The rain stopped and the ground dried up as if in time for the Empire’s Protection Day. Asha tied the ribbon of her bonnet tightly and looked at the lined-up soldiers.
At the front of the line stood Commander-in-Chief Wilhelm and Karnov, conversing about something. Just as Asha fidgeted, thinking of waving her hand.
“Ah!”
“Huh?”
Someone came running from a distance, pointing their finger. Asha’s eyes widened. It was Dimitri, now much taller than her.
Dressed not in the royal family’s fancy attire but in a simple uniform, Dimitri approached with large strides without lowering his finger and began to screech.
“Don’t you, I mean, does the Grand Duchess of Pesheranskaya not know what it means to take care of oneself?”
“I do… know.”
“Yet again!”
“Oh dear. Our Dimitri. Were you worried about me?”
“Who’s worried? I’m blaming you for being too busy lying down to make me a congratulatory cake for passing!”
Ilya, who was standing beside him, hurriedly pushed Dimitri away as if to restrain him and greeted Asha.
“Asha, I heard you had a fever. I was very worried.”
“It wasn’t a fever. I just slept a lot because I was tired. I made you worry. Ilya, I heard you were out on the field too. Was it tough?”
“It’s fun because it’s something I want to do. It’s a bit like how you feel about making sweets.”
“What’s fun about it!”
Ignored by the two, Dimitri fiercely intervened again. Asha looked up at Dimitri and sighed.
“Dimitri, how long are you going to be so mean? Didn’t I tell you you’d get in trouble if you didn’t answer honestly?”
“…”
Dimitri’s lips twisted strangely, caught between his usual habit of yelling and the desire not to.
“Do you really want to get in trouble?”
“W-what did I do wrong!”
“If you say it’s not fun when it’s something you and Ilya are doing together, what does that make Ilya?”
“It makes Ilya someone who can’t tell what’s fun and what’s not… Ouch!”
Dimitri grabbed his arm in shock. Asha had clenched her fist. When she clenched her other fist, Dimitri took a deep breath.
“Okay, I was wrong!”
“Ilya, Dimitri says he was wrong. Forgive him.”
“I… I’m fine. Really…”
“Ilya says he can’t forgive you. What are you going to do, Dimitri?”
Amidst the chaos, it was the elders who saved the young men. Maxim walked in with a smiling face, his clothes fluttering.
“Dimitri! Ilya.”
At their father’s voice, even Dimitri’s shoulders drooped. Only Ilya sighed in relief.
“Were you fighting in front of the Grand Duke again?”
“We weren’t fighting! He…”
“Oh, Dimitri. How can you be so rude?”
“…The Grand Duke hit me.”
“Dimitriiii.”
“With his own fists…”
Maxim sighed deeply.
“Asha, I apologize.”
“You scolded me for calling you Asha…”
“Do you think you and I are the same?”
Now it was Maxim and Dimitri who bickered. Maxim pushed his son away and turned back to Asha with a gentle smile.
“By the way, Asha, you’ve grown into such a fine young lady. You could get married now.”
“Father, are you from the Kingdom of Otroph or something? Who gets married just because they’re of age these days?”
“…”
Trying to give a compliment, Maxim ended up being compared to someone from a kingdom that had been destroyed a thousand years ago, and his expression crumpled.
“No, I… didn’t mean it like that…”
Maxim looked back and forth between Asha and Dimitri, then quickly raised his hands. As his son and niece burst into laughter, Maxim waved his hands in embarrassment and shooed the young men away.
Dimitri walked off with a sulky expression, dragging Ilya along, who waved at Asha as he was pulled away. Maxim looked at Asha with a sweaty face.
“Asha, you know… in my day, people usually got married when they came of age, so I said that. Hmm, well. You’re all grown up now, so you could open a pastry shop!”
Asha burst out laughing. Maxim winked, relieved.
“This conversation is a secret to everyone else.”
“Of course. But why didn’t Uncle Valery come?”
“He did. He’s standing over there.”
A slightly thin and sharp-looking middle-aged man in a fancy outfit stood over there, arms crossed. When he made eye contact with Asha, he flinched and shrugged his shoulders.
“Why isn’t he coming over?”
“When he heard you had a fever, he made a fuss. He’s embarrassed, that’s why. People might think he lost his only daughter. Oh, and this story is a secret from Yuriev. He might kill all his brothers.”
Maxim exaggeratedly put on a frightened expression as he warned her, then adjusted Asha’s bonnet.
“You must be careful not to get a fever again in the sun.”
At that moment, a small bird flew up from behind Asha’s shoulder. Maxim was a little surprised but then smiled and gently stroked the bird’s head.
“I can’t tell you how grateful I am that the little bird spirit has been looking after our Grand Duchess.”
The small bird, resembling a yellow chick, nodded its head docilely, which was unusual for it. Asha giggled.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“Why don’t you go to Aisha?”
“No need.”
Valery replied curtly. The Empire’s Protection Day event had started, and all the nobles were standing straight, watching the soldiers’ march.
“Why? Are you upset because she received the grand duke title?”
Valery shot a glare at his brother.
“I’m not such a petty person to complain about what she earned through her work.”
“Eh, but you were a bit like that.”
“…Are you turning into Yuriev?”
“Let’s not curse, brother.”
