Chapter 60
Translated by Wook
Edited by Iris Sakura
The girls’ eyes twinkled as if they saw Calyx’s dilemma. Even if they were young, they were still merchants.
“Welcome! It’s one copper for ten flowers! You’re the first customer, so I’ll give you one extra!”
Brilliant eyes looked up at him.
“Give me all of them. I don’t need change.”
Seemingly indifferent, Calyx handed the girls one silver coin at once. The young merchants could not hide their joy and told him to wait for a while. He didn’t see where they got it from, but it seemed like they were trying to make a bouquet out of paper.
Calyx leaned against the mottled wall for a moment.
“Look at that man. He’s kinder than he looks,” a pedestrian said.
Calyx’s face grew hot as he heard onlookers thinking about him in such a way.
‘It’s not like that. I just bought a present for my sister…’ He’d look pathetic if he said that, so Calyx bit his lip.
It took a long time to pack the flowers as there had been no customers who had bought them in a large quantity before. Calyx grew increasingly nervous.
Even at this moment, as he was still, he imagined his sister looking at him through a cage and saying, ‘Calyx, I’m hungry. The prison food is tasteless.’ Or ‘There’s as much meat in the soup as there is on my little finger.’ That scene couldn’t have been more vivid.
“Have you seen a dark-haired woman in her early to mid-twenties?”
The girls who were tying ribbons with thin stalks of grass nodded.
“Yes. I saw that woman about twenty minutes ago.”
Calyx’s eyes widened as he found a clue in an unexpected place. The girls’ testimonies revealed that he and his sister were on the same street, making him feel relieved with that fact alone.
When Calyx barely let out a sigh of relief, the two girls quietly talked.
“Should I tell him about the four skewers she bought over there? Looks like she didn’t pay…”
“Shh, Emily. Quiet.”
Calyx grabbed his aching head. ‘Sister… Come to think of it, I didn’t teach you about money and economic principles…’
Paying for the food, Calyx gave money to the poor skewer merchant extorted by his sister. Of course, it wasn’t a copper coin but a gold, glittering reward. So moved was the merchant by the pay that he immediately burst into tears, so Calyx felt even more sorry.
Calyx continued walking while holding the flowers, and the girls waved their hands from behind him. Calyx stared blankly at the bouquet he was holding in his hands. ‘Those girls should still have flowers with them, right? Aren’t there more flowers inside those baskets covered with cloth?’
The bouquet was unusually large. It was not a simple bouquet, but a small field full of flowers. Many eyes fell on Calyx. With a bit of shame, he glanced around the chaotic street. Gold, brown, purple, blue: many different hair colors were scattered here and there, but he only had eyes for black hair.
“Excuse me.”
Calyx spoke to the vendor at a nearby stall. Of course, he didn’t expect the man to know his sister’s whereabouts, but he felt like he had to do something just because he was so exhausted. The merchant greeted him with a broad smile.
“Oh, aren’t you Young Lord Calyx? Welcome, what can I get you?”
‘… How does he know my name?’ Calyx was momentarily puzzled but quickly remembered that Rosaline was now the most famous celebrity on the continent and that he looked very much like her. Still, it was odd to find someone he had never met so welcoming to him. Calyx trembled and asked the merchant if he knew where Rosaline was.
“Are you looking for Sir Rosaline? She headed over there with a big apple in her hand. She eats so well.”
Calyx couldn’t help but smile and accept the good news. But a second later, Calyx went crazy with the thought that Rosaline must have robbed the ‘big apple’ from a fruit shop. Calyx thanked the merchant and quickly left.
Calyx wandered the streets and found… a bakery— instinctively, he connected the dots.
‘There’s a one hundred percent chance she must be here, right?’
When he opened the door and entered, the bell rang. A savory smell filled the bakery, and the owner, wearing a white hat, broadly smiled as he looked at Calyx holding a bouquet.
‘Oh, did you bring a bouquet to give to your sister?’ the baker thought.
The owner’s smile instantly made Calyx feel like he had turned back into a 5-year-old.
“Aren’t you Young Lord Calyx? Is it really as rumored?
‘… Rumored?’ Calyx was very concerned about the owner’s words but calmly came to his senses. His sister’s whereabouts were more urgent than some rumors.
