After a long walk completely out of Camer Palace, Pristin finally showed her pained expression.
‘I had that dream again…’
She didn’t know if it was because she saw Jerald last before she went to bed, or if it was really simply because the bed had changed.
The important thing was that Pristin was in a terrible mood now with that nightmare in the early morning.
She did not say a word all the way to the herbal garden, but silently took steps one step at a time, with a face just buried with distress. To anyone watching, her face was the darkest and most serious it had ever been since moving to the palace.
It wasn’t until dawn that Pristin arrived at the herbal garden. Inside the still-dark herbal garden, Pristin lit up the darkness by lighting one of the lights. It was not very bright, but it was not a bad level of brightness to calm Pristin’s mind.
Even after lighting the fire, she stood still in the same place, seemingly giving herself time to escape from the shock.
“…Ha.”
After a considerable amount of time, Pristin regained her color. With a bewildered face, she blankly stared into space and soon started moving briskly, seemingly thinking she needed to do something. In the quiet herbal garden, glass and pottery-made medicinal tools made clattering sounds.
Pristin went to the greenhouse where the herbs were grown and brought back a lot of them, and then started to grind them into juice. Doing something seemed to clear her confused mind somewhat.
“It…It’s all in the past.”
As she crushed the green herbs in the bowl into small pieces, Pristin muttered as if to console herself.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.”
But her words that it was okay felt incredibly hollow to Pristin. Although it was in the past, it wasn’t fine at all.
Finally, Pristin gave up on speaking and focused only on grinding the herbs. For a while, only the thud sound echoed from the herbal garden.
“…It’s done.”
Pristin began to boil the herbs that had perfectly turned into juice. While blankly staring at the bubbling herb bowl that was giving off a strange smell, Pristin was just spacing out without any thoughts.
–Creak
At some point, an unexpected presence was heard from behind. Unexpectedly, someone was visiting at this hour, so Pristin turned around with a surprised expression. As she saw who it was, she couldn’t help but be more surprised.
“Lord Bachell.”
“Countess Rosewell.”
The other person also seemed quite surprised. He asked in a surprised voice as if he couldn’t understand why she was in the herbal garden at this hour.
“What brings you here?”
“Ah.”
Pristin hesitated for a moment and opened her mouth.
“Just… I have something I want to make.”
“In the morning?”
“Well, His Majesty had too much to drink last night.”
Pristin answered the question as casually as possible.
“I came out early in the morning after receiving the news from the central palace.”
“Oh, His Majesty.”
Fortunately, Akkad didn’t seem to doubt Pristin’s answer much.
“Come to think of it, I think he was a bit drunk yesterday.”
“Yes, it was a joyful occasion… He must have had a bit too much to drink.”
In reality, the reason for Jerald’s heavy drinking yesterday was the complete opposite, but Pristin couldn’t tell the truth and beat around the bush. Fortunately, Akkad did not delve further into it.
“I feel proud all of a sudden.”
“Huh?”
“You’ve only recently entered the herbal garden, but you’re already making a hangover remedy for the emperor.”
Akkad said with a grin.
“I feel like I’ve chosen the right person. My judgment is not dead yet.”
“Ah…”
Pristin replied with an embarrassed expression.
“It’s not a big deal.”
“Well, you might feel that way now, but it’s not the case for others. It looks like you’re developing day by day.”
“You flatter me. I’m embarrassed.”
Pristin replied with an awkward smile.
“But why did you come at this early hour…”
“Oh, I…”
Akkad replied with a pensive expression.
“My head was a bit complicated, so I came out. When my thoughts get complicated, I come to the herbal garden and look around the greenhouse. But I came here because I heard something coming from the manufacturing room.”
“Oh, I see. You must have been surprised.”
“Yes, since working here, there has never been a single time someone came here this early.”
“If you need a quiet place to think, I can step aside right away. The herbs have just finished boiling.”
“No, it’s okay. It’s rather good that you’re here.”
Unable to understand the intention of his words, Pristin looked straight at Akkad. Far from being embarrassed by the gaze, Akkad added with a relaxed smile.
“Having a conversation with someone somehow makes me feel like my mind is getting organized. Looking at herbs is good, but this way is not bad either.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“But…”
Then, Akkad took a step closer to Pristin and asked.
“I have a concern.”
“A concern?”
“Yes. Can you listen to it?”
“Of course.”
Pristin nodded and asked.
“Is your head complicated because of that concern?”
“Yes, it is.”
“What is your concern? Is it related to herbs?”
