Chapter 43 - Harvest Festival (6)

Translator: Kimmy

Editor: Sasha_00

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Amber lifted her dress slightly. 

The small gems all over her beautiful sapphire dress shined like stars whenever she moved. 

Objectively speaking, Amber was a quite beautiful maiden. 

Her beauty was especially more visible tonight. Both she and her dress drew many people’s attention to her.

Amber was well aware of how she appeared. That was why she had asked Brigitta to accompany her so that she wouldn’t get pestered. 

My partner is the swordmaster, Sir Brigitta! If you are not as cool, handsome, and competent as Sir Brigitta don’t even come near me!

This was the message Amber was sending when rejecting the constant requests for a dance.

Brigitta too, took advantage of her handsomeness and helped Amber as much as she could. 

“But you look beautiful tonight.”

“I know I do.”

“Eric is over there.”

Brigitta smirked mischievously and Amber gave her the side-eye and pinched her arm softly. 

They looked like a lovely couple. 

Brigitta said “ouch” even if it didn’t hurt and nodded towards Eric, who was on guard duty outside the ballroom. 

“Why don’t you show yourself off to him?”

“It won’t work on him.”

Amber’s beautiful face flushed red in a split second.

She was getting frustrated with Eric who was not picking up any clues from her obvious flirting.

If she walked out right now and asked him how she looked tonight, he would miss the whole point and ask if the jewels on her hair were heavy or not.

He was cute but also annoying. 

Bastard. 

Amber swore at the man she scorned because she loved him. 

“But still, who knows.”

“It really won’t work on him. He’s an extreme fan of the Emperor and he met His Majesty recently so his mind is probably only full of that moment.”

“Hmm.”

“Besides that, do you really have nothing going on with His Majesty?”

“Me?”

Brigitta looked over at Karlos who was looking utterly bored and turned back to Amber with a confused expression. 

Me? And the Emperor? 

She did wonder about the strength and physical power their baby would have if they ever sexually congress somehow. But that was it.

If there is anything between Karlos and Brigitta it would be familial care. 

“Does it look like there is anything?”

“Hm, I thought there could be something before I got to know you but now I don’t think there is. You look at His Majesty differently from the way I look at Eric.”

Brigitta nodded and thought of someone who looked at Eva like the way Amber looked at Eric.

She flicked her head back to stare at the Emperor. 

Karlos noticed her gaze and gestured with his eyes. 

‘Why? What is it?’

Hmmmmm.

Brigitta’s lips formed into a smirk.

It sounds unbelievable, but perhaps it’s not? I should ask him indirectly later.

The way Karlos looked at Eva was similar to the way Amber was looking at Eric right now.

Brigitta snatched a glass of champagne from the servant’s tray as she covered her lips. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

After arriving at the Palace without the interruption of the journalists, Eva greeted the guards and headed towards the meeting spot she agreed on with Brigitta. 

Meeting plaza 3, was it?

There were many empty areas within the palace that were separated at a certain repeated and measured distance.

People often arranged to meet in these areas and soon they came to be called the ‘Meeting Plaza’.

According to Brigitta, there were up to 12 Meeting plazas. And that came to be of great use for Eva and Brigitta for the past few weeks.  

Since they only had to change the meeting plazas every time they needed to meet up. 

Even so, the journalists somehow always found out which meeting plaza they were at despite them always choosing a random meeting plaza number. 

But today, there were no journalists at all. 

Those leeches! Suffer now! 

The spite the Chancellor highly praised seemed to be oozing out of her small fists. 

Lesa’s fall starts getting colder rapidly after the Harvest Festival. 

Even though only a day had passed, the weather had gotten so much colder that Eva shivered. 

The white coat she was hesitant to wear today was indeed not enough for the cold. 

Eva breathed out and watched her breath turn into fog. 

“Well, it’s seven and a half so…”

It was almost the arranged time to meet Brigitta. 

Normally they would not arrange to meet this early in the morning, but the City Hall didn’t give a confident answer on how long they will be able to hold back the journalists.

So they decided to move fast before the journalists could be released. 

Eva bought a cup of warm coffee and sat on the bench and opened the notebook she always carries. 

After screwing up with the journalists big time, Eva finished her draft at an unbelievably fast speed. 

Though, she still had to go through it once to check the flow and grammar. 

Eva was feeling way more at ease today than yesterday. 

Her face was still lifeless because of the lack of sleep but this had always been her lifestyle till now so it was all fine. 

