58. Childhood Friend – Hirie Gaidan

After pondering for a moment, Leo easily answered while ignoring Lena’s suspicious glare.

“I caught Koko-ren. But wasn’t it even earlier than the year before last? It was right when the village priest had just arrived. The priest said he had never seen Koko-ren before…”

“And what happened then?”

“I got grounded. I was scolded by the village chief, my brothers, and even your parents…”

“Was there anything before that?”

Lena asked with a slightly brightened face.

“Well…? You know, Koko-ren was living in a tree stump, so I thought I’d help him drink water by dipping his food in a bucket? He almost burst his belly after that. Is that what you’re talking about?”

It was a wild idea born from ignorance, but sometimes children’s antics can be frightening.

At that time, Koko-ren mistook the incoming water for tree sap and excitedly gulped it down, causing his belly to swell like a balloon.

Lena was horrified back then.

Leo jokingly teased the now-bright Lena.

“So why are you asking about this?”

“Ah… Hehe, I just remembered the old times.”

Lena chuckled awkwardly.

It seemed she had misunderstood. After ‘that day’, Leo had changed a lot, and she suspected something had happened, but it turned out to be unnecessary worry.

This was a memory only we shared.

“Come to think of it, both Leo and I are coming of age soon, so I guess it was about time we changed too.”

She pretended to be uninterested as if she had never doubted anything and subtly offered Leo a snack she had obtained while working.

It seemed she was trying to make amends for her earlier suspicion.

Leo gratefully accepted it and let out a small sigh through his nose.

‘That was close.’

When he and Lena went to Nevis before, he had many chances to hear stories from the past. During their travels, Leo had offered her drinks and asked about past events.

The more he heard about his memories with Lena, the more he felt satisfied, as if he were becoming the ‘real Leo.’

Fortunately, when drunken, Lena’s voice got louder and she became chatty, and in her tipsy state, she shared all kinds of memories.

It was a relief he had listened carefully to those stories. What would Lena have done if he had failed to answer her recent question?

‘She would have doubted my true identity. Maybe she would have stopped trusting me and gone back to the village…’

Imagining his only friend leaving made his stomach churn.

And if that happened, well, this childhood friend scenario would be as good as doomed.

Repetition of events didn’t mean they would become easier.

He was changing more and more compared to the Leo Lena knew, and this Lena sensed that change.

Lena, as his childhood friend, was quicker to catch on than other Lenas.

She was kind, but she was also intelligent and curious, so she wouldn’t easily overlook anything strange.

‘Proud of her, but…’

A feeling brushed through his mind that one day, he might not be able to move with this Lena. Along with that thought, it seemed there was only one way to break this scenario.

[King] – He was the only entity capable of deciding status in this game, where social ascension was the condition for clearing.

If he could become king, clearing would be easy. He could just designate Lena as a princess.

Even if Lena wanted to be a priest, it would be totally fine as long as he crowned her a princess first. After all, a princess could also become a priestess.

The problem with this plan was that ascending to the throne was an ordeal bordering on impossibility.

He had complained it was difficult and impossible until now, but compared to crowning Lena a princess, making her a princess was much easier. Yet this Lena was just too perceptive…

Leo shared some sweet snacks with Lena.

The secretive man and the observing girl. Though they were eating the same snacks, they tasted them differently.

*

The heels of a lady’s shoes touched the white carpet spread across the well-trodden path, where Leo and the servants walked.

The carpet, washed to death by Lena and the other handmaidens, sparkled brilliantly under the sunlight, but the lady stepping on it had no time to care about their hard work.

She passed by the lined-up servants on both sides.

Typically, she might have left a sarcastic remark about their overzealous hospitality, but ‘Hirie Gaidan’ was feeling quite perplexed.

‘…This is my last chance.’

Internally steeling herself, she was the daughter of ‘Duke Harvey Gaidan,’ a lord overseeing the eastern part of the Orun Kingdom.

“Welcome. Thank you for your long journey. Please follow me.”

The Grand Officer in charge of the city Bosspo came to greet her at the lord’s castle’s front gate, bowing slightly before guiding her.

Just moments ago, the lord’s castle had been empty, but it seemed the Grand Officer had taken quite a bit of care in preparing it, as it was adorned with drapes and curtains everywhere. It was hard to see any walls, and dust was nowhere to be found.

The Grand Officer, surpassing the butler, asked her.

“Would you like to eat first?”

“No, I’m tired, so I’d like to rest. Please send a simple meal to my room. Is it alright if I greet others at dinner?”

“Of course. I’ll prepare dinner for you. You can meet the servants then. Let me escort you to your room.”

Hirie maintained her grace without making a sound as she followed the Grand Officer.

Upon arriving, the Grand Officer opened the door for her, welcomed her to Bosspo, and assured her that she would face no inconveniences going forward before bowing and taking his leave.

Having instantly ascended to the role of a distinguished guest and mistress of the lord’s castle, Hirie swiftly surveyed her room.

It was neither too large nor too small, and the humidity and temperature were perfectly adjusted.

Also, the antique furniture was arranged in exquisite positions, blending convenience and elegance.

‘Well done…’

Thanks to the neat manners of the Grand Officer she hadn’t seen in a long time and the sky-blue decorations she favored in her room, Hirie felt her mood improve significantly. She plopped down onto the bed, exhaling deeply while staring at the richly depicted ceiling.

