The Queen and the Lion - Chapter 48
Aslan could no longer complain. He realized that everything he did was now reported to Lysian. After Lysian had taken such care of even his meals, Aslan had gritted his teeth and silently applied himself to his studies.
It would have been nice if his study results matched his determination, but that wasn’t easy. While it was easier to learn something from scratch than to unlearn something half-learned, at this point he wished he could at least pretend to understand.
“When a woman refuses a dance, she covers her mouth with a fan.”
“Then what about a woman who is already covering her mouth with a fan?”
“It means she doesn’t want to dance that day.”
“Didn’t you say that wearing a black glove up to the wrist is also a way of refusing a dance, and that wearing red-tipped shoes is another way of refusing a dance? Why can’t she just say she doesn’t want to dance?”
Aslan grumbled.
He couldn’t understand why things were so complicated. The same was true for rejections. The roundabout way of answering, full of pretense, made Aslan lose track of the conversation.
He had never experienced this when talking to Lysian. Even though Heiban and Florea had the same basic language structure and used the same words, he felt like he was in a strange place where no one understood him.
“It seems you need to be more considerate of women, Sir Yilmaz. That’s why you keep stepping on people’s feet.”
Baroness Margaret, who was in charge of dance, narrowed her eyes. It was clear that she was being sarcastic, and Aslan could tell. But since he had actually stepped on Baroness Margaret’s feet several times, Aslan couldn’t argue.
Baroness Margaret added,
“Directly refusing someone is considered insulting. But that doesn’t mean you have to dance with someone you don’t like. Since your partner is only Her Majesty, you won’t have to worry about this. Her Majesty is the only one who can refuse everyone while being admired by all. But since this is Florean culture, you should learn it, Sir Yilmaz.”
With that, Aslan’s dance lesson ended.
Even though Aslan had enough stamina to exercise for hours, sitting still and listening to lectures was a mental drain that reminded him of his rookie days.
Aslan sighed and wiped the sweat from his neck with a towel. He would rather spend four weeks rolling around in the mud.
After roughly wiping away the sweat, Aslan went out into the corridor for his next lesson.
Next up were history and calligraphy. Since both required sitting still, Aslan hated them even more than dance class, which at least involved physical activity. But he couldn’t skip class either. As the saying goes, it’s better to be the first to be beaten, so Aslan quickened his pace.
With his large frame, Aslan quickly crossed the long corridor. Dandelion, the head servant who followed Aslan’s every move, followed behind but couldn’t close the gap because of the difference in their strides. To catch up with Aslan, he would have to run, but as the head servant of the royal family, he couldn’t run for such a trivial reason. Dandelion gritted his teeth and quickened his pace.
Just as Aslan reached the end of the corridor and the connecting hallway, he suddenly stopped. Aslan stood there for a long time. Curious about why he had suddenly stopped, Dandelion quickened his pace.
Dandelion soon reached the end of the corridor, where Aslan was. He could hear voices from the hallway. The sound of two or three people talking was not very loud, but they didn’t seem to be trying to lower their voices.
“I wonder why Her Majesty wants to bring such a barbarian as her consort.”
“Who would have thought something like this would happen while Sir Sid was away on a diplomatic mission? If Sir Sid had been here, he would have stopped her.”
Dandelion’s face turned red when he realized what was happening. The voices were familiar; it seemed that the servants were gossiping in the hallway. The fact that the topic was about Aslan made Dandelion swallow hard.
“There’s no one more suitable to be a consort than Sir Sid. Why on earth would she…”
“He’s not only an excellent diplomat, but he’s also the second son of a noble family and has been close to Her Majesty since childhood.”
“And he’s handsome.”
“Yes, Sir Sid is handsome. Unlike that hulking Heiban. They would have made a great pair. What does he look like now? It’s like he’s walking a beast.”
That was going too far.
Dandelion looked at Aslan in surprise.
Even though he was being belittled now, hadn’t he been a fearsome black lion on the battlefield, someone no one dared to challenge. Dandelion thought Aslan would be furious that ordinary servants were openly treating him like a “beast.”
He had heard that Aslan had beaten up Prince Kaplan of Heiban. He heard that it took five guards to barely restrain him. Dandelion thought Aslan would beat them up right away.
But Aslan’s expression was calm.
