Chapter 75: Supper Without Salt

Alpis was having the time of her life.

She floated three feet off the ground with a dozen kids hanging off her body, and every time one of them fell she caught them and tossed them back up, giggling harder than they did.

Prussia was not having the time of her life.

She stood against the wall, arms stiff at her sides, and watched the children the way she’d watch a pack of wolves. Then, with great effort, she crouched and reached out a finger toward the smallest boy, trying to be friendly.

"...Hello."

"AAAAH! SHE’S TOUCHING ME!"

The boy squealed with joy, his friends joined in.

A wave of sticky hands came for her, Prussia shrieked and leapt back like she’d stepped on a snake.

It made sense, though.

She’s never been good with feelings, especially her own. She kept them locked behind a stern face and a sword. Children were the opposite. They were nothing but feelings, loud ones, with no filter, and no idea what ’personal space’ meant.

For her, it’s a nightmare.

She tried again anyway, twice, and both times the children were too hyperactive, making Prussia retreat back to her corner with her shoulders slumped.

"...Haaah."

She slid down the wall and sat with her knees up.

"I am defeated..."

Then someone tugged her sleeve.

A little girl with two crooked braids and a gap in her teeth.

Sofera is her name.

She’d been watching Prussia the whole time and now she’d decided to come closer.

"Miss? Are you a knight?"

"...Not really. I’m a swordsman."

The girl tilted her head so far her braids swung.

"What’s the difference?"

Prussia straightened a little, and her voice felt alive again.

This, at least, was a subject she understood.

"See, a knight lives by someone’s orders. Any noble can become one if his family has enough money. But a swordsman makes their own principles. Only those who’ve truly mastered the sword can be called one."

"Wooaah."

The girl stared at her with huge eyes.

Not knowing what else to do, Prussia hesitantly reached out and tapped the girl’s forehead with one finger.

...Tap, the girl giggled.

...Oh? Finally, Prussia saw it.

Smooth, round, a little shiny, and very, very easy to tap. So this was what Adonis saw in hers. All the times he’d kissed it, and all the times she’d thought it was romantic...

Her eyes went flat.

"To think I find joy in something a child enjoys."

"Miss Swordsman? Have you ever killed anyone?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever killed anyone bad?"

"...Well, yes."

The girl’s face lit up like a lantern.

"Then you’re a hero!"

"I— What? No, that’s not—"

Prussia had no answer to that.

Nobody had ever called her that before.

Her fingers curled in her lap and her ears went warm.

"Uh-huh. Prussia’s the cutest, hottest hero there is~"

"...Huh?"

Adonis came out of nowhere and was now crouching right next to her, grinning at Sofera and tapping her forehead too, exactly the way he always did Prussia’s.

"See? Cute, right?"

Prussia touched her own forehead gently.

Sofera pointed straight at her and laughed.

"Miss Swordsman likes the prince!"

"...!"

"Weeee, Miss Swordsman likes the prince! Miss Swordsman likes the prince!"

The other kids picked it up and the whole room sang it.

Prussia flew to her feet, red to the tips of her ears, and started flapping her hands at them.

"Quiet! All of you! Be quiet!"

It only made them louder.

Adonis and Alpis smiled at each other, and neither of them said a word to help.

"Alright, alright, that’s enough, little ones."

An old man in a white cassock and a thin scar running across his face walked in. From the gentle look of his face, it’s clear he’s been taking care of orphans for decades.

"It’s time to go back to the church and have our evening prayers before supper. Come on now."

"Okay, Father Rill!"

The children dropped everything and ran for the door.

Prussia slumped against the wall in relief.

Father Rill turned and bowed his head deeply.

"I thank Your Highness and his companions. The children haven’t laughed like this in a long time."

"It’s fine. We had fun."

Alpis nodded proudly.

"Mhm, I love children! They taste, uh, they’re very nice!"

"...Alpis."

"Master, nice! I said nice!"

Father Rill chuckled, not quite sure what he’d just heard.

"I must help the sisters prepare them. But I hope you’ll stay for supper?"

"We’d be glad to."

An hour later, supper was ready.

The orphanage was big, so they cooked in huge cauldrons, enough to feed a small army. Long wooden tables were pushed together in the dining hall, and the smell of boiled grain and vegetables filled the room.

Adonis ate a spoonful and almost spat it out.

There was no salt, no herbs, no spices, nothing. It was a bowl of nothing.

But the table was full. Nuns, children, brothers of the church, all eating... every one of them had worked hard on this. Spitting it out in front them would be an insult.

So he swallowed and looked around.

Lady Noelle was eating comfortably.

Lloyd was doing the same, sitting at her side.

’...Are their tongues working properly?’

The children were eating happily, too, but they were used to eating unseasoned food like this.

Prussia and Alpis were also slurping away like it was perfectly normal, but they don’t count. Prussia ate whatever she hunted in the forest, and Alpis was a dragon who ate people. Neither of them have reliable tastebuds.

He took another spoonful and his stomach cried.

"Hurk..."

Everyone noticed.

Litha stopped chewing and pointed her spoon at him.

"It looks like the prince can’t eat our food."

"N-, No, no! It’s fine, really!"

Adonis laughed awkwardly and forced the spoon back into his mouth, chewing with pain and agony.

"Mmm! Delicious!"

Father Rill chuckled softly and shook his head.

