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“Aren’t we going over there?”
“That’s the way down to the food pantry. There seems to be no reason to go there.”
Ahmed smiled softly and took Holly to the building on the right. It was also the way the servant took Cahill last night.
“On the first floor of this building, there is a kitchen and a quarter for servants and maids. Above are the rooms of the King’s blood relatives, nobles, and guests who are not direct descendants.”
This time, he didn’t even look towards the kitchen. The guest room, which he showed her roughly, was neither as fancy nor spacious as Holly’s place.
“Then, shouldn’t my room be in that building as well?”
Ahmed smiled at her meaningfully.
“Miss Holly is a special guest.”
Her chest tightened as if something was on it. While the favor was good, it was too foreign to Holly.
‘…Let’s just be grateful and enjoy.’
Still, she struggled to shake off the burden and continued on.
Through the window in the hallway, she could see the tents installed outside between the banquet hall building and the annex. In one place, soldiers were holding bows and aiming at targets on wooden posts.
Ahmed would have known where Holly’s gaze was pointed at, but he didn’t open his mouth this time.
“It may not be as beautiful as Miss Holly, but there is a flower garden worth seeing. Would you like to go see it together? There would be no greater honor if we could share tea together.”
Finally returning to the hall, Ahmed suggested. However, Holly’s face turned pale. Perhaps, someone gave Ahmed a honey-dripping drug overnight. She rubbed her face to hide her troubled face.
“Miss Holly…?”
“By the way, what kind of festival is it?”
Holly changed the subject to divert his attention away from him. She thought that it was a topic that could be comfortably talked about, but the Prince did not answer right away. She lifted her head and looked at Ahmed with puzzled eyes.
“Well, would it be said that it was a festival for the noble guests who visited the Palace?”
He smiled with an inexplicable face. It was as if a festival was held for Cahill and her who visited this kingdom.
Holly’s eyes widened.
“…What?”
‘Is the whole country having a festival just because there are guests?’
It must be a joke.
The manpower and wealth required to hold the festival were not something that could be easily looked over. Holly smiled to clear her burden.
“The flower garden I mentioned is only accessible through the village. They’ll be in a mess with the festival preparations, are you okay? No, it shouldn’t be like that. When the carriage passes by, make sure everyone stops working…”
“What? No, it’s okay. You don’t have to…”
“If it’s okay with Lady.”
Holly swept her startled chest. Ahmed was outspoken in a different sense than Cahill.
After a while, she was looking outside through the small window of the carriage. It seemed that there was really going to be a festival, so the street scene was a little different from yesterday.
Temporary stores were built on the land where there were only fields and a few old houses. On one side was a tent of unknown purpose. Even though it wasn’t glamorous to call it a kingdom-wide festival, it certainly conveyed a lively atmosphere.
As the carriage passed, the busy people stopped and bowed their heads. Unlike yesterday, they glanced at the carriage with curious eyes.
“It seems that guests don’t come often.”
Because of the more focused gaze on her, she had no choice but to regard it as a festival for themselves as Ahmed spoke.
“You saw when you entered Sharif, but it’s a closed place.”
When he said it, Holly silently nodded her head. She never saw it, but Cahill said there were traps everywhere. Their country was not even on the map, and the entrance was covered in traps.
‘…Is there any reason to do that?’
Holly quickly shook her head to shake off her thoughts.
“Then, I was very lucky.”
At that moment, the eyes staring back at Holly gleamed with a mysterious light.
“The real lucky one is me and the people who were able to bring you.”
Holly’s face hardened subtly. The way he treated his guests was overdone. Moreover, Ahmed was secretly excluding Cahill.
“Fortunately, your party seems to be having fun, too.”
Ahmed said with a meaningful face. Holly followed his gaze and looked out the window again. A familiar face appeared among the people preparing for the festival.
* * *
Cahill rolled up his sleeves and was carrying a crate. It must have been quite heavy, and the muscles of his forearms were burning. Holly knew how strong those arms were. And, how strange it is to see his veins bulge when he gave power.
The people around him were all young and beautiful women.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Didn’t you say he was tired?”
“Obviously, that’s what I heard.”
When her nervous tone came out unknowingly, Ahmed replied in a pleasant voice.
