Arc 3: Her and Her Prince’s Treasure

Chapter 1: Roma Market

“...And the two lived happily ever after.” The woman’s soft voice was punctuated by a thump as she folded the book shut.

A child, who had been gazing down at the woman’s hands, their eyes alight, now peered up. “Mother. Does the ‘ever after’ part mean ‘forever’? No more sad things are going to happen to the princess or prince anymore?”

She smiled gently and cupped her hands warmly over the child’s cheeks. “That’s right. They may experience sadness and pain, but still the two will live together happily, forever.”

“How?”

“They are able to overcome difficult times by being together,” the mother said.

The child’s bottom lip protruded in a pout as if they didn’t understand. “But the prince didn’t come to the princess’s rescue. And the princess didn’t try to run away. The ones who saved her were the animals and the wizard.”

“True,” came a reply accompanied by warm laughter, as if humoring the child’s unyielding spirit. The mother’s smile grew wider as she asked, “In that case, if you were this princess’s prince, would you go to her no matter what stood in your path? And would the captured princess try to break out of her prison?”

The child responded with a resounding, “Yes!”

Hearing their answer, the mother broadened her smile even more. “Then I’ll teach you a secret spell.”

“A secret spell?” The child’s eyes twinkled.

The mother pressed a conspiratorial finger to her mouth to hush the child. “It’s a spell I’ve been saving since your father shared it with me before. If you use it, both the prince and the princess will be able to live happily ever after.”

“Tell me, Mother!” the child pleaded.

Gently, the mother advised, “But this spell will only work on someone who is really special to you. So you mustn’t use it until you find that person.”

“Yes, I understand,” said the child innocently.

With a genuine smile on her face, the woman shared the secret spell. Both the visible curl of her lips and the special words she shared would linger in the child’s heart. For there was one thing the child did not yet know: this would be the last conversation they would have with their kind mother. A last, irreplaceable moment. The tenderness of her expression and gaze, the warmth of her hand, and the sweet time they spent together would forever be imprinted in the child’s memory.

~.~.~.~

The sight of colorful tents and unfamiliar figures bustling to and fro spread out before me beneath the azure sky. I heard foreign languages mixed in with the trickle of conversation. I saw men and women with dark brown skin, unusual for Sauslind, clad in risqué outfits—or so they looked beneath all-encompassing cloaks with pulled hoods, allowing only the person’s eyes to peek out. It made for a rather suspicious style of dress. The children were just the same as they were anywhere else, however, and a rhythmical song in the background weaved through all the hubbub to reach my ears. Even the smells that drifted in through my nose carried exotic notes from a foreign land.

These were the Roma people, who were no rare sight on the continent’s highways. Yet this year, included among their number was a different group of people: the Stars of Thistle. The Stars of Thistle were a group of scholars from the Holy City of Sulu Qwun. They and their followers came here once every three years, after their researchers finished their academic conferences.

There was a theory that the scholars themselves were of Roma descent, given that they didn’t mingle with traveling tradesmen and journeyed with the Roma. Thus, they were met with the same discrimination and stereotyping that the Roma received on the Ars continent. Although long regarded with fear and awe, impressions of them had improved the moment Sulu Qwun was recognized for its authority as an academic powerhouse through the Stars of Thistle’s knowledge and research results. They had received invitations from various countries’ academic institutions, been invited to work as tutors for nobles, and even been directly contacted by royalty as well.

Once every three years they would appear, holding their freshly presented scholarly works. Then they would line up a gratuitous number of street stalls. Not only did they carry these new volumes with them, but they also brought difficult to obtain tomes from the Old Kingdom, as well as other publications, both famous and unheard of.

Surely there was no better sight in the world that could make a book-loving Bernstein want to squeal from joy than this. My heart hammered with anticipation, unbidden (and unladylike). I was just about ready to dive into this foreign ocean for an adventure, propelled by the pounding in my chest, when a soft hand firmly rooted me in place.

“Eli,” he said with an irresistible, dazzling smile.

It all began on a bland, ordinary day.

I saw off my father and brother as they left for the palace, then discussed matters of the house in fine detail with the head butler and maid, and then made my own preparations and boarded the coach that had been sent from the palace to fetch me. Not to sound pretentious, but since I had become the prince’s fiancée, I was now carried to and fro by a carriage emblazoned with the royal family’s crest. At first our retainers reacted with surprise and fear upon seeing it, but after four years it had become a familiar sight to them. They were now comfortable enough to engage the guards and coachman in idle chatter.

I sat inside the swaying carriage with my maid, still carrying anxiety from what had happened the other day, when we came rolling to a stop at our usual spot at the special entrance for the royal family.

It was here that the unusual began to unfold. His Highness’s maids, who had been waiting for my arrival, dragged me off to a separate room and suddenly forced me to change my clothes.

“What? Pardon, but just what is the meaning of—”

“We’re doing this at the request of His Highness, Lady Elianna,” they said, coercing me along with their smiles.

Doubt remained firmly planted in my head as they wrapped me in plain dress. Its functionality met my preferences, given its lack of pomp and unnecessary decoration, but I refused to believe such attire was appropriate for the palace. Was this truly at His Highness’s behest...? It was as I tilted my head in confusion that Prince Christopher appeared, as if he’d been waiting for the perfect opportunity.

“Have you finished preparing, Eli?”

I glanced back at him and found myself at a loss for words. Even the prince was dressed in similarly bland garb, looking like a knight. I had only ever seen him dressed as the crown prince before, so seeing him like this, well...I realize it’s rude of me to say, but given that he looked like a simple hedge knight, I froze, thinking that some stranger had suddenly appeared.

The prince scrutinized me from the front then gave his earnest impression. “Hmm. I knew it, your spacy aura trumps the clothes, making it obvious that you’re a noble lady trying to disguise yourself. I wonder if this will work...” The way His Highness seemed sincerely troubled over what to do just heightened my suspicions even more.

Also, Your Highness, if you would permit me to comment on one thing... I thought inwardly, You yourself ooze such nobility and grace that you can’t hide behind that knight costume. Everything about him stood out—his dazzling blonde hair, his sunny blue eyes, the handsome features of his face, and his elegant disposition.

My heart sang seeing how different he looked now than usual. Ever since the events from the other day, I had tried to stay beside him as I always had, but my feelings wouldn’t seem to settle. It was a complicated mix of wanting to stay by his side but also wanting to run away, while feeling painfully lonely when we were actually apart. I, the Bibliophile Princess, was plagued by such feelings that I couldn’t even begin to explain.

Unaware of my anxiety, Lord Glen, who himself was in similarly informal clothes, looking like a merchant’s bodyguard, stopped the prince. “If you don’t think it’s going to work, cut this out. Okay? If we go now, we can still make it. I can already picture Alex pissed off and the veins in his forehead bulging.”

“I finished handling all matters that required urgent attention. Our political situation isn’t so weak that it would become unstable just because I stepped away from government affairs for a day, would it?” The prince’s pride was on full display as he added, “I refuse to believe the administration we’ve created would collapse that easily.”

“I know, but...” Lord Glen continued to hesitate. “You were just talking with Alex yesterday about how there was fighting about the budget. Something like how, thanks to your proposal, Baron Maudsley has been persistently demanding a meeting.”

“Government affairs would come to a standstill if I humored every ridiculous appeal. Besides, his budget request was refused on legitimate grounds. He’s making light of the government if he thinks speaking with me will get him anywhere.” The prince suddenly had the same strict look on his face I’d glimpsed before in his office. And when Lord Glen attempted to protest, the prince turned to him with an icy expression. “You’ve already changed clothes and yet you still don’t know when to give up, Glen. If you want to continue yowling like a dog, then I’ll let you go alone to receive Alex’s lecture.”

“Don’t make horrible threats like that so off-handedly...”

The conversation had proceeded far enough that now I understood more of what was going on. It seemed the prince was trying to sneak out, dragging me along with him.

“Your Highness,” I spoke up. “Pardon me, but are you certain about this? Fortunately, I have no official business plans myself, but the importance of my presence cannot even be compared to your own.”

The prince glanced back at me, flashing a smile that made my heart flutter. “The Stars of Thistle,” he said.

My body jumped and I gulped. I knew that right now the group was stationed in Sauslind, but...

“Eli, weren’t you the one who said you wanted to see the books and choose them yourself, even if just once? If you let today slip by, they won’t come again for another three years. So come on, let’s go together, okay?”

“But, Your Highness...” Similar to Lord Glen, I tried to object as well. I was interested in the Stars of Thistle. But there was just one problem.

As I opened my mouth to protest, the prince grabbed my hand with his and cupped his other hand gently beneath my chin. The atmosphere turned romantic, as if beckoned forth by his gaze, and his thumb brushed over my lips. “You’re forbidden from calling me ‘Your Highness’ today. We’ve gone through all the trouble of disguising ourselves, after all. Actually, no, enough of that. I want you to call me by my name when we’re not performing our official duties, Eli.”

My cheeks rapidly took the vibrant red sheen of an apple. I didn’t need to see a mirror to know I was blushing; I could feel the heat concentrate in my cheeks as if I had a fever.

His Highness trapped me in his sweet gaze. “Today I am simply your knight, Lady Elianna. And I will protect you. Won’t you venture out with me?” His gentle words, sounding as if they’d come straight out of a play, seemed to be entreating me, but why was it this felt like more of a demand than a request?

I flapped my lips open and shut as I fumbled for words, but the prince just continued to keep that sweet smile plastered on his face. Nearby, Lord Glen let out a sigh and turned his back on the both of us. I didn’t wish for him to pretend that he couldn’t see anything; I wanted him to step in and help.

The prince’s face grew steadily closer, closing in on me, when a low voice squeezed in, “Pardon me for interrupting. But um...with all due respect...” It was my maid, the one who had accompanied me from the Bernstein estate, now wringing out her words as if she were exhaling them on a quiet breath. I actually had two maids, but the senior of the two was off on an errand, so the one attending me today was one that had been sent from the palace to me, a young girl named Annie. “The master stated in no uncertain terms that the lady was not to go anywhere near the Stars of Thistle. In addition, she is to keep away from the Roma people as well.”

That wasn’t specific to Sauslind; all noble ladies were advised as such from the time they were children. The Roma’s religion differed from all others on the Ars continent, and they always wandered, never settling down in any specific country. The rest of the continent had shunned the Roma, with their unique culture cultivated over centuries, since long ago. Such enmity had begun to soften thanks to the influence of the Stars of Thistle, but it didn’t change the disdain people held toward them. This was especially true for noble ladies. If rumors were to spread that you were involved with the Roma, it would ruin your reputation. Annie’s concern was understandable.

The prince smiled back at her. “I’ll be with her. I swear that no harm will come to Eli’s reputation. Plus, the marquess hasn’t even stated why she’s to keep away, has he? I’ve thought that odd ever since I first heard about his order years ago. The Bernsteins aren’t even the type to be preoccupied with public appearances... Do you know why he’s prohibited it?”

“No,” Annie answered, troubled.

His Highness gave a sharp nod. “In that case, Eli, you’ll just keep regretting it if you don’t go.”

“Your Highness...” I mumbled, feeling my heart tremble even louder.

It was just as His Highness had said; I’d wanted to go ever since I first learned about the Stars of Thistle and how they came once every three years with stalls to sell their books. But my entire house, starting with my father, stubbornly refused to grant me permission to go. Instead, we had sent servants each year to purchase tomes for us. Plus, the Stars of Thistle only used the main highway to travel, so the only opportunity I had to make contact with them was while I was in the capital.

I must’ve spoken of this wish to His Highness when we were both younger and that was how he knew. My heart ached from the fact that I couldn’t recall our past together. That was one cause for my anxiety. But my chest warmed with happiness knowing that His Highness hadn’t forgotten and was still trying to grant my wish. In fact, I’m afraid to admit, the prince’s devotion softened whatever guilt I held over violating my father’s instructions.

His Highness smiled at me, my fate sealed. “Now that that’s decided, Eli, let’s have you practice saying my name until we arrive at the market.”

“Huh...?”

“How about I punish you every time you call me ‘Your Highness’? Of course, I get to decide what that punishment will be. Don’t worry, it’s a simple task. You need only call me by my name.”

“Huh...?” I repeated once again as the prince dragged me along outside the palace, his smile making perfectly clear he’d entertain no protest.

Lord Glen gave off an aura of resignation as he heaved a sigh. Annie, for her part, looked uneasy but had no way of opposing His Highness any further. Thus, she followed along behind us with an intensely troubled expression on her face.

Until we arrived at the Roma market, with its sprawling merchant stalls, I would spend the entire carriage ride receiving punishment from His Highness for my inability to say his name. He seemed to enjoy himself, which made it all the more vexing for me, but it was all I could do to frantically keep up with his game, unable to sort out what was happening in my head.

That brings us to the present.

