“What’s your relationship with the lord of the magic tower?”
Misha flinched at Moiya’s secret question.
At this, Rosie snorted loudly and rebuked Moiya.
“Ha! Are you trying to talk about mating again? Are you only looking at men and women and tying them all up?”
“That’s not it... I’m just saying this with the great wyvern’s sense...”
“If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll put a gag in your mouth!”
It wasn’t a real gag, but Rosie shouted as she threw herself at Moiya with a towel in her hand.
Moiya shut his mouth tightly and stepped back.
“It’s not nonsense, but I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
Unable to stand it any longer, Misha tried to calm Rosie down, and she pretended not to be able to win, sat back down, and reprimanded Moiya.
“Why are you making a fuss about eating sausages at this hour of the night?”
“I didn’t know there was a human mosquito scurrying around here.”
Moiya grumbled, tapping the tip of his index finger.
Rosie continued to glare at Moiya and grabbed Misha’s hand.
“Anyway, Misha, thank goodness this is over. You shouldn’t be out late at night anymore.”
“That’s right.”
“I don’t know how His Majesty and the Empress will handle this, but since you haven’t seen that guy’s face, it’ll be hard to find the culprit.”
Misha nodded at Rosie’s words.
“Besides, they might misunderstand that we're suspicious of the guests from each country, so we’ll be very careful with our approach. Do you understand?”
If Misha had been a member of the royal family or a noble family, things would have been different, but since she was a servant to a concubine, there was a high chance that today’s incident would be quietly resolved.
“Of course, I understand what you mean.”
“Yes, don’t be too upset. Those guys will be punished one way or another.”
“Yes, Your Highness. But what if Moiya is starving?”
Misha looked at Moiya, who was holding his stomach with both hands and looking gloomy, and asked.
“Leave him alone. Is he going to die if you don’t eat sausages for a day?”
Rosie raised her voice as if Moiya wanted to hear.
“Guys, I don’t really want to say this in this kind of atmosphere, but...”
Moiya, who had been watching her, quickly went under the bed and came out holding two sausages in both hands.
“I picked those up because I thought you might be worried about me being hungry.”
“Are you really crazy about sausages! How did you get those?”
Moiya would not have been able to move the sausages in his white butterfly form.
“You weren’t blinded by sausages and went up the stairs like that, were you?”
You weren’t that crazy, were you?
Rosie asked Moiya in an excited voice.
If she was, Rosie vowed to twist Moiya’s balls right away.
“What do you think I am? Aoshi brought it to me.”
“Meow... (Because Moiya is annoying me so much...)”
Aoshi pretended not to see Rosie’s fierce gaze focused on her.
“Anyway, you troublemakers!”
“So... as a sign of reflection, I’m going to eat the sausages raw today.”
Moiya said with a look of great determination.
“Do you really not have to eat them cooked?”
Misha asked with a smile, and Moiya answered, conscious of Rosie.
“Even in prison, criminals eat tasteless food, right? I’m going to eat them raw, too, with the same mindset as a criminal.”
“Ha, you have a little conscience.”
Rosie said with a snort.
“Yeah, there’s sauce too.”
Moiya said, sneaking out the sausage sauce he had brought from the palace.
Rosie’s lips pursed into a point.
Thinking that she would spew fiery curses from that pointy mouth again, Moiya quickly turned his gaze to Misha and said.
“Misha. I’ll definitely get revenge on the guy who attacked you!”
“Me too!”
Even Rosie, who had been glaring, clenched her hands and joined Moiya’s words.
Misha simply wiped her moistened eyes and said, “Thank you.” She couldn’t bring herself to say that the culprit was Emperor Adrian.
“That guy should be stomped on! Tear out all his hair!”
Rosie excitedly stomped her right foot on the floor and put all her strength into her ten fingers.
“Why are you slacking off? Just burn his hair.”
Kwaaak-!
Moiya blew fire out of his mouth.
The sausage he was holding was suddenly fried in the fire.
“Ouch? I accidentally cooked the sausage, Moiya~?”
Moiya quickly put the sausage in his mouth.
And the next day, the words Rosie and Moiya had spoken unintentionally appeared as seeds.