“…Yeah, something like that. I have a personal research project going on, and a recent experiment has been completely contrary to my predictions.”
“That’s obvious.”
Pristin casually nodded her head.
“Because it’s an experiment. I think it’s natural that the result is not as expected.”
“But there has never been a result that was out of my predictions in similar experiments.”
“The control of variables might not have been properly done. Or a new variable might have arisen… There could be various reasons, but I don’t think it’s strange.”
“So, what should I do to get the result as I thought?”
“Try to find and eliminate that variable.”
“…What if I don’t want to eliminate it?”
“Then.”
Pristin shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“You would have no choice but to accept the result.”
“…”
“That could also lead to a new discovery. I think experiments are interesting because they always produce unexpected results.”
“…I see.”
Akkad murmured quietly with a thoughtful expression.
“An unexpected result… What if that’s not the best result?”
“We still can’t help it. The result of an experiment is like fate. We have to accept it.”
“…I see.”
With that answer, silence fell between them for a while.
“Thank you, Countess. My mind has certainly become clearer thanks to you.”
Akkad was the first to break the silence. Pristin responded with a faint smile.
“I’m glad I could help.”
“Yes. It was a great help in organizing my thoughts.”
“Then, I will leave now. See you again when it’s daylight.”
Holding the medicine tightly in her hand, Pristin slowly bowed her head. Akkad courteously responded, and soon Pristin was gone. Only Akkad was left in the large manufacturing room.
“Fate…”
The quiet voice murmuring alone still belonged to the one who was still troubled.
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
“Ugh…”
Feeling a splitting headache, Jerald slowly opened his eyes. He looked around with half-opened eyes for a while and soon realized that this was not his room and became flustered.
‘…What?’
He couldn’t remember. He had drunk too much yesterday. He couldn’t even remember where his memories had been cut off, so one could say he was seriously drunk. Jerald cautiously threw off the quilt from his body and got up from his place.
–Thud
Then the door opened and someone came in. Jerald looked toward the door.
“Ah, you’re awake.”
“Aruvina?”
Jerald asked in disbelief.
“Why are you here?”
“Huh? Well…”
Aruvina asked back in a surprised voice, thinking it was an unexpected question.
“His Majesty told me to look after Countess Rosewell…?”
“…Ah.”
Only then did Jerald realize that this was Pristin’s room. His expression became more flustered.
“Is this Pristin’s room?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Why am I here?”
“You came last night.”
Aruvina answered in a calm voice.
“His Majesty personally.”
“…Me?”
“It seems like you don’t remember.”
“…”
“It makes sense. Because you were very drunk yesterday.”
“I…”
Jerald mumbled with a still-bewildered face.
“Why didn’t you stop me?”
“Your Majesty, who could possibly stop you?”
The answer sounded like she was surprised.
“Nothing happened, so there’s no need to worry.”
“…”
Only then did Jerald lower his head. Considering his lack of memory from last night, he was quite decently dressed. Jerald breathed a sigh of relief only after realizing he hadn’t completely fallen off the deep end.
“What about Pristin?”
“…Of course.”
There was no way they slept together here given the situation where he was occupying her room. It was a perfectly natural fact, but Jerald felt bitter.
“So, where is she now? Is she sleeping?”
“Ah, well…”
Aruvina replied after much thought.
“She’s in the herbal garden.”
“At this hour?”
It was easy to see that it was very early, just by looking outside the window at dawn. Jerald’s expression didn’t look very good when he heard that the place was the herbal garden.
“Why is she there?”
“Well…”
Aruvina wondered whether to talk about Pristin’s nightmares or not. She wasn’t sure if Pristin would want her to talk about it, and if she didn’t, there was no reason to explain the current situation.
After some thought, Aruvina gave the most appropriate answer.
“She woke up early and couldn’t fall back asleep.”
“Is that so?”
Jerald soon asked with a serious expression.
“Should I leave before she comes back? Or would she be startled if I’m not here when she returns?”
Aruvina held back from saying that Pristin might prefer the latter. She didn’t want to upset the emperor, who was already distressed from what happened yesterday.
Meanwhile, after some thought, Jerald came to this conclusion.
“I think I need to apologize personally for what happened yesterday.”
“That would be a good idea.”
“First of all…”
Jerald dragged his words cautiously.
“Don’t tell Pristin that I woke up when she comes back, Aruvina. Got that?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Don’t worry.”
“Okay, then. I’ll go now.”
Aruvina bowed politely and then went outside. As soon as she opened the door, she was startled by the person she came face to face with.
