Chapter 188: 188

Astelle actually has a lot of experience in making food. She could make simple menus skillfully at any time.

“Hannah, I’m going to use the kitchen for a moment.”

After the kitchen was ready, Astelle immediately went there to prepare some simple food.

‘It’s soon time for dinner.’

She decided to make some simple desserts; fruit tarts, simple cookies, and wine-poached pears.

Thankfully, the important ingredients were prepared in advance.

She was able to save time because there were leftovers of stewed fruit, jam, and tarts.

The tray is now filled with the cute desserts she made; sweet strawberry tarts with golden syrup, buttery cookies, and sweet and sour pickled pears soaked in sweet fruit juice.

There is also a fragrant wine that goes well with dessert.

“It must have been hard to make all of this…… If you had told me in advance, I would have helped,” said Hannah quietly, putting Astelle’s finished dessert into a plate.

“No. I wanted to do this myself.”

“…….”

Hannah looked a bit dissatisfied, but she didn’t bother speaking ill of Kaizen.

After dinner with her children, Astelle set dessert on the table in her bedroom.

Cute desserts were prepared on pretty plates, and wine glasses and small vases with fragrant flowers were also prepared.

She waited, but Kaizen did not come.

It’s already midnight.

‘Is he not coming?’

Normally, he would send an attendant in advance if he couldn’t make it.

Astelle was starting to lose patience and tried to contact the Emperor Palace.

But at that time…

“Your Majesty, His Majesty the Emperor—”

Hannah opened the door and announced the arrival of Kaizen. She could see Kaizen behind her.

“Astelle.”

“Your Majesty.”

After waiting for him for a long time, Astelle got up from her seat with a happy face.

However, Kaizen came inside with a stiff expression.

Hannah glanced at his back and, with a calm look, bowed her head and hastily closed the door.

He didn’t express it directly, but it seemed that he didn’t like the current situation very much.

Kaizen walked towards Astelle. Only then did Astelle find a small paper box in his hand.

“I’m sorry about what happened this afternoon. I shouldn’t be angry.”

“Yes?”

Kaizen sighed deeply. “I’ll apologize to the Duchess and Sig later.”

This afternoon, he got so angry and just walked away.

He seems to have changed his mind in the meantime and regretted his own actions.

‘He apologizes first this time too.’

Astelle said with a bitter smile, “I have burned the contract.”

Kaizen just stared at her quietly.

“You were mad by that, weren’t you? I’m sorry. I should have gotten rid of it long ago.”

“No.”

Kaizen thought back to when the two of them signed the contract.

Back then, Astelle deserved to ask for such a contract. Because he himself forced her to marry him under the pretense of Theor’s safety.

Thinking back then, he should be grateful that Astelle chose to stay by his side until now.

Astelle’s gaze turned to the table.

Kaizen was surprised to see various kinds of desserts and wine glasses on the table.

“You were drinking?”

“No, I was waiting for Your Majesty.”

Astelle slightly avoided his gaze. She felt her ears burning a little.

“It’s not great, but I made it all myself. I was going to give it to you when you come.”

Kaizen looked at the desserts on the table in surprise.

“You made all of this?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“…….”

Astelle frowned slightly at his stupid question.

“Why do you think so?”

Kaizen realized that she had made this effort to resolve what happened during the day.

“Thank you. I should have come earlier.”

A look of regret crossed Kaizen’s face.

Hearing his answer, Astelle wondered if he had anything important to do before coming here.

Then he held out the small box he was holding in his hand.

“What is this?”

“……I made this for you,” he answered in a tone of insecurity.

Astelle took the box curiously and quickly opened it.

Astelle expected something like jewels or trinkets in the box. But what’s in the box is something completely unexpected.

“Is this…… paper?” asked Astelle as she looked at a glass jar in the box.

There are small, colorful flowers in a glass jar about the size of an ordinary vase. It contains small flowers made of shiny paper.

At least dozens of fingernail-sized flowers filled the glass jar.

Astelle had seen something like this before.

When she was young, she saw her friends make paper birds or stars and put them in glass jars to give to their loved ones several times.

Astelle also wanted to make one but gave up because she didn’t think Kaizen would like it.

