Chapter 71
An Illusion That Will Soon Fade
“The butler was organizing the cards and letters that arrived for you, Princess, so I brought this one along.”
“Oh, you came to give me a letter? You could’ve just left it—I would have checked it later.”
“I was already on my way to see you, Princess.”
What Cedric held out was a single card.
When I had first arrived in Owen, many cards and invitations had come addressed to me. Lady Knox had said they were from Arsène’s nobility.
Now, there were hardly any letters or invitations sent to me. It seemed everyone had realized that I either wouldn’t check them or wouldn’t reply even if I did.
The butler and head maid also knew that I didn’t place much importance on mail, so they usually just checked the noble house and title written on the sender’s name and neatly placed everything in my room.
Even so, if the butler had set something aside to give to me personally, it must have been mail that couldn’t—or shouldn’t—be ignored. Something from the Kingdom of Rundra, perhaps, or from the imperial family.
When I accepted it and checked the name, it was Dandelion, just as expected. He belonged firmly in the category of people I couldn’t ignore.
“It’s from Count Axel.”
“I don’t mind if you check it now, Princess.”
Unexpectedly, it was an invitation. Or rather, reading it again, it was a short letter written in the form of an invitation.
He was suggesting a picnic in the foreigner district. Dandelion added that not all foreigner districts looked the same as before, and that this one even had a sheep ranch.
I wondered what a sheep ranch had to do with a picnic.
“It’s an invitation. He’s asking me to go on a picnic.”
“Is that so?”
When I raised it slightly in Cedric’s direction so he could see, he leaned in a little to read it. In doing so, he came closer to me.
Cedric’s face was right above one of my shoulders. Afraid that moving my head might make me bump into him, I stiffened my neck.
“I think I know the place. It’s somewhere I’ve wanted to visit as well.”
I couldn’t see Cedric’s expression, but I could tell from his voice that it was composed.
“You were familiar with it?”
“Yes. It’s famous for its beautiful sunsets. I’ve wanted to go there for quite some time.”
He was too close. If I moved the wrong way, his cheek might brush against me.
Feeling as though my voice and hands might start trembling, I let out a small sigh instead.
“Then… shall I ask whether it would be all right for you to come along as well, Duke?”
If it wasn’t a strictly private gathering, asking whether one could bring along an acquaintance or two on a picnic invitation wouldn’t be rude. That was how it was in the Kingdom of Rundra, and I doubted other countries were very different.
On the other hand, I trusted Cedric’s propriety—if it were a serious breach of Owen’s etiquette, he would tell me not to do it first.
“If you would do that, I would be delighted, Princess.”
Because I had a habit of speaking while making eye contact, I turned my head toward him as I asked.
And from a distance much closer than I had expected, I met his cherry-colored eyes. Cedric smiled, and his eyes gleamed as though they had been brushed with syrup.
Like frichti…?
“Ah—yes.”
“Yes, Princess.”
I answered. Cedric smiled once more. Feeling awkward in my posture, I shifted just a little, then froze when I felt what seemed like Cedric’s arm brush against my back.
Dandelion replied that it was fine for Cedric to come along. In his letter back, he wrote that he would come by carriage and that we should meet in front of the ducal estate on the appointed day.
I found myself wondering if he would drive the carriage himself again. When the day arrived, however, a coachman was driving, and Dandelion was seated inside the carriage.
The place Dandelion had recommended was certainly different from before.
It lay outside the capital, beyond Arsène, requiring the carriage to travel even farther. He said it was an area where people from the Ten Duchies lived together.
The architectural style wasn’t very different from Owen’s. The streets were lively with conversations spoken in the same manner of speech as Owen.
I saw people who must have come from the Ten Duchies. If I hadn’t been told they were foreigners, I thought I wouldn’t have been able to tell how they differed from the people of Owen.
Unfortunately, today happened to be the day the sheep were taking sand baths, so visitors weren’t being received. Even as I wondered what a picnic had to do with sheep, I realized I had been secretly looking forward to seeing them. It was a bit disappointing.
We stopped the carriage in a wide field and ate sandwiches packed by the ducal estate.
“A picnic in a carriage isn’t so bad, is it, Princess?” Dandelion said.
