Extra Story 2. Roxenhardt’s Spring (1)

2024.04.13.

The snow piled upon the red roof gradually decreased in height.

Perhaps because the wind blowing through the white forest carried spring’s breath, the vines, moistened with warmth, erased their dryness and regained their natural green hue.

From one day after winter had passed.

The residents of Roxenhardt, who had just begun rising as a new commercial city, no longer called the estate where their lord lived the Black Manor.

Nor did they call it the Red Brick Manor as they had done over ten years ago.

The townspeople now referred to it as the Green Manor.

Merchants entering and leaving the estate were initially overwhelmed by its grand scale, then astonished by the dense ivy climbing the outer walls and sprouting leaves.

Though visitors’ impressions varied, their common observation was as follows:

“One truly appreciates the lord of Roxenhardt’s manor the moment they stand before it and face the wind. When the breeze flows between the ivy covering the entire view and the visitor, the rustling leaves striking the outer walls create a majestic symphony, and the undulating scenery resembles waves upon the sea.”

And from this manor, where green waves swayed, someone walked steadily toward the back gate.

Yuan, her lustrous black hair braided to one side and a thin shawl draped over her shoulders, carried a basket and walked past the vegetable garden and small pond tended by stablemaster Mazarin and the newly arrived gardener, finally reaching the family cemetery where spring flowers had begun sprouting along the white fence.

“Hire, you really should just judge your own research yourself. Why do you keep waking people up every morning just to confirm things with me? I’m not even an academy professor.”

Hire had decided to stay firmly at the manor until she was absolutely certain Yuan had fully recovered.

She sometimes read books about the Pelliese family borrowed from Enoch and shed tears alone—though no one could understand why she, a stranger to their ancestors, would cry over their deeds—and overwhelmed by emotion, she would even follow Yuan to mealtimes, eager to share even a fragment more of the Pelliese history.

Hire had apologized profusely for the days and nights she spent drenched in rain to return to the manor, confessing the lies she had told Clade and Yuan, and her interference in their affairs. Since Yuan found it bothersome and forgave her anyway, Hire now acted as if she were the closest friend in the world.

“It’s ridiculous. From what I see, she’s just too lazy to be accepted anywhere else, so she clung here. She could’ve gone to her uncle. But staying by his side would mean spending all day treating the patients flocking to the Pelliese family, bending her back until it breaks, or so I’ve heard.”

Yuan muttered as she pulled weeds at Louise Pelliese’s grave, which had recently been relocated here.

Whenever the spring flowers around Louise’s grave swayed, Yuan felt as if Louise were nodding in agreement, prompting her to confide things she normally wouldn’t say.

Previously, during her morning and evening walks, she used to visit the late emperor and empress’s graves, cheerfully badmouthing Clade, but when it came to stories about Hire, Enoch, and her other friends, Louise felt like a more comfortable listener.

“My lady!”

“My lady—! Did you think we wouldn’t know you’re at the cemetery—?”

Yuan flinched and stopped walking as she was circling the graves of Louise, the late imperial couple, Princess Apollini, and Oliver.

Hena, who had suddenly grown much taller, and head chef Ralph were running toward her from afar, ladles raised high.

Yuan hastily grabbed her basket and stood up, backing away.

“It’s difficult to leave this way—the Racha family knights have set up camp here.”

“!”

Solon Racha, who had lately been frequently entering and leaving the manor, blocked her retreat, having somehow appeared like a ghost, having just placed a bouquet at the late emperor and empress’s grave.

The man, with silver hair nearly as white as snow neatly tied back halfway, wore an eerie smile as he advised:

“If there’s no escape, your only options are to fight or surrender, madam.”

Until recently an enemy, yet strangely, whether from boldness or cheekiness, he acted quite differently from his appearance.

Seeing him now, already blocking her escape route like the servants who habitually shoved her toward the dining hall each morning, made her blood boil.

“What in the world—!”

Yuan’s defiant protest, about to demand he step aside with furious eyes, was extinguished before it even began.

“Hehe, got you!”

“Ahahaha! What’s in that basket? I was wondering who had sneaked off with a few of yesterday’s baked wheat breads like a little thief—turns out it was our dear young mistress! Haha! But I absolutely cannot allow, in my entire lifetime, the most important meal of the day to be replaced by just two breads! Hahaha!!”

