<Is this the third seed?>
The black chick that rose on Karnov’s shoulder said. The yellow chick sitting on Asha’s head also looked proud.
<You’re almost done.>
“After spitting it out, Lyuda’s complexion improved. But where should I plant this? It’s not right to plant it here, is it?”
“Are you going to start a legend all of a sudden?”
“That’s a bit much. Should we take it to the imperial palace and plant it there? Grandfather won’t object, and it would be nice for Alyosha to have a big tree.”
“That would be better.”
Asha nodded, smiled wryly, and held out another box. It was similar to the one she’d given Lyudmila.
“This is a gift for Lord Karnov, for coming with us this time.”
With a graceful motion, she picked up the ribbon and held out the flat box, and Karnov smiled, bent his arms, bowed, and took it.
“Oh, my, what a treat.”
“Eat it quickly. If it’s good, I’ll sell it in the store later.”
“It’s delicious.”
“Don’t be so polite without trying it.”
“No, I don’t have to try it to know.”
Karnov opened the box coolly while saying so. There were nine round chocolates inside. Karnov picked up the chocolate in the middle and took a bite. As the chocolate on the hard outer part was broken, he felt the soft and sweet taste inside.
“The filling inside is caramel, chocolate, apricot puree… and chopped apricots, and then I added a little bit of shasling wine. How is it? Is it… delicious? I’m glad.”
“You always know even when you tell me not to speak halfheartedly, Your Highness.”
“Your expression gives it all away. Ho ho ho.”
Karnov grumbled, but slowly savored the flavor of the chocolate. As he chewed through the hard outer chocolate, the slightly tart flavor of the apricots inside tickled his mouth, along with the creamy chocolate.
At the same time, the aroma that accompanied it, which he would describe as not at all sweet but wonderful, was unmistakably shaslings, and once it passed, the sweetness returned, starting with the hard chocolate on the outside. After finishing one, his mouth was left with a fragrant aroma without a hint of bitterness.
“Is it thirty-year-old shasling wine?”
“Yes! Since the chocolate is sweet, I used a strong, non-sweet wine for the flavor.”
“You’re really going to sell this in the shop?”
“Yes!”
“You’re saying you’ll be selling something made with thirty-year-old shasling wine in the shop so innocently? How much do you plan to make me work?”
“Ah… so it turns out that way?”
“‘So it turns out that way?’ You speak as if you didn’t know, Your Highness.”
“I–I’ll split the profits fairly. Really. Oh, and… we’ll draw up a contract too. Since Karnov’s power is so special, I’ll… I’ll…”
Karnov, who was listening to Asha speak urgently, flicked Asha’s bangs that had fallen across her forehead and laughed.
“I’m wealthy enough that I don’t need such things.”
“Hmph. Is money something that comes and goes for you, Karnov? My parents were wealthy until they were around twenty. But do you know what happened later? They had a pot with a hole in it, so they could only scoop out the solid bits from the soup.”
“…That sounds practical.”
“But our family’s soup didn’t have any solid bits.”
“…Anyway, the contract is settled.”
“Are you just trying to show off every time you make the wine?!”
“You’re remarkably sharp, Your Highness.”
The two continued to bicker playfully about the matter until Asha yawned. After arriving in Rokta after a long journey, playing a game of Kerum, and rushing back to the hotel to deal with the major event with Lyudmila, the fatigue finally caught up with her.
“Yawn.”
“Are you tired?”
“Seems like it a bit.”
Asha yawned again and rubbed her eyes.
“Would you like to go in and take a nap?”
“But Karnov would be bored.”
Karnov smiled slightly, shook his head, and jerked his head toward the bedroom.
“I’ll come to wake you up later in the evening. In the meantime, I’ll look around here, too. I couldn’t do anything because of the princess.”
“Tch.”
Asha grumbled, but followed Karnov’s lead and flopped down on the bed. As she pressed her cheek against the slightly cool sheets, drowsiness quickly overtook her, and she dreamed.
