Asha listened to the emperor and tried to take Ivan straight away, but Lise vehemently opposed it.
“His Majesty did not mean to take an apprentice who has just begun training.”
“But…”
“If you tell the Knight Commander of the Tingnes, he will send you a great knight.”
“That’s not allowed!”
Asha quickly caught Lise, who was about to head straight to the knights. Lise paused and looked back at her.
“Oh… What do you mean no?”
“Never!”
From the moment Asha heard the emperor tell her, ‘Choose a knight from the knights and take them,’ she was struggling to gauge the emperor’s intentions.
‘There is only one group of knights in the Imperial Palace.’
If she wanted to take a knight, she must go through the Knight Commander, and perhaps the Knight Commander would pick a knight or two.
‘What if those knights are permanently excluded from promotion?’
What if the emperor thought that the knights posted by her maternal grandfather, the Knight Commander, were like her faction, not the crown prince’s.
“What’s wrong with you? Knight Commander Tingnes is your maternal grandfather. I’m sure he’ll pick someone you can trust.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Are you worried about something?”
In response to Lise’s question, Asha swallowed a sigh. She could understand the emperor’s feelings, as they were evident and transparent. However, now that she was exposed for having conversations with spirits, the worries hadn’t completely disappeared. If it weren’t for her maternal grandfather, she would have gladly gone to see the knights as well.
Then Phoebe, who was lying on her lap, pouted.
<Why do you keep worrying about useless things?>
‘It’s not a useless worry.’
<You know that the landowner has no intention of caring about you, but it’s not useless to worry?>
Phoebe said in awe. Asha tried to protest something, but closed her mouth and tilted her head. In the meantime, Phoebe gained momentum and pouted.
<The same goes for the grandson of the landowner, and the same goes for Karnov. Why do you think everyone’s gonna do anything to you? While ignoring what you can see?>
‘No, that’s…’
Asha’s lips trembled. Well, of course, he would want to kill her. She didn’t tell her, but she knew…
However, the words felt rather poor as an excuse. Hasn’t reality changed a lot from the original she knew? But why… Asha looked down at her own heart with her forehead gathered together.
‘I just keep thinking about it without realizing it.’
<…Without you realizing?>
When Phoebe heard that, she paused for a moment, and said in a friendly voice she had never heard before.
<You don’t have to be swept away by the illusion, Asha.>
‘Illusion?’
<Yes. Only you are real, and you are the real owner of that body. Everything else is a lie and a mirage, so don’t be swayed by it.>
Asha tilted her head. She never told Phoebe what she knew or what she thought. But Phoebe acted as if she knew it all.
“Your Highness, are you okay?”
As she was absent-mindedly absorbed in her conversation with Phoebe, Lise examined her complexion with a worried look. Asha shook her hand, saying it was okay, but she jumped up from her seat at the thought that came to her mind while thinking about the topic so far.
‘Anyway, I don’t want to visit the knights immediately.’
“Isn’t it okay as long as they’re decent knights?”
“Well, that may be true, but…”
Ignoring the surprised Phoebe’s frantic chirping, Asha rushed to the desk and picked up a pen, quickly jotting something down.
<What, what is it! What’s going on!>
“Phoebe, I need you to run an errand for me.”
<What, do you mean…! Ridiculous! What on earth…>
“Please deliver the letter to Karnov. I’ll give you more butter cookies when you come back.”
<…How many?>
“Three.”
Phoebe complained bitterly that the number was small, but it did not stop Asha from tying a small letter to her ankle. It was not until Phoebe flew out the window that Lise examined Asha’s countenance with a puzzled expression.
“How can that bird deliver a letter… More than that, did you send a letter to Lord Karnov?”
“Yes. There aren’t many people stronger than Karnov in the current capital. If he goes with me, isn’t Karnov better than just a knight?”
“But if you can’t go out with Lord Karnov. Would it be okay?”
“Well, if Karnov says he’ll take me, then I should go. We don’t know what might happen.”
Lise opened her lips with difficulty.
“Your Highness, I know it’s impolite to bring this up, but… forming a close relationship with Lord Karnov…”
“What?”
Asha looked up at Lise with an innocent expression. Lise went on slowly, not sure if it was the right thing to say.
