/
“And…You don’t need to worry at all. I’ll stay as close as possible, so the Princess can borrow my power from the Spirit Stones.”
So that Dorothea can use the spirit’s power whenever she needs it.
He had already told Duke Bronte and Duchess Bronte that he would stay in Lampas for a long time.
So, if Dorothea needs a spirit, whether in front of Carnan or the nobles, or Theon, she can use it whenever she needs it.
“So, even if the princess hates me, please allow me to be the last one to escort the princess today.”
Because he’ll have no choice but watch Theon climb into the next carriage with her.
Ethan smiled as always.
Dorothea looked at Ethan like that.
“Really…”
Ethan was cunning.
The past, which she had been pondering all along, is blurred in front of his sad smile.
She should hate him, but then she couldn’t hate him.
Just then, the carriage arrived at its destination.
Ethan first got off the carriage and held out his hand to Dorothea.
She paused for a moment, and Ethan smiled as pretty as ever.
“Escort, as they say, don’t take this the wrong way.”
Dorothea, realizing that she was too wary, took his hand and got out of the carriage.
Ethan’s hand released her very slowly.
“Please have a good night.”
He said goodbye, carefully capturing Dorothea’s last appearance.
And he smiled softly as if nothing happened.
“Be careful…”
Dorothea politely greeted Ethan and headed to the Palace of Converta.
She wondered if Ethan was still watching, but she didn’t look back.
* * *
When she arrived in front of the Converta Palace, Clara, and Stefan were waiting for her.
Judging from the look on their face, it was as if they had already heard the news about the spirit.
“Princess!”
Clara greeted Dorothea with a voice one tone higher than usual.
“How was your debut?”
“It was fine.”
‘There was so much that has happened, but I couldn’t explain it.’
Dorothea headed inside with the two of them.
Then.
“Congratulations on your debut, Princess!”
As soon as she opened the front door and entered, small firecrackers exploded and pollen flew.
Dorothea blinked in surprise, and the people waiting at the front door smiled broadly.
Po was standing in the middle,
holding an apple pie, and Joy was waving the board with the words ‘Celebration Debut’ written in her familiar handwriting.
“Princess, I also heard about the spirits!”
“Well, we didn’t know you were dealing with spirits and…!”
They celebrated Dorothea’s debut as if it were their own.
Seeing that, Dorothea finally burst out laughing.
Today was too long and she was tired, and she wanted to run to her bed and lie down, but the people who welcomed her made her forget her fatigue.
“It’s late, but everyone is not resting.”
“How can we rest? It’s a wonderful debut day for the princess, so we have to wait for you!”
She shouted that on a good day like this, she couldn’t sleep early.
She was also excited to open the wine The princess had given her as a celebratory drink.
It was a little strange.
‘It is the same for the nobles of the Debutante and the Converta Palace people, who were more excited to celebrate other people’s work, but why do I feel comfortable and happy right now?’
“Did you bake the apple pie tonight?”
Dorothea looked at Po’s shiny apple pie and asked.
Po’s apple pie had sliced apples on top in the shape of a flower, and the shape looked just like a bouquet.
Po was now a pastry chef good enough to open a shop.
“I heard that the princess has good news. Chef Renière told me to bake it.”
Po smiled with a face that had not yet lost all the baby fat.
“Princess, don’t be like this, go inside and eat.”
“Okay.”
Surrounded by people, all Dorothea ate from lunch to dinner today was a glass of celebratory wine and a piece of cake Ethan had brought to her earlier.
Dorothea went with them to the large parlor table.
Reniere brought some more cheese and biscuits to eat while drinking wine, and Clara brought a few bottles of wine ‘Dorothea Milanaire’.
With the simple food on the table, it’s simple but a fitting reward.
Dorothea glanced at the table in front of her. The table was set, but the chairs alongside the wide table were empty.
Only Dorothea sat alone at the table. She stared at the empty chairs for a moment, then turned her head.
“Everyone sit down.”
Dorothea spoke to the people standing around her.
Then all the people of Converta Palace looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“We sit?”
It was against imperial etiquette to sit with the Princess. Besides, the Dorothea they knew liked to eat alone.
She rarely ate at the same table as anyone else, and when there was a social event and everyone had to eat together, she was very uncomfortable.
