016 The Duke is Suspicious (2)
“It’s a beautiful day. Would you like to go for a walk?”
Cardinal Aurelie Butier asked softly. There was no answer returned.
Today, she went to Romero Palace’s backyard to enjoy a picnic with her beloved grandson.
But when it came out, there was no other reason not to enjoy it.
She looked at the prince who was walking silently by her side.
The two were moving without a follower.
Knowing that it was time for the prince to walk, the gardeners were all absent.
“This is it.”
The young man, who spoke up after a while, guided her to the corner of the patronage that was not wide enough to feel spacious.
It was a neatly maintained place with shrubs reaching the height of the cardinal’s head.
Indeed, it was not a bad environment to hide something.
“Who else knows you’re here?”
“Your Majesty knows. I also told Capusson.”
“that’s interesting. I still know only you.”
“You will understand.”
Beneath the monocle, the cardinal’s beige eyes twinkled with curiosity.
He was already called middle-aged, but it was the first time he had actually seen Shinsu.
The cardinals of the new country and the local bishops had reported several sightings, but that was all.
Needless to say, in the imperial palace where she was living, there were no sacred objects to protect, with divine waters hovering around her.
Even across the vast empire’s territory, there were only four gods.
“Godmother, step back for a moment.”
Cedric said softly. The cardinal meekly took a step forward.
After confirming that the surroundings were quiet, the prince took off the black glove he was wearing on his left hand.
– Exactly!
A bright orange flame rose from his fingertips along with the light sound of his fingers clashing.
Aurelie Butier sighed quietly.
The ability of this child was dazzlingly beautiful at any time.
I know I don’t think so, but she believed it was a blessing, not a curse.
from a very long time ago.
– Hurr!
Cedric waved his arm in a polite gesture.
Then, the light flame, which was the size of a flower bud, spread out like a huge fan in an instant and fell to the floor.
-Saaa
The red flower met the fresh spring grass and started to shine in gold.
The cardinal observed it with interest. This was by no means an ordinary reaction.
Instead of burning black in a hot fire, green was smoking yellow lumps like forsythia in the air.
Things that were not awake, in response to the prince’s ether, rose at his feet.
– Hey!
“yes······?”
From https://noblemtl.com
One lump made a sound that didn’t match the grand name of ‘Shinsu’.
The cardinal looked at the prince with a puzzled face. Sedric reluctantly received that gaze.
– Whoa!
“Sady?”
The second lump also made that sound. Confused, the cardinal called the prince by his pseudonym.
“I don’t bite.”
“It’s not….”
Aurelie Butier watched the process of the divine beast descending in front of her with a somewhat bewildered expression.
The two lumps, which no longer radiated brilliance, slowly changed their shape and took on the form of a complete animal.
The light shone and the shape became clear.
– Hey!
– Kyeung!
The four legs are black, but the body is reddish-brown.
It has a chubby tail that is just the right length, attached to its small body.
The tip of the nose and ears were white as if they had taken sugar powder, and the eyes were black as if they had black beans embedded in them.
From https://noblemtl.com
Overall, it was a cute and bubbly impression.
“Oh my gosh.”
“·················ogue.”
I wasn’t expecting something like a dragon or a griffin, but this was unexpected, even if it was unexpected.
The two stuffed toys, no, the two divine beasts, were happy to see Sedric who woke them up, so they wandered around him and pretended not to know.
Soon, dirt marks began to appear on the young man’s slender black boots.
“like this······. I didn’t know they were lovely children.”
The cardinal bent down to close the distance with the beasts.
When she was young, she roamed every corner of the empire with the emperor, and she was also a creature she had never seen before.
It was absurd and I laughed out loud.
The guys who came out of nowhere in Romero Palace’s backyard and surprised the prince, the animals who were afraid of the prince’s flames and said they obeyed them, and the earth-property gods who freely bloomed flowers and grass…
I never thought they would be such cute kids.
“Are you going to take me to the castle of Lord Sarnez tonight? That’s what Elizabeth said.”
The cardinal raised his head and asked. However, the atmosphere of the prince was not serious.
A shadow was cast on her beautiful face.
“······· There is not one.”
“What?”
After regaining her composure, her complexion shook again.
The smallest of the three was nowhere to be seen.
Cedric Lister raised his confused eyes and stared at the building in front of him.
The Juliet Palace looked as peaceful as ever.
*
“So, is it something you want to meet someday?”
I sat still and asked to confirm. Benjamin nodded his head.
He was reading a letter from Duchess Isabelle de Sarnez, which was delivered to me during lunch with the cardinal.
I was so worried about the blank sheet that I couldn’t even go to confession and was confined to my room.
“There is nothing special about reading the article. There is a saying that after saying good-bye, you want to have a good day and treat the prince alone. That’s it.”
I sighed lightly.
I should have read it that way, too, but I showed it to Benjamin in case there was something like a slang among the Lister nobles.
I wondered if the greeting wasn’t the greeting or the audience wasn’t the audience, but fortunately, it seemed to be an ordinary sentence.
“What happened all of a sudden? Other nobles don’t send me stuff like this.”
At my words, Canael, who was standing next to Benjamin, shook her head with her golden eyes wide open.
“Prince, there are so many unofficial letters to you. But your Majesty…”
“Canael.”
Benjamin sternly cut off his words. The boy quickly opened and closed his mouth.
