Chapter 6

Today, we are practicing selling food from the stalls and flying lanterns.

The pleasant smell of fried and grilled meat wafts from various stalls. Although it's just a practice run, there are quite a few people around, and it's quite lively even without the alcohol.

Alexander and Marianne are beloved by the townspeople, so they are called out from all directions.

"Lord, Lady, and young Master Nicholas, here's some skewered meat."

"After the meat, please try some sweet desserts too."

The three of them were offered various kinds of food and decided to sit on a bench to eat.

"Father, I'm having so much fun!"

Nicholas said with a smile to his father, Alexander. Alexander lifted Nicholas onto his lap and carefully held his small hand to keep the cup from falling.

"The royal family doesn't raise their children, right? Alex, you're very attentive to children."

When Marianne asked, Alexander laughed.

"Yes, raising children in the royal family is the servants' job. I thought it was normal, so when I visited a friend's house as a viscount, I was surprised and envious to see the close relationship between parents and children."

"In our family, my mother was raised in a carefree way, so I was doted on by both my father and mother."

"Eventually, the royal family will change. After all, the next king is Harold."

At such times, Nicholas doesn't interrupt. He listens quietly and absorbs everything into his memory.

"Nicholas, if you can wait until you're six, Father will definitely take you to the secret tunnels in the palace. Can you be patient?"

"I can. Big brother promised to take me but couldn't, so he lent me a short sword with a blue gem."

The short sword with a blue gem embedded in the hilt was a toy sword given by Marianne's grandfather, Baron Sebald Vins, to Harold on his sixth birthday. The blade was flattened for safety, and of course, the gem was blue glass.

It was Harold's favorite, and he apparently said, "Return it when Nicholas can go to the secret passage."

"That's right, you borrowed that short sword. You're becoming a hero, too," Marianne smiled.

Hero. For a boy who is very intelligent but still partly a three-year-old in his heart, it was a very appealing word.

The practice at the stalls went well, and the well-fed Nicholas fell asleep in Alexander's arms before he could see the lantern flying practice he had been looking forward to.

When he woke up, he was back at the mansion and realized he had missed the best part. Nicholas ran to "Uncle Tom" for such times.

"Oh, young Master Nicholas. What's the matter?"

"I fell asleep without seeing the lanterns."

"That's a shame, considering how much you were looking forward to it. But you'll see hundreds of lanterns on the actual day, so it's okay."

Gardener Tom doted on Nicholas, who looked just like Marianne. Nicholas knew this, so he would go to Tom when he was sad or troubled, spending long hours watching Tom work or chatting with him.

Today, Tom was trimming the edges of the lawn with a scythe, doing the areas the lawnmower couldn't reach.

The edges of the wide lawn were long, and when he finished, Tom patted his back and stretched,

"Well, let's sharpen the scythe and we're done."

He headed to the gardener's shed with Nicholas.

When Nicholas was with Tom, there was often no maid around, and since Nicholas wasn't a troublesome child, Tom felt at ease taking care of him.

Nicholas sat on a chair, swinging his legs, and watched Tom sharpen the blade intently.

First, soak the whetstone in water, then sharpen it back and forth, occasionally dripping a little water, but don't wash away the gray slurry, and keep a shallow angle with consistent pressure.

Nicholas focused on Tom's hands and stored this knowledge in one of the drawers in his mind.

Tom thought Nicholas was a well-behaved and smart little boy, but he also knew that "children can do unexpected things."

So when Nicholas asked, "Can I have an old whetstone?" Tom, unaware of the short sword, simply smiled and said, "When you get permission from your father to use a blade, I'll be the first to give you a whetstone."

Nicholas replied, "Okay," but he couldn't suppress the desire to sharpen the short sword and make it a real hero's short sword.

The next morning, when Reia was busy, Nicholas ran to the kitchen.

"Do you have any old whetstones you're going to throw away?"

He spoke in baby talk due to nervousness. The cook, who had a child around the same age, said, "Yes, you're really as cute as an angel," and handed Nicholas a worn-out whetstone that was to be discarded.

The cook didn't know that Nicholas had a short sword with a flattened blade or that he had learned how to sharpen blades.

He was simply giving an old whetstone to a child around the same age as his own.