Chapter 9

The night was going slowly, but the light of dawn was spreading quickly.

Ever since the first day of the Terre Festival when she danced with the king, Ashite had been having small conversations with some high-class nobles in the corner of the ballroom. Ashite was good at talking to people who tried their best to be polite and have shallow conversations. She was used to it. All of the people who were dukes, counts, marquises, and any other nobles from the countrysides approached her and soon after disappeared.

When Duke Moncheta greeted her, he smiled a bit awkwardly at her. He seemed to feel bad for his daughter’s impoliteness towards Ashite, so she smiled brightly back at him. It was not the duke’s fault. At the same time, she could understand what was going in his daughter’s mind, too. Ashite forgave her as she understood how she must feel, and Duke Moncheta bowed down to her to thank her for the smile.

For Ashite, all she did for the Terre Festival was a general welcoming and some small talk with nobles. She occasionally had a sip of champagne, too.

Although it was quite boring for Ashite, it wasn’t too bad. After she realized that she would have her safety guaranteed here and that L’avenant was coming, she thought she did enough as a foreigner in this country without making any mistakes.

The ball went well, and the four days of the end of the year ball were almost over, too. It was the ball where various nobles, artists, scholars, and, most importantly, the king gathered together.

Ladies were decorated with all kinds of jewelry and gentlemen were dressed up, and even the guard knights and servants enjoyed the night and welcomed the dawn. The light of the sunrise slowly filled in the ballroom. It was the end of a sad year for some and the start of a hopeful year for others. For Ashite, it was the new beginning.

Feeling sentimental, Ashite stood by the window to watch the sunrise. All the tangled memories and emotions of the past made her feel complicated, but at least she did not regret anything. Bits of her memories were melting away slowly. Whatever the situation, living in this palace was much better than what she had to go through in that cold lonely palace.

Suddenly, Yeref called Ashite, who was zoned out by the windows. Ashite looked to the side. The knight with shining silver hair greeted her.

It was the greeting of the new year. “May the blessing of Monvixo be with you, and I hope you have a happy new year.” Although she could not understand completely, Ashite could figure out the intention of the few words Yeref said in Monvixo.

Ashite waved gently to him as she received the greeting. She also said a few words in Moniten to Yeref as a new year’s message.

Colorful fireworks were filling up the sky to celebrate the new year — the sky illuminated with red, yellow, blue, green, pink, purple, orange, and finally, dark red. The king gave a new year’s speech, and the Terre Festival finally ended.

***

Even though it was the middle of the winter, it seemed to be warmer than the spring in Skara. Ashite decided to stop overthinking and enjoy the warmth of Monterobis. There were things she could do in the room, but she mostly walked around outside. She was in the biggest and fanciest palace in Latrice, Ottoi Monvixo. Ashite walked around in the palace. There were no spots she was not allowed to go.

She sometimes walked by the walls covered in ivy vines in the corners of the palace, and once the spring came, she looked around the green field full of flowers. Other times, she sat down on the long bend in the middle of the garden with statues all day. When she was in the rose garden, she would walk in a circle, smiling like a child. She did not have to worry if she was going to get lost. She had the most trustworthy navigator next to her.

Yeref would always follow her without saying anything or changing his facial expression. Ashite was aware that her daily life was always reported to the king by Yeref, but she did not mind it. She was not in a position to complain, nor did she want to.

She’d been having such a great time walking around the palace. Once in a while, when it wasn’t too cold, she would have a picnic on the flower field and warm herself with the sunlight. She truly loved to relax like this.

Finally, she looked around everywhere in the palace, including the Monvixo temple and the palace of Etutu, the ballrooms, and the office rooms. She did not look at the minor details, but she was impressed with just the outer decorations.

One place she did not go, however, was inside of Otoi Nante. The only places she would go inside were her own room and restaurant. She was now able to picture the details on the wall just by her memory. However, the owner of the palace was the king. She knew she could not look around and walk into random rooms.

Of course, the whole palace and this whole country were owned by the king, technically. However, he would not stop her from exploring the palace even though he knew what she did from the reports by Yeref. So, she knew she was able to walk around the grand palace without worrying about a thing.

On some other days, she would borrow a few books from the royal library, or she would read there as time flew by. She would attempt to skip meals because she was so engrossed in some of the books, but the servants won’t allow her to do so.

Starting from Yeref saying he would report it to the king, the servants and even the librarians would beg her to eat every meal. Ashite had no choice but to eat a little with what servants had prepared for her. Once she told them that she would skip a few meals here and there in Skara, and the leader of the servants would ask her to stop thinking that way and that her health mattered to all of them.

Ashite would sometimes think they were treating her like a child. But honestly, she did not hate it. It would be fair to say she liked it.

Even in the famous library in Skara, Wroclaw, she was never treated this way even though she was the princess of the palace. Nobody would care for her stuck in Wroclaw, no matter how many meals she would skip. It was such a cold-hearted palace that no one cared for her except for her mother.

Nothing had changed about her; she was still a powerless princess. It was just the place where she stayed that had been changed, but everyone treated her differently. Ashite smiled. Maybe the king ordered them to take care of her, she thought. He would always make sure everything went his way.

Just as Ashite realized at the Terre Festival, he never bothered or interrupted her in any way.

For Ashite, she had such a content and satisfying life, walking around, reading, staying in the library, and sometimes dancing in her room. As the spring was coming by, she would arrange and decorate flowers, too.

Occasionally, when she thought she would forget what the king’s eyes looked like, he would invite her to the meal. It was always just the two of them at a huge, round table. The meal would always take a long time, but most of the time, they would never talk to each other. The dining room was filled with silence, not even a single dish clacking on the table.

However, neither of them felt uncomfortable about it. It was weird to see them never having a conversation, as they would never meet privately, either. The only time they would communicate was when Lu Havre let her know about the public events.

“There will be Menang around March.”

There were about three weeks left before the ball. Ashite was not planning to participate. Menang was different than other balls like the Terre Festival. Menang was for young couples to talk and dance until dawn. Ashite did not even have a partner to go with. She knew that she would have to go as a royal guest, but she thought it would not be necessary as there would be another Menang in fall.

Above all this, she already had somewhere to be. Ashite remembered the letter she received a few days ago.

In a polite way, Ashite refused to go to Menang. Lu Havre seemed to accept it without hearing the reason why. That was how the meal ended.

After she came back to her room, Ashite grabbed the letter that had been on her desk for a few days.

It was written in nice cursive. Except for her own mother and her dance teacher, the only person who acknowledged her dancing and cared for her in Skara was L’avenant. He was the fifth child of the king and the son of the queen, the smart and clever crown prince of Skara.

To Ashite, Lante was a more familiar name. Rather than the Skara royal stamp on the letter, Lante’s writing mattered more to her.

But she could not help but think that the king cherished Lante too much. Looking at the stamp, she could tell it was a stamp that only the king could use. It seemed like the king made another one to give to Lante for sending him to Monterobis.

Compared to how she left — without any gifts or farewells — the way he treated Lante was so different. It should have been obvious from Hanus the Second…

Ashite cut off her own thoughts. She grabbed her forehead and sighed.

She looked back at the letter and started to read again. It was not the longest letter, but it showed how much the boy missed her and loved her.