CH 7

Since today's weather was good, it has been decided that they will have the tea party outside. The weather being good is only a front, because Nicolette seemed to be doing some secret research in the garden. Since it was the season when the roses were blooming, she will use roses in the experiment.

Wolfgang, who somehow wanted to see Nicolette's experiment, one way or another, finished his work and quickly came out to the garden. The rose garden they were at was a garden that was taken care of by the Empress for a generation. At the present time, Nicolette was the one who was supposed to take care of it….

"... Somehow, it felt really weird."

"Yes...even though it doesn’t have any sense of integrity, it looks really good "

Wolfgang and Alberto said that with an amazed tone with the spectacle happening right in front of their eyes. Of course, the garden itself didn't change much from it's original shape. In a lot of places there were various kinds of flowers that they have never seen there before blooming.

Since it seems that the Empress at the time when the palace was created was a bit perfectionist, the garden was made symmetrical. The way it became was amazing, the Empress after that tended to the garden following her example, but it seems that Nicolette's sense is a bit different from the Empress in the past.

The symmetry was still there. Of course, it was hard to change the shape of the garden as it is, so it was a different matter of course. However, there was a change in the flowers that should have been planted in an ordered pattern. The same flowers weren’t planted in the same place as the other side. Though, Wolfgang didn't quite understand the artistic sense on what she had done, but he knew that she had a good sense of art.

"She really did everything very well, eh…."

"I can't say it is other than amazing, eh."

Both Wolfgang and Alberto were impressed.

The other day, the information that Wolfgang asked one of his retainer’s about Nicolette's livelihood when she was still at Roware Kingdom had arrived. Both Wolfgang and Alberto already looked over her file.  

Nicolette Do Roware, in the Hainzel Empire’s dialect it would be, Nicola Roware. It seems that the thing about her receiving a prophecy that she will kill her father was the truth. Though, this story wasn’t known even among the nobles, but it still has become gossip. The reason that the gossip stopped was because the person herself, Nicolette, was never seen, perhaps that's it.

Also, the thing about her father who feared her existence and exiled her with her mother, also seemed to be true.

Prophecy, it was the remains of magic that once existed in this world. It is said that fortune tellers were already extinct, that's why, whenever a prophecy was handed down, it was deemed as something ‘that would never miss’.

Though Nicolette said that it was, ‘Scientifically impossible’. However, the proof that the prophecy ‘will never miss’ still existed.

Nicolette's mother, Beatrice Do Darimoa, or known by her other name as Beatrice Of Darimoa was a person that was born on the island country located at the west side of the continent. The present King of Darimoa was her big brother, and so he was Nicolette's uncle. The King of Darimoa and Beatrice's father, just like Nicolette, received a prophecy at the time of his birth.

‘This kid will bring a new era to this world’

The Prince Nicholas's prophecy, the most famous story of Nicolette's grandfather. In the end, he died at a young age, and didn't become the King, but certainly he did bring a new era to the world. Prince Nicholas was always flipping over people’s common logic all the time. Creating a system that will bear the burden of the country with the King and parliament, and put it into realization. Furthermore, he created a school that taught commoners how to draw and write, raising the nation's power. It is said that the one who created industry protection was Prince Nicholas. (ED: In case you don’t know, he basically increased their literacy and education rate)

Also, he changed the way of war. The first one who introduced guns, artillery, and other kinds of firearms to the war was him. Because of this, the way of war was greatly changed. With his strange strategy, he made his enemies all fall into confusion.

The one that was feared as the Cruel Emperor was Wolfgang, but before Wolfgang was raised as the King, the one who was feared was Prince Nicholas . He was known in the world as ‘The slaughter that brought change’.

Prince Nicholas, that gave the world a chance to change. By the time Wolfgang was aware of his surroundings, he was already gone, but his story is still passed down for generations. The prophecy that was given to him was becoming true. There was also the fact that Nicolette was the granddaughter of Prince Nicholas. It was understandable that the King of Roware feared her as a prophecy was given to her.

However, the fear of the King of Roware wasn't normal. Not only putting his own daughter in exile, he even exiled her with her mother into the monastery at the border, the fortune teller that told the prophecy was also executed. Since the fact that the King of Roware had a mistress, it was understandable that he sent even Beatrice to the monastery, but more than that, it seems that the King of Roware feared Beatrice and Nicolette because they had a blood relation with Prince Nicholas. (ED: God, for a King, he is super paranoid to have to take care of a country)

However, since Prince Nicholas already died when Beatrice married into Roware, the King also had already changed. Beatrice's big brother became a King at a young age. However, at the present time, Darimoa is in turmoil, the time when they knew about it, Beatrice and Nicolette were already exiled in monastery. (ED: Makes no sense, Darioma should have sent a letter or went to war for them to return their royalty, makes no sense to me at all, interesting though)

Well, Wolfgang's guess was included in those thoughts, so the actual condition was still unknown.

