The Prince Doesn’t Cry From Mere Onions

His expression as he finished organizing the spices was calm.

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With a sigh, Anna tidied up the remaining bowls.
What to talk about now? Especially when staying silent didn’t suit her temper!

At that moment, a neighborhood uncle came in as a customer.

Anna ran out happily.

“Welcome! What should I get for you today?”

“Oi? First time I’ve seen you welcome me, Anna.
Just give me something that’ll work as lunch.
Anyhow, is that the guy who stirred up all that trouble yesterday?”

The uncle gave the inside of the kitchen a sideward glance before grinning.

“What’d you two do last night?”

“I, I only gave him onion porridge because he was starving! I’ve been doing that all the time, so what’s so strange about it!”

“But he’s handsome.”

“….is he?”

Anna looked towards the kitchen.

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Without his cloak, you really could see his well-formed jawline and his shoulders better than before, but….

Belatedly, Anna realized what the problem was.

“That person, he’s so big that I just can’t see his face, you know.”

“Kahahaha! Sorry about that.
Looks like I tried to place a cicada on an old tree.
But since you’ve managed to pick up a handsome guy, have fun toying with him while he’s here.”

“How are you supposed to toy with an old tree!”

“And then marry someone steady, like Dieter.”

“What?”

“You gotta play with guys whose only redeeming quality is their handsome faces when you’re young so that you don’t have any regrets later.
But village people are the best.”

The mischief in the uncle’s expression had disappeared at one point.
Anna forced herself to laugh it off as she returned with the order.

If she knew she was going to hear about that marriage talk again, she would’ve rather stayed in the kitchen awkwardly with Bertram instead.

But returning to the kitchen, Anna almost screamed.
Bertram was in the middle of changing his clothes.
It seemed that Carla had brought him his dry shirt in the meantime.

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Under his shirt-covered face, solidly firm muscles squirm at every simple movement as if each of them are alive.

Anna was about to whip her reddening face away, but something caught her eyes in that very moment.

In the middle of his chest, something like a blue gem was emitting light.

A color like it was coming from inside the sea.
And flashes of red from its bottom, like magma….

Bertram’s head popped out above the shirt at that moment, and Anna turned her eyes elsewhere like she was someone just so very interested in the kitchen ceiling.

Bertram was a good worker.

He learned everything at first lesson, and he was good at working with fire.
It was to the point that you could see how Carla was contemplating if she should officially hire him or not.

That night—

Carla allowed Bertram to sleep in the restaurant.

The thick blanket next to the still-warm furnace was his bed.
It was the most they could extend to a guest of unknown origins.

Of course, this was also to prepare for if this uninvited guest harbored evil thoughts in his head.
If he resorted to thievery, the black soot on his shoes would be of great help in tracking him down.

Praying that nothing would happen, Carla fell asleep first.

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And as soon as Anna confirmed that her mother was asleep, she sneaked out into the porch.

‘Mr.
Bertram, does he even sleep?’

Like the golems in the legends, or those automatic dolls that they said were sold in the cities, he was a human who seemed so unlike a human that she couldn’t help but think this.

It would be unsurprising if she learned that he slept with his eyes open.

Anna carefully crossed over the yard and looked into the restaurant kitchen.

‘He does sleep like a human….’

Bertram was lying in a properly straight position, asleep.

The face she now could see without hurting her neck was….

The neighborhood uncle was right.

‘He really is handsome.’

The moonlight stored in strands of his black hair sway with each breath he takes, like waves in a night sea.
Below it emerges pale white skin, like a white sand beach.
On first glance, he had a strong impression.
But the eyelashes that rose from under firmly closed eyes drew quite the graceful curve, and that strangely went well with his sharp, shapely nose.

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More than anything, there were no points to be lost, since his mouth was closed.

‘I just need to fatten him up a bit.’

Her eyes had stayed only on his face, but once she confirmed that Bertram showed no signs of waking up anytime soon, she slowly began moving her gaze downwards.

Through the gap between his slightly unbuttoned shirt.

Half a hand span or so below his collarbone, a blue gem shined.

‘So what I saw during the day was real.
But….
it looks like it’s embedded into his chest?’

For it to be a necklace, there were no connecting parts that went up to the neck.
It was really studded into Bertram’s chest, about halfway through.

Out of curiosity, Anna touched the surface of the gem.
That very moment—

All of a sudden, Bertram grabbed Anna’s wrist.

‘Eeek! O-ow!’

His grip was incredibly strong.
Anna thought that she might be mistaken for a thief and have her bones broken.
It wouldn’t be difficult for someone who had the strength to crush a wolf.

Soon, however, eyes closed and eyebrows furrowed, the most unexpected words that could be imagined flowed out from Bertram’s lips.