“At first I didn’t think we’d need a special compartment on the train.”
Asha glanced behind her at Natalya, who was jumping up and down, and at Dimitri, who was walking fast to match Natalya’s pace and then eventually running.
Then Karnov smiled and reached out his hand at what she said in a rather exhausted voice. Asha clasped his hand and trudgingly got off the train.
When Asha announced that she was going to pick up Lyudmila, Natalya naturally agreed, and Ilya and Dimitri, who had finished their studies, said they would come with her. They couldn’t leave their accident-prone cousin alone. Asha wasn’t sure who was taking care of whom, but she didn’t say so.
“I wonder what we would have done if it wasn’t a private compartment.”
“It would have been like combining two rooms into one, physically speaking…”
“Right? Natasha…”
From a distance, Natasha waved her hand as the knights checked the prepared carriages and opened the doors for them. Unlike the usual trips to Lake Bishti, they had arrived at a completely unfamiliar place, and Natalya looked around with wide-eyed curiosity.
“It’s not very cold in Rokta, even in midwinter.”
Asha lifted the deer-shaped earmuffs covering her ears slightly in response to Natalya’s comment, but Karnov quickly covered them again with his hand.
“Don’t listen to Natalya. The weather is cold. Keep those earmuffs on, Your Highness.”
Asha obediently followed Karnov’s words, even though she pouted. Natalya, finding winter clothing cumbersome, had opted for thick trousers with long socks.
“Hmm. I could have come alone to pick up Lyuda.”
“You think you could handle taking care of both Lady Natalya and Prince Dimitri, Your Highness?”
“…Thank you for coming with me, Duke Sedvoyer.”
“You’re welcome, Your Highness.”
As they climbed into the carriage, Dimitri and Ilya stared out the window.
Rokta, nestled by Rokta Bay, was a region where temperatures rarely dropped below freezing even in winter, making it difficult to see snow. Unlike the capital, the houses there were built with white walls topped with orange roofs, and most people wore light coats, often with just a single scarf or even none at all.
“Asha, they say the fish dishes here are really good. Have you heard about it?”
“Ugh. I don’t like fish. They smell.”
“I’m talking to Asha?”
As Dimitri and Natalya bickered, the carriage smoothly glided into the city. Asha, missing Shunivalen, whom she had left with Alexei, was feeling a bit nostalgic. The two bickering companions were louder than even cats. Ilya gave Asha a wistful look and nodded.
“I heard the pasta with clams is really delicious. The hotel where Lyuda is staying is famous for it. Shall we go try it too?”
“I don’t want to.”
Dimitri grumbled at Asha’s words, but Natalya smiled brightly and nodded as if she could not hear him. As the carriage arrived in front of the hotel, the staff, visibly nervous, stood in a formal row.
‘I told them not to do that.’
‘If we stop them, the hotel owner will cry.’
‘Sigh…’
The hotel owner, dressed in an expensive suit and ready to greet them, seemed to radiate starlight with his gaze. Instantly recognizing who among them held the highest status, he launched into a grandiose explanation of the hotel’s history and advantages while guiding them inside.
Asha gave the enthusiastic hotel owner some kind words and then entered the spacious room. Even though each of them had been assigned separate rooms, they all gathered in Asha’s room as if by appointment.
“What room did Lyuda say she was in? 307?”
“Yes, room 307.”
“He says she didn’t even go out today, and she didn’t even come out when it was this noisy. Something must have happened.”
“It’s because you didn’t tell her you were coming.”
“If I say it for no reason, of course she would have told me not to come.”
Asha said so and said with a determined face.
“I’ll talk to Lyuda and come back, so you guys…”
“Let’s go together! That’s why we came all the way here.”
For the first time, Dimitri nodded at Natalya’s words. Ilya rose to his feet and placed his hand on the doorknob.
When Asha gave him a look of helplessness, Karnov held out his hand to her. And they all strode majestically across the hotel hallway, arriving in front of room 307.
Bam!
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
As Natalya and Lyudmila sat side by side, ice packs pressed to their foreheads, catching their breath, Lyudmila’s maids bustled about, bringing out teapots and tea.
“Are you both all right?”
“Oh, I’m fine. I… I was careless, I’m sorry, Natasha. Are you okay?”
Natalya nodded with a stiff expression and took the ice pack off slightly. Asha looked at Natalya’s forehead and quickly pressed the ice pack back down.
Lyudmila had gotten the news from the maid a step too late, so she rushed out of the room at the same time Natalya, who had been in the forefront, slammed her forehead into the door, and Lyudmila, who had been trying to get out of the room, also slammed her forehead into the door as Natalya shoved it open in surprise.
After the almost-warlike commotion had passed, for a moment, Lyudmila could not even lift her reddened face.
Asha glanced around quickly. There were papers strewn about, though they were organized, until they came to the parlor off Lyudmila’s room.
