The Youngest Daughter Of The Great Wizard Of The Famous Swordsmanship [EN]: Chapter 141

141. Rosette’s Letter

March 20, 2024

“Long time no see, Princess?”

Rosette composed herself and bowed.

“It’s been a while, Your Highness.”

Now that she thought about it, it had been a long time since she’d seen him, just like Louis had said. Especially after Ines and Adrian were suspected in the Ophelia poisoning attempt.

He must know what Princess Lillis had done, but Louis’s expression as he looked at Rosette was as calm as ever.

“It’s a bit late to say this, but I think it’s a shame what the maid my mother employed did. I never imagined she would repay a kindness like that. Still, I’m glad the whole truth came out, and that no harm came to the Princess and Adrian.”

“…Yes.”

There were many things she wanted to say: whether Princess Lillis was truly blameless in that matter, and whether Louis really didn’t know anything about it.

Whether Louis was pleased when Ines and Adrian were implicated because of that incident.

But Rosette didn’t want to voice those negative and accusatory thoughts.

‘I’d like to hold Princess Lillis responsible if I could.’

She didn’t want to dwell on something that had happened so long ago.

“Anyway, I heard there was a big incident at the hunting competition. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. It’s been quite some time, so you don’t need to worry.”

“Is that so? I’m glad to hear it.”

Rosette smiled awkwardly and looked around. People weren’t making a big show of it, but they were glancing at the two of them.

Perhaps, from their perspective, Rosette and Louis’s meeting was quite an interesting spectacle.

Rosette quickly bowed again to avoid giving people more to talk about.

“Then, may I be excused? My friends are waiting.”

“I’d like to talk more, but it seems difficult today. If you ever come to the Imperial Palace again, would you contact me?”

“Um… Yes.”

Rosette wanted to ask why Louis was saying this, but she left without asking.

As she approached Lucas, who was the easiest to deal with, he glared at Rosette as if dissatisfied. Rosette quickly understood what he wanted to say.

‘He’s probably going to say something about the Second Prince showing interest again.’

However, perhaps because the other party was royalty, he didn’t voice those thoughts aloud.

After spending some time like that, dance music began to play in the hall, which had been filled with soft music.

People paid attention to Joshua, the protagonist of the day. Since today’s protagonist was Joshua, it was polite for others to remain still until he made his choice.

He rose from his seat, where he had been lazily sitting and talking with Ophelia, and extended his hand to her.

Ophelia smiled and shook her head. She couldn’t hear what she was saying, but it seemed like she was telling him to dance with someone else.

Joshua hesitated for a moment before stepping down from the platform and heading into the hall. People watched his every move.

Soon, Joshua stood in front of Rosette.

“Princess.”

He smiled slightly and extended his hand.

“Would you like to dance with me?”

Rosette instinctively glanced at Lucas. Lucas looked at Rosette with an expression that said, ‘You can do that.’

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Rosette ignored the attention focused on the two of them and danced with Joshua. The dance was nothing special. The two didn’t talk at all and simply danced.

As the dance was nearing its end, Joshua quietly whispered.

“Could I see you in the garden for a moment after this dance?”

“In the garden?”

“Yes.”

Rosette readily nodded, and the dance concluded.

Rosette watched Joshua head towards Ophelia before carefully heading to the garden with Pipi.

After chatting briefly with Pipi while waiting, Joshua appeared a little later. Perhaps conscious of people’s attention, he cast a barrier magic around the small garden where the two were standing.

Rosette followed suit, casting soundproofing magic and illusion barrier magic. From the outside, it would probably look like no one was there.

[Woof!]

Rosette stroked Silver’s head, who was wagging his tail vigorously as he looked at her, then looked at Joshua.

“Happy birthday, Your Highness. Come to think of it, it seems like this is the first time I’m directly wishing you a happy birthday.”

“So it is.”

Rosette awkwardly fiddled with her handbag when Joshua subtly inquired.

“Come to think of it, Rosette, don’t you have a separate birthday present for me?”

Rosette momentarily looked down at her handbag, but she immediately denied it.

“Daniel said he would prepare a gift on behalf of Adrian, so I didn’t prepare anything separately.”

“Is that so? That’s disappointing.”

Joshua’s expression as he said that didn’t seem particularly disappointed, so Rosette couldn’t tell if he was joking or expressing his true feelings.

But since he said he was disappointed, an excuse involuntarily came out.

