“Julien, Julius, Senev, Claudus, Ludwig, Francesco, Linus, Thorwallendorf...”
“...Pluck Temnes.”
She blinked.
‘Huh? Adding a last name?’
What the. So that collection of names of Kings and warriors who have left their mark on the history of the kingdoms is baby’s name?
Kaian sighed deeply as I was too flustered to respond, saying either good or bad.
“Sorry. Naming is harder than I thought. I picked good names, but it’s hard to choose just one.”
“Phew.”
I smiled faintly as I watched the large man looking embarrassed.
“I thought you were too busy to even think about it. I almost got upset.”
“I thought about the baby’s name the moment you got pregnant.”
At the casual remark, yellow flowers seemed to bloom in Claudel eyes.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
It was a moment that Kaian liked.
Sometimes, her eyes reacted to his words as if they had a separate life, and it was mysterious and very beautiful.
Sigh.
Kaian reached out and stroked the hair that had fallen down her shoulder while comforting the sleeping baby.
The woman with a gentle smile on her lips accepted his touch without being surprised or flinching, and that alone was enough to make him sigh in relief.
“I absolutely do not hate you. But my body just...”
Once, Claudel felt sorry and cried.
“I am sorry that your heart accepted me in a crooked way.”
Kaian apologized unconditionally.
Other than that, he was at a loss as to what to do with Claudel. He was worried that she would get hurt if he acted indifferently like before.
How could he reassure the woman who had been afraid that he might harm her even when she was pregnant?
He was still clumsy and didn’t know how to comfort a woman’s heart.
But thankfully, she, who loved him so much, seemed to feel more and more at ease just by trying so hard. After a month had passed since coming to Rowen and her physical strength had recovered, she no longer flinched when he gently grabbed or touched her without asking permission.
‘This is how it should be.’
What they needed was time.
However, the time that would be provided infinitely until the end of their lives felt like an overturned hourglass, slowly wearing away. It felt like the precious and valuable time was slipping through the cracks of their fingers like desert sand.
“I’d like the baby’s name to be Julien.”
“Really?”
“You liked it the most, didn’t you put it first?”
In fact, the order of the names they had chosen was like changing the places in a puzzle, but Kaian quickly nodded.
Kaian wrapped the baby’s red hair around his finger and called out his name.
“Julien.”
“...Me.”
A sound like an answer flowed out from between the parted, plump lips of the sleeping baby.
“Julien.”
“...”
When Claudel called, his lips moved halfway but did not make a sound, so she looked at him.
“Julien Pluck Temnes. You will have everything I have.”
“...Hmm.”
“I don’t know why Julien responds only to your voice.”
When Claudel looked bewildered, he smiled happily.
“He knows where to stand in line.”
The days continued as if they were circling around a sand castle that had been painstakingly built on the beach just before a typhoon swept in from the distant sea.
The people of Rowen lived their faithful daily lives and tried to confirm one by one the things that were precious to them.
So it seemed that there was only one person in Rowen Castle who was not happy at the moment.
A brewery worker who had brought a cart containing a large cider barrel the size of a person to the castle asked the gatekeeper, looking at the water lapping in the moat.
“Where did the buffalo go?”
For a while, people were flocking to see the beast that had been roaming the wide plains, and it was causing chaos.
The eyes of the man who had been struggling for months to keep the crowds in order, shouting not to push and not to feed them, became moist.
“...The buffalo are gone now.”
The gatekeeper who had cared for the buffalo, even naming them Marie and Louis, rubbed his eyes with his sleeve.
***
At first glance, Valquiterre seemed on the defensive.
He had been so close and affectionate with Temnes throughout the previous Queen’s reign.
Suddenly, it was difficult to readily support the King when Temnes, known for his loyalty to the kingdom’s guardians, threatened to punish him under the pretext of treason.
The state council had been extremely sluggish, but he opened his mouth as if he had made a big decision while sitting at the head of the table.
“I will grant the rule of Pagos territory to the one who has made the greatest achievements.”
Only then did the nobles, looking around, submit their plans to send troops after hearing that they would be guaranteed the right to harvest the golden granary that had solidly supported Temnes’s wealth for the past several decades.
However, many of them were reluctant to even step foot in a war against Temnes.
“I borrowed a lot of money. What if Temnes demands that I pay it back if I say I will go to war?”
“That’s what I’m saying. It’s difficult because some of the land in the territory is being used as collateral.”
When the nobles brought up the topic of borrowed money in an awkward manner, Valquiterre drove the wedge in.
“Temnes is a traitorous family, and they are being pushed out of the Oberon kingdom. The transactions of documents guaranteed by the royal seal are invalid.”
However, many of them were reluctant to even step foot in a war against Temnes.
“I borrowed a lot of money. What if Temnes demands that I pay it back if I say I will go to war?”
