The Opposite Of Indifference

Millicent had a general idea of what to expect, but when she finally saw the price Frederick paid for the meal, her eyes popped out of her head. It was tremendously high, about her three months of weekly pay.

“Thank you for the meal, Your Majesty.”

Still having a conscience, Millicent bent her knees and bowed.

“I should rather thank you. It’s a bit much for me to come alone. I can’t just bring anyone with me.”

Frederick shook his head.

“And it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed seeing someone eat so well.”

He said.

“The ladies of the court always eat as much as bird feed. Especially Jadalin ….”

Suddenly he laughed. It was not a pleasant laugh.

“It looks like she can’t stand 

the uncivilized food of the kingdom. She’s always sipping wine, looking like she want to get out of hell.”

“Her Majesty the Queen said she had small appetite.”

It was happiness for Millicent, who always quickly took the share of treats that Jadalin dismissed.

“Are you going to go to the palace and eat it secretly?”

She pointed to the whipped cream cake and meringue cookies that Frederick had wrapped separately.

“No, I’m going to give them to Phillip.”

“…Phillip?”

“The Duke of Albury.”

Frederick looked a little amused when Millicent didn’t understand.

“You’re not as witty as some of the other maids, are you?”

He said.

“They all manage to pick up one thing about me and the queen to gossip. Then they’ll get gold coins for the information.”

“Ah, yes. Well…”

Her own interests were not teh king and queen, but the young ladies who wanted to the Royal Mistress. She had tried hard to find information about their slender necks…Millicent just shrugged her shoulders.

“Maybe you’re pretending you don’t know.”

Frederick suddenly murmured.

“To appear innocent.”

His gray eyes seemingly revealed disbelief.

“Maybe.” It was a valid suspicion, so Millicent agreed.

“Don’t you have to blush in these situations and get mad?”

At that, Frederick laughed incredulously.

“Is that so?” Millicent asked back in a roundabout way.

Uncle Mulally told her that it was  always the pure women who get eaten alive first. So he taught her just how not to look pure.

Anyway, thanks to that, Millicent got the new fact that pure women blush and get angry.

“You always have weird reactions, Millicent” It wasn’t an accusation. Frederick seemed very amused.

“So who is Phillip?”

It was a somewhat uncomfortable stare, so Millicent changed the subject.

“Phillip is my…”

He paused as he was about to answer.

“…he’s my son.”

Millicent blinked. “What son? You said earlier that you were a pure man.”

 “You mean that a pure man should not have children?”

“If you really have a prince, at least he would not be a child born to the queen, so of course you would be far from pure.”

Frederick laughed. “Shall I show you?”

He suggested as if avoiding a reply.

“What?” Millicent didn’t know why she always felt like a fool whenever she had a conversation with this man.

“Phillip.” (Frederick)

Millicent was still lost, and Frederick took her hand in his.

“Let’s go. I’ll show you.”

His hand was large and warm. It was a rough hand that held a sword and a spear at the same time, so strangely familiar. They were the hands of a hunter that Millicent would easily become obsessed with.

Only two men in Millicent’s life had ever had such hands. Both were not real hunters, but a King and a Cardinal….

They rushed to the royal palace at once. Frederick dragged her through the grand banquet hall, along the promenade of the royal palace, and past the gardens lush with grass and trees.

After that, they reached a hard wooded area where she had never set foot before.

“Your Majesty!”

And she also met a being she had never seen before in her life.

It was a child, perhaps four or five years old. He was a boy with a round face and innocent rosy cheeks. His hair was dark blonde and his eyes were a faded green.

He was dressed in pajamas, as if he had run away from the nanny from the nursery. Over his pajamas he wore a locket necklace, elaborately crafted for a child’s possession.

“Your Majesty!”

The little boy called the king again with his little lips.

“Oh, Phillip!”

Frederick smiled brightly.

“Isn’t it time you took a nap? Why are you walking around all alone?”

“I woke up from a scary dream.”

The boy called Phillip mumbled.

“And my nanny wasn’t by my side. I couldn’t see the attendants either.”

“Everyone must have been busy snooping around after putting you to bed.”

Frederick mumbled quietly. They might not know it, but they would get punishments sooner or later.

“I smell fish.”

Suddenly, Phillip pointed to Millicent.

“If Mrs. Galbraith smells it, she’s going to spank her.”

The boy seemed to be knowledgeable about the court as he even knew about the scary Mrs. Galbraith.

And his advice alarmed Millicent. She had wasted too much time on an errand. By now, Mrs. Galbraith would have transformed into a green dragon and left the kitchen on fire from hell.

“Uh, I have to hurry back…..”

“This is Phillip.”

Unlike Millicent, who sensed danger, Frederick was carefree.

