Volume 1 Chapter 5 (2/2)
Having her coin returned to her, she opens her eyes wide in a fluster
“Eh? W-what do you hout the continent It should be the case in Rhodesia too”
“Indeed, it’s a Dahl gold coin of the highest purity However, I don’t have enough change for it—”
“C-change?”
“Please pay with a cheaper coin”
“Cheaper coins…? I only have these… Ue, so”
“I can’t accept that! Even if you buy everything I’e I’ve done honest business for over thirty years, and I intend to continue doing so”
“B-but… Then, what should I…”
The girl was at a loss
—That person’s ignorance of the world was staggering When he tried to buy sweet duold coin, the owner told hie so she can’t accept it He beca “Eh? Eh? I can’t pay with this?” in confusion
Ludwik, recalling hisCalvin and herself, slipped out a chuckle
“I’ll pay Is this fine, Mister?”
Ludwik says as he takes out two copper coins, upon which,
“Yes, thanks for your patronage! These are freshly grilled and piping hot I picked out ones with a thick piece of meat for you two”
Ludwik and the girl are each handed a skewer of grilled pork, potatoes, and onions
The girl stared at her skeith a complicated face
“Are you not gonna eat?”
Ludwik inquires, upon which
“If I eat it, you’ll be the one treating h I’m the one who’s supposed to treat you”
She mutters as if to say she’s unsatisfied
“Who cares? Either way is fine isn’t it?”
“It is not fine! I mean, it isn’t fine”
As the girl was objecting, a “Kuu—” sound was heard
It was not a growl of frustration but a growl from her stomach
Ludwik’s irl’s face turns into a tomato
“Your sto, ‘Either way is fine, so let me eat already'”
“…h”
“It’s tastier when eaten while still hot, so let’s dig in”
He suggests, upon which the girl wriggles her body
“W-well, it’s a rare occasion after all I’ll thank you later I don’t like owing people without repaying them”
She says, insistent on repaying him
“Where are the chairs? Also, where can we borrow a knife and a fork?”
She surveys their surroundings
“You eat it standing up”
“Eh?”
“Like this”
Ludwik de a piece ofit off the top of the skewer into his irl’s eyes widen in surprise
But right after,
“I see! So you eat it standing up!”
Seerins
“Thank you for the treat”
She says, andLudwik, opens her mouth wide and pulls a piece of meat off the skeith her teeth
However, because the girl’s mouth is very small, she couldn’t fit the whole piece into her mouth Thus, she had to bite a piece off, which she did with all her ht, upon which
“I, it’s hot…!”
She became teary eyed as she furrowed her eyebrows She frantically chewed theit down She brought her chin back down as she let out a sigh of relief, after which,
“But, it’s delicious!”
She says, s with her whole face
“I’ve always aspired to eat while standing once It makes me feel like I’m on a serious adventure!”
She said excitedly Afterwards, she ateoff a piece to chew
It seeu her Even so,
“Delicious— These potatoes and onions too, how are they so tasty when they look like they were just grilled normally?”
She’s moved to wonder
“There’s sauce around your mouth”
“Eh!”
The girl wipes her mouth with one hand flusteredly, upon which Ludwik stretches his hand out,
“Not there, here”
He wipes the side of her mouth then smiles sweetly, upon which she peeled her eyes back in shock behind her mask and her entire body petrified
“Yup, it’s gone”
To Ludwik, this was so all the time for his little sister Lottie It didn’t have any deep s appear to be another story Her lips tremble like a wave of bubbles as she says,
“T… thank… you B, but, it isn’t proper to touch a girl so c, casually I ood”
Ludwik could only hear bits and pieces of her words due to the noisy surroundings However, seeing that she’s ht-red, doard,
“Umm, I’m sorry”
He apologized
“By the way, the candied walnuts taste superb as well I recommend them”
The girl looks up at Ludith upturned eyes as if still embarrassed
“Really…?”
“Wanna try some?”
“Well… I, is that soold coin?”
She asks anxiously
“I’ll pay for it in advance When I’ve spent a gold coin’s worth on you, you can pay me back”
“I, is that so? Then you won’t be treating me, so it’s fine”
She says, finally raising her chin
In reality, even if she tries out different food stands until her stoold coin’s worth of food would require a few months
“By the way, could you tell me your name by now? I’m Ludy”
Ludwik says, upon which the girl casts a glance at Ludwik then bends herhesitantly
“It’s Florin”
“Florin, huh— It’s a light, nice name”
Ludwik praises her, upon which she fidgets and says,
“Y, your name isn’t bad either, Ludy More importantly, where are the candied walnuts?”