“Whoa.”

The coffee of the palace was indeed different. She heard that they used leftover coffee beans for these coffees but the quality of the coffee was on another level. It was bitter and a little sour just like how Eva liked it. 

Her freezing fingers started warming up from the heat of the coffee cup. 

“So peaceful~”

She never thought she would have this kind of life when she was a child. 

The Eva that used to live in the streets is now in a Palace drinking coffee served by a servant? 

If the leader of the thieves heard about this he would have laughed his heart out.

Well, he did actually die with his heart out. 

Eva blinked her doe eyes and recalled a horrible memory.

Then about 5 minutes later, she saw a tall silver-haired knight approaching from afar. 

“Bri!”

“Eeeeeevvvvaaaa!”

“Aaargh!”

Brigitta spotted Eva and ran and threw herself in Eva’s arms. 

Technically, it was more like Brigitta hugged Eva because of the build difference. 

Eva quickly noticed that Brigitta was acting strange. 

A strong stench of alcohol reeked from Brigitta. 

“Oh my. Were you drinking?”

“Yes! It washguuud! [sober version: It was good! Alcohol! A rich person buying it makes it taste way better!] Strawberry flavor!”

Whew, thank goodness I got rid of the journalists yesterday. 

Eva was relieved. 

Brigitta chuckled and threw Eva into the air and started spinning. 

The officers passing by looked at her with awe but soon continued on their way to work. 

Eva tapped Brigitta’s shoulders, who now started talking in Holkan. 

“Hey! Bri! Let me down!”

“Eva, [sober version: So light! I like you big sis!] Cute!”

“Aaah, I should have learned some Holkan!”

Eva looked down at the handsome knight burying her face into Eva’s torso and made a tearful face. 

She was cute but Eva couldn’t understand a thing she was saying. And guessing by her red face and loud voice, Brigitta was not aware of what she was talking about either.

Now, how do I bring her home?

“To add for the sake of my dignity, it wasn’t a strawberry-flavored drink, it was a regular whiskey. Bri just ate it together with some kind of biscuit with strawberry jam on top.”

“Eeeeeck!”

Eva shrieked at the low voice that came from behind her but soon recognized the voice and turned to face him while still being caught in Brigitta’s arms. 

The scary-looking, black-haired knight was looking at them with a blunt stare. 

Eva felt like she had met a savior.

“Karl!”

“Hello, Eva. Good… Morning.”

Karlos was going to say good morning but hesitated after seeing Brigitta’s state. 

Maybe it wasn’t that much of a good morning today since she had to experience that.

The Emperor made an awkward face but it looked like he briefly smiled like he was scoffing– only Brigitta or Chancellor would be able to tell whether it was an awkward expression. 

Fortunately, Eva didn’t think he was scoffing. 

While still trapped inside the swordmaster’s arms, Eva raised her hand and waved. 

“Heyy, Hello. Before anything else, what happened?”

“We were just having a drink yesterday, it’s just that she…”

“What? Just the two of you?”

“Ah, I swear I didn’t do anything to her. She had this sudden urge of competitiveness and ended up drinking until now… I should have stopped her midway, I apologize.”

Karlos bowed his head and apologized but Eva was surprised at something else more. 

“What? Until just now? Since when were you two drinking?”

Don’t tell me they were drinking overnight?

Brigitta reeked of alcohol but Karlos looked so normal for a person who was up all night. 

He looked even better than the officers walking by who were freshly cleaned and well-rested. 

“I’m not so sure, about 2 in the morning.”

“Aren’t you tired?!”

“I’m alright. She should be fine too, it’s just that she looks like she isn’t because she is drunk.”

“Knights are amazing…”

Eva mumbled softly. 

Karlos heard it and smiled almost unnoticeably. 

It was just that Karlos and Brigitta were unusual, not all knights could be like this. 

Karlos felt a bit weird because he felt like he gave Eva an inaccurate impression of knights. 

“Hmm, how do I go back home with her now…”

“I was actually going to drop her off myself but she insisted that she had to meet you here.”

Brigitta barged into the Emperor’s bedroom with a whole bottle of whiskey last night. 

It was him who suggested drinking first but he didn’t mean to have a heavy drinking session. 

The Emperor stared as Brigitta made her place on the floor and failed to hide his perplexity. 

It was to the point Karlos quietly asked her if anything bad had happened to her. 

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