Chapter 41
“…So diligent since morning.”
“…Would I ever be as diligent as Your Highness the Crown Prince?”
Normally, Jeina would have just taken Louis Hart’s teasing without retort, but today, without even realizing it, those words slipped out of her mouth.
It was because, unlike her—restless to the point of death after Louis Hart’s sudden confession of a private secret—he appeared completely at ease. That irked her.
Maybe she had gone a little too far.
But contrary to Jeina’s worry, Louis Hart only smiled wider at her reply.
“Is it because I finally confessed a secret? For once, I slept soundly.”
He stretched with a contented gesture as he said this.
Jeina was both resentful and angry.
But she couldn’t express it, so she focused instead on the artworks displayed before her, walking slowly.
Then she stopped in front of one particular painting.
“What do you think? It’s one I cherish so much that I hated to part with it… but such masterpieces must be seen by many people.”
Louis Hart stood just behind her, mimicking her posture as he admired the piece.
It was a painting of the marketplace in the capital city, Reffia.
The auctioneer and merchants selling fish, each wearing different expressions, looked as though they carried their own unique circumstances.
Beyond the market, the busy citizens of Reffia walked with perpetually irritable expressions, as if always rushing.
And further back, the blue sea and bustling docks of Reffia looked so real, it seemed the scenery had been lifted directly onto the canvas.
“By many people…?”
“I plan to make this place the first art museum in Ikerang. The people of Ikerang will be able to enjoy refined culture and art.”
In Louis Hart’s crimson eyes, ambition blazed.
Though he could never become an intimidating, iron-fisted emperor like his father, the Crown Prince intended to turn the Hersen Empire into a cultural superpower.
His first step was Ikerang.
Though fertile lands had allowed Ikerang to thrive agriculturally—producing nearly half the empire’s food—as magic stone usage and technology advanced, Ikerang declined.
Its people carried an intensely insular attitude toward foreign culture.
They were the last in the empire to even feed magic stones to livestock.
But Louis Hart, who had studied abroad in Herbiant where culture and art flourished, understood how those things could enrich a society.
He wanted to show the people of Ikerang—his mother’s homeland and his own ducal territory—what the world was like, what art and culture truly were.
So he had begun purchasing magnificent works of art, intending to open a museum in Ikerang.
Jeina couldn’t hide her astonishment.
She had assumed he bought art purely out of vanity, whims, and greed.
Never had she imagined he was preparing something like this.
Feeling triumphant at her reaction, Louis Hart took her wrist and led her somewhere.
“Not everyone will think of an art museum as entertaining.”
He brought her to the ducal manor’s garden.
Unlike the carefully manicured palace gardens of the capital, this was no orderly garden at all, but more like a wild field.
Instead of flowers, wild grasses grew; instead of elegant ornamental trees, massive ancient ones towered. Instead of sculpted fountains, there were muddy marshes.
Peacocks ran freely across the open field, while within transparent magical barriers prowled wild beasts.
And high among the trees, groups of monkeys swung about. The garden housed every animal Louis Hart had raised over the years.
She had thought he had simply sent them away when he tired of them—but no.
This environment, so wild, was likely far better for the animals that had now reached adulthood.
“In Herbiant, they show animals like these to earn money. Aside from agriculture, Ikerang is underdeveloped. Its population keeps dwindling… The only way for Ikerang to thrive again is through tourism. I’ll build the empire’s largest zoo.”
The wolf Louis Hart had raised since childhood recognized him and bounded over. Behind it trailed a mate and newborn pups.
“Leo! So these are your pups! What, you got married before I did?”
Grumbling playfully, Louis Hart let the wolf named Leo climb up on him as if it understood every word.
Flopping onto the ground, Louis Hart fondly rubbed Leo’s plump jowls.
Apparently well-fed here, Leo was so tame and chubby one could hardly believe it was a wolf.
Unconsciously, Jeina approached the wolf pups. They wagged their tiny tongues, licking her hand.
Then, startled, she looked around at a sudden burst of song.
Not people, but parrots—brightly colored—were singing the latest tunes popular in the capital.
In the swamp, conjured by magicians, she spotted an animal she had only heard of in stories: an elephant.
Larger than any ox, with a trunk like an arm—it was real.
For a moment, she felt like she had returned to childhood.
Back then, she had often imagined wanting to visit such marvelous, wondrous places.
“Well? Isn’t it incredible?”
Jeina nodded.
In her green eyes, Louis Hart’s radiant smile shone back at her.
In front of the gates of the Ducal Manor of Ikerang, the soldiers were assembled.
Because of the youngest soldier Merland’s remark last night—that it might be their “last supper”—their meal truly had become the worst supper ever.
Now, sober again, Merland bowed his head, muttering to himself in shame.
To commit such a blunder before the Crown Prince was an offense worthy of execution by beheading.
Thankfully, quick-witted comrades had dragged him away and locked him in a room before worse could happen.
Some soldiers clicked their tongues at him openly in reproach, while others said nothing but quietly agreed with his words.
Today, they were to set out to subjugate the giant monster, Phemos.
Every soldier wore a face consumed by fear.
Then Louis Hart arrived, mounted on a white horse.
The soldiers instantly snapped into perfect formation.
“Your Highness, preparations for departure are complete!”
At the words of the senior knight, Louis Hart nodded and took the lead.
Jeina, his escort knight, quickly moved to stand at his side.
Louis Hart glanced at her face.
Though she was not smiling, at least her expression wasn’t filled with the anger she’d worn that morning.
It seemed she had cooled off somewhat.
Smiling, Louis Hart shouted to the troops:
“Then let’s depart!”
At his command, the soldiers marched forward.
The next morning, Liriana’s eyes were red and swollen from weeping all night. She desperately avoided meeting April’s gaze.
She couldn’t break down in tears before her younger sister—who barely reached her waist, who had lived less than half her years—yet smiled bravely as they parted.
Liriana hugged April tightly just once, then boarded the imperial carriage that had come for her.
Helene and April stood watching until the carriage disappeared from sight.
Soon, the Tower Master and the royal court magicians would arrive.
April had packed everything, yet she still anxiously glanced around the mansion, wondering if she had forgotten something.
Nothing was missing, but an odd unease lingered.
And then April realized what it was.
The garden where she’d played house.
The wall covered with childhood doodles, her “masterpiece.”
The training yard where she had practiced swordsmanship with her father.
The oven she and her sisters had broken while trying to bake bread.
There wasn’t a single corner of the mansion that didn’t hold memories.
What she felt she was leaving behind wasn’t some forgotten item—it was the mansion itself.
Lost in thought, she suddenly found a leather bag blocking her view.
“…This…”
A simple brown shoulder bag, seemingly hand-stitched, yet sturdy.
April turned it over in her hands.
No matter how hard she tried to recall, she had never seen it before.
‘N-no way, could Helene have made this?’
If Liriana had made it, the stitching would’ve been tighter. If Jeina, it wouldn’t have been this well-crafted.
Which left only Helene.
But when April thought of asking Helene directly, strangely, she found she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
