Leonhard immediately shrank to my side as if fearing I would go back on my word.
"Your Highness is truly lenient with your servant!"
Too weary to respond, I lay down beside him to gaze at the starry sky.
"Your Highness..." His voice was low and hoarse, "Have you ever doubted yourself?"
After a moment of thought, I answered firmly, "No."
"Since birth, I have been the hope of the royal family, the designated crown prince, destined to become a wise monarch."
My voice was decisive, yet Leonhard fell uncharacteristically silent.
"Your Highness... Will you take a wife?" he asked softly after a long while.
"Naturally." I wondered why he would pose such a question.
"Do you not desire a gentle companion, warm company?"
Leonhard fell silent again for a lengthy stretch. When I turned to look at him, his eyes were already closed.
It was truly like playing the lute for a cow—just as I intended to ask why he had been avoiding me these past days, he had fallen asleep first.
I simply closed my eyes as well, and when I opened them again, dawn had broken.
I woke from the heat. Leonhard was like a brazier, his sleeping posture atrocious, his limbs tangling me like an oak wrapped in ivy.
Worse still, there was something rigid in that "vine."
"Leonhard, wake up!" I pushed him forcefully, "Is that your dagger? It's poking me!"
I reached out to touch the hard object and looked up just as I met Leonhard's panicked gaze.
"Your Highness... Eleanor..." He recoiled from my hand as if scorched, "No, you mustn't—"
I grew irritated: "What on earth is it? Can't your sovereign even look at it?"
"It's... It's..."
Leonhard squeezed his eyes shut: "It's my cock!"
What?
I suddenly recalled that love ballad circulating in the marketplace—"Caressing the maiden's soft waist, touching the lover's stiffened part."
Cock... That thing I did not possess.
Leonhard's face was etched with agony: "Your Highness, I... I only recently realized that I... prefer men."
I remained silent. Leonhard assumed I was angry, but in truth, my mind was consumed by: Why does my servant have something I do not?
I paid no heed to his rambling, only feeling a tightness in my throat—was I not the most exalted crown prince, the unique Eleanor? How could I lack something even my servant possessed?
What on earth was happening? The morning wore on in awkward silence.
Leonhard chewed on a willow branch with his head bowed, while I scooped up spring water to wash my face.
Leonhard stole a glance at me, took a few steps into the woods, and unfastened his leather belt.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
Leonhard spun around abruptly, muttering, "I need to relieve myself."
"Standing? You relieve yourself standing?" I asked, puzzled.
Leonhard froze.
"How... How do you do it?" I pressed.
"It's just... Uh, hold it and then—" He suddenly fell silent.
A kaleidoscope of emotions flickered across his face, finally settling into a daze. I waved my hand before his eyes, but he did not react. He stood there like a statue under a spell.
I simply ignored him and busied myself with tidying my appearance. Removing my sleep-tousled amethyst tiara, my golden hair cascaded over my shoulders. I casually combed it and resecured it with a silver amethyst crown.
When I turned my head, Leonhard—who had witnessed the entire process—was already flushed.
"What's the matter? Are you feverish again? Your face is so red."
He suddenly knelt on one knee: "I... I was improper before! No! From now on, I will surely—"
He rambled incoherently, and I could not bear to listen: "Enough, let's depart."
I mounted my horse, and Leonhard followed behind, his gaze searing into me like fire. After this night, he seemed fully rested, brimming with energy, and had reverted to his mischievous ways of teasing dogs and chasing birds.
When Heinrich and Marcus arrived with their game, he first mocked Heinrich for his meager haul, then Marcus for hunting small prey: "All talk, just a smooth-talker who knows how to flatter the Highness."
Heinrich, who had been friends with him for years, naturally ignored the jibes. But Marcus chuckled: "So what?" He raised an eyebrow at Leonhard: "The Highness has said she loves my quick wit best."
Leonhard immediately rose to the challenge, and an argument ensued.
Heinrich, however, stepped forward, adjusted my cloak, and smoothed the stray hairs on my forehead: "I am no expert in riding or archery, so what I hunted is merely to add luster to Your Highness." He spoke softly, placing his prey at my feet as if it were my own achievement.
"Why go to such lengths?" I smiled as I adjusted his collar, "You've worked hard these past day and night. I would never blame you for not being skilled in riding and archery."
Heinrich smiled faintly: "I merely wish to share some of your burdens, Your Highness."
The arguing behind us suddenly ceased. Leonhard and Marcus stared at Heinrich with identical expressions of chagrin.
"So he's the most calculating one."
They whispered their complaints behind me, but Heinrich, true to his surname, remained unflappable.
When the game count was announced, surprisingly, the first place went to my cousin who had just been released from the castle dungeon. His clumsy demeanor made it obvious the game was not his own kill.
But he still took the opportunity to provoke me: "Can't even compare to me in riding and archery, could it be—"
His squinty eyes rolled: "You're a girl?"