Chapter 40. Who Will Chop First?

His smoothly tanned skin and golden eyes matched perfectly, and his chocolate hair looked honey-sweet.

That’s exactly why she had to avoid him.

It was already hard enough assisting the cute, adorable, and lovely Grand Duchess.

She couldn’t afford to be charmed by his friend too.

Meanwhile, Theo snorted watching Raye whip her head away.

He’d never seen Raye act so shy before.

What was so handsome about him anyway?

Theo thought the people of the principality had seriously flawed eyesight.

Yuelina smiled brightly at Raye.

“They agreed to help with the garden. Isn’t that great? I was worried about you handling the axe.”

“I’m not the only one, and Ulysse is coming later too, right?”

“Well, until Secretary Ulysse arrives, we’ll have Theo and Asarim do it.”

“Those two? Hmm… That won’t work.”

Raye had witnessed their intense sparring match firsthand.

There was no way Asarim with bruises spreading across his body and Theo who had coughed up blood could properly handle axes.

But Yuelina, unaware of this, grabbed one of the axes Raye was holding.

Since Raye had been holding them so lightly, she thought they’d be easy to lift, but the axe was heavier than expected.

Grunting, Yuelina carried the axe and stood before Theo and Asarim.

The two quickly took the axes from Yuelina.

“You need to chop the tree stumps. We’ll use the stumps for firewood, and then plant flowers in that soil.”

Yuelina pointed to the tree stumps in the garden.

There were more stumps hidden in the undergrowth than expected.

“Will it be difficult?”

Theo and Asarim shook their heads simultaneously.

“Not at all.”

“This is nothing.”

Hearing their competing voices, Raye nodded with a smirk.

“Then I should tell Ulysse not to come. Since you two will handle everything.”

Theo rubbed his chest where he had internal injuries.

Asarim also gripped his side while holding the axe.

This was yet another competition.

* * *

Maelyn put a wide-brimmed hat on Yuelina.

“Even though the wind is cool, the sun is strong. Your skin is delicate, Your Highness the Grand Duchess, so you must wear a hat.”

Yuelina tied the hat’s lace firmly and put on white gloves.

While Yuelina kept adding items, Theo took off his coat and rolled up his shirt sleeves to his elbows.

Asarim couldn’t roll up his sleeves due to the spreading bruises as he held the axe.

Theo ignored Asarim’s resentful gaze and looked at Yuelina wearing her hat.

The lace ribbon attached to the round hat fit snugly under Yuelina’s chin.

It made her pretty face stand out even more.

Wearing the hat, gloves, and red dress, Yuelina crouched among the green undergrowth.

Theo let out a gasp.

She really is a flower, isn’t she?

Where did Yuelina go?

Theo blinked, carefully trying to distinguish which was Yuelina between her and the flowers.

No matter how he thought about it, there was only one answer. Yuelina was more flower-like.

While magic stone-grown flowers had no fragrance, an irresistibly sweet scent wafted from Yuelina.

“Makes me drool.”

Asarim clicked his tongue and shook his head.

Theo shot him a fierce glare.

Asarim must have seen Yuelina since she was smaller and younger.

He must have watched that luxuriant cascading hair grow vigorously.

He must have observed exactly when those pink eyes sparkled while chasing something.

These thoughts made his irritation surge.

He should have targeted Asarim’s lower body instead of his upper body.

Should have crushed his legs to make him limp…

Theo sharply turned his head, deciding to focus on taking in Yuelina’s appearance.

Looking at Asarim just made him angry, so he needed to soothe his mind by watching Yuelina.

“Come on, aren’t you going to chop?”

Raye clapped her hands from behind to get their attention.

She said she’d gone to tell Ulysse not to come.

But instead, she had brought Ulysse with her.

“I thought I’d help pull weeds too.”

Raye nodded at Ulysse’s words.

Raye didn’t want to watch Theo and Asarim chopping wood alone.

