Chapter 9
“Being friends would be a loss for me, though.”
When I said it jokingly, Leonhardt let out a small snort of laughter.
“It’s too late to be talking about profit and loss.”
He tried to sound serious, but his pronunciation slipped, and it sounded funny. I burst out laughing again.
“Stop laffing!”
Leonhardt looked annoyed.
Still, thanks to that, the atmosphere relaxed a lot.
After saying I would come again soon, I parted ways with Leonhardt.
Quite a bit of time had passed, so I needed to hurry.
I quickly returned to the Crown Prince’s palace through the secret passage I had used when coming to the detached palace.
Avoiding Hans, who was wandering around the carriage, I slipped inside and hid in the space beneath the seat. Just then, Lester returned.
Things are going well today.
Perhaps exhausted from dealing with the Crown Prince, Lester silently urged the carriage to depart.
For me, who had listened to Lester’s grumbling all the way here earlier, that was a good thing.
The rabbit bag that had been stuffed full when I arrived had shrunk considerably now, so the space felt a bit wider than before.
Maybe I should come along again next time Lester visits the imperial palace.
Feeling the carriage begin to move, I thought to myself.
It seemed like I could use this method a couple more times.
Naturally, my thoughts drifted back to Leonhardt.
Even if my mind is that of an adult, when the body becomes young, there’s still a sense of dissonance.
I had realized that I had behaved a bit childishly earlier.
Having an adult mind while playing the role of a child made it difficult to suppress emotions that suddenly surged up.
It was embarrassing that I couldn’t control my feelings, as if I were a real child.
Still…
At least he seems to think of me as a friend.
Thanks to that, I learned a little about how Leonhardt viewed me.
To hide my awkward feelings, I hugged the rabbit bag tightly.
“I’m tired.”
Carrying a heavy bag and traveling quite a distance was far too much for a child’s body to handle.
And it was originally my nap time anyway.
Hans carefully drove the carriage for Lester, who was in a bad mood, and the inside was dark.
Before long, I fell asleep.
Something noisy woke me up, and when I opened my eyes, everything around me was dark.
“What the… Oh, right.”
The rabbit bag in my arms helped me grasp the situation.
“I fell asleep.”
Judging by how refreshed I felt, quite a bit of time must have passed.
“I’ve been discovered, right? Obviously?”
As I despaired over how badly things had gone, voices calling for me echoed from outside.
“Miella!”
“Lady Miella! Where are you?”
Even ignoring the fact that the voices were too far away to distinguish clearly, it sounded like dozens of people.
It seemed I had been discovered long ago.
“Wow… what do I even do now?”
Realizing I had caused a massive incident, my mind went blank.
I held my head in both hands and slumped in despair for a moment.
“What else? I’ll just have to get scolded.”
My body was young, but my mind was that of an adult.
I scraped together every bit of courage I had.
First, I needed to get out of here.
Twisting my body to get into position, I kicked the door.
“Huh?”
The door that had opened so easily at the imperial palace didn’t budge.
It seemed Hans or Lester must have locked it after noticing the latch was undone.
“Neither Lester nor Hans are usually that meticulous…”
With a small glimmer of hope, I pushed the door harder than before.
But it still didn’t open.
“I thought it was just bad… but it’s actually a complete disaster.”
Frustrated, I let out a deep sigh.
Then I kicked the door with all my strength and shouted.
“I’m in here!”
Thud, thud, thud.
My voice didn’t seem to reach outside the carriage at all.
Even though I kicked the wooden door with the hard soles of my shoes as hard as I could, the sound wasn’t very loud.
Part of it was because the space was too cramped to fully stretch my legs, but more than anything, my strength was simply too weak.
I kicked and shouted several more times, but the voices searching for me only grew farther away.
Realizing this wouldn’t work, I stopped kicking, panting for breath.
“They’ll check inside the carriage soon, right?”
No—at the very least, if someone just came nearby, they’d hear my voice.
I decided to conserve my strength for later.
But as time passed, the voices searching for me grew faint.
