Chapter 15

After that, she couldn’t see her mother’s and His Majesty’s faces for three days.

When she went to the office, Lat said, “The two of them are eating together and are not ing to work because the meeting has been prolonged.”

Atil had a look on his face saying, “I’ve found out what I didn’t want to know.” and Lilyca worried.

“What is it with this long meeting? More than that, I think it would be better for Lat to attend the meeting rather than Mother.”

Did her mother have anything to say to His Majesty? She thought that Lat would know a lot better.

At Lilyca’s words, Lat looked disgusted.

“I’m never attending that meeting.”

Tan laughed like crazy to himself. Lat threw a wad of paper at the back of Tan’s head and said.

“So, you can relax for a while. It’s okay if you don’t e to the office. Both of you.”

Tan grabbed the second roll of paper Lat had thrown and turned around. With a smile still on his face, he said.

“Don’t worry, if something happens, we will tell you.”

At the words of the Prime Minister and the Commander-in-Chief of the Knights-Guards, the two were pushed out of the office. Lilyca shrugged her shoulders and said worriedly.

“Is Mother okay?”

“It may be difficult physically, but my uncle can’t be that much.”

Atil replied casually and paused, then looked at Lilyca. Lilyca shook her head at him, saying, “Whew.”

“It’s strange that he has a meeting with Mother, putting aside physical strength. Of course, I love Mother very much, but…”

She didn’t know why her mother had been talking about assassins with His Majesty for so long.

Atil coughed.

“It’s a useless worry.”

“Is guess so.”

“What story are you talking about? The person I was waiting for became anxious.”

[TL: Pai was waiting for Lilyca and he saw her being anxious while talking to Atil.]

Pai, who had been waiting nearby, approached them. And before she knew it, Bryn and Bran quickly joined behind them.

Pai smiled and looked at Lilyca.

“Hello, Princess. I wasn’t able to formally introduce myself.”

“This is Pai, this is Lilyca.”

Pai frowned at Atil’s explanation.

“Do you really have to?”

“Why? What?”

“You look just like His Majesty the Emperor.”

Atil’s face hardened slightly at Pai’s words. Before he could say anything, Pai quickly bowed deeply to Lilyca.

“I see the high ‘Nara Takar’. May your name shine like a star. I am Pai from the Sandar family. You may call me simply Pai.”

Lilyca’s eyes widened. She had learned, but it was the first time she was formally greeted.

She heard that it is not monly used except for ceremonies because it is old-fashioned.

“Nice to meet you. Pai of the Sandar family. My name is Lilyca.”

Pai raised his head and smiled.

“It is an honour to be introduced to you by your first name, Princess.”

The imperial family had a first name and a second name; externally, they operated under the second name. The first name was how they were called by their close ones —the idea was from a hundred years ago, and now, everyone used the first name.

Mrs Glenderin told her so.

For some reason, she felt like she had bee a real princess, so her heart pounded. Pai pulled up Bran, who was standing next to him, and said,

“This is Bran Sol. Do you know him?”

“Yes, Bryn’s older brother?”

Bran bowed his head and said hello.

“I see the high ‘Nara Takar’.”

“Call me Lilyca.”

Since the Sol family does not have a title, they can’t introduce their family name in front of the royal family.

However, Lilyca thought that the fact that there was no royal family who did not know the ‘Sol family’ was the interesting thing about the Sol family.

Pai had beige, straight hair up to shoulder length, and some of it was braided to the right.

‘By the way, Lat also has long hair. Do the people of the Sandar family grow all their hair?’

I’ll ask him later, Lilyca thought before quickly grabbing Bryn.

“This is Bryn Sol, my maid of honour. She is a very dear friend of mine.”

Bryn said, ‘Oh my God.’ as if moved. She placed her hand on her chest and gracefully greeted them while holding her skirt.

“I see the people of the highest rank.”

Pai marvelled at Bryn’s audacity to say hello to all of them at once, and Bran pressed down on his stomach.