“Actually, I did worry about what kind of gift I should give you. Pipi knows too – how much I worried.”

[Peep!]

“But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t think of a gift that would please you. You’ve received all sorts of expensive gifts since you were young, and anything I prepared would be inferior to others. In fact, the gifts you received today were things that would be difficult for me to even obtain.”

“Well.”

Joshua made a hmm sound in his throat and stared down at Rosette, who seemed a bit intimidated.

“I didn’t want to receive a gift from Princess Adrian.”

“…?”

“I mean, I wanted to receive a gift from Rosette Adrian, not Princess Adrian.”

When Rosette still looked like she didn’t understand, Joshua explained a little more.

“I mean, you could have just given it as a gift to a friend. The meaning behind it is more important than a grand gift.”

“……”

“How many of the gifts I received today do you think were sincere?”

Rosette mentally reviewed the list of gifts before answering.

“First of all, the gift Daniel gave was definitely sincere. He didn’t show it, but he put a lot of thought into it.”

“Yes, I think so too. What else?”

“I don’t know.”

There was nothing more to say.

‘Come to think of it, there wasn’t anything that was truly sincere.’

Everyone seemed to have considered what they could do for Joshua, rather than worrying about what he liked. It was as if they were showing off how much they could do for the Prince.

‘The Second Prince’s gift is the same.’

If you were to pick the most expensive birthday gift Joshua received today, it would undoubtedly be the diamond Louis gave. But if you were to pick the gift with the least sincerity, it would naturally be that diamond.

That’s how full of political meaning Louis’s gift was.

‘That’s probably why the Prince only reacted to Daniel’s gift.’

“Next time, I’ll think a little more and…”

She was about to say she would give him a gift when Pipi, who had been expressing doubt since Rosette said she hadn’t prepared a gift, started peeping discontentedly.

[Peep? Peep!]

Rosette, you prepared a gift! I helped too! I wrote a letter too!

Pipi seemed upset that she hadn’t delivered the letter she had written herself.

But it didn’t matter what Pipi said. After all, Rosette was the only one who could understand this little bird.

Even if Pipi was chattering about a gift right in front of him, Joshua wouldn’t notice anything.

That’s how it was supposed to be.

[Woof!]

Silver, whose existence Rosette had momentarily forgotten, barked. She couldn’t understand what Silver was saying, but Rosette intuitively understood the wolf’s words.

She belatedly tried to cover Silver’s mouth, but the wolf dodged her hand and howled.

Joshua narrowed his eyes after hearing Silver’s words.

“Silver says that Pipi seems to have prepared something.”

[Peep!]

That’s right! This Pipi has a letter with my paw prints on it!

Rosette feigned ignorance while listening to Pipi.

“What could Pipi possibly prepare? Pipi is just a bird.”

[Peep!]

Joshua’s eyes narrowed even more.

“Pipi doesn’t seem to think so.”

“That’s…”

She would have gladly given it if Pipi had written a letter on a blank piece of paper, but the problem was that Rosette’s letter was also written on the paper with Pipi’s footprints.

As Rosette hesitated, Pipi sat on the back of Rosette’s hand and poked her handbag with her beak.

Joshua’s gaze followed suit. Rosette quickly hid her handbag behind her back.

“There’s nothing here.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“That’s, uhh.”

Even as Rosette only groaned, Pipi urged her on. Eventually, Rosette took out the letter from her handbag with a slightly flushed face.

Joshua chuckled at the sight of the letter with Pipi’s clear footprints.

“It seems Pipi wrote me a letter.”

[Peep!]

“But I can’t understand what it says, so can I ask you to interpret it?”

[Peep!]

Pipi fluttered onto Joshua’s shoulder and readily began to recite the contents of the letter she had written.

“She sincerely congratulates Silver’s owner, that is, Your Highness, on his birthday. Since it’s his birthday, she says to eat lots of delicious things, and if possible, she wants you to share those delicious things with her.”

“I will. When we go back to the party, I’ll ask the servant to bring out a special cookie.”

[Peep!]

Joshua scratched the satisfied Pipi’s chin and extended his hand towards Rosette.

“Then won’t you give me Pipi’s letter now?”

“That…”

“Is there a problem?”

“That’s…”

Before Rosette could finish speaking, Pipi and Silver opened their mouths in turn.

[Peep!]

[Woof!]

Rosette’s letter is in there too!

Rosette wrote a letter too!