The Camellia Tattoo - Chapter 57
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
this book is completely translated on luna kofi (advanced chapters for the website will follow)
‘I already anticipated we’d run low on herbs.’
The dead don’t need medicine. It’s the living who do.
With so many people having survived, it was only natural that both doctors and medicine would be in short supply.
‘With the budget, buying chickens, oil, and food was the priority. We were so short on money we couldn’t even buy clean cloth, so I had to make it myself.’
After sending the doctor away, Amber looked up at the sky.
A beautiful sky dotted with a few clouds.
‘It’s about time for the support goods from Shadroch to arrive…’
Amber wondered whether her friends, having received her letter, would send their support, something she eagerly awaited.
* * *
How much time had passed?
Having finished her tour of the northern villages and returned to the castle, Amber was finally taking a break and enjoying some tea, something she hadn’t done in a long time.
Exhausted from the journey, she didn’t even want to step out of the bedroom now.
But just as she was savoring the leisure of her tea, she heard a knock.
“It’s the butler, Madam. I have something to tell you.”
One cannot simply postpone listening to the butler’s report. Reluctantly, Amber set her teacup down and got up.
“Come in. What’s the matter?”
Half of her wondered if there was a fire; the other half hoped for the arrival of something she had been waiting for.
Though her mouth was dry, Amber didn’t show it. Huvern spoke calmly and composedly.
“There’s been contact from the castle gate. A person from Shadroch, claiming to bring gifts, has appeared.”
“!”
“The person claiming to bring gifts is named Nicholas Eaton. Do you know him?”
Nicholas Eaton!
Ah, a name she longed for. A friend she had missed terribly and often thought of.
Even without hearing why he had come all this way, Amber felt she already knew, given his dislike for the cold, and she staggered slightly.
She wanted to ask him to come in immediately, but she couldn’t.
This was Igmeyer’s castle, after all.
“Where is the Grand Duke?”
“He went straight to the castle gate.”
“I’ll go too. Send someone first to tell him that Nicholas is an old friend of mine.”
“I will do so.”
Memories of their childhood together floated up like mist.
‘Look, Princess. There’s a baby rabbit here!’
‘Really? Where’s its mother? Where is the mother rabbit?’
‘Oh, but it looks injured. Shall we take it and care for it? I’ve learned to bandage wounds!’
Nicholas was the youngest son of Marquisate Eaton, known for his gentle nature.
They first met at a garden party hosted by Nicholas’s elder sister, Lady Rosalyn. Amber and Nicholas, being of the same age, became friends immediately.
Both shared a love for animals and had kind natures, which probably explained why they got along so well.
Thus, they spent their free time roaming the palace gardens and the small woods together.
Amber knew who Nicholas’s first love was, and Nicholas knew who Amber had a crush on.
Despite their gender difference, they were friends, and even as they grew and spent less time together, their friendship remained of the same significance.
He was a precious friend who would rush to console her when she cried and lend a shoulder whenever she was sad.
For Amber, it had been a long time since she had seen Nicholas…. if one were to combine the time before and after her regression.
“Igmeyer! I heard Nicholas has arrived!”
Not long after, Amber hurried to the castle gate. There, leaning in a very, very slanted posture, was Igmeyer, but honestly, she had no time to notice that.
She wanted to see Nicholas immediately.
“Where is he? You didn’t leave him outside in the cold, did you?”
As she grasped Igmeyer and asked, the man’s red eyes flashed.
“I should have left him to be a snowman.”
“You’re even joking.”
“He brought a whole lot of things, that friend of yours.”
Igmeyer’s lips twisted.
The knights, noticing his displeasure, discreetly retreated, but Amber didn’t catch on.
Normally, she would have noticed immediately, but right now, all her focus was on Nicholas.
The presence of Nicholas Eaton meant ‘everything she had inevitably lost through marriage’ to her at this moment.
“Nick!”
Near the castle gate, there was a space resembling a reception room for welcoming guests.
Nicholas and the servants were waiting for her there, and upon seeing his familiar dark blond hair, Amber almost burst into tears.
“Your Highness! Or rather, I should now address you as the Grand Duchess of the North. Have you been well?”
“Oh, what is this? How did you come all the way here!”
In her heart, she had already embraced him tightly, but she couldn’t actually do so, especially not in front of her husband and after her marriage.
Instead, Amber, with overwhelming emotions, scrutinized Nicholas from head to toe.
Truth be told… until just before their meeting, Nicholas’s face had been somewhat blurry to her.
‘So this is what you looked like. Yes, this was your face.’
His gentle, Shadroch-native features and flamboyant attire were etched into her vision.