On our way, we swapped our royal carriage for a bland, inconspicuous one, and when we arrived, I trembled with emotion at what I saw before me. So long had I been interested in coming here. The first time I saw the books by the Stars of Thistle, I couldn’t help myself; curiosity filled me. Yet because of my father’s orders, I had been unable to visit the market myself, and since both my brother and father had refrained from going, I didn’t feel I could be selfish and insist I be allowed. Instead, I’d imagined every intricate detail in my mind.

And now, for the first time, I was finally able to see the market for myself. All I had to do was outstretch my hand and I could touch those brand new books. I could smell them, feel them for myself. I could even speak with the Stars of Thistle. This place wasn’t like the bookstores downtown. It was special, a market centered entirely around books, a sight you could only see once every three years. Was there anything else in life that could provoke this much joy? One could hardly blame me for wanting to dive right in.

His Highness gave a gentle, albeit slightly bitter, smile as he watched me unable to contain my excitement. “Eli, I’ve already made this quite clear, but you mustn’t let go of my hand today. If you do, I will take you straight back home. Understood?”

He was acting as if he were my guardian. It was vexing to be treated as a child, but the dream world come to life in front of me kept me too distracted to care.

“Yes, Lord Chris!” I answered with a beaming smile.

His Highness’s smooth features froze over. Though unsure why he’d suddenly gone so stiff, I yanked his hand and pulled him along with me anyway. I didn’t notice the expressions of exasperation or wry smiles on the faces of Lord Glen and the other guards following along a short distance behind us; I was too enamored with the books before me.

Annie, who was staying behind alongside the coachman, called entreatingly after me. “My lady! Please don’t go off with strangers, not even if they offer you a rare book!”

The prince and I dove into the foreign sea, alive with energetic hustle and bustle. Even the unfamiliar music only served to make my heart sing louder. I could have eyes all over my body and they wouldn’t be enough to take in all the sights. In fact, I was so elated that I couldn’t even decide which stall we should head toward first.

Ahh, can’t I just start from one end and go to each one, scooping up all the good books I find?

It was then, at the height of my excitement, that the prince seemed to recompose himself, and I could hear a laugh from beside me. His hand gave mine a gentle squeeze. “Eli, calm down.”

“Your Hi—” I swallowed the words just as I almost let them slip. I already knew to a painful degree (courtesy of his punishments) that I wasn’t to speak his true title today. Admittedly, they weren’t actually painful, just embarrassingly romantic. Still, my heart felt heavy over the almost-gaffe I’d made in my state of excitement.

But the prince merely smiled at me and said, “Don’t worry, we have time. Even if your attention gets lost in books, I’ll be here to reel you back into reality, I promise.” His voice was reassuring, full of confidence, and his gaze was so gentle as he looked at me. For the umpteenth time today, my heart leaped from my chest.

From beside us came a kind but teasing voice that said, “You there, the young-looking couple. If you’re here to purchase books, my shop has a dazzling assortment. How would you like a tale of romance? It would suit a romantic pair like you two perfectly.”

I looked to find a dark-skinned storekeeper with a sunny disposition amiably recommending his tomes. Our outfits made it plenty clear we were disguising ourselves to stroll about the market, but the man was friendly nonetheless, as if people like us weren’t a rare sight at an event like this.

Although my cheeks colored in embarrassment by the belated realization that my hand was linked with the prince’s, I still managed to join him and peer inside the stall. Beneath the open, clear blue sky, tomes were crammed together in rows, some looking quite weathered. There were even some whose covers were so sunbaked that the letters were no longer legible. That saddened me.

His Highness stepped in front of me and cast his gaze around the stall. “I see you mainly stock specialty books published up until last year.”

“Aha,” said the shopkeep, “the dashing young man has a good eye, it seems. For the newer volumes, you’ll have to head to the middle of the plaza. But you might find some good bargains here too. Take your time and have a look.”

“Do you have Writings of the Land by Dr. Rezzi?” the prince asked.

“Dr. Rezzi’s book is not only popular but in short supply. Even if we did have it, they always sell immediately.”

“I suspected as much.”

As His Highness mumbled to himself, I reached for a nearby tome. When the shopkeeper realized what I was holding, he said, “Ah, The Star Traveler, eh? It’s a fairytale for kids, but adults can enjoy it too. I’m sure you’d like it as well, young lady.”

I carefully extracted my hand from the prince’s and flipped through the pages. It was just as the shopkeeper had said. This was a fairytale written by an unknown author long ago; it was a simple, sparsely illustrated book that detailed the various adventurers of the star children. In Sauslind, adventure tales of the Hero King were so beloved that, unfortunately, The Star Traveler didn’t enjoy much popularity here. Even so, it was a memorable fairytale for me.

“Do you like it, Eli?” His Highness asked, as if ready to purchase it immediately.

“No, not this one,” I said simply. “This is the Sulu Qwun language version, isn’t it? If possible, I would like to have one written in Old Lacan. Or if you have one written during the time of the Kai Arg Empire that would be good as well, though I would most prefer the Fire’s Thorns version. Do you have any of those?”

“Excuse me...?” The shopkeeper blurted with a dumbfounded smile on his face.

Feeling a bit irritated with the way he blinked at me as if I were speaking to him in tongues, I was about to repeat myself when the prince kindly stepped in to reframe my question. “Sir, do you have any other versions of The Star Traveler? If possible, we’d prefer one written in a language other than Sulu Qwun.”

“Y-Yeah, okay.” The man had a bewildered look on his face as he disappeared into the back of the store.

I watched him and tilted my head. Was there something weird about the way I worded my question?

His Highness gave a wry laugh as he said, “This may be a book market, but that doesn’t mean every person here is knowledgeable about books. Plus, they only do this once every three years. The staff in our bookstores downtown may actually be more educated than the people here. So you may have difficulty getting the other person to understand sometimes if you don’t speak in layman’s terms.”

“So that was the problem...”

The market was run by the Roma who traveled alongside the Stars of Thistle, so I had just assumed they were learned when it came to books. However, having seen the sunbaked covers of some of these tomes, I now understood that wasn’t the case for all of them.

That aside, I was surprised at how extensively informed the prince was. While I gave him credit for minimizing his presence and putting on a splendid performance as a knight, the way he’d spoken so casually to the shopkeeper made me wonder if he’d been here before.

“Anyway,” the prince said, “I didn’t know The Star Traveler was written in so many different languages. Well, I suppose it makes sense. Different countries have different languages, so naturally their picture books and fairy tales are written in their native tongue.”

He peered coolly down at the book in my hand, making my heart skip a beat. “The Star Traveler is a bit of a special case,” I told him. “Tomes that are written in ancient languages are often used as textbooks for classical study, but in this book, the details of the children’s adventures change slightly depending on when it was republished and in what country.”

“Oh really?” His Highness hummed, intrigued. “Strange, considering the author is unknown. Maybe the translators changed some of the details?”

“That’s possible,” I said. “Father has a collection of them gathered in his study, that’s how I knew there were so many different versions. I’d always thought he collected them because my mother loved them, but perhaps there is a different reason.”

“Certainly an intriguing mystery. Maybe I should try rereading the story again.”

Surprised, I asked, “Your Highness, you read fairy tales?”

“...Eli.”

Realizing my mistake, I slapped my hand over my mouth, but now that the words had already been spoken, I couldn’t take it back. His Highness was grinning at me, and yet his eyes looked like those of a hunter who’d captured their prey.

“You really want me to punish you that badly, hm?”

I became flustered once he pulled my hand away from my mouth. Memories of our exchange back in the carriage came rushing back, and I immediately felt the flush of heat on my cheeks. He took hold of my chin, and just as his clear blue eyes creased in a sweet smile, a voice came to my aid.

“If you two would like to uh, get up close and personal, would you mind doing it somewhere private?” It was the shopkeeper, cradling books in his arms.

Relieved, I apologized to him and said, “We’ll be more careful,” and casually slipped out of His Highness’s grip. I definitely couldn’t hear the prince quietly click his tongue in dismay. Nope, not a sound.

We took a number of tomes the owner offered as well as a few other foreign books that caught my curiosity. We continued our shopping venture and discovered that each stall offered a different selection. There was such a varied assortment; wordless picture books lined up alongside intense academic ones, illustrated reference books on plants and minerals, encyclopedias for theology, depictions of fantastical creatures, foreign songbooks, and a treatise regarding ancient epitaphs which I’d never seen before. I felt like I didn’t have the time (or enough eyes) to take it all in.

The only reason we were able to visit several stalls was because as soon as I froze and lost myself in reading a book, His Highness would gently call my name and pull me along. He would immediately purchase any tome I tried to read. Soon Lord Glen and the others, who were supposed to be acting as our guards, were instead transformed into luggage carriers.

I should mention, by the way, I didn’t have any money on hand, so everything was paid for by the prince. I felt embarrassed having him do all that for me, and yet for some reason His Highness seemed positively euphoric as he paid for them all.

“If there’s something you want, speak freely, Eli.”

If Your Highness so enjoys squandering money, I fear for the future of our country, I thought. Seeing how heavy the bags Lord Glen and the others were carrying looked, I hesitated over whether it was about time to deliver some candid advice to the prince or not. Though I will clarify, we didn’t buy every book that we saw.

“...A history of theories on the Plummer Ruins?”

“Yes,” I said. “Prince Theodore was searching for this book.”

“Eli.” The way the prince’s voice rumbled, deep and low, startled me. He took the tome from me, his eyes no longer smiling. “My uncle has his own time and finances. He can come here any time he likes to purchase it.”

“Yes, but—” I started to protest, thinking it a waste since we’d managed to find it, but the prince put his forefinger to my lips.

“I forbid you from speaking any other man’s name today.”

The list of things I was forbidden to say today certainly was a long one.

I blinked in confusion, and the prince laughed, his eyes gazing at me invitingly. “Maybe I should punish you for this too.”

“Your Hi—”

“Hm?” His blue eyes gleamed sharply.

I gulped, my eyes darting back and forth. “Um, your hip... There was a bug on your hip, but it flew off just now.” I pointed in the distance, trying to distract from my slip up when I heard a laugh from nearby. Surprised, I turned my gaze to find a young man dressed in clothing evocative of the Roma’s dance garb.

The moment we spotted him, the prince’s mood took a sudden downturn as he asked, “Why are you here?”

“Oh, come on, I couldn’t miss a display like this, now could I?”

There was something terrifyingly menacing about the way His Highness smiled. He kept his lips stretched upward as he gave the simple command, “Go home.”

The man’s boyish, honey-colored hair certainly was rare for a Roma. I tilted my head. “Are you acquainted with this man, Your Hi—ahem, Lord Chris?” When I glanced back at the prince, he blinked and then smiled pleasantly at me.

“No, not at all. Just a stranger, it seems. There’s all kinds of people in this market. You should be careful too, Eli, if someone you don’t know tries to talk to you.”

“I’m not a child.” This time I couldn’t stay quiet.

The prince answered with a laugh. “I just worry because you’re so cute.”

How should I put this? Ever since the other day, it seemed as if His Highness’s behavior toward me lacked any restraint, like a door without a latch to keep it closed. Though I was sure, as my cheeks warmed bright red, that his lack of restraint was partly my fault.

Before the sweet air of romance could envelop us again, the man from a moment ago, who the prince had so nonchalantly brushed off, frantically cut in. “Isn’t that a bit cold? Especially after I came searching for you two with some particularly interesting information.”

“There has never been a time when something you deemed interesting was actually anything useful. So enough, go home. Today is my (self-proclaimed) day off,” the prince said coldly, pulling my hand along as he began to leave.

“Whaat?” the cheerful boy protested, undaunted. Then, with an innocent kind of jab, he added, “Are you sure, even if it’s information pertaining to Lady Elianna?”

His Highness’s interest took such a quick turnaround the moment I was mentioned that even I noticed his sudden change of heart. But as he turned to look back and opened his mouth to respond, we could hear an outbreak of commotion joined by a flurry of voices, a cacophony of adults angrily shouting accompanied by noisy shrieks.

Surprised, we looked to find a handful of children scrambling to escape from the chaos. Just as soon as I glimpsed them, His Highness took a protective step in front of me, and Lord Glen and the other guards encircled us protectively.

“Thieves! Grab them!” someone shouted.

The children were almost like fish in the ocean with the way they weaved between the cracks of bodies in the crowd. Unfortunately, the smallest of them struggled to balance the weight of the prize in his arms and tripped, scattering the books he was holding across the ground.

As I looked down in shock, another older boy came running up to him, shouting, “Rene!” In the time it took him to rouse the smaller child to his feet, the adults caught up and seized them both.

The man from a moment ago with the honey-colored hair leaned in and said, “Lord Chris, you would be wise to take those two children into your care.”

His Highness gave him a skeptical look but decided to save the questions for later. He left my protection to Lord Glen and stepped forward.

The men who had captured the children had a rough, bodyguard-like air about them. It made me wonder if hired muscle was an occupation even among the Roma people. I could understand the necessity; fighting was a daily occurrence in marketplaces like this one.

“The same Roma blood and yet you’re stealing from your own, huh? You sure got a lotta nerve.”

