. Even Uncle Valery always grumbles when he sees me. He never just says he wants to play with me.”
“It’s my fault again, right?”
“Don’t you think so too?”
The girl crossed her arms and spoke with a serious look, as if discussing a serious agenda. The emperor, who was holding the bottle and making a stern expression, eventually burst into laughter and brought his granddaughter closer. The girl approached with a smile, perhaps thinking he was handing over the alcohol. The emperor spoke slowly to the girl.
“…Live your life as you wish.”
“Yes?”
The girl opened her eyes wide. Mikhail stretched out his granddaughter’s hand and held the bottle, repeating the same thing.
“Live however you want, do whatever you want.”
Mikhail had learned over many years that some lights dim when you try to grasp them, while others go out when you try to confine them.
The girl blinked and looked at the emperor.
“What, marry into the Kirelete royal family? You think I’d make you go there and do the empire’s bidding? I know better than anyone in the empire that I can’t control the kingdom from there.”
What gain would there be if she shed tears because of forcing herself to marry someone she didn’t want? What good would it do if she were given flowers instead of doing what she wanted, only for the flowers to wither, just like her? Even if your life seems to shine brightly and brilliantly under a special sun, how can you not know that the sun is actually made up of small fireflies…
The small light of fireflies, which is neither warm nor bright, looks private. It seems like a waste to pay for something else important.
When you open your eyes after killing fireflies one by one, you realize that the sun is gone and you are in the dark.
Without light, gold and silver treasures lose their sparkle, and honor and power are only huge and hideous lumps in the dark once until all light is extinguished.
“You’ve been wandering around looking at pastry shops, and now you act surprised that I know?”
Once the sun has been extinguished, there is no turning back. Broken cups cannot be refitted, and wilted petals cannot be revived. People used to call it a miracle when dead flowers were revived and broken cups reconnected.
Mikhail decided to cherish only that miracle; that he would no longer stifle his tiny fireflies, which again set his sun ablaze.
“Oh… you knew I was looking at pastry shops?”
“How could I not?”
“Ah! Karnov said he would report everything.”
While the girl roamed the palace as she pleased, Karnov Neustadter did not. He meticulously investigated every time he accompanied the girl, reporting back with details about the time, the destination, and all the specifics of that destination. The girl might not know that much.
The emperor wasn’t sure how the girl had taken his words about living as she wished, but looking at her smiling back at him, he was certain. She had understood and accepted his heart without any misunderstanding.
The gentle breeze wrapped around the two of them.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
Viscount Lorenzo Loreza, the envoy of the delegation from the Kingdom of Kirelete, looked at Prince Nothea with a pained expression. Prince Nothea, who had eaten too much at dinner, laid down by the window, drinking a potion to aid digestion.
“Wow, I thought you were some kind of newborn dragon, Your Highness.”
“Huh? Why, there was no need to exaggerate just because I might be king.”
“I’ve never seen it before, but if the description is accurate, a baby dragon must be quite voracious when born.”
“…”
Prince Nothea briefly silenced at Lorenzo’s words and then raised an eyebrow.
“No… I didn’t mean it like that. You would’ve thought the same if you saw. The imperial princess was blinking her green eyes, saying how delicious it was…”
Prince Nothea protested with a disgruntled expression. Lorenzo didn’t bat an eyelid. The prince let out a groan of anguish.
“Actually, the recommendation was really delicious. I was quite surprised. Doesn’t our kingdom excel in cooking? But here, the taste is truly eye-opening. So I ate one by one…”
At Lorenzo’s disbelief, Prince Nothea stopped making excuses.
“You even messed up the first impression, now you’re starting to look like a gluttonous prince.”
“Why are you singling me out like that? The other royals there ate well too. And it seems like the imperial princess also likes someone who eats well.”
“Does she?”
“I hope so…”
Lorenzo sighed deeply at Prince Nothea’s senseless murmur.
“We only have about a week, so I didn’t have high expectations. It would be nice if I could become friends with Princess Anastasia.”
“But that alone won’t do anything.”
“That’s right. We have to tread carefully, considering our lives.”
The prince chuckled wryly and stroked his neck.
“I must say, trains are nice. If it wasn’t for that, I would have been killed three or four times by you.”
With the speed and limited number of passengers, traveling by train was much safer than traveling a long distance by carriage.
