I Won’t Pick Up The Trash I Threw Away Again

***

Philen put aside his thoughts about Leila for now and thought about what to do with the rest of the preparations.

“Bring Baroness Wizard here. I need her help.”

"Yes."

The butler, who was worried inwardly that he might be asking for Cecily's help, calmly accepted it.

“How are the wedding preparations going?”

"Countess Thebesa continues to take care of that. But…"

The butler studied Philen's face and asked carefully.

“Young Lady Leila isn’t here, I don't know if we can continue preparing for the wedding…”

“That's not your concern.”

And there's no need to worry. Because Leila will be back.

Philen beckoned him to leave.

The butler, who politely bowed to him, came out and was startled to find Cecily standing leaning against the wall.

“Yo, Young Lady?”

“What are you so surprised about?”

Cecily smiled and tilted her head.

Her bright blonde hair swayed gently.

“It’s like seeing a ghost.”

“Since when did you here…”

"Why do I have to tell you that?"

When Cecily spoke informally without hesitation, the attendants standing around looked at her in annoyance. 

Leila, a count’s daughter and officially Philen's fiancée, used to speak politely and respectfully to the butler.

It was a treatment for the elder who had served the Duke of Williot since the predecessor. 

However, speaking informally when she's just a mistress? They didn't like it.

The old butler didn't say anything. He bowed his head and asked.

“Should I report your arrival to the Duke?”

"No."

Cecily raised her leaning body, supported by her exclusive maid.

“You don’t have to.”

Cecily turned back and glanced at the room where Philen was.

Her gaze was quite sharp. Her expression was venomous. 

It was as if she had heard something she didn't want to hear.

*****

“All banquets should be abolished.”

Baron Delrond, who had returned after half-day, sat down on the chair and murmured as if he were dying.

“I don’t know why people keep throwing money for something meaningless.”

Hearing his harsh words, he must be very tired. 

Well, he couldn't go home for two days and he had been working all night, so of course, he's tired.

As evidence of that, the dark circles under Baron Delrond's eyes had grown even thicker.

Feeling sorry for Baron Delrond, I picked up some of the documents he had brought.

"I'll take care of this, so get some rest, Baron."

“But there must be a lot of work for you to do.” 

"It's okay. I’m almost done.”

It wasn't empty words, it was true.

I wanted to work on the child care institution report as soon as possible, so I worked a little hard and was almost done with what I had to do today.

“Sir, you're my savior…”

Baron Delrond couldn't finish his words and fell asleep.

I took a blanket and covered Baron Delrond with it, then I went back to my seat and read the document he had brought.

It was a document about spoils and rewards to be distributed to the war heroes.

The number and quality of spoils changed depending on the contributions. 

The person who made a lot of contributions could ask the emperor for any spoils he wanted.

…just like Philen.

“…”

There were several names on the document, but Philen's name was exceptionally noticeable.

The spoil Philen requested was none other than Cecily.

It didn't feel good to see the names of those two written side by side.

I wanted to live without knowing each other's news forever, but it was impossible since we were in the same country.

I'll run into Philen at the victory party, won't I? 

I was worried about what he would say when he saw me, and what the other nobles, who saw him and me, would gossip.

Thinking about it, my eyes were already darkened and my head was throbbing, so I closed my eyes tightly and touched my head.

*****

Baron Delrond awoke when I was almost done with the documents.

"What time is it now… arghh!”

Looking out of the dark window, Baron Delrond stood up from his seat in surprise.

“Why is it so dark?”

“Because it is 8 o’clock in the evening?”

“Then, why aren't you leaving work yet?”

“Because I'm not done…”

Baron Delrond, who approached me with an angry look, took the document I was looking at.

“Go home before it’s too late, Sir Thebesa.”

"I will when I finish…"

“Please go home.”

When Baron Delrond spoke with a terrifying look on his face, I couldn't refute any further and nodded.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

"Yes. Be careful on your way home.”

As if being kicked out, I left the office and walked through the quiet hallway.

Ah, wait. Before I left, I should have asked the attendant to prepare a carriage.

Realizing that only after leaving the palace, I let out a small sigh.

I need to learn horseback riding quickly.

It's cumbersome to ask the attendants to prepare a carriage every late hour. And it's also a nuisance to them.

After the banquet, I have some free time, so I should learn how to ride a horse right away.

"Excuse me."

Just as an attendant passed by, I called him.

“I’m about to go home. Could you please call me a carriage?”

"Of course. But I think it will take some time, could you wait?”

“How long should I wait?”

“I think it will take about 30 minutes.” 

Hmm, 30 minutes? 

It was an ambiguous time to do something, but it was a waste of time to just stand and wait.