“You said it. Hey kids, where are your parents? Why the hell’d you even steal these books to begin with?”

“What, did you think you could carry these off to the capital? Pfft, they wouldn’t even give brats like you the time of day.”

As the prince tried to calculate the appropriate time to swoop in, one of the boys—the older one who looked about ten and was being violently prodded by the gang of grown men—suddenly lifted his head, his eyes unyielding. The words he spoke immediately changed the atmosphere of the entire area. “You got it wrong! A noble ordered us to do this! He told us to go steal some books—that he didn’t need to pay us Roma any money for them. He said he was a Bernstein!”

Excuse me...?

I blinked my eyes as the mood of those present before me took a sudden, chilling turn. Even the ruffians immediately seethed with hostility. “A Bernstein, you say...?”

“So they choose this year to show up? I’ve got a score to settle with them.”

“Me too! I’m gonna beat them at their own games this time!”

“The chief said to bring them to him if they showed up again, no matter the circumstances of their visit.”

As the hooligans groused, I just continued to bat my eyes open and closed. Did my family really have some connection with the Roma after all? Was that why my father had so fiercely insisted I not approach them? Still, while my family did adore books, we had no custom of roughing people up to obtain them. Frankly, my family was wise enough to foresee the defeat that would result from a physical showdown and therefore didn’t engage in them to begin with. Nor, as far as I knew, did we have any connection to those who worked as hired muscle. But it did shock me to see these men hold such grudges against us, the thirst for revenge burning within them.

Lord Glen turned to the man with honey-colored hair. “What’s all this about? Did you know all this would happen? Is that why you came? To put a stop to it?”

“No... I’m surprised myself; their response was rather unexpected. The Bernsteins sure are famous among the Roma people, eh?”

Famous was one word, though perhaps infamous might better suit what we were witnessing. It was certainly unexpected though; I expected them to be up in arms about the insinuation that we were looking down on them as sub-human, but the men instead reacted most acutely to the mention of the Bernstein name itself.

“Hey, brats, where is this noble that ordered you around?”

The boys shrank back as the men encroached. More accurately put, the older boy was protectively shielding the smaller one. I wondered if they were brothers. Their facial features were difficult to make out from where I was standing, but they didn’t seem to resemble each other at all.

“Could I step in for a moment?” His Highness interrupted with a quiet voice. While he’d previously diminished his royal presence to keep from being noticed, he now wielded it in a way that commanded the attention from all those gathered. Unaffected by their gazes, he flashed a relaxed smile. And as he calmly began trying to mediate the situation, he was cut off by some unexpected interference.

The younger boy, about six or seven by the looks of him, lifted his face. His vibrant blue eyes lit up when he spotted the prince, and he flew right toward him. “Daddy!”

Chapter 2: Her Anxiety

“...Uh, so basically...”

We moved from the scene of the commotion and plunked ourselves down at the corner of the street stalls, now busy with the noon rush. Utterly unlike the neat and orderly cities built around castles, the Roma market seemed jumbled and chaotic. They had restaurants stationed close to their book stalls, and near those a group exhibition featuring musical dance and fortune tellers. We were currently sitting at one such eating place for lunch while Lord Glen extracted information from the two children.

His Highness had somehow convinced the rough-looking men from before to back down. At first they had hounded him with questions like, “So you’re this kid’s father?” and, “You got some kinda connection with those Bernsteins?” But His Highness merely aimed his gleaming smile at them—one that made even me shiver—and forced them back. The men then conceded after he had a couple of words with them. As for what he’d said, I had no idea.

Lord Glen looked worn thin somehow as he tried to confirm the details of the boys’ story with the oldest of the two, who was greedily shoveling his food down. “So this Rene kid’s mom is sick, and you guys don’t have the money to take her to see a doctor. That’s when that noble approached you and gave you those orders, promising that if you stole those books then he would take her to a doctor. And you and those other kids were just pitching in to help Rene.”

The older boy, the one who looked about ten and referred to himself as Paolo, gave a nod even as he was completely immersed in his food. “Rene’s like my little bro. He’s the smallest and weakest in our group.” Proudly, he added, “That’s why I stepped in to save him.”

Lord Glen already looked completely drained as he continued his questioning. “Okay then, older bro, maybe you can explain this to me. Why does this Rene kid think Chris is his dad?”

Paolo finally lifted his head from his meal. The maturity he’d shown before disappeared, making him look appropriately young as he stared blankly forward. With his dark eyes, a common color among the Roma people, he glanced between His Highness and the boy who’d taken position on his lap. “What do you mean ‘think’? That guy is his dad, right?”

Lord Glen pressed a hand to his forehead as if fighting back an oncoming headache.

I believe Lord Alexei already has that gesture patented, I thought.

Still, I worried about the prince, who’d had the same smile pasted on his face this entire time. The boy Rene had been glued to His Highness ever since he’d called the prince his “daddy.” When Prince Christopher had tried to pry the child away, Rene’s eyes had filled with tears, and thus even His Highness had been forced to accept the situation.

He listened to Paolo’s explanation and kept his unfaltering smile turned my way. “Eli, just know there is nothing questionable about my past, okay?”

Your Highness, you have repeated that line several times in the last few minutes.

Paolo peered over at me then glanced between the two of us. “Uh... You are Rene’s dad, right? Isn’t that why you saved us?”

“Oh? Did I say something to suggest that I am, indeed, his father?” His Highness’s smile broadened, and Paolo shivered and promptly fell silent.

From beside the prince, Lord Glen said, “He’s a kid. Don’t start that with him.” It was an admonishment I didn’t quite understand.

A frantic voice cut in from the prince’s lap. “My father is a knight!” It was Rene, his cloudless blue eyes earnest in their plea toward the adults present. “He’s got the same blue eyes as me, and he’s an incredible knight. My mommy said so. She said he’d definitely come to get us someday. And you’re him, you’re my daddy!” He threw his arms tight around the prince, clinging to him.

This would have been an impossible sight at the palace. Child or not, Rene could legitimately be punished for his disrespect. In fact, the other guards (aside from Lord Glen) were all furrowing their brows in displeasure. Lord Glen had been the one to step in when they immediately tried to dispose of the child.

“Ahh, I think I get it.” Lord Glen turned to Paolo to clarify. “So what you’re saying is you and Rene have never actually met his father, right? You’re just assuming it’s Chris based on the features Rene’s mother described?”

“Well, that’s not the only reason,” he answered, face muddled with confusion. “Those muscled men only backed down because Rene’s dad... I mean, this nice guy here said he’d take care of us and mentioned the Stars of Thistle. That means he’s gotta know them personally. Rene’s mom, Marissa, is a dancer. Her family is part of the Stars of Thistle. The only way for a knight of Sauslind to know the Stars of Thistle would be if his lover’s family was actually part of them, right?”

I see. So that’s what’s going on here.

“Eli... What’s with that look in your eyes?”

What? It’s nothing, Your Highness.

By the sounds of it, the Stars of Thistle were regarded as superior even among the Roma, and for someone to be acquainted with them would mean they had quite the connections. The Stars of Thistle didn’t give much credence to the authority of nobles, so trying to use that route to engage with them was at best futile and at worst dangerous—dangerous because it could incur their displeasure. The latter would result in a damaged reputation and ill rumors being spread across the continent.

Hmm... It felt as if I’d heard a story like that just recently.

At any rate, the Stars of Thistle were widely renowned in the famous Holy City of Sulu Qwun. There were many who wanted to approach them, but the Stars were an academic and (perhaps as a result of which) eccentric bunch who’d been courted for years by those who were desperate to receive teaching. It seemed Paolo had interpreted the fact that the prince had such a connection to mean he was personally related to them.

It was then, as Lord Glen stared up at the sky, troubled, and as His Highness retained that chilling smile plastered on his face, a cheerful voice broke in. “The love story of the female dancer and the knight has been turned into a play and is even beloved as a romance novel. Its popularity boomed about five or six years ago, but I had no idea that little Rene here was the child of those two. Nor that Lord Chris was the knight in the tale.”

The boy with honey-colored hair from before made his reentrance, after having suddenly disappeared earlier, and was now holding a steamed manju (a sweet treat famous in an eastern country). He casually took a seat beside me, as if completely unaware of the prince’s frosty gaze. “Hm? Lady Elianna, aren’t you going to eat? Ahh, are you a little wary of food you’ve never eaten before, perhaps?”

“No. I’ve eaten eastern food before. I had our cook create some dishes for me when I read The Travels of Parco Molo.”

“Not surprising, I’m sure you Bernsteins have an incredible cook that can deliver all kinds of dishes from different countries’ cuisines.”

I tilted my head as he murmured knowingly to himself. “Are you acquainted with my house?”

The man’s smooth features, still looking a bit boyish for his age, contorted, eyes filled with grief. “We just exchanged greetings not that long ago, and yet you still haven’t realized who I am... Am I really that forgettable...?” Then, stiffly, he added, “My name is Alan.”

“Oh goodness. I didn’t know you were Roma, Lord Alan.”

This time it was His Highness who breathed a sigh. “Eli,” he said, bringing me back to my senses. “Anyway, let’s eat before the food gets cold. You as well. You can’t eat your food if you keep staring at me.”

Rene peered up anxiously at the prince. Although His Highness had smiled warmly as he called out to the boy, he’d still treated Rene as if he were a stranger.

“Come on,” said the prince, turning the boy gently toward the table. I watched, eyes wide with surprise, as he dotingly pulled a plate close and tucked a wooden spoon in the boy’s hand. Was His Highness actually fond of children? Or was it my imagination?

Beside him, Lord Alan’s sorrowful expression had taken a sudden turn. He was now grinning almost teasingly as he opened his mouth to say something, but His Highness cut in reprovingly with, “Alan.” The prince wasn’t smiling. In fact, his eyes were as cold as ice, reminiscent of Lord Alexei, as he stared down the man. “Why don’t we discuss your report elsewhere? Glen, come.”

His Highness lifted the boy from his lap and reseated him in a chair, giving Rene’s hair a tousle after the latter looked worryingly up at the prince. He then left the other two guards behind, dragging only Lord Alan and Lord Glen along with him as he moved toward a stretch of wall running opposite of where we were seated.

As Rene and I stared after him, Paolo said to the younger boy, “Hey, just hurry up and eat your food. We almost never get free grub like this.”

I gave the doting older boy a glance before deciding to follow his advice and focus on my food as well. Rene seemed to remember his empty stomach once he started digging in and soon became enamored with the food.

Paolo turned to me and said, “Hey, Little Lady.”

Little Lady? Was he talking to me perchance?

My hands froze, and I turned back to look at him. For a child he certainly was fixing me with a harsh, hostile look.

“You... Are you one of them? One of those Bernsteins?”

I was taken aback. Through the course of everything that had happened, I’d nearly forgotten that these boys had claimed it was a Bernstein who had ordered them to steal those books. I didn’t think my family was capable of ordering something so barbaric, but surely my protests wouldn’t convince the two otherwise. And Paolo must have heard Lord Alan calling me a Bernstein before. Faced with the older boy’s cautious, suspicious gaze, I nodded honestly. “That’s correct. My name is Elianna Bernstein.”

He immediately scrunched up his face. “So you’re with that mole?”

Mole? I wondered.

Paolo must have sensed my confusion, because he went on to explain, “The mole noble. That pig-headed, cocky guy. I know he’s looking down on us, that’s obvious. But he promised he would take Rene’s mom to see a doctor.” He bit his lip in frustration.

Doctors were a valuable resource. The shortage of them was in part due to a lack of people with the necessary medical knowledge and experience, but it was also because many were exclusively employed by nobles. That trend was losing popularity now, but even still city doctors remained scarce, and low-income earners struggled to have their illnesses properly diagnosed and treated. Considering the discrimination and stereotyping the Roma faced, the problem was probably all the more prevalent for them.

I fell silent, and Paolo’s sharp gaze turned up at me. “You all look down at people like they’re worth less than you. That’s why I hate nobles.”

“I despise them as well,” I responded honestly, looking him straight in the eyes. “I find those who would bully the weak distasteful. In The Star Traveler, when the traveler is being bullied by the crow he met in the wasteland, he says, ‘It makes me very sad when you bully me. And that’s why when I meet other crows, I’m not going to bully them.’ Even though nobles and other people look down on them, the Roma are proud of how they live. I think that’s wonderful.”

Paolo shrunk back, his eyes swimming. “I-It’s a little late to be trying flattery now. You already admitted you’re a Bernstein, didn’t you?”

True enough.

I suspected the person who had ordered the boys was falsely using the Bernstein name, but that wasn’t something I could prove right here. After all, we seemed to have an infamously bad reputation among the Roma already. Still, there was something I had to say, on the honor of my family.

“Lord Paolo,” I began.

“Lord Paolo?” he echoed back, jaw dropped as if I had just spoken to him in a foreign language.