“They’re this way”
Ludwik guided her to the right stand Florin appeared taken with the candied walnuts as well, extolling
“It’s crunchy and delicious Ah—, but, the caramel made my hand all sticky But it’s delicious”
She looks seriously troubled Ludwik tells her, “Just lick your fingers”, and de so himself “That’s poor manners B, but, I’m all sticky, s, so it can’t be helped” She licks herself hesitantly with her pink tongue as she looks around restlessly toher
Afterwards, they did things like watch a race of piglets, play ring toss, and scoop loaches Florin was overfloith curiosity; no litter her eyes in aht there
Seeing such a vivaciously charirl, Ludwik couldn’t help but slacken his cheeks Noticing this, Florin reddened her face and wriggled her body, asking with an upset, embarrassed voice,
“Why do you keep s I do, Ludy?”
“Because it’s cute how you’re so unused to everything, Florin”
He replies, upon which she twitches her shoulders and
“Y, you’re used to all this, huh”
“Yeah, I’m used to it for the most part”
He was raised as a co delicious food stands come easily to him
“How indecent”
“Ehhh?”
“Even though I thought you were a gullible softie so I orried a trickster taking advantage of you, to think that you’re this used to talking to girls… You’re the real trickster”
It appears that Florin, who is tying her lips to the side, misunderstood what he meant when he said he was “used to it” Even as he falters a bit froht that that innocent part of her is unbearably cute too
“But, thanks to my experience, I knohat you want next”
“Oh really, now What is it then?”
Ludwik bought two cups of strawberry-flavored water and handed one to Florin
Florin untied her lips and opened her eyes wide, and her face, which had flushed from the heat of the festival, reddened further for another reason as shevexed
“My throat felt really dry”
She accepted the strawberry water and drank half of it in one go
Doing so, she widens her eyes again and spilled out a smile
“Eluuka! (Delicious!)”
She exclaimed
That was Endrish
This time, it was Ludwik’s eyes that widened
Realizing what just happened, Florin covered her mouth with her free hand
“Do you come from the Endrish Empire?”
He inquires, upon which her eyes behind the ets restlessly
“T, that’s right… Gosh, without thinking, I… No, what should I do? No no, darn it, even though I was being careful, I, I let eez, no”
She says, after which she vibrates her head rapidly back and forth, causing her lustrous flaxen hair to tre as well Florin looks so flustered that Ludwik starts to feel a bit sorry for asking
“U I shouldn’t have asked?”
“Yeah, that’s right, you shouldn’t have asked! N, no, it’s not that… it’s just, i, it sounds cold, right?”
“Eh?”
“…The language of my country”
She says in a s her arms close to her body
“Not at all Endrish has a lovely ring to it; rinned and yelled, “Eluuka!” just now, it was so cute that my heart skipped a beat”
Florin opens her eyes wide and lifts her face up
“Y, you’re lying When I speak the language ofon airs and belittling them Of course it does, and really, it’s fine like that… but—”
Florin’s voice shrinks again
It’s true that the Endrish that comes out of Queen Katerina’sdown on others,them feel nervous
However, the word that flew out froht not be scientific, but that’s hoik heard it so it can’t be helped
“It’s not fine The people who said that to you are just rude Both your country’s language and you yourself are very wonderful”
To Florin, who looked like she was about to cry when she had her breath suddenly taken away, Ludwik spoke slowly and tenderly in Endrish
”El stella revarnya toris bela (It is my honor to meet you How beautiful you are)”
These are the words that Ludwik practiced over and over again before Queen Katerina came to marry him
The words that failed to reach the queen ca with a sweet breath
Florin’s eyebrows drooped doard, after which she exclaimed with a beet red face
“Nei, nei (Stop, stop), stop Why are you saying that? Sberro dela fordia (You’ll ood… Ana deesta angrela (I’ an anathema)…”
She co Endrish and Dahl As she did so, her eyebrows drooped doards more and more
Her slender shoulders see a sense of duty to rise within Ludwik as one who had served as a confidant tomaster of a dressmaker He inquires,
“Florin, is this country not a happy place for you?”
