The Nymph Wants to be Plundered - Chapter 49
Before, she had made such a fuss about wanting to meet and fall in love with someone, but after entering into that sort of relationship with Cassis, she became quite cautious, feeling as though someone was watching with even the slightest breeze.
She hesitated to define on her own whether this was truly love or not. Although she knew that whatever conclusion she reached would be of no use to him, she still agonized over it. This was potentially the fulfillment of her lifelong wish, an important moment she could not dismiss.
If directly asked whether she liked him, she could not deny it, but love… she wanted to postpone that realization a little longer.
After all, it was obvious it would only become a one-sided affection. Cassis was a being who had to care for every blade of grass and wildflower growing in Jupiter, so she shouldn’t misunderstand. Therefore…
“……”
With her eyes tightly closed, she shook her head slightly. This was far from meaning she didn’t want to distance herself from Cassis. To be precise, it was a kind of rejection meant to placate her urgent desire to fill herself entirely with thoughts of him.
What use would there be in rushing to love him, fearful that someone might snatch away Lord Cassis’s hand? When time passed and her jasmine tree revived, what would remain in her empty hands but emptiness and a sapling? She hoped that when that time came, she would not weep while crumpling his note that had once made her past self smile.
She didn’t want this moment she had longed for to slip away fleetingly. So… she wanted to remain like this, with her heart fluttering, a little longer. That was her small, awkward wish.
Still, I wish Lord Cassis would return quickly.
Evelyn whispered her small wish against the note he had written. This much is fine, isn’t it? He won’t discover my feelings, right?
In the peaceful bedroom where not a breath of wind stirred, as if having heard her whisper, a single flower petal decorating the canopy gently swayed.
Evelyn didn’t know, but apart from the flower she had placed behind her ear and then offered to the World Tree, there was one more orange jasmine flower decorating her bedroom. Finding that flower before it withered was a task that belonged to her alone.
***
The castle of humans was quite different from the elegant yet majestic Jupiter Castle that encircled the World Tree. Though each country had its own unique characteristics, Devran Kingdom’s castle had no particularly striking features, whether viewed from the outside or inside. It was simply a stable castle designed for ease of defense.
Asar, the grandson of the Devran King and first in line for succession, had always been dissatisfied with this. Why did their castle maintain the exact same appearance year after year, with nothing ever changing?
Asar hadn’t always been preoccupied with such unusual concerns. However, in the year he turned fourteen, after visiting the Helia Empire—the largest and most powerful in the continent—everything about the kingdom where he was born and raised began to feel unsatisfactory.
A tiny kingdom, a knightly order so small in scale that he couldn’t even dream of conquering wars after inheriting the throne, and an annual budget of pathetic proportions. He had even received hints from his confidants that he would struggle to marry freely.
A prince of a poor country who couldn’t even send a marriage proposal to princesses from other countries who might bring substantial dowries—could there be a greater tragedy?
Whenever he thought of the Imperial Crown Prince Kamil, who was the same age as him, his insides would boil with resentment. That fellow had everything handed to him simply because he was born with good bloodlines, and he would receive everyone’s reverence and respect for his entire life—it was so infuriating.
It would be the same even at this moment, wouldn’t it? What a privileged life, so markedly different from Asar who traveled with just one servant, one knight, and three or four soldiers at most. The elite knightly order formed exclusively for Kamil the moment he was born consisted of fifty members!
The Devran Kingdom’s knightly order amounted to only forty members, even after scraping together every knight assigned to external duties. Even that was an inflated number; in reality, it was around thirty-five. Considering the budget required to clothe and feed a single knight, there were frequent arguments that even this number should be reduced.
He hated it. ‘Damn it.’ Asar, who had bullied the guard into opening the castle gates at dawn, glared coldly at the panorama of the castle he would soon have to enter. Lately, what displeased him most was this castle where he would have to spend his entire life. A dull castle solely obsessed with preventing external invasions.
Inside was cramped, with no available land for him to build even a small house or a decent hall for his personal use. Of course, what angered him more was that his grandfather, the King, would never willingly approve such construction.
“Your Highness, we must go inside. It will soon be noon, and you should make an appearance within the castle by then. Hurry, please hurry.”
“I was already planning to do that.”
He replied curtly to the bowing servant, then smiled slightly.
Today’s excursion had yielded an unexpected good harvest. He hoped those words would prove true—words even more welcome than the recently blooming face and flirtatious gestures of Viscountess Kania.
‘Jupiter… huh.’
The pleasant feeling, as if he had consumed a generous amount of wine, that accompanied his return to the castle quickly plummeted the moment he met his grandfather, the King.
“Grandfather!”
“Stop these foolish thoughts, Asar. I don’t need to hear any more from you. It’s obvious that Viscountess Kania has been encouraging you, isn’t it?”
“T-That’s—!”
Asar, who had returned so confidently, was greatly flustered. His occasional meetings with the widowed Viscountess Kania were supposed to be secret. While he was suspecting whether the servant or knight who had accompanied him might have secretly reported this, the angry King pointed out each problem one by one.
“Asar. Do you have any sense at all? You don’t actually think it’s normal to have frequent secret rendezvous with a noblewoman who lost her husband barely a year ago, do you? She hasn’t even removed her mourning clothes yet—tell me, what do you think will happen to her reputation if this becomes known!”