I gazed back at him with sincerity. “My house would never do something as uncouth as stealing a book. Even if that book was something we desperately wanted to read—desperately wanted to get our hands on...”

“Yeah?” he prompted.

“We would find some other way to read it, even if we had to beg or drug the person to do it!” One reading was enough; once we’d read a book, we could make a clean copy of it by memory.

I must have gotten too fired up in my response because Paolo stared blankly back at me and said, “Isn’t drugging someone actually worse?” The nearby guards were also desperately trying to stifle their own laughter.

A hesitant voice spoke up from across the table. “I... I know about The Star Traveler.” It was Rene, the boy whose blue eyes so resembled His Highness’s. His hair was a common shade among the Roma, a deep shade of brown that nearly looked black, but his slightly paler skin and eye color made him stand out among the rest. “My mommy read it for me. She said The Star Traveler is like a guidepost for us Roma.”

I smiled back at him. “My mother also read it to me when I was little. It was her most beloved book.”

Rene timidly returned the smile, and my heart warmed. Nothing about him resembled the prince other than his eye color, but as someone who was regarded as the “Library Ghost” and constantly feared by children, receiving a smile from a boy like him felt particularly precious to me.

“You, uh...sure are an odd noble.” Paolo was wiping Rene’s mouth with his handkerchief as he mumbled, seemingly unsure now of what attitude to take with me. “Now I’m not sure if you really are with that mole or not.” Once Paolo was done wiping his mouth, Rene hopped down and came over to sit beside me.

I conjured the image of my father and brother in my mind. Neither bore even the slightest resemblance to a mole, although they did have a habit of holing themselves up in their studies to read. I couldn’t blame someone for comparing that behavior to a mole burrowing underground. Though such thoughts had little relevance here.

Beside me, Rene gradually seemed to be nodding off now that his stomach was full. I gently stroked the top of his head, just as my own mother had done for me long ago. It seemed to relax him because soon he was leaning his weight up against me. The action was so endearing that I moved my arm so he could more comfortably rest up against my chest.

“You know, Little Lady...” Paolo leaned in to whisper, careful the guards couldn’t overhear. He kept a cautious eye on the sleeping Rene and briefly glanced at His Highness and the others in the corner, who were still talking. “I get now that you’re a bit different from the other nobles. That’s why I’m gonna go ahead and ask you, what’s your relationship with that nice guy that saved us?”

I stared back at him and blinked. What exactly did he mean by that?

He pressed on impatiently. “What I mean is, are you two lovers or something?”

The instant I heard that word, heat went racing up my face all the way to my ears, and the words stuck in my throat. For four years now I had worn the label of fiancée, and thanks to recent events, I now knew that our engagement wasn’t simply for show. So while being called his future bride did make my heart flutter, there was nothing for me to be confused about. Yet I flushed easily when I heard the word “lovers,” and the very question Paolo posed had been a source of anxiety for me since the events from a few days ago.

I was conscious of the fact that His Highness was someone special to me, as a man, as someone irreplaceable. And when he reciprocated those sentiments, when he poured his affection into his hands and touched me, I was filled with an indescribable joy. That was also why I wanted to remember how the two of us had met.

The reason I was able to be at his side now was because he treasured the memory of our first meeting and took an interest in me. Had that not happened, I might never have ended up where I was now. Thus, I felt obligated to remember what sparked all of this. More than anything, I wanted to reclaim that memory because it was something we had shared. And yet I remained completely unable to recall any part of our past. Never before had I felt such shame that my memory with books was excellent and yet poor in every other regard.

Today was a good example. His Highness had brought me here, to a place I had longed to visit since I was a child, because he remembered us talking about it when we were younger. That realization left me feeling helpless as an overwhelming sense of anxiety coiled in my chest.

Ever since we resolved the misunderstandings that day, the prince would try to bridge the distance between us when we were alone together, with a sweet smile and warm attitude. I was sure this was because he was treating me as his lover first and foremost, rather than simply a fiancée. But I had to wonder, was I worthy of receiving that kind of attention? I had no confidence that I could actually conduct myself like a proper lover when I couldn’t even recall our first meeting.

“I’m not quite sure I would say lover...” I mumbled.

The word didn’t seem proper. Perhaps if I could retrieve that memory, then I would finally have the confidence to call myself his “lover.” Crestfallen, I dropped my gaze.

Paolo, exasperated, said, “What’s with that attitude? Not going to give a straight answer, huh? If that’s the kinda attitude you’re taking, that guy’s gotta be pretty dissatisfied.”

I was taken aback. His Highness’s expression never revealed as much, but I wondered if maybe he did feel unhappy with how flustered I always acted. What worried me the most was what the prince must think of me. Was he secretly disappointed that I still couldn’t remember our past?

“I wonder, is he really...?” I blurted out, not even thinking that I was foisting such a heavy question on this young boy.

Paolo couldn’t hide his perplexed and rankled expression. “What the heck? You really throw me off. Now you’re making it hard for me to ask a favor.”

“Pardon?” I tilted my head.

He hesitantly explained, “Judging by what you said, I get the idea that guy’s not actually Rene’s dad. But, you know, Rene’s always wanted his father. So I gotta ask. Could you lend that guy to us? Just one day’s enough. He can be Rene’s dad for a day.”

“Um...”

As I froze, a chilly voice suddenly spoke out from behind me. “I would prefer if you asked me directly if you want a favor like that.” It was Prince Christopher. He must have finished talking with the others.

Although only a short time had passed since I had last seen him, Lord Glen now looked even more gaunt than he had before.

His Highness peeled Rene away from me as if he were some kind of annoying adhesive that needed removing, causing Lord Alan, who was watching us, to look as if he might burst out in laughter at any moment. “Eli,” the prince began. “Alan asked around some, but he wasn’t able to pin down what involvement the Bernstein family has with the Roma. We have no other choice but to go and meet the Stars of Thistle.”

“You think one of the Stars of Thistle would know?” I asked.

“No, but if they cooperate, it’ll make it easier to get the Roma to tell us. It’s good timing anyway since I had something I wanted to confirm. Although I’m not really looking forward to meeting him, but we’re out of options,” he mumbled bitterly, as if he loathed that things had come to this.

I couldn’t help but feel guilty that it was a matter concerning my house that was causing him such grief.

“Um... What about the noble that ordered these children to steal?” I had to ask.

“Oh, that,” the prince answered coolly. He had a gleaming smile on his face, one that should have looked charismatic to all who saw, and yet instead I felt a chill run down my spine. “Don’t worry, I know who did it. I will be sure to give them my regards after they interrupted our precious day off together.”

I had no sympathy for people who used others’ weaknesses to shield themselves, especially not when they were the type that took advantage of children and had them do awful things. But for some reason, the beautiful smile on the prince’s face made me wish I could give them one tiny piece of advice: run.

Chapter 3: The Prince’s Concerns

Dammit, I thought, restraining the urge to click my tongue in annoyance for the dozenth time. I had no choice but to contain myself; every time I outwardly expressed my sour mood, the child in my arms would shrink in fear.

Why was I, Prince Christopher, heir to the throne of Sauslind, being forced to look after a child? I had ensured both hands would be free today for Eli, so why were they now being monopolized by some brat I didn’t even know?

God, I really didn’t understand why it had to come to this. Things had gone so smoothly at first.

Long ago Eli had mentioned the once-every-three-years market to me, adding sadly, “I want to go, but my father and the other members of the house have forbade me.” I’d decided then that I would someday invite her along. It had taken until now for our relationship to progress far enough that I could do so.

Eli had hesitated over breaking her father’s orders, but her eyes had shone with such joy at my proposal. When we actually arrived at the market, she’d been completely unable to hide her excitement, just as I’d anticipated. The innocent smile on her face had been adorable. So much so that I’d wanted to lock her away with me and spend the rest of the day as just the two of us.

Since the events with Lady Irene, whenever I tried to cozy up to her, she seemed disconcerted, a hint of anxiety flashing through her eyes. I figured it was because, although we had resolved her misunderstandings, she wasn’t quite used to that level of affectionate skinship. That was precisely why I planned to spend today getting her accustomed to aspects of a romantic relationship. I could ease her anxiety that way and show her there was no need to worry.

Alas.

“Oh, Lady Elianna, over there, over there!” said Alan. “That’s the Rainbow’s Prelude, a song with a challenging dance rhythm.”

“I don’t doubt that. The outfits are terribly long, aren’t they? Can they even dance in such clothing?” she asked.

“Little Lady, do you really not know anything about dance? Those clothes are the rainbow. That’s the whole point of the dance.”

“Oh, truly?” Her aqua gray eyes were round with surprise and overflowing with curiosity as she gazed at the corner of the market. The group of dancers had captivated her attention.

This whole scene irked me.

If things were as they should have been, I would be the one walking beside her, holding her hand. I would be the one explaining various parts of the market to her, and her reverent gaze would be focused on me. How had Alan and some random brat stolen my position? Dammit, I didn’t get it. The overwhelming urge to click my tongue was proving difficult to suppress.

Just moments ago, as I cradled the child in one arm, I’d tried to use my free hand to lace my fingers with hers, but she had refused me and retreated between the two guards accompanying us. I could tell her change in attitude had something to do with what that Paolo kid had said. It irritated me; there was no need for Eli to have to restrain herself.

It wasn’t like holding this child in my arms—a child whose eyes so resembled mine—and having Eli beside me had given me any funny ideas, like picturing the two of us together in the future with a child of our own. Of course not. Preposterous. I would never entertain such fantasies.

Regardless, it didn’t change how unamusing the situation was. Today it was supposed to be my role to protect Eli as her knight. When I told Glen I was taking him and some of his people along as well, he’d frantically wailed, “My squad’s full of young recruits, people who still have futures ahead of them. And we both know you’ll kill them if anything goes wrong!” Pfft, like that was my problem.

Once you tore Eli’s interest away from books, her curiosity knew no bounds. Her eyes lit up in fascination over foreign tapestries and cursed masks. At one point she spotted an elaborate decoration hung at the back of one of the stalls. A customer and the shopkeeper were standing nearby, haggling over price when she commented, “Oh, this is a forgery of an item from the old empire.” The complexion on both the shopkeeper and the customer’s faces changed immediately. She also encountered a person claiming to be the descendant of a wizard and exposed the secret behind their illusions, causing interest (and subsequently their income) to dwindle. And she’d also struck a peddler speechless after they solicited her to sample their sweets and Eli replied, “Lala Tou means a spider’s tail in Old Lacan.”

I was also beginning to understand why the Bernsteins had such a complicated relationship with the Roma.

The boy Rene was happily munching away on one such spider’s tail, his eyes trained on the dancers. I sighed inwardly, only to hear a strained clip of laughter as someone asked “Want to switch?” My childhood friend (Glen), three years my senior, had already guessed the reason as to why I was tolerating this child and had thus been open minded himself.

Moments ago during his report, Alan had teasingly said, “I didn’t realize you had a secret child, Lord Chris.”

Enough with the jokes already, I’d thought. What, is every kid out there with blue eyes suddenly my child now?

I’d made my distaste apparent as I said, “Age-wise, it would be more likely for him to be my uncle’s child than mine, now wouldn’t it?”

But Alan had nonchalantly replied, “Nah, Lord Theodore would definitely say, ‘I would never do something so foolish.’”

How vexing.

“He’s just putting on airs,” I’d said. I only wished he’d expose his true nature in front of Eli.

Alan and Glen had exchanged looks after I’d said that. What was their problem? If there was something they wanted to say, they should just say it.

“Blood runs thick,” Alan had remarked in defeat. He then furrowed his brows in careful thought and asked us what our plans were next.

Now I understood the gravity of the situation which had prompted Alan to go out of his way to hunt me down. The opposition was likely trying to sabotage a facility we had just begun constructing. Fortunately they were just a small fry and would be easy to corner.

The reason they had gone to such lengths to use Roma children was because even if you tried to use the children’s testimony, their credibility would be called into question due to their origin. And also because it would heighten the Roma’s suspicion and mistrust toward others.

Nobles really couldn’t be trusted.

If the culprit had used any other noble family’s name to accomplish their goals, they might have succeeded. The Roma weren’t receptive at all to royalty and high class nobility. But unfortunately for our saboteur, their plans had gone up in smoke thanks to the fact that they’d used the Bernstein name. From what Alan could gather, the Roma adults weren’t at all convinced that the Bernsteins would dip their hands in such foolishness as book thievery. The Bernsteins were famous even here for their love of books.

Yet when we tried to reach out to the Roma and broach the topic of their connection to the Bernsteins, their expressions turned bitter and their mouths clamped shut. Thus we were currently trying to make our way to the Stars of Thistle to look into the source of this connection and—

My thoughts were disrupted when suddenly I realized that the boy’s blue eyes were peering up at me, anxious over Glen’s offer to switch. I found myself wondering if I, too, had looked so nervous at that age.

“Why don’t I tell you a little story from a long time ago?” I said.

Children were uniquely adorable in the way that they tilted their head. Granted, the situation would be even better (perfect, actually) if it were Eli contained in my arms instead, but alas.

