Chapter 16: Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The Evelox Empire had three languages.

‘This seems crazy difficult.’

The three consist of the most commonly used imperial language, the sacred words used by nobles and deities, and runes used by wizards.

The runic language is not used in normal conversations but instead in incantations and spell casting, but since wizards mostly use runic language for the creation of commercial magic items, daily life is inconvenient for them if they don’t know it.

Nobles use a mixture of imperial and sacred words, which are formed like Chinese characters, so they have to memorize the whole word.

[E/N: it’s not a phonetic language like english that uses an alphabet basically]

In the past, I used to study the sacred words used in basic noble etiquette, but I didn’t want to witness each of my teachers showing off. So instead I acted cute in front of my father, and convinced him that I didn’t want to study. So he fired all my live-in teachers.

‘Is it really okay for a Duke household’s education to be like this?’

Anyway, it was good to realize it was a sacred language, but the real problem is the next step.

Based on the pronunciation, there can be at least five to six sacred words that could be a match and possibly more than twenty meanings for each of those words.

So teaching myself was impossible. I stormed into my father’s study.

“Papa, I want to study. Please hire a teacher.”

I said it quite suddenly, and my father froze.

After a while, my father approached me with a pale face, grabbed me by the shoulders, and said with a serious expression.

“I-Ina. You’re still too young to learn that.”

‘What are you talking about? Is there an age limit to learning an alphabet?’

I have never heard of an age limit even though there is a limit on how far one’s academic status can fall.

“It’s not too late to learn as an adult. There’s no rush for you to learn it and you don’t need to have it memorized forever.”

I was worried about the reason why the Duke of Krenberia’s child education policy was like this.

I was seven or eight years old when I started to act cute because I didn’t want to study. At that point, I had time to mess around.

But now I’m thirteen years old. There were also families who left small businesses to their successors when they turned ten years old.

Even now that I’m engaged, I procrastinated and still didn’t realize that it is the time to study in a bridal class or whatever, but it isn’t that important because I only need the knowledge from that class temporarily.

There wasn’t a single time when I couldn’t get what I wanted, so I begged. I tugged my father’s sleeve and tilted my head, pretending to be cute.

“But the books in the library are too difficult. I don’t know what the terms are in the diplomatic records.”

My father pressed his lips tightly to try and not fall into my temptation, but his eyes widened in surprise when he heard me.

“You want to learn something else, not how to make children?”

“Children?”

I didn’t know why he thought I would be curious about how to make a child, so I looked at my father blankly, and he turned red and covered his mouth.

And then I remembered the events from the other night.

The night that I was drunk.

There was nothing to say. Even if he was acting so serious, after misunderstanding the situation, watching his little daughter running into her fiancé’s room to cling onto him with alcohol while being drunk herself.

‘Why is he still thinking about it when it’s already been a full day since? I’m 13 years old. Is he out of his mind?’

My father shook his head in surprise at how I looked at him.

“Yes, I meant you are my child. My sweet…”

I hurriedly covered my father’s mouth, who was in the process of calling me a strange nickname.

“Papa.”

My father squeezed my hand and removed it from his mouth.

“Yes, Papa forgot. What do you want to learn? The terms used in diplomacy are a mixture of many foreign languages.”

“Can I learn Elf?”

“Of course, you don’t need to look for a teacher, I’ll find one.”

“Yes.”

I was going to say thank you after answering, but I found my father looking at me with a sad face.

So I hugged my father’s neck and kissed him on the cheek as a thank you.

“Thank you, Papa. Papa’s the best!”

“The best?”

Father blankly mulled over the descriptor, repeated it for emphasis, and smiled triumphantly.

“Yes, my daughter. I’m the best, aren’t I?”

My father seemed a bit pathetic trying to steal more compliments, but I smiled and even gave him a thumbs up.

“The best, the best.”

Dad looked at my cheerful face and taped his lips as if he wanted to say something. Eventually, after hesitating, he didn’t say anything, instead he nodded his head, stroking my hair.

For some reason, I thought what my father was trying to say, “It’s not Karpel, it’s me. I’m the best.”

* * *

Rumors seemed to be circulating, saying that I had been acting strange.

It was not a rumor in the mansion, but among the little ladies I used to surround myself with.

Letters containing phrases such as, “Are you sick, what’s wrong?” “I miss you,” “I’m worried,” and so on arrived every day.

