Chapter 44Harvest Festival (7)

Translator: Kimmy

Editor: Sasha_00

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‘Let’s drink first!’

Guessing by her creepy smile, nothing bad had happened to her.

It was prejudice but it was widely known that Northerners were strong drinkers.

Apparently, it was because they had a custom of drinking hard liquor since a young age to bear the cold winter.

The Genova Village, which Brigitta came from, also had a similar custom.

Brigitta had porridge made from liquor ever since she was 10. So she was confident in drinking bets.

However, this time she had to deal with an impossible opponent.

Initially, her plan was to make the Emperor drunk and ask him about Eva.

Starting from questions like, ‘What do you think about Eva being the only other female you can talk to other than me?’ and etc.

Since the drunk mind speaks the sober heart.

It wasn’t only the high nobles or the Chancellor that were concerned with the Emperor’s dating life.

Brigitta was also worried about Karlos, whom she considered an older brother, since he hadn’t even held a woman’s hands yet.

She didn’t consider it much of a problem before but after a year, 2 years, and in the end 8 years of no romance, she decided it needed action.

It wouldn’t matter if he was some random man but he was the Emperor.

When will he see his own children? After he is all old and wrinkly? Is he planning to marry a young lady 20 to 30 years younger than him at that age?

If Brigitta had to witness that happening, she would either blind herself with her own hands or stab Karlos.

Then Eva appeared.

They were perfect. They felt attracted to each other, had a shared interest, Eva was not affected by his intimidating aura–Brigitta was still amazed at that–, and their age difference was not huge.

She believed it would be possible to try to match them up.

Brigitta didn’t even wish for them to date. Just proving to Karlos that ‘women are not scary’ and that ‘they wouldn’t die from a simple conversation’ was enough.

Well, it seemed like Karlos was attracted to Eva in a different way Eva was attracted to him but Brigitta didn’t think that was her place to fix.

She only learned about dating through theory so she didn’t want to intervene and mess up the Emperor.

Romantically successful or not, that was god’s work; She just wanted Karlos to at least have another close female friend.

Brigitta motivated herself by considering this a salvation for a non-existent pathetic cousin brother.

Meaning, she kept filling up her glass.

“Heehehehe.”

The result was a failure.

She overlooked the fact that a Rumilesa’s drinking capacity was nothing like that of a regular human’s.

As a result, she ended up being the one getting drunk in her plan.

Karlos had tried to stop her on her third bottle but she was already too drunk to be stopped.

Even her judgment was drunk and gone.

After finishing off 10 bottles of the Sun Palace collection, she insisted that she had to meet Eva. Karlos barely stopped her from crawling out the window and managed to bring her all the way here.

“Uuuuuuungheeeeevvvvvuaaa.”

“…Do you have some spare time right now, Karl?”

“Uh… N-Yes…”

Actually, he didn’t. He already skipped his morning meeting to be here.

Glenn would deal with that. Ahem.

Karlos rubbed his chin.

“I am happy to help. Other than that, I heard you were having some troubles in Bri’s commute.”

“Ah, It’s all fine now. I dealt with it yesterday.”

“…What? Dealt?”

“I followed the ancient wisdom of, if the other person treats me like shii–. Ah, I mean treats me badly, I should treat them badly too! It should be fine for now.”

Eva wanted to slap her mouth for almost saying a swear word in front of Karl.

I am strangely more at ease and careless with Karl.

Eva saw his stiff eyes subtly tremble and smiled awkwardly.

Perhaps, this knight’s feelings weren’t that hard to tell.

*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*

TL/N: 【…】 is dialogues spoken in Holkan. Also, note that Brigitta is terribly drunk and Karlos is not fluent in Holkan.

【I think I’m gonna puuuuke, Ueerghhh….】

【If you puke me, I will curse you! Stop! I say stop!】

“Ah-choo.”

“Are you alright, Eva? Are you catching a cold?”

“Ah, I’m alright! It’s just that my nose was itchy.”

【Egg beer good for cold!】

【You go to dream now! Drunkard!】

Karlos carried Brigitta over his shoulder with ease. His clothes were too thin for this weather.

The coat Karlos was wearing just a few minutes ago was now over Eva’s shoulders.

Eva fixed the coat that was as big as a blanket and made an apologetic expression.

“Uh, aren’t you cold?”

“Ah, I’m alright. It’s not that cold for me…”

“Oh, right. Bri mentioned you are from Holka.”