Head chef Ralph and Hena charged forward like wild oxen and gently grabbed Yuan’s arms.

Especially Ralph—despite being over seventy—was so energetic that he hoisted Yuan onto his shoulder like a doting grandfather soothing a young granddaughter who refused to eat, and carried her off to the dining hall.

Ultimately, forced back into the manor and seated at the table, Yuan spotted Clade already sitting across from her.

He looked exhausted, glaring resentfully at the dishes being served—far too lavish for a mere breakfast—as if they were his sworn enemies. He should have stayed with Yuan, then gone to his office early in the morning to handle affairs.

Lately, Clade hadn’t been able to rest properly, as Eddie Rev, Federico, and Solon Racha waiting outside visited daily, each demanding his attention.

Though Noel had ascended the throne, he hadn’t deeply studied imperial governance, so he managed state affairs through communication with Clade via Federico.

Additionally, Solon Racha had resigned from his position as captain of the Imperial First Knight Corps and returned to the Racha family. He was now insistent that it made no sense for the Roxenhardt Dukedom, which had held a dukal title throughout the winter, to lack an official knight corps, and demanded to place Racha family squire candidates into the newly formed corps.

Eddie Rev had become as busy as Clade since Roxenhardt became a duchy, thus making daily appearances like clockwork.

The sole reason Clade, who had hosted all these powerful figures at his manor, sat reluctantly in the dining room despite his usual habit of skipping breakfast, was this:

“Eat quickly and finish everything.”

This was because, as soon as Hire diagnosed Yuan with malnutrition, head chef Ralph had erupted in outrage.

Of course, Yuan’s malnutrition wasn’t due to lack of food intake, but rather stemmed from her previous abilities consuming excessive energy. But such explanations were utterly useless to Ralph’s ears.

In the end, Yuan had to lie in bed throughout winter like a young animal being fattened, obediently consuming eight meals a day delivered straight to her bedroom.

Perhaps from months of nothing but eating and lounging.

Yuan’s face now glowed with health, and her once-hollow cheeks had pleasantly filled out.

Her limbs, once gaunt, were slowly regaining their natural strength.

She was transitioning from malnutrition toward overnutrition.

Seeing buttons on her clothes about to burst, Yuan had all her garments remade.

Even after ordering larger sizes than before, she felt her clothes kept shrinking, so she thought it was time to stop—but head chef Ralph thought otherwise.

Every time she tried sneaking away to avoid the daily feast-like meals, she was inevitably caught and brought back to the table. This very moment was proof.

“I really can’t eat anymore. Please, Your Highness, say something.”

“Eat.”

Clade replied, finishing the single plate of food before him, then fixing both eyes firmly on Yuan’s plate.

Clade had been assigned by head chef Ralph to supervise Yuan until she finished her meal.

At first, he had instructed them to encourage Yuan to eat well, but not to force her to the point of distress.

But Ralph, knowing Clade all too well, had threatened to call upon Solon Racha’s knights—those annoying fellows Clade kept dismissing—to guard the lady during meals if the husband wouldn’t take responsibility for his wife’s health.

Clade, of course, reacted immediately to that.

The knights from the north were all strikingly handsome men with fair, delicate skin, pale hair, and refined features.

The excited whispers of maids captivated by their fine looks had already reached Clade’s ears more than once. And when Clade noticed Yuan’s eyes lighting with curiosity during her formal greeting with Solon Racha, from that day onward, he began descending from his early morning work every breakfast hour to personally watch over her.

“I’m telling you, I’ll have no clothes that fit soon.”

“Eat.”

Clade replied mercilessly, watching her chewing lips.

“Before I feed you by mouth.”

The maids assisting in the kitchen behind them blushed and gasped, “Oh my, oh my!” and Yuan’s face turned bright red.

She had asked him countless times not to say such things in front of others!

Clade had a habit of saying whatever he pleased, whenever and wherever, and had embarrassed Yuan on numerous occasions before.

It was high time to break him of that habit.

Yuan shoved the last remaining stir-fried potatoes into her mouth with effort and glared with wide eyes.

“If you keep threatening me, we’ll sleep in separate rooms.”

Clade, who had planned to freely nag while backed by Ralph’s authority during mealtime, snapped his mouth shut as if by magic.