The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House - Chapter 67

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Pastry Shop
Chapter 67

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Asha heard the Emperor’s command and immediately tried to take Ivan away, but Lis objected vehemently.
“Your Majesty surely doesn’t mean to take an apprentice who’s only just begun his training, does he?”
“But…….”
“If I speak to the Tingerness Knight Commander, he’ll send an excellent knight on his own.”
“Absolutely not!”
Asha quickly caught Lis, who was about to head straight for the Order of Knights. Lis stopped short and turned to look at her.
“I… you won’t allow it?”
“Never!”
From the moment Asha heard the Emperor tell her to “have the knight detachment send knights,” she had been trying to gauge his true intentions.
‘The only knight order in the Imperial Palace is the Tingerness Order of Knights.’
If she were to take knights from them, she would have to go through the Knight Commander, and likely he would select one or two knights to send.
‘What if those knights were permanently overlooked for promotion?’
If the Emperor thought the knights her grandfather the Knight Commander had assigned were her own faction rather than the Imperial Heir’s……
“Why do you feel that way? The Tingerness Knight Commander is your maternal grandfather. Surely he would select trustworthy men.”
“That’s exactly why I won’t have it.”
“Is there something troubling you?”
At Lis’s question, Asha swallowed a sigh. The Emperor’s heart was tangible, something she could see and understand. But now that it had come to light that she spoke with spirits, her worries had not faded. If it weren’t for her grandfather, she would gladly have visited the knight order.
Just then, Pibi, who had been lying on her lap, chirped.

‘These aren’t pointless worries.’

Pibi spoke as though exasperated. Asha started to protest, then closed her mouth and tilted her head. Pibi, seizing the moment, continued chirping.

‘No, that’s…….’
Asha’s lips moved soundlessly. It was because they would try to kill me, of course. I never told you, but I know that…….
Yet even that felt like a flimsy excuse. Hadn’t the world she actually inhabited diverged quite far from the original story she knew? And yet still……. Asha frowned and gazed down at her own heart.
‘Without meaning to, I just keep thinking that way.’

At those words, Pibi paused for a moment, then spoke in a tenderness she had never heard before.

‘Illusions……?’

Asha tilted her head in confusion. She had never told Pibi what she knew or what she was thinking. Yet Pibi spoke as though she understood everything.
“Your Highness, are you all right?”
Having been lost in her conversation with Pibi, Asha didn’t notice Lis watching her with concern until the maid spoke. Asha waved a hand dismissively and was about to settle back when a thought struck her—she suddenly shot up from her seat.
‘In any case, I don’t feel like visiting the knight order right now.’
“Any knight of decent rank would suffice, wouldn’t it?”
“That is…… well, yes, but——”
Ignoring Pibi’s startled, frantic chirping, Asha dashed to the desk, seized a pen, and quickly scribbled something.

“Pibi, I need you to run an errand.”

“Take a letter to Kalno. If you come back, I’ll give you more Buttering.”

“Three.”
Pibi complained bitterly that the number was too few, but did not resist when Asha fastened the small letter to her ankle. Once Pibi had flown out the window, Lis looked at Asha with bewilderment.
“How is that bird able to deliver letters…… Wait, did you really just send a letter to Kalno?”
“Yes. There’s barely anyone in Jedo stronger than Kalno right now. If he goes with me, wouldn’t he be better than just any knight?”
“But……Kalno accompanying you on an outing—are you certain that’s wise……?”
“That depends on whether Kalno agrees to come in the first place.”
Lis opened her lips with some difficulty.
“Your Highness, I know it’s presumptuous of me to speak this way…… but your closeness with Kalno…….”
“Hmm?”
Asha looked up at Lis with an innocent expression. Lis continued slowly, her face uncertain whether she was saying the right thing.
“Kalno is truly a man of extraordinary accomplishment, and a nobleman of considerable standing. He and Alexei share a deep friendship.”
“Yes, that’s right, isn’t it?”
Asha looked at Lis as though to say: why are you telling me things I already know?
“But he possesses…… a very great power, doesn’t he.”
“Mm…… yes, he does?”
“Such power can wound those around him, even if he never intends it. Not that he’s a bad person…….”
“So you’re saying I shouldn’t be close to him?”
Asha asked the question with a teasing smile, and Lis exhaled deeply, letting her shoulders sag.
“I’m only saying it out of concern.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. That’s something I need to be careful about myself. When you touch a rose, you mustn’t blame the rose for its thorns.”
“……You might be the only person who would compare him to a rose.”
“Aha. Is that so?”
Asha smiled brightly. Seeing that expression, Lis realized she had no intention of changing her mind, and with a somewhat pouting face, she fastened a few more ribbons into the girl’s hair.