After all, interesting things should be shared.

Ulysse and Raye headed toward the undergrowth where Yuelina was.

The four sat huddled together.

“Since we need to transplant the flowers, pull them carefully without damaging the roots, but these are weeds so you can just pull them out.”

The three nodded at Yuelina’s words.

Yuelina gently dug through the soil with her small, delicate hands.

The three watched quietly as Yuelina worked with careful touches.

But suddenly, shadows started coming down.

“What’s this? Why is it suddenly dark…”

Yuelina and the other three looked up.

Somehow Asarim and Theo had moved closer to where Yuelina was.

Yuelina slightly lifted her hat to meet Theo’s eyes.

“Theo, do you need something?”

“No, no.”

“Asarim, do you need anything?”

“No!”

The two men went off to find their own tree stumps.

Raye, Ulysse, and Maelyn thought they were truly an unhelpful pair.

“Who will chop first?”

Just then, Ulysse spoke with crossed arms. Raye opened her mouth with an obvious expression.

“Of course His Highness the Grand Duke. Who could beat His Highness with a weapon?”

“We don’t know about that. I heard from the maids that Asarim is a warrior too.”

Maelyn subtly defended Asarim.

“Your Highness the Grand Duchess, who do you think will win– no, who do you think will chop first?”

Ulysse asked Yuelina with a curious expression.

All three turned to look at Yuelina. Yuelina hesitated before slowly speaking.

“Does… someone have to chop first?”

“Pardon?”

“Can’t they just chop earnestly?”

Raye burst out laughing at Yuelina’s words.

They were talking about chopping tree stumps, but somehow it sounded like Theo and Asarim were going to beat each other up.

The Grand Duchess was truly adorable.

Enough to instantly clear away both the gloomy fog of the Black Mansion and Theo’s depression.

Raye nodded vigorously while looking at Yuelina.

“Your Highness is right. The one who chops earnestly until the end is the winner.”

As soon as Raye finished speaking, the two men began chopping.

And Raye’s excited expression gradually hardened.

Thunk, thunk.

Their chopping was terrible.

Even Raye and Ulysse could probably chop faster than that.

Chopping was nothing short of torture for Theo with his internal injuries and Asarim with major external injuries to his upper body.

Every time the axe hit the tree stump, the recoil traveled through their arms and torso.

Theo’s breath caught in his throat, and Asarim’s body trembled.

Yuelina looked back and forth between Theo and Asarim as they chopped ineffectively.

Somehow they both looked strained.

“Should we tell them to stop? They seem to be struggling.”

“Yes, I’ll tell them I’ll do it.”

“No, Raye! Even Theo and Asarim are having such a hard time, aren’t they? You’ll have an even harder time.”

Raye just smiled gently at Yuelina’s concerned voice.

Raye stood up, dusting off her knees, and stared at Asarim and Theo.

Still, blood is thicker than water.

Instead of going to Theo, she headed toward Asarim.

“Here, give it to me.”

“Huh? No, I can do it.”

“I said give it to me.”

Raye snatched the axe from Asarim in one swift motion.

Asarim blankly let the axe be taken away by her overwhelming grip strength.

Raye bumped Asarim aside with her body.

Then she raised the axe high and brought it down without hesitation.

CRACK–

Yuelina jumped to her feet.

The deeply rooted tree stump had been split in half.

“Wow Raye! That’s amazing!”

Yuelina approached Raye.

Raye didn’t know what to do with herself under that flushed-cheek gaze of admiration.

Theo really envied that gaze.

If he hadn’t gotten internal injuries, he would have had time to destroy all the tree stumps in this garden and then some.

But now he couldn’t even properly chop one.

Theo gripped the axe with both hands and gathered all his strength.

THUNK–!

Finally, with his earnest chop, the tree stump started splitting in half.

Theo quickly lifted his head to look at Yuelina.

He calmly waited for her to run over to him, to praise him and tell him how amazing he was.