After a long time, Stella had dinner with the Verdura family. As she looked at the familiar faces, she found herself missing Rudina even more.

She worried about where Rudina was and who she was with. If only she knew Rudina’s whereabouts, she could send a letter, but even that wasn’t possible now.

“Princess, are you very tired?”

The table was filled with Stella’s favorite foods. Lianne had put in a lot of effort to prepare them for Stella’s return.

Awakened from her thoughts by Brynn’s question, Stella realized that everyone around the table was looking at her with concern, and she felt a bit embarrassed.

“Yes, I suppose I am.”

Stella smiled warmly and tore a piece of carrot bread to dip into her soup. The warm, savory cream soup paired perfectly with the carrot bread.

“Oh, by the way, Darren, did you go to the market recently?”

“Yes, I went with Mrs. Lianne and sold all the remaining carrots.”

It was good news to hear. Then she suddenly remembered the man who had approached her at the market, introducing himself as Ian.

“Did you meet someone named Ian?”

“…Yes.”

For some reason, Darren’s expression wasn’t entirely cheerful. Since hearing the name “Ian,” he hadn’t been able to meet her eyes and was just stirring his soup with his spoon.

It was a behavior Lianne disliked the most, and he usually avoided it. Even Lianne was picking at her soup, which was unusual.

“What are you hiding?”

Stella, quick to notice, hit the nail on the head. Darren sighed softly, looked at Lianne, and then placed his spoon down, clasping his hands politely under the table. He looked like a child preparing to be scolded by his parents.

“The truth is, this Ian person wanted to buy all the remaining carrots.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.”

“So did you sell them all to him?”

Darren bit his lip guiltily and nodded, with Lianne also glancing around nervously, her hands clasped politely.

“Don’t tell me you got scammed? Didn’t he pay you?”

Seeing their uneasy expressions, Stella sensed something was wrong.

“No! That’s not it. In fact, he paid us a lot.”

Darren quickly shook his head and waved his hands to deny it.

“Then why do you look like that?”

“I thought the princess wouldn’t be pleased with him. It only occurred to me after we received the money. I’m sorry.”

Darren bowed his head in apology.

Stella was relieved that it wasn’t as big a deal as she had feared, yet she felt grateful to Darren. In nearly twenty years of life, the only person who had shown her such consideration was Rudina.

Not even her blood-related parents or her half-sister had ever thought of her this way.

Some might question what’s so special about receiving a bit of kindness from a servant, but for Stella, it felt like receiving a new blood transfusion every moment.

These people were the other force that kept her going in a distant land.

“So how much did you get?”

Seeing that Stella wasn’t interrogating him, Darren’s gloomy expression brightened a little.

“We got 10 florins.”

“What? Ten gold coins?”

“Yes! When we gave him all the remaining carrots, he willingly handed over that large sum.”

Seeing Stella’s surprise, Darren lost his guilty expression and became animated.

Lianne nodded vigorously, as if to confirm she was a witness, and Brynn and Milla, who had been listening quietly, were so shocked they nearly dropped their spoons.

It was an excessively large amount of money for selling just a dozen sacks of carrots.

No matter how she thought about it, it seemed odd. Stella, her expression darkening again, asked, “Have you seen him since then? Does he seem to have any ulterior motives, or does he know who I am?”

Darren confidently shook his head.

“He absolutely doesn’t know who the princess is. The only thing he’s interested in…”

“The only thing he’s interested in?”

When Darren paused like a seasoned storyteller, Stella asked impatiently.

“…were the crops you grew, Princess.”

“Why?”

“He mentioned that the carrots you grew could fetch a high price from the nobles. Nobles with more money than sense would pay a fortune if something tasted good, even if it was just a carrot.”

“Oh…”

Stella was well-acquainted with the ways of the nobility. There was some truth to what he said. After all, she hadn’t started farming with the mission of letting everyone taste delicious produce.

Using this man, Ian, might allow her to earn a lot of money much faster than she had anticipated. However, since she knew nothing about him yet, it was hard to fully trust him.

It seemed she would need to go to the market herself once the crops she was currently growing were ready and meet him again. Perhaps this was the second chance that had come her way.

As Stella was deep in thought about her future plans, Lianne brought up something she had almost forgotten.

“Oh, and an older knight has been hanging around near our castle.”

“An older knight? Not a young knight with black hair?”

Stella wondered if Lianne might have mistaken Royce for someone else. But Lianne answered with certainty.

“No. He had graying hair and looked quite old. He was tall and had a build as good as any knight, so I remember him.”

If Lianne was speaking with such assurance, she probably hadn’t seen wrong. Yet Stella couldn’t think of any reason why someone of that age would be lingering near Verdura.

Could it be someone sent from Amalrune? Was Beatrice reconsidering and wanting to come here?

In a short time, her thoughts raced in all directions. But none of them seemed right.

* * *

The first thing Kai did upon returning from the hunting festival was to have dinner with his mentor, Will. In three days, Will would leave the Credion Empire.

Kai wanted to spend as much time as possible with him before he left. To Kai, Will was not only an excellent mentor but also an old friend and a father figure.

“Have you finished what you needed to do here?”

Kai poured his favorite wine into Will’s glass as he asked. The rich aroma of the wine filled the room. Will looked at the glass filling with red and shook his head contentedly.

“I’m not quite sure yet.”

Kai raised his eyebrows in surprise at Will’s answer. The Will he knew never gave ambiguous answers.

No matter the question, Will always had a clear answer, and everything he said pointed to a definite goal.

So, his recent statement was not at all like him.

Noticing Kai’s puzzled look, Will smiled broadly, creating deep wrinkles around his eyes.

“I guess I’m getting old. Nothing seems easy anymore.”

“What could possibly trouble you, Master?”

Kai was genuinely curious. What could be troubling the continent’s greatest knight, Will, or who could it be?

Will laughed out loud at Kai’s curiosity and refilled his empty glass.

“How is His Majesty? Is he still troubled by that voice?”

It was something Will had mentioned only once when he comforted a young Kai who was sobbing.

Kai had said he was terrified by a voice that seemed to come from nowhere, saying it was more frightening than any visible monster with terrible, sharp teeth.

“Do you remember that?”

Since Will hadn’t brought it up again, Kai assumed he thought it was just a dream or confusion of a child. But apparently, that wasn’t the case.

“His Majesty isn’t one to lie. Not when he was young, and not now, even as he’s become this dreadful man.”

“If you look closely, there are still some cute sides to him.”

Kai grinned after taking a sip of the wine Will had poured. Will watched him closely before pulling a small box from his pocket and placing it in front of Kai.

Kai noticed the box on the table only after finishing his drink and raised an eyebrow.

“I have no intention of marrying you, Master.”

Will shook his head in amusement at his student’s joke.

“In case you’ve forgotten, Your Majesty is not my type. Even in old age, my standards remain high.”

“Oh, what a shame.”

Kai said, pretending to be disappointed, while he opened the box Will had placed before him.

“What is this?”

Inside the box was a piece of metal of unknown origin. It could simply be seen as a rectangular piece, but Kai quickly realized it was no ordinary item.

Just as Kai was about to take it out, Will’s hand covered the box’s opening.

“You’re not supposed to touch it.”

Will took the metal piece out himself and rubbed it gently between his fingers. It hadn’t been obvious while it was in the box, but once out, it seemed strangely familiar.

Yet something about it felt off, so Kai stared intently at what Will held and asked,

“Why not?”

Kai looked at Will with curiosity. Will stared at the object in his hand for a moment before turning away.

“Because you’ll see things you don’t need to see.”