In the dream, “she” was meeting someone under the dark forest of the cold north. A man with an ordinary appearance smiled shyly. The hand of “herself” brushing his cheek was a deep color with a mysterious blue hue.
She glanced at a spring beside her. Looking down at the spring, she saw her own reflection. A woman with long, pointed ears and a face the same color as her hands. Though she had never seen her before, she seemed vaguely familiar.
“She” parted ways with the man and returned to her “home”. She greeted people with the same skin color and ears as hers. When night fell, she descended underground.
Deep underground, there was something sealed in five pieces. Since “she” would be in charge of it from now on, it wouldn’t matter if she touched it a bit early.
“She” took out one of the sealed items. It was a small seed, the size of a child’s pinky, emitting a black smoke. “She” stared at it for a long while as if mesmerized, then placed it in her mouth and swallowed it.
Now it was enough. This was the fruit of…
“…!”
Asha woke up with a start, her eyes puffy and hard to open from how long she’d napped. She rubbed the corners of her puffy eyes. No light shone through the curtains. It must be night already. Phoebe yawned lazily on her pillow and turned once.
<Did you wake up already? Small things need to sleep well to grow.>
“Phoebe, about that…”
Asha rubbed her eyes, and Phoebe stirred, yawning too.
<What’s wrong, did you have a nightmare?>
“No… I think I enjoyed the novel too much. I think I dreamed about it.”
<What was it? The Queen of Darkness and… Imperialism?>
“Ahhhh. Maybe it’s because the title is so long, but I can’t think of it when I try to recall it, right? The Queen of Darkness and the… Bastard? Bastard? The one I’m making into an opera. The rest of the dream is a blur, but…”
Asha stretched, and the door slid open.
“She’s probably still asleep, so if she comes out later, we can talk about it then.”
“But she might be awake, and I’d like to show her what I bought today.”
“Jeez.”
“Lyuda was awake when I went in.”
The main characters of the whispering voice were Natalya and Lyudmila. The excitement of the outing hadn’t worn off yet. Asha enjoyed the evening’s entertainment by sneaking under the covers and surprising her friends.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
The weather was mild on the day the guests who had visited Rokta left. Carafet, who had come to see them off, greeted Lyudmila and her friends individually and watched with a distant look as the carriages and playful children bustled about.
Among them, the most striking was a girl with pink hair cascading in waves. She had seemed fearsome when she shattered him at Kerum, but seeing her now brought a new sense of nostalgia. The girl, the princess, appeared to be the center of attention, with everyone circling around her.
Even Lyudmila, with her typically stern demeanor, displayed a softer side. She smiled gently while speaking to those around her and occasionally adopted a deliberately stern expression. Carafet noticed that what Lyudmila had to say was true, when she referred to them as “friends.”
“Thank you for the pleasant transaction.”
After talking properly with her friends, Lyudmila approached Carafet and greeted him gracefully. Carafet thought that Lyudmila’s demeanor was different when she was with her friends, but he chose not to mention it.
“This is a message from the princess. She wanted to say that she enjoyed her time here.”
Lyudmila looked a bit embarrassed when she said ‘enjoyed’. Carafet, who had lost to her in the game of Kerum, coughed and took the box Lyudmila offered. It was flat and small, with a ribbon tied around the top.
“It was handmade by the princess herself.”
Lyudmila sounded proud as she said it, as if she were bragging about her own accomplishment. Carafet thanked her sincerely.
It wasn’t until he heard that Lyudmila’s group had boarded the train that Carafet opened the box. After eating one of the chocolates inside, Carafet quickly ate two more and ran to the train station in Rokta. Even though he knew it was useless.
At the train station in Rokta, he was greeted by empty tracks where the train had already left.
“I should have signed a contract with her.”
Carafet lamented as he looked down at the box of chocolates.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
The cold days quickly thawed, and after a season of flowers and light, a season of sunsets and snow, they came full circle to the tip of spring.
One day, with summer just around the corner, Asha was pouring trimmed strawberries into a large pot. The fruits harvested at the end of the season were bright red as if they had exhausted their last efforts.
Next to her, Pavel poured sugar in time to the beat.
