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Chapter – 07
“Th-then, will you guide me around the western side of the Imperial Palace tomorrow?”
“If you wish, of course I should. There’s a zoo on the western side, so it’s more entertaining than the garden-filled eastern side. Though, seeing you today, I thought you might like the Alexandra Princess’s Road in the central district even more.”
At the mention of the princess’s road, my interest was piqued, but I answered lightly for now.
“Ah, I saw it when I entered the palace. The wide road decorated like a marketplace, right?”
“A marketplace? Hahaha. Princess Alexandra was the late emperor’s younger sister. To me, she was my great-aunt. She had such a bold personality that she brought an entire street of stalls from the capital straight into the palace grounds. There were food vendors and little shops—when I was young, I often went there myself.”
“Wow, I’m really curious. This is my first time in the Empire, and I came straight to the palace, so I didn’t get to see the capital at all.”
“Oh my, then shall we start with Alexandra Princess’s Road tomorrow?”
“I’d love that. Thank you for being so considerate, Your Highness.”
When I said that happily, Calysion smiled elegantly.
“It’s only natural.”
“Why are you so late?”
The moment I finally entered the room, Jwibangul scurried over, whining.
Wipe the drool off your mouth first! You were napping comfortably in the corner!
“As if I wanted to be! How could I help it when the Crown Prince kept dragging me all over the place?”
“Really? You didn’t make any mistakes, did you?”
Clementine asked sharply.
The moment I’d been caught skimming over the wards while halfheartedly touring the garden, the domino game I’d completely ruined, and the near fall in the corridor just now all flashed through my mind in order.
Still, those were all already in the past, and listening to a fairy’s nagging wouldn’t produce any brilliant solutions anyway.
So I raised my voice first.
“Of course not! Just like you said, I acted naïve and refined like a nineteen-year-old princess! I handled everything perfectly, so don’t worry!”
Even so, Jwibangul looked unconvinced.
“Really?”
Needlessly sharp-eyed, that one.
“Really.”
I insisted again and added,
“We’re meeting again tomorrow, you know? He said he’d guide me along Alexandra Princess’s Road!”
At that, Jwibangul’s eyes narrowed instead.
“Alexandra Princess’s Road? Are you sure you didn’t mess something up?”
“Wh-why would you think that?!”
My conscience prickled, so I raised my voice even more. Clementine explained with a serious expression.
“Alexandra Princess’s Road isn’t usually a place introduced to honored guests. I told you before, didn’t I? The pride of this palace is its gardens and zoo.”
Did I make it so obvious that I hated gardens that he even cut out the zoo?
That Crown Prince—he’s colder than he looks!
How are plants and animals the same?! Animals move and make sounds!
Though I was a little worried inside, I kept insisting.
“I told him I was sickly as a child and stayed inside the palace all the time. He said I’d probably find that place more interesting.”
Then I tried to subtly probe the fairy.
“He probably thinks I’m a real princess, but the Crown Prince is kinder than I expected. So I was wondering—about that pouch you’re hiding in the room, maybe—”
Before I could finish, Jwibangul flared up and interrupted.
“What? That Crown Prince is kind?”
He suddenly raised his voice so much that I flinched, covered my ears, and shook my head.
“Quiet, you ignorant fairy! Do you want to be arrested for insulting the imperial family?”
Still, Jwibangul kept fuming.
“The Crown Prince isn’t kind! His bloodline is rotten to the core! All that ‘morning star’ nonsense and pretending to be gentle—it’s all an act, I tell you! Just like how you’re a fake princess!”
Hey, even if the Crown Prince is a bit of a hypocrite, comparing him to a fake princess like me is crossing the line, isn’t it?
As a good imperial citizen, I wanted to defend the Crown Prince, but Clementine was far too agitated, so I stayed silent.
Instead, I asked quietly,
“Do you… have any proof?”
“Of course! His mother once did something to my sister—!”
