Asha greeted the original author of <The Queen of Darkness and the Bastard of the Moon> for the first time in nearly two years after the signing of the contract.
“I was worried you might not be able to come, despite sending the invitation. The journey isn’t short.”
Berenice Manfredi, who was the president of the publishing company in the Kingdom of Kirelete and was the one who first encouraged writing the story of <The Queen of Darkness and the Bastard of the Moon>, hastily and modestly replied.
“Oh, how could I miss such an opportunity in my lifetime? Of course, I had to come. Darya, go and greet them quickly.”
Prompted by Berenice, the elderly lady with wrinkled hands bowed and made a hurried greeting. Though she stammered a bit, her command of the Imperial language was proficient.
“I,It’s an honor. How… how can you make such a trivial story into a play…”
“Trivial? In the Kingdom of Kirelete, two out of three people have read it. It’s quite popular in the Empire as well.”
Asha spoke with a smile, but the elderly lady trembled slightly, unsure of how to react. Her glances, however, kept darting toward Asha’s back. Asha glanced behind her.
‘Evan?’
Evan, who has been knighted and had now become a knight of Asha, also shook his head slightly as if he did not understand.
“It seems your ladyship has taken an interest in Her Highness’s knight.”
Karnov, who was standing by Asha’s side, spoke up. Berenice swallowed hard in surprise at the words and hurriedly spoke.
“That, that, that, yes, uh… We, uh, noticed that he bears a resemblance to one of the characters in the novel…”
Asha squinted. There was a whirlwind of air from the two restless people who seemed to be unable to accept reality.
Disbelief, astonishment, frustration, sadness, joy…
The emotions the author of <The Queen of Darkness and the Bastard of the Moon> felt, the way she looked at Evan, the old woman, the content of the book, the description of how much she looked like Evan.
Asha’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Evan was a half-elf, half-human from Noctis.
“Could it be that this story, really… is based on…”
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Asha returned to the palace with Berenice, the publisher, and Darya, the author, who didn’t know what to say. The three of them were all biting their lips in embarrassment, but the people around them somehow managed to calm them down. It was Evan who led them to the carriage, and it was Karnov who set the carriage off after the three were loaded in.
Lise, who had been waiting for Asha at the palace, was surprised to see the sudden increase in guests and quickly left. Asha hesitated, then ordered Evan to stay outside for a while. Karnov understood her intentions and left the room with Evan. The two chicks sat side by side at the table with serious expressions on their faces.
“That… Is that child really a half-breed Noctis Elf?”
Asha was silent for a moment, and then, instead of answering the question, she asked it in reverse.
“Is the Queen of Darkness really a Noctis Elf? Is it the story of the Elves?”
“I, I don’t… I don’t know if the story is… I don’t think… I don’t think it’s true…”
Darya looked confused and was at a loss. Berenice, who was sitting next to her, also bit her lips. Darya had hidden herself from the world after publishing this novel, having signed a contract that all proceeds would go to orphans. That’s why Berenice had been handling all her contracts.
Then, when she came all the way to the empire and saw Evan for the first time, Berenice had no choice but to rush back to the kingdom and find Darya again.
“Who told you this story?”
Darya’s lips opened and closed in response to Asha’s question. The corners of the wrinkled old woman’s drooping mouth twitched. Asha bit her lip nervously.
“Darya, who told you this?”
“My… My adoptive father, my adoptive father… When I was very young…”
Suddenly, tears welled up in Darya’s eyes. Tears spilled down the old woman’s wrinkled face. The old woman murmured softly.
“I thought it was my father’s… senility, and I never tried to go north…”
Asha suppressed her desire to keep pressing and took out a handkerchief from her pocket. Berenice put her arm around the old woman’s shoulders as she continued to cry. Darya, barely recovering from her brief outburst of emotion, looked up.
“I… I was an orphan when I was young. I didn’t even know who my parents were. My father took me in… and… Actually, even then, he was more of a grandfather than a father, because he was only a little younger than I am now…”
Darya slowly recalled the past.
“A long time ago, he told me he loved someone he shouldn’t have, a woman with skin like it was made from the moonlight of the night and long ears. But nothing ever came of it…”
The rest of the story was like something out of a novel. They miraculously had a child, but the human man learned from the Queen of Darkness’s family that she had died in childbirth. With an infant child left to him.
The man dutifully raises his and the queen’s child, but it’s not easy. Until one day, a band of bandits come upon him and he lost his son…
“My father… My father said he never found his son again. He searched for him all his life, all the way down south… and he took in an orphan like me to take his place.”
“In the novel…”
The novel ends with a scene in which a son who overcame adversity and hardship visits the tomb of the queen who is already dead and prays. Darya shook her head at Asha’s words.
“That was just me and my father’s hope, that one day… that it would be like that… like that.”
Darya burst into tears again. Asha gripped the handle of her teacup endlessly while Berenice tried to soothe her.
“Is it true… that your knight is truly a descendant of my father…”
“It would be best if you returned and rested.”
Asha spoke with a reassuring expression but did not answer regarding Evan.
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Evan stood still in front of a large tree in the garden, looking at the branches and leaves that had come down to the snow. There was no shaking or agitation.
Karnov, sitting on the bench in front of him, looked back at the palace in the back with a slightly worried expression, then breathed a brief sigh.
“I can tell you’re preoccupied, but aren’t you concerned?”
“Her Highness sent me out here so I wouldn’t worry.”
Karnov rested his chin on his hand, making a slightly sulky expression. After all, the human heart wasn’t something you can just cut away like a piece of wood.
