Chapter 66
I’ll Show You
At that moment, Cedric’s finger mattered to me far more than Dandelion’s “way.” Because of that, without thinking too deeply about what Cedric’s question truly meant, I answered absentmindedly.
“Ah… the foreigner district?”
“Are you planning to go there again?”
“I’m not sure. We haven’t talked about a specific destination.”
“I see.”
Cedric’s finger slowly moved, slipping in between my clasped hands.
“We did promise to meet again. Count Axel said he would show me something new.”
Cedric bent his finger slightly and lightly caught the tips of my fingers. I realized I was breathing awkwardly. I forced myself to inhale, but my exhale trembled.
“Yes. Please go, Princess. I will be waiting.”
“At the ducal residence?”
“Yes.”
Cedric smiled slowly.
On the day of my appointment with Dandelion, he arrived once again in a rented four-seater carriage.
This time, however, Dandelion got down from the driver’s seat himself. There was no coachman in sight. He said he would show us his carriage-driving skills today.
As he leapt up onto the driver’s seat, dirt got on his brown trousers made of fine fabric, but Dandelion seemed completely unaware that his pants had been dirtied.
Sir Matisse and Dandelion sat on the driver’s bench, while Sir Diego and I sat inside the carriage.
“Princess, may I carefully say something?”
Sir Diego, seated across from me, spoke with visible caution.
“Yes, of course. Go ahead.”
“Count Axel is a strange man.”
“Thank you for the advice.”
I laughed softly. He wasn’t wrong. And I could sense how much thought Sir Diego must have put into saying something so truthful to me, which made me smile even more.
Once again, Dandelion suggested going to the foreigner district. And this time, he truly drove the carriage himself.
It was clear this wasn’t his first time driving. The ride felt no different from when a professional coachman was in charge. Then, sooner than expected, the carriage came to a stop.
The small window connected to the driver’s seat opened, and Dandelion’s face appeared. His eyes were naturally large, but now they were opened even wider than usual.
“Princess, there’s a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
I assumed it might be an issue with the road or the carriage wheels.
“My friends are fighting right in front of us. I need to stop them.”
“What?”
Dandelion’s face vanished from the window at once. When I looked out through the side window, the carriage was stopped on a sparsely populated road.
On one side of the road, buildings stood here and there. On the other side was nothing but grassland. And on that grassy field, several small groups of people were indeed facing off against one another.
People dressed like nobles were mixed among those dressed like commoners. They were wildly pointing fingers at the opposing groups. Which ones were Dandelion’s friends?
I turned my body and looked at Sir Diego.
“Sir Diego, have you ever seen a fight?”
“Yes, Princess. Many times.”
“Oh my. Really? How?”
“I saw them at the academy, and in the knight order, almost every other day. When people of the same age live together in one place, conflicts are inevitable.”
“I attended the academy too, you know.”
“I did not attend the academy at the same time as Your Highness, so I cannot be sure. However, I believe no one wanted to show you people fighting. They likely stopped whenever you were around.”
I turned back to the window and rested my hand on the frame.
“Does it look serious?”
Sir Diego leaned toward the window and examined the scene.
“It appears to be a light verbal dispute.”
I could see Dandelion standing among the finger-pointing people, smiling as he said something to them.
I had seen scoldings before, and I had also seen imperial supremacists and people from the Ten Duchies cause disturbances when we passed through the city. But the former were reprimands born of hierarchy, and the latter were conflicts—not outright fights.
So then… what was a fight?
“I want to get down and watch.”
“Yes, Princess.”
Sir Diego knocked on the window connected to the driver’s seat. Shortly after, Sir Matisse opened the carriage door from outside and helped me down. Sir Diego jumped out of the carriage in one smooth motion.
Three people stood on the left, two on the right, hurling unfamiliar words at each other.
Listening closely, they all seemed to be foreigners. Each spoke with a different accent, mixing in unfamiliar words, making it difficult to understand what they were saying.