But Jwibangul cut off there, gagged, threw up, and collapsed.
Ah, here we go again…
That was precisely why, even though I disliked Jwibangul, I could never fully push him away and always ended up bickering with him.
By nature, Jwibangul was bound to his master. If he tried to reveal secrets or disobey orders, he would immediately suffer side effects and pass out.
In other words, he was simply destined to be exploited if he met a cruel master.
An endangered fairy race.
It was widely known that their nature wasn’t particularly malicious, so of course I knew it too.
It wouldn’t help inside the palace, but if even a few fairies with magic had been more cunning, perhaps they wouldn’t be on the brink of extinction.
In any case, Jwibangul wouldn’t wake up for several hours, and whatever had happened between his sister and the late empress would remain a secret.
Something definitely had happened, though…
I carefully lifted Jwibangul, who wouldn’t even reach my navel in height, and laid him on the bed.
Once I realized I was completely alone, my nape suddenly felt bare.
I’d had to leave my friendship necklace behind because magical devices weren’t allowed inside the palace. Even if I’d brought it, the wards would have prevented it from working anyway.
Raphael must be keeping it safe for me…
Millie, you’re okay, right?
You’ll wait for me while I work here for a month, won’t you?
I hugged my knees and sat on the floor, having given the large bed to Jwibangul.
The palace room—so wide and gorgeous—felt unbearably frightening.
In truth, I, April Basewater, have a rather straightforward name.
A child abandoned at the Basewater orphanage around April—that was me.
As stories like this usually go, the orphanage director was not a good person.
We were often hungry, and the moment we learned to speak, we were sent out to beg on the streets.
Even so, at the very bottom of misery, I was good at gathering happiness the size of tiny glass beads and stringing them together. That was because I had Raphael with me, from a time so early I can’t even remember.
Raphael was clever and lovable—my one and only family.
But when we turned six, Raphael was adopted by a minor noble family.
Left alone, I fell into despair and decided to die.
That seemed better. I wasn’t as smart as Raphael, so there was no way I’d ever be adopted by a noble family.
When I started refusing food, the orphanage director mocked me.
“So you’ve finally decided to save us the cost of feeding you? I was worried how long it would take before I could raise a pretty face like yours and sell you off to some blind man, but this is the most brilliant thought that’s ever come out of your head!”
Whether he thought it brilliant or not didn’t matter.
I had lost my only family, and it seemed impossible that child would ever come back to this hell to see me again.
Just as I resolved myself to that fate, Millicent arrived. She’d come to the orphanage after her only grandmother passed away, and she always put on a brave face in front of others.
It didn’t matter to me. Already determined to die, I refused to tell her my name no matter how much she asked.
A child abandoned in Basewater in April.
I thought a name like that wasn’t important anyway.
But Millicent was a child born different from me, who had spent my short life tumbling through nothing but misery. She’d grown up wrapped in her grandmother’s love, and she was like sunlight itself.
A few days later, when she finally learned my name, Millicent smiled as brightly as if she’d won the lottery.
“I knew it! In April, you can pick wild strawberries in the mountains, and they’re such a pretty color—just like your hair!”
“Wild… strawberries?”
To think she’d come up with that just from seeing my hair, caked with dust.
Even though I’d never seen wild strawberries before, her words stirred an intense hunger inside me.
Grinning, Millicent pulled something out of her pocket. Dried strawberries.
To me, who had lived on nothing but water for a week, the strawberries tasted like heaven. I hadn’t cried when Raphael left me behind, yet tears fell like an idiot’s.
Millicent gave me all the strawberries she had in her pocket.
“Let’s go pick wild strawberries together when April comes. And do lots of other fun things too!”
I gobbled up the strawberries right there. They were the last strawberries her grandmother had left behind—but I didn’t know that, foolishly.
And then I made a promise with Millicent.
That I would try to live until April came again, when we could pick strawberries once more.