It seems that the emperor was filtering out letters from the nobles who came to me.
“I’m sorry, Prince.”
“Forgive me, Prince.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s not unusual.”
I am not a long-term guest at a resort named Imperial Palace.
Even if they were just playing, eating and studying, they were a hostage for the first time.
The emperor couldn’t be bothered to think that the high-ranking people of the Empire would try to contact me for any reason.
I didn’t feel bad.
From my point of view, wanting to somehow distance myself from the social world, the emperor’s intervention seemed to be a consideration.
“Then how about the Duchess of Sarnez… Oh, I heard that it was delivered through the valet.”
“The fact that the book was delivered through the chieftain means that the Emperor had the tacit permission. The Duke of Sarnez is your majesty’s loyal follower, so he should be.”
It means that the Emperor firmly believes that the Sarnez family will not send me suspicious letters.
The fact that Princess Christel de Sarnez and Prince Cedric were first engaged through engagement was a fact he knew before possessing.
I remembered it clearly because Eunseo used to sing, ‘If it were me, I would have broken my marriage sooner’.
Nothing has been announced yet, but there must be some talk of marriage going on underneath the water.
Since he and the duke are on good terms and have their children marry each other, the emperor’s trust seemed natural.
“Then we can just forget about it.”
I pushed the Duchess’ letter all the way to the corner of the table.
It’s not a big deal, don’t think about it any more.
“If you receive an audience request from the Duchess, please block it on the Benjamin Line, even if your Majesty does not block it. I want you to look around me because I am sick.”
“Prince?”
“I don’t want to be associated with such a great family as the Duke of Sarnez. As I said on the first day, I want to live quietly.”
As I smiled, Benjamin flinched with a slightly shaky face.
I’ve been saving the excuse that I’m sick because no one believes me if I abuse it, but it seemed appropriate to avoid meeting the Duchess.
Benjamin quickly realized that the topic had passed, and poured lemongrass tea back into my empty teacup.
“Canael, what is that book?”
“Ah, as you asked, I have prepared a book with pictures and maps.”
The little boy smiled brightly and came closer to me.
Her light blue hair looked just like the spring sky outside the balcony.
“It must have been thick and heavy. Well done, thank you.”
“Hehe, no.”
I took the book and handed a large piece of clafuti in the child’s hand.
When I opened the hardcover after watching Canael take a bite of the pie, a spacious map caught my eye from the first page.
“It’s a map of the empire.”
“Yes, I am curious. The last time there was a temple theft incident.”
I gave the answer to Benjamin’s curious tone of voice. Well, you were half right.
Because I wanted to know exactly where the temple of the vigilant said that the gods were stolen.
However, I found this book today because I was curious to see where the little Sadie was going with the new beasts.
He said he was okay with it, but it was strange not to worry about such a young guy walking around alone late at night.
“The Sarnez region is really close to the ecliptic.”
“Yes, beyond the western border of the ecliptic is Sarnez. You have to go in a little bit more to get out.”
Benjamin replied.
The Hwangdo and Sarnez regions were intertwined, so to speak, like Seoul and Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do.
I looked closely at the beautifully decorated illustrations above the inscription ‘Sarnez’.
“It’s a godsend that this is being kept by the Duke of Sarnez.”
“That’s right. It is ‘Blessing of Changhae’.”
“How long does it take to get to Sarnez by horse?”
“If you depart from the Imperial Palace… No matter how long you hold it, you will reach it in two hours.”
I put my finger on the map and drew a straight line from the ecliptic to Sarnez.
It was a very strange thing to remember.
When I wrote down what I knew on the first day in my notebook, all I remember about the cover of ＜I Resigned and a Princess from Another World> was the appearance of the two main characters.
Even then, the appearance of clothes or accessories was not certain. Obviously it was…
When I looked at the blue jewel that was embroidered on paper with sparkling blue silk, something new came to my mind.
The prince was holding a large sapphire necklace in his left hand and wrapped his right hand around Kristel’s waist.
And Kristel, who was reaching for the necklace he was holding.
There was no adverb of ‘maybe’.
If it was a jewel that was important enough to appear on the cover of a novel, it was no wonder that the duke would protect it with honor.
“It would be beautiful to make a necklace.”
I muttered mournfully.
– Hey!
“Are you chirping?”
And he added blankly to the unexpected noise.
A strange sound came from the side of the balcony that was wide open to enjoy the spring breeze.
In an instant, all sorts of thoughts came to mind.
I wondered if it was a crime to take the mountain right behind me lightly, and encountered a large insect that could only live in Australia.
“Prince, look at this.”
Canael, who went out to the balcony first, called me with an excited voice.
Benjamin, who was following the boy, saw something and stopped with a surprised look.
I swallowed dry saliva and stood up.
Still, it didn’t seem visually detrimental, seeing that he didn’t tell me not to come.
“What is it?”
As I passed the nailed Benjamin, I found a vine creeping up the railing of the balcony.
“Huh…”
It was like watching a scene from a nature documentary.
The growth process of the vine, filmed with a high-speed camera, was being reproduced in front of my eyes.
Tiny palm-shaped leaves quickly sprouted here and there.
And after a while…
– Kiyying!
The small animal that climbed up the vine roared bravely as if it was finally time for this body to appear.
It was a red panda. Crazy novel.