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93. Beggar Siblings – A Day Out

Lena, stepping out for a day, happily walked along with her thick hood pulled over her head.

“Wow! What’s that?”

As Lena pointed at a large cart with eight wheels, Jenia, who was following behind, replied.

“That’s a fire truck. When there’s a fire, that cart rushes in with water.”

“And that one?”

“That’s a brick press. See the furnace next to it? You put the bricks into that and bake them to get solid bricks. Do you want to try?”

Jenia kindly explained each item Lena pointed at and helped her get a closer look whenever possible.

One of the knights escorting Lena showed the emblem of the royal knight squad, causing the brick workers to step aside momentarily.

“Do I just step on this? Huh? It doesn’t press down!”

“It’s because you’re too light, Your Highness. Let me help you.”

Jenia grabbed the princess’s waist and stepped onto the narrow platform. With a squish, the clay pressed down and formed a perfect shape.

“Done!”

“Stay clear of the furnace, it’s dangerous.”

“Yes-yes.”

Unlike other kingdoms, the Conrad Kingdom produced a lot of bricks.

In the southeastern part of the continent, known in ancient times to be inhabited by centaurs (a hybrid race with the lower body of a horse and the upper body of a human), the land now governed by the Conrad Kingdom was flat and didn’t have many mountains.

Due to the lack of mountains for quarrying stone, most buildings in the capital, Rutina, were made of baked clay bricks and wood; the collection of such buildings gave Rutina a simple and warm atmosphere.

“Whoa! Look at all those things hanging there! I think they’re something to eat!”

Lena’s attention shifted to something else as she dashed away.

“Welcome! It has gotten quite cold lately, hasn’t it? Hahaha. Young Master, you came all geared up.”

“It’s that woman.”

“Oh dear, I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize you with your face all covered. What would you like to eat?”

“What’s that hanging up there?”

The merchant selling snacks smiled and took down something hanging from the ceiling. It looked like a long, sticky, dark brown sausage.

“Try this. It’s called ‘Onega,’ and it’s soaked in ‘Manella,’ giving it a bitter yet sweet flavor.”

“Yum… It’s delicious! But what is Manella?”

“You’re from another country, I see. Manella is a spice derived from a flower called ‘Janell.’ You can get it by boiling the flower stalks in water. Janell only grows in our Conrad Kingdom, so you likely haven’t seen it abroad.”

“Oh! I know what that is. The… Canelo? I heard Canelo is pollen from Janell, and I’ve tried that in tea. Now that I think about it, the taste is similar.”

“Oh, you’ve had Canelo. That’s quite expensive… Anyway, how is it? Is it good? How many would you like?”

Lena’s eyes twinkled as she looked at the knights.

Jenia, encouraging her to buy some, took out a silver coin from her pocket and handed it to Lena.

“Here you go. Just four, please.”

“Yes, thank you. Here’s your change… you should get one for each of your companions as well?”

“Yes!”

Holding the chewy snack, the four sat on the dry fountain to rest their legs for a moment.

Despite it being their third outing, there were still many new sights for Lena to take in as she munched on Onega and looked around eagerly.

“But it seems there aren’t many beggars around here.”

“Beggar?”

“Yes. I haven’t seen more than a few, and the merchant uncle seems to clean up the trash bins himself.”

At Lena’s words, Jenia smiled bittersweetly. It seemed the princess had been paying close attention to the trash bins.

“Thanks to the Grania Orphanage, I suppose. It’s a charity organization located on the outskirts of Rutina that takes in unfortunate children. They take in dozens to a hundred kids each year, but it seems that number might decrease a bit next year.”

“That’s a good place. Oberg didn’t have anything like that… Is it run by our kingdom?”

“I’m not quite sure. Hey, do you guys know if the Grania Orphanage is run by the royal family?”

“Well, I don’t know…?”

“I don’t either. Ah! It came about when I went to the capital, around fourteen years ago, so the king must have established it before he fell ill.”