Unlike before, I don’t have time to thoughtlessly play princess with them, and as a matter of fact, I don’t want to. But I felt like I had to show my presence everywhere.

The servants were nervous at first, but they seemed to focus more on their chores since I wasn’t being picky.

Previously, my everyday schedule was set that I would wake up at the end of noon, and pick what jewelry and dress I should present to Karpel right away. But recently, I have been waking up at the crack of dawn, getting dressed, and starting my routine.

In my previous life, I had to work in the kitchen all day, so stamina was important. I also had to have a means of protecting my body because I was alone without anyone to share my life with and help me.

Exercise slowly became one of my hobbies later.

Perhaps because I remembered my memories of those times, I was itching to move around even though I was used to staying still because I wasn’t active in this life.

I couldn’t exercise too much because I was still weak, but I would walk around the central garden to the greenhouse for about two hours at dawn.

Neither father nor Karpel asked me why my attitude toward exercise had changed.

There was no significant change in how I treated my father, and I treated Karpel like how I had treated him when he was a child before the age of ten, so he seemed to have no sense of discomfort.

Karpel seemed to go to the training grounds even earlier than I did.

Since the training grounds were past the central garden, it seemed the servants chose to watch Karpel even if they saw me wandering around the garden.

Karpel hasn’t avoided me since our encounter in the library.

But during dinner, he would glance at me as if he had something to say to me.

When I looked at him, he had already looked away, but whenever I felt his gaze from the side, I could tell he looked displeased.

The chef kept making cinnamon bread for dessert as if to issue a challenge towards me who wasn’t offering any help.

It wasn’t the same as my recipe, mostly because it seems like he used a different oil and fried it in his own way, but everything was still delicious. Karpel liked it, too.

It was obvious that Karpel, who always ate dessert, anticipated it every day.

Karpel was munching on his dessert with a pleasant expression, it was very cute. As I watched him happily, our eyes met.

My eyes twinkled as pretty as stars, but he quickly looked away from them.

I guess I didn’t look attractive while chewing my food and my cheeks turned a little red.

‘I guess you’re upset at watching me eating.’

I saw my father eating comfortably.

When I made eye contact he was looking at me with a sad expression.

He seemed to be holding a grudge against me for saying he was the best and then not prioritizing him over Karpel.

‘Hmm… Children shall become independent from their parents when they grow up. But how do I get my father to be independent from me?’

* * *

I was worried about which social events I should participate in so that I could promote the health of Inaila Krenberia. I need to choose events wisely so they can help prevent negative rumors from spreading.

I was no longer interested in the operas and poetry recitals that I could go to with the young ladies, and my father had to go to big events, a ball and a banquet.

I wanted to avoid the events where I had to go with my father as much as possible because people were likely to assume that my father’s presence would influence my behavior at the banquet hall.

I’m so ashamed of myself…

Also, I don’t know if it’s because I tried to attend before the engagement, but it wasn’t acceptable to attend a social event without a fiancé.

If Karpel says no, I’ll have no choice but to go alone, but it was polite to ask if he could escort me.

So, there weren’t many suitable places to go with Karpel.

It’s meaningless to go to a place where fewer people gather, and if there are too many people, Karpel will be uncomfortable.

After much thought, I decided to attend Rose Garden, a flower showing party that takes place on Countess Wizen’s property.

The person who held the flower show once was the empress and the royal family could participate, but the atmosphere was light as the young nobles mainly participated.

In my room, I replied to the letters from the young ladies, and said I’d meet them at Rose Garden.

And now all I had left to do was ask Karpel to come with me.

After my morning walk, I waited for Karpel in the library.

I didn’t plan to meet with him, and I didn’t know when he would come, so I searched through the Elf dictionary while waiting.

The dictionary was written by the Forest Elves. The problem is that I can’t read it.

While flipping through it I found the word “spicy” and was really excited to figure out what plant it was referencing, it seemed to be describing something like a “green onion” or something similar to ginger.

I thought I could find something similar to a pepper by looking for a taste that is not just spicy but “a burning sensation in the mouth.”

The history of using chili peppers for food is short, and they first described it as “used in torture.”

‘I’ll look in a book about torture methods.’

I went around the library until I found a book.

‘Galbi …… I want to eat spicy Galbi ····.’

[T/N: Galbi, galbi-gui, or grilled ribs is a type of grilled dish in Korean cuisine.]