V2C18

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She awoke to the sight of Leandroth

with a face full of smiles.

Their morning kiss was prolonged as his

hands roamed her body. After what seemed like a long time, Leandroth pulled

back, he looked like he was in a good mood.

‘You can sleep a little more. Would

you like to have lunch with me today after the meeting?’

He hugged her tightly; raising his

face to look at her Leandroth smiled wryly, and gave her a peck on her cheek.

‘In the daytime, at the office…reason

may be preserved, wouldn't it?’

Hmmm, she did not trust that sentence.

‘Well, see you later.’ He said as he

rose out of bed and went to his room.

He bathed, dressed, prayed, took a

light breakfast and went to the morning assembly.

After the tedious morning assembly, he

went to train with the Imperial Knights. Leandroth like to take time out to

exercise in the morning.

Matilda realised that she had been

remiss in her fencing practice; she should ask Leandroth to train with her, with

this thought, Matilda fell asleep again with a sense of yearning and happiness.

⚔

That morning, she had a written

request for what she wanted for lunch to give to Julia, the chief of staff,

with an itemised list of dishes.

She was told that the chef was a man

of middle years, named Park, who had always been uneasy about the emperor’s

meals, but could not disobey the Grand Chamberlain. Nevertheless, she was

surprised to see vegetables at lunch.

Matilda left her rooms with a company

of Imperial Knights and Maids. Back home in Icecoreta, as long as she wasn't

leaving the castle, she had been able to roam about freely without followers

from her childhood. Although, she felt it was extraordinary to move around with

such a large company, she knew it would be a problem to go about alone.

She

made her way to the Ironmongery workshop where armour and other items were

made.

It was fun to talk with the craftsmen

who were very proud of their work. They showed her how they worked with

different metals, and how they repaired the harnesses, she was also told of the

varying styles of working metals in the country.

She had ten imperial knights and four

maids, this made the small room rather crowded, yet they could overhear the

conversation from the next room,

‘You don’t have to worry about the

orders of the Grand Chamberlain.’

‘But this might make things hard for

me.’

It was rather like an interrogation of

a perpetrator. The person became somewhat displeased and eventually came out.

The chef looked up to see Matilda and

her retinue waiting outside the door, he could not hide his astonishment.

She was dressed quite simply. She

wondered if there had never been a princess who dresses as simply as she did.

Julia, who had followed the chef out

of the room, gave Matilda a wry smile, but Matilda did not reprimand her.

Matilda smiled at the chef and said, ‘Our

head chef in the palace of Icecoreta once said to me; cooking is life and I

would like to think that you have this sentiment as a chef. I hope that you

would do your best to serve foods that are delicious and appropriate.’

When she was younger, Matilda heard

about recipes she thought sounded delicious so she pestered their chef to teach

her. Because they were delicious, she wondered if she could serve the food to

her father, but the chef would just ruffle her hair like a doll. (Zuben: I have

a confession to make: Writing saccharine nonsense like this kills me softly.)

On her way back to her rooms, Matilda

was told that it was not protocol for the Chief of Staff to speak directly to

the Empress, but Matilda had not much of it. She had worked amongst the

court of her kingdom and worked with members of her father’s palace staff. Matilda

was told that it would seem like she was patronising Julia and any action that

Julia took would seem prideful because she supposedly had the backing of the

future Empress. Julia shrugged.

However, to be a member to staff

whether chef or not, he would be a member to the aristocracy. There is protocol

for the interaction between the royals and other ruling classes, and between

the ruling classes and merchants classes, and others. To work in the Palace,

one was required to submit a family tree over several generations.

‘You are the Empress, you can do

whatever you want.’

Was that a careless sentence?

Although, the tone was too nonchalant.

‘I am not the Empress yet,’ she said

just as nonchalantly. She wondered if it was challenge to her, but she decided

to hold back for the time being.

‘If there is nothing else, Your

Majesty, I will return to my duties.’ Julia said with a smile

Perhaps, she hadn’t meant it in a

snide way, Matilda thought as Julia curtsied and walked way.

