CHAPTER 16
At that moment, a servant placed a large bowl in front of the Queen. I got the same kind of bowl, except mine was silver, not gold.
The Queen dipped her hands into the bowl and made splashing sounds. I quickly followed her lead. The servants looked confused for a second, but then smiled like the Queen was just joking around with an old friend. They quietly took the bowls away.
“I told them to only prepare your favorite foods,” the Queen said.
“You’re going to spoil me,” I replied with a small smile.
“It’s to celebrate that we met again.”
I could feel a deep sadness behind her words. But I looked away and focused on the endless dishes coming to the table.
There were five kinds of soup. I tasted each one: clear broth, carrot, spicy curry, chicken, and rice porridge. Luckily, I could eat them all.
I had to like what Carla liked. Someone might notice something strange if I didn’t. I was touched by the Queen’s care.
There were also six kinds of meat: grilled veal with sauce, big turkey, sausages with mushrooms, rabbit, wild boar, and goat leg. I didn’t know which to try first and hesitated.
The Queen noticed and said, “In case you were going to ask why there’s no fish—I told the kitchen if they put fish on the table, I’d fire the chef. Oh, Carla, I can already hear your nagging: ‘Isn’t there supposed to be some formality?’ But here’s my answer: I’m the law.”
I glanced at the servant pouring wine, then looked back at the Queen. She giggled like she had made a funny joke.
So, Carla hated fish. But she didn’t seem picky in public. That was useful to know. At the mansion, they served fish often, and it had been hard to eat.
Maybe she didn’t want to seem picky in front of the man she liked. Carla had acted so mature in her diary, but this side of her was unexpected. I smirked to myself.
‘She’s not a kid.’
Still, now I could avoid fish little by little. What a relief.
I looked over the new dishes: fried tomatoes and onions, eggs wrapped in bacon, cucumber in sauce, meat pies, salad with lemon and apple, goose liver, boiled spinach, roasted eggplant with minced meat…
I didn’t know their names, but I could tell they were fancy dishes. As I tasted them one by one, I realized something: Carla liked the same food I did. That made things much easier.
When dessert came, the Queen sent all the servants away. They left so quietly I couldn’t even hear footsteps. Only Theodore, the holy knight, stayed behind me.
“Shall we talk business now?” the Queen asked.
I hadn’t touched the huge dessert yet, so I quickly nodded.
“You said you needed money, right?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. A lot.”
“What do you think about a casino?”
I blinked. I didn’t expect that word. Since the Queen said it, she didn’t mean a small card room. I swallowed hard.
“I’ll open a big one for you,” she continued. “I’ll pay all the startup money. Of course, it won’t look good if the royal family promotes gambling, so we’ll use your name. How about that?”
I was so shocked by the size of her offer that I forgot what I had just eaten.
“Is… that okay?”
The Queen laughed.
“It’s not just for you. I also need to calm down the nobles’ complaints. Give them something fun, and they’ll stop barking for a while.”
She made it sound like she was already planning it and helping me at the same time. But I knew this was a huge deal.
It was basically a government project. I took a deep breath.
“Your Majesty…”
“Yes?”
I smiled as brightly as I could.
“Thank you.”
The Queen’s face changed. I couldn’t tell if she was angry or sad.
“Don’t thank me anymore.”
“Can I ask why?”
“Because Carla never said things like that.”
I shut my mouth. The Queen broke a crown-shaped sugar cookie with her knife. Even though she smiled at me, I could tell she was still hurting inside. I tried to change the mood by going back to the casino topic.
“Can we talk more about the casino, Your Majesty? What kind of games will there be? Cards?”
The Queen laughed at my childish tone and said, “Cards? That’s all you can think of? You really don’t know gambling, huh.”
“I know horse racing,” I offered.
“Horse racing? Well, we’ll have everything at the new casino—roulette, dice, fan-tan, mini horse racing… you name it.”
She listed different games on her fingers. The more she talked, the more it sounded like the real casinos I knew. My heart beat faster.
This was turning into something huge. Could I really handle it? I took another deep breath.
“Your Majesty, if you’re going to build such a grand place, wouldn’t it be a waste to just let people gamble and leave?”
“Then what?”
The Queen started eating the broken sugar cookie. I felt like a general reporting to a president—but scarier. Presidents can’t kill people just because they want to. A queen can.
I exhaled quickly and said, “If you’re going to bankrupt one person, why not bankrupt ten? If there’s someone you don’t like, let’s trap them all at once.”
“Hmm… how?”
“I was thinking… maybe something like this…”
I shared what I knew about scams and traps in casinos. The Queen listened seriously, then added real-world touches to my ideas.
We talked for a long time, forgetting all about dessert. I got so caught up in the planning that I even forgot about my revenge.
“You once said you weren’t like Carla,” the Queen said, slowly looking at me.
“I take it back. You’re more like her than anyone.”