One of the women standing next to Cahill raised the corner of her mouth and reached out to reach his face. It looked like she was trying to wipe off the sweat.
‘…I can’t believe Cahill was sweating that much.’
Cahill just stood still and let the woman do what she did. Holly gazed at the two men and women with suspicious eyes. The problem was that the cloth wiping his forehead was the hem of the woman’s skirt, revealing her smooth legs.
The men passing by stopped their feet and stared at the woman, who was in a seductive pose, in a frenzy. She gave Cahil a confident smile.
‘…She was planning to seduce him.’
Holly’s eyes grew sharper. She was hanging from the window as if she was going out through the window the size of her head.
Finally, Cahill and the women were completely out of sight.
“The flower garden I mentioned needs to go out a little bit more.”
As she took her eyes out of the window and sat up straight, Ahmed spoke to her. Holly looked puzzled at his words.
“Still, it’s a little strange. Don’t you usually have a flower garden nearby?”
There was also quite a bit of empty land between the buildings of the royal palace. Even if it were a dirt floor, if they had picked the ground, they would have been able to make a flower garden.
“There are safety concerns about keeping them in the royal castle.”
Ahmed seemed to be sensitive to safety. The garden he was talking about was made of wood and covered with glass.
As soon as she entered the flower garden, the hot, humid air hit her.
‘Cahill can’t come.’
Holly, who had fanned herself with her hands, flinched. The thought of Cahill having fun surrounded by beauties.
“There are a lot of flowers I’ve never seen before.”
Because of that, she paid more attention to flowers to push away the thoughts that kept coming to her mind.
Running away from those thoughts, she squatted down in front of the first plant she saw.
“Look out. It’s…”
Before Ahmed could utter a word of warning, the stem stretched out in front of her nose. Surprised, Holly immediately pushed back. The plants were clashing with their sharp teeth in the air.
“It’s a cannibal flower.”
Ahmed finished his words belatedly and grabbed her shoulder, and stood her up. Holly stood up, bewildered. She almost had her nose bitten by a man-eating plant.
“There will be no flowers here that Miss Holly knows about. They’re all flowers that Sharif’s researcher has bloomed.”
“Why is this…”
Ahmed smiled silently as she turned around with disdain.
“We are working hard to keep the current peace.”
From his face, it was quite predictable that these plants would replace traps in the future. Holly swallowed a gulp at the terrifying imagination. As Ahmed looked at her pale face, he explained the powers of plants one by one.
‘He seems to be warning me, am I overthinking it?’
She glanced at his friendly smile and closed her lip. After she was told about the powers of all plants, her mind was tattered. As he was led by Ahmed’s hand and sat down at the table, a subordinate with a sharp eye came to them and put a picnic basket on.
“When did you come?”
“I have been in the back the whole time.”
Holly, who had never felt the presence, widened her eyes wide and asked, and the subordinate responded with a blunt voice.
Ahmed looked at the surprised Holly cutely and opened his mouth.
“Even if it looks like this, I am the Prince of a country.”
She remembered the people silently doing their job and the nobles who had a hard time with the prince. Still, did that mean that there was something that threatened him?
“The position of a prince is not as glamorous as it is.”
When a bitterness mixed at the end of Holly’s voice, there was an alien light in Ahmed’s honey-colored eyes that looked at her.
In the meantime, a cake that was too pretty to eat was placed in front of the two of them. Holly stared blankly at the soft white cream.
It was strangely unappetizing.
“It seems that the chef was encouraged to make desserts after a long time. There were no people in the castle who could eat it if he made it.”
“But, it’s a good thing as he’ll be making it more often now?”
Ahmed’s words were answered by his subordinates. However, the words did not reach Holly’s ears, who had been immersed in thoughts.
“Doesn’t it suit your taste?”
Holly, whose fork had been empty from the moment she forked her first bite, lifted her head. The cake melted the moment she put it in her mouth, although it didn’t taste sweet.
“I think I am not feeling well.”
Holly put the fork down.
From the beginning, she was strangely frustrated. Her body was limp, and she felt like she wanted to lean somewhere.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go back.”
Feeling Ahmed looking at her with a worried face, she just smiled faintly to reassure him.