CH 43

‘Somehow, I believed that it would be possible to bake cookies again after a little more time…’

It was written when I was younger than now, so the handwriting was big and crooked. However, the recipes of the snacks that were now blurred from memory were also written quite clearly. Even before she was born as the daughter of Yuriev and Irina, her dream was to bake sweets.

Which meant that she wanted it very much, and that she didn’t achieve it in the end. She wanted to make her dream come true, but she couldn’t afford an education otherwise, although she read books and watched movies. Back then, she could only watch and couldn’t try making it, so what was the use, she bitterly wondered…

‘Now this is enough. I want nothing more.’

Asha, who was rolling on the bed with her old notebook and linen nightgown in her arms, paused for a moment. She didn’t think there was nothing she wanted more…

‘If I get fondant chocolate recipe and chocolate proceeds, I’ll make Phoebe powder with it and sell it, then I can use the money to build a big house for myself and live with mom and dad, right?’

Asha burst into a bash of laughter with such an imagination.

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

Phoebe, who was wandering around the palace arbitrarily, returned in the middle of the night when everyone nearby was asleep.

<My God, what is this?>

Phoebe pulled Asha’s hair, who was about to fall asleep. Asha rubbed her eyes and raised herself.

“What is it, Phoebe… if you’re here, go to sleep.”

She was sleeping sweetly in the nightgown her parents sent her, but when she forced her to wake up, Asha complained.

<What the hell is that in the closet?>

But Phoebe didn’t seem to hear, pointing to the space beyond the bedroom. It was where her dressing room was.

“Closet?”

Asha stopped rubbing her eyes and freaked out. It was because she remembered a horror movie that she stopped watching in her previous life.

Don’t open the closet door and don’t look under the bed. You shouldn’t pull out the chair halfway, lift the blanket, or look through the narrow gaps…

When she started thinking about those things, she woke up with goosebumps.

<Hurry up and open the closet door over there!>

“N, no!”

<Why?>

“I’m scared because you said useless things!”

<That’s absurd. Are you saying that there is something scary about it that you are shouting at me?>

“Because you’re the size of lemon-flavored macarons…” At Asha’s words, Phoebe pulled her hair.

<Hurry up and open it!>

“If you want to open it like that, you open it! You’ve opened the cage door well!”

<This cage door hook is made of magic stones, so it’s possible, but it’s not that! How many times have I told you that interfering in the human world is done through you? How on earth can my words be engraved in that little brain. Tsk tsk.>

Asha opened her mouth out of injustice and eventually came down from under the bed.

In the middle of the night, Asha, who began exploring the bedroom, led by Phoebe, passed the dressing room and opened another door. It was a small warehouse room that was embarrassing to say was attached to her room. There was only a little clutter and it was empty. And there was another locked door on the inner wall.

<Open that door quickly. I need to check what’s in here.>

“…Was something like this in my room?”

<It’s something I don’t know.>

“But it’s locked. I don’t even know what key to open that with!”

Asha shouted breathlessly at Phoebe, who insisted on opening the door now. Phoebe flapped her wings and pointed to one side. A rugged key hung right next to the lock.

<That’s the key!>

“Why do you leave the lock and key together?”

<Because humans are stupid.>

“There’s a limit to being stupid…”

She wanted to shout as if that made sense, but being unable to do this or that because of Phoebe’s grasp, Asha put the key in the lock with her trembling hands. The noise of the meeting between the iron of the lock and the iron of the key made her shudder, and the bird did not know that and only annoyed her.

Click!

The lock was opened with a small sound, but Asha could not at all take the courage to open the door. She eventually fetched her ribbon waistband from the corner of the dressing room.

Asha, half in tears, tied a ribbon to the handle of the closet, pulled it as far away as she could.

With her fist in her mouth as if she was going to scream.

Clickkiiiiiik…

‘Aaaaaaa! Aaaaaa! Aaaaaaaang! Aaaaaa!’

Nothing had happened yet, but Asha screamed inside about a thousand times.

“…Aaa…?”

Then, the powerless scream stopped, and a mysterious silence filled the place. Phoebe flew up and sat on the top of her head and tilted her head.

<This is…>

“…Ivan?”

Asha blinked her eyes with a puzzled expression. Where she thought it was a closet, there was a space full of beds and a sink. A boy was sitting on a small bed in an excessively small room. It was Ivan who woke up when she opened the door.

“I,Ivan? What… What are you doing here?”

