Chapter: 26
He seemed to have been on his way back from the bathroom, alone without any servants.
“Ah, it’s nothing really.”
I blushed, realizing I had made a fuss over something trivial.
“Look at that bird… oh, again!”
Yet, the sight of a bird catching and eating a fish was fascinating.
Leopold’s gaze followed my fingers.
“…Ah.”
The boy tilted his head and asked,
“Were you upset because you felt sorry for the fish being eaten?”
“Huh?”
I had felt sorry for the bird being falsely accused, so I had pointed out the truth.
“After all, our lunch also included fish, didn’t it?”
Leopold stared at me for a moment and blinked twice.
“Oh, I assumed the young lady is still so young… that she’d think anything pitiable is worth pitying.”
“Y-you mean I’m young?”
The age of seven had been struck.
I straightened my face and protested,
“I’m not young.”
“But you’re seven years old.”
“I thought the young master was nine. Isn’t that similar?”
“Oh.”
Leopold’s brow furrowed slightly. Even nine years old had been scratched.
“Seven and nine… quite an interesting claim.”
It meant, essentially, “that’s nonsense.”
Understanding his typically Western phrasing, I lifted my chin and said,
“I’ve already read all the academy’s required books. My mental age and conversation skills are similar.”
Leopold narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms.
“That seems a bit too radical…”
It meant, “I absolutely cannot accept that.”
Though maintaining the composure and manners of a refined noble, he was firmly denying my argument.
Sensitive about age, I, at seven, immediately bristled.
“Honestly, there’s not much difference between seven and nine.”
The precocious nine-year-old boy faltered at that point.
“Ha… how can seven and nine be the same?”
Children were usually the most particular about age.
Since nine was still a child, we both lost our composure.
“When you were learning to walk, I was already reading books by myself.”
“That’s the difference between one and three years old. Now it’s seven and nine. Don’t you know numbers?”
“The difference is the same. Don’t you know subtraction?”
“As you grow older, that difference becomes less and less meaningful. Don’t you know ratios?”
It was then that a voice called from afar.
“Please gather on the deck!”
It seemed the prize drawing was about to begin.
“Oh, we should go…”
Leopold shook himself out of his daze and murmured.
He gently addressed my mother, who was staring blankly at the lake.
“Madam, shall we depart together?”
It was proper etiquette. Of the three of us, my mother was the eldest, so he asked for her consent.
Wait.
I finally came to my senses.
Mother has been quiet all this time?
While I had been engaged in a life-or-death argument with Leopold about age, my mother hadn’t said a word.
That’s impossible.
A sense of foreboding made my vision go white for a moment.
As I slowly looked at my mother with a frightened face, she whimpered.
“Depart? Leaving now?”
My heart sank.
It was the “other voice” my mother had each night.
“I don’t want to go…”
She looked at Leopold with vacant eyes.
“I don’t want to go, Masa.”
Masa was a maid my mother had brought. She wasn’t accompanying us this time since she usually worked in the kitchen.
My mother whispered to Leopold with desperation.
“I don’t want to go. I won’t go to the Empire. I’d rather die in Liente.”
Her thin voice trembled with tears.
“I don’t want to marry… Alone in a foreign country, surviving by myself—what good is that? That man, he’s already been married before…”
My mind went blank. I felt suffocated.
“She keeps going back to that night when she boarded the ship,” I thought.
The night was an issue, and so was the ship.
Until now, there had been no need to board a ship in the marquisate, so I hadn’t realized.
I shook my hands in despair.
“M-Mother.”
Of all times… right now…
“Mother… please… stop… stop it.”
I muttered through trembling lips, my heart pounding and body frozen.
“No, mother… now… now is really not the time.”
What should I do? How could I handle this?
Father was in the cabin, and the maids didn’t know the situation. They were only watching from afar.
And now Leopold…
It’s my fault. All my fault.
Tears welled from anxiety and regret.
I… I lost my composure over being called young and acted like a seven-year-old…
I wasn’t really seven. I shouldn’t act like a child.
I should have sent her off without a long conversation.
I couldn’t let her find out. I was responsible—this was my engagement.
W-what do I do…
Leopold would now probably step back with a troubled expression, a mix of fear, disgust, and a hint of curiosity.
I knew that look well. The marquisate’s steward always wore that expression.
In the dreadful silence, my mother’s whining continued.
“Masa, please… I won’t go, okay?”
Her eyes had already lost focus.
“The Kingdom of Liente will be fine… it won’t collapse, we…”
It was then.
“Do as you wish.”
Leopold said calmly.
“You don’t have to go to the Empire, Princess.”
I spun to look at him.
No one among the Empire’s people had ever called my mother “Princess.”
“So please, calm down. Let’s go back.”
“Really, Masa?”
My mother blinked at Leopold.
“Really… I don’t have to go to the Empire? I don’t have to marry?”
Joy was evident in her words.
Leopold nodded.
“Yes, Princess. Everything will go according to your wishes.”
My mother brightened and drew a deep breath.
“Really?”
She grabbed Leopold’s hand tightly, eyes wide, asking again.
“Father will allow it, right? He will, won’t he? He cherishes me above all else.”
“Of course.”
Leopold smiled gently to comfort her and patted her hand.
“However, it’s late now. I suggest you sleep tonight, and in the morning, make your request to His Majesty the King.”
He then took a medicine from his pocket.
“If you feel nauseous, take this. I brought a sleeping pill. There’s nothing better for nausea than sleep.”
It was the same sleeping pill my mother had shown earlier.
“Take it. It will help you sleep.”
“Huh?”
“You should sleep early so that tomorrow comes quickly. A restless night is too long.”
“Yes, Masa. You’re right. Thank you.”
My mother quickly took the medicine from Leopold, opened the lid, and muttered as she trembled.
“Without a sleeping pill, I don’t think I could sleep tonight.”
“Marrying such an old man and having children… just imagining it is horrifying. But Father wouldn’t ruin my life like that.”
Before me, his child, my mother swallowed the pill in one gulp and gently collapsed.
Leopold hurriedly supported her with his shoulders and arms.
Seeing that, the maids who were watching from afar rushed over.
“Madam!”
“Oh my, Princess!”
They caught my mother, who collapsed like a sheet of paper.
Leopold quietly explained,
“She was feeling nauseous, so she took a sleeping pill and has fallen asleep. Her condition isn’t good, so once the ship docks, we will immediately return via warp.”
The maids responded promptly.
“Yes, understood!”
“Thank you, Your Serene Highness!”
They then took my mother to the cabin.
Only Leopold and I remained at the railing.
A brief silence passed. Far away, the call of the lottery numbers sounded like a dream.
After a few breaths, it felt like color returned to the world.
“Th-thank you… ah, this is… this is my responsibility…”
Words tumbled out in confusion.
I felt ashamed for panicking instead of resolving my own affairs.
“I’m sorry… sorry. I… I couldn’t do anything…”
Leopold smiled gently.
“You’re still young. It’s okay to just be still.”
I could no longer argue with being called “young.”
Yet it felt strange. I had never heard anyone tell me it was okay to just be still.
I always had to try. I always had to do my best.
“Go to your mother.”
Leopold guided me one last time on what to do.
“Everything will be alright.”
I couldn’t respond because I felt tears coming.
I nodded and turned away. I could feel Leopold’s gaze on me from behind, but I didn’t look back.