“That’s what I’m saying. It’s difficult because some of the land in the territory is being used as collateral.”
When the nobles brought up the topic of borrowed money in an awkward manner, Valquiterre drove the wedge in.
“Temnes is a traitorous family, and they are being pushed out of the Oberon kingdom. The transactions of documents guaranteed by the royal seal are invalid.”
When the King came forward and said that if they attacked Temnes, they would not have to pay back the large debt they had inherited from their ancestors, only then did the nobles who had been calculating in their heads positively respond that they would participate in the war.
Bianque, who had been leaning against a pillar with her arms crossed and eavesdropping on the state council presided over by the King, coldly rebuked them.
“You fools.”
In her opinion, the heads of the families who had taken their places were all getting caught up in foolish things.
“It says in the first chapter of The Prince that you should not fight without a just cause. Are you all asleep?”
The nobles sitting in the meeting looked around, wondering where the sound was coming from, at the sound of her not lowering her voice.
“Princess.”
"You will be in trouble if they find out you sneaked into the meeting.”
Bianque, who had been leaning against a pillar with her arms crossed and eavesdropping on the state council presided over by the King, coldly rebuked them.
“You fools.”
In her opinion, the heads of the families who had taken their places were all getting caught up in foolish things.
“It says in the first chapter of The Prince that you should not fight without a just cause. Are you all asleep?”
The nobles sitting in the meeting looked around, wondering where the sound was coming from, at the sound of her not lowering her voice.
“Princess.”
"You will be in trouble if they find out you sneaked into the meeting.”
“Do you think I would be afraid of something like that?”
Bianque, annoyed by the maids who were pestering her, gathered up her skirt and quickly left the place.
She paused for a moment in the hallway and then quietly headed toward the Hanging Gardens.
Since Claudel and Kaian escaped from the palace through the Hanging Gardens’ secret device, the elegant gardens, which were originally only open to the King and Queen, had always had open doors.
‘I could only enter when Valquiterre gave me permission.’
Bianque felt a strange sense of deviance as she entered the Hanging Gardens.
The Hanging Gardens were a place Bianque also loved very much.
However, it was a hassle to ask Valquiterre for the golden key to enter the gardens.
Whenever Claudel took a walk on the boat and she had called here, she would quietly come in and reminisce about her memories with Queen Sylvia.
‘Bianque.’
‘Yes?’
‘How is it? Doesn’t it feel like flying in the sky?’
Queen Sylvia used to swing her sky-blue eyes gently, letting her ride.
“Mother, I feel so good.”
The swing, which had risen high into the air, briefly supported itself before falling backward.
As if it had become a fairy.
As if it had sprouted angel wings.
The moment of freedom filled Bianque’s young heart with laughter as if it would burst.
“Why did you do that, brother?”
Queen Sylvia loved Bianque so much that the golden gate of the hanging gardens was always open without a key until she passed away.
She considered it the domain of the King and Queen, so no one dared enter the paradise-like place except for the gardeners who had been granted permission.
However, Valquiterre, who succeeded the Queen as King, locked the gate of the hanging gardens a few days after his coronation.
'Brother, what’s wrong? Open the gate so that I can enter as before.'
'As before? That’s the space of the king and Queen. My mother has been too soft on you.'
Bianque, who still hadn't recovered from the grief of losing her mother, was even more shocked by Valquiterre's sudden change in attitude.
In the end, for several months after that, Bianque groaned and begged to be allowed to ride on the swing in the hanging garden and not to stop her from missing her mother.
One day, Valquiterre took the swing away.
He said that Bianque was even more obsessed with the hanging garden because of it.
"He wasn't a soft brother to begin with."
Even though it hurt when he told her that he didn't like her, Bianque somehow came to accept it.
'Valquiterre hates me.'
His only sister.
Does that make sense?
Bianque left the hanging garden and headed to her bedroom. She closed the door and headed to the dressing room filled with fancy clothes, pushing one dress left and right.
Then, the old swing that had been hidden by the iron bar where the clothes were hanging was revealed.
She sat there, moving back and forth a little, reminiscing about old memories.
“Mother. I miss you.”
She missed her mother, who always smiled and pushed the swing as if she would become her wings.
That was when.
“Who is it?”
She could feel the sound of a skirt brushing the carpet outside the dressing room where she was not allowed to come in.
Bianque got up from the swing and hid herself against the wall.
Thump.
There was a sound of something light falling on the carpet, and then she heard the sound of someone quickly running away toward the intruder’s door.
Thump. Thump.
Bianque’s nervous heart pounded.
She slowly pulled her head out of the dressing room.
Then she saw an envelope lying on the neatly arranged carpet.
Bianque slowly approached and picked it up. However, as soon as she saw the sender, her eyes squinted.
“...Kaian?”
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