But now Kaizen appears in front of her with a glass jar full of paper flowers.

“You made this yourself?” Astelle asked again with a look of disbelief.

“……I did.”

Kaizen shyly avoided her gaze. It was because he felt his ears turn red the moment he met Astelle’s eyes.

 

 

When he decided to make Astelle’s gift himself, Fritz asked him a question.

“What do you want to make?”

Kaizen suddenly thought of Estella and Sig, who were making flower necklaces.

At the time, in addition to Estella’s cuteness, he only felt jealousy towards Sig, but when he came to his senses, his heart was drawn to that scene.

To be precise, as he reflected on his past, his thoughts naturally led to the cute looks of the children.

The past. For Kaizen, the past has always been a heavy and painful fetter.

Astelle and he grew up together, but they never had such friendly and sweet memories.

Astelle always wanted to play with him in the garden or in the greenhouse, but Kaizen refused her request every time, saying he hated childish games.

“I want to make something that looks like a flower,” he said, brooding over bitter regrets.

“Flower?”

“Yes, women like flowers, don’t they?”

For some reason, Kaizen felt uncomfortable, so he spoke as calmly as possible.

On the one hand, he was also worried.

How do you make a flower?

He had never made a necklace out of flowers in the garden.

However, he couldn’t just go to the garden and make a flower necklace.

Isn’t it a really strange scene that the emperor made a flower necklace with his brother-in-law, the duke, in the garden of the imperial palace?

And a necklace made of flowers will wither in a day.

Seeing Kaizen frown, Fritz thought for a moment before he said, “Hmm…… I’ve seen ladies make flowers with white powder before.”

What he said was a very difficult craft; mixing powdered talc with rosewater, shaping it into flower shapes, and coloring it with red lotus powder.

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That way, a beautiful flower with a strong fragrance is completed.

Kaizen had never done such a difficult handicraft. No, he had never made anything with his own hand.

Although he had no experience, he was confident.

‘I think I can do that much.’

He ordered his aide to procure ingredients including the white powder Fritz talked about.

The aide rushed over the ingredients with a questioning face.

But Kaizen was surprisingly bad at making shapes out of dough.

Contrary to expectations, it was incredibly difficult to make flowers from soft powder dough.

Even if he managed to knead the dough to make petals, as he glued them one by one, he accidentally applied too much force and caused the petals to collapse in an instant.

Even after miraculously managing to glue a few petals together, he ended up gluing them to the stem and destroying one of the corners.

Kaizen knew for the first time that making something out of dough was a difficult task.

How did Estella and Theor always make animals and flowers out of clay?

After crushing the petals dozens of times, Kaizen eventually gave up. It took him three hours to give up.

At this point, Fritz also looked tired.

“Your Majesty, I’m sorry, but I have to go to the Ministry of Home Affairs office, so—”

“No, you can’t.”

Kaizen replied with gritting teeth while crushing the 52nd petal.

He realized that Fritz had made this suggestion to play a trick on him.

But he doesn’t have much time.

Kaizen wanted to complete this ‘heartfelt gift’ no matter what.

And in order to make another gift in the remaining time, Fritz is clearly needed.

“I can’t do this. Any other ideas?”

Kaizen threw out the dough and asked him for an alternative.

Fritz sighed and, as he was running out of time, suggested making flowers out of paper.

“If you fold paper into a flower shape and put it in a glass jar…….”

He said he saw his friends giving such gifts during his teenage years. Fritz said it hesitantly, but Kaizen liked the idea.

He put away the dough and took some colorful paper and started trying to fold it into a flower shape.

Folding paper into flower shapes is incredibly difficult, but still better than dough. At least the petals don’t get crushed in an instant if you touch the wrong corner.

Kaizen only learned how to make it after many failures. And so far, he has managed to make some paper flowers.

It was hectic because he had to deal with urgent work in between.

Kaizen managed to complete the flowers by enlisting the help of Fritz and Lannis.

Fritz had a look of regret, and Lanis looked like he couldn’t understand why he was doing this, but the two of them exemplary cut the paper without objection

Sitting between them, Kaizen folded the papers with great concentration.

 

 

“Puff-!”

