Chapter 42
“I’m going out to take a look around the capital for a while.”
As soon as she returned to her room, Ilena asked Andre to “dress her up as extravagantly and luxuriously as possible.”
Without asking why, Andre immediately fetched a handful of gemstones the size of fists—some even larger—from somewhere in the palace.
Then, with great care, he adorned Ilena with as many of those ornaments as possible.
Her dress was the finest brand, currently in fashion on the island. Along with it, he gave her a small pouch bag studded with glittering jewels.
Ilena, weighed down by all the luxury items, stood in front of a full-length mirror.
“I feel like a walking department store.”
From head to toe, she was covered in jewels. Ilena shook her head awkwardly.
The jewels covering her entire body clinked against each other, producing a crisp, tinkling sound.
“Then I’ll call for a carriage.”
“No.”
When Andre, satisfied with her appearance, suggested summoning a carriage, Ilena shook her head with a clattering sound.
“Prepare a horse for me instead. Of course, the horses should be adorned as luxuriously as possible. …Yes, a large warhorse would be good.”
Thinking of Iago’s tall, magnificent black steed she had once seen, Ilena spoke.
“Decorating them won’t be difficult, but… warhorses are quite difficult to handle. Will you be all right?”
Andre looked at her with concern.
Riding required far more skill and training than most assumed. Horses with sensitive and difficult temperaments would often disobey or even throw off riders who handled them clumsily.
“Yes.”
But Ilena immediately nodded with confidence.
Horseback riding was one of her many talents.
Together with golf, it was considered one of the essential sports for the upper class. Expensive horses were sometimes even used as rather effective bribes.
She herself owned four horses, and while in Europe, she even had access to a private riding field.
Back in middle school, she had once won first place in a national riding competition.
“And there’s one more important thing.”
When Ilena spoke with a very serious expression, Andre’s voice also grew serious in turn.
“What is it, Lady Ilena?”
“I need escorts to accompany me.”
“Of course, escorts are always prepared.”
“Not just ordinary escorts. If regular guards are like ordinary coffee, what I want is more like the finest civet coffee.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
Looking puzzled, Andre asked, and Ilena, her expression completely earnest, replied:
“Choose only the most outstandingly handsome men among the soldiers.”
“What?”
“I trust your eye for handsome men, Andre.”
Seeing her nod firmly with complete faith in him, Andre, who had been left dumbfounded with his mouth agape, suddenly straightened up with determination.
“Yes. If it’s for that task, I’m more capable than anyone. Leave it to me.”
Muttering to himself—“If others are just coffee, then these will be civet coffee…”—Andre hurriedly left the room.
Ilena adjusted her outfit one last time in the mirror, then, her body heavy with all the jewels, waddled slowly out to the courtyard.
It wasn’t hard to find Andre.
That was because a dazzling aura seemed to shine from afar.
In the front courtyard of the annex, just as she requested, large and splendid warhorses stood proudly with golden crests upon them.
But it wasn’t only the horses that were magnificent.
Of course, Ilena wasn’t referring to the seven handsome escorts chatting with Andre some distance away from the horses.
“Hm? Iago, what are you doing here?”
“……”
Standing beside the horse with the grandest, most ornate saddle was Iago.
His thick arms folded across his chest, he somehow looked displeased.
His unusually dark violet eyes swept over Ilena, who was decked out in extravagant adornments.
“He must be in a foul mood because of the terrorist threat. Well, it’s natural he’d be worried.”
Thinking she should perhaps have held his hand earlier to comfort him, Ilena opened her mouth first.
“Don’t worry, Iago. I’ll make sure—”
“You said you were looking for escort knights? That urgent business you mentioned earlier—this was it?”
His sunken voice cut her off mid-sentence.
Ilena widened her eyes, realizing this was perhaps the first time Iago had ever interrupted her.
“Yes. Did Andre tell you?”
“And that you only wanted handsome ones.”
He ignored her question and only pressed on with his own point—also a first.
A little surprised, Ilena nodded.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And seven of them, no less.”
“Mm-hm. I asked him to gather only the handsome ones. But what brings you here?”
Blinking her innocent eyes among the glittering jewels, Ilena asked.
