T K H C

🍁 Chapter 18

“Who are we going with?”

“Well, Carol and me,” I answered casually, accepting my fate as Carol despondently clung to my arm.

“Alright. When do we leave?”

I looked at the clock tower in the distance.

“We should head out now. They said they’d be here by 11.”

Julien beckoned to a far-off maid.

“Please take this to my room.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

As the maid left, carrying the candy pouch, Julien stood up. He didn’t say anything, but his face was clearly excited.

A picnic.

It was a word that made one’s heart flutter.

“But… mother…. No, it’s nothing.”

I sighed as I saw his expression turn cloudy.

It was just a picnic…

I felt as if I had been stabbed as I saw how Julien was so troubled over this little break from the norm. It was pitiful to see how he was still excited to come with us, in spite of his mother’s anger.

Carefully, he held my hand.

He wasn’t reluctant to touch hands anymore. I squeezed his hand back.

Carol watched this happen with wide eyes, then clung onto my forearm even harder as if she didn’t want to lose.

Can you let me go, both of you?

But I held myself back and didn’t say that out loud.

Instead, I said something to put the prince’s mind at ease.

“It’s fine. We already received permission from the Empress.”

With Carol, the heiress of the Gratoni duchy, on our side, the Empress folded immediately. Also, I had asked the butler to send a letter to the Imperial Palace to ask for permission.

“Really?”

“Of course. So nothing is going to happen.”

The last part was said quietly, like a whisper, so Carol probably didn’t hear it.

“Then, let’s go quickly.”

The prince stepped forward first. Then, Carol quickly followed suit.

“Sharon, you should be next to me!”

“Haa… How childish.”

“What? You, what did you say?”

They started bickering right away.

With the support of the Gratoni duchy, the Empress allowed Julien to do things that she normally would not allow into his schedule.

So for Julien, Carol was his only chance to slack off and have fun.

And as for Carol, she was thankfully “ignored” by the Duke as she was his tie to the Empress. Since ladies from high nobility and the empress did similar things, Carol had to learn the basic refinement.

Dance, decorum, history, management, art, etc.

However, Carol did not have to study how to do needlework nor how to make light refreshments like the other young ladies because she was going to be the Empress.

For the Carol who hated studying, this was a really good result.

Anyways, the point is that the relationship between Carol and Julien is a win-win for both of them.