“Wow, you’re amazing! This one is really tasty in soup!” Anna started clapping excitedly before reaching for the plant herself to stop Caro from grabbing leaves at random. “But you can’t take whatever you want. You need to find the pale and soft leaves. The big green ones are stiff and gross. And you can’t take the shoots or else it’ll never grow back.”

  “Got it. I’ll take the pale ones,” Caro replied just as seriously as Anna had lectured him.

  Off to the side, Misha watched with great amusement.

  She had felt it was bad for him to be cooped up in the library all day every day, so she’d wanted to find a way for him to meet with Anna and the boys. She had been counting on the two boys since they were the same age as Caro, so their absence had been an unfortunate hiccup in the plan, but luckily, Anna’s energy had been enough to pull him out of his shell. And now, for some reason or other, they were off hunting wild plants.

  She’s like a little hurricane of innocence. Way to go, Anna.

  While she knew Anna had a way of sweeping her and the other boys up in whatever she was doing, Misha hadn’t expected the young girl to treat Caro the same way on their first meeting. Misha believed his perspective on life was abnormal for a boy his age—probably because of how smart he was—but she was relieved to see him playing and smiling without a care in the world, led about by Anna.

  “Oh, Yuu and Teto just jumped in the water!” Anna suddenly shouted, pointing at the boat out on the lake. Sure enough, there were two small boys swimming toward them. They were going pretty fast too, almost as if they were competing. “Wow, Yuu is quick!”

  “Come on, guys! Faster!” Misha egged them on.

  The two boys picked up the pace, clearly in full race mode now.

  “Wow! You can do it, guys!” Anna jumped up and down excitedly as she watched, only for her feet to slip out from under her on the mud of the lakeshore.

  “Careful!” Caro reflexively reached out to catch her, but he wasn’t big enough to offset her momentum, and as a result, she ended up dragging him down into the lake with her. Luckily, they fell on their backsides, so neither of them was hurt, but that didn’t stop them from sliding right into the water, their heads dipping underneath. Caro jolted upward, the water only coming to his belly when he sat up, but by that point he was already drenched head to toe. Even his hat was gone.

  “Jeez! You know you’re going to fall if you jump around somewhere slippery like that!”

  “Sorry!” Anna giggled as Caro wiped his soaking wet hair out of his eyes.

  “You’re not sorry at all!” he said, lightly jabbing at her head as she squeezed water out of her own hair.

  “Anna, what’re you doing? And who’s this?” Yuu called out to them, arriving at the shore with Teto a short distance behind him.

  “No fair! You had a head start! I want a do-over! And yeah, who’s this?”

  The two boys had noticed the stranger from their spot on the boat, though since Misha was with them, they’d seemed to have decided he was harmless. That said, seeing an unfamiliar boy playing around with their sister had still left them uneasy, so the fishermen they had been working with let them off early once the bulk of the work was done.

  They hadn’t wanted to force the fishermen to take them back to land partway through their work, and it would have been a pain to run around the lake to where Anna was if they were going from the dock anyway, so they’d jumped into the water and had swum. Today was uncharacteristically bright and hot, so it had been quite refreshing.

  “He’s Misha’s friend. His name is... Uhh... What was it again?”

  “You don’t even know?!” Yuu and Teto shouted in unison, followed by Misha clutching her sides in laughter.

  Exasperated, Caro sighed. “My name is Caro. Nice to meet you.”

  The lighthearted banter between the others seemed to abate most of Caro’s anger, as he extended a hand toward the two boys.

  Yuu hesitated at the gesture but eventually returned the handshake. “I’m Yuu. Sorry about my sister.”

  “Teto. I’m their friend. Is this your hat?” Teto handed the hat he had scooped out of the water back to its owner. Caro suddenly realized he was no longer wearing it, and his hands shot up to his head in surprise.

  “Yeah, it’s mine. Thanks.” He kept his expression calm enough as he accepted his hat, but he was unsure what to do next.

