2. Golden Invitations Cannot Be Refused (part 3)
Marcella looked around, searching for a large brown mane.
The Emperor might have called her to harm her for touching his divine beast. If that were the case, Arthur’s unreasonable behavior in bringing her here would make some sense.
“Are you looking for something?”
Nell, who hadn’t said a word, opened his mouth. Thanks to that, Marcella’s eyes widened in surprise at his voice.
Nell tilted his head slightly and slowly looked around.
I was looking for your divine beast, worried it might attack me. Marcella moved her lips and swallowed.
“There are many types of flowers.”
Marcella added that the flowers were beautiful while nodding repeatedly to hide her true feelings. Then Nell stood up.
He walked toward the nearest blooming flowers and tilted his head.
“Many types?”
Why are you acting like you don’t understand? Does this not even count as many?
Marcella felt bad that her hard-squeezed compliment seemed to be ignored.
‘Marcella, the imperial palace has a huge glass garden that can hold 100, no, 200 people! And do you know how many types of flowers there are? It’s the ultimate luxury with all the beautiful flowers in the world gathered together.’
When her sister said such things, she thought it was another lie to tease her. But Marcella realized her sister’s words weren’t lies. And seeing the ultimate luxury with her own eyes, Marcella agreed with her sister’s words.
“Do you think there are few types?”
But it seemed insufficient for the Emperor’s palace. Marcella looked at the well-maintained, fresh flowers and frowned slightly.
The Emperor’s greed seemed endless. Well, that’s why he eliminated and brought down his own blood relatives to become emperor.
“Looking closely, I can see now. It’s not just one, but different flowers.”
The furrow in her slightly frowning brow deepened.
Marcella watched him, wondering what he was suddenly talking about. He spoke as if he had just learned this.
“You’re not saying you thought there was only one type of flower here, are you?”
That’s a lie, right? Marcella looked at him suspiciously. Then Nell, who had been looking at the flowers, turned his head to look at Marcella.
“Since I can distinguish colors, I knew there were roses of various colors.”
“No. I’m not talking about roses—there aren’t only roses here.”
“……”
“This is confusing. You’re trying to tease me, aren’t you? If so, please stop. I’ve been surprised enough.”
Though Marcella said this, Nell still looked puzzled. Marcella looked at him suspiciously, then suddenly stood up and went to his side.
“What Your Majesty is saying is that you thought roses and tulips were the same thing.”
“Which ones are tulips?”
The owner of the glass garden couldn’t even distinguish tulips! To display such luxury with so many flowers yet not even know their names? Marcella couldn’t understand.
She pointed to different flowers with her finger.
“Surely you couldn’t not know this flower too.”
“…Is it a rose?”
“You do know roses properly. I’m relieved.”
Nell had just said the only flower name he knew, and in fact, he didn’t know if it was really a rose or not.
Still, since Marcella, who had been shocked at his ignorance, was relieved, he thought he had answered correctly and raised his head.
The glass garden, being made entirely of glass, made it easy to look outside, and the same was true from outside.
Nell spotted someone watching them with a telescope from the top floor of the south palace. It was Arthur.
Arthur was holding a telescope with his right hand and making hand signals with his left.
“Then do you know what this flower is?”
At Marcella’s question, Nell, who had been watching Arthur’s gestures, turned his head.
Marcella looked to see what he had been watching, but it was too far to confirm with the naked eye if anyone was in the south palace.
Why was he looking at nothing? Marcella looked around curiously.
“Another colored rose.”
“No. This is a ranunculus, Your Majesty.”
“Ranan?”
“Ranunculus. It does look similar to roses.”
Marcella approached the pink ranunculus.
Seeing how much care the person tending to this must have put in, Marcella felt sad.
Even though they bloomed so prettily, the owner, who should be delighted, didn’t even know what these flowers were and thought they were all the same—for whom did these flowers bloom so beautifully?
Nell furrowed his brow, comparing what made roses different from this ranan-something. To him, they were just ‘flowers’—things with petals and leaves that looked like roses.
He had never observed flowers this closely before and had no interest in them. It wasn’t as if he had become emperor because he wanted this glass garden.
Nell, who had been seriously looking at the flowers, suddenly felt a gaze and raised his head. Arthur was gesturing more urgently than before.
Feeling that wasn’t enough, he was flailing his whole body, but it was hard for Nell to understand.
Meanwhile, Arthur was dying of frustration. Give her flowers! What’s so difficult about that! No matter how much this was his lord whom he had sworn to serve for life, this was incredibly frustrating every time.
“He won’t understand. Even if he did understand, he wouldn’t know why he should give flowers.”
Tamarin, who was forbidden from going within twenty paces of Marcella, giggled and mocked Arthur.
“It’s not like you to hope Nell will do well on his own, Arthur.”
“Am I expecting too much from His Majesty?”
“Way too much.”
When Phoenix and Tamarin gave him non-comforting comfort while mocking him, Arthur sighed deeply and raised his head.
“It’s within the expected range. Let’s move to the next step.”
When Arthur snapped his fingers, a man dressed as a gardener stood before him.
When Arthur nodded, he took pruning shears and a bucket and ran to the glass garden.
When the man disguised as a gardener quietly entered the glass garden, Nell raised his head.
The gardener flinched when he met the Emperor’s eyes but smiled as harmlessly as possible and approached them.
Nell saw Arthur pressed against the window desperately making hand signals and looked at the gardener again.
“Do what he wants you to do!”
“You think shouting from here will reach there?”
