“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I groaned in defeat. “Why am I being treated like a silly child when you’re the ones not getting any of my hints!” The pitying gazes of the knights were too much for me to handle, and I couldn’t help but moan about how unfair it all was.
With knights this clueless, it would take at least ten years for them to figure out what was in my hair. Even though I’d just had it put in, I pulled the ornament out and placed it on the table.
“Let me ask you all something: What do you think this is?”
They’d left me with no choice but to just come out and say it.
As soon as I asked my question, Scheat replied, “Huh? It’s a hair clip, of course,” with a bewildered expression plastered on his face.
“That’s not what I meant. What is it made of?”
This time, Miaplacidus replied with a hint of uncertainty, as if he were mulling something over, “It’s a sparkling leaf. You said so yourself, Princess. Oh, but were you randomly trying to include ‘Galle’ in everything you said because you were excited about wearing this imitation leaf?”
“How dense can you all be?!”
I give up, I thought. At this rate, it would be at least one hundred years until any of them noticed.
“Why do you think these leaves are fake?! This is the real thing! So, congratulations to me! I successfully grew Galle Gold Leaf!” I basked in my own triumph, but the knights’ reaction was rather flat, as they all just blinked in confusion.
Hesitantly, Fackt spoke up on behalf of the group, “Princess, you’ve been very busy lately, so I don’t believe you’ve had much time to research or conduct any experiments. The only thing you’ve been able to do is water the Galle herbs you were given, correct? With that being the case, isn’t proclaiming that you succeeded in growing Galle Gold Leaf a little unrealistic?”
“I didn’t just water the plants, I imbued them with magic too,” I stated proudly, thinking of how little these silly knights knew.
“What?” Fackt sounded puzzled once more. “You infused the herbs with magic? I’m genuinely surprised they didn’t wither after something so outlandish was done to them.”
He didn’t understand. That’s exactly what the Galle herbs needed… But explaining everything would take too long, so I decided to keep it to myself and just stay silent instead.
“Princess Serafina, I’m sure you’re mentioning the Galle Gold Leaf for my sake.” This time, it was Mirach who spoke up. “I’m truly grateful for your sentiments,” he added, his voice sincere.
“Huh?”
After seeing the Galle Gold Leaf for themselves (even if it was just as part of a hair ornament) and experiencing the effects of the tea made from it, why wouldn’t they believe I’d succeeded in my cultivation efforts?
“I put a lot of thought into all this! I really did grow Galle Gold Leaf!” I insisted once more, but this time, Mirach’s eyebrows furrowed, as though something was weighing on his mind.
“Princess Serafina, my village specializes in growing medicinal herbs, so everyone from there is quite knowledgeable about the process. If we haven’t been able to cultivate Galle Gold Leaf after twenty years of trying, achieving it in less than a month would be nigh impossible.”
Having remained silent until that point, Lukbar hesitantly spoke up, “You did all this for Mirach’s sake, didn’t you? You’re incredibly kind, Princess.”
“My plan was a total failure!” I groaned loudly.
Judging from what everyone had said, they all seemed to think I hadn’t successfully been able to grow the Galle Gold Leaf and just told Mirach a white lie to comfort him.
I’d made all these plans because I originally thought that Mirach would be even more delighted if he noticed the Galle Gold Leaf without my help, but now I understood that was asking the impossible. He didn’t have the intuition to come to that conclusion himself.
Once I confirmed they were all done with their tea, I got up from my seat and announced, “There’s something I’d like to show you all.”
I internally sighed. Had I known it was going to turn out like this, I would’ve skipped the tea party and gone straight to showing them my herb garden.
As I trudged along, absorbed in my thoughts, the knights followed behind me, glancing around with evident curiosity.
“I see, so this is what it looks like deep in the Princess’s garden,” Lukbar said. “A stroll through the garden after a tea party, how elegant indeed.”
But Mirach followed Lukbar’s praise of my garden with a word of caution.
“I’m not so sure about that. When I planted the Galle herbs here, I noticed that only one part of the garden gets proper sunlight. The rest of it is mostly shaded, even during the day. Walking through here wouldn’t be what most would consider a typical garden stroll. However, if this is where the princess feels at ease, then I’ll certainly respect that.”
My, that was certainly a cheeky thing of him to say! But Mirach was the one I’d created my herb garden for, so what I wanted the most was for him to be surprised.
“Mirach, Lukbar, what I wanted to show you is this herb garden!” I said, pointing at the plot where all the Galle medicinal herbs were planted.
I’d originally received ten seedlings each of the Galle Blue Leaf and the Galle Red Leaf from the village. I hadn’t planted anything else, so my ‘herb garden’ was quite small—only twenty plants in total, with half of them having turned into the Galle Gold Leaf. While I realized the small number would lessen the impact, I’d still been taught that it was important to speak with conviction, so I raised my voice as though what I was about to say was an amazing achievement.
“Congratulations to me! I successfully grew Galle Gold Leaf!” I announced with the same flourish as before. Now that they were seeing it for themselves, this had to be the right time to pat myself on the back—but once again, the knights’ reaction was lukewarm.
No one cried out in surprise or jumped for joy. They just stood there, expressions frozen as they stared at the Galle Gold Leaf.
“Wh-what?” I stammered. “This still isn’t enough? Was growing Galle Gold Leaf not that impressive?”
Having only realized that was a possibility after the fact, my shoulders sagged in disappointment.