King Roware didn't seem to care what happened to his wife and daughter that was sent to the monastery. Fortunately, the monastery was a good one. Beatrice was a researcher while she raised Nicolette, and before she realized it, Nicolette also became one of the researchers.

It seems the time when the King of Roware met with Nicolette was only once when she was about to be sent to the Hainzel Empire. Though he already realized it, but his doubt that Nicolette is actually a spy has almost disappeared. Rather, if some freedom liking girl like her became a spy, he felt like she would be found out almost immediately. She was thoughtless, after all.

By the way, it seems that Nicolette's mother is really the one who found things. Different from Nicolette who said ‘I do natural science, you kno~w’. Beatrice excelled at inventing new things. As expected of Prince Nicholas's daughter.

However, the actual thing was still unknown. It was the King of Roware that cut off all information related to Nicolette and her mother. In the first place, the monastery where she belonged to was really at the border of the Kingdom. In rural areas, no information about that place was publicly known.

Well, since the person herself was smiling carefreely like that, it shouldn't matter anymore, or so he thought. Wolfgang too, was already influenced by Nicolette a lot.

He looked at Nicolette who was doing something in front of a flower that was still budding. When Wolfgang was about to call her ‘Nicolette’, he realized something.

Nicolette, had the same name as her grandfather ‘Nicholas’. Perhaps, the one who named her as Nicolette was her mother, Beatrice, and her mother named her like that to give respect to her dear father. This is what Wolfgang thought.

"Nicola."

As she got called by her nickname, Nicolette quickly turned around, and after she blinked for a few seconds, she returned back to her smiling face.

"His Majesty, Good Afternoon. Is it already tea time?"

"Aah...what are you doing?"

"Un. I wanted to do selective breeding on roses."

And so, she raised her hand that was holding pinset and paintbrushes. It seems she tried to crossbreed the flower. Since Wolfgang came, Nicolette's paused her work and moved into the gazebo to have her tea time.

Though Nicolette, just like always, had a enthusiastic  face whenever she saw cake that was in front of her,  today, before she put those thing into her mouth, she spoke to Wolfgang who sat in front of her.

"Umm, you know, His Majesty."

"What?"

"Some time ago, you called me ‘Nicola’, right?"

"....If you don’t like it, I won’t call you that."

As he said that, Nicolette shook her head. She slightly squint her eyes and smiled,

"My dear mother also called me ‘Nicola’, you know ."

"..."

‘Nicola’ wasn't a name commonly used in Roware. Well, it's not like it wasn’t that common in Roware, but if he had to say, it was a name frequently used in the Hainzel Empire, or even Darimoa Kingdom.  However, thinking that Nicolette's mother was a person that came from Darimoa, it wasn't weird at all for her to call Nicolette ‘ Nicola’.

It's just, ‘Nicola’ was the female version of ‘Nicholas’. Though, he didn't know the exact story of it, the probability of Beatrice giving the name of her daughter the same name as her dead father was rather high. Since the name 'Nicola' wasn’t very widespread in Roware, she was named ‘ Nicolette’  and she called her ‘Nicola’ as her nickname.

"Since my mother passed away, I thought that there was no one else who still called me ‘Nicolla’ anymore."

"You can call me Nicole or Nicola though.”

The moment they met, she said that. Perhaps, she always wanted someone to call her 'Nicola'. Perhaps, she wanted to be called that name to remember her deceased mother.

"That's why, I was happy when you called me 'Nicola', you know."

She smiled brightly, really brightly, as she said that. For her, who was always smiling, that smile of hers was the prettiest of them all, which is what Wolfang thought. While slightly entranced with Nicolette's smile, Wolfgang said,

"...If that's what you want, I will call you 'Nicola'.”

"Um...thank you."

As soon as she said that, she chomped on the cake. Right now, she made her usual enthusiastic smile just like she always did. Looking at that smile, Wolfgang felt blessed, but her happy smile from before was something that make his heart flutter a bit.

If Nicolette will make a smile that bright, perhaps it wasn't that bad, or so Wolfang thought.

(ED: Awesome, he is falling in love with his arranged marriage partner)

************************************************