Chapter 07
“I, I, I was also suddenly, Anna, Bella, I mean, I was also surprised. I didn’t tell her to pick strawberries, but she suddenly brought them…!”
She looked very flustered. Her words were completely tangled. While listening to her messy explanation, I turned my gaze with rising suspicion.
“Hm.”
“I was going to ask her too! She suddenly gave me a basket and left, so I was confused too!”
I walked toward them step by step. As I got closer, Susan stiffened in surprise. I lightly pushed her aside, and she obediently moved.
And behind her was a small figure trembling even more than Susan.
“Was it you, Tom?”
Tom, who had his eyes tightly shut, nodded.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m really sorry!”
Tom trembled and knelt down. So he told me to pick strawberries and then did something like this.
We weren’t exactly close, but I didn’t think we were on bad terms either.
We were both apprentice servants.
In fact, at first, we were quite close.
We shared our hard life stories and even secretly shared stolen food.
But after Maria became attached to the First Prince’s side, things became distant.
“Did you take it?”
At Xabier’s question from behind me, Tom curled up even more. Only the top of his head and his back were visible, but I could feel he was crying in fear.
“Can you return it?”
I said weakly.
I also had my careless parts. I left it in my apron and thought I would find it later.
So many things had happened today that it felt too much for someone my age, so if I could just get it back, I wanted to end this.
“I… I don’t know.”
I just wanted it to end. Really.
“You want to die?”
“No, it’s just… don’t you want to mess with someone who annoys you? They said if I stole the pocket watch, they would give me money and handle everything. They said I could just hide it in the strawberry field…”
“Who said that? What’s the name?”
“I’ve never seen them before.”
The palace was large and full of servants, so it was possible not to know them. But still, to just go along with something like that…
The child in front of me was pathetic. And so were the people silently watching this, pretending it had nothing to do with them while clearly enjoying the situation.
“Did you not plan to return it to me?”
And even I, asking such childish questions with a trembling voice, was pathetic.
“No! I told them to just tell me where to hide it! But that person just smiled… and said to hide it in the strawberry field! They said you go there often, so you’d probably find it soon.”
Someone who knows I go to the strawberry field often?
“Where did you meet them? What did they look like? If I know, I can ask them later.”
“Sorry… they said they were only working until today…”
Even as I pushed him, Tom only gave vague, frustrating answers.
Someone only working until today?
No matter how I thought about it, I didn’t know anyone like that.
There weren’t many people I met often in the strawberry field either. It was a secluded place. The only ones were maybe the maids who came to look at the flowers yesterday, but they had no reason or connection to me.
“We’ll have to investigate.”
Xabier muttered quietly.
I nodded. Tom might have lied, or maybe the truth was different. Maybe the watch was still somewhere in the palace.
“So what should we do with you?”
Xabier’s eerie voice made Tom cry silently, big tears rolling down his face. He was just a boy my age.
I closed my eyes tightly and thought.
Tom was from an orphanage. He was chosen because he was one of the smarter ones.
When we were still close, he once said his dream was to save money and open a shop where orphan children could work.
He was clever and greedy for money, but… he was probably used by someone.
He might have stolen it and tried to sell it, but what he said now didn’t seem like a lie.
“Please… forgive him.”
“What?”
Tom looked at me in shock.
I gritted my teeth. It wasn’t because I liked him, but I held back my words.
“I also failed to take care of it properly. And he probably just got tempted by the money.”
“Hm. Should I make them search the entire strawberry field?”
“No!”
That huge field? Is this man crazy?
If the magic circles get disturbed, what then?
Xabier looked like he couldn’t understand my reaction.
“Forgive the thief, but not digging up the field.”
“There are magic circles drawn there! Do you know how long it would take to redraw them?”
“Hm.”
He still didn’t seem convinced.
“Then I’ll go search myself. They probably didn’t hide it too deep.”
“…You really don’t resemble her.”
Xabier muttered something different, shrugging slightly.
It probably meant I was different from my mother, who valued justice.
Not wrong. I could endure injustice quite well.
I loved my mother, but I decided to live differently.
“I’ll help too, Annabella…”
Tom stepped toward me hesitantly.
I let out a sigh. Even though I was letting him go this time, him acting close now was irritating.
Thud!
I punched Tom in the cheek.
“Good heavens…”
Tom fell back, holding his cheek in shock. Xabier, who had turned away, also stared in disbelief.
“Law beats fists? No. Fists are faster, idiot. One more time and I’ll really kill you.”
It wasn’t just a warning for Tom. I glared around and walked out of the kitchen.
I was planning to stop working for the day anyway. I didn’t care anymore.
As I walked off, someone grabbed my shoulder.
“Where are you going, my daughter?”
Of course it was Xabier.
“I’m going to work…”
I tried to leave, but I couldn’t move forward.
I struggled a bit, gave up, and turned back with a business smile. Xabier’s face was cold.
Looking into his golden eyes…
Is he angry?
It made sense.
The pocket watch given to his lover was stolen and ended up with a child. Of course he’d be angry.
“Why are you working?”
“…Yes?”
“You don’t need to work anymore. You are an imperial child.”
Imperial child?
I tilted my head.
“I can’t be an imperial child. With respect, I don’t even have the royal traits…”
Golden eyes that prove the dragon’s bloodline.
I rubbed my brown eyes hard, as if trying to make them shine gold.
Maybe I just looked gold because of light.
“I also don’t even have the proof anymore, so please understand my situation…”
Xabier blinked slowly.
His cheek looked slightly raised, as if he was pressing his tongue inside his mouth.
A brief silence passed, but to me it felt endless.
