“This, doll?”

Latifa asked blankly.

“Mother said so. She said I should take you since there’s no need for extra hands in her palace anyway.”

Latifa quickly looked around and realized this indeed did not seem to be Caleb’s private property.

‘Am I still in the royal palace? Where did General Hades go?’

Confused, Latifa asked Asti.

“Um, P-Princess? I’m not sure what’s going on here. Where am I? Why am I here?”

“Huh? Did you hit your head? Birdbrain?”

Instead of Asti, the black bird spoke, raising its small foot to scratch its head.

No, anyone can see you’re the birdbrain.

Normally she would have retorted, but now figuring out the situation was the priority.

“You were injured by a polearm to the shoulder. And you became a maid in my mother’s palace. And you became my doll!”

Wasn’t a lot skipped in the middle there?!

While Latifa was bewildered by the very brief explanation, the princess, Asti, clung tightly to her side and grabbed a handful of her disheveled silver hair.

“Ow! That hurts!”

“I’ve always wanted an imperial doll! I saw the Golden Princess at the Iota palace and she was so pretty! I’ll brush your hair and dress you in pretty clothes, Latifa!”

As Asti spoke with a giggle, the black bird also chimed in with a chirp.

“Black clothes would suit her white hair, Asti.”

“It’s not white, it’s silver, Tatkan. But you’re right, black fabric would look good!”

Asti replied to the black bird called Tatkan as she sat down next to Latifa and began braiding her hair into three strands.

“Say, what kind of clothes did you wear in the empire? I love pretty clothes more than anything in the world! They said I could change your clothes once your shoulder is a bit better. For now I can only brush your hair, but soon I’ll dress you in the prettiest clothes!”

She seemed to be still young, mixing formal and casual speech patterns used by nobles.

Latifa managed to organize her confused thoughts and asked her.

“Um, Princess, do you know where General Hades or Prince Ruhan might be?”

“Blech. Hades!”

As soon as Hades’ name was mentioned, Tatkan made a retching sound with its beak.

“Blech, Hades!”

Asti also imitated Tatkan’s words and frowned.

Then about 3 seconds later, her face brightened again as she took Latifa’s hand.

“You know elder brother Ruhan? Are you close?”

“C-close might be overstating it, we’re just a bit more acquainted.”

“I seeeee.”

Asti flashed a big mischievous smile that looked just like a chubby kitten, really cute.

“You’ll have a chance to see elder brother Ruhan later. This is the harem palace so he can’t come in, but let’s go see him together when we visit Father later! Oh, I mean, let us go!”

Asti spoke rapidly and energetically, then suddenly realizing her speech lacked dignity, she hurriedly corrected her ending.

“Harem palace? This is the harem palace?”

Stupidly, Latifa couldn’t help but keep asking questions.

“That’s right. This is the harem palace. You were Hades’ Frau, right? This is my Frau, Tatkan. He’s a mynah bird. He speaks extremely well. And he’s smart too.”

“I am Tatkan. I’m a mynah bird. I speak extremely well. I’m Princess Asti’s Frau.”

“Ah, a m-mynah bird. So that’s why you can talk.”

Tatkan imitated Asti’s words in a woman’s voice.

Latifa had read in books that mynah birds could imitate human speech, but this was her first time seeing it in person.

It was a fascinating experience to be able to talk to an animal without using her ability.

“To think you were that mad dog Hades’ Frau of all things.”

Asti rested her chin on her hand and leaned against Latifa’s bed, her eyes shining.

“I hate that man. He always calls me the pig princess when he sees me. He’s truly insolent!”

‘Ah, so Asti is the pig princess Hades mentioned…!’

Remembering how Hades had briefly mentioned a pig princess recently, Latifa let out an awkward laugh.

“P-pig… Ahaha…”

“The mad dog is insolent to Asti! Give him a caning!”

Tatkan flapped his wings angrily beside them.

‘She’s just a bit chubby, not quite a pig.’

As expected, Hades was a ruthless man who cruelly called even a young and cute princess a pig.

Asti sighed and poked Latifa’s wrist firmly.

“This Ignite bracelet offends my aesthetic sense beyond tolerance. I want to throw it away, but then Hades would glare with his eyes in triangles and swing his sword around, wouldn’t he?”

At those words, Latifa raised her wrist to look at the golden bracelet fastened there.

‘It’s General Hades’! Exactly the same as the one he gave me! But where on earth is he? I have no idea what’s going on!’

Asti rolled her body again and spoke cheerfully from near Latifa’s feet.

“But that anklet is really pretty! Even such an uncouth person has some taste! Though he’s still the mad dog Hades.”

“Anklet?”

Latifa tried to sit up to check it, but the pain stabbing her shoulder prevented her from rising.

“Ugh!”

“Latifa, hurt.”

Tatkan flew around the ceiling busily as he spoke.

“Ah, I said you shouldn’t get up! Just lie still! Latifa. I’m going to braid your hair now, so if you talk or move I’ll give you a caning!”

Saying that, Asti began to braid Latifa’s silver hair while humming a strange tune.

“Ow!”

“Oh dear, I said don’t talk!”

Of course, she wasn’t really braiding properly, just roughly pulling the hair and tangling it haphazardly into a mess.