Jenia and the knights shrugged, admitting they weren’t sure. Lena nodded along, focusing on eating the Onega. The day was slowly fading away.

‘Today was fun too.’

Lena licked her lips, sticky with the taste of Onega, and gazed at the grand castle standing far away.

‘That’s our home…’

It still felt unreal. The fact that she would soon enter that massive castle and that she was a princess.

Just two winters ago, she had been sleeping under a blanket made of straw mixed with horse dung, which her brother had scraped from the stable. It smelled awful but had kept her from freezing to death.

Lena smiled lightly.

To think that she, who used to wake up every morning brushing away the dust of horse dung, was now a princess. What an astonishing turn of events.

At first, she hadn’t realized her status as a princess.

She had only thought of it as a very rare existence that she would never encounter in her lifetime, and when her brother insisted a few times, “You’re a princess,” she had just dazedly accepted it, thinking, ‘Oh, I see.’

She knew nothing about the nobility, so how could she possibly understand the royalty above them?

However, as she read books and conversed with the knights, she increasingly felt just how high the status of royalty was.

Even written down, there was politeness when referring to royalty, and the knights responded sensitively to her every minor word and action.

Her life had turned upside down.

Now, rather than the dust of horse dung, she was surrounded by a warm bed, hot meals, respect, and consideration followed her everywhere, allowing her to joyfully go out on these outings with such splendid knights caring for her.

‘It might be a bit excessive, but I’m happy.’

Her dream was to live together with her brother in a splendid home. And that dream was sure to come true when she entered the castle seen in the distance. After all, they had been thrown out of that very place.

Also, because she had a “family.”

Accepting the fact that she was a princess, Lena’s first question was about her “parents.” She asked Bart, “If I’m a princess, where are my mom and dad?” ─ and received the answer that her father was in the castle.

Her mother had passed away after giving birth to her.

Lena, who had been delightedly munching on snacks, became melancholic in an instant.

‘I miss Dad… What kind of person is he? Probably someone as reliable as my brother? What was Mom like? Was she like Sister Kasia?’

Her gaze returned to the castle. She wanted to enter that place as soon as possible, but all Lena could do as usual was wait while listening to her brother’s words.

‘I want to help… but my brother probably doesn’t need my help…’

Even at a young age, her brother had succeeded in returning to the kingdom while taking care of her, and although she knew that, he was truly remarkable.

Her brother, who could do anything with ease, wouldn’t need a younger sister’s help. There was nothing she could do anyway.

Lena let out a quiet sigh in her heart.

She just had to wait.

Tucked away in her room.

Just as she had always done, her brother would take care of everything…

The sweetness of Manella that she had just licked off had faded, leaving her with a unique bitter aftertaste on her tongue.

It was a characteristic of the flower called Janell.

Janell had particularly long flower stalks, with just the lonely flower blooming. Aside from its shape, the fragrance of the flower and the spices derived from it were sweet yet bitter, thus earning the flower the meaning of “lonely heart.”

Lena rolled her tongue in her mouth while staring vacantly at the castle.

That’s our home.

Where my brother and I would live together for the rest of our lives.

The castle, soaked in the sunset, glowed red, and Lena’s delightful day out would end today.

*

“I’ve come to see the Cardinal.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Yes.”

A man visiting the church handed over a badge proving he was a royal knight. The priest who received the badge checked the Cardinal’s schedule.

“Ah, it’s you, Sir Bruke. Please follow me. I’ll guide you.”

Leo followed the priest down a corridor shimmering with white light. Statues carved from precious marble lined the hallway.

The deity of the Cross Church allowed neither names nor idols, so all the statues were of the saints of the Cross Church.

Among them, at the base of the statue of the First Saint, Saint Azra, a golden inscription was engraved…

Nevertheless, Leo, following the priest, suppressed his anxious heart.

Having learned about Cardinal Berg, Leo felt the need to meet him in person.

He had gathered various bits of information about the nobility through the knights, but nothing of much significance had surfaced. Only the inference about Cardinal Berg, provided by Jenia, weighed on his mind, resembling what could be termed an {event}.