“Long ago in some kingdom, there was a small boy with blue eyes. That boy spent each day filled with worry. His mother had caught a serious illness, and he wasn’t allowed to see her anymore.”

Rene’s eyes went round, blinking. The story was both similar to his own and different, which seemed to capture his interest. Looking into his blue eyes made me feel like I was talking to my past self.

“The two were separated, the boy’s mother taken far, far away so that her illness could be cured. For the longest time, they couldn’t see each other. The boy wrote so many letters to his mother, and every single day he prayed, ‘Please let my mom—mother get better.’ Then, when the boy turned twelve years old, his mother defeated her illness and returned to him. However...”

As I watched him listening in earnest, my expression turned serious. “His mother had become an entirely different person. She was no longer the kind, gentle woman she had been before she’d fallen ill. She’d become strict and cold, and she wouldn’t even smile at him anymore. The boy was hurt, and he may have even cried a little bit too. But then, he thought, ‘My mother must have had some magic cast on her by an evil wizard.’”

“The Roma’s shamans would never do such a thing,” the boy said reflexively, causing me to laugh and nod. Apparently even a child this small was sensitive to prejudice.

“The little boy wanted to undo the spell, so he studied hard every single day. But he couldn’t find a way, and he was losing his temper. That’s when a princess appeared and broke the spell.”

“A princess?”

I smiled at the boy, whose blue eyes were alight. I wanted to share those same emotions I’d experienced at the time.

Beside me, Glen mumbled, “...That’s one hell of an abridged version.”

Shut it.

“The princess was a library fairy. She knew all kinds of stories from books. Not only that, she’d read so many of them that she could even understand what the author of a book had been feeling when they wrote it. She also taught the boy a spell to break the magic on his mother.”

I continued, as the boy stared fixedly at me, and mimicked the words as she’d spoken them to me at the time. “‘That which is precious to you cannot be seen.’”

“That’s from The Star Traveler,” he remarked with excitement, and I nodded.

There was so much I could have seen back then if only I had cooled my head and looked around me. My mother had been gravely ill, and I was the only direct heir to the royal family. That must have put a lot of pressure on her. She had no other choice but to be strict with me, to ensure I was up to the task of being prince, of being someone who held the country on their shoulders—to make sure I was so superior that no one could question whether I was fit for the position or not.

“The boy realized that, just like in The Star Traveler, he had lost sight of what was truly precious to him. And then he found out that his strict mother had actually cherished all of his letters and treated them as her treasures. So the boy no longer felt sad anymore, not even when his mother was harsh with him. And he was incredibly grateful to the princess.”

The boy’s eyes sparkled, and I smiled at him.

“Incidentally,” I continued, keeping my voice to a hushed whisper, “after that, this nuisance appeared that tried to hide the princess away.”

“No way...”

“You have probably seen them before, since you’re Roma. To the very far east, they bake these pottery statues of an animal similar to a raccoon on two legs. On the surface they look really gentle... Not evil at all, just a bit comical. But just like the animal those statues represent, this nuisance couldn’t be cooked and eaten. They were just an utterly bothersome family of pests.”

“Hey now,” Glen said reproachfully.

I told you to shut it, Glen.

“What happened to the boy and the princess?” the boy asked anxiously.

I smiled gently. “The boy desperately tried to see the princess, but every single time, those pests got in his way. And those pests had also cast magic on the princess to make her forget the boy too.”

“Wow, you sure are making your own convenient interpretation of what happened,” said Glen.

Glen, if I have to grab your jaw and wrench it shut with my own two hands just to keep you quiet, I will do it.

The child’s eyes threatened to spill tears at any moment, so I broadened my smile at him reassuringly. “Don’t worry, the boy never gave up on the princess. He managed to steal her back from the pests. And the princess fell even more in love with the boy than she had been in the past and decided for herself to stay at his side.”

Glen continued to mumble in disagreement, this time covering his mouth with his hand, so I casually stomped my foot down on his. Then I looked back at the boy and his blue eyes. Although he’d convinced himself I was his father at first, it seemed he was beginning to realize his mistake, for gradually I noticed a spark of wisdom shining in his eyes.

“Rene,” I said, “‘that which is precious to you cannot be seen.’ You can’t lose sight of what matters.”

The boy’s earnest eyes scrutinized me, as if trying to read into what I was saying, but then a hesitant voice called out, “Your Hi—I mean, Lord Chris?” It was the princess from the story (Eli), holding a small bag of sweets. “My apologies for purchasing things again even though I don’t have money of my own, but...um, I thought little Rene might enjoy this.”

Eli often had people press sweets upon her because of her feminine appearance, even though she disliked them. I’d heard how she struggled at the tea parties and such as a result.

Paolo had already casually outstretched his hand to take some sweets. Eli and Rene looked over at me questioningly, so I smiled and nodded. Eli’s eyes softened as she watched Rene outstretch his hand.

I felt a bit unsettled about the whole thing. She didn’t need my permission to give the boy anything. Don’t tell me she actually thinks this is my kid? I thought, a cold sweat forming despite the smile on my face.

This was Eli we were talking about. Most likely she was just surprised at everything that was happening and going with the flow. At least that was how it appeared, but sometimes her thoughts went off in odd directions—directions neither I nor those around me could anticipate.

If she nonchalantly asked, “Your Highness, are you truly his father?” I’m not sure I could recover from such a blow. I waved off the unpleasant idea and drew her attention. “Eli?”

Her dreamy aqua gray eyes looked up at me. My heart filled with emotion every time I looked at them. Long ago it had required an enormous amount of effort on my part to call out to her and turn her gaze my way.

“Can I have one too?” I asked.

“What? Oh, certainly.” She looked confused when I then nodded my head at my hands to signal that they were too occupied for me to take the treat myself. “Hm?” Her aqua gray eyes fluttered.

I gave her a meaningful look, and she at last seemed to infer what I was getting at, because her cheeks went bright red. I cherished her blushing reaction, as it was something she’d only recently (finally) begun to do.

Her eyes wavered as she hesitated, but then she gingerly took the soft baked sweet between her fingers and held it out toward me. I leaned forward without hesitating, wrapping my mouth around the confection and her finger. When it became clear I was savoring the taste of her fingers rather than the treat itself, Eli became as flustered as I’d predicted.

“M-M-My finger isn’t something to eat!”

I ignored her protest and licked at her dainty finger, giving it a light, playful nip before letting go. It only encouraged my mischievous behavior to see her flushed cheeks and how she froze.

“Really? But they’re so sweet and delicious.” I was satisfied; now that she was at a loss for words, her thoughts wouldn’t be able to wander in odd directions, and there would be no risk of her voicing them.

Nearby I heard Paolo say, “I...think I just lost my appetite for sweets.”

“You won’t get any sympathy from me,” said Glen. “We have to put up with seeing this every day.”

“Yeah, I bet you guys have to pile on the spice when you eat just to get rid of the sugary sweet aftertaste of seeing all that.”

They continued their (irrelevant) conversation, to which I had but one thing to say: the hell if I care.

We left that spot and gradually distanced ourselves from the marketplace, heading into the Roma’s residential area. A couple of men stood in our way, citing a harsh restriction against outsiders. Even with two Roma children present, they were still being very obviously exclusionist, particularly since it was clear we were from Sauslind and of a different race.

“What do you want?” one of the men asked intimidatingly.

Reluctantly, I gave him a name. “Could you inform Dr. Nikola Rezzi that I’m here to collect on his debt to me from six years ago? He’ll know what that means.”

The man suspiciously echoed, “A debt from six years ago?” He could tell by merely glancing at me that starting a fight wouldn’t be wise. “Not trying to trick us, are you?” he asked, even as he turned away to fulfill my request. After a few minutes, he reappeared from the shadow of a covered wagon, pulling an older man along with him.

“A golden-haired knight, ya said? Pfft, I’ve never met such a man like that in my life. Though I’ve had as many people treat me to a drink as there are stars in the sky, so that kinda debt wouldn’t be surprising. Gahaha!” The elder man, with his thick, vulgar voice approached. He looked as though he were in his mid-sixties and far too skinny. Just as he suggested, the stench of alcohol hung thick around him, and his cheeks were ruddy, a bottle of liquor hanging from his hand. His eyes, intense, fixed us with a stare.

Eli and the others widened their eyes in surprise. And while I knew I shouldn’t let a sigh slip, it was difficult to contain.

“The same as ever, I see, drunk old Mister Rezzi.”

His eyes watched me suspiciously. “What’s this now?” he replied, sounding amused. “You that green, inexperienced boy from before? Come for another life lesson, hm? Also when’d ya get so many Roma kids, eh? You start workin’ on making them right after I met ya last?”

I felt my temple twitch. This is exactly why I’d gone to such great lengths to avoid meeting this old man. And Eli, why was she giving me such a chilly look and trying to distance herself?

~.~.~.~

I was fifteen when I first met Dr. Nikola Rezzi. It was back then that I was officially recognized as heir to the throne, and with it came a troublesome issue I had to wrack my brain over—the issue of my engagement.

Up until that point, numerous ladies from powerful noble houses within Sauslind had been offered up as candidates, but I had skillfully and discreetly nipped each one in the bud before they had the opportunity to gain traction. The other nobles didn’t look favorably upon the fact that I had been recognized as heir yet had no official fiancée, and before I could preemptively run interference, the next candidate turned out to be someone quite formidable.

The girl was the first princess of the Miseral Dukedom, a maritime nation to the southwest and the birth country of my grandmother on my mother’s side. We were only distantly related, and thanks to ceremonies between the two countries, we had met a number of times already.

She was touted as the Pearl Princess, the pride of the Miseral Dukedom, and her beautiful appearance matched that reputation. She was modest and graceful, quick-witted, and skilled at building a man’s confidence without being too intrusive. Truly the picture of the ideal princess. We were only one year apart in age as well, which prompted those around me to hound me over what I could possibly be dissatisfied about with her.

I, myself, couldn’t easily come up with a rebuttal. I barely managed to evade their interrogative questions with the pretense that using marriage to further solidify our relationship with a nation after we’d already done such in my parents’ generation (via my mother’s marriage to my father) could cause conflict with one of our neighboring countries.

Back then, I was always irritable. I felt a restlessness I couldn’t redirect anywhere. Elianna had been dragged back to her family’s territory, and each time I requested permission to see her, I was denied. If I tried to send a letter, they would respectfully refuse the envelope before it even reached her, saying, “We couldn’t possibly accept private correspondence from the royal family,” and the messenger would be sent right back to me.

Still, I remained undiscouraged and sent some of my subordinates to infiltrate the Bernstein’s house and gather information. Thus ensued a war beneath the surface—me vs. the retired marquess (Eli’s grandfather) and the current marquess (her father)—one so fierce that the ripples it caused could be felt on the surface above, disturbing any swans that might have otherwise been gliding there.

Under ordinary circumstances, it wouldn’t have been unusual for my father to utilize his authority and the heavy fist of the government to push things in my favor. However, while both he and the prime minister had been panicked in the beginning, they gradually began to watch the developments in silent amusement. In the end, my father even told me, “The day you manage to outwit Sauslind’s Brain is the day my retirement will be fast at hand,” making it clear he was calculating something using his son’s wishful love in the process.

It was already typical for someone my age to distrust adults, but that only heightened my doubt toward them. “Don’t you think they’re being utterly immature?!” Back then I had gone to my uncle Theodore to voice my complaints. Alexei (who was three years older than me) was studying diplomacy abroad; Glen was at the lower rungs of the military, doing training in some other territory; and I hadn’t met Alan yet. The only people left around me were those obsessively fixated on the power that came with being the next king.

My only saving grace at the time was my memories of Elianna from three years prior, before she was ripped away from me. Yet even on that front I was being mercilessly thwarted and couldn’t even get to her. She was twelve by then and hadn’t yet made her societal debut, but it wasn’t as though we were too far apart in age to be a match. Plus, I was a prince; there should have been no issue with our engagement. Yet when I tried to conduct a bridal inspection in the land neighboring the Bernstein’s territory, they would catch wind of it somehow and use whatever method at their disposal to have the location of the inspection moved to the opposite end of the land.

Word of my potential engagement with the girl from the Miseral Dukedom should have been kept between the senior statesmen and gone no further down the grapevine, but for some reason it had become the main topic of gossip for low-ranking officials. To add further fuel to the fire, those sly-faced tanuki had even feigned ignorance by approaching me to say, “Congratulations on your engagement, Your Highness.” I shouldn’t have to tell you that behind my taut smile, I was secretly sharpening a blade to cut down those annoying (Bernsteins) pests.

At first, my uncle merely stifled his laughter when I rattled off my complaints to him in his private room in the royal archives, but suddenly he turned serious and said, “Chris, aren’t you just being obstinate about this?”

