The Unemployed Prince Covets My Nephew - Chapter 25
Anais put down her teacup with a satisfied smile.
The queen was also pleased with Hailey’s answer. Only Axel was oblivious.
“Two against one. Even when fighting weaker opponents, you wouldn’t go out like that. We just matched the numbers.”
“Opponent, brother? Have you forgotten that when you caused all this commotion, we were already in the same boat? We just wanted some time for the ladies.”
“Time for the ladies, leaving such a gallant man behind. Ridiculous.”
Axel mocked his sister, pointing at Theo.
“Who considers a five-year-old a man?”
Anais retorted, bewildered.
The queen, familiar with the squabbles between the twenty-seven-year-old and the twenty-four-year-old, sipped her tea, while Hailey smiled awkwardly, maintaining her composure.
None of the four were particularly fond of sweets, so they only sipped their tea, leaving the lavish desserts on the table untouched.
Theo, having been taught by Hailey, who had ingrained Confucian values from Korea, that ‘food should be tasted by adults first,’ could only look at the table with sad eyes.
No matter how accustomed Theo was to waiting, it was too sad to just look at the splendid desserts he was seeing for the first time in his five-year life as mere decorations.
“I’m hungry…”
Groaning like a sick puppy, Theo scanned the desserts with sad eyes. Hearing the small child’s voice as he peeked at the table, everyone stopped talking and focused on Theo.
“Oh dear. We’ve been rude. Go ahead and eat, my dear.”
The queen, with a pleased expression, made eye contact with Theo.
Receiving the queen’s initial permission, Theo looked up at Hailey with joyful eyes, as if saying, ‘I can eat now!’
Finally realizing her mistake, Hailey gave Theo a small piece of cake, which he eagerly took a big bite of with his fork.
Wow.
For Theo, who was busy every day in the palace, it was the happiest bite.
“How does it taste?”
“…I think I’m in love.”
With peach cream smeared around his mouth like a mustache, Theo wore an ecstatic expression.
It wasn’t something you’d expect from a five-year-old, making Hailey’s ears turn red, but both Axel and Anais couldn’t help but laugh at the adorable Theo.
“How much do you know about Winchester?”
Hailey thought the moment had finally arrived. Thanks to Theo, the atmosphere had warmed, but now it was time for the real questions.
In preparation for today’s tea time, Hailey had crammed the night before.
In fact, there wasn’t much information about Winchester, and the circulating information was mostly absurd, so there wasn’t much to find even in the royal library.
“Forgive me, but my knowledge is limited. However, I’ve heard that Winchester is so cold it’s called the Kingdom of Snow. Theo and I look forward to making snowballs and playing there, spending white nights.”
The queen was so surprised she almost laughed out loud.
Usually, when noble ladies were asked about Winchester, ten out of ten would say it was a mysterious island where mages lived.
The most famous thing about Winchester was the abundance of mages, so the usual reaction was to pretend to be fascinated by the mysterious beings not found on the continent. Of course, the queen could always easily read their true thoughts of ‘Winchester is just the countryside’ from their sparkling eyes.
‘It should be correct, right? I’ll be embarrassed if it’s wrong.’
In fact, Hailey, like most noble ladies, didn’t know much about Winchester.
Most of the books only described mages, and Hailey had no knowledge of magic. Pretending to know would only make her look foolish.
She barely found a short sentence in a book detailing regional characteristics: ‘Winchester is located in the north, so it is cold and snowy.’
Assuming this place was similar to her previous life on Earth, she thought it was simply a cold, snowy northern region, and figured talking about snowball fights or snowmen should be safe.
In conclusion, Hailey was now boldly making guesses.
‘As long as I look like a typical noble lady at a tea party, it’s fine.’
Hailey sipped her tea, feeling relieved that she seemed to have done a decent job.
Anais knew about Winchester from the queen, and Axel had learned from his experiences on numerous battlefields. In contrast, Hailey was born and raised in the southern capital of Ludwig, where it rained instead of snowing even in winter.
The most important thing Hailey overlooked was that noble children couldn’t even imagine making and throwing snowballs.
Of course, only the queen, who was from Winchester and had played with children of lower status than herself, could understand.
“The winter snow festival is quite a sight. But it’s so cold that I’m not sure if you’d like it.”
“A cup of cocoa on a cold day sounds so charming.”
Hailey wondered if Axel had taught her, but her son wasn’t the type to give such detailed answers.
The queen put down her teacup with a satisfied smile.
To the queen, Hailey, who casually sipped her tea and talked about looking forward to snowball fights, seemed very cute.
“Playing with snowballs? Is that what you like?”
“…What?! Oh. Well, I just prefer active things to static ones.”
Hailey realized Axel’s curious question and responded, flustered. She hurriedly added that she liked active things more, but her heart was pounding.
“Right, your hand movements are different from those of common noble ladies.”
“What do you mean by hand movements?”
Anais, intrigued by the mention of hand movements, asked with wide eyes.
“I saw her knock down the merchants of Vasa with those small hands myself. I knew she enjoyed doing things herself, but I didn’t expect her to use her fists. How admirable.”
“Oh my.”
“It’s not fistfighting! I didn’t knock them down! I just grabbed them by the collar and shook them a little.”
As Axel raised his thumb in approval, Hailey, feeling embarrassed, waved her hands in denial. But the more she spoke, the stranger it sounded.
“So what? A true lady should be bold. You’re a remarkable woman of Otte.”
Anais, who had started learning swordsmanship to personally deal with those who looked down on her as the daughter of a deceased concubine, praised Hailey.
Thinking of such an innocent woman charging at the big men of Vasa made her laugh.
Anais’s curiosity shifted to Axel, wondering what kind of abilities her brother had to bring such an extraordinary sister-in-law.
While the adults were engrossed in their conversation, the five-year-old child devoured the desserts as if it were his last day.
So many sweet and delicious foods!
He wanted to eat more, but he was full, so Theo patted his chubby baby belly.
“Mommy Hailey.”
“Yes?”
Theo called Hailey in a small voice. When Hailey leaned her head towards Theo to listen, Theo spoke shyly.
“I want to give the letter.”
Feeling good from all the sweet food, Theo finally gathered the courage after hesitating and looking around.
Theo was a bit nervous since he had never given a letter to anyone other than Hailey.
Smiling, Hailey patted Theo’s murmuring head and called for Merrill.
Following Hailey’s instructions, Merrill brought Theo’s letter, which had been specially prepared and placed on a luxurious, glittering stand.
Hailey flinched. She still wasn’t used to the royal staff treating a child’s letter as if it were a precious jewel.
“Actually, Theo has something he really wants to give today, so we prepared it. If it’s alright, could we have a moment?”
“Oh my. Of course.”
‘I want to do it,’ said Theo, tugging at Hailey’s dress.
When Hailey set him down on the floor, the child took the letter and walked over to the queen.
“Thank you for inviting me to this delicious snack time.”
Theo shyly handed over the letter. Not fully understanding what a tea party was, Theo expressed his gratitude for the delightful snack time.
Everyone chuckled softly at the term ‘delicious snack time.’
The queen unfolded the small child’s letter, which she was receiving for the first time in her life.
Seeing the words ‘To the pretty grandmother’ written in a five-year-old’s wobbly handwriting, she couldn’t help but smile.
But as she read on, the queen was rendered speechless.