85. Bollonico’s Heaven

2023.12.24.

Yuan faintly smiled, as if she had been waiting.

How stifling it must have been for the talkative prince all this time.

Exactly one month since she had taken residence in the suspicious secondary palace.

Yuan had finally become someone who could face and speak with Noel Euphris.

***

Yuan was half-heartedly responding to Noel, who had come early in the morning and was chattering away.

“It, it, it’s not true! The imperial family hasn’t abandoned the northwest! It’s just that we periodically send troops to eliminate monsters in the north, and we must constantly repel the Torca Island invaders attacking from the south—so we simply lack the capacity!”

“People say that means they’ve pushed it to the back burner.”

“It’s different!”

Yuan’s full attention was focused on identifying the noble families sending gifts to the Empress’s Palace and pinpointing Bollonico’s whereabouts.

Fortunately, such books or newspapers were easily obtainable through Noel.

She couldn’t fully trust him yet, so she didn’t directly ask, “Which family is this?” But when she casually mentioned wanting to learn about the nobles within the Euphris family, Noel began bringing books from somewhere every morning.

A full week had already passed.

His shyness seemed to have faded as he ran errands delivering books and newspapers morning and night—he no longer hid or hesitated.

Moreover, since Yuan never pointed out or questioned his stuttering, he seemed to gain courage, and began approaching her directly more often.

The assumption that he must have felt extremely stifled after being cut off from people since his stutter began now seemed perfectly accurate.

“Speed is life when dealing with monsters or intruders. If that isn’t prioritized, it eventually affects the northwest too! The reason there are almost no monsters in the northwest is precisely because we intervene early in the north.”

“Yes. I see.”

Yuan replied absentmindedly and closed the book.

‘Not an eastern noble family, then.’

None of the few family names and insignias she had memorized matched those in the book.

After confirming the intricate patterns engraved on the rather valuable-looking gifts weren’t from eastern nobility, Yuan clicked her tongue briefly.

Hearing that sound, Noel reacted like someone who’d been suddenly pricked.

“A, am I bothering you?”

In a nearly inaudible voice, Yuan laughed softly with a deflating sound.

“A little.”

“Wha—?”

“A joke.”

Yuan gathered the scattered books with busy hands and piled them high on the table. Then she pushed the entire stack toward Noel.

“Next time, bring me books about northern nobles.”

“Y, you always make me carry heavy things—”

“I’m your guest, so you should treat me properly. Besides, you don’t have any friends besides me, do you?”

“W, why would I not have friends? I, I do have them. I just can’t meet them right now.”

“Who are they?”

Noel’s face suddenly flushed red.

Oh?

A faint mischievous glint unexpectedly flickered across Yuan’s calm face.

“It’s a woman, isn’t it? Someone you like?”

“S, stop asking!”

Noel roughly hugged the stack of books Yuan had pushed toward him and hid his face behind them.

“Oh, I see. Since I’m not yet your friend, you can’t tell me. Got it, then.”

“It’s not, it’s not that—”

Noel seemed unable to bring himself to call Yuan a friend, so he held back his words. But when Yuan showed a hint of disappointment, he couldn’t bear it and began hesitating again.

Yuan found this side of Noel endearing.

Noel was someone with firm self-assertion, yet he disliked seeing others hurt.

Indeed, he was a person of completely different disposition from Bollonico.

Though it felt awkward that they were full brothers, Yuan’s overall assessment of Noel was that he didn’t seem like someone capable of harming Clade.

“Y, you said earlier I was a p, potential friend—. And you, you should’ve already guessed why I can’t meet that friend, Yuan…”

While making that evaluation, he trailed off unusually and lowered his eyes.

His long eyelashes cast deep shadows on both cheeks.

Yuan looked at Noel’s eyes, half-hidden behind thin eyelids.

She vaguely tried to recall what kind of emotion made another man with similar eyes wear such an expression.

The face shaped by intertwined certainty that a monster like himself could never be loved, and resignation toward his own appearance, causing long eyelashes to cast deep shadows on both cheeks.

Yuan slowly cleared her voice and gave him an answer.

“If that person likes you too, then none of that matters at all.”

Meeting his gaze slowly reaching toward her, Yuan forced a faint smile and continued.

“And what if that person doesn’t love you? Does love only exist when two people love each other?”

There are men who get married.

Who don’t stop coupling for two days straight.

And yet claim they don’t experience love.

And there are women who, watching such a man, say, “Even if you don’t love me, I love you,” and then leave.

Noel’s first love, still unexpressed, seemed far more promising than Yuan’s own love.