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“What do you mean, abandoning Linium Usita for Lumen Basiliche!”
At a rare family dinner, Kalno’s father Ivan raised his voice without thinking, then quickly closed his mouth. Kalno had paused in cutting his meat and was staring at him with a cool gaze he made no effort to conceal.
“Have you packed what you need for your return to Sedvoyer?”
“Th—yes, I’m seeing to it.”
“I see. It might be best not to delay. Grandmother won’t wait long for you.”
Ivan looked as though he wanted to shout something, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak, and closed his mouth instead. Beside him, his mother Yelise, who had been quietly picking at her food with a fork, spoke in a trembling voice.
“That…… the lands His Majesty granted you. Was there a particular reason you chose Lumen Basiliche…….”
“Must I explain here the wound I received when I returned from the battlefield?”
“Th—that’s not what I meant. It’s just…… I was curious…….”
Kalno set down his fork and knife with an audible clatter. At that very moment, the Duke and Duchess flinched.
“I’m rather tired. I’ll retire now.”
“Y—yes. Go on up and rest.”
A murderous silence fell over the dining table. Kalno swept his eyes once more across the cooling dishes, then turned without hesitation and left. As he made his way up the stairs of the mansion, the servants he passed bent low like grass in the underworld bowing before the messenger of death, their eyes never meeting his. All of this—which he had always taken for granted—suddenly seemed strange to him.
Even the attendant standing guard at his door hastily stepped aside. Kalno opened his chamber door, then stopped short, blinking in astonishment. The room was in complete disarray—more precisely, the desk was. Papers lay scattered everywhere, and he could hear ink dripping steadily from the edge of the desk as if a bottle had been overturned.
And among all this, Kalno spotted something he had seen before, yet something that ought not to be here.
“Chirp chirp!”
“This is…….”
He had definitely seen it before.
It was a small, yellow chick-like bird that Asha kept and raised with her own hands.

– I’m going to send you something like a carrier pigeon. Don’t be startled, all right?

Words the girl had spoken to him days ago suddenly came to mind. The little yellow bird responsible for destroying his desk stood with its small black feet planted boldly, a tiny note attached to them.
“Chirp-chirp!”

* * *

“A pastry shop?”
Valery, who was Alexei’s uncle and lived outside the Imperial Palace while constantly watching for an opportunity to return, kept his ear to the ground regarding developments within the palace. The report the Butler had brought was part of that effort.
It stated that Baron Sarato, who had recently developed some sort of connection with Asha, had opened a pastry shop selling only a single variety of cake.
“The rumor is that the shop sells a cake made by the Imperial Heir using imported goods from Baron Sarato…….”
“A ten-year-old making anything? Nonsense. Baron Sarato is simply currying favor with the Imperial House.”
Valery spoke irritably and shook the paper vigorously.
“So what is Baron Sarato really after? Is he trying to get close to Alexei?”
“He hasn’t made any direct contact with the Imperial Heir, and when he visits the palace, it’s only to see the Imperial Heir…….”
“But Alexei treats Asha like his precious doll! Getting in her good graces is the same as getting in Alexei’s!”
Valery flared up sharply, then threw down the letter he was holding. The Butler hurried to pick it up.
“Damn it. And here I’ve been cultivating Marquis Tataricha…….”
Valery got that far but couldn’t bring himself to finish. The Butler held his breath, trembling.
“……Cursed.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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