Yes, I knew that already. They’d kept hindering me, so of course part of it was that I was getting stubborn. I honestly did think that Marquess Bernstein and his family were being incredibly immature, but I also realized that becoming engaged to royalty meant an end to a person’s future and their potential. I also understood that was exactly why the marquess and his ilk were trying to separate me from Eli while they still could. They figured it was merely young love that would fade with time.

“You don’t particularly have any issues with the princess from Miseral, do you? Isn’t it about time you moved on from your childish obsession?”

He didn’t have to tell me that. As a member of the royal family, I knew I had an inescapable duty to marry for political gain. Engaging myself to the princess of Miseral would solidify my position as crown prince, and I was sure the two of us could build a relationship of respect for one another as well. Obsessing over Eli was nothing more than pure selfishness. And yet, still, I couldn’t give up.

“I can never feel the same for her as I do for Eli,” I said.

Eli had been the one to smooth over the discord between my mother and me. I fell for her because her way of thinking differed so greatly from my own. I could tack on any number of excuses, but more than anything, the feelings I had for Eli weren’t something I could ever have for someone else.

My uncle gave a strained smile, troubled by my immaturity.

Suffocated by all the pent-up anger I felt, I gave my guards the slip and took only my long-serving chamberlain with me as I set out on a long trip on horseback. It was then that I spotted the Roma’s market and felt my memories with Eli come rushing back.

I was so desperate to get to know her back when we first met that our encounters were repetitive trial and error on my part, during the course of which I discovered her distaste for sweets. I had the admittedly childish notion that I might surprise her with a frog, but I gave up on the idea after I found her one day snatching up a grasshopper that had wandered in and setting it free outside.

“Elianna, is there anywhere you’d like to go visit?” I had asked, desperate to draw her attention toward me and away from books. I was determined for the two of us to venture out together and go somewhere other than a library.

In a rare display, she’d actually shared her own desire with me, saying, “I would like to go to the book market.” Specifically, the book market held by the Stars of Thistle once every three years. She went on to say that she wanted to at least see it once.

“Then let’s go. You can go with me!” I’d exclaimed, bravely inviting her.

But Eli had shook her head sadly. “My father and the rest of our house say I’m forbidden to go.” Then she’d explained, “My brother secretly went there before, and now father’s prohibition has become even stricter. He says we mustn’t approach the Roma.”

“Why not?” I’d asked, but even Eli hadn’t seemed to know the answer. And I was forced to realize that, at the time, my invitation didn’t carry enough incentive for her to break her father’s orders.

So when I saw the market myself, curiosity bubbled within me. I ignored the disapproving look from the chamberlain, left my horse behind and stepped into the market. That was where I met the drunk Mister Rezzi. I saw him getting in a squabble with some nobles and couldn’t stand by, so I stepped in to help. Then, for reasons beyond my understanding, he dragged a young boy like me to a pub and began guzzling alcohol.

At first I didn’t think this drunk old man could possibly be one of the Stars of Thistle. It was only upon talking to him that I discovered he was no mere alcoholic and was a veritable well of knowledge. When I asked his name, I was shocked. He had the same name as the author of one of my textbooks.

“It can’t be...” I blurted out, aghast.

Mister Rezzi snorted with laughter. “You sure are a green little chick. The world you live in is still far too narrow, fixed by all kinds of stiff notions. That’s why that girl’s father, or tanuki as you call ’im, is doing so well at shuttin’ ya down.”

The truth of his words made me grit my teeth in frustration. “How can I win?”

“Pfft, hell if I know. What kinda man are ya if ya can’t use yer own strength to take back a girl or two that ya like? Just makes ya a cowardly, spineless chick.”

Here I was a prince and he was getting in all the low blows he could at me. Granted, I hadn’t revealed myself, so it wasn’t as if I particularly wanted the old man to pay me respect or anything.

As I continued grinding my teeth, the old man sniffed and said something very appropriate of the Roma. “There’s a saying about stars aligning. One day, you and that girl’s stars will align...isn’t somethin’ I can say for sure, I’m no astrologian. But shouldn’t a young, green chick like you be usin’ the time ya got now to get stronger so you’re ready when that time comes?”

That made me revise my opinion of the man. Maybe he was actually capable of giving decent advice to a youth in need. And at the same time, I could feel that sense of impatience I’d been carrying ease.

Everyone thought my feelings for Eli were nothing more than young love—a childish obsession that would fade to mere memory in time. I even found myself conflicted, walled in between two sides: a side of me that wondered if they weren’t right, that I was just being swept along and these feelings would eventually disappear, and a side of me that held so stubbornly to my emotions for her. This was the first time anyone had told me it was okay not to give up my fixation on her, and with that, the storm of irritation quieted as well. At least I was calm and could consider what I needed to do.

Right now I couldn’t win against those old tanuki with their hidden name. Instead, I needed to accumulate power for when the opportunity arose, so that the next time we met, we wouldn’t be ripped apart again. And this time, I wouldn’t fail to catch hold of her.

Now that my mind was made up, I turned down the engagement with the princess of the Miseral Dukedom in no uncertain terms. And, on the surface at least, I resisted trying to meet with Eli anymore so those tanuki would have no more reason than necessary to be wary of me. Granted, I was still receiving information about Eli all the time behind closed doors.

Two more years passed after that as I waited for her to debut into high society, my carefully prepared trap set and ready—ahem, I mean, with the groundwork prepared so that I could successfully install her as my fiancée. Those tenacious tanuki still forced some conditions upon me in return, but I figured it would be no problem to fulfill them now that I was mounting political power. At the time, I could never have dreamed that Eli had forgotten about me completely.

Incidentally, Nikola Rezzi took every penny I had on me that day to pay for his alcohol, on the pretense that he was giving me “life lessons.” Seeing my high class attire, he figured I was a noble he could weasel some money out of.

That day served to reinforce a lesson I had already learned before: don’t trust adults.

Chapter 4: The Infuriated Princess

I tilted my head at the mention of “life lessons,” and the elderly man who called himself Dr. Rezzi turned his quirky eyes my way and scrutinized me. “Hm. You that girl this little boy chick here was so desperate to steal back from those tanuki? Wanna hear some old stories about him? If ya wanna cover my drinking costs, I’ll be happy to tell ya some stories about ’em, some fact, some fiction.”

Some fact, some fiction? Tanuki? I blinked at the strange string of words.

His Highness cut in front of me. “Either type of story would be entirely unnecessary, Mister Rezzi. And don’t you dare try to sponge off Eli too.”

“What, now that your body’s gotten big, so has your attitude? Ah, or could it be ya just don’t want me tellin’ the girl ya like half-truths about ya so you’re actin’ all tough?”

“As if you would have anything more than tall tales to share with her anyways!”

Your Highness, you seem to be losing your composure a bit.

The old man merely cackled at the prince’s aggravation, which prompted Lord Alan to mutter, “This guy could get along perfectly with Prince Theodore.”

“Um... Are you one of the Stars of Thistle?” I asked. “My name is Elianna...um, just Elianna.” I hesitated over whether to use my family’s name or not. Paolo didn’t seem to realize as much, but nearly all adults knew that I was the betrothed of Sauslind’s crown prince. If I gave my own identity away, that would be the equivalent of revealing His Highness as well.

The old man expressed an altogether different interest as he peered over at me. “Young lady, have we met...” he began to mumble just before the prince cut in.

“At any rate, Mister Rezzi, I have something to ask. I would like you to take us to the Roma’s chief.”

“The chief, you say? What’s some Sauslind knight want with the chief? Gonna go in with your fists swingin’?”

I could immediately feel the seething hostility from the Roma men around us. In reaction, the two guards who had accompanied us were already reaching for their swords, but Lord Glen stayed their hands.

A sigh echoed from the prince. “No fighting, just talking. I actually had another matter to inquire about already, so this is the perfect opportunity to run some things by him. Be my go-between and think of it as repayment for mooching money off of me for alcohol before.”

The old man proceeded to mumble under his breath, “I only remember moochin’ off ya one time, this doesn’t seem like a fair exchange.”

But the prince ignored him and instead lowered Rene to the ground, patting the boy on the head as he said, “Rene, go on back to your mother. We’ll join up with you later.” Rene’s eyes wavered anxiously, but he gave a sharp nod. Although their time together had been short, a bond had already formed between the boy and His Highness.

My heart was feeling a bit heavy for some reason as I asked the prince, “Your Hi—Lord Chris, how did you become acquainted with one of the Stars of Thistle?”

“Huh? Oh... Well, you know. Things happened a long time ago,” he responded ambiguously, smiling. Was it something he couldn’t tell me about? “Let’s go, Eli,” he said as he reached to grab my hand.

I immediately pulled away.

“Eli?”

“Um... I believe I will go along with Rene. Your Hi—ahem, Lord Chris, please go on without me and do what you must.” It should have been my responsibility to deal with the matter since it involved my house, and yet I was being obstinate about putting distance between us.

I gave a small curtsey, then took Rene’s hand and left. A voice called out behind me in surprise, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to stay by His Highness’s side right now. Ever since we came to the Roma market, I had been surprised to find all these new sides to the prince that I’d never seen before. But as I saw those glimpses into his past, a past I knew nothing about, an indescribable anxiety seized me.

I could never know everything there was to know about another human being. Both His Highness and I had been born and raised in different environments. The reason I felt so despondent even now wasn’t simply because I wanted to know everything about the prince; I was just hit with this realization that there was so much I didn’t know about him, and it was overwhelming. At the root of all that anxiety was the fact that I still didn’t recall how we’d met all those years ago, which resulted in a lack of confidence in myself.

His Highness sighed in resignation as he watched me go and ordered the two guards to follow after me.

“Lady Elianna,” called Lord Alan, hurrying up behind me. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to accompany you as I’ve been given a task of my own, so please make sure to stay close to your guards.”

“Very well.”

Lord Alan gave a strained smile as he continued, “Please don’t keep everything bottled up. If you’re feeling anxious, make sure to share that with Lord Chris. If you don’t, Glen will continue to receive the brunt of his outbursts and go bald before we know it.” Lord Alan delivered that teasing remark before inviting Paolo to set off with him.

As I watched them go, Rene looked up at me. “Miss?” His voice was quiet, hesitant. A voice soon joined by others.

“Rene? Psst, Rene.” It was a couple of children, with solemn looks on their faces as they appeared from the shadow of some bushes, beckoning Rene with a wave of the hand.

He kept a tight grip on my hand as he approached them, pulling me along. The others cautiously darted away when he did. I followed their gaze and realized it was the two guards unsettling them, so I instructed the two to maintain their distance. Neither looked terribly pleased by my order, but at least without them nearby, the children were willing to approach.

“Rene, didn’t you guys get caught?”

“Where’d Paolo go? Weren’t you two together?”

The other boys, about the same age as Rene, pelted him with question after question. Apparently they were the comrades that had helped him and Paolo steal those books before.

“Well,” Rene began to answer in a cheerful voice, “actually some nice man helped us, so I’m all right now. He said he’d take care of my mommy, too.” His Highness had made such a promise earlier, after we left the eatery.

But as soon as he told them, the other children exchanged dark looks. “Rene... We want you to stay calm and listen. Earlier, after we watched you get taken by those noble-looking people, we went and waited for that mole noble and told him to stuff it. We wouldn’t follow his orders anymore since you guys got caught.”

“And then,” the children continued, with awkward glances at Rene as if they were struggling to find the words, “that mole noble creep suddenly started panicking when he heard that the people who caught you guys weren’t Roma. He told us not to say anything unnecessary and just tell anyone who asked that he’s a Bernstein. And even though he was supposed to take your mom to a doctor, after that he just locked her up in that mansion!”

“What...?”

“Sounds crazy, right? He was getting ready to burn the books too, saying he had to get rid of the evidence. We came back because we thought we should at least talk to the chief about what we saw.”

“We’re sorry, Rene,” said another, “for not being able to protect Marissa.”

Rene had gone pale, and I was just as shocked from what I had heard, my body trembling as I repeated, “Burn the books...?”

I had no doubt that this man had taken Rene’s mother as a hostage to keep them from saying anything that might be compromising for him. But to top that off, the man was planning something as barbaric as burning books to get rid of evidence?! He couldn’t even be considered human anymore. He was less than an animal—no, he wasn’t even that! This was the act of a fiend!

“Where is he? Where is this noble at?!” My menacing inquiry made the boys tremble in fear.

“I’ll show you the way!” Rene grabbed my hand and pulled me along. I followed without bothering to look back.

“Lady Elianna...?!” the guards exclaimed in surprise, but their voices were soon drowned out by shouts from the Roma children. The latter were wary of any non-Roma adults and were therefore acting as a decoy to obstruct the guards’ pursuit. I had been an exception apparently, recognized as a comrade because I’d been holding hands with Rene.

As much as I wanted to explain to the guards what was happening, I thought it more important we rush in there as quickly as possible to stop those books from going up in flames. The urgency of the situation had left me no time to consider my options.

