Unlike the Winter Tree garden, the beauty of my garden was seen through its compactness and simplicity. Of course, it’s a bit scary to see that my small and compact standard was the scale of the royal family, but my personal garden was nothing compared to the Winter tree garden. Well, it was still big enough for small children to play around.

  Besides, the atmosphere of this place changed little by little every passing season, so there were more attractions here than in the Winter Tree garden. It indeed looked like paradise to me, who was once a city girl. Come to think of it, winter was coming soon. The wind blowing from the pavilion was quite chilly.

  Agrigent was the only country in the central continent that had four distinct seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. I heard it was because of the winter spirit. For example, in neighboring countries, such as Langre, it was always summer throughout the year while Ancief enjoyed a perpetual spring; meanwhile, Parten-Kihern’s seasons were spring, summer, and fall. Thus, when they looked at the snow of Agrigent, it’s intrigued them even if they were from the same Central Continent. Anyways, there were many exciting things here.

  “Princess!”


  I was reading a book call , and Elyne suddenly ran into the pavilion. I tilted my head to see what the commotion was all about. What was going on? Elyne’s looked like a dog that needed to go to the bathroom because of her expression.

  “Princess, something terrible has happened!”


  “Huh? What’s wrong?!”


  Even Serira was curious. Assisi looked nervous too. This looked terrible.

  “His Majesty… His Majesty!”


  “His Majesty, what?”


  ‘Stop stuttering. You’re making me even more nervous.’


  “His Majesty found your broken sculpture!”


  A massive alarm rang in my head.

  Um… Did I hear that correctly? I blinked my eyes, but Elyne was still there. I moved my head and looked at Serira; I then looked at Assisi. Oh, no!

  “What!? How?”


  “I… I don’t know.”


  “I mean, how did he find it?”


  “He must have said something to the maids. The emperor always seems angry, so they just ended up telling him everything…”


  Were their lives the only ones on the line? What about me? What about my right to live?

  My vision started to get hazy. I couldn’t see the light, and I couldn’t think of what words to say. I was so screwed.

  I knew that he would find it out someday, but this was too soon.

  “Where is he now?”


  When I looked at Elyne, she shook her head as if to say, “I don’t know.” I then looked at Assisi.

  “He’s probably in a meeting.”


  “I’ll be seeing him at dinner then?”


  The troubling part was the fact that the sun had already set, and we would be dining soon… the garden after sunset was beautiful, but I couldn’t seem to marvel at its beauty.

  Ah, I couldn’t think of anything else to do. I wished that everyone would disappear. I wanted to be alone…


  “But it’s not like you’re the one who broke it, Princess…”


  Silly Elyne, did she really thought that Caitel would care?