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Chapter 28
“You didn’t spread it properly. Again—one, two, three.”
The loosely hanging sheet snapped taut in an instant. Aleksei let go of the corner he’d been holding. He smacked the puffed-up center like a cloud, and the trapped air rushed out as the sheet settled flat.
He smoothed out the wrinkles with his hands.
“Don’t overdo it.”
“But it looks nicer this way.”
Angelina stared at his genuinely satisfied expression in disbelief.
Who would ever think that man was the next emperor of Latria?
No disguise could possibly be this perfect.
Especially that apron… why did it suit him so well?
After all the yelling and resisting he’d done earlier, he looked surprisingly natural in it now.
“Do you want to dust or mop?”
“Dust.”
Angelina tossed him a rag. Aleksei frowned, and she stuck her tongue out at him.
“Don’t you have anything else? Like one of those sticks with a cloth attached to the end?”
“We can’t use the mop. It’s been neglected for so long that the moment it gets wet, it reeks.”
Aleksei grabbed the rag with the expression of someone swallowing hell itself. Angelina’s lips twitched automatically.
A husband who helped with housework really was nice.
She was cleaning too, but ordering the crown prince around was incredibly enjoyable.
“You’re in the way, so start over there.”
“What did I do to get in the way?”
“Our paths keep overlapping.”
Aleksei snapped irritably while pushing the rag across the floor. Angelina kept waving the duster around right in front of him.
“It’s because I don’t feel like doing this.”
Angelina shot back.
Aleksei pushed the rag all the way toward the window where she stood.
“Ah! Alek!”
“What? I’m cleaning.”
He glanced up at her casually while continuing to mop past.
That damned crown prince.
Blowing out an annoyed puff of air, Angelina suddenly smacked Aleksei on the back with the duster.
“Ow. That hurts, Angel. What are you doing?”
“I’m cleaning. There’s a lot of dust.”
Aleksei, who had been taking the hits, suddenly grabbed the duster tightly and stood up. Angelina’s body was pulled forward automatically.
“H-Hey? Let go!”
The farther she reached, the farther away the duster became. Even standing on tiptoe didn’t help.
So he’s taller than me and showing it off?
Angelina gritted her teeth.
“Give that back.”
“So you can hit me again?”
“I won’t.”
The moment his arm lowered slightly, Angelina quickly snatched at it.
“I said I’m cleaning.”
Grinning mischievously, she swung the duster again. Aleksei stepped back and picked up the rag he’d tossed on the floor earlier, flinging it at her. Startled, Angelina dodged sideways.
The rag flew straight toward the door just as Nancy walked in.
“Oh my god!”
Thinking it was a rat for a split second, Nancy screamed. Only after the black bundle landed near her feet did she realize what had happened.
Aleksei smiled awkwardly while Angelina hurriedly explained.
“We were just about to clean near the doorway.”
“…I have a favor to ask.”
Nancy nudged the rat-like rag away with her foot and said,
“Deliver a barrel to the Black Lion Inn and collect thirty bart.”
“Sure.”
Aleksei immediately untied his apron. Nancy stopped Angelina, who was about to follow.
“One person is enough.”
“Then good luck.”
Aleksei smiled brightly and disappeared out the door.
“Ugh.”
Angelina kicked the black bundle of cloth forward.
We hadn’t even finished cleaning properly yet.
If she’d known this would happen, she wouldn’t have distracted him. Angelina deeply regretted it.
“When I first started this inn business, the Black Lion Inn opened on the same day. Since we started at the same time, we naturally became rivals. But after a while, the customers started separating on their own. Their owner is extremely strict, so people who want to relax comfortably prefer this place.”
So that place is cleaner, then.
“Anyway, now we’re almost like family. We rely on and support each other.”
“So where exactly is the Black Lion Inn?”
“I’m actually the one who gave it that name. At first it was called the Palace Inn or something. But I told her the name didn’t stick in people’s heads, and the very next day she changed the signboard. After that, customers started pouring in. It’s not like I meddle for no reason.”
