Chapter 21The Scarf that I Gave (13)

Translator: Kimmy

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Meanwhile in Cartul,

[The Northern Wall is destroyed by Duke Gardelli’s magic. Need urgent repair.]

[The lion statue in the Central Fountain in the inner castle is broken by Duke Gardelli’s mistake.]

[3 wounded trying to stop Duke Gardelli, 6 Royal Knights requesting for extended leave.]

[Duke Gardelli released a deformed magical creature made from mud in the castle.]

[All the glass in the Glass Garden disappeared after Duke Gardelli visited it. Requesting for consultation with Her Majesty to repair it or change the garden name.]

[Duke Gardelli refuses to eat claiming none fits his appetite.]

[Duke Gardelli…]

Sabina was in her office as soon as she woke up, fingers against her temples.

She was having a bad headache.

These were all that was reported since that insane Duke arrived yesterday.

Sabina even admired his abilities.

If one someone was in the right state of mind, one wouldn’t make such a ruckus in a foreign country. Even if one wanted to, they wouldn’t be able to.

But this darned Duke Gardelli had the perfect trinity of the ability, status, and determination to make a mess.

She grinded her teeth.

She could understand him somehow for using magic to break the doors and slamming royal guards, but why did he release a mud creature?

And how did he even bring that creature? And why did he remove all the glass?

Was it because he didn’t want to see something clear and pure that contradicts with his heart?

And who was this idiot asking if the name of the Glass Garden should be changed, is he for real?

Ah, he wouldn’t. Since Duke Gardelli is here.

‘Damn it!’

“Is he…still repeating the same phrase?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. He wouldn’t listen to anything we say.”

Her aide* said, looking as exhausted as Sabina.

At this point, he was a natural disaster not a human.

The aide was shaking his hands because of Duke Gardelli making them spend a year’s worth of the royal budget in just a day.

It was just about the time to plan the budget for Winter, but what is this mess?

He wanted to hold on to someone and whine.

“If he isn’t going to speak, why did he come as the ambassador?!”

Sabina furiously slammed the table with her fist.

But she knew well why.

Sending Duke Gardelli for the envoy was an indirect way of the Emperor saying “f**k you”.

She wanted to twist the prince’s legs, who is currently locked up in the detached castle temporarily.

As she was grinding her teeth, someone swung open the office door.

“Your Majesty! Duke Gardelli……!”

“Ahhhh!”

“Y, your Majesty!”

Sabina Marie Cartul, the Queen of Cartul.

She was suffering today because of the disaster his son caused.

*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*

“Hm?”

As Eva was following Karlos up the stairs, she looked around from the feeling she heard someone call her name.

“What’s wrong?”

“N, no. It’s nothing.”

Max should be making so much trouble in Cartul by now.

His eyes gleamed before he departed, so he must be making big troubles.

He could bet his freshly signed book that the Chancellor encouraged the Duke to cause chaos rather than to refrain from doing so.

Since the Chancellor hated foreign countries looking down on the Emperor more than anything.

Karlos turned to the front.

Eva hopped up the stairs saying she had something to show him and despite her standing 2 steps lower, their eye-level was the same because of the height difference.

She got a little startled when their eyes met when she faced him directly so she tried to back away unconsciously.

But she was in the middle of the stairs going up to the 2nd floor and naturally, she stumbled.

“Aiieeeee!”

Eva closed her eyes preparing for a fancy fall.

But even after a while she didn’t fall.

Her weight was definitely leaned back but her body was still.

She opened her eyes a bit.

“!”

Karlos was holding onto her with an embarrassed face.

Eva blushed after realizing she didn’t fall gracelessly thanks to the strong arm wrapped around her waist.

‘Oh gosh, why am I making so many mistakes today?’

As Eva was contemplating where to grab to stand up properly because of the suddenly close contact, he used his rock-hard arms to lift her up.

He had an expressionless face and a little frown.

Eva gulped.

He wasn’t a bad person but he was still scary when he was quiet.

“Th, Thank you. Whew, if I fell I must have got severely injured.”

“…….Yes.”

“Imagine if I sprained my arm! I would have had to go on hiatus.”

“That can’t happen.”

Karlos answered in a serious face.

