One afternoon when the heat was starting to set in, the knights, exhausted from grueling training, received drinks personally made and sent by the princess of the Lily Palace. The knights, who happened to be thirsty, gulped down the orange juice contained in a large container.

It didn’t take long to notice something unusual.

After just one glass of orange juice, the sweltering heat subsided, strength returned to their limp arms, and the muscle aches in their backs and necks disappeared. Knights who drank two glasses even felt more refreshed than when they woke up in the morning.

At first, they thought it was their bodies being tricked by drinking something sweet when it was too hot. So no one shared the changes happening to their bodies.

The next day, drinks were delivered to the training grounds again. This time it was a drink made from crushed cherries.

“It feels like the fatigue is melting away.”

As someone muttered, exclamations flowed from here and there as if they had been waiting.

“I just took a hard hit to the shoulder and it was throbbing, but the pain is completely gone.”

“Strength is returning to my legs…”

“What? I’m wide awake now. Is it thanks to this drink?”

The next day, and the day after that, the princess of the Lily Palace continued to bestow kindness upon the knights. Drinks sent every day without fail. The knights were touched by the princess’s gentle kindness, apart from the drink’s effectiveness.

And so, ‘the princess of the Lily Palace’ became ‘our princess’ among the knights, but Roxiana was completely unaware of this fact. For Roxiana, this was just one of the small things she had to do to repay Floyd’s kindness.

“I’ve never had a drink with herbs before. I’m looking forward to how it will taste.”

Mateo replied to Eren’s words.

“Then don’t just look forward to it, help the princess. Can’t you see our princess’s hands are getting ruined?”

“Oh! I can’t believe I’m this short-sighted. That’s why everyone says I’m a stupid bird who doesn’t understand women’s hearts at all… Ah, I’m sorry. I talk too much, don’t I?”

Eren spoke cheerfully and firmly despite Mateo’s scolding, and took the seedling shovel Roxiana was holding.

“I’ll do it, princess.”

The knight’s touch was different from that of a princess who had never done rough work, and with one shovel, the ground was deeply dug. Even though Roxiana thought, ‘You don’t need to dig that deep,’ she left Eren to do as he pleased.

It was fun to watch him digging the ground effortlessly, unlike herself, and she decided not to deny that feeling anymore.

There were sights, cultures, and behaviors in Torkan that she hadn’t seen in Canta, and it was fresh and enjoyable to learn about them one by one.

“What are you all huddled up doing here?”

The owner of the rough and coarse voice was Hexten. He stood holding an umbrella, looking down at the three crouched people with an incredulous gaze.

“Herbs. She’s planting delicious herbs, they say.”

Eren said excitedly.

Thinking ‘It’s not that herbs are delicious, but that they give off a nice aroma when added,’ Roxiana slowly stood up. Her legs hurt from crouching for so long.

“Sir Renardro, what brings you here?”

“I came to get a glass of juice from the princess. Do you have time?”

“Of course.”

Mateo held the umbrella and escorted Roxiana to Hexten’s umbrella. Eren waved the seedling shovel.

“Then princess, I’ll keep digging here.”

Although worried that there might not be any garden left at this rate, Roxiana nodded with a gentle smile. After Roxiana disappeared into the building with Hexten, Eren whispered to Mateo.

“Isn’t our princess incredibly beautiful when she smiles?”

“If you don’t want to be buried in the ground you dug, stop talking nonsense and keep digging.”

“Yes, sir.”

While Eren was digging a hole deep enough to bury a person, Roxiana and Hexten headed to the reception room. Plopping down on the sofa and shaking off the moisture in his hair, Hexten said,

“I killed two more crows last night.”

“Was it from the temple?”

“One was from Gania.”

The crows carried messages from spies hidden in Torkan. After it became known that what happened in the forest was not a rumor but the truth, crows flew up frequently. Because of this, the knights were busy tracking down spies.

“But yesterday we raided where the crow took off and caught a spy from Gania. Do you know who it was?”

“Who was it?”

“It was Robin from the butcher shop. Wow, I never thought that guy was a spy from Gania… He had been settled here for 4 years already. Robin’s meat was incredibly delicious…”

Hexten lamented, seeming more distressed about no longer being able to eat the delicious meat than the fact that the trusted Robin was a spy. Roxiana could only say one thing to Hexten, who was lamenting as if reminiscing about Robin’s meat.

