Yerhan embraced Illian and walked side by side with Rosena.
While heading to the next store, Rosena was silent, lost in thought.
Her mother and sister, who she met after a long time, looked impatient because they couldn’t exploit her anymore.
She felt bitter that she showed Yerhan and Illian the family feud she wanted to hide.
Rosena, who gradually pushed back thoughts of Macella and Rania, just recalled the amount Yerhan had paid.
She couldn’t believe the clothes cost 100,000 flue? No matter how many times she thought about it, it was too much.
Where in the world did such a large sum come from? Didn’t he overuse his savings?
After much thought, Rosena looked up at Yerhan.
Yerhan slowly turned his head as he felt the gaze.
“Is there anything wrong?”
“I think we’d better cancel the order.”
Yerhan slowly blinked at Rosena’s nervous-looking face.
“Didn’t you like it?”
“It’s not like that…”
Rosena shook her head powerfully.
All the dresses she had tailored today were so luxurious that she’d never worn them before.
They were dresses that she had never worn even before the collapse of her family.
“…….”
Yerhan, who didn’t understand Rosena’s mind properly, agonized for a moment and lifted his head with a deep sigh.
“I didn’t think that far.”
Rosena’s worried face straightened out.
She thought Yerhan also seemed to realize that he spent a lot of money.
“Just a few clothes won’t be enough.”
Hm?
Rosena blinked because she didn’t understand what he was saying.
And the next words shocked Rosena.
“I’ll buy you a wardrobe.”
“Yes?”
She was so surprised that her voice popped out without realizing it.
But Yerhan was a step further.
“Or do you want me to get the clothes from abroad?”
Rosena looked at him, dumbfounded.
“No, even just what we bought earlier is still too much.”
“Is that so?”
She had been wondering since a while ago, what kind of money did he have to be able to spend recklessly on a check?
Rosena thought she would ask about it later.
After leaving the clothing store, their full scale shopping began.
They stopped by the bookstore and bought fairy tale books for Illian and books Rosena wanted to read.
In the toy store, they bought so many toys that one corner of the room was full.
Although Illian didn’t seem too happy, Yerhan spared no money for Illian.
After that, they went to see accessories and furniture.
Rosena refused to buy luxury goods that were beyond her means, but Yerhan managed to put them into Rosena’s arms.
It wasn’t until late afternoon that shopping was finished.
Rosena’s head became dizzy when she roughly calculated the amount of money he spent today.
But Yerhan naturally guided her to a dessert shop, so she had to stop calculating the bill.
The store itself looked small, but because it had a separate outdoor terrace, it looked charming under the warm glow of sunlight.
Rosena opened the door and entered, attracted by the delicious smell.
The shelves were full of freshly baked bread and desserts.
Rosena put the things she wanted to eat on a tray.
She remembered that she once really liked dessert, but she had to stay away from it after her family’s situation became difficult.
She ate as much as she could in the Kingdom of Astania, but it didn’t taste like the dessert at that time.
Rosena gave Illian a dacquoise with fig jam.
Then she grabbed a fork and took a bite of the cake with strawberries on it.
Rosena’s mouth loosened as soon as the soft whipped cream touched her tongue.
She felt like her body was melting away at the taste of sweet whipped cream.
As Rosena ate the dessert, Yerhan gazed down at her with his chin resting on his palm.
When she was eating with Illian, a warm-looking patissier came out from the inside.
“Does it suit your taste?”
“Yes, to the point I want to eat it every day.”
When Rosena answered with a happy face, Yerhan, who had been sitting still, looked up.
He stared at the patissier, asked him to go, and then turned towards Rosena again.
Rosena, who had blissfully emptied the delicious dessert, put down the fork.
With a sweet sense of satiety, the worries that she had put off for a while returned.
“Um, listen, I hope you don’t get me wrong.”
“Please speak.”
As Yerhan listened in a serious manner, Rosena continued calmly.
“I think we need to know each other’s financial status before we get married.”
She thought it would be better to be clear about financial status because they had to live together from now on.
They had to save up little by little because Illian’s academy tuition would be formidable in the future.
Rosena first calculated in her head how much gold she had left.
How much would it be if converted to money? And it must have taken a lot of money to repair the palace this time.
Rosena, who was calculating for a while, paused and asked Yerhan a question.
“By any chance, are you supported by the imperial family?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then how…”
Rosena looked at Yerhan, blurring her words.
Yerhan answered slowly after much consideration.
“I made a profit from catching and selling animals.”
“…..?”
He’s a hunter?
No, come to think of it, the place she first met him was the forest.
He might have been injured when he ran into an animal while hunting in the forest.
Yerhan said to Rosena, trying to convince her somehow.
“I would like to ask you to manage the financial affairs of the palace.”
“Yes?”
“I beg of you. Besides, it’s also traditionally the work of the princess, so…..”