Now that this has happened, shall I look for data on the establishment of a child care institution?

The library was too far away, and the document storage room seemed just right.

There might be at least one emperor who thought the same as me among all the previous emperors.

"Then I'll be in the document storage room. Will you call me when it's ready?"

"Yes, I understand."

“Thank you.”

After asking the attendant a favor, I headed straight to the document storage room.

The documents were well organized, but there were so many documents that it was difficult to find what I was looking for.

I'll spend all 30 minutes just looking for it.

I'll just need to know where it is and come back tomorrow to see it.

“Construction, establishment, architecture…”

It was the time when I was frantically looking around to see related data about institutions other than child care institution.

Click–

I heard the door open.

Is the attendant here already?

I turned around to ask him to wait a little bit, but an unexpected person was standing there.

The person standing in front of the door was Kalian, not the attendant.

I looked at him in surprise.

"Your Majesty."

Kalian also looked surprised when he saw me.

“Why haven’t you gone home yet?”

“I was about to go home.”

"Is that why you're here right now?"

Kalian frowned slightly as if told me not to lie.

“I really am. I was just looking through the documents for a while while the carriage was being prepared.”

"Carriage?"

Kalian tilted his head for a moment and then soon exclaimed as if he had realized something.

“Come to think of it, you didn’t know how to ride a horse.”

“I apologize. I will learn it quickly.”

"Ah, I'm not trying to blame you. I just forgot about it for a moment. By the way, what were you looking for?"

“I was looking for data on the establishment of a child care institution.”

“If it's that data, you wouldn’t be able to find it here. None of the previous emperors ever thought of that.”

That means…

“It seems Your Majesty has already looked for it, too.”

Kalian paused for a moment at my response, then smiled.  

“I always feel this, that the Lady is very quick-witted.”

Is that… a compliment? 

“Yeah, I looked for it. It’s been more than 10 years, though.”

If it's 10 years ago, he would be only 18 years old.

When I was 18, let alone thinking like this, I was in a rush to deal with what was in front of me.

“The data I researched at that time must still be there, do you want it?”

“Yes, please.”

If it was given, I would be very grateful. I nodded my head right away.

Kalian took out a box that had been left unattended with a white layer of dust in the corner.

I thought he'd take some wads of paper out of the box and give them to me, but I was wrong.

"Here you go."

He handed me the whole box.

Is it possible that all the documents in there are his research data?

My mouth was wide open at the huge amount, which was more than I thought.

“Do you want to check the inside?”

"Yes."

As soon as Kalian put the box down, he opened it and checked the inside.

Inside the box were a bunch of old papers.

“It feels different to see it after a long time.”

His blue eyes quickly scanned the inside of the box.

“As you can see, it's not organized at all. In addition, there must be a lot of things that aren't helpful since they're from 10 years ago.”

"No. It will be very helpful.”

“You said that because you haven’t seen it yet.”

Ah, come to think of it, he's right. 

I smiled awkwardly and picked up anything I could grab.

The neat handwriting was Kalian's that I had been accustomed to.

It is data about the location.

I skimmed through it, but all of the selected locations were outside the capital.

Of course, it would. 

The land price inside the capital is expensive, and it was a waste to spend it on this kind of thing.

“If you see anything you don’t know, ask me.”

“Do you remember the contents of the data?”

Isn't it something you researched 10 years ago?

“Come to think of it, it seems I do.”

Kalian smiled lightly and shrugged.

“When will the carriage be ready?”

"He said it would take about 30 minutes, so I think it's about 5 minutes left."

“We won’t have time to go to the office.”

Kalian thought for a moment and then nodded.

“You can take these home if you want.”

“But it belongs to the Imperial family, can I do that?”

Imperial documents were basically prohibited from being taken out of the Imperial Palace. This was why Baron Delrond worked in the Imperial Palace instead of going home.

“What do you mean Imperial documents? It’s just my personal data.”

Kalian snorted lightly.

“So you can take it home and read it. Of course, if you want to."

Of course, I wanted to, so I answered right away.

“Thank you for your consideration.”

At just the right time, the attendant told me that the carriage was ready.

Kalian was going to take the box himself, but the attendants who watched it couldn't stay still.

“Your Majesty shouldn't do this!”

“Please leave this to us!”

Kalian, who had the box stolen by his attendants, clicked his tongue.

“Being the emperor changes their treatment of me.”

“When you were a prince, weren’t your attendants like this?” 

Although the treatment of an emperor and a prince was different, wouldn't these trivial things be the same?

“They weren't.”

When I asked out of curiosity, Kalian replied with a playful smile.

“At that time, I was completely ignored.”