"Wait a minute.”
She couldn't wrap her head around the endless stream of words.
Agnes' cheeks were slightly flushed with embarrassment.
"Aren't you a little bit too direct?"
The princess' teachers used to express her lack of accomplishment in a roundabout way.
But Niall was the first who spoke so bluntly, when she was not familiar with such harsh words.
“It is the mistress who told me to speak with honesty.”
“No, but still. This is too much.”
Agnes pursed her lips and complained.
"Then what kind of beat should I play for you? I was simply being honest about this messy ledger that I can't even bear to look at, because I was told to speak honestly. If lip service is preferred, I will do so instead."
The dark-haired man was awfully expressionless. It might've been better to have him be angry, she thought.
Agnes came up with something to retort with, but didn't have the courage to say it.
“...I'm sorry. If you have anything else you want to say, keep going.”
Agnes lowered her head, and Niall opened his mouth again without any hesitation.
“If you look at the fifth page here, two sheep were paid in tax, but there is no trace of where they went next month. What would the person who reads the ledger later think?”
"......that the sheep ran away?"
The silence that followed stretched out frighteningly long.
"Or maybe they were eaten because there wasn't enough meat?"
If he had asked about the qualities of a king, she would have answered it easily.
Agnes groaned and tried to find a plausible answer.
Niall just looked at the princess without a word.
"Ah! I understand now."
"Is that so?"
"Somebody must have secretly stolen the sheep, haven't they? We have to find the criminal right now.”
Agnes straightened up and puffed out her chest as if she were proud of the answer she gave.
Niall clenched his jaws tighter than before.
"......whether the sheep was eaten, sold or ran away, it is important to write down the reason in detail so that the whereabouts are known if one were to check the ledgers."
"Should I know that?"
"The king who governs the country may not need to know, but the mistress of the castle should know. Especially in Szátmar, where even a single potato cannot be wasted. It's easier to manage when the records are correct."
"Oh, I see."
She opened her mouth slightly and nodded as if she had a big realisation.
Although his tongue was unnecessarily sharp, Niall was a good teacher in general.
Unlike in the past, Agnes persistently stuck to him and asked for guidance, and whenever there was something she did not understand, she would run to him and ask.
After having spent more than 10 days in such fashion, Niall's face, which only wore a hard expression at first, had gradually become softer.
“Today, there are fewer parts where the numbers don't match.”
"Really?"
In the beginning, whenever the ledgers were returned, they were dotted with red letters, making it difficult to read the original text.
But recently, the amount had decreased little by little.
"To have come this far in only 10 days, isn't this talent?"
When she received the ledger happily, there were definitely less markings than before.
Niall remained silent.
He was honestly surprised.
He never imagined that she would get this accustomed to work in ten days.
He had thought of her as a little princess, but at this rate, she would be proficient at everything within half a year.
Sensing his subtle look, Agnes straightened her back and raised her chin to make a proud expression.
"That's your problem. How can you be so stingy with compliments when you're good at pointing out other people's faults?"
Naill's mouth twitched.
Seeing as to how good of a face he was making, Agnes gleefully teased him.
"As the old saying goes, you need to have an eye that sees the strengths rather than the weaknesses of others to see your own strengths as well."
”...... ”
"So do it."
“What does that mean?”
"Compliment me. Praise me. Come on."
Agnes said with a fierce glare.
Naill opened his mouth with great difficulty.
"Mistress' ability to calculate numbers in detail is terrible..."
"What?"
"But has instead a pretty good grasp on the big picture of the flow of money."
The agonised look on his face was reminiscent of a soldier who was forced to give up information under the pressure of torture.
Agnes smiled and let it go.
"Please come up with something else to praise next time."
Niall left with a frown on his face.
* * *
The next day, an expected guest came knocking on the door.
"Welcome in."
Agnes calmed her jittery heart and greeted Buschke.
She told Ney to prepare the highest quality tea.
"Have you brought the results?"
"Yes."
Buschke pulled out a stack of papers from his arms and handed them over.
There were a lot of complex formulas and illustrations that were hard to understand.
“If you look here, this is the trajectory of Ranunculus. It follows this trajectory, passing through the Niršeg once every fifteen years.”