That was obviously not true but Karlos decided to hold his tongue.

His place of birth changed when he and Brigitta made up a character named Karl when they met.

He didn’t care much though.

Karlos was already busy dealing with the drunk Brigitta on his back.

He washed in the morning once just in case he was going to meet Eva but now there was an immediate danger on his back. If things went badly here, he might have to return to the Palace reeking of Brigitta’s puke.

Because he was not letting his guard down, his intimidating aura strengthened more than usual and people started distancing themselves far away from him.

“Hm, but my body is warming up now that we are walking!”

Eva swung her fists in the air.

Brigitta tried to imitate that and accidentally punched Karlos in the face.

Eva looked at him with surprise in her eyes but Karlos didn’t move a muscle.

“That must have hurt!”

“What? Not really…”

It wasn’t ‘not really’ it actually didn’t hurt at all.

If Brigitta meant to punch for real, her punch would be imbued with magic just like the one he experienced last night.

That hurt way more.

The Emperor nodded to himself.

Eva looked at him strangely.

Are all knights like him?

The only knights she met were Brigitta and Karl so she couldn’t tell if this was really a norm.

After walking for about 30 minutes outside the Palace, they reached the Terrier road.

Karlos’s heart palpitated after realizing that she lived way closer to the Palace than he thought. It was a distance that would take even less time to reach at his pace.

He felt his heart beat faster.

Every time she stepped on the neatly repaired road, her footstep made a cute tapping sound.

Oh my, even her footsteps are adorable. She is perfect.

Unaware of what was going on in Karlos’s mind, Eva felt the weight of his silky coat and became serious.

“I’m sorry. I only keep receiving so much from you…”

“From me?”

“Yes, the consistent fan letters for instance, and the other time when you helped me when I was lost…”

Karlos cocked his head.

Eva smiled embarrassedly while playing with her fingers.

“I never repaid you for your favor…”

“Your very existence brings me great joy…”

That sentence was not processed beforehand in his head.

To be honest, there were still many times where Karlos believed his meeting with Eva was a dream.

It felt so surreal that he had to remind himself that it is real by checking her signature on his book.

Just her breath brought him genuine joy.

Eva blushed.

She held her face and blinked.

It was cold before but now it wasn’t cold anymore. Instead, it was getting hotter.

She was the type to heat up when she was shy.

Oh my, this is embarrassing.

Eva was even more embarrassed by his genuine expression.

She read this sometimes in his letters but she had never heard it being directly said to her.

So, Karl speaks just like the way he writes.

“S, still! I still feel like! I can help you in some way!”

“How could I ever deserve such an honor…”

An Emperor was saying this.

If the House of Lords heard this, they would have fainted from disbelief.

Karlos matched Eva’s walking pace and stood in front of her house.

Eva opened the door with her key.

He saw her unlock a lock he had not seen before and excused himself and entered.

The air inside was warm. Perhaps from the sunlight entering the living room.

Or perhaps from the elation that he had been a help to his beloved author.

“Please lay her down in the room at the right upstairs! There’s a sign on the door that says it’s her room.”

“Then, excuse me.”

Karlos walked up the stairs in 3 big steps and plopped Brigitta on the bed and put a blanket over her.

He also didn’t forget to turn her head slightly to the side.

Since it would be dangerous if she puked facing upwards.

If an empire’s swordmaster died from choking on their own vomit, that would be a shameful death.

He came downstairs and spotted Eva placing a teapot on the living room table.

“It’s not that much of a good tea though!”

He had to reject her tea offer and tell her that he was busy but he couldn’t reject her determined-to-serve, shiny eyes. He apologized to the Chancellor internally and sat politely on the couch.

It has been a month since he last came here and nothing had changed but Karlos was more at ease than the last time.

For a while, they drank tea silently. A comfortable silence surrounded the two.

“Ok, so.”

Eva placed her cup on the table as she had finally decided something.

She was thinking on the way here but this was not right.

Karl gave her wonderful gifts like potions and Mandragora roots and even ditched his duties to help Eva when she was lost in the Palace.

He said he wasn’t busy today but guessing by his trembling eyes, he must have left the palace despite being busy just to help her.

And she had already invited him tonight to the night market technically for the purpose of protection.

It prickled her conscience.

A simple small gift or review letters were fine but this felt like she was owing him too much.

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