Chapter 18: CH 18

This is the third post in a row.

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With winter approaching, it was time for harvest festivals. During the day, the sun was out, but at night it got quite cold. This might be why, when he woke up, Nicolette, who was still sleeping, was more likely to rub up against him. Perhaps she was looking for warmth, but Wolfgang had a hard time keeping reason.

“Here is a list of this year’s harvest for each region. Taxes are paid accordingly. Please confirm.”

Albert presented with a very thick stack of documents. Wolfgang received with a frown and looked through them. This time of year, the year-end and New Year holidays were unusually busy.

In addition, the Prime Minister, Hainz, arrived.

“Your Majesty. Please do the same here. Minutes of the proceedings of each local council meeting.”

“...I know. Leave it there.”

“Understood.”

Hainz smiled as usual and followed his words. The Hainzel Empire was vast in territory. For this reason, the country was divided into several regions, each of which had its own council, a body seconded from the central government. The minutes of the council meetings were sent to him every three months, but at this time of year, he had a lot of tax-related work to do, so it was a lot of reading through them.

These days, Nicolette was really healing. When he saw her fluffy smile, he lost strength. He wanted to see her face as soon as possible.

He would look through the tax reports, but they did not look much different from previous years. Then the minutes of each council meeting. This one was almost always the same except for the one on the west side.

“There seems to be a bit of suspicious activity out west.”

“But, well, isn’t that what we always do?”

“The Duchy of Reichenbach is just to the west.”

Both Albert and Hainz said it plainly. Well, that was true. Wolfgang and his team were trying to monitor these minor changes, as they would be blindsided if war were to break out again. Problems should be plucked while they were small.

He stamped the report with a confirming seal and prepared the documents for submission to the various ministries. It was a simple task, but the sheer volume made it difficult.

“Speaking of which, Your Majesty. It looks like they’re having a harvest festival in the Imperial City.”

Hainz said as he remembered. Albert nodded.

“’What do you harvest in the imperial capital? It’s more like a so-called commercial city, the imperial capital.”

“Well, I guess that’s the mood. You don’t need a reason for a festival.”

Hainz said in a definitive tone. Albert, who asked, sighed, “Hah...” and pulled away. Well, it was not that he didn’t understand why people wanted to make noises at festivals, anyway.

“It looks like it will be held three days later, like other harvest festivals. Perhaps, Your Imperial Highness, you would like to go?”

“...No, indeed, the harvest festival would have been attended at the monastery.”

Wolfgang discreetly took a quip. They wouldn’t know this area until they asked, and also whether Nicolette, who was somewhat reclusive, would want to participate in the festival.

In general, how was it that the queen participated in a city festival? It was too hard to escort. He felt that she should be able to carry a gun, but the small gun had a lot of recoils, and the bullets would land unevenly on her.

“I wonder if that’s true... Why don’t you just ask, just in case?”

“Hainz-sama. If that happens, it’s going to be very hard to escort them.”

“If His Majesty goes with her, it will be all right, won’t it?”

“I know it will be extra hard!”

Albert made a bold move toward Hainz. Hainz laughed lightly out loud. While watching the situation without even looking at it. Wolfgang thought, ‘Let’s just do as he said.’

△

“Harvest Festival?Heh? I didn’t know they did that even in such a developed city.”

Nicolette said with surprise as she made Krantz with dried flowers. She knew about the Harvest Festival.

“We don’t usually do this. Apparently, the people of the Imperial City want to have a festival too.”

“I wonder if they want to make it exciting... Oh, Helma, where are the scissors?”

“... It’s right here.”

Wolfgang handed Nicolette a pair of scissors that were nearby. She smiled and thanked him, then cut the excess stems with scissors. Nicolette put down the krantz once the slash was in the right place.

By the way, the krantz was to be displayed at the nativity, not at the harvest festival.

“’As I said, have you ever attended a harvest festival?”

“I don’t know if I can say I’ve participated, but I have helped the monastery make pastries for their food stall. Basically, my mother and I couldn’t leave the convent grounds~.”

Nicolette smiled as she deftly cleared the table. Nicolette collected the items, Markus received them, Marya wiped the table, and Helma served tea.

“... Shall we go?”

“Eh?”

Nicolette nodded her head. Wolfgang repeated.

“Shall we go? To the Harvest Festival.”

“Eh?!”

Even Nicolette seemed surprised.

△

The problem for Queen Nicolette’s participation in the harvest festival in the imperial capital was her escort. Her face was well known to the general public since she had already participated in several inspections and other official duties, but she had only been married for six months and was not that well known in the empire. Therefore, their face would not be very well known. Wear makeup and hide your face with a hat, etc. would be fine.