Agnes followed Buschke's finger, holding her breath.
“According to my calculations, the next time Ranunculus will appear in Niršeg will be in seven years and eight months.”
"......what?"
Her heart dropped within a beat.
"Well, to be more precise, in seven years, nine months and fifteen days."
"Tha- That can't, that can't be true. Did you miscalculate something? In seven years from now?
Agnes couldn't believe Buschke's words.
So she tried to deny it as much as she could by shaking her head.
Her voice was trembling.
"Again, try again. There must have been some mistake. How does it make sense that it'll be in seven years from now, unless it's a mistake? It doesn't make sense?"
"Mistress."
Buschke called Agnes in a quiet tone.
"My calculations are of course not perfect. But the margin of error is only two to three days apart at best, and cannot be more than a month wrong."
“I'm telling you to recalculate!”
Agnes jumped up and shouted at Buschke, unable to contain her boiling emotions.
Ney, who was standing farther away, raised her head in surprise.
Buschke glanced at the princess's face and gathered the data she had brought.
“No matter how many times, the results will be the same.”
Buschke said firmly. The moment those words reached her, despair crashed onto her like a giant wave. Seven years.
As of now, she only had three years left when the thought of Laslo's arm on a pole ran through her mind.
Agnes' face soon turned as pale as a dead man's corpse.
Buschke called out to Agnes with a worried look.
"......Are you certain?"
“It is certain that Ranunculus will pass by Niršeg in seven years.”
"Yes, I see. All right. You can go back."
Buschke bowed deeply and then left the room.
Ney came running up immediately.
"Milady, are you alright?"
But because speaking was painful, she could only barely nod.
"Milady..."
Agnes left Ney in the room and walked aimlessly.
There was no destination for where she was headed to.
She just walked.
Otherwise, she might have gone crazy. She had been so happy when she found out that she could erase the insignia.
She had been excited about the hope of no longer having to live flat on her face and always being conscious of Sebastian's gaze
She had lived for the entire three years of her marriage trying to avoid getting on the nerves of Sebastian.
After her marriage, she didn't meet anyone outside, and just stayed in the castle, hoping that he would forget her existence.
'What should I do now?'
She can't repeat that horrible past all over again.
Thinking about seeing Laslo's end again scared her.
Her hair fluttered wildly in the strong wind.
After walking aimlessly, she had arrived at the end of the western watchtower.
She absent-mindedly looked down and was stunned at the great height.
'If I were to fall from here...'
The thought suddenly struck her then.
Agnes took a step closer to the wall.
'What would happen? Would I stop breathing right away?? Or would my body be crushed? If I was lucky, I might become crippled like Chavolti.'
She had been sad when she found out that Chavolti, got paralysed from the waist down after a fall, but at the same time she envied him.
She would have gotten away from these dreadful chains with her life intact after all.
The wind blew harshly from behind her as if urging her to quickly make a decision.
Her hands clutching the castle walls strained as her body leaned forward little by little.
Agnes closed her eyes tightly.
'Right, dying is all the same anyways.'
At least Laslo can survive if she falls and dies here, or if she was lucky she would become disabled.
She can save him at least.
Little by little, Agnes loosened her grip, which was supporting her.
Then.
Someone with strong hands grabbed Agnes roughly from behind.
In an instant, Agnes was buried in his arms.
Laslo's rugged breathing could be heard crudely over her head.
"Princess, where on earth did you put your mind? It could have almost been a disaster!"
He shouted, clutching her shoulders tightly.
Perhaps due to shock, his voice was twice as loud than usual.
"I..."
She caught a glimpse of the thorny vine and crow painted on the inside of his wrist. Reminding her of the rotting arm, pierced on a pole.
The moment she saw it, the tears that she had barely held back flowed down like a dam bursting.
“I, I don't want to die. Duke."
In reality, she was scared.
She knew that if she were to die, he would live. But she was too scared of dying.
"Princess."
"I don't want to die. heuk. I don't want to die. I don't even want to live like that. I'm sick and tired of living in fear while, hic, always holding my breath. I want to live freely. waaaah."
Agnes cried loudly, burying her face in his arms.
All the emotions that she had repressed burst out all at once.
Comments
Post a Comment