We dove into the depths of the forest, close to where the Roma’s residential area was located, and it took no more than a couple of minutes for us to locate an abandoned mansion. The place must have been a noble’s private estate once; its exterior had fallen to ruin, but the overall structure of the building remained. Several men were gathered at the corner of the courtyard, an enormous pile of books at their feet. Judging by the atmosphere around them, those books might be burnt to a crisp at any moment, and I felt my entire body begin to shake.

Although I was short of breath from all the running we had done to get here, I still had the energy to jump forward and yell, “Stop right there!”

The men looked back, surprised at my intrusion. One among them, a man dressed like a noble, looked familiar to me.

Angrily, I thundered, “What you’re doing is absolutely barbaric, Baron Mole!”

“It’s Maudsley, not mole!” he snapped back reflexively.

In the first place, it was rare for me to attend events for the nobility. On occasions when I did, I never left His Highness’s side. So I only knew the man by his face, not by his name. And frankly, his name was utterly irrelevant at the moment anyway.

“Even an animal wouldn’t burn books,” I declared. “This behavior is absolutely inexcusable. You’re worse than a cockroach. Have some shame!”

“D-Did you say ‘a cockroach’...?”

My barrage of verbal abuse must have taken him by surprise. The baron flinched at my words, but I had no intention of taking them back.

“It’s clear now that you were the one abusing my house’s good name and manipulating the Roma children into book thieves. At least have the courage to admit your crimes and release Rene’s mother to us. If you are prompt, we may be able to show you some leniency,” I said.

The baron’s face went stiff as he spat back, “Your sudden arrival left me aghast, Lady Elianna. Pardon me for saying as much, but aren’t you merely imagining things? Or do you actually entertain the tall tales of children? And Roma at that. Wandering savages. Honest to God, I can scarcely believe that you—the betrothed of the crown prince—would involve yourself with that ilk and allow them to mislead you with their lies. This certainly is a troubling situation.” Gradually his lips began to curl into a greasy grin.

Undaunted, I replied, “Very well, then how would you like to explain those books there?”

“I purchased these myself,” the baron insisted. “Whatever I do with my belongings is my decision to make. I have no obligation to listen to your commands, no matter how much people refer to you as the ‘Bibliophile Princess.’”

“He’s lying!” blurted Rene. “He’s the one who ordered us to go steal those books. He’s the one who claimed to be a Bernstein!”

“And who would be daft enough to entertain the babblings of a wandering savage? And only a child at that. It certainly won’t be considered proper testimony. If you try to use that child’s words to spearhead your crusade against me, I’m afraid you will only damage your own reputation in the process.” His slimy gaze fixated on me. “How about we make an agreement, Lady Elianna?”

“An agreement?” I furrowed my brows.

The baron continued with an explanation, acting as if this were the most brilliant proposal ever. “I will keep it a secret that you, the betrothed of the crown prince, mingle among that disgusting Roma rabble. And in return, I would like you to immediately suspend your plans for that ridiculous facility. It’s simply unfathomable to me; thanks to the budget for that project, we’ve let business negotiations with the Bass firm slip right between our fingers. Do you realize that right now the Bass firm is embarking on a brand new line of weapon production?!”

His body leaned forward as gushed enthusiastically, “Our kingdom should establish a monopoly on that before they hand their goods over to another country! This is for the sake of our country’s future. That’s what you should be considering right now, Lady Elianna, rather than catering to those lowlives.”

Not a word of that made a lick of sense.

Everything that Baron Mole—pardon, Maudsley—said sounded like little more than incoherent babble to me. But there was one thing he mentioned that caught my interest. “Baron Maudsley, if we are to consider our kingdom’s future, we should utilize our budget not for the development of weapons with which to kill people, but for books and research on how to heal those who are ill. Our ancestors said it best. ‘Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.’ That’s not a route I think Sauslind should take. Thus, I must refuse your proposition.”

His face flushed with anger. “You speak so cunningly for someone who hides behind His Highness’s authority as if it were a shield. It seems I have no other choice but to force you to fulfill my request.” The baron’s private troops all unsheathed their swords at his signal.

I’d already lifted Rene up in my arms protectively and began inching back as they approached with their weapons raised.

“Enough,” rang a frigid voice.

The moment the owner of that voice appeared, the entire area came to a standstill. The baron hung his mouth open in confused disbelief, his troops frozen in place by the intruder’s glare.

This “intruder” was none other than the composed-looking prince, with Lord Glen and the guards at his side. Close by, I could also see the silhouettes of the children who must have guided them here.

“P-Prince Christopher...! W-Why are you here?!” The baron’s voice hitched in confusion.

His Highness smiled curtly. “Come now, Baron Maudsley, you couldn’t have honestly believed I would let Eli walk into a dangerous situation like this all alone.”

“I-I haven’t done anything! Your Highness, I implore you not to lend your ear to those Roma children! They’re wanderers who owe allegiance to no kingdom—a filthy lot who could turn on Sauslind at any given moment. As our wise prince, surely you must trust the word of someone like myself, a noble loyal to the kingdom, over rabble like them!”

“Leaving your protestations aside for the moment,” said the prince in a bitingly cold voice. His brilliant blue eyes fixed the baron with a chilling glare. “The biggest issue right now is the situation in which we currently find ourselves, with your troops holding their swords out at my fiancée.”

The baron started at the prince’s words, panicked. He looked even further backed into a corner now than he had a moment ago.

“It seems you also treat the Roma with derision, but one of my acquaintances is Roma and one of the Stars of Thistle. It is my duty to listen with impartiality to what he has to say as well.” His Highness gave the signal, and Lord Glen and the other guards moved to apprehend the baron and his private troops.

Baron Maudsley wailed in protest, like a child throwing a temper tantrum. “You’re naive, Prince Christopher! You don’t even understand what’s necessary for our kingdom!”

“Ah yes, I did forget to say one thing.” His Highness gave a menacing grin. “About the weapon development that the Bass firm is launching, the one you praised so highly. It appears they were tragically deceived. They put an old man on the project they claimed was ‘second to none when it comes to weapon development,’ but when they actually made the weapons based on that man’s blueprints, they were all useless and defective. Bass failed to notice and mass produced the weapons anyway, regrettably resulting in bankruptcy. That same old man then ran off on them after charging up an exorbitant bill for alcohol. Some elderly men out there certainly can prove to be quite troublesome. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“No, that couldn’t possibly...!” That story seemed to be the final blow on the baron. He put up no more resistance and instead looked like a soulless shell.

“What’s this?” A carefree voice filtered in. It was Lord Alan, together with Paolo and the capital’s mobile patrol force in tow. “Oh. The arrest has already concluded? I don’t get any stage time?”

“You’re late,” said the prince sharply.

Lord Alan fussed back quietly, “I actually hurried as quickly as I could.”

“Eli.” His Highness turned toward me and approached.

I recoiled in surprise. He had warned me plenty of times, and yet I had gone off on my own anyway. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was disappointed or cross with me.

“Good God,” he said with a sigh, reaching his hand out to draw me close, gently wrapping his arms around me. The feel of his warmth and the rhythm of his pulse at my ear made my heart pound as well. “I really can’t take my eyes off of you. There aren’t many princesses out there that would charge in to face the villain without their prince.” He laughed in amusement and added, “You really haven’t changed at all.”

Timidly, I ventured, “Um, are you not angry with me?”

His brow quirked. “Do I look angry?” His serious blue eyes stared back at me, and I could tell for certain that he was.

Before I could apologize, Paolo cut in. “Rene!” The boy in question was currently sandwiched in between my arms and the prince’s. “Marissa’s inside this mansion. Let’s go! She’ll be worried if you don’t go see her.” His Highness and I watched the children take off running, and we soon joined hands and followed.

Chapter 5: That Which Is Precious, That Which Can’t Be Seen

We found a woman resting upon a simple bed in one of the rooms. Rene recognized her and immediately raced toward her. “Mommy!”

The face of the Roma woman was so visibly emaciated that even someone with no medical knowledge like me could tell she was deeply ill. She looked up at the sound of her child’s voice and struggled to give him a reassuring smile. My heart panged at the familiar sight, which brought back memories of my past.

Rene stared back at his mother, fighting back the urge to cry as he told her, “I met a knight from Sauslind, an amazing one with the same blue eyes as me. I thought he was my daddy at first.”

“Rene...”

“He told me an old story about a blue-eyed boy and a princess. That princess taught the boy a spell to get rid of the magic that had been cast on his mommy. ‘That which is precious to you cannot be seen.’”

It was a quote from The Star Traveler. My mother had read it to me when I was young, but I didn’t recall there being a story about a blue-eyed boy and a princess in that book. There was something about that description that tickled at my memories, as if I’d had the same conversation as that princess with someone in my past...

Rene wiped his tears away with his sleeve the moment they started beading up, then he forced a smile for his mother. “I’m always pestering you to tell me stories about daddy. I know that’s why you came up with the story of the female dancer and the Sauslind knight. But actually, I...I’d already realized the truth. That daddy’s...not coming back.”

His mother’s eyes trembled with concern, but Rene reached out and grasped her hand tightly in his smaller one. “The knight told me that I can’t lose sight of what’s precious to me. So I won’t run from the truth, I’ll be just like the traveler in the book. I’m a Roma after all, and the blood of Stars of Thistle, the blood of those who search tirelessly for the truth, runs through me.”

Aha, I thought, feeling as if one of the suspicions I’d long held had been resolved.

Rene’s mother lovingly embraced him in her arms. My chest burned hot with emotion as I watched, reminded of my own now-deceased mother.

His Highness gently called out to the boy and smiled warmly when the two looked his way. “Sauslind began construction on a new facility just ten days ago. It’s to be a free medical treatment facility for the poor, staffed by healers and doctors alike, and it will be jointly used as an institution that specializes in medical research. The government will be overseeing this facility directly, so I guarantee the people employed there will have proper skill and technique. Roma like yourself have also been approved to use it as you wish.”

“Really?!” Rene’s eyes lit up.

“No joke?” echoed a shocked Paolo.

I, myself, was filled with both surprise and delight at the news.

Then His Highness continued, his next words utterly unbelievable. “The government will be overseeing it, but the supervisor is Elianna Bernstein. I am sure it will be difficult for you to trust nobility after the ordeal you just went through, but at least Eli is someone you can put your faith in, right?”

Excuse me, what?

“Your Hi—pardon, um, what in heavens are you talking about?” I asked.

“The free medical treatment facility.”

No, that wasn’t the part I was asking about.

The prince merely grinned at my bewilderment. “You’re the one who originally proposed the idea. There’s no need to actually be present and conduct business on site, but bear in mind the project has your name on it. When I spoke of it to the Roma’s chief a bit ago, the Stars of Thistle expressed interest in collaborating as well. I hope you’ll borrow their knowledge and strive diligently with the rest of our staff to further our medical research.”

I had no idea where to start with my questions or how, so instead my mouth just hung wide open.

The prince chuckled as he shared the origin of his idea, explaining that the two of us had spoken of it long ago when we first met.

One day, when we were younger, as I was immersing myself in books in the library, he asked me, “Why do you like books so much?” Apparently he was sweating inwardly at the time, debating how he should respond if I answered with either, “It runs in my blood,” or “Why not? There’s plenty lying around.”

Instead I looked up from my reading and, after a bit of thought, glanced around at the gaps between the bookshelves. “I’m searching for my mother.”

“Your mother?”

“Yes. My mother passed away three years ago. I have barely any memories of her. So I read the books that she used to love and wonder to myself what it was she so liked about them. Books such as...well, such as war chronicles. I read them and wonder, what would my mother have thought of this book? What did the author think as they wrote it? Then I reflect sadly on the people who must have perished in that war—how painful their wounds must have been. And I think how I wouldn’t want to experience the same. When I’m reading, it feels like a conversation between the author, my mother, and myself.” I stroked the cover of the book in my hands as I spoke.

Then I added, “I also can’t help but search to see if maybe there was actually a way we could have healed my mother back then. I wish there was a library made of doctors just as there are libraries made of books.”

“A library made of doctors?” His Highness asked in surprise.

I then glanced across the shelves of books once more. “We’re told the knowledge and techniques of doctors and healers are of such high import. Books have been likewise valued since long ago. The people of the past would have never believed we would make libraries as we have now. If we had a library made of doctors just like that, we might be able to find cures for difficult illnesses. That way maybe there would be fewer people like me—fewer people who have to cry and mourn at the loss of their mother.”

Once again, the prince was left shocked as I displayed a completely different way of thinking than his. He was too preoccupied with his own situation to think of anything else, glad that his own mother’s illness had been cured. I, however, had approached the situation from a separate angle, taking the feelings of others like me into account as I proposed a solution.

That encounter, His Highness informed me, was what made him realize how narrow his viewpoint had been.

“Surely I didn’t...” I started to protest, certain he was exaggerating.

But the prince smiled and shook his head, gently squeezing my hand in his. “I fell for the way you came up with ideas I couldn’t and how you empathized with others who were hurt and mourning. It has taken almost ten years for me to collect and equip people with the necessary medical and healing knowledge, but finally your dream is being realized, Eli. A library made of doctors.”