Maxim replied seriously. Although he genuinely cherished his youngest brother, he found it a bit uncomfortable to be compared to someone with the temperament to flip the emperor’s stomach inside out like plowing a field when kicking over tables in front of the emperor.
“The grand duke title… she can receive it.”
“But?”
“Isn’t she going to marry Karnov Neustadter? Then that grand duchess title will belong to the ducal family…”
“Don’t say such things in front of the children.”
“What?”
Maxim waved his hand dismissively.
“Getting married at twenty is an old generation’s story. Got it?”
“Isn’t that obvious? Who these days…”
“You just mentioned it!”
“I said it because looking at those two, it seems like they will. No one would dare marry Karnov Neustadter as long as Asha is around.”
Valery pursed his lips and grumbled. It was clear to everyone that Karnov’s entire attention was focused on one person, making it unthinkable for anyone to try and take that place.
“Hmm. But that doesn’t mean the duke can marry our niece for such reasons. Our niece has to like him too.”
“But that niece also…”
“Well, it could happen. Like the breathtaking love between the imperial princess and the enemy prince in this week’s serialized issue of the Vichegda Biweekly…”
“Are you reading such low-grade literature again?”
“Low-grade! Not all difficult texts are the only literature. Besides, weren’t you the one who couldn’t write a single proper paragraph and always raised our father’s blood pressure?”
“…Just because I can’t write well doesn’t mean I can’t evaluate what’s for sale.”
“Well, that’s true. But you do know that the magazine you called low-grade is run by our niece, right?”
“…”
Maxim grinned broadly.
“Anyway, so what if those two get married? What are you worried about?”
“…The royal heir with the grand duchess title going to the ducal family would affect the imperial power…”
“The imperial princes and princesses of the empire receive the grand duke title when they come of age. You know that, right? We just didn’t receive it because our father was strict.”
“Even so, Asha is the only one with the title of grand duchess right now…”
“The crown prince, the grand duchess, and the duke all get along well, so what are you worried about?”
“Brother, how did you live in this world with such naivety?”
“You’re the naive one. The grand duchess title Asha has is merely a nominal title with just an orchard. The royal title can’t be inherited. Why worry about that? And exactly who is going to whom?”
“…?”
Valery blinked in confusion. Maxim clicked his tongue in exasperation.
“No one knows who will end up where yet, my foolish brother. That’s why you only received a marquis title from our father.”
“…!”
Valery’s mouth gaped open, then he closed it and glared at his brother. Simultaneously, the marching soldiers stood in line before the emperor. At the forefront were Commander-in-Chief Wilhelm and Deputy Commander Karnov.
“…Isn’t it the same for you, brother, receiving only a marquis title?”
“I refuse further titles because I don’t want them.”
“If you refuse titles, then why don’t you act like Yuriev?”
“That child is… different. It’s impossible…”
Maxim murmured reluctantly. Valery, seemingly agreeing, no longer argued with his brother. As the emperor rose from his seat, a breeze blew, dramatically fluttering his cloak.
Asha, standing beside the emperor with Alexei, smiled as she watched. Valery muttered to himself secretly, hidden from his brother.
‘You should tell people when you recover.’
His niece had become somewhat indifferent to him lately, but Valery still had enough pride not to voice his grievances.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“Oh, my. I have to be lonely again.”
“Don’t be so spoiled.”
Unsurprisingly, it was Karnov who said he would be lonely, and Alexei who sternly told him not to be spoiled. Asha, wiping the sweat off Karnov’s forehead with a handkerchief, chuckled.
Every year during the Empire’s Protection Day event, Karnov would grumble about being left alone. It was because Asha always entered the ballroom with Alexei as his partner after the event.
“What’s the Crown Prince doing without a crown princess until now?”
At Karnov’s grumbling, Alexei shrugged his shoulders.
“Why don’t you introduce me to someone?”
“Who is there to introduce?”
As the two exchanged words, Asha fell into deep thought.
‘Mariya was of no help.’
Mariya was so happily busy painting that she didn’t seem to notice men. The most important thing in her life was her paintings, followed by Mura Aylau. Maybe those two were even swapped.
‘But really, why hasn’t there been any talk about a crown princess until now?’
Asha looked at Alexei with a serious expression. Could it be… because of her?
“Asha? What’s wrong? Are you tired from the heat?”
“N-no… no. It’s just… I was momentarily dazzled.”
It must be because of her!
It’s clear that Alexei had postponed finding a partner because he was taking care of her. Asha wanted to smack her own head for realizing this so late and shook her head with her eyes closed tightly.
‘Before I turn twenty and leave the palace… Before that, I must find Alexei’s partner.’
At the very least, she could tell if the person was good or not! If Alexei’s choice was a bad person, she would stop him, and if she couldn’t, she would bake him so many sweets until he couldn’t stand them anymore.
‘No, is my existence itself the problem? Is it because I’m in the palace? It might seem like I’m wielding too much influence in the palace… Could that be why it’s burdensome to marry Alexei?’
It was merely that the nobles didn’t dare to bring up the issue due to Alexei’s indifference, but Asha didn’t know this and was deep in thought.
‘Future crown princess…! Please wait a few more months!’
Unaware of Asha’s thoughts, the two men bickered for a while longer—Karnov, you concede. You concede!—and then, holding Asha’s hands, headed to the ballroom.
