However, no one listened to Asha’s words. To be precise, they couldn’t listen, largely due to the ominous gaze of the emperor. Eventually, Asha shrugged her shoulders and resigned herself to the care of the healers, letting her strength slip away.
“Oh well. If you insist it’s fine… Fine, do as you wish.”
Though Asha’s boldness towards the healers faded as Lise noticed a faint scar that remained on Asha’s shoulder.
At that moment, it seemed like the color drained from the faces of everyone in the office, including Asha.
The healers awkwardly reassured her of her health, stumbling over their words except for mentioning that trace of a scar. Asha quickly covered the wound with her clothing and ushered the people out of the room.
After Lise and the healers had all escaped, where there was only a cold silence, Asha first took out the list she had put in her pocket and spoke quickly.
“The cat went on a rampage, and I thought it might get better if I grabbed it, so I got a little hurt while trying to touch it. Kar… I just have a feeling that my injury was exaggerated by His Grace, Duke Sedvoyer!”
“…”
The emperor didn’t say anything, but Asha could still tell. How could she not, with this oppressive lilac current filling the room? The emperor let out a deep sigh and sank heavily into the chair in his office, seeming weary. A gentle breeze fluttered in.
<The old thing keeps me awake at night worrying about you.>
“Don’t talk nonsense, Shamal.”
The sound of the wind died down, but Asha’s hair was still floating. The emperor sighed briefly and said.
“Your cousins and friends were worried when they heard of the events in the north. Marchioness Tataricha has even gone so far as to enter the duke’s residence in the capital.”
“Oh…”
“Marquis Oleg’s eldest daughter also sent several letters. Worrying at a distance seems to be nonsense.”
Lyudmila, who briefly went south for business, did not appear to have returned to the capital yet. Asha clutched and unclutched her collar with both hands as she listened to the emperor’s story. The emperor spoke with forced sternness, as if reprimanding her.
“How can you be so careless?”
“It was really just a little scratch. It stung because it was a cat, but I’ll be fine.”
“…Didn’t you have plans regarding Baron and Baroness Yasnaya?”
“Well… If I say I had no such intention, that would be a lie, but I didn’t do it on purpose. Really.”
The emperor, who was staring at Asha, sighed deeply and held out his hand.
“What are you holding onto? Show it here.”
“Ah! I wrote this for my grandfather.”
“What is it?”
Asha held out a piece of paper that looked like a note. The emperor, who slowly unfolded the half-folded paper, hiding his inward amusement, first widened and then narrowed his eyes. Realizing she had made a mistake, Asha pursed her lips.
“G, Grandfather, that is.”
“Now this…”
“I thought you might scold me…”
“You’re writing up exonerations for the people involved because you’re afraid I’ll scold you?!”
Asha, who shrank quietly at the sound of the emperor shouting, smiled and nodded. The emperor laid down the note written by Asha on the desk and sighed. The air in the room swirled violently as the wind roared with laughter.
Knight who is good at carrying out orders, where they were at the time and therefore not responsible for the incident; knight who, well behaved, and therefore…
Rereading the note, the emperor frowned and furrowed his brow as if he had a headache, then said in a rueful tone.
“The interested parties were so worried that they even wrote down confessions, but aren’t you worried about the others worrying about you?”
Asha hesitated for a moment. She was aware that she had been loved and cared for without any shortage since she was very young. Even after coming to the palace, although there were initial bumps, it had eventually come to this.
The fact that the emperor sent knights all the way to the train station and had three healers waiting in his office left no doubt that he cared for her wellbeing.
Seeing others’ emotions within that love, she had never made any serious mistakes, even if there were minor ones.
That had been the case until now.
“S…”
Asha’s words barely left her lips, and the emperor’s eyes narrowed. Asha tried to calm her agitated face.
“I’m sorry… I was wrong, I’ll be careful.”
“…”
“Why, why are you looking at me like that?”
The emperor blinked and turned his head.
“Your behavior is becoming more reckless by the day.”
“I’m not lying, I was sincerely apologizing!”
Asha cried out in exasperation, then her shoulders sagged. The emperor, who had turned his head, seemed somewhat placated.
“What did you do wrong? Did you hurt yourself on purpose?”
“No, that’s not it. I’m sorry for causing worry…”
“How can you say you’re sorry so easily when you didn’t do it on purpose! You’re a princess!”
This time, Asha also made an indignant face. The wind swayed again.
<Haha. You apologize and it still weighs on your mind.>
Asha pursed her lips, but she couldn’t just jerk her chin up and say she was sorry!
“You’ve shaken the hearts of the elders to their core.”
“Ah… I’ll be really careful from now on. I won’t worry you.”
“If something like this happens again, you won’t leave the palace for a month. Understand?”
“All right, I understand.”
“Alexei couldn’t sleep because of his concern.”
“Oh…”
“You thought I’d be the end of it, you clever thing, but Alexei won’t let you get off as easily as I did.”
The emperor relaxed, as if he had finally been relieved. Asha stared at him with a tearful expression, but the emperor only laughed.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“You’re not saying anything, Karnov.”
When Karnov called a servant to fill the empty teapot, Alexei, who was opposite, said lightly as if he suddenly remembered.
Karnov swallowed dryly through his burning throat and glanced at Alexei. Alexei remained silent until he had emptied the teapot.
“Hmph. I was waiting for Your Highness to speak.”
