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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: How We Slowly Get Closer
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“Let’s just drop it.”
Uncle looked away from me again and strode toward the carriage.
“My mom didn’t hide me… I guess she didn’t go around bragging about me much.”
I complained, feeling wronged.
I thought she’d be telling the whole neighborhood about her pretty daughter.
Especially since she used to kiss me a hundred times every morning before work, saying, “My pretty daughter!!”
“Then you should have whined to your mom back then. Told her to go brag about you.”
“It’s okay, Mom was busy.”
Tsk. Uncle clicked his tongue again.
“For someone so small, you’re always saying things are okay. You should have just asked.”
“Mom said she had a lot of things to protect. So I couldn’t throw a tantrum. Because it would be hard for her.”
“Then why do you do it to me?”
“Because I’m going to protect you, Uncle!”
I pulled away from him slightly, made a fist, and thumped my chest.
“…Let’s just drop it.”
“I’ll open it, sir.”
Gerard hurried to open the carriage door, and Uncle put me inside.
I quietly crawled across the seat to the other side.
Soon, Uncle climbed in, and the carriage door closed.
“Ah! I left some cake behind.”
The thought only occurred to me when I looked out the window.
But the carriage had already started moving, and I had to smack my lips in disappointment.
And so, my first outing to a banquet with Uncle came to an end.
#4. How We Slowly Get Closer
After that, the weekend flew by, and the next weekend was approaching.
I can’t tell you how surprised Zenda was when she saw me that night, waiting outside after we returned from the banquet.
Zenda told Uncle it was all her doing, but thankfully, he didn’t believe her.
Still, I felt like Uncle and I had gotten a little closer since that day.
Because now, when I tell him it’s time for breakfast in the morning, he gets up without getting annoyed anymore.
Of course, I still have to call his name over ten times, but still.
And we also made plans to go to the Imperial Palace.
On the weekend, too! It’s tomorrow.
This is all thanks to Grandfather pulling some strings!
Grandfather is the best!
Grandfather even said he would speak to His Majesty the Emperor himself, so I was counting down the days.
I hadn’t seen anything strange in the meantime, either.
But…
“Peanut. Let your uncle have a bite.”
I was about to open my mouth wide and take a huge bite of my ice cream when I froze.
Today was a day I could finally spend time with Uncle after a while.
I was sitting next to him while he worked, humming a song I’d seen in a book yesterday and eating the ice cream Zenda brought me.
Uncle, who had just closed a document and was stretching, suddenly spoke to me.
…He wants a bite?
“Just one bite?”
I asked, my eyes filled with suspicion.
Grandma Sophie had baked this crispy, cone-shaped cookie and piled the ice cream especially high for me.
It was a shape I’d never seen before, but she said they sell them like this outside.
I’d told her that the cake I ate at the banquet had a surprisingly fruity taste and was as delicious as the ones she makes, so she promised to make me something even tastier.
“Yep. One bite.”
Is it just my imagination?
His eyes seem to have narrowed into a mischievous shape.
He said he didn’t want any when I offered to share my ice cream earlier.
“You really have to take just one bite.”
“Why would your uncle lie to you?”
I looked back and forth between Uncle and the ice cream, contemplating.
But still, he’s my uncle, so I should give him some.
He definitely said just one bite.
Having made up my mind, I held the ice cream out to him.
“Here.”
But suddenly, Uncle’s mouth opened wide like a hippo’s.
“U-Uncle!”
I called out urgently, but the entire scoop of ice cream had already vanished into his mouth.
It was like it got sucked into a cave, just… like that.
Staring at the now-empty cone, with only the cookie part left, my eyes went wide with disbelief.
I can’t believe this is happening.
“B-b-b-but you… you said just one bite.”
I was speechless.
He wasn’t exactly wrong.
Uncle did take a bite.
But he didn’t say he was going to eat this much!
“Not bad.”
Having devoured it cleanly without getting a single drop on his lips, Uncle looked perfectly relaxed.
“How… how could you…”
He was truly heartless.
The way he grinned and said it was ‘not bad’ made him look like a total devil.