At her question, Iago blinked rapidly, still wearing his “Dark King” expression, even though no one else was around to see.
“I… I just…”
Iago looked confused.
“It’s just… when I heard you were looking for handsome escorts…”
“Yes? And?”
“For him to rush out even in the middle of giving orders—could this be something serious?”
Worried something might be wrong, Ilena asked.
But Iago’s face flushed bright red.
He stammered as if in excuse:
“N-no. I just wondered why you didn’t ask me to be one. N-not that I think I’m handsome or anything…”
“What are you talking about, Iago?”
Ilena suddenly spoke sternly.
With the expression of someone who had just been told, “Seawater is actually red,” she declared firmly, without hesitation:
“It’s an undeniable fact that you’re the most handsome man on this island, so put that false modesty away.”
Even from the very beginning, when she had been drowning in lethargy, she thought so. He was exactly her type.
“If you go around saying things like that, you’ll just get scolded, you know?”
“Do you… really think so?”
His face tinged with the soft blush of a newlywed bride, Iago tapped at the ground with the tip of his boot and asked.
Even someone who had no interest in romance—practically a patient with depression—could feel that much.
“Of course.”
At those words, Iago’s lips curved into a crescent-shaped smile.
And far off, someone was intently watching the two of them.
“See? I knew there was something between them.”
Andre studied the pair closely.
He couldn’t hear their conversation due to the distance, but sometimes the atmosphere spoke louder than words.
A man, shy in a way that didn’t suit his size at all, and a woman who clearly cherished him.
It was obvious the two already had feelings for each other far beyond simple affection.
The problem, however, was that some obstacle stood between them—an obstacle that, despite the elders’ expectations of a wedding soon (and even a baby’s first birthday celebration by next year), still blocked their way.
“I just can’t figure out what it is.”
Andre narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing them further.
Ilena was mounting her horse, as if ready to depart, and her king was holding onto her robe with such tenderness.
Though she was only heading out briefly to see the capital, to anyone watching, they looked like lovers parting for a long expedition.
“You… you’re really going without me? Why? Why?”
Iago’s trembling voice asked, as he clutched at Ilena’s robe while she sat atop the saddle.
He was so tall that, even though she was seated on a massive horse, the height difference was barely noticeable.
Looking down at him from an unusual angle—she was so used to always looking up at him—Ilena spoke.
“Yes. I’ll just be out for a short while. Iago, you stay in the palace and command the search party.”
“Of course. But still, do you really have to…”
He glanced sideways at the escort knights standing behind her and fell silent.
Grouped together like that, it was obvious.
They were the very same men rumored among the palace maids to be both handsome and of noble bearing.
Some even called them the “Seven Flowers,” since they were pleasant to look at.
There was no way Ilena could have known about that rumor, which only made Andre’s ability to pick out those exact seven men in such a short time seem uncanny.
“The letters are a little unsettling. Just in case, I thought it best to take escorts.”
Ilena, catching his gaze, explained.
“Y-yes, of course, that’s only right. I just meant…”
Iago trailed off again.
He felt oddly displeased, though he couldn’t quite explain why.
“Well, I’ll be back. It won’t take long.”
Meanwhile, Ilena, seated atop her horse and looking down at him like a queen, wore her usual calm, expressionless face.
No—since hearing about the terrorist threat, the gloomy aura that had surrounded her had lifted, replaced by a spark of vitality and determination.
Which only made him more anxious.
The inner light he used to see in her—and only he could recognize—was now growing brighter and clearer, to the point others might notice too.
“I want to be the only one who sees that. What’s wrong with me lately?”
“It’s not just the letters… I just feel uneasy sending you off with only escorts at a time like this.”
Quick-witted as he was, Iago hastily came up with a rational excuse for his behavior.
“Well, you’ve got seven escorts with you. That should be plenty.”
“Still…”
“And according to Andre, they’re not just good-looking—they’re also skilled knights of the royal order.”
Looking casually toward the waiting knights, Ilena spoke.
“Their looks… Do you think they’re handsome, Ilena?”
Iago’s voice dropped low, edged with menace.
But since she had turned her head, Ilena didn’t notice the change in his expression.
“Yes, aren’t they? I think everyone on this island is handsome.”
