The boy at the counter next to them quickly nodded his head.

“He’s not my dad!”

Just as Sched’s lips turned cold, Eve, who was sitting on his shoulders, retorted in a sing-song voice.

The owner saw the customer’s face turn frosty and his own face turned pale.

Realizing that he had misspoken, he stuttered in embarrassment.

“Oh, no. Well, little one? Ah, I thought you were father and daughter because both the customer and you are so handsome and pretty…! But I guess you could be uncle and niece…”

“This mister is a king! I’m just a child!”

Eve frowned hard and tapped Sched’s shoulder.

Sched, who was hiding his identity, tapped Eve’s dangling leg below his shoulder at her overly honest remark.

“Why, mister?”

The clueless child widened her eyes and looked at him.

“We’re just neighbors, that’s all.”

Instead of answering Eve, Sched corrected the child’s words.

At his stiff tone, the owner awkwardly chuckled and spread cream on the crepe.

Fortunately, the owner didn’t seem to notice Sched’s identity.

“When will the crepe be ready?”

“We make these fresh to order, so if you wait just a bit longer, we’ll give you a piping hot one.”

“Then can we look around a bit and come back?”

If they stayed longer, Eve would surely say more unnecessary things.

At that, the owner brightened his face and nodded.

“Yes, of course! Take your time looking around!”

Leaving behind the crepe shop owner’s voice that had risen by a tone for some reason, Sched turned to walk away.

“Villain mister, where are you going? Are you picking again? Something yummy?”

“I’m going to buy lemonade.”

Sched had already decided what to buy and didn’t give Eve a choice.

But Eve also nodded excitedly.

“Lemonade? My mom likes that!”

“I know.”

Sched answered indifferently as if throwing the words.

And he moved his feet towards the children selling lemonade at a street stall.

Eve, who was riding on Sched’s shoulders, spotted her mother waiting for them by the fountain in the distance.

Staring blankly at her mother, Eve leaned forward.

Eve’s face suddenly came down in front of Sched’s face.

Sched, startled that the child might fall, quickly grasped the legs draped over his shoulders.

“Eve…!”

As Sched frowned, Eve asked with an innocent face.

“Villain mister. Our mom is pretty, right?”

“What?”

Sched’s eyes quivered at the sudden question.

“You think so too, right?”

Eve asked again as if interrogating.

Well…

“Why do you ask that, kid?”

“My mom is the prettiest though.”

Eve straightened up again and looked towards the fountain.

Sched’s gaze also followed the child towards the fountain.

Over the fountain’s scattered water droplets, the sunlight shattered, creating a small rainbow.

In front of it, she was sitting quietly, basking in the late afternoon sunshine, wearing a cream-colored dress.

At her waist, the silver self-defense dagger he had given her dangled like an accessory, glittering.

It was a terribly peaceful scene, beautiful like a landscape of paradise.

“Yes. She’s pretty.”

Sched chuckled.

Louise sat by the fountain waiting for Sched and Eve.

Past the scorching summer, the pleasantly warm sunshine now gently settled on her skin.

After enjoying the blue sky of the slightly cooler autumn, Louise turned her gaze through the crowd of people.

Sched, who stood out even alone because of his height, was easily noticeable from afar thanks to Eve riding on his shoulders.

Louise chased the sight of the father and daughter as if lost in a dream.

She wished this fleeting happiness built on secrets and silence would last forever.

It might be a bit anxious, but if it consisted of moments like this, living forever wouldn’t be so bad.

Did her father, Felix Ideana, also feel this happiness while looking at Louise? Is that why he chased eternity?

Louise bit her lip and shook her head.

No. The eternity her father pursued was clearly a different kind.

The curse branded on her was a monster created by ambition to seize the empire.

At that moment.

“Hey there pretty lady, out enjoying the festival?”

A strange shadow intruded on the fleeting happiness.

Three young men who seemed to have dressed up for the festival surrounded her.

Slicked back hair, fancy shirts, wide-legged pants, shiny leather shoes.

Louise glanced at them once and averted her gaze.

“I’m with someone.”

“But you’ve been alone for a while?”

One youth with a scarf smirked with his hands in his pockets.

Louise thought a rather annoying situation had arisen.

“I’m waiting for them.”

“Then why not play with us while you wait?”

While one spoke nasally, another spat on the plaza floor.

Louise took her eyes off the spit that clung to the clean floor.