“Doesn’t he look a lot like me?”

Even in the absence of spare time, Millicent thought that was a preposterous claim.

Phillip did not look like Frederick. He did not have Frederick’s ebony-black hair or his nice gray eyes mixed with blue.

Most of all, he did not exhibit the quality that would lead people to assume that he would grew up to be a conspicuously handsome man.

“Uh, yes. Yes.”

But there was no need to express her boring opinion to the king. Millicent nodded, pretending to agree.

“By the way……”

As she did so, a question arose.

“Is he really Your Majesty’s son?”

“Why don’t you believe?” Frederick asked curiously.

“I don’t recall hearing any announcement. If the prince had been born, they would have served bread and ale in the capital to commemorate the occasion.”

Millicent replied seriously.

“I don’t know about anything else, but I will never forget where and what I ate.”

“…I knew your level of thinking was different from the other women.”

Frederick clicked his tongue.

“I thought you might suspect that we don’t look alike.”

“He might look more like his mother. And I don’t care about that, but eating is a really important issue!” Millicent had her own elaborate logic. 

“I’m just telling you….”

Frederick suddenly lowered his voice.

“He’s a child I got from the mistress, not the queen. He’s illegitimate.”

“Your Majesty has a mistress?”

Millicent was lost.

For she had heard enough rumors only to hear that the bloodthirsty king was busy driving away the nobles and pushing for war, and that he had no interest in women and heirs.

“What you said earlier in the dessert shop…The only lady you’re loyal as a knight?” She asked, gathering up what she had picked up. “Then why not make her the Royal Mistress?”

“There was a mistress.” Frederick corrected it to the past tense. “She’s in heaven now.”

His faint gaze reached the sky.

“Why?”

Millicent frankly didn’t care much, but it seemed like she needed to keep up with the conversation.

“She was an angel. That’s why God took her away so early.”

She was about to snicker at Frederick’s silly explanation, but it was not the appropriate response that a socialized human being would show. Millicent barely managed to keep her mouth shut.

“I still have vivid memories of the first time I met her at my birthday banquet.” Frederick said.

There was a sad glint in his eyes.

Millicent didn’t understand what it meant. Should she ask what kind of woman that lady was?

But she had been taught that it was polite not to inquire about the dead.

“An Angel?”

It was Phillip who saved Millicent, who was at loss for what to say.

“My mother is an angel?”

He tilted his round face.

“Be that as it may, Phillip.”

Frederick gave the boy a quick hug.

 “But the last time she was here, she didn’t even let me have candy to ward off evil, let alone an angel.” Phillip suddenly said something strange.

“Do ghosts come out of the royal palace?” Millicent took it seriously.

Until the day before yesterday, Tracy, who went to the bathroom at night, claimed to have seen something white. She said she never wanted to see it again and even put up amulets to ward off evil in her bedroom. As a result she just used bedpan at night instead of going to the bathroom.

She didn’t know anything else, but ghosts were a bit scary. Because they couldn’t be removed as cleanly as a living person.

Millicent was frustrated by that more than anything else. Perhaps it was because of the worst feeling of helplessness of the few emotions she had felt in her life.

“It seems so.”

Frederick nodded. Strangely, his expression was one of desperately trying to stifle a laugh.

“Come on, sweet Phillip. I’ll tuck you in again.”

Before she could point out the suspiciousness, he changed the subject.

“Can I have a cup of chocolate?”

“No, you can’t have that. I thought you already had one at lunch.”

He seemed very familiar with dealing with the child.

‘Then please read a book. ‘The Adventures of Knight Livingston and the Seven Valleys’! I would love to hear it all the way through.”

“You always fall asleep before you get to the last chapter.”

“I think not today.”

Oh, they seemed to have a very close father and son’s relationship.

“Keep the secrets, Millicent.”

Frederick said, putting an end to today’s special outing.

Millicent didn’t know what secret he was referring to.

An eater who secretly enjoys sweet desserts? The king’s mask he wore to hide his true self ? Unpleasant feelings toward the queen? The dead lady who he swore his loyalty to? The illegitimate child in his arms, saying he would put him to bed…?

Indeed, he told her a surprisingly large number of things today.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

She had learned to be evasive if she didn’t understand something well. So Millicent made a promise that wasn’t too difficult to keep.

“…… well since it’s you, you don’t have to make me a promise or anything.” (Frederick)

It was something she didn’t understand again. It couldn’t have been a clever trick. But it didn’t sound like trust either.

As such, Frederick disappeared with Phillip, leaving Millicent in confusion.

Looking at his back, she felt like she had lost, at least for today’s game. Moreover, the anxiety that it would not be easy to get the score in order to win the final was overwhelming.

(*Woa…Frederick and Millicent had a child together!)