Atil looked at Bryn with a stern look. He didn’t like that Lilyca said ‘a very dear friend’.

He openly ignored Bryn’s greeting and pulled Lilyca’s hand.

“Uh? Your Highness?”

Lilyca was startled and started walking along, and the group began walking one after another.

Atil was thinking about what to say to Lilyca, and then he mentioned,

“I heard you invested in a scammer?”

“A scammer?”

“Yes. Is that Ubara? The guy who’s doing something. They said he must be a scammer, but I heard that the empress invested in him. Maybe you did too?”

Lilyca stopped.

Atil stopped almost at the same time without pulling her with force. He looked back at Lilyca and she said seriously.

“He’s not a scammer.”

“What?”

“Ubara is not a scammer. He’s a good person.”

“That is the hallmark of a con artist.”

“He’s not a swindler.”

“How do you know?”

“You can tell by listening to his story. He’s not a fraud.”

“Going into floods is always a gamble. How can you guarantee that it is 100% possible? That guarantee itself is a fraud.”

“No, Ubara has experience.”

When Lilyca answered with determination, Atil’s expression began to harden.

“What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s a crook. Do you think there are only good people in the world?”

“That’s what I know best! But Ubara is not a scammer.”

“Then what will you do?”

“About what?”

“What are you going to do if that bastard is a scammer?”

As their conversation escalated, Pai panicked and put himself between them.

“Now, why are you two fighting over that person?”

“Right, I don’t think it’s just about that.”

Bran responded. Atil looked down at Lilyca with his arms crossed, and Lilyca looked at him without losing ground.

“If that bastard is indeed a fraud, after that, when you’ll invest in someone, e find me and get my permission.”

Lilyca straightened her back.

“Okay. Unless he’s not a scammer.”

Lilyca raised her eyebrows.

“And please don’t call people I trust a scammer.”

“Fine by me.”

“Deal.”

Both of them looked satisfied. Lilyca quickly took Atil’s hand again.

Atil looked at Lilyca in surprise. Since they just argued, he thought they would part like this.

But Lilyca was different. He grabbed her hand with a smile.

‘I see.’

It was okay to fight like this with Lilyca.

Atil held her hand. Lilyca asked.

“I have a question for you.”

“What is it?”

“Do you really have a territory? What kind of territory is it?”

“I have a territory, but the problem is that crops do not grow well because it is in the north.”

“Because wheat is vulnerable to cold weather. We may have to change the type of crop. Well, even if we change the type of crop, it won’t bring much value.”

Pai shrugged. Lilyca tilted her head.

“It’s not a good land?”

She thought it would be a good land if it was the Crown Prince’s.

“It’s not as cold as the land of the Inro family, but it’s not that good either.”

Atil added to Pai’s words.

“You have to be able to cultivate such a land well to bee emperor.”

“I see.”

But it’s a cold land, and she didn’t like it.

Lilyca didn’t particularly like snow. If you step on the snow with your bare feet, it will feel like it’s on fire. Or a sharp pain like a cut. Even though she could endure the summer heat, the winter cold was scary.

What if her nose or toes fall off?

At night, she was always worried about that.

“But it is very beautiful in summer.”

At Atil’s words, Pai nodded.

“The birch forest is beautiful. Summer is really pretty. Blackberries, raspberries, blueberries —berries of all kinds abound. During this time, you can pick a lot of them and make jam or syrup. Full buckets of them. Bears are eating them like crazy. Oh, and honey es out a lot too. Nuts are also present.”

Lilyca’s eyes widened.

“It sounds great.”

“I want to invite you when I go down to the estate in the summer. I think I will be staying in the capital this year.”

“Yes, invite me. Please.”

At Lilyca’s words, Atil frowned as if contemplating.

“If you have your escort knight.”

“Ha ha, that’s right. His Highness needs to pick one, right?”