Asha realized in one breath that she had asked the wrong question. Ivan came straight out of bed and kneeled in front of her. The thud startled Asha and raised Ivan to his feet.

“Oh, no. I don’t know what to say. Is this Ivan’s ro… room?”

This place looks like a remodeled warehouse attached to the dress room, doesn’t it? Ivan nodded while Asha retorted to herself.

“…Yes. The attendants told me that it was my room.”

Ivan’s face was expressionless, and she still couldn’t see the flow of emotion, so she couldn’t figure out what he was thinking.

<How is the Noctis elf here?>

‘Noctis elf?’

<They shouldn’t come out of the northern lands? How are you here?>

‘You mean Ivan is a Noctis elf?!’

Asha opened her mouth, looking alternately at Ivan and Phoebe, who seemed to be shining blue light somewhere even in the dark.

<How can he be here!>

‘His Majesty gave him to me! No, Ivan is a Noctis elf? Really?’

After talking to each other for a long time, Asha decided to accept Phoebe’s words first. It was because she didn’t think the day would come when this unruly spirit would listen to her first.

‘But shouldn’t the elves come out of the North? Why? Uh, I heard they decided to come here to sign a peace agreement this time…’

<What?>

Phoebe squealed as if she was confused. Ivan did not raise his head even if he heard a chick cry from the imperial grandchild in the middle of the night.

<Since when did criminals leave the North on their own and come and go in and out of this land…>

“Crime?”

Phoebe, who had muttered in a voice as if something was firmly in her mind, stopped abruptly.

<…No, how could something like that exist?>

‘Do you hate Noctis elves that much?’

I should study history first, Asha asked, thinking to herself. Phoebe did a half-somersault and gave a squeaky squeal.

<That’s not just a Noctis elf… it’s a mixed blood with a human! How the hell…?>

“Mixed blood?”

Asha was rather convinced by the remark. Ivan had only a bluish skin that shone faintly on a dark night, and it was hard to see him as an elf. She thought he would have a beautiful appearance when he grew up.

‘I see. I guess his parents were human and elf.’

<Don’t talk nonsense! Have you ever seen a mixture of crayfish and sparrows?>

‘Oh… no? But with humans… with Noctis elves… but we still eat similar things and talk to each other…’

<Sounds like a mix between an acorn tree and a squirrel!>

‘They can’t communicate with each other!’

<Even humans and Noctis elves can’t communicate. Isn’t that why we went to war this time!>

‘Humans are so stupid that even humans fight among themselves!’

<…That’s… He’s like that too…>

Phoebe, who was peeping from Asha’s shoulder, hurriedly turned her words around.

<No, anyway, it is impossible to mix humans and Noctis elves.>

‘Why?’

<The Noctis elves…>

A shadow of contempt or disgust passed through Phoebe’s voice as she mumbled the words ‘Noctis elf’. It was a feeling she had never felt from Phoebe before.

‘But even if it’s impossible, Ivan is over there.’

<…>

The little yellow chick, jet-black full eyes, looked astringent, as if it were reluctant, then turned around.

‘You’re doing a lot of somersaults today.’

<I can’t believe something like this is possible! Oh my goodness, what a coincidence to meet here!>

Phoebe started peeping loudly.

<Prasti is here!>

‘Prasti?’

<The sword of sin is divided into five pieces called ‘Prasti’. I retrieved one of them, and have four left.>

‘Did the genre suddenly change?’

<I didn’t expect one of the four to walk in on their own!>

Phoebe exclaimed, without pretending to have heard Asha.

<All we have to do is fix that guy!>

‘What are you going to do? Don’t tell me! Purity…’

Phoebe flew up and tore Asha’s hair.

<Stupid Asha! That’s not what I meant. I’m talking about his heart.>

“His heart?”

<That’s a broken heart, so fix it quickly.>

You’re saying it wasn’t broken, but that it was intentionally broken? Asha pointed out the difference in tone in Phoebe’s words. Phoebe flew up with a very unpleasant expression and sat on Asha’s shoulder.

<That’s why he stopped feeling and thinking. He chose not to accept anything and express nothing.>

“What?”

Asha’s face turned white at the words. There is no way that a person who grew up in wealth and peace would think of isolating his emotions from the world.

And Ivan…

A slave who has been called “trash” without a name, wearing a leash as if he were used to it. What happened until now that he didn’t want to accept or express his feelings?

<And Prasti sprouted in its place. No, because Prasti moved, the mixed race was able to be born in the first place… I should say that it stopped.>