Chapter 25
I ended up falling asleep late because I was chatting with Dad.
Maybe because I hadn’t given him enough attention until now, Dad seemed to think this was the moment and kept talking about all sorts of things all night long.
In the end, I didn’t open my eyes until late the next afternoon.
“Yaaawn. I’m sleepy.”
“Are you very sleepy?”
“Yeah. A lot.”
Melinje, who was once again touching my hair today, smiled at me through the mirror as she watched me doze off, nodding.
“Would you like to sleep some more then?”
“No. I want to go to the brothers. They probably prepared a big cake, right?”
“Yes. I told them this morning to bring one of the leftover cakes from yesterday that no one touched.”
If the twins hadn’t managed to run away, they would still be in that room.
And if they had run away, this was my way of keeping my help completely hidden.
“Yeah! I need to finish my hair and go see the brothers.”
“Yes. I’ll do it quickly. Aren’t you hungry? The master said he was very disappointed that you woke up so late and couldn’t eat with him.”
If he’s so disappointed, he should’ve made me sleep early yesterday. Dad is actually a huge chatterbox.
Honestly, who talks that long to a little kid? I feel like I’ve heard his entire life story.
Though it was fun.
But being tired is unavoidable. It’s funny how he chatted all night but now feels disappointed.
“Well, we can do it next time. There’s tomorrow and the day after tomorrow! Also, Dad talks way too much.”
“That is true.”
Melinje let out a small laugh and neatly braided my hair into two braids.
“There, all done.”
“Okay! I want to go quickly. The brothers couldn’t even leave their room yesterday. I feel really bad about that.”
“They probably still got a special meal though.”
“Still.”
Naive Melinje believed everything people told her so easily, and she smiled brightly.
“Don’t worry. Since the young lady cares for them so much, I’m sure they were taken good care of.”
“Yeah.”
She was someone on whom not a trace of dirt would stick, someone who believed exactly what she saw and thought.
Maybe that’s why she feels so easy to be around.
In this place full of nasty humans crawling like bugs, she was the only person I could genuinely relax around.
Of course, that may be because I know the future, but still, I really do like her.
“For the dress, I’ll prepare this one.”
“Okay!”
Thanks to Melinje, who brought out everything I needed without me saying a word, getting ready was finished quickly.
Right on time, another maid walked in carrying the cake.
“All done. Let’s go quickly.”
“You really are so strange.”
“Huh? What is?”
“I didn’t expect you to like those boys this much. Considering all you’ve done until now…”
Watching her trail off, I nodded as well.
If it were the original me—no, if it were the real Amanet before I possessed her—there’s no way she would’ve shown this much interest in the twins.
Even if it weren’t Amanet, most kids that age would be the same. Who likes unexpected uninvited guests?
“Well… they’re pitiful.”
“Ah. That’s true.”
By the time we were almost at the twins’ room, the hallway was unusually quiet.
The attendant I had seen before wasn’t there, and only a few maids were standing quietly in front of the twins’ door, bowing their heads at me.
Their overly polite behavior shocked me, as if they had undergone some sudden change of heart in the past few days.
Did word of my bad temper spread this far?
There’s no way they’d change so quickly unless that was the reason. Narrowing my eyes, I stared at them openly.
“Do you have something to say to us, young lady?”
“Huh? No.”
They flinched so hard that an uncomfortable feeling twisted somewhere in my chest.
“Shall we open the door?”
Can people really change this much? From what I remember, no one had ever treated me this politely in the past.
“Yeah. Bring in the cake a little later.”
The maid holding the cake nodded. As soon as I finished speaking, the door opened instantly. And before opening it, the maids even knocked.
It was completely different from how they used to just barge in without knocking.
When the door opened, an empty-looking room came into view. Not a single trace of presence, as if no one were inside.
The moment I stepped in, the maids closed the door behind me, making the atmosphere even lonelier.
Did they really fail to escape?
But just as I was having that thought, the twins appeared in front of me.
“What the—”
“Why are you so startled?”
“Huh? Ah, no, why are you coming out from the side? I thought no one was here.”
The twins had appeared as if they’d been stuck to the wall and then slipped past me without hesitation.
Then, as if nothing had happened, they walked toward the window and sat in their usual seats.
I followed behind them, trailing quietly.
“But why do you always sit here?”
“Because looking outside is nice. It doesn’t feel suffocating.”
Callisto grinned and stood in front of the chair he always sat in, curling his finger at me.
“Huh?”
“Sit here.”
“Ahh.”
Of course I wasn’t going to miss a chance like this. I quickly sat down in the spot Callisto indicated.
At my shamelessness, Bern let out a short, incredulous laugh.
“The more I see you, the stranger you are.”
“You mean me?”
“Yeah. You’re just… really strange.”
“I am a bit of a strange person. There’s no one else with charm like mine.”
I leaned forward with a shameless grin.
Even I knew I was being shameless, but the world requires shamelessness. Living timidly had never helped me.
Being kind and gentle to others only made me a pushover.
So no matter what people think of me, or how they look at me, being shameless is best. It’s like saying, “I’m going to walk my path no matter what.”
Thinking like that feels kind of freeing.
Reaching that conclusion made everything in my head feel clearer. Maybe that’s why I felt so much better than earlier.
And so the view outside the window caught my eyes even more.
It was the same scenery I saw from my own room, yet seeing it here made the world look different.
“Hmmm~ seeing it from here is nice too.”
I swung my feet back and forth and smiled slightly.
While I did that, Bern, who seemed to have organized what he wanted to say, cleared his throat and looked at me.
“About the thing you gave us.”
“Huh?”
“You know, that.”
Though it was clearly only the three of us in the room, Bern moved in close as if he were worried someone might overhear.
“What thing?”
“That thing that was really hard to understand, the one you gave us.”
“The ma—”
Right as I began to say map, Bern quickly covered my mouth.
“B-be quiet! What if someone hears?”
“Huh?”
I blinked, wondering if I had made a huge mistake.
“You never know where there might be ears.”
“Oh… right. That’s true?”
“Anyway, it was real?”
That was when a smile spread across Bern’s face, despite how cautious he had been until now.
He must’ve been genuinely happy, because dimples appeared deeply on his cheeks.
“So you really didn’t trust me until the end.”
“It’s not that I didn’t trust you… no, actually yeah, I didn’t.”
Bern scratched his head awkwardly and nodded.
“But it was reasonable! What part of you should I trust?”
“My face?”
“What?”
“Doesn’t my face look full of trustworthiness? My honesty is part of my charm, you know.”
When I shrugged, Bern let out a dumbfounded sigh.
Callisto, who had been listening silently beside us the entire time, scoffed and turned his head.
I thought I had a pretty trustworthy face…
Cute, lovable, and trustworthy.
No matter how I looked at it, that’s what I saw. But apparently no one else did.
Whatever it is… it’s good.
After all, it was the map I gave them that made the twins trust me.
That alone was definitely a gain.
“But why didn’t you run away? Since you said ‘it was real,’ that means you actually checked the ma— I mean, that thing and acted on it.”
“Uh-huh. We tried. Maybe because it was your birthday party, everyone seemed distracted. We even climbed onto the luggage wagon, but…”
Bernhard trailed off.
And right at that moment, as if waiting for this exact timing, Callisto quietly moved closer.
He had been staring at me silently all day, and now a very faint smile appeared on his face.
It felt like the first real smile Callisto had ever shown me, unlike the fake politeness from before.
Something inside my chest tingled