“Ah! Does that tree bear any fruit?”
“Ah, that?”
“Yes.”
Last year, there was a lot of talk about the large tree that suddenly appeared in the courtyard of Taimir Palace. However, it was concluded that “the princess, who cherishes the crown prince, must have brought and transplanted a rare tree overnight.”
Although Asha claimed it was for Alexei, people only laughed it off.
“That… The fruit… Well, I don’t know. I feel like if it bears fruit, something bad will happen.”
Asha muttered as she gently shook the strawberry pot.
“Are you making jam with this?”
“Yes, the premiere is in three days. I was thinking of giving some to the actors and staff.”
The opera based on <The Queen of Darkness and the Bastard of the Moon> was finally ready to open after several successful rehearsals.
“I’m nervous because the original creator is coming to see it. I’m curious about what kind of person they are. I heard she’s an elderly lady.”
As Asha started to simmer the strawberries, which had been soaked in sugar, she briefly thought about Karnov but shook her head. It was already quite a task to help with making the wine; she couldn’t ask him to handle such personal matters. Alexei was not free to go to the opera this time, so Karnov decided to accompany her instead.
The mixture of strawberries and sugar began to bubble vigorously. The pot was so large that Asha had to stand on a stool, holding the wooden spatula with both hands as she stirred.
She skimmed off the foam as the red juice drained from the strawberries, then added the lemon juice as the red color returned. The sweet and sour strawberry scent wafted through the kitchen.
Even Lise joined her as she portioned it into glass jars.
“I’ll give you some, Pavel. You can spread it on bread. Give some to Alyosha with snacks too, okay? I’m worried because he seems very busy these days.”
The clear glass jars of red fruit jam were filled, and the lids were screwed on. Pavel nodded hastily, tasting the hot jam that remained at the bottom of the pot.
“Yes, I’ll do a good job, don’t worry.”
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
Princess Anastasia, who turned nineteen this year, came to the opera theater with her wavy pink hair piled high with pearls, and was now clapping while sobbing.
At her side was Duke Sedvoyer, who was there on behalf of Alexei, who held out his handkerchief to her with a wry smile.
“Ah, this opera was also very good, wasn’t it? The worldbuilding was a bit unfamiliar, but I suppose it makes sense with the Noctis Elves.”
“Right? I’ve read the original novel, and the opera was adapted very well.”
“It was the princess who decided to turn it into an opera, right? She has such a good eye for these things. The profits must be immense.”
“There hasn’t been a failed opera among those she selected.”
“Oh, now that you mention it, that’s true.”
“Phew. The princess can even produce operas like this, and our children…”
“Still, they’ve grown up enough now that I can come to the opera without worrying. When they were younger, I was always anxious about whether they’d tear out the nurse’s hair while I was briefly away.”
“Oh, you had five nurses…”
“Well, they all left with smiles. It’s just that an unavoidable circumstance came up, and it was regrettable to part ways.”
“Unavoidable circumstance…”
“Ah! That must be the original author.”
The chattering nobles pointed to one side. An old woman with slightly tanned skin, short stature, and shabby yet somehow well-dressed clothes was greeting Princess Anastasia.
“She doesn’t look like someone who writes such provocative stories. It’s intriguing.”
“I heard she’s from the Kirelete Kingdom. She looks more like someone from the empire, though.”
“The people of the kingdom and the people of the empire all look the same, can you tell?”
“If you have a keen eye, you can notice subtle differences.”
“Speaking of differences, isn’t the princess’s bodyguard the most distinct? I used to think he was just very tanned, but as he grew up, he turned out to be quite unique…”
“Does the princess have a hobby of collecting mystical things since she was young?”
“Doesn’t he give off a vibe similar to the Queen of Darkness’s clan? Ah! Maybe that’s why she chose this one?”
“Careful with your comments. You might end up causing a stir.”
The nobles quickly covered their mouths and started clapping. However, another noble grumbled.
“It’s not just us who are intrigued. The original author seems surprised too. It must be quite a shock for her to see someone who looks just like a character from her own novel.”