“Karnov has truly remarkable achievements, and he’s also a prominent noble. He’s very close to His Highness Alexei, you know.”
“Yeah, right?”
Asha looked at Lise with a expression asking why she was talking about something she knew clearly.
“But, well… He possesses a very powerful spirit.”
“Um… Right?”
“Even if he doesn’t intend to use such a spirit… It can hurt people around him. It doesn’t mean that he’s a bad person…”
“So you don’t want us to be close?”
Lise sighed deeply and lowered her shoulders when Asha asked with a mischievous smile.
“I’m saying this because I’m worried.”
“It’s all right, it’s all right. I have to be careful about that. When you touch a rose, don’t blame it for its thorns.”
“…The only person who compares him to a rose would be you, Your Highness.”
“Ahaha. Is that so?”
Asha smiled. Lise, who saw the expression and realized that Asha had no intention of breaking her will, put only a few more ribbons on her hair with a slightly upset face.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“No, how could you leave Linum Yushita and Lumen Vasilice…”
At a family dinner for the first time in a long time, Karnov’s father Ivan unknowingly became angry and raised his voice, and then hurriedly closed his mouth. This is because Karnov stopped cutting meat and stared at him without hiding his cool eyes.
“Have you packed your things to go back to Sedvoyer?”
“I, I’m taking care of that myself.”
“I see. It would be best not to delay too much. Grandmother won’t wait for you for too long.”
Ivan looked as if he wanted to shout something, but he couldn’t say anything and kept his mouth shut. His mother, Yelizaveta, who was quietly tapping her fork next to him, spoke up with a slightly trembling voice.
“That… the fief that His Majesty gave you. You didn’t have to choose Lumen Vasilice… Is there a reason…”
“Should I even explain what I received as a result of my return from the battlefield?”
“He, I don’t mean that. It’s not that. I’m just curious…”
Karnov put down his fork and knife. At the same time, the duke and his wife trembled.
“I’m a little tired. I’ll go first.”
“O, okay. Hurry up and go up and rest.”
A brutal silence fell over the table. Karnov looked through the dishes that were getting cold, and turned around without hesitation. As he ascended to the upper floor of the mansion, the servants he encountered bowed their heads as if greeting a messenger from the afterlife, avoiding eye contact with him. Everything that he had taken for granted until now suddenly seemed unfamiliar.
Guarding the front of his room, a servant raised his hand to open it, but Karnov abruptly swung the door open, only to widen his eyes and blink. The room inside, or more precisely, the top of the desk, was a mess. Papers were scattered all around, and it seemed like an ink bottle had tipped over, with the sound of ink dripping from the edge of the desk.
Amidst all these things, Karnov saw something he had seen before but shouldn’t have been there.
“Peep peep!”
“This is…”
He was certain he had seen it before. It was the small, yellow chick-like bird, personally raised by Princess Anastasia.
– I’ll send something similar to a carrier pigeon. Don’t be surprised, okay?
What he heard from the girl a few days ago popped up in his mind. The yellow bird, the main culprit who had made a mess on his desk, was proudly sticking out its small black feet. With a little note on it.
“Peep peep!”
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“Why patisserie?”
Valery, who was Alexei’s uncle and was looking for a chance to return to the palace while living outside the palace, was listening to the trends in the palace. The report brought by the butler was part of it.
It was written that Baroness Saratov, who had some kind of connection with Princess Anastasia, opened a patisserie selling only one kind of cake.
“There’s a rumor that Princess Anastasia sells cakes made using Baroness Saratov’s imports…”
“What does a ten-year-old make? Heh, Baroness Saratov is fawning over the royal family.”
Valery said in an irritated tone and shook the paper vigorously.
“So what does Baroness Saratov want in the end? Is she trying to attach herself to Alexei?”
“She’s not in contact with the crown prince, but only with Princess Anastasia when she stops by the Imperial Palace…”
“But Alexei treats Anastasia like his cherished doll! Trying to gain favor with her is equivalent to attaching himself to Alexei!”
Valery was furious, and then threw away the correspondence he was looking at. The butler picked up the letter urgently.
“Damn it. After working with Marquis Tataricha with so much effort…”
Valery stopped there, unable to finish his sentence. The butler trembled and held his breath.
“…Damn it.”