“Oh dear.”

Hexten smacked his lips as if recalling Robin’s meat, then returned to a serious expression.

“We’re blocking what we can see for now, but we probably missed a few. Moreover, spies don’t just use crows to send messages. Now that the purification on Canta’s side is almost over, it’s only a matter of time before the temple and Gania become aware of the princess’s existence and start assessing the situation.”

As Roxiana’s expression darkened, Hexten hurriedly added,

“Ah, princess, you don’t need to worry too much. We’re preparing in various ways on our side as well.”

“You must be in a difficult position because of me.”

“Well… about that.”

Hexten picked up the juice bottle that the maid had left earlier. It contained apple juice that Roxiana had made this morning.

“It’s amazing. Not only is it delicious, but just drinking it gives you energy? It relieves fatigue faster than Kirshan’s stamina potion, and even muscle aches go away.”

Roxiana had some idea that her juice had such effects. Throughout the process of carefully washing each fruit in a corner of the kitchen, cutting it with a knife, and putting it into the juicer, the water spirits chattered incessantly.

−These days, just touching your hands makes our power feel stronger.

−We’ll help make your cooking even more delicious.

−Don’t just give it to others, you should eat a lot too.

−The stronger you become, the happier we are.

After reviving the dead forest, there was a change in Roxiana’s power to handle spirits. Roxiana became able to draw and use the power of spirits more freely and diversely than before.

It might be a bit difficult with intermediate spirits, but there was no problem using the power of lower spirits.

As Roxiana looked down at her fingers gently, Hexten grinned and said,

“Our knight fellows are crazy about this juice. They worship the princess who made this juice.”

Hexten poured the juice into a glass as if to show her and drank it in one gulp.

“When you’re up from dawn, training all day and feel like you’re going to die from exhaustion, one glass of this juice completely washes away the fatigue. Do you know? When people are deadly tired, they actually can’t sleep. These days, thanks to relieving fatigue with this juice, we sleep well too.”

Sleeping well and perfectly recovering from the previous day’s fatigue was the most important task and eternal homework for knights. Roxiana’s juice solved that.

Thanks to sleeping soundly and training with refreshed bodies, the knights could handle more practice than before.

Hexten raised the empty glass as if making a toast.

“The princess is a goddess to our knights. A goddess of healing. A goddess of fortune. A goddess of strength.”

“Sir Renardro, please stop.”

As Roxiana blushed at the excessive praise, Hexten laughed loudly.

“There’s no knight who would hesitate to move for the princess. If the princess smiles once, those guys would be willing to risk their lives.”

“Not to the point of risking lives.”

“Don’t feel burdened. Knights want to wield their swords for the subject they desire, and right now that subject is the princess.”

She had only made juice. Juice that was more delicious than others and had some recovery function. It wasn’t such a difficult task, but to talk about dedicating lives made her not know where to put herself.

−”I will, of course, dedicate my life for the princess. So princess, please don’t fear anything and walk forward confidently. Do you think it’s easy to receive the loyalty of a knight like me?”

Suddenly, she was reminded of Robert, who had been her guard knight. He had sworn to dedicate his life and actually gave his life to protect Roxiana. Recalling the knight who had kept his oath made her feel sad, but Roxiana didn’t cry.

Now, instead of crying, she decided to smile, and instead of falling into despair, she decided to be happy. She decided to strive to be better than them when she stood before them someday.

“Ah, I hear the subjugation is almost over. It took a bit longer than expected because the damage on that side was more serious, but apparently there are no casualties yet.”

It was the first time Roxiana had heard news of the subjugation from Hexten. Even though he said there were no casualties, her heart sank.

“The lord will finish up and return soon. It seems he’ll be back before the rainy season ends…”

Before the rainy season ends. Then not much time was left. Floyd would return in a few days.

‘He’s finally coming back.’

Only then did Roxiana realize that she had been quite looking forward to his return. The inexplicable emptiness she felt while being busy every day stemmed from his absence.

Roxiana blinked her eyes in bewilderment at this realization, then quickly lowered her head.