“So where is the inn—”
“The owner’s a woman named Cecil, and she’s divorced. Ah, that’s a secret. She keeps it very hush-hush because it might hurt business. If rumors spread, she’ll definitely think I started them.”
Thinking that wouldn’t exactly be wrong, Aleksei looked around.
Maybe there’s a map somewhere…
But a randomly run inn like this obviously wouldn’t have one.
Honestly, it would be less stressful to go back and scrub the floor with that black rag.
Holding onto the last threads of his patience, Aleksei asked,
“So a lot has happened. Now, where exactly is it?”
“Oh, the location?”
Nancy brightened as though she’d just recovered money she’d lost years ago.
“I’ll explain it just once, so listen carefully. I’ll make it very easy.”
Aleksei felt uneasy.
“First, when you go out the door, you’ll see a butcher shop, a flower shop, and a bakery in that order on the left. Strange combination, right? A flower shop next to a butcher. I warned them not to take that location, but they wouldn’t listen. Said cutting up living things is the same either way. Anyway, you absolutely have to stand in front of the bakery. That’s where the road splits. The egg tarts there are incredible. Apparently they use eggs from chickens raised on some huge dairy farm or whatever. So, the eggs those chickens lay, I mean. You should definitely try them sometime. Actually, buy some on your way back. Anyway, from the bakery, go up the road to the left. Not the alley between the flower shop and bakery. Absolutely the left road in front of the bakery. So turn your shoulders to the left and head up where you can see—”
After his patience, even his concentration was reaching its limit.
For Aleksei, this was an entirely new experience.
He got lost.
Honestly, anyone would after hearing directions like that.
Aleksei set down the barrel he’d been carrying and looked around.
Alley. Alley. Alley.
No, this definitely isn’t right.
He returned to the inn.
“If you’re bad with directions, you should’ve said so from the start.”
Nancy clicked her tongue.
“I found my room just fine. The others too.”
He had never gotten lost even inside the imperial palace, which was as vast as the Eastern Sea and as complicated as a maze. Though, to be fair, attendants were always beside him.
“What kind of joke is that?”
“It’s my first time traveling.”
So a noble father hid his illegitimate child indoors so nobody would discover him.
Nancy suddenly felt sorry for him.
“Well, if it’s your first time, that happens. It’s not like my explanation was lacking. Anyway, let’s go together.”
How much would she chatter on the way there? Still, it was better for his head to suffer than for his arms to fall off.
Aleksei nodded resolutely.
The Black Lion Inn was twenty minutes away. Aleksei figured it would’ve taken less than ten if he’d come alone.
As expected, Nancy talked the entire way.
At one point, she became so absorbed in her own story that she even took a wrong turn.
“Oh dear, what’s wrong with me?”
Every time that happened, Aleksei regretted not simply asking a passerby for directions.
Just before his arms felt ready to fall off, they finally arrived at the Black Lion Inn.
“A new face. Who’s this?”
“Our inn mascot.”
M-Mascot?
“What kind of inn has a mascot?”
“Haven’t you heard? Ever since we brought this guy in, our customers increased dramatically.”
“That’s probably just because of the passenger ship schedule coincidentally overlapping.”
“Looks like nobody’s here?”
“They all went out. Look at the time.”
Aleksei took a step back.
‘Now we’re like family. We rely on and support each other.’
That’s what you said, innkeeper.
Aleksei wasn’t unfamiliar with women’s silent battles. That was one of the reasons he hated parties and balls.
A suffocating war.
Angelina once asked him if he thought women hid knives in their mouths, but from Aleksei’s perspective, they did. They simply concealed them elegantly behind fans.
Wasn’t that even crueler?
That was why Angelina was comfortable to be around. She showed exactly what she felt without hiding it.
Then and now, without change, Aleksei felt at ease with Angelina Agate.