Rosena hesitated at the earnest request.
As he said, financial management was the duty of the princess.
Rosena recalled having said she would do her duty as his wife and princess after marriage.
And seeing the way Yerhan spends his money, she thought it would be right for her to manage it.
At this time, she was confident that she would save and reduce unnecessary money because she used to make a living for the county.
“I got it.”
The corners of Yerhan’s mouth crept up with Rosena’s approval.
Rosena fiddled with the fork when she saw that smile.
She still had a lot of problems to solve with him, but she felt much better after wrapping up the money problem.
Rosena offered him a plate of dessert.
“You don’t eat?”
Yerhan’s face crumpled slightly when he saw the plate.
But after straightening his expression, he soon scooped up dessert with a fork.
Yerhan swallowed his breath loudly at the sense of numbness in his tongue.
“It’s delicious.”
The end of his voice was a little shaky.
And Illian, who didn’t miss it, served him more dessert.
“…….”
When Yerhan looked at him with a face as if questioning him, Illian smiled brightly.
“It’s dewicious.”
Rosena said with a smile.
“You know how to appease someone, how nice.”
Yerhan reluctantly accepted the dessert.
He took a bite of dessert while receiving everyone’s attention.
His mouth was so full of sweetness that made his stomach ache.
He swallowed his urge to spit it out, and just when he managed to patch up his expression, Illian smiled broadly and offered another plate.
“Eat thwis too!”
Yerhan saw the devil in that innocent smile.
***
In the dim room, there were countless books blooming on the bookshelves that were arranged in large circles.
There were letters that couldn’t be read, there was also an ancient word that cannot be interpreted in modern times.
It was a place for book-loving scholars, but it wasn’t an easy place for anyone to get in.
A man with bright blond hair lifted a lamp. The fluttering flame that was burning the oil increased the man’s field of vision.
The figure showed his face in the light.
The orbs hidden in the cold-looking shape of eyes looked like a clear blue, but also like murky mud, depending on the angle of light.
The man pulled out a book, relying only on a single lamp to see.
The unique smell of leather permeated his nose. The leather surface was worn out and cracking as if it was a very old book.
Leaning on the bookshelf, he rubbed the cover with his finger.
It was a book about the myth and divinity of the empire.
A chilly wind blew in the tight space, and the bookshelf swayed.
The man read the book without letting out the sound of breathing.
[When the great divinity came down from heaven, everyone on the ground looked up to him. The divinity collected a hundred and eighty star fragments form a river and created a mountain range with frost from the desert.]
Like most countries, the empire had quite a big myth.
The content was so long that it took a full day to read all the myths, but the point was that the founding emperor was a divine being.
The divinity from heaven made the earth become a rich land.
The divinity’s power was so great that he was able to immediately deal with the barbarians who caused the rain or invaded the land.
The divinity led the scattered people to establish an empire and passed on the power to their descendants.
And there was something that appeared with the divinity in every history book, it was a rose.
[The divinity always had a red rose beside him.]
The rose was a symbol of divinity.
The divinity’s painting, which had been handed down for a long time, has always depicted rose, and roses were hung from house to house on anniversaries to celebrate the divinity’s arrival on the earth.
According to scholars who have studied divinity, it was widely believed that roses represent something metaphorically, not just symbols.
However, even scholars didn’t really know what it was.
But the man knew the truth.
The rose was to amplify the power of the divinity.
“…….”
The man, who had kept the letters in his eyes for a long time, sighed and covered the book.
A man who had been reading letters for a long time, sighed and closed the book.
This time, it was a waste of time again. There wasn’t the content he wanted.
He lamented, muttering.
“With that, I could have full power…”
As the generations continued, the descendants of the imperial family were gradually losing the divinity’s blood.
Sooner or later, the power to deal with the monsters will be completely cut off.
But once the rose of the divinity was in his hands, he would be able to regain the glory of the past.
In fact, a long time ago, the emperor of the empire took the roses, and rose to the throne of the continent with that power.
The roses certainly existed.
And Yerhan might have been able to deal with the monsters because he got the rose.
However, no matter how much surveillance was placed around Yerhan, it was impossible to tell what the rose was.
If it’s discovered, he would take it right away…
The man’s eyes flashed in the dark like a beast hunting for prey.
He pushed the worn-out book deep into the bookshelf.
The gesture was as sharp as putting a knife into a sheath.
The man immediately pushed the bookshelf aside.
Then he heard a ringing sound echoing around, and the space opened.
After leaving the secret study, he walked down the hall with a lamp as if nothing had happened.
The man paused at the sound of someone else’s footsteps from afar.
“You were here.”
The person brightened up upon meeting him.
“The Empress is waiting for you. Your Highness, the Crown Prince.”
The crown prince, Zigrid, answered in a low voice.
“I’ll be right there.”