Moiya, who was bored of being alone in Rosie's room, turned into a white butterfly and followed Rosie down to the dining room to have breakfast.
'I can sense you. Show yourself to me.'
Someone's voice came to Moiya's ear.
Moiya, who had never lived in a group, did not know that it was the language of the wyverns.
It was just annoying to have someone talk to her.
'Who is it? Who keeps talking to me?'
Moiya, in the form of a butterfly, circled the heads of the distinguished guests gathered in the dining room.
'I will be the master who will rule over you. So come to me without hiding your identity.'
The voice came again.
'Oh, it's you?'
Moiya looked toward the dining room door.
Emperor Adrian, who had entered the dining room, looked around and followed the servant's instructions to his seat.
'You keep talking to me, even though we're not even close!'
Moiya looked down at Emperor Adrian and flew to Emperor Katria, who was walking behind him, and entered her body.
"Ahh!"
“Oh, I accidentally stepped on your foot, Moiya~.”
Emperor Adrian looked back with an annoyed expression, then realized that the person who stepped on his foot was Emperor Katria, and laughed and said, “It’s okay.”
At that moment, the oil lamp that was hanging on the wall hit Emperor Adrian’s head and fell, catching fire on the tip of his head.
The silver hair that was fluttering around his waist burned down to just below his shoulders before finally going out. While grilling silver hair makes a delicious dish, Emperor Adrian only gave off a burnt smell. In fact, I heard Emperor Adrian talking to Moiya as soon as he entered the restaurant.
The concubines got off the carriage and sat on the bamboo mats laid on the floor like yesterday.
“The Empress will travel with me today.”
Linel said, coming up next to me.
I had no choice but to go into the inner forest with him.
“Are we two?”
“Follow me like a shadow. If you don’t want, I can be your shadow.”
He took a few arrows from his quiver and put them in mine, saying,
“I have enough. You don’t have to give me more...?”
“Take them. I’m just anxious. But the sword is still there.”
Instead of the thin and light sword Linel had specially ordered for me, I looked at the sword I had ordered from Count Ethan and made a displeased expression.
“That sword can’t kill big animals. And it’s not strong enough to protect someone.”
“This isn’t a battlefield, Zelda.”
He smiled, fiddling with my uniform as if checking it.
“I know, but it’s war to animals. You never know what kind of power even a small animal will unleash when cornered. So..”
Instead of finishing my sentence, I tapped my sword and gave him a look that said, “This sword is more useful.”
“Yes, it’s great. My wife is great.”
At the same time that he shook my shoulder, the low grass a meter in front of me also shook.
We held our breaths and took out our bows at the same time.
“Oh, it’s a rabbit. You catch it.”
Linel lowered his bow back down, yielding to me.
“It’s so small and cute, I don’t want to catch it.”
I also lowered my bow and looked at the white rabbit with its nose flaring, responding to him.
“What’s wrong, human rabbit? Can’t you kill it because it’s the same kind?”
At his teasing, I picked up my bow again, pulled the bowstring, and glared at him.
Linel pretended to be surprised and laughed, raising both hands.
About an hour had passed.
Perhaps we had chosen the wrong place, but there were no animals to hunt and fill our stomachs with.
At this, Emperor Katria grumbled that we would only have salad for lunch today, and then gave a hint to my husband and me, who were following him around.
I needed to rest a bit in preparation for the brighter sunlight that was to come.
So I separated from Linel for 10 minutes.
When I said I was going to rest, not hunt, he let me go.
Even though I was deliberately hiding, the wind was so hot that my stamina was rapidly decreasing.
I quickly found some shade and sat down under a tree to rest.
When I turned my head to the side because of the refreshing scent, there were small, bright red berries hanging in clusters in the grass that reached my chest.
“They look like strawberries? Are they really strawberries?”
I reached out and picked one. They were smaller than regular strawberries, but their color was much more delicious.
The only thing that was unusual was that the surface of the strawberry was bumpy.
I was thinking about picking some and sharing them with Linel when I heard a familiar but unpleasant voice from beyond the grass.
“The forest is really amazing. How can there be everything to eat if I just wander around a little?”
It was Princess Resilia.
“Just look at the color of the strawberries. They’re so pretty. I should take these and put them in my salad.”