Finally, Wolfgang followed suit. Because he had a job, his time out was limited to one hour.

Even if they said that, that did not mean that the problem had been solved. Wolfgang’s face was known in the imperial capital, so the outfit was inevitably suspicious.

Wearing his sword under his beige hooded cloak, Wolfgang held hands with Nicolette to avoid getting separated. She would stop at something that interested her or wander off in that direction, and we would almost lose her.

Of course, the escort followed behind, but the instructions from Albert, who was in charge of the escort, were to stay as close as possible. It was easier to protect if the targets to be protected were in one place.

Nicolette going alone was dangerous. Wolfgang concluded that while his going along with her would not ease his fears (he was the emperor, of course), it would still be better!

Nicolette, wearing an enormous hat with a deep brim, and a large man wearing a cloak and hood... It was a combination that might have been considered kidnapping in the wrong hands, but surprisingly, many of the people were dressed similarly. It could be a traveler or an aristocrat’s errand boy. Perhaps that was what Wolfgang and his team thought.

“Ah, look at that. How cute~”

He rushed to stop Nicolette, who was about to walk off in a daze.

“Hey. Don’t wander too much.”

“Ah, sorry.”

He saw Nicolette stick her tongue out a little. It was a childish gesture, but one that strangely suited her.

What caught her eye was the so-called flower ball. They often used it for weddings, but come to think of it, they didn’t use it for Wolfgang and Nicolette’s wedding. This would be beautiful even if it were just displayed.

“You want it?”

“Eh, it’s fine, it’s nothing. I know we’re not supposed to buy food.”

He felt that Nicolette would have gladly bought and ate the food, but did not because Albert had given her a strict warning not to do so. Because you never know what you were winning out there. Nicolette was properly protecting it.

Somehow, they all felt as if they were taking care of a child. Wolfgang couldn’t speak for others either, but they were all overprotective.

“It’s okay, because I don’t eat it. You could... Maybe this.”

Wolfgang took the liberty of choosing a white and light red flower ball and paid the owner for it.

“Here.”

“Um, thank you...”

Nicolette received the flower ball with both hands and looked down. Well, from Wolfgang’s perspective, the brim of her hat was in the way, so he could not see her expression well to begin with.

When they rejoined hands again to avoid getting separated, she was startled and overreacted. Unintentionally, Wolfgang was also freaked out.

He looked into Nicolette’s face a little and saw that her cheeks were red. Wolfgang held her slender hand and asked.

“Shall we go home?”

“Y-Yeah.”

Nicolette nodded coyly, and they pulled out, although they still had plenty of time to spare.

△

“My~, the queen is as lovely as ever. She decorated the flower ball His Majesty gave her and looked at it with delight.”

The night we went to visit the harvest festival, Marx reported back to him with a smile. Of course, that person was Nicolette.

“I hope she’s pleased.”

Wolfgang said without looking up from his papers. Even though the Oval Office had been open for only an hour or so, there was quite a bit of work to be done. He felt like Hainz was harassing him, but he had an odd amount of work this time of year. He thought it was time for it to subside.

So, he was not likely to go back to his room today. He visited Marcus to see how Nicolette was doing, and he said she went to sleep earlier than usual. And Marx, who was just here to report, was also involved and doing paperwork.

“Why even come to me? I’m just here to report.”

“Just help me, Marx.”

Markus helped out while grumbling. Albert, who was the lucky guy, didn’t stop his hand.

Wolfgang’s subjects were excellent.

△

There was one thing Marx did not report to Wolfgang. Nicolette said as she gazed happily at the flower ball Wolfgang had given her.

“Roses have a unique language depending on their color. The most famous is ‘love’, but a few could be ‘respect’ or ‘innocence’. It also means, not so well-known, ‘love for each other’.”

Saying this, Nicolette giggled and pecked at a flower on the flower ball.

“And one more thing. This peach-colored flower is called primula, and its flower language is ‘enduring love’. I’m pretty sure Wolf-sama doesn’t know, though. I’ve said before, ‘I don’t need roses because I grow them myself,’ but it’s nice to get them.”

Then Nicolette narrowed her eyes and smiled lovingly.

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Thank you for reading this far.

The Harvest Festival is supposed to be around Halloween. Yeah.~ My friend was researching this area, but I didn’t quite understand it, you know. So, we will go through it.

Flower Ball should be Blume Bal or Blume Kugel, but I didn’t understand German well, so I left it as Flower Ball. I’m not sure about German and French because they have masculine, feminine and neutral nouns. This is even though my second foreign language is German.

By the way, the krantz Nicolette is making is a Christmas wreath. Different time!!

From now on, we will return to updating every other day. So the next update will be on January 5.