Looking up, Hirie Gaidan was a woman whom anyone would praise as a beauty.

Even with makeup on, she would have glowed with a fair complexion, a gently curved brow, and a seemingly delicate mouth, yet the hint of gloom in her green eyes hinted at a sad story, making anyone want to protect her from behind.

Moreover, she was the kind of woman who was at the marrying age and soon to meet another man, whether through an arranged marriage or otherwise.

The reason she had traveled all the way to this distant eastern region from the capital was to escape that very same arranged marriage.

No, rather, to seek a different arranged marriage.

Hirie was a lady who was very much aware of her position.

Without ever needing to polish a dish, she enjoyed warm, soft beds, and if she wished, could savor delicacies from across the continent due to her noble status. She’d been prepared since childhood to pay the price for these privileges one day.

The duties of a noble lady were to embellish herself beautifully, mingle harmoniously with other noble ladies, and eventually marry to benefit her family. — Hirie understood this all too well.

But…

‘No matter what, I don’t want to meet those atrocious men. Either one of them.’

Hirie Gaidan shuddered at the thought of the two princes.

The heirs to the Lognum royal family ruling the Orun Kingdom, Aton de Lognum and Alzeor de Lognum.

Born as twins and having recently come of age, they had shamefully evolved into despicable human beings.

From childhood, they attracted concern with their excessively mischievous pranks. Still, there was hope that they might not be too malicious, but that hope was shattered when the princes came of age.

Once they reached adulthood, they began to revel in drinking and dancing, enjoying the privilege of their noble status to harass noble ladies.

At banquets, they would trap their favorite ladies in trouble with elegant etiquette and lewd comments.

Those ladies unable to respond appropriately found themselves dragged into secluded places, where they faced unwanted advances or were forced to forsake their dignity and escape.

Once they fled, the princes would laugh heartily, ridiculing the lady for being indecent and lacking decorum.

Hirie Gaidan had also been caught in their schemes, facing the danger of losing her body.

However, she managed to talk her way out of it, and she heard the princes giggling behind her, calling her clever.

Given the situation, nobles of the Orun Kingdom began to hold banquets without inviting the princes. Strangely enough, whenever they did, the princes would crash in and wreak havoc.

With their continued antics, ordinary and rational nobles’ gatherings began to dwindle, and the social scene in Nevis became dominated by nobles who acted like hyenas, clinging to the princes.

‘Despicable bastards.’

If there were signs that the kingdom was falling apart, it could be witnessed from the behavior displayed by the princes.

Furthermore, their display of fraternal bond, which was rare in royal families, was even more ludicrous.

Bringing home sex slaves for their twisted games…

It was a thought she didn’t want to entertain.

Feeling completely thrown off, Hirie kicked off her shoes and collapsed onto the bed. But she couldn’t help but recall the princes again.

Of all times! She was in the position of having to choose one of the two princes to marry.

Hirie Gaidan wept and pleaded with her father.

“Please don’t send me to those monsters.”

“Dad, please. I beg you.”

“Can’t I marry into a different family? I’ll go anywhere. I don’t care who it is.”

“Why! Why! Why do I have to meet such terrible men just because I was born into the Gaidan family!”

She poured out her appeals and anger, but her father didn’t budge.

No, he pretended not to budge.

Her father, who was warmer than most great nobles and adored his daughter, must have been hurt.

He surely disliked the princes too. Yet, suddenly trying to marry her off to them was not because he had changed but due to shifted circumstances.

The House of Marquis Gaidan was being increasingly pushed back politically.

She understood her father’s situation, but… she truly detested those princes!

Crying and declaring that she would never see her father again, she resorted to fasting in her anger and came up with a clever idea.

‘It doesn’t have to be someone from our country, right?’

Hirie Gaidan rushed to her father and expressed her thoughts.

Duke Harvey squeezed his eyes shut and replied that he would think about it, and shortly after, the results came in. Her father called her and spoke in a tone that seemed to have set something down.

“I made contact with the House of Duke Tertan. It just so happens that there’s a successor close to your age… You should meet him.”

Hirie sincerely thanked her father and gracefully bowed her head.

Though she wanted to run to him like she did as a child, embrace him, and thank him, she refrained.

Such behavior was not befitting of a grown noble lady. After all, she had already cried and thrown a tantrum…

Reclining on the bed, Hirie Gaidan pressed her lips together.

So, now she was here to make contact with the heir of a foreign duke’s house, praying! She prayed that the man would be decent, or at least somewhat normal.

And that he would take her with him…

Hirie did not want to miss this last opportunity given to her. Though she screamed at her father that she would rather die than marry those garbage princes, that was a lie.

If she failed to connect with the duke’s heir, she would inevitably meet one of the princes anyway. Marrying for the family’s sake was simply a part of life.

So this was truly her last chance given to her.

– Knock, knock.

Just then, the ‘simple’ meal she had requested arrived.

Hirie sprang up and declared, “You may come in!”

As a result, five maidens entered in turn, laying a crisp, white tablecloth on the table. They cautiously set down what they were carrying.

Warm, expensive china and silverware, well-aged fruit wine, appetizing sour appetizers, and superbly crafted dishes capturing both style and flavor…

Hirie sat down with an unwilling expression. Her posture was straight, and her elegant dining demeanour exuded a neat yet melancholic air.