“I think there are words I don’t know.”
Sir Matisse hesitated, and Sir Diego answered instead.
“They are foreign swear words, Princess. Vulgar expressions that nobles rarely use.”
“Ah!”
It wasn’t as though I knew nothing about swearing. When I attended the academy, I had occasionally heard peers curse at one another in hallways or dining halls.
But the words flying around right now sounded far harsher than anything I knew. And foreign swear words, at that. Then again—how did Sir Diego know them?
At that moment, someone shouted what was clearly a curse and swung their palm.
The hand should have flown much farther—but it stopped halfway. Dandelion had lifted his heel and blocked it with the top of his head. A sharp thwack echoed from where the palm struck his hair.
“Ahem. Using violence only makes things worse.”
Dandelion said sternly.
The palm was still buried in Dandelion’s wavy hair. The person who had lashed out looked embarrassed.
“It’s an important debate, sure, but if you keep going today, it’ll turn into trouble. You’d better stop here.”
Dandelion spoke in an exaggerated old-fashioned tone. The man who had struck him and another whose face was flushed bright red both nodded at the same time.
“All right. Let’s do what we always do.”
At Dandelion’s words, the man who had swung his hand lifted it from Dandelion’s head and offered a handshake to his opponent.
“Let’s continue the fight next time.”
“Yeah, next time!”
One of the men opposite him clasped the offered hand. They shook hands vigorously, and just like that—it was over.
The others didn’t even bother with reconciliation gestures. The group grew noisy again, but now it was because they were laughing and chatting. Dandelion joined in, laughing loudly with them.
I asked the knights,
“Is that how arguments usually end?”
“There’s no single ‘proper’ way for arguments to end, but this is the first time I’ve seen a reconciliation like that.”
Sir Diego replied. Sir Matisse, rarely, added quietly, “How fascinating.”
Now the group had their arms around each other’s shoulders. It seemed none of them were on opposing sides—apparently, they were all Dandelion’s friends. When Dandelion spotted me standing there, he jogged over lightly.
“Princess! You came out! Perfect timing! How about we just go together with them today? Thanks to running into them, I can make you an absolutely amazing dish!”
And just like that, our destination changed on the spot.
Dandelion and his group pointed toward a wooden building visible in the distance across the field. One of them ran a pub there.
When I asked what a pub was, Sir Diego explained that it was a place that sold simple food and alcohol.
I wondered aloud whether they sold alcohol even during the day, and Dandelion answered that they weren’t open for business right now—they were just going there to hang out as friends.
Dandelion introduced the people we had seen arguing on the road as members of a small group he belonged to.
Just as I had expected, there were nobles with titles among them, as well as commoners. All their faces were unfamiliar. They were a different group from the acquaintances I had seen with Dandelion when disembarking from the airship a few days ago.
“What kind of group is it?”
“If I had to describe it, a social gathering! We cook food from our home countries, read books together, and sometimes hold discussions.”
Dandelion’s friends approached and greeted me. When I introduced myself as Daisy of the Kingdom of Rundra, for some reason one person in the group punched Dandelion in the back. Another thump rang out.
As we rode the carriage again, a low stone wall appeared along the road. The scattered buildings soon disappeared, replaced by trees. Fallen autumn leaves completely covered the path.
Our destination was a two-story wooden building.
On the first floor was a long table, with a kitchen directly behind one side of it—a rather unique layout. Besides the long table, there were several ordinary round tables in the middle of the space.
The two knights from the kingdom and I sat together at a table by the window farthest from the entrance. A seat was left for Dandelion as well.
Dandelion was busy laughing loudly among his friends. Before he returned to our table, I lowered my voice and asked the knights,
“A ‘small group’ is like an academy club, right?”
“That seems likely, Princess.”
“Even you don’t know much about it, Sir Diego?”
“It’s my first time hearing of it. Perhaps it refers to a group that meets at scheduled times, like regular tea parties or fencing practice.”