“Were you?”
“I was.”
Silence followed, and in the meantime, the servant brought a teapot. As soon as the servant filled the empty teacup, Karnov took a sip of tea and sighed briefly.
“You’ve been through a lot, Karnov.”
“It’s my fault… isn’t it?”
“There was a lot going on in the north. I heard you got injured. I’ve heard it’s gotten a little better.”
“It’s been quite a while since I recovered.”
“Then I guess the reason you haven’t returned sooner was because Asha’s wound hadn’t healed.”
“…”
It would have been frustrating even between friends to call someone over and not speak for so long, but Karnov didn’t make any excuses. It seemed he understood the implicit reproach from Alexei, accepting responsibility without saying a word.
Karnov was silent with a heavy expression. Suddenly, Alexei looked amused.
“Hmm. No matter how much you try, Asha can’t be your responsibility yet. Her safety is my responsibility, even if I’m far away.”
“…Hmm.”
“Still, I’m angry that you didn’t take better care of her, Duke Sedvoyer, when you knew she was such a brat.”
“I won’t blame you if you can’t forgive me, Your Royal Highness.”
“Phew. But if I don’t really forgive you, my sister might sulk, so come on.”
Only then did the atmosphere between the two become somewhat softer. Alexei also sipped the tea he had left in his cup.
“I’m sure she was stubborn, so I can’t blame you for that.”
“If you can’t blame me, will you handle it in another way?”
The real cause of Asha’s injury was exiled to a distant island, and they were never allowed to leave the said island. They had confiscated all the property and land they had tried to guard, distributed it to orphanages, and since no servant could use the work, they had to survive on their own for the rest of the time.
For a man who had spent his life drunk on himself as a great nobleman, this was more unbearable than anything else.
“Actually, Asha’s mind is not much different from mine.”
Alexei smiled softly. It was a matter of course because they were two people who knew each other before Asha.
Some relationships thrived in what the other lacked. Karnov and Alexei understood each other better because they lost the same thing in different ways.
Alexei has always wanted to clean up the shady and dark debris that occupied his friend’s empty space, to clear the way for something brighter and more beautiful.
“Is that why your grandfather offered my grandmother the position of Imperial Investigator?”
“General Yekaterina was very willing. I wonder what Asha said in her letter.”
“I could have handled it…”
“Asha didn’t want you to.”
May their ending not be interpreted as a son’s heartless vengeance.
May anyone be able to show everyone their obvious sins.
May Karnov no longer be subjected to cruel modifiers that were not true.
That’s what Asha wanted. Karnov lowered his eyes. He couldn’t stop the smile from tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“Hmm. You shouldn’t be smiling already, Duke Sedvoyer.”
“…I’ll correct it.”
Karnov coughed in vain. Alexei smiled.
“Next time it happens, you’ll have to take a day off work, Duke.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
“‘This sort of thing’ includes your injuries.”
Karnov pursed his lips for a moment, unable to hide the softening of his eyes before he replied.
“…I will keep that in mind as well.”
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
The tea table on the terrace that opened onto the garden was set with teapots and teacups, a small brazier to heat the teapots, and a simple square of fragrant cake. The cake had been baked in a hurry by Asha as soon as her meeting with the emperor was over.
After baking the apples in the oven for an hour, she grated them all and whisked them with egg whites, fine sugar, and honey until stiff and creamy.
It was completed by applying a thin layer of apple jam and cream between the sheets baked for more than an hour at a low temperature and cutting them neatly.
It was a cool fall night, and there was a small ceramic stove in front of Asha that she could hold in her hands. Asha wrapped her hands around the long-extinguished flame and thought about what to say. The grasshoppers in the garden chirped merrily, and in the distance, the stars rose in full glory.
“Karnov… Did he go back?”
“Yeah. He’s been away from the mansion in the capital for a long time.”
Asha swallowed her dry saliva. As the sun went down, she went to Alexei, and Alexei didn’t scold her after repeatedly checking Asha’s safety with a friendly expression. Although he enjoyed the cake she made.
‘I thought Alexei and Fafnir might have talked by the time we got to the capital.’
<What… I didn’t think he’d ever think of burning a man in a fit of rage.>
‘That’s true.’
<When calculating the price you’re going to have to pay, you have to be objective.>
Asha swallowed her dry saliva. It wasn’t meant to imply that…
“After going north, our pea has become half a pea. I can’t let you go twice.”
“Not a pea, but a kidney bean…”
Asha added in a small voice. Alexei chuckled softly.
“Grandfather was very worried.”
“And I got in so much trouble.”
If Alexei were burning as fiercely as the emperor, Asha would quickly apologize, but Alexei just smiled kindly.
That’s not to say he didn’t worry. The lilac air currents emanating from him were almost suffocating.
“Still, I hear you reward your knights with leave and jewels, and I hear you’ve been writing up some pretty impressive confessions.”
“If they get scolded for something like this, all the knights will hate me.”
“How dare they?”
Alexei’s words made Asha purse her lips, but she didn’t answer. When she reached for the teapot to break the ice, Alexei frowned and squeezed her hand.
“Asha, why are your hands cold? Did the fire in the stove go out?”
“T, the fire went out just a moment ago… I forgot to call someone.”
It was the moment when Asha said so and quickly gestured to her servant. In the small ceramic stove that had burned out the candles, flames erupted with a very small sound of ‘tap’.
