Chapter 78
Kiara fell silent for a moment. Now she understood why Ael had spoken with such certainty. But with that understanding came more confusion.
Why had a prince been punished just for wandering around the palace? She cautiously asked:
“Then… what about now? Do you still get punished these days?”
“Twelve-years-old. I stopped getting punished after that.”
Well, of course. It wouldn’t make sense for someone his age to still be banned from entering certain parts of the palace.
Even if there were thick walls, if Ael really set his mind to it, he could probably tear them down and go wherever he pleased.
Relieved, Kiara responded jokingly with a soft giggle.
“That’s a very specific number.”
Ael listened to her laughter, almost as if savoring it, before smiling and adding an explanation.
“That year, I suddenly grew too big to sneak through the back ways.”
It was impossible to forget the time he first went to war.
He had spent the first and second months of his thirteenth year in the deserts near the southern border.
‘You must now bear the responsibility of a Grandilgale as well.’
That imperial decree had come the previous winter, when his body had suddenly grown overnight at age twelve. As he departed for the battlefield, someone from the detached palace had come to see him.
‘The prince couldn’t eat many figs this year… so the witch made something with what was left.’
It was the same confection Kiara had tasted — dried figs mixed with nuts and bound in honey.
He had spoken of it casually, like it didn’t matter. But now, feeling sorry for having joked about it, Kiara murmured softly:
“…You must have really wanted to see your mother.”
Ael’s hand, which had been gently patting her back, suddenly paused.
Kiara spoke again, more carefully this time.
“If it were me… I’d feel that way. Isn’t that why you went, even if it meant getting in trouble?”
If it were her, no place would be too far. She would go anywhere, if it meant seeing her mother again.
Lost in thought, Kiara tucked her head into Ael’s chest. Sensing something fragile in her gesture, something subdued, he began stroking her back again — this time to comfort her.
“No, it was because of the figs.”
It was never because he wanted to see the witch in the detached palace. It was only because of the figs and the figs alone.
Ael gently closed his eyes. Listening to Kiara’s soft, steady breathing, he too felt drowsy.
Beyond his closed eyes, he saw the back alleys of the palace from his childhood — the narrow paths, so small only a child could pass through, winding between the tall, layered walls. These were the secret routes the young Ael took to sneak into the separate palace.
In winter, the snow piled up; in spring, the rain turned the paths into mud; in autumn, fallen leaves exposed every footprint he left behind. To avoid being caught, the only time he could use the path was the narrow window of late summer to early autumn just when the figs were ripe.
Walking trembling through that tight, dark, damp corner where any ghost or monster seemed ready to jump out, he would eventually see the shining green leaves beyond the tall walls of the separate palace.
The fig tree.
He whispered to himself once more, eyes still closed, staring at the shining green in his mind.
“It was because of the figs.”
Yes, it was because of the figs. Never because of the witch.
The moon cast its bright light on the northern tower, standing alone on the outskirts of the fortress walls.
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