  He had been told it was bad for him to walk around with his hair visible, but it was kind of too late to hide it now, and putting a soaking wet hat on his soaking wet hair was about as unnatural as you could get.

  Oblivious to his dilemma, Anna reached for his hair and gently pulled on it. “Your hair is so shiny and pretty. It’s even shinier than mine!”

  “It is a nice color, isn’t it?” Yuu said with a nod.

  “It’s not that different from either of yours,” Teto said just before he switched to lamenting. “My hair is just black. It’s so boring.”

  Before Caro realized it, he felt the previous tightness in his body relax. He had the same golden hair and blue eyes as his father. He had been told that showing those off to others was all but declaring his bloodline, yet these kids didn’t care. They just thought it was a pretty color. It was a strange thing for Caro to process. It made him want to laugh and cry all at once. Unsure how to express his feelings, he flapped his mouth wordlessly a few times.

  But while the other kids noticed his bizarre behavior, before they could say anything, a howl filled the air.

  Ren leaped off the bank of the lake. He had been quietly sitting at Misha’s feet for a while, but his patience had hit its limit waiting for the kids to come up out of the water. He’d decided he wanted to play in the water too. The baby wolf might’ve been small, but his jump was big enough to create a huge splash when he landed. A mini tidal wave washed over the heads of the children still sitting in the mud.

  They were already soaked, so they weren’t bothered by the sloshing of water, but that didn’t mean they appreciated having it splashed in their faces. The most unfortunate of them was Teto, who ended up with a mouthful of water and quickly began to splutter.

  “Reeeeeeen!”

  Ren tilted his head at Teto’s vengeful tone as he called the wolf’s name. Despite the little wolf’s efforts to look innocent, his eyes hinted at mischief.

  “You did that on purpose!” Teto lunged for the wolf, who artfully dodged out of the way. The impromptu game of tag created even more splashing, spreading the damage even further.

  “Whoa! Teto, don’t drag us into this!”

  “Ack! There’s mud flying everywhere!”

  “Don’t come this way, you idiot!”

  Misha took three big steps back from the chaos erupting in the water as puzzlement crossed her face. “Should I get a spare outfit for Caro too, or just the other three?”

  There was no sign of the aquatic battle settling anytime soon.

  Once the ice had been broken, the kids got along extremely well. The social status by which adults categorized themselves meant nothing here. However, Caro’s bodyguard was apparently not thrilled with him being soaking wet, so he eventually swooped in, wrapped him up in towels, and took him away.

  “I’ll be back soon, so wait for me at the library!” Caro shouted as he left, never having had a chance to actually talk to Misha. Meanwhile, the kids were sent home to report on their successful day helping the fishermen, so Misha was left alone. She went to visit the library as originally intended.

  “I will take Ren back to the palace, then,” Tenz offered.

  “Okay. I’ll be at my usual spot in the library.”

  There was no way they could bring Ren, soaking wet and covered in mud, into the library, so Tenz scooped him up and took him back to the castle. Misha considered heading back with them, but she was familiar enough with the library that she didn’t mind being alone there for a short time.

  “Please stick close to the front desk.”

  While he was clearly a bit worried, Tenz nevertheless nodded and started on his journey back to the castle. For someone as fit as he was, the journey to the castle and back wouldn’t even take thirty minutes.

  He’s such a worrywart, Misha thought to herself as she set off for the bookshelves, deciding today was a good day for some fiction.

  Chapter 16: Caro’s True Identity

  “Excuse me, do you have a moment?”

  Misha glanced up from the pages in front of her. She had been standing among the shelves, inspecting a book she had just picked off the shelf to see whether it piqued her interest. The first floor of the library had a huge variety, which in turn made it quite difficult to settle on any individual book. Unable to make up her mind, she had ended up adrift in the sea of literature. Though of course, for someone like Misha, that was half of the fun of a library.

