Chapter 24
Chapter 24
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Sweet Trap (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I passed through the corridor and returned to the imperial box.
Miya and the two imperial princesses were still sitting there just as I had left them.
‘Senior’s face looks a lot thinner since I last saw her…?’
“Veil, why’d you come back alone? Where’s Leah?”
Irina stood up and asked.
Lydia responded indifferently.
“A carriage just left a bit ago. Seems like she went back to her palace.”
“Suddenly?”
The Second Imperial Princess covered her mouth with her fist, looking as if she couldn’t comprehend it.
The youngest imperial princess then guessed the reason in her place.
“She seemed really angry. They said her steps were awfully quick when she left—”
“She was angry…?”
Irina clutched the hem of her dress and approached me.
She looked up at me intently and asked.
“Veil, are you okay? What on earth did you two talk about?”
Silver fox-like lustrous hair.
Green eyes visible through those locks stared piercingly at me.
“She asked what I liked.”
I answered exactly as it had been asked, without much thought.
However, Irina’s expression turned serious upon hearing it.
As if she had roughly grasped Leah’s intentions.
“S-so… what did you say?”
Her eyes glimmered like those of a small animal.
I rummaged through my memory and replied.
“Princess Leah…”
I said only up to Leah, as if playing a prank.
The princess’s eyes, filled with anticipation, began to flicker wildly.
“I said it was the sofa she bestowed upon me.”
The moment she heard those words.
Both the Second Imperial Princess and the Third Imperial Princess, who had been eavesdropping with perked ears, showed the same reaction.
Faces frozen like ice.
Soon, Irina asked again, as if doubting her own ears.
“Is that for real?”
“Yes.”
At my firm answer, the Second Imperial Princess clamped her mouth shut.
Then, the corners of her lips began to twitch.
“Pfft!”
Finally, Irina burst into the loudest laughter she had shown so far.
“You did great, Veil!”
She reached out to pat my shoulder.
As if we were childhood friends.
“Ah…”
But Irina’s arm soon stopped midway.
The youngest imperial princess watching from the side was glaring at her with a sullen expression.
“Who’d think you’re her knight if they saw that? Can’t you keep some dignity?”
Irina retreated with an awkward expression.
Seizing the moment, Lydia wedged herself in between.
“Ahem, Veil?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The youngest imperial princess, whose height was nearly two heads shorter than mine.
Unlike her small stature, she looked up at me with a face full of pride.
“Anyway, enough about Leah. So, what’s your impression of coming to my party today?”
Arrogant eyes that seemed utterly indifferent to whatever I might say.
Yet, her plump lips were pursed in anticipation.
“It was impressive. Especially the power of Senior Batsu up close—it was considerable.”
I clutched my wrist and forcibly furrowed my brows.
Lydia chuckled as if she had expected that.
“Right—Batsu is the pride of our Eastern Command.”
Pleased with my answer, she crossed her arms by herself.
Then, narrowing her eyes, she made a secretive proposal.
“Don’t you want to get that strong too?”
“Yes…?”
The unexpected ambush sent a chill down my spine.
“How about visiting our Eastern Knight Order when you have time?”
“I already declined the escort position before.”
“Idiot, I’m not talking about escorting—just come visit!”
Lydia covered her mouth with her fist, embarrassed by her outburst.
She cleared her throat and regained her composure.
“As a trainee, you mean?”
“Yeah, get guidance from Batsu and the other seniors, spar a bit. Sounds good, right?”
Lydia made the offer with a smug, magnanimous air.
“I’ll personally permit it. Our training program is normally secret, but—”
The youngest imperial princess closed her eyes gently.
Assuming I would naturally accept, she waited for my response in that pose.
“…”
However, no matter how long she waited, no agreement came.
Instead…
“I’m fine, thank you.”
Only a firm refusal returned.
The princess’s eyes flashed, as if she had misheard.
“W-what…? Why pass up this chance? If you’re a knight, don’t you want to get stronger?”
The youngest imperial princess clenched both fists tightly.
With an anxious expression, she asked me.
However, I smiled brightly and answered her question.
After all, I had something far more important right now.
“I have to tend my vegetable garden.”
Vegetable garden.
At those short, thick two words, the focus vanished from Lydia’s eyes.
Irina standing beside her was the same.
The two princesses looked up at me with faces full of incomprehension.
“Veg-e-ta-ble gar-den?”
Lydia’s face flushed red.
She huffed and began grilling me.
“You’re turning down a chance to visit the second-ranked knight order just now?”
Oh dear.
It seemed the youngest princess didn’t quite get it.
“It’s not just simple vegetables.”
I put on the most serious expression I could muster.
“It’s my secret weapon for my old age.”
Lydia was dazed by the repeated refusals.
Normally, whenever she threw a tantrum, everyone rushed to soothe her.