‘Oh, lunch is a real meal!’ Leandroth

said as he entered the dining area from his office.

‘It is a strange feeling,’ Laughing

gently, she picked a loaf of wisteria bread.

As Leandroth wished, they were alone,

without attendants, at lunchtime. The air between them was comfortable. There

was roast chicken and vegetables and bacon soup, fried fish with olive oil and

herbs, sliced pork cut with slices of mustard, and thinly sliced baked bread.

And for desert; many fruits and baked confections.

Because the sea was far from

Icecoreta, the seafood was mainly dried or pickled. She wasn't used to fresh

fish, so she poked at the fish with her fork in an awkward manner. Leandroth

saw this and laughed,

‘You seem to have bad manners.’

She wondered how long he had been

watching her. Leandroth laughed and said, ‘You’re so cute and funny,’

‘When the two of them are in line, I

wonder if I am being praised or insulted.’ Matilda said - a bit confused.

(Zuben: You and me both, deary.)

‘Cute,’ he said with a smile. The

atmosphere was sweet, and she got strangely embarrassed, but she decided to

laugh, ‘The squid or octopus is really delicious, although, it does feel a

little strange when eating.’

‘There’s something we say in Icecoreta,

that may not be appropriate to say here or will mean something else,’

‘Is a bee larva or beetle larva?’ she

said with a small smile.

‘Haha, please don’t describe food as

insect larva, but it is nutritious and delicious, isn't it?’

‘It is unexpectedly delicious…’ he

added

‘Really? But how did you…?’

‘From the rations given during the

mountain border war in Icecoreta,’ he replied, and continued with his meal. Not

adding more to the subject.

‘Huh?’

‘I fought as a mercenary from age fifteen

till I was nineteen,’ he said. He held up a sword decoration that was tied to

his waist, ‘Looking at this makes me feel nostalgic, this is an apple

decoration you made,’ he dropped the shabby accessory and returned to his food.

Matilda blinked in surprise, ‘Eh…?’

She ruminated on his words, and

the nostalgic apples.

The number of people who could protect

the Ringoen Gardens and agricultural regions had decreased, even if they tried

recruiting new soldiers, it would have been hard to get the new recruits trained

and ready. Matilda had overheard her father and the ministers in discussion

about the situation so she suggested, ‘Why don’t we hire some mercenaries?’

Matilda’s face bloomed red; she put

down her cutlery and put her hands on her cheeks.

‘Ehhhhh? How come you have that?’

‘Baradda and Carbo are indebted to

Acedo, aren't they?’

She remembered those names…

The men were part of the mercenary

team that were hired; they got injured and therefore could not continue working

as mercenaries. Acedo had hurt his left hand, and could not use a sword any

longer, so he had been worried about his future prospects. He had been reticent

and reluctant when he newly arrived at Icecoreta; but he began to get along

with a lady manager of one of the farms, and now he was married to her and they

were living well together,

‘…Mr Acedo is now the proud father of

two children.’

Leandroth laughed, ‘He is truly taking

care of his wife.’

‘But, why was the Crown Prince working

as a mercenary?’ she asked, without being able to hold back. He looked tense

for a moment then relaxed,

‘It was an odd situation and the

ministers were rather outraged by it… but I did it every time. My father said

to me, “Once you start, you must see it to the end”. The solicitation of the mercenary

corps by the Princess of Icecoreta was famous.’

It was? She did not understand it.

Unless it was about of war, the

ministers of state sighed in boredom. But that was not really useful to the people;

she had been angered to tears. She wanted to slam her hand on the table in anger

at the memory.

‘Were you Rain?’ She felt that she

would have remembered such beautiful golden brown hair even if she didn't

remember their face.

‘When I was younger I had red hair, so

even when the colour changed, I dyed it while I was with the mercenary

company.’ He said nonchalantly.

“What are you doing to the battlefield

even though you are a woman? Are you here because you’re curious or to watch

swordplay of that red haired brother, Ross?”…

Zuben: I've been working on this for the past few days, 'Please be more serious' was done when I got tired of this one. Dear readers, there is no smut for three more chapters, at least 😭