At some point, Princess Resilia and Princess Jasper, who had become best friends, seemed to have come along, and Melanie’s voice was heard after that.
“We ate a lot of wild strawberries and berries in the forest yesterday. We also saw other things that were filling even without eating. Right, Your Highness Rosie?”
Oh, Rosie came too.
Was a new wild strawberry expedition formed?
I listened to the conversation, then got up and lifted my heel slightly so that I could sneak a peek at them, just above the snow.
“No! Your Highness Melanie, don’t eat those strawberries!”
Rosie, who was looking at the strawberries here and there, suddenly shouted. She was definitely talking to Melanie, but I was the one who stopped.
I was about to put the strawberries in my mouth, so I couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Why? They’re so delicious.”
Melanie was already chewing on the strawberries in her mouth.
“Those! They’re poisonous strawberries!”
Misha flinched at Moiya’s secret question.
At this, Rosie snorted loudly and rebuked Moiya.
“Ha! Are you trying to talk about mating again? Are you only looking at men and women and tying them all up?”
“That’s not it... I’m just saying this with the great wyvern’s sense...”
“If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll put a gag in your mouth!”
It wasn’t a real gag, but Rosie shouted as she threw herself at Moiya with a towel in her hand.
Moiya shut his mouth tightly and stepped back.
“It’s not nonsense, but I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
Unable to stand it any longer, Misha tried to calm Rosie down, and she pretended not to be able to win, sat back down, and reprimanded Moiya.
“Why are you making a fuss about eating sausages at this hour of the night?”
“I didn’t know there was a human mosquito scurrying around here.”
Moiya grumbled, tapping the tip of his index finger.
Rosie continued to glare at Moiya and grabbed Misha’s hand.
“Anyway, Misha, thank goodness this is over. You shouldn’t be out late at night anymore.”
“That’s right.”
“I don’t know how His Majesty and the Empress will handle this, but since you haven’t seen that guy’s face, it’ll be hard to find the culprit.”
Misha nodded at Rosie’s words.
“Besides, they might misunderstand that we're suspicious of the guests from each country, so we’ll be very careful with our approach. Do you understand?”
If Misha had been a member of the royal family or a noble family, things would have been different, but since she was a servant to a concubine, there was a high chance that today’s incident would be quietly resolved.
“Of course, I understand what you mean.”
“Yes, don’t be too upset. Those guys will be punished one way or another.”
“Yes, Your Highness. But what if Moiya is starving?”
Misha looked at Moiya, who was holding his stomach with both hands and looking gloomy, and asked.
“Leave him alone. Is he going to die if you don’t eat sausages for a day?”
Rosie raised her voice as if Moiya wanted to hear.
“Guys, I don’t really want to say this in this kind of atmosphere, but...”
Moiya, who had been watching her, quickly went under the bed and came out holding two sausages in both hands.
“I picked those up because I thought you might be worried about me being hungry.”
“Are you really crazy about sausages! How did you get those?”
Moiya would not have been able to move the sausages in his white butterfly form.
“You weren’t blinded by sausages and went up the stairs like that, were you?”
You weren’t that crazy, were you?
Rosie asked Moiya in an excited voice.
If she was, Rosie vowed to twist Moiya’s balls right away.
“What do you think I am? Aoshi brought it to me.”
“Meow... (Because Moiya is annoying me so much...)”
Aoshi pretended not to see Rosie’s fierce gaze focused on her.
“Anyway, you troublemakers!”
“So... as a sign of reflection, I’m going to eat the sausages raw today.”
Moiya said with a look of great determination.
“Do you really not have to eat them cooked?”
Misha asked with a smile, and Moiya answered, conscious of Rosie.
“Even in prison, criminals eat tasteless food, right? I’m going to eat them raw, too, with the same mindset as a criminal.”
“Ha, you have a little conscience.”
Rosie said with a snort.
“Yeah, there’s sauce too.”
Moiya said, sneaking out the sausage sauce he had brought from the palace.
Rosie’s lips pursed into a point.
Thinking that she would spew fiery curses from that pointy mouth again, Moiya quickly turned his gaze to Misha and said.
“Misha. I’ll definitely get revenge on the guy who attacked you!”