“Earnest feelings might reach him.”
“To Nell?”
Tamarin giggled and mocked Arthur.
Arthur ignored Tamarin and sent telepathy to his lord using his whole body again.
“If he offers to cut flowers for you!”
Arthur hoped his feelings would reach His Majesty. This was all Arthur’s strategy. Coming with the invitation while Teon Morris was away, bringing Marcella in a rude manner, deliberately putting the two of them in the glass garden!
It was all Arthur’s intention to sacrifice himself and highlight His Majesty’s relative kindness.
Wouldn’t it be perfect if he gave flowers as an apology? Arthur admired his genius plan inwardly while sending telepathy.
When Nell finally seemed to understand and nodded, Arthur was moved.
Before Arthur could utter an exclamation, he saw Nell grab the gardener by the collar. In the eerie atmosphere, before he could fall from the window, the gardener flew straight at him and knocked him down.
Arthur almost cried with joy at his lord’s perfect magical skill in casting magic to pass through glass and deliver the gardener precisely to him.
“I told you so!”
Tamarin clutched his stomach and mockingly laughed at Arthur like crazy.
Arthur, not wanting to see that sight, turned away and kicked off the gardener who had climbed on top of him.
“Get off me immediately.”
“I’m sorry, Lord Digory!”
Arthur gritted his teeth at his plan that had been anything but perfect and stood up.
“Wait, what happened while I wasn’t looking for a moment!”
Arthur’s plan had been for Nell to give Marcella flowers, but for some reason, Marcella was handing flowers to Nell.
Marcella heard the sound of a bucket and shears falling to the ground and turned around. Since Nell had already thrown the gardener after grabbing him, she didn’t know a gardener had been there and looked puzzledly at the suddenly appearing bucket and shears.
Had they fallen from the sky? It was strange. Even from the sky, it was blocked by glass. It was as if someone had thrown them.
The first thing that came to mind was Arthur Digory, who had laughed heartily after bringing her to the Emperor and then disappeared, but no matter how much she looked, his figure was nowhere to be seen.
Could it have been Nell then? But when their eyes met, Nell just tilted his head.
She didn’t know who it was, but they probably hadn’t intended for the Emperor to use these directly.
Though Marcella felt uneasy, she picked up the bucket and shears. The shears were frighteningly sharp. What if she attacked the Emperor with these—why would they leave such things?
Marcella looked at the Emperor while holding the shears.
“If there’s a flower you want, I’ll get it for you.”
Though she wasn’t good at gardening, she could at least cut a rose.
Marcella made cutting motions in the air while waiting for Nell’s answer.
“If you don’t want any, wait!”
Marcella was startled and threw down the shears, grabbing Nell’s arm. He was about to grab a rose stem.
“Roses have thorns—how can you try to grab them like that?”
“The thorns don’t seem that tough.”
“Don’t underestimate them just because they don’t look tough. Those thorns can easily wound Your Majesty’s hand.”
Did he really lack common sense? Remembering how he had tried to eat mushrooms raw before, Marcella looked suspiciously up at the blinking Emperor.
“You can’t!”
When Nell’s hand relaxed and he tried to reach for the rose again, Marcella grabbed his arm tightly.
It’s not like I’m telling six-year-old Tela no! How old is His Majesty this year? He became emperor two years ago at sixteen, so eighteen? One year older than me!
Marcella looked at him with incredulous eyes and shook her head.
“If there’s a flower you want, I’ll get it for you. Will this rose do?”
Marcella cut the rose with her clumsy skills she had seen over someone’s shoulder and removed the thorns.
She felt burdened by Nell staring at her intently. She was already worried because she had boasted about helping but wasn’t doing well, and having him watch made it even more difficult.
“I’m sorry. I ruined Your Majesty’s rose.”
Finally, Marcella sheepishly handed him the rose while apologizing.
Nell, who received the rose, touched the area where the thorns had been with his fingertips. The clumsily removed thorns were bumpy and ugly, but they didn’t prick his fingertips.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“Because I ruined Your Majesty’s rose.”
Making Nell repeat the same thing twice made Marcella feel annoyed. If he wanted to blame her so much, he could just say so directly.
But Nell, like someone in whom time flowed very slowly, slowly brought the flower to his nose and smelled it.
“This is the first time I’ve received a flower.”
Could this be called receiving? She had just cut a flower for him—originally all the flowers here were his.
Marcella couldn’t readily answer and hesitated. Saying it was the first time made her feel like she had done something tremendous.
“It seems I only receive from you.”
“…Are you talking about the lemon mushroom?”
“Yes.”
That was a very small token of gratitude compared to saving her life.
Marcella felt dizzy thinking about how she had given a lemon mushroom to someone she didn’t even know was who he was. It was fortunate he hadn’t gotten angry, asking how she dared offer such a thing to him.
“But Your Majesty also sent me shoes.”
“Shoes?”
“The gift Lord Digory sent.”
He acted as if hearing it for the first time, then made an “ah” sound.
“Arthur said something like that.”
“…As I thought.”
“As you thought?”
Marcella shook her head, saying it was nothing. As expected, the Emperor hadn’t given that gift. Why did Arthur Digory want to give her presents? Even lying about it.
“It would have been green shoes.”
Marcella was surprised when the Emperor looked down at her feet and murmured, thinking he wouldn’t know what Arthur had sent.
At least he seemed to know what had been sent.
“I-I’m saving them to wear carefully.”
Nell didn’t blame Marcella for her excuse, but rather that silence made Marcella’s heart heavy.