“B, But, how did you get here? Is something wrong?”
“There is.”
“If it’s something I can help with…”
“I came here because I was worried about you. You didn’t come back to the capital even while I was away at Karnov’s.”
At first, Lyudmila didn’t seem to understand Asha’s words, but later opened her eyes wide. Then, she turned redder than when she hit her forehead on the door.
“Me? You came all the way here to see me?”
“Yes, I came because I missed you.”
“Why… Why?”
“We came because we missed you.”
It was Natalya who gave Lyudmila’s maid her forehead with her arms crossed who spoke coyly. The maid, carefully applying an ice pack to Natalya’s forehead, inadvertently smiled with satisfaction.
Soon, Lyuda’s eyes also turned red. Struggling to hold back her tears, Lyuda drank the tea she had just poured with such haste that she didn’t even notice it was burning hot. It was the fastest she had ever drunk tea in her life.
“I-I was going to come up soon. I’m sorry for the delay and the trouble it caused. Sin…”
“Even if you were going to come up soon, I would have come. We could have met halfway.”
Lyudmila’s lower lashes were a little wet. Asha quietly observed Lyuda, noticing that she seemed a bit worn out. Lyuda had never been particularly robust, and it was even more evident now.
“What happened? Why didn’t you come back? Did the contract not go well?”
Asha asked calmly, and Lyuda hesitated for a moment before slowly beginning to explain. The contract they had initially intended to finalize had seemed smooth until their meeting. However, it turned out there had been a misunderstanding.
The other had heard “high-quality fabric” and naturally assumed it would be some special type of silk, and intended to pursue a deal if it was the trending silk from the empire. However, upon inspection, it turned out to be not silk but flax. Since the counterpart was a high-ranking noble, they couldn’t refuse the deal outright and were prepared to go through with it reluctantly.
Given Lyuda’s character, she couldn’t proceed with such a contract if she knew, so she decided to terminate the deal cleanly.
“Even though it ended without major issues, why didn’t you return?”
“I didn’t want to come back empty-handed. So, I tried to talk to other merchants here…”
Although Lyuda’s first contract fell through, she wasn’t planning to leave with just that memory. Even in a strange place, she utilized her own efforts and the help of her maids to gather information, find places needing meticulously processed flax, and successfully negotiated with connected merchants.
“But…”
Halfway through the story, Lyudmila’s voice became quieter. Everyone leaned in and listened more closely. Lyudmila hesitated for a long moment before finally speaking.
“It didn’t… It didn’t go well.”
“Why didn’t it go well? What happened? Did they think about it and realize they didn’t need it?”
“They said they need it, but…”
Lyudmila stammered, unable to control the slight flush of shame, embarrassment, and humiliation on her face.
“We had a little argument, so…”
“What argument?”
Natalya asked, clenching her fists. If Lyudmila had lost a fight with words, she was ready to fight with her fists. Asha covered Natalya’s fist with her hand and locked eyes with Lyudmila. Lyudmila tilted her head slightly and sighed heavily.
“It wasn’t really an argument, they just said they wouldn’t honor the contract, and I… I made a mistake, and I shouldn’t have…”
“What mistake?”
Natalya asked again. Lyudmila bit her lips gently. Lyudmila seemed to want to hide her fault, but she finally came clean.
“I think I must have unintentionally looked down on the merchants. No, I did look down on them. It was my fault.”
“What? To think they argued with a high-ranking noble just because they were slighted!”
When Dimitri roared, Lyudmila shook her head. The wealthy, who enjoyed their affluence through inherited privileges, were slowly seeing those who had built something from nothing rise and make their presence known.
Lyuda had always believed she respected those who had built their fortunes and supported their families through commerce. However, she didn’t realize that respecting others meant understanding not only where they stood but also recognizing her own position.
“I haven’t achieved anything myself… I don’t even know why I came all the way here…”
Looking at those who were born with less wealth than the aristocrats, those who learned to write later than the aristocrats, but were now more intelligent, and she looked down on them, thinking that she had come all this way to make something of herself, just like them.
Dimitri’s anger subsided again. He seemed to come to terms with the situation after some thought, though he still grumbled, not entirely convinced.
“Still… if they say it’s not going to work out, then just come back.”
The merchants had politely expressed their difficulty in finalizing the contract and apologized. Lyuda, not realizing the full reason, almost returned to the empire.
“I didn’t want to do that.”
If she made a mistake, she wanted to correct it.
“Still, things are set up to be resolved. We agreed to a wager where if I win, we’ll go through with the deal. That’s scheduled for tomorrow.”
“What kind of wager did you agree to?”
At Asha’s question, Lyuda lowered her head.
“A game of Kerum. They said it’s a basic skill for nobility, so we decided to settle it with that…”
When Lyuda finished her almost-penitential confession and lifted her head, everyone in the room was looking at Asha.
