abcnovels
Chapter 122
Chapter 122
Chapter 122
Elisha looked back at him with a questioning face.
“I just want to keep it a secret.”
Noel grunted and avoided his gaze.
The truth is, he just hated that Rieta would say things like, ‘I want to thank you on behalf of Elisha.’
“All right. It seems that there is a small secret between me and the Lord.”
“Ah, yes. Let’s do that.”
“I don’t like keeping secrets from the Princess . . . but it’s to alleviate her worries, so I’ll endure it.”
Elisha’s face looked really uncomfortable as he spoke.
It seemed that he had never hidden anything from Rieta in his life.
How could that be?
“. . . I’ve always been curious.”
“As soon as you made a secret, are you trying to dig up my secret?”
“Why not?”
“No, the Lord should answer my questions instead.”
“You want me to tell you my secret too?!”
“That would be fair.”
“I can’t help it. Let’s do that.”
As soon as Noel nodded, he asked a question as if he had been waiting.
“I want to know what the Princess had for breakfast today.”
“. . .”
“If possible, I would like to know if she slept well. To think that this heat is tormenting the Princess all night makes my heart ache to the point of being unbearable.”
Noel stared at Elisha with tired eyes.
He didn’t even have the energy to argue, ‘That’s not my secret.’
There’s no way Elisha would be curious about anyone other than Rieta.
“Well, the Princess gets hot easily, but she manages to get some air in the shade and is doing quite well.”
So Noel gave an answer to Elisha’s question, without much fuss.
“She ate bread and eggs for breakfast. She liked the tomatoes in the salad because she said they was cold. So I gave up one of my tomatoes.”
“Indeed, the Lord is a gentleman worthy of the Imperial reputation.”
That was a delightful compliment.
Noel was excited and decided to tell Rieta’s story a little more.
“Seeing that she never yawns at breakfast, I believe she’s had a good night’s sleep.”
“That’s a relief.”
“But sometimes on a hot day, when the wind blows, she dozes off on the sofa.”
“Because this kind of sweltering heat is difficult for the delicate Princess.”
Noel didn’t think Rieta, who drooled on the hem of her robe every nap, was ‘delicate’.
But he decided not to speak about that part for the sake of the Princess’s dignity.
“Recently, she likes ice cream. It’s hot, so she can’t help it. By the way, how long will I be the only one answering? Aren’t we asking each other only one question?”
“Sorry. Since we were having a conversation about the Princess, I didn’t want to change to another boring topic, so . . .”
“Hey, you didn’t listen to my questions and said it was boring.”
The question Noel posed was also about Rieta.
So, obviously, Elisha must be excited and tell him everything.
If it’s about Rieta, he’s probably the guy who will talk all day.
“Elisha Maureen.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve been wondering for a while, but why do you like Princess Rieta so much?”
“It’s not just ‘I like her.’ Could you please say that I adore her?”
“. . .”
“I want you to say that I adore her very, very much.”
Noel was a bit annoyed, but he agreed to do Elisha a favor for now.
“Alright. Why on earth do you adore Princess Rieta so much, the most in the world, the greatest?”
In addition, a few more exaggerated modifiers were added.
In commemoration of sharing a secret, a small kindness was given.
At last, Elisha’s face brightened.
He seemed to like Noel’s questioning method very much.
“Yes, that.”
Soon the answer began.
“I don’t want to tell you.”
“. . . What?”
Noel asked the question out of curiosity, but he received no other answer.
However, Elisha held his hands slightly near his heart.
The precious treasure that was the answer seemed to be sleeping there.
* * *
Elisha tended to be a little shy about his own childhood.
He, of course, was thirteen years old and he still deserved to be called a child, but he was held to a slightly different standard.
Long before present time . . .
The days when he lived in the Kingdom of Liz under the care of his parents.
That was when he did not realize the slightest bit of his loyalty to Rieta, and he held nothing but resentment toward the royal family.
It was the ‘childhood’ that Elisha had defined.
“Can’t you stay with me a little …… longer?”
Eight-year-old Elisha used to always say that to his parents, who spend more than half of their day at the palace.
“I was praised by the swordsmanship teacher yesterday. He said I resembled my grandfather! I want to show it to Father.”
“I’m sorry, Elisha. Now I have to go to the royal palace quickly.”
But the answer was always that.
The little boy naturally did not like the existence of a ‘King’ very much.
Because of that ‘King’, his father worked hard from morning to evening.