“Ah, are you looking for Sir Rosaline? She ate a lot of sandwiches at our store. She ate them so deliciously that the people watching just bought everything! I sold a lot, so it’s fine.”
‘No, it’s not fine.’ It was a time when rumors about her were spreading all over the palace. They didn’t need to add to the story that Rosaline Radwiell was extorting merchants.
However, the response was a bit confusing. In one way or another, she was a demon, but the gazes of the extorted people were warmer than he expected. Calyx pondered before coming to a conclusion: judging from the words of the merchant and the shop owner, it seems adults tend to feel affection for young people who eat well.
After paying the baker, Calyx moved more urgently. It had been a long journey and the distance and time to get here only grew his concern for his sister. But now, the kind of worry has changed a bit. Calyx could only call, ‘Sister!’ inside his heart filled with urgency.
There were frequent clashes with other pedestrians.
“Keep your eyes open!” Calyx snapped at the big, tough guys before they could even start a staring contest.
Calyx left an impressive impression: he had a large physique and a haughty countenance, so those men had no choice but to keep their mouths shut. But later, the men saw Calyx giving a polite apology to an old woman after slightly bumping into her.
The huge bouquet moved in response to his urgent movements, obscuring half his view. The flowers were cumbersome, and he was so frustrated. People’s heads swayed through the white flowers, appearing and disappearing repeatedly. He seemed to have seen black among them. Calyx exclaimed.
“Sister!”
The dark hair buried by the people was no longer visible. After a two-second pause, something popped out of the crowd. It was Rosaline. She leaped above people’s heads with a fierce momentum like a frog, like an arrow shot into the sky, like a black steed over obstacles.
‘Aaaaakh! I’m going crazy!’ Calyx roughly cursed to himself. Rosaline beautifully landed on the low roof of a shop.
“Oooooh!” people on the street exclaimed in admiration.
Rosaline, who was looking around, soon found Calyx and smiled broadly. Following her gaze, the people’s attention focused on Calyx. His face turned red. It made him wonder why he couldn’t find his sister before when she’s being so eye-catching…
“Calyx!”
Rosaline soon flew up again and landed in front of Calyx. People applauded as it was an astounding feat.
“She’s a demon, so she runs very well! Ah, that man must be the brother Sir Rosaline talked about earlier. You know the one, Calyx, whom she said has a lot of money and is pretty. Oh, the pretty and kind Calyx? Oh, that cutie Cal?”
Calyx heard the people talking. He covered his face with his hand, trying to erase his existence as much as possible. ‘What the hell are you saying about me?’
“Sister.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Calyx, who was about to ask what the hell she had been saying about him, met Rosaline’s gaze. Her eyes were shining brightly. Calyx glanced over at his sister— she looked healthy. There didn’t seem to be any broken bones, and her skin was still vibrant with no scars. Due to the favor of Count Drythorne, her cheeks were even chubby. On the contrary, Calyx, who had been running non-stop for several days, looked sicker.
‘Oh, how fortunate.’ Calyx could let out a sigh of relief he had held for a long time. ‘You can steal, and get drunk, and whatnot. You can take stuff without paying, so just be healthy.’
“I’m glad you came back safely.”
His voice was small enough to be buried in the noise of the street, but he was sure that Rosaline would hear it. And Rosaline smiled, pulling the corners of her lips back in response.
“Mm-hmm.”
Rosaline hugged Calyx. The bouquet between the two was crumpled. The scent of flowers wafted and wrapped around the two of them. Onlookers watched the reunion of the Radwiell siblings with joy. Seeing someone wipe away tears of emotion, Calyx also shed tears in shame.
Calyx took Rosaline’s hand and went back the way he came. [I ate here. I ate this too. That’s delicious too.] Rosaline ate so wildly that it seemed more satisfying than eating delicately in a fancy restaurant. They stopped at each store to pay her credit, so Rosaline now has a rough understanding of how the economy works.
[So, there is a price that comes with things!] Seeing her shock because of something that should be common sense, Calyx’s heart became even more confused. ‘Was it too early to send her out to society…?’ He quickly came to his senses at that thought.
