CH 20

At breakfast the next morning, Mother Elise got mad at Cain, again, saying, “I don’t like it that Di only ever comes to you with her problems!” Three days later, though, she gifted Cain and Ilvalino personal embroidery frames.

The outer surfaces were decorated with ivy, moons, and stars, and the inner surfaces had their names engraved on them. Cain’s was blue, and Ilvalino’s was red, and Mother Elise had personally handed them their gifts. 

“I hope you know,” Mother Elise said, “That just because I’m giving you these tools, it doesn’t mean that I’ve deemed your embroidery skills acceptable, just yet. If you want to come with me to the royal palace, you’ll have to keep working hard at it.”

Ilvalino was receiving a personal item with his name on it for the first time in his life, and he was overjoyed. Of course, he was doing his best to hide it, though. 

Diana protested, saying, “Why do Bwother and Ilu-kun get gifts? What about Di?!” 

Mother Elise replied, “If you put in as much work into your embroidering as your brother and Ilu-kun have, you will receive a gift, as well.” This seemed to motivate Diana to start putting her all into embroidery. 

Then, the day before the Queen Sponsored Embroidery Club meeting finally arrived. Cain showed Mother Elise his latest completed embroidery project.

The design that Cain had followed consisted of a white wolf and a black wolf facing each other, howling in unison. In the background was an assortment of flowers and the moon. 

The design was related to the royal house, as the royal emblem also depicted two wolves, but it was quite different from the layout of the actual emblem, and it merely borrowed the motif as a subject. 

Cain had meticulously embroidered the wolves’ fur, and the direction of his stitches followed the flow of their manes along their bodies. He had even used gray and silver thread to depict glossy highlights in their fur. 

He had also managed to create an illusion of three-dimensionality, with the moonlight highlighting the top left sides of objects, and shadows darkening the bottom right sides. 

Ilvalino’s work of the same design was a lot less colorful, and he hadn’t included three-dimensionality or highlights in his embroidery, but Mother Elise thought that for a child who had never even touched a needle until two months before, he had done an impressive job with following the design accurately. 

She sighed, and said, “Well, I guess I can’t deny that you two did well. Tomorrow, I will bring Cain with me to the royal capital. Ilvalino, would you like to join us as his chamberlain?”

Elise had thought that Ilvalino had been working hard at his embroidery because he wanted to come, too, but Ilvalino politely declined, saying, “No, thank you.”

“Ilvalino will be making a return visit to the orphanage, tomorrow,” said Cain. “He told me that since I’ll be away, he’s going to take this opportunity to go back and give the children gifts that he has bought with last month’s salary.”

“Oh, is that right?” asked Elise. “I hope you’ve been getting enough days off. I know Cain always keeps you close by his side, but don’t start thinking that he can keep you from getting your rest. Make sure you take some days off, once in a while.”

Ilvalino nodded gratefully in thanks to Mother Elise. He also shot a look towards Cain that said, Why’re you telling Mother about my personal business?  He tried to grab Cain’s attention, but Cain just ignored him.

Cain’s motives would become clear the next day when Ilvalino headed out to the orphanage, but for now, he just seemed like a blabbermouth. [Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

Diana had also learned the Running Stitch, the Back Stitch, and the Chain Stitch. She was now able to make outlines of simple images like apples and cherries, and fill them in, as well. 

Mother Elise had given Cain her frank and honest opinion on his work, but her comments toward Diana were like mysterious diversions. She said to her, “You’re not a famous player or a famous director, just yet.”

Cain said, “Diana, when we go to the royal capital tomorrow, make sure you never leave my side. There’s a treacherous evil prince, there. I’ve heard that he’s plotting to eat you.”

“An evil prince?!” cried Diana.

“Cain! What on earth are you telling her?!” exclaimed Elise. 

“Diana is so cute and irresistible that when she comes before any boy or man on this earth, it’s always a possibility that they will be overcome with desire in their hearts. They could very well lose touch with all logic and reason, and become uncontrollable beasts,” said Cain. 

“…Cain, why must you be like this?… Tomorrow, not only will the royal prince be present, there will be many boys and girls joining the meeting with their parents. You will be kind to all of them,” she said. 

Elise put her hand to her brow and shook her head. 

She knew that Cain had always doted on Diana, but this was a whole new level. She massaged her temples, wondering why he was acting so different from the time he got along with all the children around his age at the orphanage. There were not only girls, but boys there, as well, and he hadn’t shown any signs of rejecting them this intensely, then.

Cain had been right in assuming that this whole deal with the embroidering meeting was simply a pretense to have young noble girls meet the prince as candidates for his future hand in marriage. Only those of noble families with the rank of Marquis or higher could join the embroidery club, and so this was a good way to gather young ladies of high-ranking noble families. Since this wasn’t a formal ceremony, like a tea party or something along those lines, it was a clever plan to avoid the complaints from excluded noble families of lower rank. 

However, when word got out that there would be many high-ranking young ladies gathering at this meeting, the participating noble families realized that this would be a good opportunity to have their sons meet candidates for their own hands in marriage, and so they started saying that they wanted their sons to be able to attend, as well. Ultimately, it was decided that any children around the ages of three to five could attend, regardless of gender. 

“Di. Diana,” said Elise. “Tomorrow, there will be many children your age at the meeting. You will say hello to everyone and make lots of new friends. And don’t worry – there’s not going to be any evil prince, there.”

“Friends!” Diana exclaimed. “Will we be playing Rock Marbles?! Will we go out and look for strong rocks?”

Rock Marbles was the game that the children at the orphanage had taught her and Cain. It was very unlikely that the noble children would be familiar with it. 

“You will be indoors tomorrow, so there will be no playing Rock Marbles. Let’s have everyone take a look at the embroidery you worked so hard on,” said Elise. 

“No Rock Marbles…” said Diana.

Cain had been to the orphanage three times since they had learned about Rock Marbles there, but Diana hadn’t revisited at all, yet. Her parents hadn’t given permission to go, after all. 

Diana was still only four years old and was not allowed to leave the mansion without her parents. Cain couldn’t go out unless there were guardsmen who were free to accompany him, but that did allow him a level of freedom far beyond Diana’s. It was possible that this was due to Cain being a boy, and Diana a girl, but it was also likely that he was allowed certain freedoms because of his way of speaking and his actions. He just didn’t seem very much like a child. 

“Cain,” said Elise, wagging her finger at him with a strict expression on her face. “Remember that you’re tagging along as a guest, so you need to behave yourself. I’m letting you come because you say you’re interested in embroidery. If I see you obsessing over Diana the whole time, I won’t hesitate to have you leave, partway through the meeting, understood?”

Cain had asked to join the meeting with the specific goal of getting in the way of Diana meeting the prince. He felt as though Elise had him all figured out and wasn’t going to let him get away with his plan. If he didn’t still go to the palace, though, he wouldn’t be able to scope out the situation at all, so he just nodded and accepted the situation. 

“I understand, Mother,” he said, reluctantly and bitterly. He looked utterly defeated and unsatisfied. Seeing him like that, Mother Elise felt a deep sense of worry.