Eva giggled and climbed the stairs.

And right behind her was the Emperor, who was panicking under the expressionless mask after grabbing a woman’s waist for the first time in his life.

He opened and closed his hands.

He lifted her with just one arm but she was still so light.

Isn’t this too…..Is it that she is too skinny?

‘Should I send her something nutritious through Bri? But she was uncomfortable with the potion.’

Because he was startled by Eva’s lightness, he forgot that he could outrun a wolf even with a fully equipped armor on.

Eva quickly walked towards the 2nd floor hall not knowing what was going on in Karlos’ head.

And she made an exaggerated pose as she opened the door.

“Tadaa! This is a room I use as the library! It’s also my workroom!”

To Karlos, who was abnormally tall, this room felt as small as any other place in this house.

Just like Eva.

He lowered his body to enter the room and looked around Eva’s workroom/library with shining eyes.

It felt like he was in the tiny people’s land.

The size of the room was just about 1/10 of the Emperor’s private library but the space was completely filled with books in old wooden shelves.

There were quite many bookpiles on the floor.

It was a disordered place where the scent of books he loved was filled in.

Next to the window, there was a small table that seemed to be her writing table and it almost felt out of place because of its exclusive cleanliness around it.

In the bookshelves, there were book sets of the famous author Theodore as well as her own series of books, and also had other novels.

There were also unexpectedly many professional books like medical books and psychology books in one corner of the room.

‘She doesn’t discriminate between genres. Or is it for research?’

Just as Karlos was looking around the room, Eva gathered the papers on the table and handed it to him

“Here.”

“What?”

Eva smiled cheerfully looking at Karlos confused with her intentions.

“This is the new release! Please take a look at it!”

Karlos’ eyes fixed on the bunch of paper she was holding.

And quickly counted the number of pages.

He didn’t expect his unconsciously inhabited skill from signing papers to be used so usefully here!

Just by the eye measurement, it was roughly 50 pages. It was a lot!

Karlos took a deep breath to control his strong urge to grab the pile.

“I, I can read it? It’s not released yet though?”

“Yes! You always give such good feedback! I wanted to get it reviewed by someone before I showed it to the editor. It’s my first time doing weekly serialized releases so I couldn’t get hold of the story flow and amount. You know my writing well.”

“B,but….”

“It’s alright! I like getting opinions from people! Come on.”

Just like his personality of not liking to go against certain rules, he contemplated even after Eva’s reassurance.

‘Can I really see it? Even if I’m not a publishing company staff? But she needs someone to review it? Then perhaps it’s fine since it’s just reviewing.’

Karlos’ contemplation did not take a long time. It felt like 3 seconds or so to Eva. Karlos respectfully took the manuscript from Eva’s hands.

The Emperor’s eyes shook with excitement.

With the eyes like those of a girl in love, he started reading the manuscript, still standing.

Eva was about to pull out a chair for him but she looked at him again, estimated the chair size and his leg length and pushed the chair back in.

It would be like him sitting on a child’s chair. It would be even more uncomfortable.

She perched on the table and decided to observe Karlos, having nothing to do while waiting.

Looking at him now, his hair color was similar to the stalker/sorcerer’s. The part of his hair that received light from the window shined slightly red.

Judging by the appearance, he didn’t look like a person that would real her type of novels.

If Brigitta was the refreshing type and the sorcerer a pretty type, he was like a handsome but cold type.

The ends of his thick eyebrows were pointed upwards so even a little frown would make him look very angry.

He had thick eyelashes that made his eye line definite and his nose made a fine line.

Unlike Brigitta’s slightly dark skin, he had a skin tone similar to or even lighter than the people of Lesa.

Overall, he was overwhelmingly handsome but that aura was veiling all of that.

He seems to be misunderstood often.

But he seemed to have a good personality.

Eva’s first impression would seem weird to most people.

Since she stuttered and avoided eye contact.

But this knight and Brigitta did not show any signs of them feeling that way.

‘Mmm, I was quite afraid of them. Make me feel bad.’

Eva cupped her face and relaxed.

She had a similar taste in men with Brigitta and Karlos’s face was her type so she was going to admire him when she had the chance.

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Aide* is the assistant of a political leader.

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