“Why didn’t you give me a hint? It was a chaos for the people of the capital city to send the extra wheat here for not having enough wheat. If I had known, I would have thought of a way.”
“Wouldn’t you have solved it well anyway?”
“Is that faith in me?”
“Think as you please. By the way, what’s with your outfit?”
Sienna asked, looking at Carl’s expression.
“Is it that weird?”
“I just asked because you’re dressed like a boy.”
“I’m wearing comfortable clothes because I have a long journey here. But more important than that…”
Sienna thought she wanted to wash up. She was able to take a bath if she stopped by the village on the way here, but as she got closer to Tromil, it was hard to see a village with accommodation. Furthermore, it was difficult to stop by even to a small village because she was close to a war zone.
Sienna hadn’t bathed for three days. Although she wiped her body with a wet towel, she still felt uncomfortable. Being alone with Carl in the narrow barracks, she was concerned about whether her body smelled. If she knew this would happen, she’d at least spray perfume before getting off the carriage.
“Is there a place to wash?”
“For soldiers, yes… but…”
“Tell me where. I’ll stop by during the night.”
“You’re being fearless. What if you wander around at night and get mistaken for a spy? No, not even that—if there is a woman in the barracks, she’d be misunderstood as a prostitute.”
Sienna nodded with a stupid look because she had not thought about that point.
The army seemed to consist only of combating soldiers, but there were actually a variety of other members in addition to them. When the military moves, merchants move together, buying trophies acquired by individual soldiers and selling alcohol or food. They also provided women, but the demand was quite high because it was a group composed of men only.
Carl’s army prohibited non-military traders from coming out of the prescribed area, so it was hard to see women wandering around the barracks, but it was not entirely impossible.
Occasionally, there were some soldiers leading the women to the barracks, trying to avoid the eyes of military officials.
Sienna was concerned. Neither did she want to use public bath facilities while being misunderstood as a prostitute but she could not keep from washing herself.
“Come with me.”
“With you?”
“You said you wanted to wash.”
“That’s true, but…”
Sienna was troubled. It was true that she wanted to wash up, but she was reluctant to go into the bathtub with him. She was embarrassed to even imagine washing naked in front of him. Her ears were red as if they were on fire.
Carl laughed as if he was having fun at her reaction.
“I don’t know why you look so embarrassed. You and I have already been through our first night as a married couple.”
Not only her ears but also her neck turned red at his words.
“No, it’s… that’s…”
She remembered the night Carl was leaving the capital. She couldn’t help it when she recalled the day they spent the night with passion.
“I don’t know why it’s such a shame for a couple to be together. Where did the one go who bumped her lips with me that day and touched my skin?”
“I don’t remember that day!”
Sienna lied out of shame. Of course, she could remember—her face felt still so hot because she remembered every detail.
“You mean you weren’t so satisfied that you couldn’t remember what happened that day? It hurts my pride as a husband. I’ll give you another passionate night if you want. You’ll never forget it this time.”
When she realized belatedly that she was being teased, she spoke with a straight face.
“Why are you talking like a fool? I would believe it if you’re a gang in an alley, not a prince.”
“Huh, how can you treat me like a fool for having a chat with my wife? I didn’t know you were thinking of me that way.”
This time, Carl looked serious. His voice was filled with anger, so Sienna looked at him and said, “No… because you keep saying that kind of things…”
“Haha, I was joking. You don’t have to be so self-conscious.”
Sienna glared at him and said in an angry voice, “It seems like you’re talking nonsense because you said you would never joke.”
“Well, it is said that a married couple becomes alike and I guess I’m becoming like you. You often say things are jokes.”
She felt like she lost again this time. Sienna just gasped and puffed with anger.
Carl said to her in a quiet voice, “I missed you.”
His voice was too small, but also it was so unexpected that she thought she might have misheard his words.
“What?”
“…”
Carl did not say the sentence again, but a smile rose around Sienna’s mouth. It was also what she wanted to say to him. It was a sentence that filled the letters she couldn’t send him.
‘My king, I miss you.’
Knowing that he also thought the same, Sienna’s heart began to beat fast.
“But it’s true that I didn’t want you here. It is safer for you to stay in the palace than here. But now that we’ve met… it’s nice.”
“…”
Sienna didn’t answer him. She thought the sound of his voice filling her head would disappear if she answered out loud.
*
“It’s warm!
Carl had a man bring a tub filled with warm water into the barracks. And surrounding it was a tent for Sienna to use. While the soldiers went out and she dipped into the bathtub, Carl was sitting at his desk looking over the documents.
It felt strange to take a bath with a thin piece of cloth between them. The shadow of Carl shone on the thin cloth. Sienna saw the shadow swaying by the candle and dipped her face into the water. The water rose to the bottom of her nose.
Only
Inside the barracks, there was only the sound of water as she moved and the sound of him moving the penpoint. Sometimes she could hear the footsteps of soldiers in the distance.
“How long did you stay in Tromil?”
The sound of the movement of the penpoint stopped.
“I came here two weeks ago. I led some of the troops here.”
Carl moved to here from the east where the frontline with Castro was located because of what Sienna said. Tromil was originally composed of troops and was also connected to the water stream that led to Castro, so he came down here since the heavy rain.
As Sienna said, the small river stream overflowed and formed a great waterway. Now, from the Hegea River, ships were waiting to come. When the ship came and organized the navy, the frontline troops were to strike the Witron area, which was located on the front line, up and down as it snowed, and the Navy was to take a way of climbing up the river from Tromil and attack the city of Menheim on the side.
“Did you know? There’s a huge lake hidden in Tromil.”
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