Pai added softly. Atil started walking again without saying a word.

Pai and Bran looked into each other’s eyes and sighed.

Lilyca said.

“I have tried raspberry jam before. It was very pretty. It sparkles like a jewel and tastes so sweet… You mean there are a lot of them, right?”

It’s awesome. This territory was like a dream.

Bran laughed because Lyrica muttered so much. Atil snorted and tapped Lilyca on the head.

“Jam is boiled down with sugar. Real raspberries aren’t that sweet.”

“Nevertheless, I want to fill an entire bucket.”

Atil paused for a moment. He stopped and contemplated, then clenched his hand and began to walk quickly.

In the meantime, the party left the Sun Palace and headed for the backyard. The place was also quite wide, so they walked for a while. Bran said as he could see Lilyca starting to get tired.

“Excuse me, Princess, but can hold you?”

“Weakling.”

Atil clicked his tongue and he lifted Lilyca. Lilyca cried out in shock.

“I’m heavy!”

“You Highness, I will do it.”

At Bran’s words, Atil said, “it’s fine.” and started walking. It was twice as fast as before.

Lilyca stared blankly at Atil, then looked down at the floor. Then she looked at Atil again and asked.

“Aren’t I heavy?”

“You’re lighter than a colt.”

Lilyca rolled her eyes rolled. Was a colt light or heavy?

She had never seen a colt, so she didn’t know.

Lilyca spoke again.

“Your Highness is quite strong.”

Atil let out a small laugh involuntarily.

It was funny that she doesn’t know what a Takar was, what a Sandar was, or what a clan was.

Funny and lovely

Atil quickly erased the last words from his mind.

“Here we are.”

Atil said standing in front of the wall covered with ivy vines. Lilyca looked up at the wall.

“Are you going to climb the vines?”

“No.”

Atil put Lilyca down and set the ivy aside. Then an old wooden door appeared there.

Lilyca widened her eyes. Was the door leading out?

Atil took the key out of his pocket. The old wooden door creaked, but the latch opened without problems.

“Well.”

Atil pointed to the inside of the door and Bryn quickly caught Lilyca who had tried to enter.

“I will go in first.”

“Oh, yes.”

Bryn and Bran entered, followed by Lilyca, Atil, and Pai, who closed the door.

Lilyca, who passed through the door, exclaimed.

There was another garden.

The garden, which looked to be about 200 meters, looked like it had not been cared for a long time. However, it was a structure that looked closer to a field than a garden.

Small apple trees and vines were growing at will, and herbs and bushes were scattered everywhere.

The stone roads were disorganized, and the pillars that had been erected had fallen.

There was also a small hut. Was it a gardener’s hut?

But most of all, it was the bushes that caught Lilyca’s eyes. Among the green bushes, there were many bright red fruits.

Atil said.

“Pick only the ripe ones.”

“Where are we? What is this place?”

Lilyca kept asking questions, but Atil asked bluntly instead of answering them.

“You don’t want to pick raspberries?”

“It’s raspberries!”

Lilyca jumped and exclaimed. Confused, she turned to Bryn.

“But where are you going?”

“To get my apron. I’ll also bring a bucket. Shall we pick just as much as we can eat today?”

“Yes!”

Lilyca ran to the raspberry bush. The bright red ripe berries were picked one by one by hand, and while taking them to her mouth, she threw some into Bryn’s skirt as well.

The ones that looked pretty were going in the apron, and the ones that weren’t were for the mouth.

Not only raspberries, but other bushes were also in bloom, and the herbs were giving off a sweet, tangy scent.

Lilyca also put a fruit in Bryn’s mouth. This is because Bryn was unable to use her hands as she was holding the apron with both hands.

She collected some of the biggest and most beautiful fruits and gave them to Atil and Pai.

Bran said with a smile.

“We can help too.”

As soon as several people picked the fruits, a pile of raspberries piled up on the apron.

On the way back, Atil gave Lilyca the key.