The Two Babies Changing the Original Story – Chapter 25

Author: Asternkm

After making their grand vows, word arrived that dinner was ready.

Just as when they came to the room, Ellie was escorted—this time toward the dining hall.

Unlike the parlor where they had tea, the dining hall was enormous.

A gigantic table large enough to seat fifty people at once occupied the center of the hall.

“Wow! It’s huge!”

“There is a table this size in the palace banquet hall as well,” Madam Laval commented softly. “Even larger, actually. More than two hundred people can sit at it at once.”

“But you don’t eat there every day!”

Princess Ellia had spent most of her life inside her room. She ate either with the king and queen or with Madam Laval alone.

After Ellie became Ellia, the number of guests at meals increased—but even then, at most five people ate together.

But Cleus ate at this grand table every single day!

“House Berndt has a tradition of sharing all meals with the knight order. The knights are practically family.”

“What about today?”

In the dining hall sat only Ellie, Madam Laval, Marquis Simon, and Cleus.

Lilcia had declined the meal to focus on her role as guard.

Only four people sat at the massive table. There wasn’t a trace of the knight order.

“Even though it is our home, we haven’t received permission to dine with the princess. They will eat later.”

“I permit it!”

Why wait and eat separately when there were plenty of seats?

“It tastes better when everyone eats together!”

Ellie remembered the late-night meals she’d shared with palace servants and guards.

Having lived most of her life alone with her brother, she liked being surrounded by people. Being with others made it feel like her brother’s absence was filled, even if just a little.

“Eh? But… is that really all right?”

Eating with royalty was an immense honor—something a family could boast about for generations.

Was it really okay for such permission to be given so casually?

Cleus was bewildered.

“Yeah! It’s fine!”

Ellie reaffirmed her permission with cheerful clarity.

Marquis Simon and Madam Laval seemed used to this and said nothing.

Now that permission had been given, making the knights wait any longer would be rude.

Cleus ordered the butler to summon the knight order.

Hearing the command, the knights rushed in swiftly.

“It is an honor, Your Highness.”

The knight captain bowed on behalf of the order.

Ellie beamed brightly.

“Mm! Let’s all eat deliciously together!”

“…….”

The captain bowed again—deeply—while inwardly taken aback.

What he felt was similar to what Cleus had felt when he first met Ellie.

It wasn’t only Cleus who was furious about the previous duke’s absurd death.

The knights, loyal retainers of the Berndts, were furious as well.

Late at night. The captain had insisted on guarding them, but the former duke and duchess refused, saying they needed to “move discreetly.”

Then the fall from horseback.

On a night of pounding rain—a dangerous night when an accident was certainly possible.

But the former duke and duchess were so skilled at riding they could practically sleep on horseback. To swing a sword or shoot an arrow from horseback, mastery was essential.

Yet both of them died in the same riding accident.

Something was off.

Suspicious as it was, there was no evidence other than the fall. They were forced to declare it an accident.

But no one in House Berndt believed it was mere misfortune.

They believed it was a trap.

Pure conjecture, of course.

The royal family is likely the culprit…

But one could hardly call a newly-turned-seven-year-old princess a criminal.

And like Cleus, Ellie was a child who had suddenly lost her parents to an accident. They could not possibly treat her coldly as the enemy of their house.

“Wow! It’s one of my favorites!”

Who could feel resentment when faced with such an innocent princess, delighted simply by seeing the food?

The captain, burying the fire in his chest, turned to Cleus.

“Please enjoy your meal.”

“Mm!”

“Shall I cut it for you?”

“Duke Berndt, can you cut steak on your own?”

“Everyone in House Berndt can handle a blade as if it were a part of their body.”

He was still just a child…

Cleus wriggled with excitement, eager to show off his knife skills to Ellie.

The knight captain focused silently on his own meal. The other knights did the same.

There were many people, but the meal itself was quiet.

Everyone except the two children ate without speaking.

With nearly fifty people eating at once, the clatter of utensils alone was enough to fill the hall.

They had hardly been seated when the knight order was already nearly finished with their meal.

“Wow, you eat so fast!”

Ellie exclaimed, waving the knight captain over when she noticed.

The captain answered with an embarrassed cough.

“Knights are always like this. Even in battle, we must eat—but we cannot leisurely enjoy a feast.”

“Oooh…!”

It was a knight’s world—different from a mage’s.

For the first time outside of books, Ellie was hearing a knight’s real-life stories, and she listened with wide, sparkling eyes.

“So you slurp food in the middle of a fight and then go back and fight again?”

“If necessary, yes. We train for such things.”

“Wooow….”

Ah. So this was why Cleus kept puffing out his chest.

Even the knight captain couldn’t resist puffing up at Ellie’s innocent admiration. As if eating quickly was something to brag about.

“Lilcia unnie, can you eat fast too?”

Ellie turned to Lilcia.

The last time they ate together, Lilcia matched Ellie’s slow pace, taking small bites.

But Lilcia was a knight too—maybe she could?

It was simply a child’s pure hope that someone she liked would be impressive as well.

“I can eat even faster.”

Lilcia growled her reply.

The knight captain glared.

“No one can beat me in eating speed.”

“Don’t make me laugh. There’s nothing you’ve ever beaten me at.”

“I beat you in strength! In height! In weight!”

Lilcia stared at him like he was pathetic.

“…Damn it!”

He even lost the staring contest.

Lilcia smirked in victory.

“Eat more, eat faster, and hurry up and grow, Dulsen.”

“…Back to the training grounds!”

Just as she addressed him, the knight captain’s name was Dulsen.

Feeling humiliated by Lilcia’s win, Dulsen shot to his feet and stormed out of the hall.

Ellie stared blankly at Lilcia.

“Are you close with Dulsen?”

“We are not.”

“But you spoke informally to each other.”

“We have simply known each other a long time, that is all.”

Lilcia denied any closeness until the bitter end.

But Ellie’s curiosity only deepened.

“How did you know each other since before?”

“People who use swords begin training very young, so word gets around. Children who seem talented usually end up knowing of each other.”

“Wow, I see!”

Listening to her, Ellie realized that the path of a knight seemed to be a world of its own.

A path only the naturally gifted could follow!

It was… very cool.

Lilcia, catching Ellie’s admiring gaze, puffed up a bit. Cleus’s interested gaze joined hers.

Stories from the Royal Guard Captain seemed to fascinate Cleus as well.

“You train at a local sword dojo when you’re young. Once you’re skilled enough, you apply to whichever knight order you want to join. If accepted, you begin training with them. Some children pick a knight order they admire and start as squires from a very young age.”

“What about you, Lilcia unnie?”

“Me? Naturally, I was always first in my hometown, passed the Royal Guard selection exam in first place, and immediately joined the Royal Guard.”

Lilcia’s nose and shoulders rose so high they nearly brushed the ceiling.

Who disliked a chance to brag?

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to—it was simply that she normally had no chance.

And with her liege happily listening, she had no reason to hold back.

“The Royal Guard is the dream of every sword-wielder.”

“Wow, amazing! Then will Duke Berndt join the Guard too?”

The conversation suddenly swung toward Cleus.

Caught off guard, Cleus stiffened.

“I, uh….”

“Y-Your Highness,” Lilcia said quickly, just as flustered. “House Berndt is… a special case.”