Even though until just now, she was s she saw
Florin casts her eyes doard
“Well, that’s… The truth is, I didn’t want to co the circumstances back home, as I had caused too much trouble…”
Aftera reply that’s difficult to interpret, she faces Ludith moistened eyes and says firmly,
“However, I’ve always admired Rhodesia, and I’ve alanted to visit I’ve always dreas must occur in this country all the time After all, it’s the country of freedom and stories”
“The country of stories?”
Slowly— a faint smile surfaces from Florin’s lips
Her face looks lonely, but at the saentle s her complicated expression, Ludwik felt his heart skip a beat as if he were struck by a surprise attack
Florin weaves words with a serene voice,
“…There are faeries and wizards living in Rhodesia’s forests, no?
“Yeah, that’s how the stories go… That there’s a fairy queen in the forests who rules the spirit world, and that, one must not wander too deep into the forest because of that”
Ludwik recalls how he encountered a young girl with blue hair at night two days ago when he andering through the forest dead drunk
People keep fairy tales close to their hearts in Rhodesia They accept the existence of supernatural beings as a given fact
Hearing Ludwik’s response, Florin’s eyes becoly filled with admiration
“My homeland Endra is a country built upon an endless plain of ice, so I’ve always admired Rhodesia with its expansive forests”
To think that a girl raised in the advanced Great Empire of the North would envy a rural and sht be si envies Yan’s faether rustically in the forest
Like how because it’s so faraway that one can’t have, it appears beautiful and precious all the more
Endrish winters are exceedingly long Day after day, snow continues to fall Everyone becoather in front of the hearth and recite stories to one another Everyone has his, her favorite stories… My number one favorite story is “Paulette the Quick-Eared”
It’s a story told a Rhodesians as well, so Ludwik knows it as well Florin begins reciting it energetically,
“Paulette was the youngest daughter of three sisters of a noble faentle and kind beauties but had no survival skills Paulette wasn’t asinforure out how to e to execute her plans Thus, she set a condition for the brother princes courting her sisters: recover for theres, who live in the forests, had stolen from them Like so, she was able to recover her fares were all eliest prince as well I always get excited when Paulette heads toward the castle in the forest That’s hen I first crossed the border into Rhodesia, as the carriage raced through the vivid green forestry that had begun to cover both sides of the road, I was an to feel sick, and didn’t have the luxury of reveling in the experience anymore
“Eh, how come?”
Ludwik asks, upon which, she answers despondently,
“I was used to traveling on stone-paved roads, so I had no idea that the carriage would rock soon a dirt road… Despite that, I stuck h I becaround, it felt like if Ionto the chest of the person who came to welcome me I felt irritated like I was on tenterhooks and wanted to be by myself as soon as possible”
“T, that sounds like a hard time”
“Yes But, I’ive a bad first impression thanks to that It let me build myself up to be a woman who’s nasty to the core”
“I see… You wanted… to give a bad impression?”
“N, no, that’s not it I just jumbledIt would have been even better if I didn’t coh”
“A pair? Who’s the other person?”
Ludwik’s chest suddenly felt clouded
He’s experienced this sensation before
“That” developirl hoood atmosphere…
“Could it be— your lover by any chance?”
Ludwik asks, feigning calmness, upon which Florin’s eyebrows droop doard before his very eyes Ahh, this is the usual “that” after all Crestfallen, Ludwik slumps his shoulders
(No, I’ht she’s cute… It wouldn’t hurt to let me dream a little would it…)
Oblivious to Ludwik’s complicated sentiments, Florin turns her face down further and further, continuing with the expression of a girl embroiled in a battle of love
“He’s not… my lover He’s my unrequited love who doesn’t take me seriously at all I kept hopes up until the very last , then that he would coood He wasn’t such a showy person to begin with, and whether it be sta speed, I’ard who finds everything bothersome If you leave him alone, he won’t eat for three or four days at a tioes … That’s the kind of person he is, so I knew I couldn’t expect anything froive up in the end after all… That’s hen I crossed the border, I made a bet”
“A bet?”
Rather, aas a bother and often goes ? Just what kind of person is he?
Ludwik asks while feeling baffled, upon which, Florin forallant expression with her small face
“That if I continue to love hi heart, this love of mine will come true It’s just a bet I arbitrarily h”
Ludwik’s heart was squeezed tight by the sadness allant expression
Ahh, I’m done If you showfor you
There should be no way for Florin to know about Ludwik’s fluctuating feelings, yet she turned her face down as if to avoid his gaze
“But because of that, I’ve ended up causing a lot of trouble for souilty that that person has had s because of o of the childish bet I made with myself…”
Florin’s voice becomes hoarse, and her lowered eyes behind the mask quiver
Meanwhile, the pain that strangled Ludwik’s heart only keeps increasing
Again? This pattern again?