The Emperor of the Empire, her mother the Queen of the Eastern Kingdom.
Yet, right now, a mere defensive knight before her eyes.
A commoner-born one at that, rejecting her over a vegetable garden?
Faced with this unbelievable reality, Lydia trembled.
“A-are you… daring to defy my command right now?”
“No, it just means I’m an incompetent knight more interested in my garden than swordsmanship.”
I bowed my head.
And apologized very politely.
“So, please understand my intentions.”
“You idiot! Throwing away a golden opportunity like that—you’re a complete fool!”
Lydia whipped her head away.
Then, her eyes met Irina’s, who stood beside her.
Soon, the Second Imperial Princess smirked at her younger sister.
“Lydia, can’t you act like a princess and keep some dignity? Veil said no—”
Irina spoke confidently, as if she had seen it coming.
As if she knew me better than anyone.
To her, too, I spoke firmly.
“Oh, and I’ll decline that instructor position you mentioned as well.”
Irina’s relaxed expression crumbled in an instant.
“Wha… Veil, what did you say?”
She pretended not to have heard.
However, there was no helping it.
I had no intention of making an exception for Irina either.
If I catered to one princess.
To prove I wasn’t on her side, I’d have to cater to them all.
In the end, that would drag me deeper into imperial affairs.
Repeating the mistakes of the past.
My role ended here.
“Anyway, I’m weaker than Allen. It’d be weird for me to be an instructor when a senior is there, right?”
At those resolute words, Lydia’s lips curved up smugly.
The two princesses swapped expressions, delighting in each other’s misfortune.
“Th-that’s… Lately, the number of cadets has increased a lot, and we’re short on manpower…. It’s not like you’re super important or anything.”
Irina averted her gaze and muttered to herself.
“The cadets, you say?”
When I asked, Irina took a deep breath.
“Yeah. The appointment ceremony alone can’t take in enough people, so we’re trying to train them ourselves…”
Most imperial knights had to complete training and attend the appointment ceremony.
However, some nobles recruited knights individually.
Among them were many from lowly backgrounds like me.
“Those cadets… are they commoners, by any chance…?”
I gazed steadily down at Irina and asked.
The Second Imperial Princess smiled faintly and replied.
“Yeah, especially a lot from the orphanages.”
Training knights without regard to birth.
Not a bad approach.
No, perhaps it was even better.
Mana was innate by heredity, but.
Miraculous talents appeared among commoners like miracles.
Moreover, orphanage kids by nature.
‘They’re desperate.’
Even if noble children trained for honor.
Or for their parents’ expectations.
They couldn’t match the hunger for survival.
Irina.
To think an imperial descendant had come up with this idea herself.
Commendable.
At my pleased smile, Irina regained her triumphant expression.
Eyes saying, if you’re human, try refusing this too.
But…
“I sincerely hope it goes well for you.”
Still, I had no intention of helping.
I was just grateful she was doing something good.
“Ah… Yeah, thanks…”
I cut off her bid for sympathy clean.
Thanks to that, Irina deflated completely, her lip jutting out in a pout.
“Nothing to be done if he doesn’t want to—”
Lydia, who had been watching, shrugged.
Then she approached me and stated the real purpose of summoning me to the imperial box.
“Anyway, you worked hard today as a defensive knight, so I wanted to express my thanks.”
Right, that was the reason she called me in the first place.
I bowed my head to show respect for the princess’s words.
“So, I’d like to bestow a gift. Is there anything you want?”
Lydia suggested I name whatever I desired.
Her lips curved up in a smile.
“A gift, you say…”
At those words, I hesitated in my response for a moment.
It felt like she was trying to force obligations on me by keep sending presents…
If I accepted something expensive, she’d use it as leverage to make me work for her.
After all I’ve given you, can’t you help once? She’d say it shamelessly.
So, I needed to pick something moderately fancy but cheap.
“…”
The two princesses waited silently for my answer.
The empire’s famed sword?
Or sturdy armor?
In a tense moment wondering what enormous reward I’d demand.
“I’d be grateful for a sunstone.”
I said it to them gravely, as if requesting something grand.
Like an artifact.
Sunstone.
A common gem worth about 10 gold each.
It just looked red and was too ugly for jewelry, so it wasn’t used for adornment.
In the northern regions, they even tossed them under house floors for heating.
“What do you even use sunstone for?”
“Yeah, winter’s basically over…”
The princesses, unaware of sunstone’s uses, looked baffled.
To them, I answered plainly.
“The sunlit palace is already in spring, however…”
Was it because of what Irina said about the orphans?
It reminded me of the cold orphanage back home, starved of sunlight.
“There are still many places where winter hasn’t passed.”
That day, I sent all the sunstones I received back to my hometown.
It wasn’t particularly because Irina’s words tugged at me.
I simply chose it as an excuse to dodge the princesses, alongside my garden.