Even when she ate with Raymond and Theon, she would eat half as much as she normally would because she felt uncomfortable.
But what if she puts people around the table and eats? Servants who are not even nobles?
“You don’t like it…?”
Dorothea asked, looking at those who remained silent, with their eyes wide open.
‘Oh, is it uncomfortable to sit with me?’
I just suggested it because I wanted to sit with them, but I thought it could be difficult for the person who serves me.
“No, it’s not that we don’t like it, but how dare we do that…”
“I feel like I’m celebrating alone, so I want someone to be with me.”
Dorothea turned her gaze to the empty seat in front of her.
It was a thought she’d often had in the past. When she sits down to eat at a large table alone, she wishes someone would sit and eat with her.
‘I felt like I was used to it, but I suddenly thought like that.’
That didn’t mean he wanted to eat with Carnan or sit with social aristocrats.
Something a little more comfortable, intimate, and with people she likes to gather…A friendly table that she can only see in a book.
“Okay!”
At that moment, Joy raised her hand, pulled out her chair, and sat down right next to Dorothea.
Clara and the others were terrified, but Joy didn’t mind.
“Po, sit down too!”
Joy gestured and pulled out the chair next to her.
“Sister, that’s against the law…”
Po, who had studied the imperial code of conduct, was disturbed by Joy’s behavior.
“But the princess told us to sit down. We should listen to her first. Besides, when we were young, we even ate together with the princess!”
When Joy and Po were in Cerritian, on the first day they entered the detached palace, Dorothea sat down and ate with them, saying that she would teach them table manners.
“So it’s okay.”
When Joy tapped the chair, Po couldn’t resist any longer and sat down on the chair.
Dorothea thought that at times like this, Joey had sense.
One by one, under Joy’s initiative, they sat around the table, and finally, Stefan sat down.
Then the empty table filled with people.
The scenery alone heated Dorothea’s heart for no reason.
Dorothea took a knife and cut the pie like a cake.
The pie was cut softly with the sound of a crisp, thin crust cracking.
When she removed a slice and placed it on a plate, the sugary apple cubes inside flowed out between the savory buttery-flavored pastries.
Dorothea cut the pie according to the number of people gathered and passed it around on plates.
After pouring wine with Joy’s colorful celebration panel next to her, it felt like a small but pretty party table.
I’d much rather have something like this than at a ball.
“Thank you for congratulating me on my debut…”
“Congratulations on your debut!”
At Dorothea’s awkward words, the people raised their wine glasses and shouted.
* * *
Dorothea came into the room slightly drunk.
Tired, she lay flat on the bed.
Then, a hard lump caught on her waist.
As she searched for the source of the pain, she found a black pouch.
“ah… ”
Dorothea gently opened that.
A pebble-sized spirit stone of light was shining softly in the black pocket.
As she lay on the bed, she took out the spirit stone and looked up at the ceiling.
The mysterious stone, which is transparent like a diamond and shining like a luminous pearl, showed off its presence in a dark room.
‘It’s like a dream.’
So much had happened today. It was too much to recall and organize in one night.
If she closed her eyes and opened them, she felt everything that had happened today would never happen.
Dorothea, who was quietly looking at the stone, rubbed the stone with her finger.
Light spread from the spirit stones she rubbed.
The spirit stones, which gave off a faint light like a light in the darkness, immediately shone brightly as if a candle had been lit, and summoned the spirits of light one by one.
Dorothea stared blankly at the spirits floating in the dark room.
‘Good Milanaire…’
This little stone contained so much. The power that Ethan gave, the light that will help Theon.
‘Should I use this power to approach Theon and be loved?’
‘I’ve just finished organizing my feelings for Theon. Why now…’
‘Don’t give me a chance…’
The spirit stone shone as if testing her.
She wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol that was making her head spin.
‘Is Ethan okay?’
He smiled calmly, but of course, he wouldn’t be okay.
He even turned back time for her and even gave her a spirit stone.
‘You’re so crazy, Ethan Bronte…’
‘Why do you make me worry like this?’
If this was all part of his calculation, Dorothea felt like she deserved to be fooled.
‘How can I blame you?” The same person as me…’
Dorothea sighed.
Then the spirits flew around her and sparkled.
“Don’t comfort me, you never came to me before.”
Dorothea upset for nothing, drove out the spirits and put the spirit stone in her pocket.