“Me too!”
Even Rosie, who had been glaring, clenched her hands and joined Moiya’s words.
Misha simply wiped her moistened eyes and said, “Thank you.” She couldn’t bring herself to say that the culprit was Emperor Adrian.
“That guy should be stomped on! Tear out all his hair!”
Rosie excitedly stomped her right foot on the floor and put all her strength into her ten fingers.
“Why are you slacking off? Just burn his hair.”
Kwaaak-!
Moiya blew fire out of his mouth.
The sausage he was holding was suddenly fried in the fire.
“Ouch? I accidentally cooked the sausage, Moiya~?”
Moiya quickly put the sausage in his mouth.
And the next day, the words Rosie and Moiya had spoken unintentionally appeared as seeds.
***
Moiya, who was bored of being alone in Rosie's room, turned into a white butterfly and followed Rosie down to the dining room to have breakfast.
'I can sense you. Show yourself to me.'
Someone's voice came to Moiya's ear.
Moiya, who had never lived in a group, did not know that it was the language of the wyverns.
It was just annoying to have someone talk to her.
'Who is it? Who keeps talking to me?'
Moiya, in the form of a butterfly, circled the heads of the distinguished guests gathered in the dining room.
'I will be the master who will rule over you. So come to me without hiding your identity.'
The voice came again.
'Oh, it's you?'
Moiya looked toward the dining room door.
Emperor Adrian, who had entered the dining room, looked around and followed the servant's instructions to his seat.
'You keep talking to me, even though we're not even close!'
Moiya looked down at Emperor Adrian and flew to Emperor Katria, who was walking behind him, and entered her body.
"Ahh!"
“Oh, I accidentally stepped on your foot, Moiya~.”
Emperor Adrian looked back with an annoyed expression, then realized that the person who stepped on his foot was Emperor Katria, and laughed and said, “It’s okay.”
At that moment, the oil lamp that was hanging on the wall hit Emperor Adrian’s head and fell, catching fire on the tip of his head.
***
The silver hair that was fluttering around his waist burned down to just below his shoulders before finally going out. While grilling silver hair makes a delicious dish, Emperor Adrian only gave off a burnt smell. In fact, I heard Emperor Adrian talking to Moiya as soon as he entered the restaurant.
“That silver hair is after Moiya.”
I was watching Moiya, who had transformed into a white butterfly, when something suddenly happened. I could tell that it was Moiya’s doing from the tone of Emperor Katria’s apology for stepping on Emperor Adrian’s foot. And then, I suddenly felt an oops as I saw the oil lamp suddenly fall on Emperor Adrian’s head.
When I saw the fire on the silver fish’s head, I unconsciously focused on the flame. Then, the small flame grew bigger. I panicked and tried to put out the flame, but it didn’t work. Fortunately or unfortunately, the Lord of Magic Tower stepped in and put out the flame on Emperor Adrian’s hair in one breath.
“Whew.”
The guests who had watched a comedy since morning were all muttering, and some lowered their heads and laughed secretly. Since his hair was burnt like that, I had to understand the guests’ laughter to some extent. I bit my lower lip and watched Emperor Adrian’s bewildered appearance, when I felt eyes staring at me from somewhere. I moved my eyes and looked around, and the Lord of Magic Tower was looking at me with an ambiguous expression, whether smiling or frowning. I felt a pang in my heart for no reason, and then moved my eyes elsewhere.
“Zelda, it seems the Lord of Magic Tower noticed what you just did.”
Linel whispered to me quietly. The person who said that already knew, didn’t they? I wanted to say that it wasn’t me who dropped the oil lamp, but Moiya, but I wasn’t in a position to say that.
“How did Your Majesty know?”
I asked him about ventriloquism.
“You need to control your expression. It shows on your face.”
I could see that he was frowning intently, trying not to laugh. While we were whispering, Emperor Adrian left the restaurant first with Empress Elan, reeking of soot.
***
After breakfast, we packed up and set off. Everyone agreed with Linel’s suggestion to enjoy a morning hunt before the weather got warmer. Even though it was still early morning, the sunlight was as hot as usual during the daytime. Emperor Adrian, who had left the restaurant first, appeared with his hair cut short just as we left. Whenever Emperor Adrian walked, his silver hair had swayed elegantly from his waistline like a fresh silver hairtail, but now his long hair swayed from his ears.