  The man who’d interrupted that experience was someone she didn’t recognize. Glossy hair, smooth skin, and fancy clothes made it clear he was quite wealthy.

  “I couldn’t help but notice your hair and eyes. You wouldn’t happen to be the girl from the People of the Forest I’ve been hearing rumors about, would you?” The man quite rudely examined her up and down. Misha frowned at the unpleasant sensation.

  Unfortunately, she was too polite to treat a complete stranger with equal disrespect. “May I ask who you are?” Despite being dressed rather plainly to avoid catching people’s interest, Misha was still the daughter of a foreign duke. Perhaps she should have ignored him and walked away, but her upbringing didn’t allow her to be so rude to her elders.

  “Ah, I suppose I forgot to introduce myself. My apologies. I am from the family of Count Yagole.”

  Misha frowned. Not only was he still clearly looking down on her, but he had also only introduced himself with his last name.

  Count Yagole has quite a big business, right? The count himself is quite old, but still very active. Four children, but he hasn’t picked an heir yet.

  Misha racked her brain for facts about the Yagole family; she knew of them from Miranda’s lectures on the noble families of Redford. The man in front of her, with his suspicious smile, seemed plenty young to her.

  So, he’s either one of the children of the count’s eldest son, or perhaps he’s the count’s youngest son? He’s supposed to be much younger than the others, right?

  Either way, his behavior was clearly unacceptable for a noble. With neither he nor Misha being in line for succession of their respective families, social convention indicated their interactions would be dictated by the positions of their own families. This man was either the son or grandson of a count, while Misha was the daughter of a duke. The proper procedure would be for him to formally introduce himself, and only after asking for permission to speak with her would their conversation actually start. They were both likely here in secret, so they didn’t need to stick to the books so strictly, but his unilateral trampling of that unspoken understanding and the obvious disrespect he showed her was entirely unacceptable.

  Not that I would know that if Miss Miranda hadn’t told me.

  Even beyond that, the nobility of Redford was under strict orders from the king to make no contact with Misha whatsoever, but Misha herself wasn’t aware of that.

  Oblivious to what Misha was thinking as she stared back at him, the man continued, “I heard you have distinguished yourself in your care for Her Highness, the king’s younger sister. That she has recovered enough to participate in evening parties already is incredible. I must say, I expected nothing less of your phantom tribe.”

  “Uh-huh...?” Misha was totally lost as to what he was getting at.

  “I am sure you have even more incredible medicines at your disposal, no? I heard you can bring the dead back to life—or even give people immortality.”

  “Huh? There’s medicine that can do that?” Misha blinked in surprise, hearing about these kinds of things for the first time. If the People of the Forest could really make medicine like that, it was no wonder people were always trying to capture them.

  “Oh, yes, I understand. It’s a secret of your tribe, yes? But don’t you think it’s unfair to monopolize that kind of knowledge? Think of all the lives you could save by sharing it.” The man shook his head as he made a dramatic show of raising his hand to his forehead. He wasn’t listening to Misha at all. That confused Misha even more.

  Even so, she tried to dig through the layers of his speech to find what he was actually after. “I’m sorry, do you have someone close to you who is sick?”

  The man responded by energetically stepping forward, so rapidly that Misha instinctively jumped backward, afraid he was about to run into her. As he reached a hand toward her, she lifted the book she was carrying up in front of her chest to shield herself, leaving his hand to cut through empty air. For a moment, the man’s face twisted unhappily, but his suspicious grin was back in a flash.

  “Luckily my family has been blessed with good health, but there are so many people longing for your mystical medicines out there in the world. My family’s business reaches far and wide. We could get that medicine into the hands of the people who need it, and we could do it efficiently. Of course, we’ll take a small fee of our own, but you’ll be able to make quite a bit of money for yourself in the process. Doesn’t that sound like a good deal?”

