Chapter 130 - Weren’t you just calling her pretty?

The white and soft winter days passed relatively peacefully.

Enzo enjoyed Elendale as much as he wanted, and the rest of us focused on our own tasks and continued our daily lives.

Our baby dragon’s growth pains still hadn’t ended.

Even though Christmas was slowly approaching.

According to the Longinus Knight Commander’s words, we should finish the problem before Christmas so that we could all enjoy the holiday with peace of mind, but this little one seemed to be intentionally prolonging the issue.

I was very curious about what everyone thought about the dragon.

We had to finish the growth problem of the dragon as soon as possible to take a breath and concentrate on other problems.

For example, my family problem. Although my father-in-law was currently ignoring it after seeing Enzo’s behavior, we would have to deal with it soon.

Of course, I had to do something about it, whether it was by my own initiative or someone else’s.

I tried to visit the dragon every day and stay with it as long as possible, but there was no sign of improvement.

Moreover, a few days later, it suddenly became so feverish that it couldn’t eat properly.

Of course, it was because of the high fever.

Moreover, when I tried to stroke it, it almost bit my hand, even though it recognized me.

It was a close call that Popo hugged and stopped Izek, who was about to pull out its teeth.

For a while, Popo and Griffin were also in the same boat as our paladins there.

They also seemed to feel that something was not quite right and did nothing but eat and sleep all day.

I wanted to be with them and help, but they all ignored me as soon as the sun went down.

They even said that they didn’t need me every day.

They said they would call me if they needed me, pretending to be cool!

My dear sister-in-law and dignified father-in-law comforted me.

Ellenia suggested that I invite Leah and Arien and have a tea party, saying that I should show others my usual self, and my father-in-law handed me an invitation card with a slightly confused face.

It was an invitation from none other than the queen.

She invited us to have tea together for a moment.

And so, in the afternoon when the snowstorm finally stopped, while Ellenia was preparing for a tea party, I went to the palace to have tea and spent some time with Arien.

But the first person I met on the way to the palace, as we arrived at the nearly completed Angvan Palace, was neither the queen nor Arien.

“Hey, Ruby! What brings you here?”

It was Enzo.

“What do you mean? I came to have tea with the Queen. Where are you going?”

“Oh, I thought you came to see me. Well, never mind… By the way, she was really pretty.”

There was a moment of silence.

I stared at his grinning face and finally raised my hand to slap him on the back of the neck.

“Ack! What the!?”

“What did you do here while I was gone? And now you’re trying to get with the Queen too? What the hell are you up to?”

“I didn’t do anything! She just kindly offered me tea and that was it. You think I would hit on a foreign queen?”

“Weren’t you just calling her pretty?”

“That’s not what I meant! I have some standards too, you know. The king is such a famous romantic, would I really risk my life like that?”

“Well, at least you know you’re risking it. So where are you going now?”

“Huh? Your place.”

I hesitated and looked at him.

Enzo was scratching his messy ginger hair and laughing to himself.

“Why our house?”

“Well, just to show you around and get to know your family a bit better… Oh, but I invited that young lady from last time too, is that okay?”

“That young lady?”

“The pretty one with purple eyes.”

Silence fell once again.

“Brother, you don’t have anything going on with Lady Furiana..?”

“Hey! Why do you always suspect me of that kind of thing? And as I said before, it has to be mutual!”

“Oh, by the way, that girl has a younger brother who’s a Paladin trainee, and he’s really…”

“Don’t worry about that kind of thing, okay? We’re just meeting up to chat! She keeps talking to me because she thinks I’m interesting, and it turns out we have similar interests.”

The bit about similar interests wasn’t very convincing, but I decided to let it go.

After all, this wasn’t Freya, the heroine who had fallen for the accident-prone delinquent in the midst of her first love.

It wasn’t as if she was about to fall head over heels for someone like that.

And it definitely wouldn’t hurt for her to take a break and enjoy herself for a moment.

