/
“Sorry
! I must have set the bait too weak.”
Dorothea and Theon ran to Joy at the same time.
Joy quickly brushed off the worm’s cheek, picked up the bait, and handed it to Theon.
Ray, who had been concentrating on fishing, laughed when he saw it, but he quickly hid his laughter and turned to the lake, fearing that Dorothea might be offended.
“It’s bait for the princess, so you have to put it on well.”
Theon apologized again when Joy glared at him as if she had become Dorothea’s spokesperson.
“I’ll put bait well this time.”
Theon tightened the bait several times and took Dorothea back to the shore.
Fortunately, this time Dorothea was able to fish without any problems.
And not long after Dorothea had thrown a fishing line, Ray jumped out of his seat and pulled the rod.
“Oh, I got it, I got it.”
Ray pulled up the fishing rod with all his might, and a flat fish smaller than the palm of his hand was hanging.
Even though the fish was too small to eat, Ray exclaimed excitedly at the first successful fishing.
“Theon, Dorothea! It’s the first fish I’ve caught!”
Ray pulled the flapping fish off the hook and put it in a bucket on one side.
He wouldn’t be able to eat it, but for now, he needed to put it in the empty bucket as a souvenir.
“It’s easy to miss because it’s your first time, but you did it right away!”
The servants knew the timing of the fish’s bite and so they praised Ray’s catch as amazing.
Seeing that, Dorothea’s competitiveness increased in an instant.
‘I’m more than Ray—! No, Dorothea. This is peaceful fishing. It’s your time with Theon.’
Dorothea hadn’t felt competitive in a long time, she calmed down.
‘Yeah, whether I caught a lot of fish or not, there’s Theon next to me, so What is the problem?’
That’s what Dorothea was trying to think

“I got it! I think I got it!”
“I got it again!”
“Dorothea, look at this! This one is huge! Just like my forearms!”
Unlike Dorothea’s rod, which seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep and remained silent, Ray caught fish one after another.
Dorothea took the fishing rod out, wondering if the fish had taken the bait, checked the bait, threw it again, and thought the bait was wrong, so she changed it and threw a new one. However, no matter how hard she tried, no fish caught on Dorothea’s fishing rod.
Joy went over to Ray’s side to watch Ray was constantly catching fish, and Ray’s bucket was full of fish.
‘Even the fish like Ray more
’
As Dorothea’s expression darkened, Ray looked at her.
“Dorothea, would you like to change seats? I think you can catch more fish in my place.”
Dorothea wanted to say, ‘I don’t need it,’ but Dorothea’s head nodded up and down.
‘I’ve come all the way here and I don’t want to go back empty-handed.’
It was too disappointing to let her first fishing trip end with nothing.
Dorothea gently swapped seats with Ray.
At that time.
“Ray! Theon!”
A voice is bright and cheerful as the sunlight came from afar.
Dorothea turned her head to see Julia running along the lake shore. It seemed that Theon and Julia were supposed to meet at the lakeside today.
‘There’s no way Julia wouldn’t go.’
Julia must have returned to Friedia for her Episteme vacation. The Delevine family, to which Julia belongs, has served Fried closely for a long time. Because of that, Julia and Theon have been close since childhood.
Wearing a wide-brimmed hat, Julia held a picnic basket in her hand.
“Hello, Princess Dorothea!”
Julia looked at Dorothea and greeted her politely and cheerfully.
Dressed in a dress with a large ribbon, she held her hat tight to keep it from being blown away by the wind blowing over the lake. That figure was lovely even to Dorothea
“hi
”
Dorothea greeted her awkwardly while holding her fishing rod.
Julia approached Ray and asked while the servants were preparing their picnic.
“How much did you catch, Ray?”
Ray proudly showed off his bucket.
“Wow, you caught a lot, Ray!”
“Right? Look at this. This fish is trout. This one is a silverfish
”
Ray was excited like a child and introduced the fish he had caught. Seeing that, Dorothea glanced at her empty bucket.
‘It’s nothing, but I felt a little shy.’
‘What if she asked me to show what I had caught?’
“Did you catch a lot, princess?”
“Ah, I was just catching the fish over there, but then Dorothea and I switched spots because that’s the best spot.”
Fortunately, before Julia saw Dorothea’s empty bucket, Ray answered her question.
“Okay. Then take a break after changing seats. I brought something to eat.”
Julia pointed to the picnic basket she had left in the shade.
Meanwhile, the servants were laying the red checkered mats. Julia ran to the mat and pulled out the food from the picnic basket. The picnic basket contained sandwiches, berry tarts, biscuits, and some cheese.
