“You could say that,” Alicia smiled, holding her hands together. “I often played together with Helen. She’s quite athletic, but… I’ll lose on purpose. I’m much better than her in terms of skill.”Ivan snickered.Alicia’s lips curled to a light frown. She thought he was laughing at her.“You don’t believe me? Watch. I’ll show you how good I am in the next competition. I’ll make you regret it.”Ivan grabbed her hands that tightened up to a ball and pulled it towards him. He stroked her hand, drawing light circles with his thumb.“Just don’t push yourself too hard to prove me wrong. I don’t want you to get hurt.”“You need not worry. That won’t happen. Compared to Coulson’s rough game, Ehrlich’s is more quiet and subdued.”Though she quietly criticized Ehrlich, Ivan didn’t seem to care, and only strengtheTed his grip and said, “On that day, there’ll be a lot of people. Since we’ll be at the hunting grounds, there are hidden and dangerous factors you wouldn’t be able to expect. Please kee
“There are many areas with wonderful scenery to look at around the hunting grounds. I’m sure you’ll love it, Alicia. After the competition ends, what do you think of spending a relaxing day together? Just the two us.”He looked at her, eyes full of anticipation and blithe eagerness.Alicia pursed her lips together. She found it onerously difficult to decline him and there was no justification to do so. Besides, he looked wholesome at this moment.Alicia smiled and nodded. “That sounds good. It’s been a while since I spent time outdoors. Let’s do it.”Ivan beamed brightly and stuck his chest out haughtily.“That’s great. We’ll have a private area for ourselves and I’ll make sure to have sweet delicacies. I’m not too sure about how I rank amongst the other players in Kiritte, but I’m pretty confident in my hunting skills. Since your appetite for meat has grown quite a bit these days, I’m sure you’ll be able to eat a whole deer, right?”Ivan joked around and grinTed. He looked down, star
“Thanks for the fruit, Basil. It’s wonderful,” said Alicia, smiling.Basil beamed and handed the fruit, which had revealed its ripeTed yellow flesh, to Alicia.“Here, My Queen, have some. His Majesty’s not the kind who’d feed on a single fruit like this, so let’s not worry about him and enjoy as much as you want.”Alicia giggled. She bit on the fruit and relished the taste, expression ecstatic.“Wow. It’s good!”“Eat as much as you want. There’s plenty more.”Basil looked at Alicia happily munching on the fruit. It was as if he was watching his own daughter eating her meal and finding new discoveries.Alicia bit the fruit one after another. She suddenly remembered the Queen Mother loved the nori fruit, too. She often ate it by herself, pouring honey on it overnight to sweeten the taste more.“Basil, pick the best ones and send it to the Queen mother as well.”“Y-yes.”Basil quickly turned his head and studied the king’s reaction habitually. Ivan gave a light nod as Basil grinTed widel
After their last defeat, Coulson seemed to have spent their days quietly on the surface.When Alicia and Ivan had their marriage ceremony, Coulson sent one of their princes, Ivan, as a visitor along with adequate amounts of wedding gifts signifying their wish to keep and maintain a friendly relation between two nations.Despite this, Ivan was sure that Coulson had hidden plans.“It would seem that the progress of the construction of their naval ship has not been well. They, after all, suffered quite the heavy loss due to blight and harmful insects… and from us as well, Your Majesty. Not only has it become difficult to acquire wood to begin their constructions, they’re having trouble collecting taxes and so funds are running out. And with the strained relationship going on so far, they’re unable to request help from Lexington. Things aren’t going well.”Coulson’s Crown Prince who showed a friendly appearance upfront was, in fact, giving orders to prepare for war and the first issue the
“…In any case, internal conflict in their land ultimately helps us out,” Ivan muttered.“Yes, of course, Your Majesty. It would prove difficult for them to make a move while internal strife continues. Besides, when I think about it, it’s good timing to have a blight hit Coulson. If not, they’d have grabbed hold onto the opportunity to launch a counter attack.When the boats of Coulson had all sunk, blight covered the kingdom whole in a fortunate moment.Some joked that the king of Ehrlich was a being able to peer into the future. Though it was Coulson who attacked Ehrlich first, it was Ivan the nobles residing in Ehrlich for treason that goaded Coulson to wage a war at the right timing.“How’s the preparation for the Kiritte Competition that’s to be held in a few days?”“We’re making sure that everything moves as planned. The workers are searching every acre of the hunting grounds to make sure that it’s safe.”“Since my wife will be participating in the sports herself, you make sure t
Ivan opened the documents and picked one out of the pile on his hand with a very happy mood.His eyes caught a glimpse of a fruit laid out in a bowl. It was a Nori fruit, which may have been left there by Alicia due to the guilty feelings she had of eating them all by herself.Ivan smirked and forced himself to have a bite of the fruit which wasn’t his preference at all.“Basil, please pick the best ones out of the bunch and send it to the Queen Mother.”He remembered what she said to Basil. At the same time, his expression grew dark. Hearing her speech filled with purely innocent intentions, he could do nothing but staying quiet and biting down on his lips.Alicia was taking care of the Queen Mother as best as she could as if she was the mother, even though the Queen Mother now has no power left at all.That she had an emotional attraction to the Queen Mother was an extremely obvious thing considering that she had lost her own mother at a young age.It was actually a harsher demand t
Mrs. Cessley pointed at the heavily pushed back group of players with her folded up fan. Currently, they were all struggling to try and get the ball out of the tree where it was stuck. On the other side, the side that Alicia was on was quickly pushing forward.“Mrs. Cessley, cannot help them out at all. It’s in the rules that the person who made the ball stuck up there has to take it down themselves. And it seems to me that it will take around 10 minutes to take it down,” Ivan mumbled to himself as he watched the man who was so weak with sports that he couldn’t even ride horses for a prolonged period of time trying to take down the ball from the tree.To Ivan, it honestly didn’t matter too much whether he won or lost this match. His eyes were actually on Alicia who was in the midst of chatting with other team members.Alicia was wearing a short dress that reached down to her ankles. The dark blue dress matched well with the chilly weather and her thin little body. Every time she nodde
Everyone started scrambling towards the direction that the ball fell into. Alicia also hurriedly ran between the trees trying to find the ball. The faster they find the ball, the more they can save time.As she searched around for a while, she suddenly was met with a turquoise-colored lake. Alicia admired the wonderfully clear water and walked up to it. Feeling the refreshing cool wind, she stood for a moment to cool her head that was dripping with sweat. She then found the white ball right next to the lake.“So here it is.”The ball was teetering on the edge, so Alicia was glad it didn’t completely fall into it. As the depth of this water is very deep, it would be hard to pick it out of the bottom.Alicia picked up the small whistle that is hanging around her neck that’s used to calling the people to come around her area. Just as she was going to blow on it as hard as she can, someone came from behind and pushed her hard as they could.Splash!Right away her body was engulfed with co