Count Gustave Peter (or Baron Monarch) was the one who had recognized the identities of the siblings from the Belita Kingdom, so it was highly likely that the cardinal associated with him had some connection to the scenario.

However, the information he had gleaned about the cardinal was only splendid yet lacked anything substantial to support Jenia’s inference.

The only point was the mention that the cardinal made a pilgrimage to Baron Monarch’s territory every year, which, without hearing about the legend involving the baron’s daughter and a bastard, would have easily been brushed off.

After all, that was a border area between Belita Kingdom, Aisel Kingdom, and Conrad Kingdom, and while they wouldn’t call them refugees, many who had committed crimes in other kingdoms and fled came across, thus the cardinal’s annual visits offered a suspicious yet plausible excuse to absolve their sins.

After much deliberation, Leo borrowed the identity badge of a royal knight under his command to meet the cardinal directly.

Usually, when a royal knight wished to meet someone, it was often in the role of a messenger sent from the royal family; therefore, it wasn’t difficult to set up an appointment. The problem was…

‘The cardinal will recognize me.’

There was no way Cardinal Berg wouldn’t recognize Prince Leo de Yeriel. He had arrived in the Conrad Kingdom fifteen years ago, so he must have seen the young Leo before he was exiled.

Fortunately, the cardinal was a priest who had to remain neutral, and even if he were to politically take sides, he was someone on the opposite end of Prince Eric de Yeriel.

It was the cardinal who was pouring divine power to sustain the king’s life, which had been hanging by a thread due to an incurable illness, so it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say he was hindering Eric from ascending to the throne.

Of course, it was also possible that the enormous treatment expenses provided by the royal family were his primary motive… but even so, would a cardinal of his stature really proclaim, “Prince Leo is here!”?

Even putting aside his high nobility, a figure sitting at the top would not respond so simply. No matter how negative his reaction might be, it would at the very least take the form of a ‘transaction.’

[ Achievement: Master-Servant Relationship – ‘144’, As long as their loyalty remains unshaken, those who swear allegiance will trust and follow Leo. ]

And Leo possessed a strength that would not pale against even the cardinal. The power to overturn this kingdom at any given moment.

‘I should also find out how Father’s health is doing, so I guess I need to meet him at least once.’

While suppressing his worries under the pretense of need and justification, the priest leading him stopped at a grand door.

“This is it. The cardinal is inside.”

“Thank you for the guidance.”

After sending off the priest, Leo pushed open the silver-adorned handle, and the first thing that caught his eye was the symbol of the Cross Church hanging from the ceiling and the tall stained glass (a decorative glass colored in a variety of hues).

Before that, an old man sat at a desk, receiving sunlight that streamed through the colorful glass.

A grand-looking old man with white hair, Cardinal Berg looked up.

“What brings you to the royal family…?”

Not just any white hair. It wasn’t merely grey; it had become whiter than it originally was.

Dressed in pristine white robes, the cardinal was, as Jenia had described, someone without any distinct features.

His gentle, soft features were so indistinct that they could easily gain affection from anyone; that was a feature, if anything.

If he had to be pointed out, he had a long face and a sharp chin, but they weren’t prominent, and a dot above his eyes gave him an ambitious look, though even that was hard to qualify as a feature.

A sturdy and grand old man.

That was the entirety of the impression Leo received from the cardinal.

And…

‘He definitely resembles Count Peter.’

“…You’ve arrived? I don’t believe we’ve met before.”

Leo thought even the cardinal’s nonchalance resembled that of Gustave Peter, who had recognized Leo at first glance and then pretended not to.

“It seems you do not recognize me, Cardinal.”

“Hahaha!”

The cardinal’s rough laughter erupted at Leo’s straightforward words, which was neither the response of a pious priest nor an elderly man.

Leo thought he saw the cardinal’s eyes flash white for a moment, though it was likely just a trick of the sunlight.