When the servants brought out milk, juice, and fruit, it turned out to be quite a hearty meal.
Ray, who was also busy fishing, put down his fishing rod. Then he saw Joy, who had been watching his fishing from the side.
“Hey, Joy, you can have the rod this time.”
Ray gave Joy a chance.
“Really?”
“Of course!”
Ray laughed.
Joy ran over and took Ray’s rod as if she’d been waiting for it.
“Princess, take a break too.”
Theon said, taking care of Dorothea.
“No
 I haven’t caught one yet.”
‘What did I do to rest? Quite a bit of time passed, but there was no result, so I was embarrassed.’
“You will catch one after you fill your stomach.”
Theon grabbed her hand. It felt like a pulsing electric current was flowing from her fingertips.
Dorothea had no choice but to leave her fishing rod and follow Theon to a picnic mat.
Because Theon was taking care of her, she naturally sat down next to him. There was too much food on the mat, so the seat was cramped, and Theon’s knee was touching Dorothea’s knee.
Theon didn’t seem to care at all, but Dorothea’s attention was focused on the slightest touch.
‘Even if there were thorns in my fingers, I wouldn’t care more than this.’
Because of that, Dorothea couldn’t even concentrate on the conversation between Ray and Julia.
“I want to be a real fisherman. Of course, I’m joking, Dorothea. The fish seem to like me.”
Ray said in an excited voice as he ate the sandwich.
He didn’t forget to add that he was joking, remembering Dorothea got mad when he said he wanted to be a farmer the other day.
“But Ray, you’d make a really good farmer or fisherman. you like it Soil, wood, water
 like this. Is it because the spirit of light is the spirit of life?  Theon is a terrible fisherman. The dark sp—No, is it because he is from a dark spirits family
?”
Julia’s smile faded as she spoke.
Dorothea didn’t pay much attention to Julia stammering. She was too busy worrying about Theon.
‘Theon couldn’t fish
’
Dorothea was a little overjoyed. They have one thing in common: they are not good at fishing.
But on the other hand, it bothered her that Julia knew that Theon couldn’t fish.
‘What’s the big deal? It’s Theon and Julia.’
“Oh, Julia. But this cheese is really good! Contains dried apricots!”
Ray switched the topic to food.
“Right? Theon says that cheese is the best. It has no bitter taste and is not moldy.”
Julia again spoke of Theon’s taste that Dorothea did not know. Julia knew a lot about Theon besides that.
Things like Theon breaking glass when he was young and running away because he was afraid of being scolded, and how hard it was when he took on the position to be class president at Episteme. Very trivial, everyday things that Dorothea doesn’t know.
‘The appearances of Theon that I did not know at all, even after getting married before returning.’
They shared such a pleasant story. Theon and Julia seemed to talk well, were friendly, and seemed to get to know each other well.
Along with time, Dorothea became silent. There seemed to be no place for Dorothea to intervene between them. like it used to be. She seemed to be alone and from another world.
At that time, the servants on one side became noisy.
“Hey, go away! Go away!”
The servants were blocking the approach of the child with something in his hand.
“What happens?”
When Ray asked, the servants smiled awkwardly.
“This is a kid from the village near here. He makes money by selling cheap things to the nobles.”
At the servant’s words, Ray looked at the little boy and saw that his arms were strewn with necklaces, bracelets, and wreaths made of seashells and wooden beads.
The basket around his waist held dolls and crude handicrafts made of bark and grass. A runny nose ran down his scruffy face.
“I’m selling bracelets! Selling necklaces! It even has pockets!”
The little boy squeaked and shouted loudly at them.
Joy, who was fishing, saw the boy and jumped to his feet.
“I, I want it!”
It was surprising that Joy, who lives by saving the wages of a seed, which is less than a handful, steps forward.
But Dorothea knew why he did it. Joy remembered her old self.
Dorothea followed Joy.
“I want to take a look too. Bring it in.”
“But Princess, you can’t pay for something like this. The strings will snap and break in a few days.”
“No! This is strong! I made it! I made the best one in this town!”
The child exclaimed, angry that his product had been neglected.
“Whether it breaks soon or not, I’ll take care of that, so let him in.”
At Dorothea’s resolute words, the servants opened the door to the child with unpleasant expressions.
Then the child with a heavy necklace on his arm ran to the picnic mat with a squeaking sound.
“I made it really strong! My friend has been wearing it for a year and it hasn’t broken!”
The child seems to have had a lot of experience selling things, so he was quite skillful in laying out the items next to the picnic mat.
They were crude accessories that could not be found in Dorothea’s eyes, who only looked at high-quality jewelry made of jewels, but the accessories were cute in their own way.
* * *