“OH, how lovely! They all look so delicious.”
I was staring down at a table covered in various sweets made with honey. My words of praise truly came straight from the heart. There were honey-glazed nuts, cookies with honey baked into the dough, honey tarts, fruit preserved in honey, and black tea blended with honey that gave off a sweet aroma.
Lady Fillia suggested I must be tired from standing for so long, so we decided to move forward with our plans and try the sweets now.
“All right, with your permission, I am going to dive right in,” I said. I took a cookie from the eye-catching assortment on the tray and bit into it. A tender sweetness filled my whole mouth. With each satisfying crunch, I tasted the aromatic nuts bringing out even more of the honey’s sweetness.
I could have kept eating those cookies forever. But there were plenty of other honeyed treats to try. I contained myself after a few cookies, then moved on to the tarts and honey-preserved fruit.
Absolutely delicious.
I’d eaten honey sweets before, but these were easily contenders for the best I’d ever tasted.
“They’ve used different mixtures of honey for each dessert, haven’t they?” I observed.
“I thought you might notice that,” Lady Fillia said. “You’re very perceptive to pick up on something so subtle.”
“It’s impossible not to notice when the food is so delicious. You must have instructed the Flute Bees to gather nectar from certain flowers at the right time, so that they’d produce the optimal kind of honey for each dessert.”
“Yes, exactly. The precise mixtures and varieties of flowers are a family secret, but we’re still permitted to treat others to the honey once it’s finished,” she said. “Please take some home with you, if you’d like.”
“Thank you very much. I’d love to have some, but are there any special instructions pertaining to this kind of honey?” I asked.
“You should be able to cook with it like normal honey, however…” Lady Fillia was suddenly hesitant to speak.
That’s unlike her. I watched her, wondering what was wrong, when she finally found the resolve to continue.
“Your Majesty, are you planning to cook something for King Glenreed’s birthday again this year?”
It was a bit more personal of a question than I was used to from her.
A person’s status in this country could be measured by what they gifted King Glenreed for his birthday. The idea was to present him with the highest quality, most impactful item—one that no one else would come up with.
Nobles invited to His Majesty’s birthday party were currently in the process of thinking up ideas and exchanging information with each other.
Last year, my gift of sponge cake was very nearly stolen from me, so I had really only planned on telling people I trusted about this year’s gift…
Lady Fillia had kept her distance from me, but was now finally taking a step into more personal territory. Perhaps she’d changed her mind about Princess Ileze after seeing her embarrass herself earlier, and now she wanted to get closer to me.
It was a valuable opportunity, and one I’d been waiting for. I decided to answer her honestly.
“Yes, I am. I can’t share the details with you, but I don’t believe anyone else will come with the same gift… I promise not to use any honey I receive from you either.”
Once I said that, I sensed a palpable relief from Lady Fillia.
It seemed my theory had been correct.
I predicted that, after the high praise I received for last year’s sponge cake, more nobles would be presenting His Majesty with gifts of food this year. It seemed Lady Fillia was one such noble. She was planning to bake sweets with her special honey as her birthday gift to King Glenreed.
By confirming my plans, she knew there was no worry of us showing up with similar gifts.
“Thank you so much,” she said. “Now I don’t have to worry about presenting King Glenreed with honey sweets after all.”
“Of course. I look forward to seeing what you gift as well. I’m certain that King Glenreed will enjoy them if they turn out as well as these,” I said.
“Hehe! It’s reassuring to hear that from you. King Glenreed seems to really love honey, so I believe he’ll be pleased.”
“…He loves honey?”
The question slipped out of me involuntarily. I’d dined with King Glenreed many times now, but this was the first I was hearing of his love for honey. As surprised as I was, Lady Fillia smiled shyly, like a delicate flower starting to bloom.
“I once met with King Glenreed as a child when I lived in the royal capital. He told me the honey sweets I gave him were delicious. He ate so many of them too.”
When I watched her cheeks turn faintly pink, I froze for a moment.
I never expected this.
That went for Lady Fillia’s expression, the first time I’d ever seen her smile like a young girl. But it also went for this new piece of King Glenreed’s past.
His Majesty had no interest in food whatsoever when we first met. He saw the act of eating as a mere chore to preserve his body. He had no preferences for certain flavors, much less any sort of favorite food. But now I’d just learned he not only had a favorite food as a child, but experienced the joy of eating with someone too.
That’s a nice thing, and yet…
When I looked at Lady Fillia, blushing from the memory she shared with King Glenreed, I just couldn’t find it in my heart to be happy for them both. Instead, I sat there in total bewilderment.