Ch-108: Queen Maker (8)

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Cuckoo~!

The crowing of the rooster set off the day, echoing throughout the village.

Francisca's eyes lit up.

She rolled around and sat up, tossing her head adjacent to her. Cloud, lying on the floor, was still asleep.

Francisca slipped out of bed and boiled water over the hearth. As the water began to simmer, she threw two fist-sized potatoes into the pot.

She squatted and waited for the potatoes to cook.

'Is it cooked yet?'

When she pushed with a ladle, it nudged in.

It was ready.

She scooped up the potatoes with a ladle and placed them in a bowl, then she tapped Cloud, who was still sleeping, with her foot.

There was not a hint of respect for the Hero in her behavior.

"Eat breakfast."

"…five minutes."

"No five minutes. If you don't wake up now, I know how to wake you up. Otherwise, you'll sleep away the whole morning."

"Oh really, a man can't even sleep."

Cloud scratched his head and stood up.

By the time he roused up, yawning, and got his share of potatoes, Francisca had already finished her meal.

"I will be going first."

"Are you going to do the laundry?"

"Um."

"Finish quickly and come to Uncle Dan's potato field."

"You want help? There's extra workload?"

"That's not it, today's harvest day."

"Ah, it's today! Nice! I'll come running as soon as I finish the laundry!"

She replied in an exuberant voice and left the house. Woof, woof! The dog, who was sleeping in the kennel, woke up and barked at her.

The dog's name was Go, Cloud had brought the guy wandering ownerless in the streets and even gave it a name.

At first, she had wondered why he even bothered bringing a mutt back home, but now she was quite attached to it, too.

"Go, I'm busy, you know? Go, ask that person for rice."

After patting Go's head a few times, she headed for the village chief's house.

"Frena? You're here early."

A middle-aged woman, wrinkles deepening across her cheeks, greeted Francisca with a smile.

"Here is the laundry I need done today."

"Alright. I'll finish it soon, ma'am."

Honorifics, which were awkward at first, now flowed like water.

Was it because she was now attuned to the thought of hiding her identity?

Welp, she didn't feel a snag anymore.

"About what I said earlier, have you seen my son? Once you two…"

"I'll finish the laundry first and talk later, ma'am."

Matchmaking was a different story.

Francisca cut off the chief's wife's prattle and headed for the river.

She saw the chief's wife's displeased expression, but…

So what?

She didn't care.

Far from paying attention to her marriage, humming a tune, she sat down by the river. As she pounded the clothes with a club, the other women of her age gathered one by one by the river.

"You are the first to arrive, again."

A woman with brown hair pulled in a braid sat down beside her.

Aberneen.

Francisca's first friend in the village. Because of her naive and friendly personality, she was also Francisca's best friend.

"Aren't you too diligent?"

"I just sleep less. More than that, how are people deciding to deal with what happened in the mountain behind the village?"

Not long ago, bodies of wild beasts and monsters were found in a pile in the mountain behind the village.

Hunter Joe, who witnessed the anomaly, said he only saw afterimages, and all he knew for sure was that he had been hearing eerie wolf howls all night long.

'I mean, Cloud left with a serious face when he heard the wolves' howl.'

He came back empty-handed.

After which he sent a letter, but to whom did he write it?

"Ah? Oh, my dad said he was thinking of speaking with the government official who is coming today. If they hear out our plight, maybe they'll send over soldiers?"

Aberneen answered Francisca's question.

"Then there should be no problem. Okay, then I'll be leaving first."

"Huh? What! You are done already?!"

Seeing Francisca stand up with the laundry basket, Aberneen exclaimed.

"You have changed a lot. It seems like yesterday that I heard you getting nagged for snagging the laundry…"

"Two months have passed, what yesterday are you living in?"

She smiled and returned the cleaned laundry to the village chief's house, then ran to Dan's potato field. Her face was full of smiles because, as Cloud had said, today was the potato harvest day.

When she arrived at the potato field, she could see Cloud and Dan's family members squatting and digging potatoes.

"Frena?"

"It's been a while, Uncle Dan! Where's my hoe? Oh, here you are."

Picking her hoe, she hesitated and then asked.

"No one has touched Elizabeth, right?"

"The chance doesn't exist. You warned so sternly, is there anyone so courageous who can touch it? Then again, why is the name of the potato… Elizabeth?"

"It's much better than Go."

Responding to Cloud's sarcasm as usual with a diplomatic smile, she squatted down. She grinned and dug with her hoe. As the soil churned up, a large potato gradually emerged.

A large potato that easily surpassed her fist.

"Elizabeth..!"

Francisca's eyes flashed with ecstasy. She heard Cloud muttering something along the lines of Princess finally insane from behind, but she ignored it.

Because Elizabeth was more important to her!

"Uncle Dan, are you really giving me Elizabeth?"

A question she had been asked dozens of times.

"Whew, this girl. How many times are you going to ask? Take it, take it."

Dan shook his head with borderline exhaustion.

Receiving the affirmation, she hoed more quickly and soon had the potato in her hand.

"Hee hee hee."

The woman who was the first princess of the Kingdom of Prona, and the first-in-line of succession laughed gleefully at her first sown potato.

And the potato which was taken away by the tax collector who came a while later.

Francisca was left wailing.

* * *

"Elizabeth…!!!"

Seeing the official's carriages receding beyond the horizon, Francisca knelt down and howled.

"It's my fault… I should have hidden her…!"

It was her fault, if she hadn't come back with Elizabeth in her hands with the intention of bragging to the villagers…

If it hadn't been for her worthless vanity, Elizabeth would never have fallen into the hands likes of such men.

Memories with Elizabeth flash through her mind.

'Elizabeth…'

She was quite surprised when they first met.

After that, they started rubbing off each other.