He’s so mean.
I scooted my bottom a handspan away from him.
I had to show him how much emotional distance I’d put between us.
Then again, since my chair was already separate from his, it didn’t have much of an effect.
And in place of the ice cream that had vanished so cruelly, I began to nibble carefully at the crispy cone with my front teeth, trying to make it last.
There was barely any ice cream left inside, either.
It was as empty as the hole that had just been torn in my heart.
My front teeth have been feeling a bit weak lately, so I was already being careful, and this just made me feel miserable.
Zenda said my front teeth might fall out soon, and I even had a nightmare about it.
“Are you sulking? If you want more, you can just go get some.”
I shot him a sharp glare.
“It tastes different! And I’m not sulking.”
“How is it different? It’s scooped from the same tub. Just ask Sophie for another one.”
“It is different! The first one is always the best, and you ate it all! The second one isn’t the same! It doesn’t have the same feeling! You don’t understand at all, Uncle.”
“You’re sulking. Are you really that upset that your uncle had some?”
“I’m not sulking, I’m angry! And you lied, Uncle. You were supposed to take a little bite, not a giant one.”
“Oh, is that so, my picky little niece? What, you want me to spit it back out for you?”
“No way! I’m not eating anything that’s been in your mouth. What if I turn nasty like you? Besides, you already swallowed it.”
“Hey, what’s so nasty about me?”
“You’re nasty. A nasty uncle.”
I turned my back to him completely and sat there, nibbling on the cone.
This is good too, but it would have been so much better with the ice cream.
Uncle tapped my back.
I pretended not to notice and kept munching on my cone.
Uncle poked my back again.
It tickled, but to show I was angry, I deliberately squirmed and didn’t turn around.
“Fine. What do I have to do?”
He’ll do something for me?
I can’t believe Uncle said that.
I glanced up to see if the ceiling had caved in, then peeked over my shoulder at him.
At some point, his large frame had leaned toward me.
“What will you do for me?”
“We’ll see.”
“…Nasty uncle.”
“What do you want to do?”
At those words, I swiveled my sulking self back around to face him.
“Uncle, let’s go to the market today.”
Uncle’s face instantly scrunched up.
“Why would we go to a chaotic place like that? If you need to buy something, just have it ordered.”
“No! The flower shop Mom and I used to go to!”
At that, Uncle’s expression went blank.
“What flower shop.”
“I don’t know the way… But I’ll know it when we get to the market! There’s a place Mom always stopped at when she bought flowers. It’s in the market. Let’s buy some flowers and take them to Grandfather tomorrow.”
Uncle stared at me with a sullen look for a moment, then ruffled my hair.
“Fine, we’ll go.”
“Really?”
“Do I lie to you all the time?”
Instead of answering, I just stared at him and blinked.
The biggest con artist who had deceived me the most in my entire life…
Uncle, perhaps pricked by his conscience, told me to go get more ice cream before shoving his hands in his pockets and stalking out.
And not long after, he returned.
One hand was shoved nonchalantly in his pocket. In the other, he held a tray with a bowl of ice cream on it.
“Happy now?”
It was in a small bowl instead of a cone, though.
“Well… a little.”
Though a little disappointed, I stuck the cone I’d been eating into the ice cream and started scooping it up with a spoon.
Instead of sitting down, Uncle stood and roughly tidied the documents into a pile.
Suddenly, the seal that Uncle used to stamp documents and letters caught my eye.
“Ah!”
With the spoon still in my mouth, I fumbled in the pocket attached to the side of my dress and pulled out a piece of paper.
It was a pocket Zenda had made for me, since she said I had to carry it with me every day.
“Huncle, can you phut that here phoo?”
“Aren’t you going to take that spoon out?”
Tch.
I put the spoon down and said again.
“Uncle, can you stamp that thing here, too?”
I spread the paper out on his desk again and pointed.
“What thing?”
“The thing you press down on here with your finger.”
“What thing?”
He was looking right at it but kept pretending he didn’t know.
I picked it up and showed it to him directly.
“Right here, in this empty spot.”
“Do you think I can just use this anywhere?”