  The man was the fourth son of Count Yagole. He wasn’t particularly attractive, nor was he a very hard worker. He simply enjoyed the life of being spoiled by his position. As was standard for people like that, his sense of pride was second to none.

  He had been born just as his father was reaching old age, and while his father was usually quite soft on him, he was strict and immovable when it came to business. He had never entrusted his fourth son with significant business matters, unlike his three older sons. Although the count doted on him as a child, he’d determined his fourth son’s business acumen wasn’t up to par.

  But the youngest Yagole hadn’t been willing to accept that. He believed he could do anything so long as he really tried, so he felt it was unfair that he hadn’t been given a chance. Wandering around the town under the pretense of looking for business opportunities, he had all but celebrated when he’d happened across Misha on the street.

  Count Yagole had made a name for himself in the war for his transportation network, putting him in a position where he was in direct contact with the king despite being only a count. Naturally, that meant the two had discussed Misha being one of the People of the Forest, and so the count had brought the conversation back to his family. The count had given them explicit instructions not to bother her, but the youngest son suffered from a severe case of selective hearing.

  He had seen a girl perfectly matching her description walking about town. Her only escort had been a single knight. He’d even seen her interacting with the common children, treating a kid’s skinned knee with some kind of medicine. She had an innocent smile and seemed incredibly good-natured.

  This is my chance!

  He could leverage people’s need for medicine to exploit her guilt and responsibility, thus obtaining that medicine for himself. Medicine used by the royal family itself, with the branding of the People of the Forest! He could slap any price he wanted on it, and customers would flock to him. Beyond that, successfully negotiating with one of the People of the Forest would do wonders for his own standing. He would gain fame and fortune, and this girl would gain effortless wealth as well. He smirked to himself, confident that this was a win-win situation.

  Of course, he didn’t tell anyone he had seen her in the city. He wasn’t about to share the spoils with anyone else.

  Father always says the best merchants are those who can think ahead of others.

  Knowing her escort would stop any attempts he made at contacting the girl, the man waited patiently for the right moment. That meant he needed to push his usual work onto his subordinates, but small matters like that didn’t bother him in the face of the coming grand accomplishment. His subordinates were used to that behavior from him anyway, so they accepted his orders with no more than sighs. For better or worse, that meant they were none the wiser to his plan.

  And then his time had come, and he had thrown the dice.

  Huh? Sell? Why? Misha was totally lost. Sure, I could make medicine, but how could I match it to their symptoms? What kind of medicine does he want anyway?

  Misha was quiet, not sure how to respond to the man’s offer. Her reaction didn’t seem to match the man’s expectation, and it elicited an irritated quirk of his brow.

  “Well, no matter. Let’s discuss in detail what medicine to make and how much. Please come back to the shop with me,” the man said, grabbing Misha’s arm. He didn’t feel there was much need to worry about contracts with a child like this, but he knew his father wouldn’t accept it if he didn’t have everything on paper. He figured a bit of candy or jewelry would be all it took to get her on his side.

  Meanwhile, Misha flinched back in surprise at suddenly being grabbed. This stranger had appeared out of nowhere and was now trying to take her somewhere. It was no wonder she was scared. Nothing she said seemed to be getting through to him either. She immediately started to struggle, trying to throw off the man’s grip.

  “No, let me go!”

  “What? Why are you just standing there? Hurry up, let’s move.” The man was only confused at her unwillingness to cooperate with such a fantastic opportunity. As small as she was, a bit of struggle on her part wasn’t enough to break his grip, but her shouting would inevitably draw attention from those around them.

  “I can’t make medicine for someone I’ve never met. Besides, I don’t even know you!” she screamed, prompting the man to panic. He had already introduced himself as a member of the Yagole family, so he didn’t understand why she was so on edge around him.

  “Oh, so you want to keep your medicine all to yourself, do you? What a selfish child. Just shut up and come with me already!” As the man raised his hand to strike her, Misha instinctively squeezed her eyes shut and braced for impact.

 

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