Enzo was a cheerful guy who could make her laugh without a care in the world.

I wonder how her conversation with Ellenia went last time.

Did she really spill all the details about the chaos at St. Agnes’ Day celebration?

Maybe the topic will come up today when they are all together.

“Alright then. I’ll be heading back soon, so I’ll see you at our house later.”

“Your house is nice. I want to live there with you too.”

“I wouldn’t last a day with you. Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

“Okay, okay. See you later!”

With that, we shook hands and parted on good terms.

As if afraid of getting caught by something for some unknown reason, he kept turning back and waving his hand frantically, which was both funny and strange, so I waved back at him with enthusiasm.

He was too damn random.

When I followed the queen’s maids into the room, I noticed the room had an exotic eastern atmosphere at first glance, but no one was there yet.

Or that was what I thought.

Until the moment I sat on a long chair with soft cushions embroidered with exotic designs and admired the unique tea cups on the red tablecloth.

“… Princess Arien? What are you doing over there?”

I turned around at the sound of a rustling noise and saw the little princess peeking out from behind a thick curtain covering one side of the wall.

She put her finger to her lips and gave me a friendly smile.

“I was playing hide and seek with the nursemaid, I think…?”

“And you ended up hiding here?”

“Yes, but it’s a secret. Mother…”

It was a secret, ah. It was probably like this on the first day we met.

Arien gave me a bouquet of yellow Rudbeckia flowers in the palace garden, and then Izek appeared…

If that boat in the pond was a real fairy of love at the time, this situation was too coincidental.

“Mother will be having tea with you. I shouldn’t be here… If I come in here as you please, I’ll get in trouble.”

Oh, she knows.

Her turquoise eyes twinkled mischievously.

I watched her quietly slipping away with a smile.

“The tea for you, my lady.”

Like they say, even a tiger will come when you call it, won’t it?

Arien, who was about to leave, suddenly went behind the curtain.

Then she made a gesture to me to be quiet for the last time.

I also nodded silently.

As the curtain fluttered closed, the Queen entered the room narrowly.

“Thank you for coming, Lady Omerta.”

“Thank you so much, Your Highness.”

The queen, whom we met for the first time since the festival, was dressed even more uniquely than that day.

It was a thin red dress of unknown material, a design that wrapped fine fabric around the curves of her body.

It was really exotic and beautiful, but I wondered if she met Enzo with this appearance?

As if she felt my curious gaze, the queen, who was busy clattering and stirring some tea leaves of unknown origin, seductively turned her lemon-colored eyes.

“I’m sorry for the attire. Please don’t misunderstand, I don’t always dress like this. Actually, I got caught up in an old hobby today.”

“An old hobby…?”

“A native dance. I didn’t realize time was passing by and hurriedly came here… oh, it’s really embarrassing. Everyone complains that my husband is indulging my whims too much. I had no intention of committing a breach of etiquette towards you, but…”

I remembered the scenery of the mirror room I saw before.

Didn’t the king prepare a place for the queen who couldn’t get rid of her old habits?

That place which we accidentally turned into a wreck…

Ah, I feel embarrassed.

“I’m fine, so don’t worry. I can’t really afford to stick to formalities with anyone anyway…”

“Lady Omerta is really a very kind and friendly person.”

A tea cup emitting an exotic scent was placed in front of me.

Inside the teacup with unique patterns engraved on it, a pink tea swirled around.

“This tea comes from my hometown. It’s different from the tea found here, and some people like it for that reason. I wanted to offer it to you as well.”

“I’ll enjoy it.”

It didn’t seem like sugar had been added, but the aftertaste was uniquely sweet with a hint of bitterness. We sipped the tea and had a conversation for a while.

It was an ordinary and uneventful conversation on various topics such as the tea culture and social culture of our hometowns, trends and fashion in different places, Christmas celebrations, and the unique winter traditions of the northern region.