“Can’t we develop that ourselves?”
Lorenzo gave a wistful smile.
“Unfortunately, our kingdom lacks technology, capital, and manpower…”
Upon hearing that, the prince also laughed as if he had heard a bitter joke. But Lorenzo saw a different dream in the prince’s eyes. That was the reason he volunteered to be part of this congratulatory envoy.
Prince Nothea, who had told him to bring more blankets because the weather in the empire was cold, calmly gathered his thoughts and sighed as if he was exhaling.
“But from what I see, marriage is completely off the table. Somehow I didn’t think the invitation had any hint of that.”
“Why? Do you think the emperor won’t give up the imperial princess at all? Or maybe the prince will sweep the banquet table like a baby dragon?”
“The princess has no intention. Absolutely none.”
Listening to Lorenzo’s last words, the prince pressed his thumb and forefinger against his temples. Lorenzo sighed.
“Ha… I only believed in my prince’s handsome appearance.”
“What can I do? My beauty doesn’t work.”
“That princess is a real golden egg. She has considerable assets herself. She’s also on intimate terms with Baroness Saratov, who seems to have made a contract with the Spirit of Gold, and now seeing her affection from the emperor and the imperial prince is extraordinary…”
Although he was a prince of Kirelete, it wasn’t as if he had no cards to show. But if the other party had no interest in his cards, he couldn’t just force it on them. The most certain way was to win the favor of the parties involved…
“She doesn’t even have a bit of interest in me. Shall I flutter my feathers like a peacock in front of her?”
“…”
“I was joking. Don’t take it seriously.”
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“Nothea Kirelete. Nineteen years old. Inherited the distinctive red hair and deep green eyes of the Kirelete royal family…”
“It seemed like he was already in his twenties, but he’s only nineteen.”
“…His brother is Crown Prince Luthor Kirelete… It seems that the battle for the throne is quite fierce. They say he’s quite different from the Kirelete crown prince.”
“Ah~!”
Asha’s expression showed understanding. As Lyudmila brought up the topic, she looked at Asha with a serious expression, hiding her concern.
“It’s not ‘Ah~!’ I said the competition was fierce. In such a situation, how reassuring would it be to marry the imperial princess of the empire?”
“With me?”
“So this… … Let’s bring something like this!”
Lyudmila pointed to the stacked boxes. Baroness Saratov, who was watching while opening the lid of the boxes, flinched.
“To win His Highness’s favor with these!”
It was Asha’s idea that Lyudmila and Baroness Saratov would be in Asha’s room together today.
It was because she thought it would be good to talk with Baroness Saratov about the distribution of Lyudmila’s fabric, but the two who visited her actually started talking about something different.
Baroness Saratov’s eyes shone at the items and chests sent from the Kirelete Kingdom, while Lyudmila even knew the shoe size of Prince Nothea. Asha cleared her throat and quickly changed the subject.
“Oh, that’s right. Now that I think about it, this story is interesting. It’s a bestseller in the Kingdom of Kirelete these days. ‘The Queen of Darkness and the Bastard of the Moon.’”
“What? Really. Bringing such impure literature!”
“Oh, no. Don’t judge it just by the title, Lyuda. Wouldn’t a writer have to sell books to make a living? They might have had no choice because they had to be able to catch the reader’s attention at first sight.”
Lyudmila sighed deeply at Asha’s words. Asha continued, regardless.
“And surprisingly, the content was quite decent. It’s about the Queen of Darkness living in the snowy mountains falling in love with a human. It was really heart-wrenching. I even cried a little while reading…”
Lyudmila spoke hard with an expression that said that she would not be deceived by Asha’s futile trick.
“You said he held your hand and kissed you several times on the first meeting, right? It’s obvious that it’s a ploy to attract your attention!”
“The back of my hand is like a lobby to greet everyone.”
Asha stopped trying to speak and reached out to Lyudmila with a bashful smile.
“Lyuda, hand.”
“What?”
“Give me your hand.”
Lyudmila, faltering, reached out her hand to Asha. Asha tapped her own hand against Lyudmila’s palm three times, saying, “Mwah mwah mwah!”
“With this, Lyuda has greeted Prince Nothea!”
“Y,Y, Your Highness! How can you behave so recklessly as a princess of the nation!”
“Kyaa~!”
Asha stepped away from the tea table and ran toward the corner.