“You’re not just putting on a brave face in front of Asha, are you?”
“Then Her Highness would notice immediately.”
“That’s true.”
“If you’re worried, you should go inside.”
“Asha doesn’t want to leave you alone, so there’s not much I can do.”
Karnov glanced up at Evan, who now looked like a proper young man. Although Evan was slightly shorter than Karnov, he was taller and well-built compared to others.
Asha still saw him as a child and didn’t like to leave him alone, especially not in situations like this. Evan, noticing this, frowned slightly in apparent displeasure.
A moment of silence passed between them. Evan, who had been staring at the swaying branches in front of him, turned his head to look at Karnov, who was leaning against the armrest of the bench, staring at the fountain.
“Would it be troublesome for my ladyship if my… origins were known?”
“If it is discovered that you are of mixed blood with a Noctis Elf?”
“…Yes.”
“I’m sure they’re already half-guessing.”
“What?”
“You really don’t care about anything but Asha.”
Karnov kicked his tongue inwardly as he watched Evan smile faintly as if he had heard a compliment for his rebuke.
“It means they’ve already noticed that you don’t just have a tanned skin color.”
Everyone who had ever heard of a dashing knight of the princess with a mysterious skin color had scratched their heads at his birth, and there were many who speculated and tried to pry. Evan didn’t know because he didn’t care.
“…Then why does my ladyship care about them?”
Karnov sighed, leaning back against the armrest. It was the kind of thing he’d come to the conclusion that everyone did about Asha, who seemed to get sick at least once a year. It’s only natural to take care of anything around you without missing anything.
“She thought you might be able to find your family.”
There was only one half-breed in the empire, and if there were stories about this ‘half-breed’, then surely they would know about Evan. Evan looked a little uneasy.
“There’s no time for that.”
“Time for what?”
“The opening of the pastry shop keeps getting postponed, and now there’s this…”
Karnov almost burst into laughter but quickly cleared his throat instead. Just the other day, Asha had been pulling at her hair, lamenting over the delays. Since Alexei had not yet married, Asha had started taking on more responsibilities within the palace.
“Wouldn’t have had to deal with all this if she hadn’t played around with the palace’s trees when she was younger.”
When it came time to replace the avenue trees, Alexei had naturally asked for Asha’s opinion. From there, Asha’s involvement expanded to planning the palace gardens, selecting new paintings for the palace, hosting the summer grand ball, and even approving palace repair costs.
Despite her complaints about the unreasonable workload she had taken on, Asha seemed determined to endure it without adding to Alexei’s burdens.
– Alyosha must be a reincarnation of an angel. How can he manage to work ten times harder than I do without ever getting angry?
Karnov thought that was probably the case but couldn’t bring himself to say it to the irate Asha.
“But…”
Karnov thought Evan was bringing up the pastry shop topic out of concern for Asha, but Evan’s face looked somewhat flustered and anxious. There was no sign of concern for his family in his expression.
“Duke Sedvoyer, Sir Evan.”
The moment Karnov tried to say something to Evan, Lise appeared. Karnov looked at Evan for a moment and then turned to Lise.
“…Lise, has Her Highness finished her discussion?”
Lise nodded and gestured towards beyond the garden.
“Yes. And Her Highness asked for you to come to the kitchen.”
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The kitchen was full of sweet and savory smells. In the meantime, Asha placed three pans on top of the stove and was baking pancakes. When bubbles appeared on the dough, she skillfully flipped each one in turn. After flipping the last one, Asha put her hands on her hips and looked at the mountain of pancakes.
And Karnov, who stood at the entrance of the kitchen and witnessed it, swallowed a sigh. It was clear that talking to the author had not been easy.
“Your Highness, the duke and Sir Evan are here.”
“Oh! You’re here?”
Asha greeted them both by pushing the baked pancakes aside. Just in time, a cheerful alarm could be heard in the oven.
The thick-cut baguettes had been soaked overnight in an egg wash made with eggs, milk, cream, and lots of sugar, and then baked in a buttered pan.
When the baguettes were golden brown and crusty on top and bottom, Asha sprinkled them with sugar and placed a loaf in front of each of them. When Karnov’s eyes wandered to the pancakes lying in a heap beside him, Asha covered them with a cloth.
“Eat those and listen.”
“What about all those pancakes?”
“That’s… that’s for me to eat. That’s not the point.”
“Then?”
“I told you to listen while eating. Why aren’t you eating?”
Karnov glanced at Asha’s eyes as he insistently offered her a toasted baguette. Asha looked down at her plate.
It’s hard to disagree with her when you’re eating one of her sweets or dishes. That seemed to be what she wanted right now. Evan noticed, and his fork movements were a little sluggish.
In the end, Asha took away the knife and fork with a rough motion, cut the baguette into bite-sized pieces and put it directly into the mouths of the two. The baguette, baked in a rich, sugary egg wash, was crispy on the outside, and the inside, soaked in cream and cooked hot, was warm and soft like pudding.
It was only after they’d both taken a bite that Asha finally spoke.
“You know, don’t you think it’s a little too hot these days?”
“It’s still late spring.”
Asha pretended not to hear.
“Speaking of hot… I think we should go for a vacation, up north. Karnov’s house is up north, so we can go there. We haven’t been there since we were there years ago.”
Asha often claimed she could tell what someone was thinking just by looking at them, and Karnov thought he understood what she meant by that.
Just by looking at Asha’s moving, greenish eyes, it was clear what she was thinking.
