Episode 59
“Fresh fish! Fresh herring, just caught from Lake Edessa!”
“Buy some eggs! Laid by hens raised with care!”
“Take a look at these handmade earrings! Great as gifts for family and lovers!”
As soon as we left the hotel and headed towards the market street, an astonishingly bustling downtown area appeared.
Callisteon chuckled when he saw my expression.
“I thought you’d like this.”
‘Like’ was an understatement.
My only outings since becoming Louise had been frantic trips to secretly meet doctors, so for nearly three months, I had been either confined to the palace or living a deathly quiet life in a monastery.
‘When I was hospitalized, I wanted to go anywhere outside the ward!’
Elated, I grinned widely and quickened my pace even more.
“Come with me, Lu.”
Callisteon also deliberately sped up his steps to follow behind me.
With every step, the savory smell of market bread, the salty aroma of sausages, and the fragrant scent of flowers followed.
But none of it felt nauseating; instead, it felt pleasant.
‘Has the morning sickness really ended?’
I walked briskly, swinging my arms and legs, and stopped at a stall where people were gathering noisily.
“Lucky Bread! Freshly baked Lucky Bread is here!”
The merchant shouted at the top of his lungs.
“One, please! Not this one, that one over there!”
“I’ll take two!”
People paid their coins and took away bread that looked like hard steamed buns.
Unexpectedly, Callisteon asked first.
“What’s Lucky Bread?”
Phoebe explained.
“Ah, Your Grace probably hasn’t seen it before. It’s a bread popular in the southern part of the Empire. There’s a small paper with a fortune inside the center, and it’s surprisingly accurate sometimes.”
“Then I want to buy one too!”
I laughed cheerfully and exclaimed. Callisteon looked at me.
“You want to buy it?”
“Yes.”
I nodded decisively. Phoebe also chimed in.
“Then me too! After all, only good fortunes come out of Lucky Bread.”
Well, if a bad fortune came out, everyone would be displeased.
“Then we have to buy one for Cal too!”
So I said to the merchant.
“Give me three, please.”
As I gathered the three breads the merchant handed me in my arms, the warmth of the freshly baked bread warmed my mood too.
We moved away from the crowded stall to a slightly quieter space.
Though it was still part of the market.
“Here, choose one.”
I let them pick their breads. Phoebe waved her hands dismissively.
“Oh my, Your Highness should choose first.”
So I picked the bread on the far left as mine.
Callisteon yielded his turn to Phoebe and took the last remaining bread as his share.
“Shall we all open them together?”
Holding our respective breads, we simultaneously broke them in half.
—Crunch.
As the hard crust shattered, the white, soft interior was revealed.
In the very center of the round bread was a small, rolled-up piece of paper with a fortune. It seemed they poked a hole and inserted it after baking the bread.
“I’ll read mine first!”
Phoebe said spiritedly and unrolled the paper.
“It says… ‘You will go on a long journey’?”
Then she laughed heartily.
“I’m already on a journey, so should I count it as correct?”
Callisteon also read his fortune.
“‘You will go on a long journey’… It’s the same.”
“Aww…”
We were unnecessarily disappointed as we unrolled the last remaining paper on my palm.
But there, lo and behold…
“‘You will bear a son’?”
“What?”
Callisteon, startled, snatched the paper away.
“A son… it says a son…”
As he said this, he looked at my stomach, making me feel embarrassed. Meanwhile, Phoebe started laughing, holding her sides.
“Puhaha! I never knew Your Grace could make such an expression! This is so funny, really…”
Callisteon, belatedly coming to his senses, tried to recover.
“No, it’s not that a son is better. I was just surprised…”
I shot him a glance and gently stroked my stomach.
“Even if it’s a son, he’s my son.”
“I think you misunderstood, Lu. I’d be happy with a daughter too. If she resembled you, how pretty she would be. And…”
“Even if it’s a daughter, she’s my daughter.”
Callisteon, seemingly embarrassed, scratched his forehead and then lightly grasped my fingertips.
“Are you angry? I misspoke because I was flustered. I’ve never even thought about whether a son or daughter would be better. Of course, both are good. Okay…?”
The anxious expression of the Grand Duke of Babenberg himself.
“Anyway, it’s my baby, so it doesn’t matter whether Cal likes it or not.”
Finding his flustered face amusing, I teased him to my heart’s content and then continued walking towards the fruit shop.
Phoebe stuck close to me and whispered.
“Could it really be a son?”
I was taken aback and retorted.
“Then, are you really going on a long journey, Phoebe? And planning to take Cal with you?”
Phoebe laughed heartily.
We continued walking cheerfully, but for some reason, Callisteon lagged behind and didn’t catch up to us for quite a while.
“I’m not familiar with this fruit. If it’s imported, it’s not very diverse here in Edessa… Perhaps you could try finding it in the capital?”
The fruit shop merchant we finally met shook his head after looking at the two types of persimmons I had drawn.
Callisteon’s face grew serious.
With his brows heavily furrowed, he asked earnestly.
“When does the importer come?”
“He should come in three or four days. Shall I tell him to visit the hotel directly then?”
The merchant seemed to take Callisteon’s introduction of himself as the hotel manager at face value.
Callisteon had only brought a dozen guards to Edessa, so he had no lackeys to delegate this task to.
So he nodded to the merchant.
“Please do.”
Then he asked me.
“Even though that fruit isn’t available, are there any other fruits you like?”
Now that he mentioned it, the other fruits also looked quite fragrant and delicious.
I picked large grapes, elongated pears, dark plums, and iridescent mangoes.
“Send everything to the hotel.”
Callisthene ordered.
So, we essentially struck out at the fruit shop, but while getting some fresh air, my craving for persimmons had subsided somewhat.
As we left the shop, Phoebe asked.
“Then, since we’re out, shall we take a walk by the lake? Are you tired, Your Highness?”
“No, I don’t feel very tired.”
The doctor had said it’s good to get a little exercise after entering the stable period.
Having been lying down all the time probably wasn’t good for my health either.
Callisteon came closer and said.
“If you get tired, we can call a carriage anytime. You must tell me if you’re tired, Lu.”
He had been quite deflated since the Lucky Bread incident, but it seemed his mood had finally lightened.
“Okay, I’ll definitely tell you.”
I decided to stop teasing him at that point and answered meekly.
Callisteon, with a relieved expression, pointed in the direction of the lake.
“The lake is this way. Let’s not overdo it suddenly, so we’ll just take a quick look around today and head back.”
I was startled when the lake came into view.
“Wow.”
Because it was much closer than I had expected.
Contrary to my assumption that we’d have to leave the market area somewhat, the lake spread out right behind the buildings of the alley we were strolling through.
Yet, it was so vast and beautiful that I had to stop in my tracks, mesmerized.
“…It’s just like the sea.”
The picturesque lakeside was filled with the sounds of people coming and going, the noise of distant boats cutting through the water, and the sounds of birds fluttering their wings and flying about, echoing like pleasant white noise.
When I finally realized it had gotten too quiet around us, Phoebe had disappeared somewhere, and only Callisteon was looking at me.
‘Even though we’ve been together all day.’
His face, staring at me, was as dazed as mine had been while looking at the lake.
Finally, our eyes met.
Eyes bluer than the sky and deeper than the lake shone, holding only me within them.
Callisthen finally spoke.
“Because you are so specially lovable, I thought it was only natural and logical for eyes to be drawn to you.”
I couldn’t immediately follow the direction of that story, which started with a rather ticklish sentence.
“Even with the same hair color as half the people on the street, what am I to do when only you stand out.”