Upon hearing his story, Astelle immediately laughed out loud while clutching her stomach.

“Don’t laugh,” said Kaizen, feeling ridiculed.

Perhaps Fritz had also laughed for a long time as he talked about this with his grandfather, the Marquis of Carlenberg.

Astelle looked at the glass jar and said playfully, “Still, it’s impressive that you made it yourself.”

Astelle held the glass jar preciously and led Kaizen to the chair.

The two sat face to face with a table between them.

Kaizen took a sip of wine and tasted a small amount of strawberry tart. The taste of fresh strawberry mixed with sweet cream floated in his mouth.

“It’s delicious.”

“You’ve had dinner, right?”

Astelle wondered if he had dinner.

Surely you didn’t make the gift while starving, did you?

“I’m fine.”

Kaizen kept cutting and eating the tart.

Is he hungry? Looks like he didn’t have dinner.

Kaizen slowly tasted the sweet and sour pickled pears and said in awe, “It’s really good. This is the first time I’ve had such a delicious dessert.”

“Maybe it’s because you didn’t eat dinner.”

“No. It’s really delicious,” said Kaizen with a smile as he emptied the plate.

“It’s been a while since I ate the food you made.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

Well, it’s the first time she’s made food since in the eastern countryside.

Kaizen raised a wine glass and gave her a charming smile.

“I told you. I like everything you give me.”

“Next time, I can just give you a lot of salt.”

Astelle responded lightly, but deep down she felt a little regretful.

I should’ve spent more time like this.

She felt that she had been too indifferent to him all along.

The glass jar Kaizen had brought was placed next to the table. The light from the fireplace reflected off the glass jar and cast a sparkling light shadow.

Astelle took the glass jar and examined each flower inside. On a closer look, the paper flowers also shimmer gently.

Astelle belatedly realized what the paper is. This shiny paper is coated with powdered jewels. It is an expensive paper used only as a decoration for special gifts.

She couldn’t believe Kaizen used this expensive colored paper to make flowers.

“It is a very expensive flower.”

She wondered how much paper Kaizen had to waste to make so many flowers. But she didn’t want to spoil the mood by asking that.

Kaizen, who was eating the tart, replied indifferently, “It’s not even made of real jewels.”

Astelle smiled upon hearing that. “It’s better than anything made of real jewels.”

Paper flowers made by the Emperor. She wondered if this would be the first time in the history of the Empire.

“Do you like it?”

“Of course I do. This is the first time I’ve received a gift like this.”

Astelle looked into the jar with an affectionate gaze. Even though it was clumsy craftsmanship, it was made by Kaizen’s own hands.

Thinking that Kaizen made this while struggling, it certainly seemed that each petal contained sincerity.

When she was little, she used to be envious of her friends giving and receiving these little gifts.

After remarrying and improving her relationship with her husband, she received all kinds of jewelry, ornaments, and even greenhouses, and palace extensions as gifts from Kaizen.

But she never imagined she would receive a gift like this even in her dreams.

Kaizen put down the fork and looked at Astelle who was smiling while looking into the jar.

The soft light of the candle cast a warm glow on Astelle’s happy face.

Suddenly, Estella and Sig, who were making a flower necklace together in the garden, came to mind again.

Could Astelle and I have grown up like that?

It’s just a vain fantasy, but Kaizen had that thought for a while.

He fantasized about running around the garden with little Astelle and picking flowers to make a necklace.

But that’s just his fantasy. As a child, Kaizen missed the chance to make happy memories with Astelle.

‘…….’

If he could turn back time, he would make a necklace out of flowers for little Astelle and give her countless gifts out of colored paper like this one.

If only I could get back all the time I foolishly missed.

“I’ll make more whenever you want.”

But the past cannot be undone. All he can do is treasure every moment he will spend with Astelle.

Astelle smiled gently as soon as her light green eyes met Kaizen’s red ones.

“Then I’ll make you tarts and cookies instead of paper flowers. I’m not sure if I can make them for you every day though.”

Kaizen leaned his head towards Astelle and lightly kissed her on the forehead.

It didn’t take long for their lips to slowly overlap.

They share a passionate, warm, and sweet kiss like desserts and shiny paper flowers.

“This is enough.”

 

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