Besides, we’ll be okay if Ganz is with us.
More than anything, her trust in her own escort was enough for her.
“Okay, where to next?” she asked with a bright smile, convinced everything was fine.
Everything should have been fine...
“Let’s eat by the water.”
“Good idea. We can have a picnic.”
They had thick-cut steak sandwiches and seafood skewers. Dessert was cookies with dried fruit baked into them and an assortment of sliced fresh fruit. With Caro’s worn-out escort (once he caught up with them) and Ganz at their side to carry things for them, the two kids held nothing back when buying food.
Since they had two grown men with them, they assumed nothing they bought would go to waste even if they went a bit overboard, and so they grabbed anything that caught their interest. After taking their spoils down to the waterfront, a small tent was set up for them in short order. Within were not chairs and a table, but rugs and cushions for them to sit on the ground, adding to the picnic-like atmosphere that Caro had mentioned.
“They get things ready quickly, huh?” Misha stared, amazed.
“We’re still pretty close to the library, so they brought all the stuff from there—probably.” Caro nodded calmly.
He really is nobility, taking stuff like this in stride, Misha thought as she accepted Caro’s invitation to sit down. The rugs were so thick and soft that she couldn’t feel any of the hardness of the ground beneath them. It must have been quite a pain to drag them all the way out here, she thought, but she didn’t share that out loud.
All the food that they’d bought was arrayed before them, and a tea set was brought out and tea prepared, bringing the setup for the picnic to completion in no time. The tent blocked out the strong summer sun, allowing the breeze off the lake to cool things down. Having little experience with this kind of street food, Caro found it a lot simpler and crude compared to the refined cooking he normally ate, but it was delicious all the same. He didn’t have to think much to come to the conclusion that it was the influence of Misha, happily stuffing her face beside him. Before long, he found himself doing the same, and by the time they were finished, he felt full to bursting.
One little thought, and everything changes so much. He gave an amused smile at his own plight. Normally so concerned with nutrition, now he only cared that it filled his stomach.
As they enjoyed their post-meal tea, Caro continued to chuckle to himself, a sight Misha found strange while she picked at the leftovers of their dessert.
After finishing up their lunch, the two of them borrowed a small boat and rowed out onto the lake, gliding quietly across the water.
“You’re good at rowing, huh?” Misha commented. She had been surprised when Caro said they’d be fine with just the two of them, but Caro had proven he was quite skilled with the oars.
“I’ve lived outside the city my whole life, so I’ve had lots of chances to practice. I can also ride horses and drive carriages.”
He said it as if those were nothing, but those were significant accomplishments at his age. Misha was about to say so, but there was a hardness to Caro’s expression that made the words die on her tongue. In that awkward silence, the boat continued to glide away from the shore.
“Umm, Misha...” After rowing out far enough that they couldn’t discern the faces of the people on shore, Caro finally stopped. As skilled as he was, Caro was still a small boy; rowing a boat on his own was a considerable workout. When she saw the sweat pouring from his forehead, Misha pulled out a handkerchief.
“Good work. Let’s relax for a bit.”
“Thanks,” Caro replied, sighing as he accepted the handkerchief. “Misha... I know things around me are kind of weird. Why have you never asked about who I am?” he asked, his hands squeezing the handkerchief.
Misha blinked a few times. “Why...? Well...” Caro’s sudden question made her think back across their experiences together since they first met.
Their first meeting was Caro suddenly calling out to her, inviting her to his mysterious little room in the library. They had a great time drinking tea and talking about the books they were reading. They played outside with Anna and the boys, and Caro once even saved Misha from a rather scary experience. They were all precious memories to her. But the way Caro had asked—a tormented expression on his face—made it clear those weren’t the “strange things” he was talking about.
“Uh... Because you’re you?” Misha murmured after a short while, not quite confident in her answer.
“Because I’m me?” Caro echoed, confused.
“I figured, based on the way people around you act, that you have to be the son of some high-ranking noble.”
They had met in the royal library, after all. Even in her ignorance of the world, Misha recognized that if he were merely the son of a wealthy merchant, he wouldn’t have had access to that secret room. There were plenty of things in the world that money couldn’t buy. But the greatest confirmation for her was that Ganz, a bodyguard sent by the king himself to protect Misha, had made no move to stop her from getting to know Caro.
“But it looked like you were trying to hide it, so I figured if we’re just having fun playing and reading books together—who cares about your parents?”
“Who cares?!” Caro shouted as he jumped to his feet, shocked by Misha’s flippant response. The boat beneath them shook, so Caro was quickly brought back to his senses and sat back down. He was comfortable enough with swimming, but flipping the boat all the way out on the lake would be a huge hassle. Misha gave a small yelp at the sudden movement of the boat, but it seemed more like she was enjoying herself than scared of anything.
“Yeah. I was worried for a bit that you’d say stuff like ‘I’m really important, you know!’ and be mean to everyone, but you weren’t. You were really nice with Anna and the boys.”
Caro had played with the others like they were equals, even though normally people would have gotten angry at commoners acting so friendly with someone of such high status.
“I mean... It was fun, so...” He had never spent time with common children before, so the experience had been a string of unexpected developments, but it hadn’t been at all unpleasant. It was the first time Caro had really laughed. At least, he had no memory of laughing like that before.
He had always been taught that laughing out loud and shouting were unrefined and boorish, things he had always been scolded for. The way he walked, the way he sat, the way he spoke, the way he ate—his etiquette instructor heckled him over every little thing he ever did, but he knew making the instructor angry would just make things worse for himself, so Caro had always done as he was told.
As such, there were a lot of things he’d never known before he met Misha—like how fun it was to laugh with people, to run around until you were out of breath, instead of quietly hiding beneath the brim of your hat. He imagined he would never forget the flavor of biting into that strangely shaped tomato those kids had offered him.
“Yeah. It looked like you were having a lot of fun, and I was having fun too, so I didn’t think I needed to ask. I thought that if I learned the truth, we might not be able to stay friends like this.” Misha gave an awkward smile.
Misha was aware of how ignorant she was of the ways of the world, having grown up secluded in a forest, but she had still been given a proper education. While it was vague, she nonetheless had some understanding of the relationship between nobles and commoners.
So she had decided to turn a blind eye to it all. For the sake of this young boy, who knew so much more than any other child his age, whose every action dripped with refinement and elegance—whose eyes were so cold as he stared at others.
Caro gave an awkward smile of his own. “I didn’t want that either.”
Caro thought of the polite, courteous expressions the adults always laid upon him. The only ones who acted with any level of honesty toward him were the guards who spent every day with him. That was really the reason he put up with them.
Seeing Caro’s eyes turn downcast, Misha decided to take advantage of the fact it was just the two of them, reaching out for Caro’s hat. “You know, Caro, I really like the color of your eyes and hair.” The breeze over the lake ruffled his curls, which glittered gold in the sunlight.
Caro squinted for a while with the sun now in his eyes, and for a moment it seemed like he was bracing himself for something, but finally a smile snuck through. A sudden pain assaulted him, like something had taken a hold of his heart and squeezed. It was painful yet simultaneously pleasant. He had difficulty describing the sensation, and that made him happy.
Misha always teaches me new feelings like this...