“No thanks. My companions will be here soon.”

“Well aren’t you being haughty. Your pretty face is charging too high a price.”

The youth with the scarf slyly tried to take her hand.

Louise frowned and slapped his hand away.

“Stop it. I have a child, and a husband.”

When she glared at them in warning, the young men burst out laughing.

“You have a kid? And a husband? Then why don’t I see a wedding ring, huh?”

The youths pointed to her smooth, white hand.

Not wanting their gaze there, Louise clenched her fist to hide her fingers.

“We simply didn’t get wedding rings.”

“What? If you married a pauper who can’t even afford a cheap ring, dump that man. We’ll show you a better time.”

They were impossible to reason with.

They didn’t seem to believe from the start that she was married with a child.

“There’s a nice tavern over there, so let’s go together and… ack!”

Just as one youth grabbed her wrist, his body was lifted up and hurled across the plaza.

“Wha-what the! Oof!”

The other two, bewildered, looked around only to be shoved and knocked over onto the plaza floor where they had spat.

“You’re not a child, yet I can’t take my eyes off you for even an hour.”

In the middle of the fallen youths stood Sched, holding two glasses of lemonade in one hand.

On his shoulders sat Eve, holding crepes in both hands.

“W-who the hell are you…”

The thugs crawled backwards on their butts.

They had directly felt the strength of the hooded giant man.

Sched set down the lemonade and Eve next to Liana who was sitting by the fountain, and slowly turned around.

“Husband, I suppose you could say.”

With that inconclusive remark, Sched looked at Louise.

But that was enough to cleanly resolve the situation.

The thugs scurried away.

Eve, who was sitting next to Louise with the crepes, laughed out loud seeing that.

“Mom, isn’t villain mister cool!”

Eve pointed at Sched with the hand holding the crepe, more excited than anyone.

“Eve, the cream will fall!”

Louise quickly lifted the crepe that almost dropped cream due to Eve’s clumsy gesture and calmed her down.

“Right! This is for you, Mom.”

Eve held out the orange marmalade crepe she was holding in one hand to Louise.

Hurriedly taking the crepe that looked like it would fall, a fragrant and sweet marmalade scent wafted.

“Thanks, Eve.”

“The villain mister bought it! This too!”

As if to say there was no need to thank her, she shouted and pointed to the lemonade cup Sched had brought.

Only then did Louise remember that she used to like desserts with orange marmalade and lemonade.

The days she lived as a noble lady’s daughter felt so distant now that sometimes the memories from then would fade and become hazy.

Even the habits that were taken for granted.

Now Louise was used to tooth-achingly hard oat biscuits, sour turnip pickles, and curds that smelled of milk.

After Eve was born, Eclas gifted good ingredients, but a woman living alone without a chef couldn’t eat like a noble lady every day.

More than what she liked, she was curious about what Eve liked, and always accommodated that.

Living day by day like that, Louise forgot her own preferences.

The feeling of having your forgotten preferences discovered by others was bitter and astringent like over-brewed tea.

When Sched remembered her habits and tastes from back then like this, she felt like she was the only one who had changed.

He still remained in that brilliant and pure time, while she seemed to have come too far.

A path she had come that was too long to retrace.

Lost in thought, Louise suddenly scoffed at herself for overthinking so much about a cheap crepe and common lemonade.

A forgotten preference had simply come to mind, but these weren’t grand enough foods for a noble lady to eat either.

A flimsy crepe with a meager filling and lukewarm carbonated water with lemon juice clumsily squeezed in by children.

Yet the feeling was strange.

“Thank you.”

Louise thanked Sched with a bittersweet smile.

“Mom, hurry and try it! It’s yummy!”

Eve, who had already taken a bite of the crepe, smiled brightly with cream on her mouth.

Louise, about to bite into the crepe following the child, paused with the crepe in hand.

“Aren’t you going to have some, Your Majesty?”

When Louise raised her head to look at Sched standing there, he shook his head briefly.

“Not really.”

“It’s too much for me to eat alone. Please have some.”

“You eat first.”

Louise, who had been watching his reaction, took a small bite from the end of the crepe.

Despite its shabby appearance, the skillfully made homemade marmalade and the freshly baked hot crepe batter made for an excellent dessert.

A faint smile spread across Louise’s lips at the unexpectedly sweet taste.

It seemed she still liked orange marmalade after all.