The Princess in the Chicken Coop - Chapter 1.15
Soria pulled her wings forward with a gaze that seemed about to burst with question marks.
Indeed, they were still wings. No matter how hard she looked, there were no fingers that should have split into five.
She no longer understood what Owell was saying, so she blankly looked up at him.
‘His expectations must have driven him mad. Oh heavens. What should we do.’
And Lenok was in a similar situation.
His Majesty the Emperor, forgetting that it was rude, pointed at Soria with his finger and asked.
“…Is that, is the curse broken?”
[What? What exactly happened? Wait a minute!! Don’t just understand between yourselves, explain it to me!]
There was no mirror in the emperor’s office. So it was fair to say that Soria had no way to check her appearance.
She targeted Lenok, the only one here she could communicate with. Flying up to the sofa’s backrest, she ran straight to the edge, and with a push of her feet, she leaped up.
Lenok instinctively stretched out his arms toward her. Then, after Soria landed on his arm, he made a self-deprecating expression.
It was Owell who consoled him.
“Though it’s not completely broken, we could say we’ve taken a step forward. After all, I can finally hear the princess’s words now.”
[Oh my.]
“Also, your tail feathers have changed color.”
[Oh my! They changed?]
She turned her head as far as she could toward her back. And once again realized anew that chickens have short necks.
She barely managed to confirm that her tail feathers had turned golden, and fluttered her wings in excitement. However, that excited feeling deflated when she caught sight of Lenok.
Yes. The curse had been broken if only a little. In other words, this man was the hero, warrior, and savior.
Soria asked with a distinctly unwilling expression.
[…I suppose Your Majesty must be skilled with the sword?]
At Soria’s sudden question, Lenok shrugged his shoulders.
“Just average. I knew I had no special talent with the sword when I was four or five.”
[Then perhaps your nickname is Hero or Warrior?]
His expression turned sour.
“…Are there people who actually have such nicknames?”
[No, then why on earth are you the one to break my curse? With so many people here, why you of all people!!]
To Soria’s serious outcry, Lenok stroked her back as she sat leaning against his body on his arm, and answered with an equally serious expression.
“You don’t seem to understand yet, but whether heroes, warriors, or knights, they all follow my orders, so isn’t the emperor at the apex of it all?”
He was the Emperor of the Crotia Empire. An emperor whose financial state was more stable than any of his predecessors, and who had faced no major problems since his ascension except for the unusual drought in the southern regions.
The knights were loyal, and the Grand Magician, fortunately, born in an age when magic was disappearing, was both friend and faithful subordinate, making him a man who could be said to have everything to the point of perfection.
Yet despite such a perfect emperor being the one to break her curse, far from being happy, Soria asked Owell with a sad expression.
[…Is there absolutely no possibility that Chen’s kiss’s effect appeared belatedly?]
“Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Hearing your voice, you seem to be female. Your Majesty, it seems Princess Soria is indeed genuine.”
Lenok, who had been looking back and forth between Owell and Soria as they suddenly excluded him from the conversation, broke the atmosphere with a sulky expression.
“There’s no law saying a magician can’t be female.”
[What?]
“Or it could be a man with a high voice.”
[Hey!]
“Owell, one shouldn’t be so narrow-minded. You need to look at the world more broadly. Actually, that chicken might be the magician’s brilliant scheme.”
Owell sighed as he looked back and forth between Lenok, who had started openly teasing Soria, and Soria, who had completely fallen for Lenok’s joke.
Thinking that somehow, those two seemed to have a long way to go.
***
It was before Soria’s quarters had been decided. Since it was a time when everyone would be asleep, Lenok said not to wake anyone unnecessarily and brought Soria to his room.
Because there had been so many difficult things throughout the day, she was leaning her tired body against Lenok.
The feeling was strange. Even she didn’t know if it was the exhaustion from not breaking the curse or the heart-pounding from the hope she had found after a hundred years.
Soria lifted only her gaze, then saw Lenok’s tense jaw and realized the reason for this strange feeling.
Guilt and responsibility. Emotions she had forgotten for a long time pounded at her.
Lenok’s words naturally came to mind. His sharp point about whether one could claim ownership of a river stung.
As he said, rivers are gifts from nature, so we only borrow them temporarily. However, since the failure to manage it properly was due to the curse that originated from her, Soria, though a victim herself, apologized to Lenok, who was also a victim.
