I want to Enjoy a Country Life!

Omake 1

OMAKE 1

That person was very beautiful.
The first time I started serving that person was when I was 20 years old.

I was working as a farmer on the countryside one day when I was called by the Mayor. No matter what, the new Princess is looking for a farmer to help with agriculture, won't you do it, was what he said.
I like the countryside. However, I don't want to keep living like this in my heart, I felt at that time that this is some kind of fate so I immediately went to the castle to give my reply.
Until the Princess arrived at the castle, I decided to train my swordsmanship as a guard. Changing the hoe with a sword, I immersed myself in mastering the sword. It's always refreshing and I had fun everyday.
I heard a lot of rumors in our barracks. That the woman Gilliam-sama fell for was from the countryside, or that she was a bad woman who was hovering over the King. Apart from "Oh, is that so", I didn't feel anything else, unexpectedly, the barracks liked to talk about it that they say it's not like this or not like that every morning.
I was wondering what kind of person she was because I'd been listening to such rumors, but that was not the case, she was a beautiful young lady.
The moment I saw such untainted and dignified appearance, my body first instinctively knelt down. She mustn't see my muddy appearance so I must keep my head down, my head was filled with such thoughts.
However, that person sat down to meet my eyes and on top of that, wrapped my palms and smiled.

[I'm Liliana who's gonna start living here starting today. Please take care of me.]

I fell in love at that moment.

I was a young man born and raised in the countryside without even knowing what love means so, it probably can't be helped that I fell in love when shown such kindness by such a lady for the first time. Besides, Liliana-sama was a beautiful person, on the other hand, not falling for her being weird is not an overstatement.
[YOU! Don't look at my wife with such rude and perverted eyes! I'll kill you!]

However, the usually mild-mannered Gilliam-sama was wildly brandishing his sword while shouting as he glared at me, fearing for my life, my love faded.

From then on, the time trickled slowly. Liliana-sama's garden switched from plants to crops every season, it was beautiful. Although Liliana-sama's knowledge in agriculture couldn't be compared to mine, she still listened to my suggestions well and take them as a reference.
I, myself, has learned a lot from Liliana-sama and my knowledge on agriculture has deepen so I conducted some lessons to the farmers.

However, those happy moments did not last.

Liliana-sama fell ill and had passed from this world. Gilliam-sama who was filled with grief wrecked his body, fell ill, and before long died of old age.

And then, my role was over.

It was hard remembering those two's happy memories while I was in the castle so I decided to go back to the countryside. However, the king at that time, Cherubim-sama, called out to me and ordered me to take care of Liliana-sama's garden together with him and become a Palace Guard.

The garden Liliana-sama made became my responsibility. And so, I had a soldier, who looked like he'd die with his eyes open, learn my work and took off.

Cherubim-sama got married and 3 sons were born. Because Gilliam-sama and Liliana-sama didn't have a child, the kingdom celebrated when a prince was born after a long a time.

I, too, remember how my tears fell when I heard the trumpets celebrating the prince's birth in the garden.

I wonder since when had those princes' fight for the succession came to be heard. The Second Prince was especially full of bad rumors. That he's a no-good and noisy person with no presence or whatnot. Apart from "Oh, is that so", I didn't feel anything else, unexpectedly, the barracks liked to talk about it that they say it's not like this or not like that every morning. [TN: Deja vu?]

The day after that, I was summoned by Cherubim-sama. He said it was urgent.

It was about the Second Prince who only has bad rumors about him.

Apparently, he said he wanted to be a farmer and seemed to have left the castle. Because I can't do it by myself, could you protect him in my place —

This is the first time I'd seen Cherubim-sama this panicked, I thought as I lower my head.

Ha! I replied and soon after I began preparing to leave the castle later. It seemed he sold his belongings to earn some money. Since he was raised as a royalty, I wondered just how he's going to take care of his living expenses and he unexpectedly chose a realistic way to deal with it. How surprising.

To implicitly get into contact with him, I changed into a commoner's clothes and headed towards the inn the Prince was staying over.

He seemed to be eating dinner in the dining hall so, I went there after checking in.

At that time when I saw the appearance of the Second Prince, Aine-sama, I thought my eyeballs would pop out.
Over there was Liliana-sama who passed away. For Liliana-sama, the skin was too white and the hair was cut too short, but without a doubt it's Liliana-sama.

I felt like time has stopped, my chest felt hot and the tears fell.

I now understand why Cherubim-sama ordered me to do it. Cherubim-sama ordered me, who has studied under the late Liliana-sama, to teach Aine-sama who said he wanted to learn about agriculture.

After losing Liliana-sama, the me who was living in sorrow was given a reason to live again—

No matter what, I must protect Aine-sama and teach him about agriculture. I watched as Aine-sama ate his dinner deliciously at the dining hall and strongly resolved myself.

The next morning, I marked the house investigated by the Intelligence Division and "coincidentally" bump into Aine-sama, who was having his breakfast. While suppressing the excitement of my heart, even while knowing that I am a commoner, Aine-sama listened to my story without any caution. Not only that, he even touched the me who has a lower status, with a friendly attitude.

The situation was exactly like that time when I met Liliana-sama that my lacrimal glands loosened, giving me a hard time controlling my tears.

Then I offered Aine-sama a house to stay and taught the basics of farming as a first step forward. Aine-sama's skin that used to be white has now burned into a wheat color and his already short hair, which he said to be in the way, was cut even shorter. Though he didn't really look that different from when he arrived. However, watching Aine-sama enjoying farming so naturally, I got swayed into thinking that this isn't so bad, either.

I was in an illusion as if I was nurturing the growth of the young Liliana-sama.