Ise walked over to her uncle, when they were given the refreshment time.
" Uncle ! " She greeted him, settling beside him.
The other dignitaries are surrounding her uncle, even more than her father.
It's no secret that her uncle had greater power than her father. After all, the army is still entirely in her uncle's hands, while the administration powers are in her father's hands. Normally, in a situation like this, the man who had lost the throne or the man who had gained the throne hate each other. However, that is not the case with Frigia.
Andrei had always been of a soft temperament, and he trusted his brother above all.
Maxim is intelligent, for what amount of work he put on his younger brother just for satisfying his love, he helped as much in running the kingdom. There were no conflicts among them. It has come as a great surprise to Ise when her uncle has betrayed her father and taken the reins of the kingdom in future.
She thought she would see at least seeds of that resentment in her uncle, but there were none.
Her uncle is all too satisfied with the status quo and his life.
'Why ???' seemed to be the status of her entire being as she watched her uncle deal with dignitaries.
None of them looked like they opposed her father being on the throne. They were also very much satisfied with king Andrei.
Just what in the world happened between the time she left Frigia ?
What could have changed that it caused disturbance in an ice lake ?
Because, looking at the entire party, Ise is absolutely sure there had been an external reason strong enough to cause disturbance. Otherwise, Frigia would not break internally. The Frost's rein is too stable for such a thing to happen.
When only her uncle and herself were left over after some time, Ise pulled her uncle's sleeve.
" Uncle ! I will learn that technique you got for me too. Does it collide with supreme frost ? " Ise asked.
Her uncle looked at her in shock, before a thoughtfulness took over his face.
After some time, Maxim had his 'Eureka' moment, when he realized Ise may be correct. Void blade indeed does not collide with supreme frost in any way at all. In fact, it's even better, for supreme frost's cultivation locks spirit seed until seed itself upgrades.
Ise would have a long practice time, probably in decades.
A year or two delay doesn't matter when one is measuring time in decades. Ise may as well learn another technique.
"Indeed." her uncle opined.
Ise blinked her eyes at him, looking at him expectantly.
Her uncle had a face that said ' what ? '
" the scrolls would be locked at the end of the month. Only the royal family and the honorary office could enter the warehouse." Ise reminded him.
'Oh!' Maxim realized in shock Ise wanted him to bestow the scroll and give her the potion right now.
When did his niece become this proactive ?
In fact, just a week ago he was lamenting Ise's obedience, that she has too much of her father and mother in herself. A royal needs to be obedient to no one, but Ise is what one would call a saint reborn.
It's just her innate quality that is different from normal people. As a child, she did not eat sweets because they were forbidden to her. No matter how many they placed near her, even as a five year old, she was able to overcome the temptation.
At that time, he thought, she had great determination.
However, over time, he realized.. It's more that Ise does not think at all. If her father says 'don't eat sweets' she won't eat sweets. She just did not think about it at all. This kind of obeisance is different from 'resisting temptation'.
Now, finally, finally, he is seeing what he likes from his niece.
Thus, Maxim moved with all the alacrity in the world to get the void blade technique before it gets locked away along with royal treasures.
Her uncle tipped the maid there to get her a dessert in one of the side rooms attached to the main hall. There, Ise opened the scroll, learned it, and drank the potion.
From now on, she would have to ruminate on the knowledge to comprehend technique in her own free time.
Her uncle stood there, his face full of smiles as he looked at her. There was no intent of moving on his face.
" Uncle ! The dessert. " Ise reminded him.
" That.. don't you not eat sweets ? " her uncle asked her in shock.
" Indeed, I don't. However, you made the excuse of giving me a dessert to bring me here. So, A dessert must be ordered. " Ise told him, her face as innocent as ever.
To be truthful, her father forbade her from sweets, so she stopped eating them.
However, her mother felt bad for her, so she made the sweet pies get called meat pie names.
The fish bread she gets is a waffle filled with sweet cream.
Ofcourse, to her father, it's just bread, so it doesn't matter.
The red flame soup, which by all accounts sounds like a hot pot soup with fiery hot red pepper is a date syrup, full of sweet red jelly in the shape of flames.
Her mother is exceptional at subtle sabotage. It's a real loss Ise did not have her skill.
This time around, the victory cake is served, just as her mother must have wanted to give her.
It even had ' CONGRATULATIONS, MY LITTLE SNOW FLAKE ' written on it.
" Princess Ise ! The savory victory pie is presented. " The maid, who probably did not get the memo, announced solemnly.
Her uncle smiled with tongue in his cheek. Looking at the cake, it's filled with jammed truffles, victory chocolates, and candied snowflakes of various flavors. All in shapes of various animals, or animal meat colors. From a distance, they would look like meat bits, but from near, he knew it's chocolate.
Looking at the cake, he finally knew why Ise could keep not eating sweets as a child. It's because they were never called sweets !
More he thought about it, the more funny Maxim Frost felt. He had never known Nora is this kind of devious. Or did she learn this after marrying that bore, Andrei ?
All the same, he is starting to like his niece.
She's a bit different from what he had known, and he liked her all the more for it.
After the meal, a night of rest is given to all the candidates.
This is again, a ritualistic night, with only young children.
Thus, the families gathered once more, sending the children off into evernight campground, which is the elevated plateau underneath the Reotanarch mountains.
The families are camped just outside the candidate's camps.
Tonight, the food in the camping ground is provided by the Royal family and it's an all you can eat buffet.
There was the standard victory cake, which is a tradition.
Then, there were whole roasted deers, pigs, with a thousand different sauces.
There's the sweet corn soup, as well as the ten different types of chowder, made with potatoes and corn alternatively, with some of the best tasting fish in the world.
There is bear's meat, served as steaks, with crisp lettuce, fresh from royal vegetable form.
Then, there are the mystery pies, which are stuffed with various meats and sweets, no one knows what type they are.
A group of children surrounded the mystery pie plate.
As Ise entered the camping grounds, she immediately become center of attraction.
" Your grace . " Elantra greeted, then, she stood besides Ise.
" Hello, Duchess Zephyr " Ise greeted back.
Neither said another word.
Then, Ise started walking towards the mystery pies, and Elantra followed her like a little bubblegum stuck to her feet.
Soon, some of the other children dropped by.
" Your grace ! Duchess " Ella Nikol, Elia Nicol greeted them, immediately started walking along with them.
" Your grace ! Do you want to guess the mystery pies ? " a question came from one of the unexpected places.
Leian and Ivan were standing there, in front of a round table filled with pies, looking like perfect opposites of each other.
Leian's hair is wild and black, his eyes sparkling black, his skin golden brown. However, his features are feminine oval face, and he is slender and tall.
Ivan had short platinum blond hair, light blue eyes, and a stocky build. He looked like most of Frigia's natives. His face is as masculine as it could get while staying handsome, with a square jaw, thick lips and strong nose.
Ise looked at her companions, which contained the ladies of highest stature. Perhaps that's why they joined her.
Though the class differences are not as imposed as they were in the rest of the continents, they do exist even within Frigia. A commoner may not be killed for falling in love with a noble lady or vice versa, however, that is subjective.
Thus, the only people Elantra or Nikol's parents would allow to associate would be each other and Princess Ise.
However, Ise wanted to break this status quo.
Thus, she walked to the table, answering the call of her gardener's son to guess mystery pies.