“What if they already checked the carriage?”
If they failed to find the space under the seat and concluded that I wasn’t inside this carriage…
And then expanded the search outside the duke’s estate?
The situation that would follow immediately formed in my mind.
Suddenly, breathing felt difficult, and my vision spun.
“Why did I fall asleep at that moment of all times?”
I bonked my head repeatedly in frustration.
Still, I could reflect on that after getting out of here.
Gritting my teeth again, I kicked the door with all my strength.
Thud!
The sound was a little louder than before, but it didn’t make much difference.
However, it consumed several times more energy.
This wouldn’t work.
How could I gather people here?
As I pondered, an idea suddenly came to mind.
When does a child’s voice reach its highest decibel?
When they cry or scream.
In that case…
“Let’s cry.”
I began recalling the sad moments of my life one by one.
A peaceful and happy childhood passed quickly through my mind.
Like the time Lester insisted on holding me and dropped me, causing me to get hurt.
That’s when I hit the edge of the table and got that scar on my eyebrow.
Or the time I tried to help Father by stamping approval seals on documents that were supposed to be postponed and got scolded for it.
Even after recalling all sorts of things, they were just memories that could almost be called fond ones to my adult mind.
The only memory sad enough to bring tears was when my nanny died after being kidnapped by the Crown Prince while trying to protect me.
“Sniff…”
Thinking of that moment made my eyes quickly grow moist.
But just before the tears fell, the sadness of losing my nanny turned into anger toward the Crown Prince.
“That bastard got off too easily.”
The heat of my anger dried my tears.
My six-year-old brain was already coming up with various revenge methods that didn’t match my body’s age.
That attempt failed too.
Now the only memories left were those from after I married Leonhardt.
“That jerk Leonhardt went off to the battlefield right after the wedding.”
It was because the remnants of the Crown Prince’s faction had declared a civil war, taking advantage of the tense atmosphere in the empire being eased by the royal marriage.
And he didn’t return until three months later.
I understood Leonhardt, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t hurt.
He didn’t even send a single letter for three whole months.
Along with that, countless other upsetting moments caused by Leonhardt’s cluelessness came to mind.
My eyes stung, and it annoyed me.
Opening my eyes wide, I made a firm vow.
“Since I’ve come back, this time I’m definitely going to bring in a husband who’s completely whipped and obsessed with his wife as my son-in-law.”
Clenching my fists, I revised my standards for marriage.
Then I gave up trying to force tears through sad memories.
“You don’t have to be sad to cry.”
It wasn’t a method I particularly wanted to use, but—
To steel my resolve, I clenched my teeth.
Then I cruelly pinched my thigh.
Twisting with all my strength hurt enough to bring tears to my eyes.
Thinking that I had to go through this just because I fell asleep made me feel miserable.
Forgetting even my mental age, I burst into loud sobs.
Even though air was entering through the gap in the door, it felt like I couldn’t breathe.
This carriage was only used when my siblings and I went out, so it might not be discovered for a long time.
That thought made tears flow naturally down my face.
“Waaah! Mom!”
My voice, loosened by my misery, rang out loudly even to my own ears.
“Sob… waaah…”
As I cried until my throat hurt, I felt the surroundings grow noisy.
“Over there! I hear a child crying from that direction!”
“Where?”
“Near the carriage!”
“You! Inform the master and madam immediately!”
The voices quickly grew closer.
Perhaps some people had already been nearby and joined the search, because soon I could hear my mother and father as well.
“Miella!”
“My baby!”
Clatter, clatter!
Hurried footsteps landed on top of the small four-seater carriage.
Soon after, the latch was pulled free and the door opened.
When I met the anxious blue eyes staring at me, relief washed over me without me realizing it.
“Dad…”
Stretching out my grimy hands, stained with sweat and tears, my father reached out in return.
“Miella… Thank the heavens.”
Carefully pulling me out, my father hugged me tightly before passing me to my mother.
“Mom…”
I clung to her and acted spoiled.
“Miella.”
But the tone of my mother’s voice by my ear felt unusual.