"It’s alright, Your Highness. You don’t have to force it. Salt, herbs, and spices are expensive for a poor city like ours. Only the capital and the developed cities get such things. And the noble in charge of that branch of the economy has a great prejudice against the Church, so a place like Rensfell will never see any."

The whole table stopped eating.

Adonis didn’t know what to say, he looked at all those small faces, thin and a little hollow, and felt terrible.

’It’s not like I can walk up to that noble and tell him to open the spice trade for this city. Not even as a prince.’

The royal court kept the names of the ministers secret. It was so nobody would assassinate them, or try anything worse. He couldn’t even say who to ask.

But he could at least try.

"Father Rill, maybe I can talk to my father about it."

"Oh, there’s no need for that, Your Highness! Truly, we don’t want to trouble—"

"YAAAAYYY!"

The children had already started drumming on the table with their spoons.

"We’re gonna eat food with taste!"

"The Fifth Prince is the best!"

"I love the prince!"

"No, I love the prince!"

The nuns giggled behind their hands, and Father Rill gave up, shaking his head with a smile.

Far across the table, Noelle watched Adonis too.

She would’ve expected the First Prince to be the one doing things like this, being the Church’s closest link to the throne. But it was the prince everyone called a wastrel instead.

’Life can be quite funny...’

She looked at the empty seat beside Adonis.

’Perhaps I should go sit next to him. Sigh, I should have sat there from the start. But if I do it now, will it seem odd? Will they think it’s strange?’

She frowned at her spoon.

Still, she was happy she’d been right about the Fifth Prince, at least.

’No one who is loved by things as pure as children can be a bad person.’

[Ding! Noelle has developed +15 affection for you!]

Adonis just smiled and kept eating.

He was a little surprised this time.

It’s not like he’d done any of it for her, and he never expected a woman to fall for him over something any half-decent human being would’ve done.

The chair beside him was pulled out, and someone sat down.

He didn’t bother to look, it’s obviously Minerva.

Maybe not? Because the entire table had risen and bowed their heads at him, oh, it’s not at him.

He turned his head slowly.

Mother Euphemia was seated beside him.

She was elegantly taking off her veil, and long snow-white hair spilled out of it.

Her beauty was unreal and unequalled, so much so that everyone at the table was staring at her.

Especially the kids who thought she was an angel.

"You’re really pretty, Miss!"

"Your hair is like snow!"

"Are you an angel?"

Euphemia smiled delicately at them.

"Thank you, little ones. Now finish your supper, so you can grow up strong like your Father Rill."

The old priest’s eyes watered with joy, and he rubbed the back of his neck bashfully.

"I don’t deserve such praise, Holy Mother..."

"He’s not strong!" Litha said.

"Yeah! I don’t wanna look old and dusty like Father Rill!"

"He fell asleep in the garden yesterday!"

"CHILDREENNNN!"

Father Rill screamed furiously at them, and the nuns burst out laughing.

Across the table, Noelle had gone still.

She saw her mother sitting next to Adonis, and the wooden spoon in her hand creaked dangerously.

’Has she no shame?!’

Euphemia noticed her daughter’s stare and smiled at her.

"Noelle, how is the meal?"

Noelle looked away with disgust.

"...Hm?" Euphemia tilted her head.

Lloyd, meanwhile, hadn’t looked at Noelle in a full minute.

It’s an honor to sit near her, but from where he was sitting, Adonis was the luckiest man alive, getting to eat beside the Mother Superior herself.

Lloyd couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

He cleared his throat, and stood a little straighter.

"About the salt matter. My mother is the matriarch of the Halcyon Corporation, as you all know, one of the richest companies on the continent. She also owns the Halcyon Auction House. I could ask her to supply the church with plenty of salt, herbs, and spices."

He looked straight at Lady Euphemia.

She tasted her food, set her spoon down, and said, in a voice with barely any interest at all:

"Oh. How considerate of you."

"...Eh?"

That was it? He’d been expecting a reaction, maybe a smile or a hand on his shoulder.

All for her to sound so perfunctory.

Father Rill laughed uneasily.

"Uh, ah, that’s very kind, Brother Lloyd. And I don’t mean to sound discriminatory in any way, but isn’t your mother on the side of the peerage? The nobles fund her, and she sells exclusively to the rich. I can’t see how she would give us any salt."

"O-, Oh. Uhm. Well, there is that."

Why did he even opened his mouth? Lloyd thought.

...Pffft, Lloyd could hear a wheezing sound from the seat next to Lady Euphemia. Adonis was eating, trying not to laugh, with his eyes squeezed shut and his lips sealed the tightest he could manage.

Lloyd gnashed his teeth. "Tch."

Euphemia gracefully ate her meal, then she felt a shadow resting over her.

"Hm?"

She looked up, Queen Minerva was standing beside her.

"Can I help you?" Euphemia said.

Then she went back to eating, as if no one was there.

...Uh-oh, Adonis became a block of ice.

Minerva narrowed her eyes, hands on her large hips.

"You’re in my seat."

"And so?"

Minerva put on a sweet smile, but there’s a vein pulsing on the side of her head.

"Anyone with half a brain knows that wherever my dear stepson sits, that’s where I sit."

Euphemia’s side-eye sharpened at the Fourth Queen.

"I don’t like you sitting with this boy."