A girl who has someone else in mind won’t return one’s love no matter how much one falls in love with her After all is said and done, every girl returns to her original lover in the end,
Whispering, “Ludy, you’re such a nice guy,” with a smile on her face
Each time that happens, Ludwik endures pain that bursts his heart open, slu into the darkness
When Ulrika reconciled with and married her shoemaker lover, Ludwik sole so stupid as becoain He wouldn’t serve as the confidant for a girl’s love troubles, nor would he let hiirl who has soed
Yet, why is his heart being draards a girl who is head over heels for another ain?
(I mustn’t I have a wife, and plus, I haven’t revealedlike that, despite these things, I can rief)
It’s different fro master of a dressmaker
As the king, Ludwik’s love affair would be a major national issue To make Florin his lover would be to welco’s concubine
When that happens, will I still be able to protect her smile?
Just the contrary, I’d take her smile away from her
(That’s right, I can’t let ears)
Just then, livelyfrom the square was heard
The dance had begun
Couples both with and without in to dance It looks like great fun
So as to cheer Florin, as slu in low spirits, up, Ludwik says in a sunny voice,
“Look, the dance has started Let’s go to the square and dance with everyone too! You wouldn’t know, but I love dancing!”
Florin’s body jumps with a start
She seems to be shaken by Ludwik’s words
“About that… I…”
Sheas if in pain
What’s wrong?
Why is sheher lips, and facing doard?
Because I invited her to dance?
Is it that she’s not in the uy she likes? Or is it that Florin, just like Queen Katerina, dislikes dancing?
Ludwik gazes intently at Florin concernedly, upon which,
“Ah!”
As Florin had slowly raised her head timidly, she suddenly opened her eyes wide and shouted
“What happened?!”
Ludwik asks in alar on her tiptoes She looks past Ludwik’s shoulders, fixating her eyes on one spot
“That irl”
“Eh?”
Ludwik turns around and follows Florin’s gaze, upon which he discovers a couple exchanging a thick, deep kiss within the flock of couples whirling round and round
A golden-haired youngthe cuffs and collar of his shi+rt, has his hands all over his partner, a girl who is si dress
(Uwaah)
Ludwik peels his eyes as well
“F, Florin! I, I didn’t have such lewd things in ! I asked because I want to dance with you, not because—”
Ludwik desperately tries to explain hihtly,
“No, not that I’ain!”
The youngit into his breast pocket speedily and sain, he unfastens her necklace this time and slips it into his breast pocket
“That person’s a thief!”
Florin whispers shrilly into Ludwik’s ear
As turns the entranced girl to
“We’ve gotta chase him”
Florin says on the spot Until just now, she was showing a sorrowful and unreliable expression thinking about her love for a cold, slothful or as if she’s a different person
Seeing Florin suggest that they chase after the thief without any sign of hesitation whatsoever causes Ludwik to panic
“Ehhhhhhhhhhh?! Let’s notify the guards on duty instead!”
That’s the norht?
Yet,
“It’ll be too late”
She answers flatly, upon which she immediately sets her heels and runs off
“W, wait! It’s dangerous!”
Ludwik calls out as he chases after her, but she doesn’t stop
“Out of the way! Let h!”
She yells, charging through the flock of couples audaciously like a wild boar Her skirt waves and her flaxen hair flutters in the wind as she transforh a crowd Witnessing her power,
“Wah!”
“Kyah, what’s going on?!”
The couples vocalize their fright bewilderedly as they get out of the way
(Uwaah, why is she so motivated!?)
Aren’t girls supposed to get scared if they witness a scene of crime? To do the complete opposite and leap into the case herself—
“Pursuing thieves isn’t the role of us regular citizens!”
As Ludwik chases after her, continuing to try to persuade her otherwise, the fla the square and thefrom the heavens illu her flaxen hair She glitters her violet eyes underneath the mask and announces loudly,
“If that’s the case, then as of thisto resolve this incident!”
Her words make Ludwik dizzy
“That doesn’t count as an order fro at all!”
He retorts, upon which Florin declares heroically,
“Don’t worry, I won’t let His Majesty complain”
I like how she calls herself Florin when she’s warning about Ludwik about flower girls being dangerous and evil
Also that the ruirl becomes retroactively true in name Probably an intentional detail from the author