They didn’t seem cold at all; wearing only thin training uniforms, they bowed in greeting.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
“We’ll eat well.”
Each of them holding a sandwich in hand, they even rolled up their sleeves and shouted toward the subjugation members.
“What are you all doing? You should rest when you can!”
Only after Ferento signaled them with a look did the other members slowly approach the maids.
Once one or two started receiving food, there was no one left who paid attention to Masid.
Watching the scene, Liselotte swallowed her amazement.
‘It’s this cold—are the Northerners’ skin tissues different from mine or something…?’
Even after layering a thick dress, a heavy coat, and the Shalendra cape on top, her nose still stung from the cold.
Of course, she couldn’t come out bundled up so heavily that she’d be waddling, so she had dressed in moderation.
She wanted to bundle herself up completely, but held back because it would look ridiculous.
‘They say fashion is about dressing warmly when it’s cold, and lightly when it’s hot.’
Sniffling, she pointedly held the basket out to Eren as well.
“Aren’t you going to have one, Your Highness?”
“…”
She had practically put it right in front of him, yet he only stared at it without readily taking it.
‘Does he not like sandwiches?’
As she only blinked at him, Eren lifted a hand and lightly rubbed her cheek with his thumb.
“Huh?”
When she widened her eyes in surprise, he calmly took off the coat he was wearing and draped it over her shoulders.
Holding a sandwich in his hand, he replied dryly.
“Your face is red. I thought you might be cold.”
“Ah, yes. Well… haha, I just can’t seem to get used to the northern weather.”
Liselotte laughed awkwardly.
‘Ugh, that startled me. Why did he suddenly touch my cheek…?’
The rough feel of his hand brushing her cheek lingered like an afterimage.
Perhaps because of the cold wind, his body temperature felt unusually low.
Her gaze naturally drifted to his hand.
From scars to calluses. It was a hand that clearly bore the marks of hardship.
The wound she had seen before already seemed faint, as if it had healed.
‘He heals really fast.’
Anyone who wielded a sword would be like this, but the scars that had formed and healed over raised veins were a little painful to look at.
‘He works that hard, and yet people judge him just by his eyes…’
Perhaps mistaking her gaze, Eren slightly turned his body and hid his hand out of sight.
Just as Liselotte was about to say that was not the case—
Exclamations burst out from all around the training grounds.
“Wow, what is this? Isn’t this berner?”
“No way. I can’t believe I’m eating something like this in my lifetime.”
“Berner just melts in your mouth!”
It seemed Ail and Ferento noticed the berner as well, a beat later.
They looked at the filling with curiosity and asked,
“Wait, people eat this in sandwiches?”
“Right? I don’t think I’ve even heard of that in other regions.”
‘Huh, is that so?’
Liselotte tilted her head.
In her memory, berner was something you put into sandwiches.
Whether that was a cooking method used only in the Central region, there was no way to know.
Liselotte kept a straight face and replied,
“I used to eat it often when I was in the Imperial Palace.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than an excessively light voice butted in, flippant as ever.
“Ah, figures. I guess the Imperial Palace chef knows a thing or two.”
Masid came strolling over with a wooden practice sword slung over his shoulder.
At a glance, he looked like he was arrogance from head to toe.
How was that swaggering behavior supposed to be that of a proper northern knight?
To Liselotte, he looked like he was tarnishing House Keilos’s reputation more than Eren ever did.
Perhaps it was not just her impression; most of the knights deliberately ignored him, pretending not to see him.
Grinning, Masid reached toward Liselotte’s basket.
“Thank you for the food, Princess Liselotte.”
Just as he was about to reach for the last remaining sandwich, Liselotte swiftly swung the basket farther away, out of reach of his hand.
Perhaps startled, a slight tremor flickered at the corner of Masid’s previously smirking mouth.
When he shamelessly reached for it again, Liselotte turned her body away altogether with a sharp motion.
Facing the way Masid’s brows twitched unpleasantly, she smiled brightly and said,
“This one’s mine, you should receive one from the other maids, Sir Masid.”
At the firm refusal, he clenched the hand he had stretched out.
She had personally handed sandwiches to Ail and Ferento, fellow knights, and even to Eren himself, yet not to him, and it seemed to wound his pride.
‘I hate doing things like this over food because it’s petty, but I really don’t want to give you one.’
She even stuck her tongue out in her mind, a small act of petty revenge that no one else noticed.
Masid withdrew his hand, his jaw twitching as if he had ground his teeth together.
Soon, he tilted his mouth into a bitter curve and asked in a mocking tone,
“No, this is a bit much. In the Imperial Palace, berner might be easy to obtain and cheaper than in the North, so I suppose you ate it freely there… but isn’t this House Keilos’ property?”
“No. I purchased it with my personal funds. If you really want to check, you can ask the chef.”
“…And where would those personal funds come from? The House’s treasury, I assume.”
“There were so many disloyal wage thieves before that I did a bit of cleaning, and there was money left over!”
“Then you’re saying the recent large-scale disappearance of servants from the estate was…”
Finally realizing why the servants he had favored had vanished all at once, Masid bit down hard on his lip.
Liselotte pointedly took out the remaining sandwich and took a bite.
Hands on his hips as he scanned the area, Masid looked up at the sky and let out a breath before snapping back,
“No, really. Even if it’s your own money, isn’t this excessive waste? It would have been enough to provide just for the knights, but to make even the subjugation members eat the same thing.”
He openly gestured with his chin toward the subjugation members sitting around the training grounds, casually eating sandwiches and chatting.
It was a remark that blatantly drew a line between the knights, most of whom were nobles, and the subjugation members, who were largely of commoner origin.
Knights and subjugation members were similar in some ways, yet different in others.
A knight pledged loyalty to a single person, and subjugation members followed the choice of the Lord they served.
By contrast, subjugation members were hired solely for the purpose of subjugation.
Even as hired hands, many subjugation members took pride in protecting their own land.
After all, there were not many people who would risk their lives in subjugation purely for money.
If knights were a House’s honor, then subjugation forces were its pride.
That was why it was not uncommon to see exceptionally capable commoners granted knighthood.
‘But there’s an invisible line, isn’t there?’
The line she had felt her entire life.
It brought to mind the gaze that treated those who had not followed the course deemed ‘proper’ by others as heretics.
Liselotte knew that, separate from ability, there existed a wall of perception that could not be crossed.
However, openly exposing that was a different matter altogether.
At the very least, subjugation members were not beings who deserved to be treated like this anywhere.
The subjugation members standing where Masid’s gaze had passed slowly lifted their heads.
Like the calm before a storm, the training grounds fell silent.
They were people who, in their own right, possessed skills considered outstanding even in the North.
Masid, meanwhile, failed to notice the sharp shift in the air at all.
Liselotte deliberately nudged him further.
“I want to give it to them. Is that really a problem?”
“Even if you give them such refined food, would they even know the taste? They’re people who’ve never eaten anything like this. You’ve wasted your money.”
Masid clicked his tongue softly.
Under normal circumstances, there would have been no shortage of people stepping in to support him.
But now was different.
‘Among the newly hired maids and attendants, there are many commoners, and many from other regions too.’
Liselotte quietly wiped the smile from her face.
Only then did Masid, seemingly unsettled by the cooled atmosphere, belatedly glance around.
The looks directed at him from those on the training grounds were cold.
Even the knights who usually humored him at his side could not bring themselves to open their mouths.