Yerhan embraced Illian and walked side by side with Rosena.
While heading to the next store, Rosena was silent, lost in thought.
Her mother and sister, who she met after a long time, looked impatient because they couldn’t exploit her anymore.
She felt bitter that she showed Yerhan and Illian the family feud she wanted to hide.
Rosena, who gradually pushed back thoughts of Macella and Rania, just recalled the amount Yerhan had paid.
She couldn’t believe the clothes cost 100,000 flue? No matter how many times she thought about it, it was too much.
Where in the world did such a large sum come from? Didn’t he overuse his savings?
After much thought, Rosena looked up at Yerhan.
Yerhan slowly turned his head as he felt the gaze.
“Is there anything wrong?”
“I think we’d better cancel the order.”
Yerhan slowly blinked at Rosena’s nervous-looking face.
“Didn’t you like it?”
“It’s not like that…”
Rosena shook her head powerfully.
All the dresses she had tailored today were so luxurious that she’d never worn them before.
They were dresses that she had never worn even before the collapse of her family.
“…….”
Yerhan, who didn’t understand Rosena’s mind properly, agonized for a moment and lifted his head with a deep sigh.
“I didn’t think that far.”
Rosena’s worried face straightened out.
She thought Yerhan also seemed to realize that he spent a lot of money.
“Just a few clothes won’t be enough.”
Hm?
Rosena blinked because she didn’t understand what he was saying.
And the next words shocked Rosena.
“I’ll buy you a wardrobe.”
“Yes?”
She was so surprised that her voice popped out without realizing it.
But Yerhan was a step further.
“Or do you want me to get the clothes from abroad?”
Rosena looked at him, dumbfounded.
“No, even just what we bought earlier is still too much.”
“Is that so?”
She had been wondering since a while ago, what kind of money did he have to be able to spend recklessly on a check?
Rosena thought she would ask about it later.
After leaving the clothing store, their full scale shopping began.
They stopped by the bookstore and bought fairy tale books for Illian and books Rosena wanted to read.
In the toy store, they bought so many toys that one corner of the room was full.
Although Illian didn’t seem too happy, Yerhan spared no money for Illian.
After that, they went to see accessories and furniture.
Rosena refused to buy luxury goods that were beyond her means, but Yerhan managed to put them into Rosena’s arms.
It wasn’t until late afternoon that shopping was finished.
Rosena’s head became dizzy when she roughly calculated the amount of money he spent today.
But Yerhan naturally guided her to a dessert shop, so she had to stop calculating the bill.
The store itself looked small, but because it had a separate outdoor terrace, it looked charming under the warm glow of sunlight.
Rosena opened the door and entered, attracted by the delicious smell.
The shelves were full of freshly baked bread and desserts.
Rosena put the things she wanted to eat on a tray.
She remembered that she once really liked dessert, but she had to stay away from it after her family’s situation became difficult.
She ate as much as she could in the Kingdom of Astania, but it didn’t taste like the dessert at that time.
Rosena gave Illian a dacquoise with fig jam.
Then she grabbed a fork and took a bite of the cake with strawberries on it.
Rosena’s mouth loosened as soon as the soft whipped cream touched her tongue.
She felt like her body was melting away at the taste of sweet whipped cream.
As Rosena ate the dessert, Yerhan gazed down at her with his chin resting on his palm.
When she was eating with Illian, a warm-looking patissier came out from the inside.
“Does it suit your taste?”
“Yes, to the point I want to eat it every day.”
When Rosena answered with a happy face, Yerhan, who had been sitting still, looked up.
He stared at the patissier, asked him to go, and then turned towards Rosena again.
Rosena, who had blissfully emptied the delicious dessert, put down the fork.
With a sweet sense of satiety, the worries that she had put off for a while returned.
“Um, listen, I hope you don’t get me wrong.”
“Please speak.”
As Yerhan listened in a serious manner, Rosena continued calmly.
“I think we need to know each other’s financial status before we get married.”
She thought it would be better to be clear about financial status because they had to live together from now on.
They had to save up little by little because Illian’s academy tuition would be formidable in the future.
Rosena first calculated in her head how much gold she had left.
How much would it be if converted to money? And it must have taken a lot of money to repair the palace this time.
Rosena, who was calculating for a while, paused and asked Yerhan a question.
“By any chance, are you supported by the imperial family?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then how…”
Rosena looked at Yerhan, blurring her words.
Yerhan answered slowly after much consideration.
“I made a profit from catching and selling animals.”
“…..?”
He’s a hunter?
No, come to think of it, the place she first met him was the forest.
He might have been injured when he ran into an animal while hunting in the forest.
Yerhan said to Rosena, trying to convince her somehow.
“I would like to ask you to manage the financial affairs of the palace.”
“Yes?”
“I beg of you. Besides, it’s also traditionally the work of the princess, so…..”