‘What on earth is going on?! Can someone please explain!’

Latifa inwardly made a pitiful face, but had no choice but to lie still at the princess’s threat of a caning.

**

Hades was frowning with his arms crossed, as if displeased with everything.

Finally, as if he couldn’t stand it anymore, he stood up abruptly and said.

“Tell Master Makali to take good care of himself. Tell him to contact Caleb without fail when he’s better.”

“Y-yes. We will certainly convey General Hades’ words.”

As Hades stood up adjusting his robe, the two servants of Makali Trading Company in front of him bowed their heads nervously.

Master Makali was the grandfather of Karina, the Sultan’s second concubine, and the owner of a large fabric trading company prominent in the Grand Bazaar’s textile market.

Hades grumbled his complaints to them.

“It’s so damn difficult to see his face, harder than getting into a livestock market’s stables. If he’s been sick for so long, he should just die quickly or retire and step down. Why make people so anxious?”

The matter of Latifa had been entirely entrusted to Karina, the concubine in the harem palace, so he had come to negotiate with her grandfather, Master Makali, to persuade her.

But despite several visits, Master Makali, having received some instruction from Karina, had refused to even show his face to Hades, making various excuses.

Annoyed at Master Makali who refused the visit again today claiming poor health, Hades added in a low voice to the Makali Trading Company servants.

“Well, I’m not telling your master to die quickly.”

As Hades was leaving the reception room of Makali Trading Company, he knocked down a wooden elephant statue beside him with his elbow.

-Clang!

“Oh dear. A mistake. Why did you put it here? It’s in the way.”

The poor statue was no longer an elephant, just a ‘phant’ with its trunk fallen off.

“Tell them to hang it in Caleb’s private property. I’ll compensate for it.”

He coldly told the servants, whose faces had turned pale at the unspoken warning, then quickly left the place.

“Damn it. Makali mainly deals with silk… It’s not even made from animal fur, so I can’t threaten to withhold materials.”

Hades continued to mutter as he mounted the camel prepared by the servants.

“I have no connection to sericulture (raising silkworms, extracting silk from cocoons), so this is quite troublesome.”

Hades, who was about to start by gripping the reins, quietly stared at the golden bracelets remaining on his arm as they jingled.

Unconsciously stroking them gently, Hades was silent for a while.

But only for a moment.

“Hmph. I don’t even have time for this. She’ll go mad if she stays with that crazy pig princess any longer.”

Soon Hades hurriedly withdrew the hand touching the bracelets, snorting as he pulled the reins to drive the camel.

**

Under the bright weather, Latifa sat on the carpet floor with her legs crossed, wearing a dazed expression as she let her long hair hang down.

Her silver hair was already disheveled, strangely twisted in places, with gaudy hairpins and flowers haphazardly stuck in between.

‘Sigh. My head hurts so much I can’t feel anything anymore.’

On the floor, about three clumps of silver hair were already scattered, vividly showing how difficult the struggle had been.

Asti, who had been roughly playing with Latifa’s hair to the point of almost tearing her scalp, was now lying next to Latifa drawing pictures on yellowish-brown paper with colored charcoal.

True to her chubby build, she was very fond of sweets, and even while drawing she kept putting red and green sugar lumps in her mouth, chewing them so that her tongue was a colorful rainbow color.

Though it hurt, Latifa was staring blankly at Asti, finding her cute.

Coming to her senses and getting up, she heard from Asti’s maids that while the trial had ended well, Hades had to offer her to the royal palace as punishment for causing a disturbance.

That’s why she had come to the palace of Asti’s mother, Karina.

There was a 1-month grace period, but whether she could return to Caleb’s private property afterwards depended entirely on Karina, they said.

‘Should I just wait for General Hades like this?’

Not knowing what kind of person Karina was, whether she was on Ruhan’s side or Tarek’s side, the future seemed only uncertain.

Meanwhile, Latifa continued to be Asti’s playmate, enduring this embarrassment even while injured.

Humming as she drew, Asti spoke to Latifa.

“You know, Latifa. I have an arrogant elder brother. I dislike him second only to Hades. No, perhaps I dislike him even more than Hades.”

“Huh? You have another prince?”

At the mention of Hades, Latifa, who had been spacing out, unconsciously startled and slightly shifted her posture.

“That elder brother isn’t a prince anymore! He quit being a prince. Now he’s a quasi-royal working at the Artificium.”

“Artificium? What’s that?”

When Latifa asked, Asti’s eyes sparkled as she clung to her.

“It’s where they make the most wonderful clothes in the world! Gorgeous and pretty clothes, and necklaces and earrings with all kinds of jewels! I’m going to make things like that too! Look at this! Isn’t it pretty?”

“Genius Asti!”

Tatkan, who was grooming his feathers nearby, chimed in.

Latifa’s face stiffened as she looked at the paper Asti held out.

The drawing, which included not only the colors of the rainbow but also gold, silver, and black, was dizzying and bizarre even considering it was drawn by a child.

In fact, it was impossible to tell if it was supposed to be clothes, accessories, or some kind of monster.

Asti grinned and asked her.

“Latifa, isn’t this preeetty?”

Is she really asking because she doesn’t know if it’s pretty or not?

Latifa just shifted her gaze around, not knowing how to respond even with a white lie.