The autumn wind blew against him from behind, making his wavy hair stand on end. As if his disheveled hair didn’t bother him at all, Dandelion simply grinned brightly.
“Yes. I didn’t know you could have a picnic in a carriage.”
With both doors of the four-wheeled carriage thrown wide open, I stretched my legs outside.
Cedric sat upright inside the carriage opposite me, while Dandelion took out a folding chair he had brought and sat outside. We were waiting for the sunset.
Some sandwich sauce got on my little finger. I wondered whether I should take out a handkerchief now or later, when Cedric handed me one. I tilted my head slightly in thanks.
Before us stretched an expansive field. Nothing obstructed the view—just grass after grass after grass, with wild plants mixed in.
It truly was a place where the plains stood out. The horses the knights had ridden grazed nearby, and beside them, the knights of the kingdom rested comfortably.
The sun would set directly in front of us. Riding the wind, it would scatter its light among the clouds, and each cloud would shine with its own color—red, yellow, or a vermilion somewhere in between.
“Duke, what sort of sight did you come to show her?” Dandelion asked.
I looked at Dandelion, wondering what he meant.
I had already finished my sandwich and was holding the cloth it had been wrapped in. Cedric took it from my hand.
After neatly folding the cloths and placing them somewhere in the carriage, Cedric replied.
“Well. I’m curious how it looks through Count Axel’s eyes.”
“Huh? You don’t know?” Dandelion asked.
Dandelion fell silent, his mouth slightly open in thought. After a moment, he shrugged.
“The sun is setting, Princess.”
Cedric didn’t give Dandelion much attention. He shifted the topic—and he was right. The sun was setting.
The grass of the wide plain, all of it, was the same color. The world was completely yellow. Grass and yellow, then yellow again, and grass and grass and grass. It was a place worthy of being famous for its sunset.
“To my eyes, the world looks nothing but yellow. I think my eyes might have turned yellow.”
Cedric looked at me and said,
“They were honey-like eyes to begin with.”
Keeping my gaze on the plain, I smiled.
When the sun had fully set and night fell, Sir Matisse lit a torch and set it upright.
Dandelion extended his hand toward the torch. For a moment, I thought the fire had leapt onto his fingertips—but it wasn’t that. It was the trace of Dandelion’s magic.
The sparks from the torch transformed into the shape of small animals, hopping here and there.
“Oh—magic?” I exclaimed.
“When I was younger, I used to make these on my own. My magic trace is fire, so I made friends out of flames. Now I finally have someone to introduce my fire friends to.”
The fiery traces at Dandelion’s fingertips grew larger, then changed into the shape of a sheep. The sheep shook its head from side to side.
Dandelion laughed openly, his large eyes and mouth wide with delight. The glow of the flames reflected on his face.
One blazing sheep came near me and circled just in front of the carriage. It bent one knee and bowed to me.
“Hello,” Dandelion said, matching the sheep’s movement.
“Ahaha! It’s adorable!”
I clasped my hands, then reached out toward the fire sheep. It floated gently upward, its four legs waving in different directions before it steadied itself in the air.
Dandelion handled the magical sheep quite skillfully. The fire sheep shrank to the size of my palm and spun in circles around my wrist.
It felt warm, like holding my hands near a campfire, but wherever the flames brushed me, it wasn’t painful or hot.
“If they’re friends, do they have names?” I asked Dandelion.
“I’ve never given them names. They’re just illusions that will soon disappear.”
“If they had names, they’d be even cuter.”
Did being an illusion really mean it couldn’t have a name? I thought it would have been fine to give it one.
The sheep lightly brushed my fingertips and drifted away.
“Duke, the sheep are cute.”
I turned to Cedric. Unlike me, Cedric was seated facing forward in the carriage, but when I turned my head, he met my gaze.
“Yes, they are cute.”
I turned my eyes back to the flames. There were more sheep than before. As I followed the fire sheep with my eyes, I met Dandelion’s gaze. One sheep sprang from his fingertips.
With a whoosh, the flames flared. More sheep appeared, until the field became a sheep ranch.
Countless sheep now leapt and ran about. As if I were truly standing in the middle of a sheep ranch, the fire sheep raced across the field.
