Chapter 42 - Chapter 42

At Siervian's urgent outburst, Marco stopped in his tracks.

Going down on one knee politely, he looked at the princess and asked in reflex.

"Your Highness. Do you mean, something like money…"

"Yeah. Money!"

Marco had asked reflexively due to habit, but in fact, he wasn't expecting much.

[ Marco William ]

Thoughts: You're still young, so you probably don't even understand the concept of money…

This was true, and at this, Siervian grimaced.

But to other people, she looked like she was cutely sulking.

"Ahem, um. I implore you, Your Highness, but there must be a better teacher out there for the Princess."

[ Marco William ]

Favorability: +30

Thoughts: If it's 5 million, then I might give some time to think about it, but… Eyy, no way. Let's not bring it up.

Fortunately for Siervian, a hint came up in his status window.

There it was. She could raise the right number for Marco!

"No! Sebi can really give money!"

"…Is that so?"

Seeing Marco's face crumpled again, Siervian grew impatient.

She quickly brought up her cute fingers and spread them wide.

It would be better if she gave him double, right?

"Thwis… Thwis much."

Marco's eyes widened as he looked at Siervian, who was holding up all ten of her fingers.

Watching his reaction, she shouted firmly.

"Ten miwwion!"

Marco stayed silent for a moment, even at Siervian's desperate cry. This made her hesitate for a moment, wondering if it was enough.

Then.

[ Marco William ]

Favorability: 10,500 (new!)

The status window shone brilliantly. Siervian tilted her head to the side because this was something she had never seen before.

His favorability had just been 5,030 before, meaning it was only a marginal favorability for her, but then it nearly doubled in that one instant.

"I dedicate my true loyalty to you, Your Highness."

At that moment, accompanied by a shimmering light around him, Marco knelt down more politely than he did before.

"Umm…"

Though she was a child, Siervian was part of the imperial family, so it was natural for her to be at the top of this hierarchical society.

Even so, Marco thought time and time again. The best liege was a liege who would take care of him with a lot of money.

"Then, what is Your Highness' first command?"

Marco, who was previously determined to run away earlier, was now showing great enthusiasm.

That's why Siervian could only nod back with a puzzled face.

In any case, much easier than she thought it would be, she found someone who'd teach her about money.

The social season was now in full swing.

Siervian hated this season of the year, but there was still one thing she was looking forward to.

The spring picnic.

"What do you have in mind, Princess?"

Jane asked her, as she carefully combed the child's black hair.

"Nothing much."

With the princess being deep in thought like this, her cheeks looked oh so puffier than before.

When Jane first entered the Princess' Palace, the first thing she wanted to do was to feed the princess ten meals a day.

"What would you like to do today?"

"Umm."

Perhaps she had an exciting plan in mind, but Siervian mumbled as she mulled over it.

As more people actively communicated with her, Siervian became more talkative.

Her pronunciation had also become clearer as the words she used to express her intentions also became more detailed.

'I want to go to the spring picnic.'

And as she planned things with a much clearer thought process than Jane would realize, Siervian was lost in thought.

The millenary garden, which was surrounded by a magic circle, had always been the number one place that everyone would like to go to in the empire during spring. And spring picnics were customarily held there.

'I want to see the sephinel flower…'

The sephinel flower was a legendary flower that blooms only once every millennium, but it was easy to find it at the millenary garden.

It was one of the achievements of the first emperor that the sephinel flower's existence would become natural. Since time was stopped inside the millenary garden for the flowers, any blossom that should have withered in a week's time could bloom forever in there.

Since then, the garden with the sephinel flowers began to be called the 'millenary garden'.

'I want to observe one closely.'

A sephinel flower looks like a long, purple lily, and it boasts of a mysterious appearance.

Besides that, the reason why the first emperor had stopped time inside the garden was one of the common themes of the empire's poems and ballads.

It's said that the millenary garden was the first emperor's gift to his empress, who loved the sephinel flowers the most.

'What an amazing magic spell.'

The garden had a legend for lovers, but it's also very famous amongst mages because of the temporal stasis spell.

It's also amazing that it's a place where spring could be experienced, since in the first place, it had been impossible for spring to come to the north.

'Sephinel was originally just a legendary flower, but it became a symbol for romance because of that story…'

Of course, the story wasn't very important to Siervian because she just likes the sephinel flower by itself.

'Will it be open this year?'

The millenary garden was under the imperial family's ownership, and it was open to the public only during the social season.

The garden was also an effective way to show off the dignity of the imperial family while using it as a venue for high society's gatherings.

However, in her previous life, Siervian had never 'officially' been to the millenary garden.

'Now that I think about it, I think Father stopped allowing the nobles to come when I was about twelve years old.'

Recalling this strange fact, Siervian's expression darkened.

Siervian had not asked for much in her previous life, but the one thing she had insisted on many times was to see the millenary garden.