So she subtly gave Elizabeth more water than the others.

In the end, she acknowledged Elizabeth's feelings for her and gave her a name…

"Elizabeth-!"

She'll miss her but would never be able to see her again.

Call her by name, like this.

Francisca howled once more as she watched the carriage's roof recede before it was all gone.

"It sucks. Doesn't it."

Then she gets whacked in the back of the head by Cloud.

"Ah! What, what are you doing!"

"Why are you so devasted over just a potato?"

"Just a potato?! You don't know how much Elizabeth has given me hope in my troubled life—"

"Stop spewing bullshit and take a look around."

Francisca frowned and glared at Cloud, but she did as asked and turned her head around herself to look.

– If they take it all away like that, how will we survive this winter…

– Are they bent on starving us to death? Damn bastards.

""

– If nothing else, what was the point of taking my only hen?

The faces of the villagers were seriously grim.

She was ashamed of how she was crying over a potato moments ago.

"Can you understand the situation?"

Francisca nodded slowly, very slowly, keeping her mouth shut. Cloud continued as he watched the carriage disappear completely.

"For those of us who don't have anything right now, only one of our potatoes was taken away, but the other residents are different. They have to pay an exorbitant amount of tax. Do you know why?"

"…why?"

"It's to rebuild Lupus. It'll take a lot of money to rebuild a collapsed city, and the royal family's wealth isn't enough, so they're levying their estates enormously. And this village happens to be the domain of the royal family."

"…"

"This will go on for a while. Maybe it will last for a very long time. Why? Because no matter the city is rebuilt, there is no one to be the center of importance. Then the guys who aim for the rebuilt city will appear one by one. They will fight each other for the throne. And who will bear the damage caused by it? Who, Francisca?"

Francisca didn't answer.

He didn't want an answer either, so he let go.

""

"Now, you have two options," said Cloud, opening two of his fingers and folding one.

"Inherit the throne and become the queen."

He folded the other one.

"Continue to live as a farmhand over her. Pick one."

Instead of choosing right away, Francisca turned her head and looked about the village.

From the nosy village chief's wife to Aberneen's father who ran a tavern and Uncle Dan who worked at the fields.

Most of them were people who had lost their smiles in the past two months.

That's why she knew.

How distraught and worried they were behind the calm facade.

They were hard workers. At least that way they weren't the ones who had to worry about starving to death.

Francisca let out a deep sigh.

From the moment she saw behind the facade, her options were already limited.

"First."

"This is a wise choice, my Queen."

He smiled.

* * *

– Knock, knock.

"Who's there?"

Even in the middle of answering the knock, Leslie's eyes didn't move away from the papers.

– It's me.

Until the voice passed through the wooden door and her brain registered it to be Cloud's.

Hearing the nostalgic voice, she turned her head toward the door.

"Cloud, that's you?"

– That's right. I'll be entering.

The door opened and a red-haired handsome man came inside. Leslie's expression, which had been diplomatically cold, brightened.

"You are back. When did you come?"

"Just a while ago. How's it going? And how have you been while I was gone?"

"Not so spectacular. You can see why."

Leslie pointed to the pile of papers on her desk with a glance.

"I have a lot of work, but there is no one to energize me."

Cloud laughed awkwardly at her smile, chilling smile.

"Sorry. At least, there have been results. The princess has decided to succeed the King."

"That is a very good news. The surrounding lords are already somewhat skittering to move."

"If the princess is bequeathed the throne and I declare that I take her as the official queen, it'll be alright. There'll be no more argument for them to play over."

"That's right. That's why I didn't snag you when you left with the princess."

Sweeping in front of Cloud before he knew it, she gently stroked his cheek and kissed him.

The kiss lasted for a long stretched duration.

As if she was going to ingrain every moment she had missed out.

When their lips parted, Leslie's pale face was painted with a blush.

Hearing Cloud chuckle, she turned her back shyly.

"I have a couple of letters for you, Cloud."

"Letters, for me?"

"Yes."

Leslie pulled out two envelopes from her desk drawer and handed them to him.

Both letters had seals on the wax, one with the Perdiac family crest and the other with an unknown one.

"Is this a seal you know?"

"No. It's the first time I've ever seen this crest. To find the sender, I leafed through all family crests, but in the end I still couldn't find it. I don't think we will know who sent it until we check the content."

"I see… Thanks anyway. When do you think today's workload will end?"

"I'm just as clueless. I might have to stay up all night again."

"…this, every bit of this must be difficult. Would you like me to accompany you?"

"Are you sure? I'm not a narrow-minded woman to hold on to the man who has just returned from a journey. You must be tired, so stop thinking about me and go back and get some rest."

"…Thank you. Then I will."

As he was about to leave the office, he asked one more question before he left as he stopped short at the doorway.

"I've heard Ophelia doesn't come out of her room often, do you know what going on with her?"

"Well… I'm not in knowledge of what Ophelia is doing. It's been a while since I left this office."

Cloud couldn't help but smile bitterly at Leslie's revelation.

* * *

I returned to my room and opened the sealing wax with the wing-shaped crest engraved on the flap.

I was also curious about the letter from Frillite's family, but right now I was more curious about this mysterious letter.

I unfolded the letter.

======================

Bombardment x3

There are only three more chances left.

======================

After reading the letter, I was momentarily at a loss for words.

Because I immediately understood what it was all about.

There's no way she didn't see the skill used to annihilate the Heavenly King, but I thought it was just strangely quiet.

'She was thinking about how many bombs to give.'

Treating my friend's skill as a bomb…

I raised my head and looked up at the ceiling.

"Three is too few. Let's sort it out at five."

-…

Naturally, there was no response.

What a supercilious jackass.

You can read fully translated chapters, including the last chapter, for $20.

p(a)treon.com/Daoist02