[I’m sorry. As a member of the royal family, it’s my fault for not properly managing the Syenn River. If there’s anything I can do to help with the drought…]
“Ah, don’t worry about that. We haven’t hit bottom yet with the water drawn from the waterways.”
[…Eh?]
Lenok set Soria down on a sofa prepared on one side of the room.
After a moment’s consideration, he picked up the dazed Soria and placed her on a cushion, then sat down beside her.
“Of course, it would be nice if it rained or if the Syenn River flowed again since we need to farm. But things like drinking water and water for daily use, we’re managing somehow.”
After consoling Soria not to blame herself so much, Lenok got up from his seat with a long yawn.
As he walked toward the door leading to the inner room, he spoke again.
“Let’s talk about the details tomorrow. For now, let’s sleep. It’s late.”
Soria stared at the firmly closing door before resting her chin on the cushion. It was a strange dawn where her body was extremely tired but sleep wouldn’t come.
Lenok, who had entered the bedroom, removed his outer clothes with a tired face and threw them somewhere suitable. His gaze was slow as he checked the clock that had been completely silenced.
2:40 AM.
Naturally, tomorrow morning’s schedule was packed full. It was clear he wouldn’t even get five hours of sleep if he went to bed now.
Instead of the bed, Lenok pulled out and sat in a small desk chair prepared on one side of the bedroom.
Though he had said those things to Soria, the situation wasn’t good.
Regarding the drought that had hit the southern regions without warning, some were saying that the curse of the Syenn Kingdom had spread along the Syenn River.
It was ridiculous. A curse from over a hundred years ago spreading now? First of all, since when did curses spread like diseases?
However, it was also true that people tired of cursing the sky that hadn’t dropped a single raindrop for over 6 months were starting to lend their ears to such absurd stories.
It wouldn’t be strange if claims arose to sacrifice Soria, who had just been rescued from Syenn Palace, if the drought continued much longer.
Lenok clicked his tongue after briefly recalling the energetic Soria.
‘A sacrifice in this day and age.’
Lenok’s brow furrowed. In any case, he had to put out the immediate fire.
He pulled out the documents he had prepared before setting out for Syenn Palace but had been putting off until now. The series of actions – dipping the pen heavily in ink and scrawling his signature – was slow as if he was being forced to do something he really didn’t want to do.
After stamping the Crotia Emperor’s seal on top of the signature, Lenok looked at the document that had now become fully effective.
“…If we lower taxes from seventy percent to fifty percent, Count Dot might throw away that ridiculous wig of his.”
While muttering that it was time to pull down the greedy count.
The cards had already been thrown. There was no going back. Feeling slightly irritated at his heavy eyelids, he finished the paperwork that ran to dozens of pages after that.
Being emperor was truly a wretched position. Not only did he have to shoulder thousands of problems to solve and things to be responsible for on both shoulders, but he even had to control the heavens.
Under the flickering lamp, between the tilting shadows, gloomy red eyes turned toward the door he had opened and entered through two hours ago.
Princess Soria was beyond there. Though she was a chicken, the curse had stirred at his kiss, so if the old stories were true, that chicken must be Princess Soria.
“How complicated.”
The appearance of the one and only heir to the kingdom is located right next to the imperial capital.
Lenok clicked his tongue and turned his gaze away, muttering that he could almost hear the greedy voices of nobles who had loudly insisted on swallowing up the entire Syenn Kingdom at this opportunity.
***
Soria slowly emerged from sleep. His Majesty the Emperor, busy from dawn, was already gone from the room. She was washed by maids who couldn’t communicate with her, then respectfully escorted to the West Palace.
‘Oh my, oh my, oh my!’
Though she had been a princess, it had been so long ago that she could barely remember being treated like one.
Soria was half-frozen by such attentiveness.
Why?
Because she was embarrassed.
Right now, she was being transported while placed on a thin cushion. Thanks to this, people passing by would turn to look once, so how could she not be embarrassed?
She could endure the gazes. But why on earth was there a necklace prepared that perfectly fit a chicken’s neck?
Not just the necklace. On top of her head was an amazingly dainty crown, and it was even made of real gold.
Unaware that these had been made for the real chicken that was supposed to replace her during the days she had hidden herself, Soria could only roll her eyes in bewilderment.
Though she had lived for an unbearably long time, it was the first time she had thought she wanted to die of embarrassment.
And so Soria, with a reddened face though no one could notice moved to Owell’s office while receiving such attentive treatment.