About an hour after setting out, one of the guests shot an arrow at an eagle flying in the sky. The arrow fell in a parabolic arc, not even reaching the eagle. The guests laughed, and the front line became busy. It was a sign that the full-scale morning hunt was about to begin. On one side, a space was prepared for the guests who were not participating in the hunt, and a little further away, a mobile kitchen for the cooking department was quickly created. It seemed that they would hunt and have lunch here.
The concubines got off the carriage and sat on the bamboo mats laid on the floor like yesterday.
“The Empress will travel with me today.”
Linel said, coming up next to me.
I had no choice but to go into the inner forest with him.
“Are we two?”
“Follow me like a shadow. If you don’t want, I can be your shadow.”
He took a few arrows from his quiver and put them in mine, saying,
“I have enough. You don’t have to give me more...?”
“Take them. I’m just anxious. But the sword is still there.”
Instead of the thin and light sword Linel had specially ordered for me, I looked at the sword I had ordered from Count Ethan and made a displeased expression.
“That sword can’t kill big animals. And it’s not strong enough to protect someone.”
“This isn’t a battlefield, Zelda.”
He smiled, fiddling with my uniform as if checking it.
“I know, but it’s war to animals. You never know what kind of power even a small animal will unleash when cornered. So..”
Instead of finishing my sentence, I tapped my sword and gave him a look that said, “This sword is more useful.”
“Yes, it’s great. My wife is great.”
At the same time that he shook my shoulder, the low grass a meter in front of me also shook.
We held our breaths and took out our bows at the same time.
“Oh, it’s a rabbit. You catch it.”
Linel lowered his bow back down, yielding to me.
“It’s so small and cute, I don’t want to catch it.”
I also lowered my bow and looked at the white rabbit with its nose flaring, responding to him.
“What’s wrong, human rabbit? Can’t you kill it because it’s the same kind?”
At his teasing, I picked up my bow again, pulled the bowstring, and glared at him.
Linel pretended to be surprised and laughed, raising both hands.
***
About an hour had passed.
Perhaps we had chosen the wrong place, but there were no animals to hunt and fill our stomachs with.
At this, Emperor Katria grumbled that we would only have salad for lunch today, and then gave a hint to my husband and me, who were following him around.
I needed to rest a bit in preparation for the brighter sunlight that was to come.
So I separated from Linel for 10 minutes.
When I said I was going to rest, not hunt, he let me go.
Even though I was deliberately hiding, the wind was so hot that my stamina was rapidly decreasing.
I quickly found some shade and sat down under a tree to rest.
When I turned my head to the side because of the refreshing scent, there were small, bright red berries hanging in clusters in the grass that reached my chest.
“They look like strawberries? Are they really strawberries?”
I reached out and picked one. They were smaller than regular strawberries, but their color was much more delicious.
The only thing that was unusual was that the surface of the strawberry was bumpy.
I was thinking about picking some and sharing them with Linel when I heard a familiar but unpleasant voice from beyond the grass.
“The forest is really amazing. How can there be everything to eat if I just wander around a little?”
It was Princess Resilia.
“Just look at the color of the strawberries. They’re so pretty. I should take these and put them in my salad.”
At some point, Princess Resilia and Princess Jasper, who had become best friends, seemed to have come along, and Melanie’s voice was heard after that.
“We ate a lot of wild strawberries and berries in the forest yesterday. We also saw other things that were filling even without eating. Right, Your Highness Rosie?”
Oh, Rosie came too.
Was a new wild strawberry expedition formed?
I listened to the conversation, then got up and lifted my heel slightly so that I could sneak a peek at them, just above the snow.
“No! Your Highness Melanie, don’t eat those strawberries!”
Rosie, who was looking at the strawberries here and there, suddenly shouted. She was definitely talking to Melanie, but I was the one who stopped.
I was about to put the strawberries in my mouth, so I couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Why? They’re so delicious.”
Melanie was already chewing on the strawberries in her mouth.
“Those! They’re poisonous strawberries!”
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