I was struck speechless, once again overwhelmed with emotion. His Highness was always treasuring the memories of our past and connecting them to our future. Memories that I felt pathetic for not being able to recall.

“Two months ago we began updating the medical resources in the Krug Region, and that’s partly what helped launch all of this. It seems that was why Baron Maudsley was masquerading as a Bernstein. No one in Sauslind would dare believe that a Bernstein would steal books. But he probably hoped that it would work with the Roma and deepen their mistrust toward the nobility, thereby damaging the reputation of the medical facility. But, as you know, your family is already infamous among the Roma for a very different reason, so the baron miscalculated.”

I see, I thought, realizing how the puzzle pieces fit together. The baron must have hoped that tarnishing the Bernstein name would ruin the plans for the facility.

Suddenly I remembered there was still one mystery we hadn’t yet solved. However, before I could voice my question, a dejected Paolo cut in, “What the heck, Little Lady? You said you weren’t sure if you’d call yourself his lover, but it’s painfully clear you guys are really passionate for each other.”

Immediately, the prince’s eyes began to gleam. “Oh? Did you really say that, Eli?”

“Um...you see...” I backed away, as if trying to retreat. A futile attempt, considering our hands were still linked.

“Well?”

I couldn’t escape his gaze. But then I remembered what Lord Alan had said to me before.

“Eli, tell me. Why are you so unsure?” His voice was so gentle that I felt all the more ridiculous. For some reason I almost felt like bursting out in tears.

I hesitated, but finally began to voice the anxiety I’d been carrying with me. “I... For days now, it has weighed on me. I can’t remember—I can’t recall when we met.”

“Eli...”

“I feel terrible, especially seeing how much Your Highness has treasured those memories...” Was I really allowed to call myself his lover when I’d forgotten our past? I clamped my mouth shut and choked back tears. Then I dropped my gaze to my feet. In the very next instant, I heard a cry of delight and laughter from the prince as he pulled me tightly into his arms. I looked up, breathless with surprise, and he planted his lips on my forehead. “Y-Y-Your Hi—”

People are watching, Your Highness!

“Eli! Elianna!” He spun me around in a circle. This was the happiest I had ever seen the prince, though I wasn’t entirely sure what had triggered this sudden change of mood.

Lord Alan and the others stood at the entrance of the room, exchanging looks as they said, “She broke him.”

“Eli, I’m so happy! I’ve never been this happy in my life. I never dreamed you were working so hard to try to remember our past!”

Pardon, Your Highness, but if you might allow me a question...what on earth is that supposed to mean?

I was utterly dumbfounded as His Highness fawned and fussed. Yet for some reason his positive mood was influencing mine, and my heart gradually felt lighter. Just how trivial had all of my anxiety been if he was this ready to accept me despite my poor memory? In fact, this whole situation had been yet another lesson in speaking candidly about my feelings with him in the future.

“What, so that was all it was, Little Lady?” Paolo interjected once more. “You were anxious because you’d forgotten your past with him? You know, all you gotta do is kiss once and you’ll remember.”

Oh goodness, did he just say what I think he said?

“That’s how the story goes, right? The prince just has to kiss the princess to break the spell on her,” Paolo said teasingly. He and the prince exchanged looks, grinning at each other.

“Well, you heard what he said, Eli. Why don’t we give it a try?”

My face immediately lit up, hot enough that steam threatened to rise from my cheeks. I struggled desperately in the prince’s arms. “No, that’s quite all right!”

Rene and his mother laughed, and then the little boy innocently asked, “What about the spell? The princess taught the boy a spell to break the magic on his mother. Can’t he use that same spell to help the princess?”

I gazed back into the prince’s twinkling blue eyes, and suddenly something snapped into place. The realization came so abruptly that I was left standing there with my eyes wide open, dumbfounded. “Spell...” I found myself staring at my reflection in his eyes as memories of that time, of that boy and the words we exchanged, came flooding back. “Back then...you promised you would teach me a spell the next time we met...” The image of the boy back then, his dazzling blond hair and vibrant blue eyes, lined up perfectly with the prince I saw before me.

The emotion in my eyes must have clued His Highness in to the fact that I’d remembered. “Eli...!” He beamed happily at me, and I found myself sharing in the joy as I smiled back.

“I remember now,” I said. Warm feelings swelled in my chest. Finally, I shared those memories too. We both grinned at each other, pressing our foreheads together.

After that, we left the rest to Lord Alan and the patrol, who arranged for Rene, his mother, and Paolo to be escorted to the medical facility. We promised we would visit in a few days to check in, then we took our leave and briefly returned to the Roma’s residential area. There, we returned the books that Baron Maudsley had stolen via the Roma children.

Along the way, I broached the topic of my house’s connection with the Roma, and His Highness explained, “Apparently it started with Fred’s mischief nine years ago.” He gave a bitter smile as he began to recount the astonishing tale he’d heard.

When my brother broke our father’s rules and ventured to the Roma market nine years ago, he had been elated to see the mountain of books there. Just as I had done this time, he began buying up all the good tomes he could get his hands on. Unfortunately, since he was still a young boy, he barely had any coin on him. When the little he had dried up and he was at his wits end over how to come up with more, a rowdy bunch of boys approached and mischievously challenged him to a bet. Apparently dice gambling was popular among noblemen, though I knew very little about it myself. The common people also frequently engaged in it for sport.

The boys had teased my brother, saying, “If you win against us, we’ll give you some money to buy your books. But if you lose, you have to strip off that expensive-looking clothing of yours and give it to us.” The boys had singled him out, figuring him a noble by his appearance, but they had miscalculated. My brother displayed an unbelievable talent for gambling and beat them again and again until he’d relieved the boys of a substantial sum of money.

“My goodness,” I said in astonishment, midway through the tale. I never knew my brother was possessed of such abilities.

The prince stifled his laughter and continued the story.

In the end, my brother even challenged the boss running the gambling house, and when he won, he instantly became famous among that rowdy Roma bunch. Ever since, the idea that you should “be especially careful if someone calling themselves a Bernstein appears” began to proliferate among the Roma. My father was likely privy to the truth of the situation, and that was why he even more strictly forbade us going.

I stood there flabbergasted, my jaw agape for what could have been the hundredth time that day (I’d lost count).

Lord Glen, who had accompanied the prince to hear this tale the first time from the Roma chief, swore, “Fred is the one man I will never, ever gamble with.”

When we at last returned one of the books to the elderly Dr. Rezzi, the conversation took yet another surprising turn. “Young lady, I thought I’d seen you somewhere before. You look just like this noble woman who came riding in to see us a couple decades back.”

“Pardon me?” I asked, blinking.

It all started twenty long years ago, he informed me, when a nobleman rode in and hit it off with the Stars of Thistle. The man had possessed such knowledge that he stood shoulder to shoulder with the group’s scholars. Immediately, they began comparing their knowledge, immersing themselves in passionate conversation about different treatises. They lost track of time in the process and a whole night went by.

The next morning, a pregnant woman rode in. Her face was sick with worry, since the man had stayed out without sending any word to her. When she found him, she gave him a painfully long lecture. The sight of this man, whose wealth of knowledge put him on equal footing with the best of them, being humbled by his wife became a legend among the Stars of Thistle.

Dr. Rezzi had a look of amusement on his face as he recalled the incident. “Never saw him since, so I wondered if that wife of his forbade him from ever comin’ back.”

Oh dear, I thought to myself. I had to force myself to keep my mouth shut since the old man’s description sounded exactly like someone I knew.

The prince had a devious smile on his face as he mumbled, “Now I can finally have my revenge on that tanuki.” I had no idea who or what he could be referring to, however.

At the end of the conversation, I saw my opportunity at last and asked Dr. Rezzi about one of the suspicions I had. “The Star Traveler is a story written by the Stars of Thistle, isn’t it?” I could feel the prince’s gaze on me as I stared back into the old man’s eyes. “Little Rene said it himself. ‘The Stars of Thistle are those who search tirelessly for the truth.’ The reason the content of the story changes by time period and country of origin is because the Stars of Thistle are noting down historical facts of that period, yes?” Facts, I suspected, that were seen as inconvenient to those wielding power at the time.

I stared into his eyes—eyes that shone with a wisdom that could not be dampened by alcohol—and they gazed back at me, as blindingly bright as a star in winter. It felt as though every part of me were being scrutinized. After a few moments, he gave a small snort. “You really are that man’s daughter, eh? Every person who ever has or ever will discover the truth of the Stars of Thistle always comes from the same family—your family.”

He glanced at the mountain of books and then up at the sky, speedily darkening as the sun set. “Long, long ago, my people defied those in power and refused to take part in research on ways to kill people. We were almost all nearly wiped out as a result, and those that remained abandoned the country to survive instead as wanderers. Ever since, we Stars of Thistle have gone against authority in our constant mission to seek the truth.”

Dr. Rezzi turned his attention toward the prince standing beside me. “There was a family similar to our people, one that those in power in Sauslind hid away. Either because they wanted to protect that family...or because they didn’t want to let them go.

“Hey, boy,” he said, a sincere note to his voice. “Those in power hold wicked aspirations, and when they try to get their hands on more power than they can handle, it’s always the innocent civilians that are sacrificed. Ya may also harbor that dangerous potential for committing such folly in you. Just remember the Stars of Thistle are watchin’ to make sure this girl’s power doesn’t become so overwhelmin’ for ya that ya drown in it.”

His Highness’s vibrant blue eyes and reassuring smile colored sharply with emotion. “I will engrave that in my heart as the dying words of a drunk old man. Though I cannot deny that I’m drowning in love for Eli,” he said, once again planting a kiss atop my head.

As I panicked, fumbling for words, the old man hollered, “Who said those were my dyin’ words?!” His voice was loud enough it echoed throughout the entire residential area.

Our coach on the way home was overflowing with books, leaving no room for Annie, who had waited for us with the coachman the entire time. Granted, she hadn’t been able to ride with us on the way here either, since His Highness had insisted on it being just the two of us. Instead, she was riding on Lord Glen’s horse with him. At first she had been nervous, having little familiarity with riding, but she soon changed tunes when she learned her partner on the journey would be Lord Glen. The man was popular among the ladies.

As for myself, I was so excited and eager over which book I should start with first that I didn’t even notice His Highness watching with a bitter smile on his face. It only seemed appropriate today that I should start with The Star Traveler first, so I took the tome that Dr. Rezzi had given me in hand.

“Hey, Eli,” the prince said.

I glanced up as His Highness reached a hand out, brushing it over my curly hair.

“Why did you want to remember what happened so long ago?”

“Um... Well, you see, I just...really wanted to,” I answered nervously.

“Why?” he prompted gently, as if trying to ease my anxiety.

I turned my attention inward and began to express my feelings. “The reason I’m able to be at your side now is because of our past together. So I felt as though...I needed to remember.”

He gave a small, kind smile. “Ah, I see. I’m really happy you tried to remember. And, well, I guess I’ll be frank with you too... I was actually really anxious at first too.”

I blinked in surprise.

His own blue eyes clouded slightly as he recalled the past. “I am sure you already know this, but my mother was almost like a different person when her illness was cured. I understood that her situation forced her to become the way she had... But still, I was anxious. People change. I worried that no matter how I treasured our past memories or how strongly I felt for you, you would still change while we were apart.”

“Your Highness...”

The darkness in his eyes disappeared, and I now found myself reflected in them as he gazed straight back at me. “But nothing about you had changed. You’re the same ‘Bibliophile Princess’ that I remember. These past four years I watched you remain true to who you are while maturing at the same time, and it made me fall for you all over again.”

I could feel my cheeks immediately begin to heat up. The prince was trying to say that, while the meeting that sparked our relationship all those years ago was precious, he also wanted to remind me that the four years we’d spent as an engaged couple together were just as important.

I didn’t want to leave his feelings for me unanswered, so I stifled my embarrassment and stared back earnestly into his blue eyes. “I as well. In these four years, you have become even more irreplaceable to me than books.”

“Eli...” He smiled and caressed my cheek.

As I gazed back into the cloudless blue of his eyes, I found the boy that I had met so long ago. Those memories we shared together were almost like... “A treasure. It’s like I’ve found a treasure.” As he blinked in surprise, I asked him, “That day, you promised you would teach me a secret spell. Will you share it with me now?”

His smile broadened as he leaned closer, close enough for me to feel his breath against my skin, and he quietly whispered the spell. He grinned in satisfaction when he saw my face go red and placed a sweet, gentle kiss on my lips.

The gaps between the bookshelves were dark and poorly lit, almost like a labyrinth. The boy navigated the turns as if he were some kind of adventurer. Trapped deep within this forest of tomes was a princess. The princess had fluffy hair and stood out brightly even against the darkness. No matter how the forest tried to cloak her from view, he could always find her.

Today was no different; he found the girl immediately and approached as she continued to read her book. Then he quietly whispered a spell to her, “You’re my treasure.”