“I merely informed this uncouth person of the basic rules they should follow.”

Anette’s voice was assertive and unapologetic. Stella, feeling overwhelmed, sent Du-dul away, who was standing nervously while checking Anette.

“Leave this place; don’t bother about it.”

“But, Your Highness.”

“Go inside.”

Hesitating, Du-dul retreated as Stella insisted. However, as Stella had commanded, Anette couldn’t pretend to ignore the situation.

From a distance, three princesses were being watched with uneasy glances. Du-dul couldn’t make a move, feeling responsible for everything that had happened.

“You should be aware that this is my castle.”
“Ah, can this even be called a castle? It’s so old and shabby; I didn’t realize it was a castle.”

In response to Stella’s chilly question, Anette answered childishly.

Initially, when Stella first saw Anette, she thought of her as a princess who was greatly admired in her home country and here as well, earning recognition from other princesses. However, now it seemed that Anette knew nothing beyond that and was just a naive princess who believed she had to be the center of the world. She didn’t appear to be a better person than Beatrice, let alone surpass her.

Stella’s voice became even colder than before.

“Why did you come to such an old and shabby place? And without the owner’s invitation. Early in the morning, one after another.”

As Stella stared at her at the end of her words, Caitlin, startled, trembled.

“Moreover, you’ve ruined the flowers in the garden.”

The calmly continued words were directed at Anette. Stella, discovering the discarded flowers on the ground, questioned Anette with curiosity.

The root-pulled sapling, trampled by Anette’s crude step, had a broken stem, and the petals were crumpled and in disarray.

Despite being scattered on the ground, the flower petals of the sapling still shone brilliantly in golden color.

“I’ll take my flower back.”

Anette casually uttered shameless words.

“But this is the flower you gave me, Anette.”

Stella also spoke without yielding, but the problem was that Anette was far more shameless than Stella had thought.
“No, what I gave you was an unimpressive, lifeless brown iris. It didn’t shine in golden color like this.”

Anette, forgetting her previous condescending attitude, spoke rapidly like a child.

“That’s right. Princess Anette, what you gave me was undoubtedly a lifeless brown iris. However, anyone can see that this is not a brown iris, right? So, this is my flower in my garden.”

“You deceived me! You knew it would turn golden if you waited a little, and you intentionally took it away!”

Anette, who had lost her composure, not only continued to condescend but also raised her voice.

“Princess Anette clearly said that day! She was going to pull out the iris. Rather than letting it go to waste, I said I would take it. The princess readily told me to take it, and she gave me not only the brown iris but also a purple iris as a gift.”

Stella’s tone was very firm.

“That. That’s!”

The more Anette talked with Stella, the more she found herself speechless. However, Anette wasn’t the type to back down.

Glaring at Stella, who looked down on her, Anette walked confidently into the field of irises in full bloom.

“If I can’t have it, no one can.”

There was no time to object. Anette squeezed a bunch of iris flowers around her, tore them ruthlessly like pulling hair, and discarded them.

“What are you doing right now!”
Stella tried to stop her, but it was in vain. Anette, like a mad person, thrashed through Stella’s flower garden.

“Princess Anette!”

“Now do you understand your mistake?”

Anette pointed to the flowers that had been trampled and asked. Without waiting for Stella’s response, she left for Verdura, sending four servants directly. They were the servants who had brought the seedlings from Muege.

“We’ve come on behalf of Princess Anette.”

The four servants bowed with stiff voices, then pulled out the sagebrush roots, transferring them to a cart filled with soil.

“Ha!”

Stella clenched her fist with strength, unable to do anything as she watched the sagebrush being pulled out of the garden with a creaking sound.

Every time the sound of roots being torn out was heard, the earth fairies were startled and screamed.

After a while, the servants, as if receding like an ebbing tide, swiftly left with the uprooted sagebrush.

Looking at the vacant space where they had been pulled out, Stella felt a hole not only in the middle of the garden but also in her heart.

Stella, who couldn’t protect even a single flower, found her situation so pitiful that she burst into bitter laughter.

With a forlorn gaze, she looked at the empty garden and then shifted her gaze to the side where she had cleared away the sagebrush before the servants arrived, fearing it might get more damaged.
Trampled under Anette’s feet, the sagebrush flowers were in disarray, but their petals still shone beautifully in golden hues. It hurt to see them smiling amid the chaos.

That’s when it happened. The ground around the fallen sagebrush suddenly rose up, and in the center, earth fairies popped out of the soil like sprouts, bouncing into the air.

The first fairy to emerge from the soil near the sagebrush ran joyfully around, inspecting here and there before exclaiming with delight.

“It’s still alive!”

The fairies that followed also gathered around the sagebrush.

“Really! Planting a new shoot should do the trick!”

“Stella, we’ll help. We’ll make sure the sagebrush grows well.”

Without Stella’s instructions, the earth fairies carefully detached new shoots from the parts where the roots met the stems.

They immediately planted these detached shoots, and Ark spent the whole day blessing the surroundings as Stella watched with joy.