“Even one-sided love is still love to me. The feelings you have for that person—your affection and longing—are your very own love, Noel, and there’s no need to be ashamed of them. What should be shameful is failing to express that love and letting it slip away. That’s what I truly believe.”

Noel fell momentarily silent at Yuan’s bittersweet smile, so unlike her usual cheerful self.

He quietly focused on her words. For a moment, his expression seemed to say, “I didn’t know you could say something like that.”

After a brief daze, Noel quickly snapped back to himself, his face reddening again.

“H, hmm. I don’t know how she feels. I, I, I’m the only one who likes and misses her. L, l, love is still too difficult for me.”

He answered, slightly awkward.

From his face, lowered deeply and then slightly raised again, a faint warmth of affection toward Yuan could be sensed.

It was several days later when Bollonico, having returned from a hunting trip, immediately came looking for Yuan.

***

Early in the morning.

No sooner had Bollonico finished his visit to the Empress’s Palace than he barged into the secondary palace searching for Yuan.

The moment Trin announced that Bollonico was coming this way, Noel panicked and quickly scurried inside the palace.

Yuan watched Noel’s retreating back, then greeted Bollonico, who was grinning widely.

Unlike usual, Bollonico arrived without his massive entourage and immediately took Yuan out of the secondary palace.

Bollonico’s golden carriage was parked squarely in front of the main gate of the Empress’s Palace.

“You must’ve waited a long time, sister-in-law. Bollonico’s been rather busy lately on the Emperor’s orders.”

Until the very moment Yuan stepped onto the golden carriage, she couldn’t shake the feeling that somewhere, Noel was hiding and watching them.

Somehow, she suspected that just by appearing like this, she might be eroding a portion of the goodwill she had carefully built with Noel.

As soon as they arrived at the First Prince’s Palace, Bollonico was carried by a servant named Kuntan who had been waiting at the front.

He acted as if Kuntan were a personal palanquin made just for him.

“The north will always be a barbaric land, no matter how much you develop it. Roaming around there is torture for someone like Bollonico.”

Passing through the massive arched entrance, Bollonico began boasting about how many monsters he had slain in the north.

Yuan followed silently behind Kuntan, whose skin was blue and whose frame was massive.

Her gaze naturally drifted to Kuntan’s back, carrying Bollonico.

His loose, sleeveless robe, adorned with elaborate gold leaf, clearly revealed scars on his back and arms.

To any observer, the marks could only be interpreted as whip scars.

The older ones, faded to a pale blue, and the newer, reddish ones made Yuan frown.

As soon as Yuan passed through the main gate and entered the entrance of the main palace, she turned her head, feeling intense gazes upon her.

Early in the morning, people were lining up to enter the main palace audience hall, their faces flushed with curiosity about Yuan’s presence and surprise at Bollonico’s arrival.

Each one carried stacks of dazzling, ornate treasure chests that seemed too many for two hands, or held leashes of people with unusual skin tones or animals they’d never seen before.

“You’re surprised too soon.”

Bollonico whispered, pressing his cheek tightly against Kuntan’s back as he was carried.

“I originally planned to show you around on your first day entering the palace, but we’re quite late. Today, I’ll show you everything, without exception.”

Indeed.

Passing by the bowing crowds and entering the palace interior, large cages were neatly arranged on both sides of a vast corridor.

Pink peacocks.

Golden pigeons.

Rainbow-colored parrots and sparrows the size of chickens.

All kinds of rare birds, paired male and female, began chirping the moment they saw Bollonico.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?”

Moreover, the deeper they went, the stronger the floral fragrance vibrating through the corridor became.

Yuan covered her nose against the overpowering scent, and Bollonico laughed delightedly.

As if responding to his laughter, various animal sounds echoed from private rooms they passed by with every step down the long corridor.

At the end of that long corridor, an open space led outdoors.

“Welcome to Bollonico’s Heaven.”

At the spot where Kuntan’s footsteps stopped, Yuan faced a massive glass greenhouse.

Opening the greenhouse door, which was as large as the entrance to the First Prince’s Palace, a humid, sticky air clung to Yuan.

Palm trees and various plants, the kind that would normally grow only in the south, were buried in damp soil and had grown abnormally large.

Bollonico had already stepped down from Kuntan’s back and grabbed Yuan’s arm, darting here and there.

He explained that he owned so many rare animals that he rotated them monthly for display in this greenhouse.

So Bollonico’s Heaven was essentially a rare botanical garden and zoo combined.

“…Isn’t that a person?”

In one corner, there were humans.

People with leashes, circling around stakes driven into the ground like farm dogs guarding the front of a rural home.