5 Surprisingly Pleasant Company

With that depressing thought in his head, Rukelion hurried back to the farm. He saw Veronica shelling peas into a bowl at the kitchen table when he arrived .

Her long curly hair spilled loose over her shoulders for once—it was usually tied back since it got in the way of her work—and she hummed a tune he wasn't familiar with as she went. She seemed to be in a rather good mood.

Why? What was there to be happy about when she had been approached by so many creeps earlier? Had something good happened between then and coming home that he missed while he was out?

Veronica noticed him after a minute of him staring at her and smiled warmly. "Welcome back, Leo. I wondered where you got off to. Do you want to help me with these?"

Stupidly, Rukelion's heart skipped a beat. She truly was more beautiful than any court lady his brothers used to fawn over. He had never understood the appeal…until now. Having a pretty girl smile at you could change your mood in an instant.

He somehow felt less discouraged about being turned down by that mercenary now that he had seen her. He pulled up a chair and joined her in her task without a word. He was a bit clumsy at first but he had never shelled peas before. He had experienced a lot of firsts since coming here.

Not that he was complaining. If a dainty noble girl could do it, he could too.

Rukelion hadn't expected to ever end up in a situation like this though. He had been the third prince. If Mirea hadn't attacked, he would have lived his life in the castle doing whatever his older brother Georgios, the crown prince, needed him to do to help keep the kingdom running smoothly.

A crown prince who never lived long enough to become king. Even thinking about it filled him with agonizing rage and sadness but he couldn't cry. He had dehydrated himself doing that as he blindly ran from the carnage and would never allow such weakness again.

He couldn't. He was all that was left of his family's legacy: the last of the fire mages. At least in this part of the world. Katalyan royal blood was necessary to be born with that particular power so somewhere out there, there might be more born from princesses who were married off to other kingdoms but it was unlikely.

He didn't know and didn't particularly care about whatever distant relatives he might have. Everyone he loved was dead. All that mattered to him was avenging them and reclaiming whatever was left of his kingdom.

As Rukelion ran, he had noticed giant, monstrous plants destroying everything in sight. There might not be anything left to reclaim. Mirea hadn't simply conquered Katalya; it had destroyed it.

Why? What did any of them ever do to warrant such senseless brutality?

He shook his head as if that would shake his thoughts away. He needed a distraction. But what? Shelling peas was a fairly mindless task now that he had gotten the hang of it.

Veronica seemed to read his mind. She didn't so much as look up from the peas as she said, "I've always wanted to have a vegetable garden. Eating things fresh is so nice, isn't it? Even if it does involve extra work."

Rukelion looked up at her curiously and saw that she was perfectly serious based on her expression. He couldn't help but wonder what was going through her mind. What sort of noble girl was worried about things being fresh? Had she come from some poor house with a decent name and that was why her parents tried to marry her off? Had they almost sold her and that was why she ran away?

Her kindness to a perfect stranger on top of knowing what needed to be done was explainable if she had to start over in a new place as someone else but it was still hard to believe. She had been very good to him without any real reason.

"I'm used to eating things fresh," he admitted.

"This fresh though? This came straight from the garden less than an hour ago. Try one," Veronica encouraged before popping a few into her mouth.

Rukelion followed her lead and discovered that she was right. There was something about these peas that was different than the ones he was used to. "…I stand corrected. These are really good."

She smiled serenely. "I told you! Fresh is best."

He thought she came here primarily to escape something unpleasant but it seemed that she had also been running toward something. She certainly seemed at peace with the world. The only time he had seen her upset was when he first woke up and acted ungrateful for her help.

To be fair, he hadn't known what her intentions were and didn't know if he could trust her. He still didn't trust her enough to tell her all of his secrets but, at the very least, he could trust her not to tell anyone he was here if they came looking.

"Did you always want to be a farmer?" Rukelion blurted.

Veronica laughed. "No. This was unexpected but I don't mind it most of the time. What I really wanted was a garden small enough that I could sustain it myself. And not just fruits and vegetables either—I wanted flowers. Lots of them."

Flowers, huh? She must have grown up seeing them out in whatever fancy garden her estate had. The palace gardens had plenty grown in artful arrangements some queen generations before had liked.

"Do you like flowers?" he asked stupidly.

Her brightest smile yet adorned her face. "I love flowers more than anything else in the world."

Rukelion was momentarily stunned and nearly dropped his pea pod on the floor. Veronica was simpler than he imagined and yet much more complicated at the same time. Of all the things in the world to love that much, why flowers?

"What is it about flowers that you like so much?"

"They can make even the dullest of spaces seem bright and beautiful. But if you don't care for them properly, they die. It's kind of poetic that some of the most beautiful things are the most fragile, don't you think?" she asked plainly.

He had never thought about it that way. Of course, he had never put much thought into flowers period.

There weren't any around here that he had seen aside from on some of the fruits and vegetables that were in the process of growing. He was fairly certain those weren't the kinds of flowers she was talking about.

He supposed flowers were scarce on a farm. She wouldn't have the time or resources to cultivate them like in a proper noble or royal garden since she was so busy with everything else. A pity considering how much she loved them. She was probably disappointed.

What was he even thinking? Why did it matter if Veronica didn't have flowers here?

"I suppose so," Rukelion told her.

They went back to shelling peas in a comfortable sort of silence. His mind definitely wasn't on everything he lost anymore. It was now entirely focused on the enigma sitting across from him. She had distracted him rather efficiently.

===

Rukelion fell into a pattern in the following weeks. He woke up early to watch the mercenaries train, went back to the farm to do his chores, headed back to watch them for another few hours, then returned by dark and spent his nights helping Veronica with whatever she was doing.

She was surprisingly pleasant company. She never pried, never pushed, never expected him to do more than the bare minimum he agreed to. If it wasn't a part of his agreed-upon chores for room and board, she always asked if he wanted to do it with her rather than demand he help.

He became more and more curious about her, especially as he realized exactly how much she was shouldering on her own without complaint. Sometimes when he returned, he would see her worriedly poring over ledgers with information about fruit, vegetable, and dairy product sales and comparing them to how many people she would need for the grain harvest in the spring.

One day as Rukelion was coming back from observing the morning training, he noticed something he hadn't before. A patch of wildflowers. Their middles were yellow and the petals were long and white.

They seemed fairly plain to him but he was sure Veronica would love them. Not entirely sure why he was bothering, he gathered up a bunch to bring to her when he returned.