Rosena hesitated at the earnest request.
As he said, financial management was the duty of the princess.
Rosena recalled having said she would do her duty as his wife and princess after marriage.
And seeing the way Yerhan spends his money, she thought it would be right for her to manage it.
At this time, she was confident that she would save and reduce unnecessary money because she used to make a living for the county.
“I got it.”
The corners of Yerhan’s mouth crept up with Rosena’s approval.
Rosena fiddled with the fork when she saw that smile.
She still had a lot of problems to solve with him, but she felt much better after wrapping up the money problem.
Rosena offered him a plate of dessert.
“You don’t eat?”
Yerhan’s face crumpled slightly when he saw the plate.
But after straightening his expression, he soon scooped up dessert with a fork.
Yerhan swallowed his breath loudly at the sense of numbness in his tongue.
“It’s delicious.”
The end of his voice was a little shaky.
And Illian, who didn’t miss it, served him more dessert.
“…….”
When Yerhan looked at him with a face as if questioning him, Illian smiled brightly.
“It’s dewicious.”
Rosena said with a smile.
“You know how to appease someone, how nice.”
Yerhan reluctantly accepted the dessert.
He took a bite of dessert while receiving everyone’s attention.
His mouth was so full of sweetness that made his stomach ache.
He swallowed his urge to spit it out, and just when he managed to patch up his expression, Illian smiled broadly and offered another plate.
“Eat thwis too!”
Yerhan saw the devil in that innocent smile.
***
In the dim room, there were countless books blooming on the bookshelves that were arranged in large circles.
There were letters that couldn’t be read, there was also an ancient word that cannot be interpreted in modern times.
It was a place for book-loving scholars, but it wasn’t an easy place for anyone to get in.
A man with bright blond hair lifted a lamp. The fluttering flame that was burning the oil increased the man’s field of vision.
The figure showed his face in the light.
The orbs hidden in the cold-looking shape of eyes looked like a clear blue, but also like murky mud, depending on the angle of light.
The man pulled out a book, relying only on a single lamp to see.
The unique smell of leather permeated his nose. The leather surface was worn out and cracking as if it was a very old book.
Leaning on the bookshelf, he rubbed the cover with his finger.
It was a book about the myth and divinity of the empire.
A chilly wind blew in the tight space, and the bookshelf swayed.
The man read the book without letting out the sound of breathing.
[When the great divinity came down from heaven, everyone on the ground looked up to him. The divinity collected a hundred and eighty star fragments form a river and created a mountain range with frost from the desert.]
Like most countries, the empire had quite a big myth.
The content was so long that it took a full day to read all the myths, but the point was that the founding emperor was a divine being.
The divinity from heaven made the earth become a rich land.
The divinity’s power was so great that he was able to immediately deal with the barbarians who caused the rain or invaded the land.
The divinity led the scattered people to establish an empire and passed on the power to their descendants.
And there was something that appeared with the divinity in every history book, it was a rose.
[The divinity always had a red rose beside him.]
The rose was a symbol of divinity.
The divinity’s painting, which had been handed down for a long time, has always depicted rose, and roses were hung from house to house on anniversaries to celebrate the divinity’s arrival on the earth.
According to scholars who have studied divinity, it was widely believed that roses represent something metaphorically, not just symbols.
However, even scholars didn’t really know what it was.
But the man knew the truth.
The rose was to amplify the power of the divinity.
“…….”
The man, who had kept the letters in his eyes for a long time, sighed and covered the book.
A man who had been reading letters for a long time, sighed and closed the book.
This time, it was a waste of time again. There wasn’t the content he wanted.
He lamented, muttering.
“With that, I could have full power…”
As the generations continued, the descendants of the imperial family were gradually losing the divinity’s blood.
Sooner or later, the power to deal with the monsters will be completely cut off.
But once the rose of the divinity was in his hands, he would be able to regain the glory of the past.
In fact, a long time ago, the emperor of the empire took the roses, and rose to the throne of the continent with that power.
The roses certainly existed.
And Yerhan might have been able to deal with the monsters because he got the rose.
However, no matter how much surveillance was placed around Yerhan, it was impossible to tell what the rose was.
If it’s discovered, he would take it right away…
The man’s eyes flashed in the dark like a beast hunting for prey.
He pushed the worn-out book deep into the bookshelf.
The gesture was as sharp as putting a knife into a sheath.
The man immediately pushed the bookshelf aside.
Then he heard a ringing sound echoing around, and the space opened.
After leaving the secret study, he walked down the hall with a lamp as if nothing had happened.
The man paused at the sound of someone else’s footsteps from afar.
“You were here.”
The person brightened up upon meeting him.
“The Empress is waiting for you. Your Highness, the Crown Prince.”
The crown prince, Zigrid, answered in a low voice.
“I’ll be right there.”
