Loving The Cursed Werewolf King-Chapter 66: Frostberry Harvest

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Arielle now wore a different outfit than usual. The dress was thicker than what she usually wore. They said it was the typical outfit worn in Frostmount. Attached to the gray dress, around the hand and the hood, was a beautiful addition of quite warm thick fur.

Together with Tania, Sebastian, and two other knights, Arielle walked towards the backyard of the manor. As they traveled the path, leaving the manor environment, they climbed to a hill not far from there.

They met more people in the forest. It was the king’s private forest located on the hillside, but the king had given permission for the forest to be used by the villagers.

All over the forest were women wearing the same clothes as her, each one carried wooden baskets to use as containers for Frostberries.

The men were busy climbing to the highest point and throwing the Frostberries down while the little children caught the fruit with a stretched cloth. Then they added it to the basket.

Arielle stood transfixed. She followed after Sebastian, who held out a pair of gray gloves.

"Thank you," she said her thanks, took the gloves, and put them on.

Sebastian turned and cleared his throat loud enough to make the people around him turn to him. After he got the people’s attention around him, Sebastian introduced Arielle as a royal guest.

"Hello, this is Her Highness Princess Arielle Dellune of the Kingdom of Nieverdell. The Princess will be with us to harvest the Frostberries."

The people around glanced at each other which made Arielle feel uncomfortable.

"Er... I hope my presence doesn’t bother you," she said in a low voice, shyly.

A man who was on top of a nearby tree jumped down and bowed respectfully at Arielle. The women and children followed. When Arielle saw several other men try to get down from the trees, Arielle forbade them.

"Ah! No, no... you don’t have to come down! It will be very inconvenient for you to go up there again," asked Arielle frantically. She waved her hands and smiled at them. "I am fine. I can see you where you are."

The men halted their movements and stayed still in their respective places. Arielle immediately grabbed the small basket that was brought by Tania and smiled broadly at them.

"I will help you!" said Arielle excitedly.

Arielle walked to one of the Frostberry trees to pick the fruit from the lowest trunk. Sebastian and Tania signaled for everyone to return to work regardless of their presence. Arielle peeked out from behind the tree and smiled with relief to see the people there got back to work.

Arielle brushed off the snow or icing that wrapped the white fruits. Unknowingly she pressed one of the fruits too hard so that the red juice splashed onto her face. Arielle rubbed her face gently with the back of her hand.

Every now and then, she stole some frostberries and enjoyed the sweet juice of the fruit. After all the fruit on the lowest branches had been picked by her, Arielle moved to another tree.

She gave a friendly smile to some of the women present as she gathered the fruit from her basket into the larger basket on the cart.

"For this much fruit, what are you going to do with them next?" asked Arielle. She tried to open a conversation with those women.

"We will sell it, my lady," one of the women replied.

Oh, Arielle just remembered that Frostmount Village was adjacent to the border with the western Kingdom, which was famous for its trading. Maybe Frostberry was one of the items they sold.

"Do you just sell them like this? Don’t you process them first?" asked Arielle curiously.

"We will make them into jam, Your Highness. The jams we produce have been sold all over the Forsham mainland. You must have tried our jam, Your Highness."

Arielle had often seen many jars of Frostberry jam in the kitchen of the Nieverdell palace. It was just that she never had the opportunity to ever taste them because it was only provided for her brothers and sisters.

"Ah, yes, I’ve tried it. They are very delicious," said Arielle. She lied to spare their feelings.

One of the women held out her hand to Arielle. A frostberry was given to her.

"This fruit is bigger than the frostberries in other places. Usually, it tastes sweeter. Please, Princess, have a try," she said with a big smile.

Arielle’s eyes lit up when she saw the frostberry fruit, which was twice as big as the ones she saw previously. Arielle tucked her hair behind her ear and accepted a mouthful of the fruit. She batted her eyes for a moment, then hummed a happy tone.

"Hmm.... this is indeed much sweeter!" Arielle exclaimed, making the women there laugh too.

The awkwardness was slowly starting to melt away by Arielle’s warmth and friendly demeanor. After she tried the fruit, Arielle went with a group of girls to collect all the Frostberry fruit from the children’s basket.

"They all get to do some work?" asked Arielle.

"Well.. they are doing it while playing." A woman pointed at three other girls skating in the snow. Arielle chuckled when one of them fell into the snow.

The princess then took the initiative to help. She lifted the girl whose face was red from the cold snow.

"Cold?" asked Arielle.

The girl shook her head and smiled broadly, showing her two hollow upper teeth. Arielle put the child down, and without saying thank you, the child immediately went after her friend, who had skated quite far.

"They really are full of energy," said Arielle. She felt amazed by the children.

Arielle rejoined the other women to collect frostberry fruits. The girl did not waste the opportunity to receive some bribe from the women who kept giving her frostberries to taste.

Tania couldn’t stop the princess. Even though Arielle had been reminded many times not to overeat, she always found a way to keep stealing one fruit from the top of the basket.

"Will all the fruit in this forest be harvested?" asked Arielle as she tucked a Frostberry in her mouth.

"That’s right, His Majesty the King always clears this forest so we can harvest it. His Majesty allowed us to cultivate these fruits for sale."

Arielle was impressed to hear that.

"Does His Majesty the King often come here?"

The woman who had been with her since shook her head slowly. "This is the first time His Majesty the King has visited in the past five years. His Majesty truly trusts the villagers to look after his manor, and therefore as a token of gratitude, we carry out the given responsibilities to the best of our ability."

Another woman who looked older let out a long sigh. She put the basket down a little rougher to express her annoyance. "However, these days, Duke Coley has always been interfering in our village’s affairs. Because our village is quite close to the border with the western kingdom."

She added, "That man is always looking for ways to get us to leave this village. Even Duke Coley has hired a swindler to pretend to be a priest who can use hot mana. My husband came to the palace to seek help from His Majesty himself."

"Oh my gosh. Then what now?" asked Arielle with concern.

"I hope His Majesty the King slaps that greedy man. Even though it seems impossible for us to get our money back, at least we won’t let the village we’ve been guarding all this time be taken over due to one person’s greed."

"I’m sure His Majesty will do what’s best for the people here," Arielle said sincerely.

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From the author:

ANNOUNCEMENT + PRIVILEGE

Soon, it is March 1, the new month starts. We follow Webnovel Timezone, GMT+8. I am preparing 30 Chapters in the privilege that will be divided into 5 tiers. If you are new to Webnovel, well.. Privilege is a way for readers to support a book they like beyond the coins to purchase locked Chapters.

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I already have 25 Chapters ready now (I just need to edit them) and I will be writing the last 5 Chapters today and tomorrow to fill all the tiers. Please be patient. I plan to fill all the tiers by March 2, and on March 3, we can have regular 2 Chapters per day again.

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