Episode 10

"Melissa, I tell you… When will you be back?"

Julia asked Melissa, who was grooming her hair. Melissa pursed her lips with a puzzled expression.

"Well, it looks like you have a lot of work. When I was busy, it was always late for me to return home."

"… okay?"

Julia let out a small sigh. Two months had passed since he hadn't returned.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't shake the thought that it was because of him that he didn't come back for so long.

"I… Sir, how is your schedule today?"

"… Well, maybe I should read a book in the library."

Julia answered melancholy. After Bennett's blunt rejection of her gardening work, she couldn't find anything else to do.

However, to hold a tea party or a social church, there were no people to invite.

It was because he had hardly ever been in social circles before marriage, so he had no one to talk to with whom he was close.

More than anything else, I thought that Fernando might hate it if he used the cost of hosting a social party arbitrarily.

So all I had to do was read a book in the library or take a walk around the castle.

"Don't do that, why don't you go out to town with me? You've never been around the estate before."

As Melissa carefully encouraged her, a small light appeared in Julia's eyes.

As Melissa said, she hadn't been able to properly tour the estate since she got married.

"It's fine with me… Melissa, don't you have a lot of work to do?"

"Ah, serving His Highness Bi is more important than anything else!"

Melissa smiled brightly and finished her haircut. The shape of her hair, which was loosely braided on both sides of her and rolled into one, suited Julia very well.

"Then I know you're leaving, and I'll call the wagon."

Julia smiled slightly as she watched Melissa leave the room. In this way she was grateful to Melissa for making her feel better.

So Julia left the castle for the first time. The carriage headed to the largest shopping street in the territory.

Soon the carriage stopped. As I slowly stepped outside, the first clock tower in the center caught my eye.

A large fountain was placed around it, and the streets were crowded with people sitting on benches and moving people.

Julia took a deep breath. She felt that her stomach became lighter just by going out like this.

"My lord, where do you want to go?"

After contemplating for a moment, Yulia pointed to the street lined with markets.

"Shall we go over there?"

"like!"

Melissa took her hand and led her. There was warmth in Julia's eyes as she looked at her clasped hands.

I've never had a friend, but I feel like I'm out to play with a friend.

As I was walking around the streets for a while, I came across a small flower shop. Julia stopped walking for a moment.

Then he looked at the neatly decorated flowers in front of the store.

After looking at the lily of the valley on one side for a long time, she smiled a little bitterly.

Her biological mother was the daughter of a merchant who owned a flower shop. Maybe that's why, since childhood, she has been particularly fond of flowers.

Even though I stayed with my mother until I was about seven years old, I hardly remember those days. One thing I remember clearly was this lily of the valley.

'Baby, when you get married someday, my mother will make a bouquet of lily of the valley.'

All other memories are vague, but the words whispered to me in a friendly voice remained clear even as time passed.

Melissa, who was looking intently at Yulia, who was lost in thought, asked insinuatingly.

"Are you going to go buy a bunch of flowers when you come out?"

"No, it's not necessary… ."

"I want to buy it. Come on, come in!"

Pressed by Melissa's momentum, Julia entered the flower shop and eventually came out holding a flower.

It was a beautiful bouquet of white lily of the valley and pink roses.

"Wow! Let's go there too!"

Not only that, Melissa took her straight away. When she saw Melissa excited like a child, her smile leaked out of her own accord.

Every time I passed by the street vendors, it was difficult to ignore the words of the soliciting merchants.

I was possessed by the horse's feet and bought this and that, so I didn't have any hands left.

Melissa, with both hands full of luggage, sighed and complained.

"ha… I must have thought that even a porter would bring one."

"Give me I will pay more."

"Oh, no!"

While they were struggling with Melissa, a wagon approached from the front.

They hurriedly fled inside, but the merchant standing next to the wagon blatantly bumped into Melissa standing outside.

"ah!"

Melissa, who had lost everything she was holding, hugged her shoulders. She frowned as if she had been hit hard.

"balm! it's okay?"

"Yeah, but things… ."

Melissa wept as she looked at the wrinkled objects on the floor. Julia grabbed Melissa's arm and gently lifted her up.

"Don't worry about anything. Are there any injuries?"

While looking around Melissa's body, a merchant approached me at some point and spoke to me.

"Hey, how about this? Everything is broken."

The merchant patted the back of his neck and smiled. She smelled a foul booze from him.

The merchant who came closer looked at Yulia and Melissa's bodies at the same time and showed offended eyes.

While Yulia, feeling repulsed, stepped aside, the merchant tapped the wall behind her.

The merchant who forcibly blocked the road continued to speak skillfully.

"I'll compensate you for everything, so will you follow me? After passing this alley, you will find our store right away."

"… no. I do not need it."

As Yulia tried to avoid it the other way, the merchant grabbed her wrist tightly with a firm hand.

"Don't do it, follow me. They seem to be quite expensive."

The merchant, who looked her up and down again, ripped her lips apart and smiled.

"Hey, let this go."

Yulia, whose complexion had turned white at the smell of alcohol coming in close, shook the merchant's arm as hard as she could, but to no avail.

Melissa, who was also terrified from a distance, clenched her teeth and grabbed the merchant's arm.

"Here, someone help!"

When the loud noise was heard, people who noticed the coercive atmosphere only murmured their attention.

The merchant, conscious of his gaze, casually threw away the hand that was holding Julia. Yulia, who had been staggered by the recoil, fell flat on the floor of her.

"Hey, people want to show their sincerity with a good heart, but if you ignore it like this, it's useless."

The tongue-in-cheek merchant stumbled and approached the wagon as if running away.

And at that moment, the security guards, who discovered the commotion and rushed, blocked the front of the merchant.

"What, what! Why are you here!"

After checking the knights, Yulia, who was relieved of tension, grabbed her trembling hand and took a deep breath.

Meanwhile, someone kicked the merchant hard and knelt down. Then he mercilessly slammed the moaning merchant's head to the floor.

"Ouch!"

Seeing the overbearing man pointing the sword at the merchant's back as it was, Julia's eyes slowly widened.

"… majesty?"

Hearing the small voice, Fernan turned his gaze away from the merchant who had been glaring at her as if to kill the merchant and looked at her.

After throwing the merchant who had become a bamboo bowl at random, he strode towards Julia.

"What are you doing here?"

While Fernando was looking down at her with his eyes narrowed, his lieutenant Lloyd approached.

Lloyd, who was about to report something, looked at Yulia who had fallen, and widened her eyes.

"uh… Your Majesty, I will send him to the police station."

Fernando didn't even respond to Lloyd's words and didn't take his eyes off Julia.

"I asked what you were doing here."

"that is… I went out for a while."

After giving an answer, Yulia tried to get up and sat down again. He sprained his ankle and couldn't stand up on his own.

Fernan glared at her like that, and shrugged dryly.

"I would have told you to stay quiet in the bedroom."

His eyes glanced at the objects that had fallen on the floor.

"Looking around excitedly, I think I was pretty funny."