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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Thumbelina, It's Okay to Be Small
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Back when they lived at the Wedgwood estate, Imeline, Philip, and Helena often went to see plays.
The title of a play they saw one day was .
It was a play about a tiny princess who comes to a country woman and becomes her adorable adopted daughter, only to be kidnapped by a toad one day, swept up in all sorts of adventures, and eventually fall in love with a prince as tiny as herself.
“Ah, where did that brat go?!”
Of course, Philip couldn't have cared less about the love story and hadn't paid any attention at all, disappearing the moment the play ended.
Helena searched for Philip, a weary look on her face. Around that time, Viscount Wedgwood, whether out of jealous suspicion or something else, would chew Helena out if she returned even a little late, so she was in a hurry.
“...He's handsome.”
“What?”
Helena was busy scanning the crowd for young men who looked like Philip. Imeline, sitting next to her, muttered as she looked down at the pamphlet.
“What are you looking at?”
Imeline's ears were flushed red. With a puzzled expression, Helena looked at the corner of the pamphlet Imeline was staring at.
There was a picture of the actor who played the tiny prince.
The actor was fair, cute, and handsome. Pale white skin and red lips. He looked like a graceful deer in human form.
But unlike other plays, where female audience members would form a long line at the male lead's dressing room after the show, no one was waiting for him this time.
It was likely because he was short. Perhaps that was why even Helena, who was extremely particular about men's faces, wasn't particularly drawn to the little prince.
The theater troupe had probably intentionally cast actors of dwarf heritage for the roles of Thumbelina and the prince. His height was far too short to be compared to an adult human; if anything, he looked like a human boy of about fourteen.
The delicate, small male actor didn't receive much applause during the curtain call either. But he smiled brightly, like a great actor, bowed to the audience, and went backstage.
“...He's short.”
Helena said. At that, Imeline glared at Helena.
It was a look she had never seen before.
*'I-I can feel killing intent.'*
“...I like that he's small. I like him more because he's small.”
Imeline muttered.
Imeline's fingers fidgeted over the pamphlet. Seeing that, Helena felt something...
Something unbearable.
*'Come out of there, Imeline!'*
*I'm sure I saved you from that place, but it's as if you're still there.*
*Still like you're twelve years old.*
*You're still as small as a thumb, and it feels like you'll never be able to adapt to this big world where Philip and I live, and just leave.*
Watching Imeline's profile, lost in her own world, Helena unknowingly clenched her fists.
Whenever Imeline looked that lost in thought, Helena would press her.
*'What on earth are you thinking? Speak! Mom and your brother won't know unless you say something!'*
But on that day, she didn't want to press Imeline.
Instead, Helena called over a passing peddler. She bought a single rose from him and held it out to Imeline.
“Hey, go give this to him.”
“...To whom?”
“Who do you think? To that actor.”
“No!”
Imeline shouted, her face turning red.
“My feelings aren't impure like that! I just purely liked his face!”
“How is that pure...?”
Helena was dumbfounded.
*'Who did she get this from, being so picky about men's faces?'*
Who else could it be?
She crouched in front of Imeline and said.
“Then go give it to him secretly. Not for him, but for you. You'll feel better once you just do it.”
Imeline asked in a trembling voice.
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Imeline hesitated for a moment, then her face hardened with resolve. Then, as if she had never hesitated at all, she snatched the rose from Helena's hand and ran toward the dressing rooms.
Helena walked after her. At first, she walked, but soon she had to run.
*'Can't that girl see her mother?!'*
Helena stopped only after seeing Imeline slip into the men's dressing room area. She thought she had a feeling even then.
*'That damn girl, if she finds something she likes, she'll abandon her mom and brother in a heartbeat...'*
What could she do? She'd have to let her go.
Just as Helena was thinking this. From the female actress's dressing room, opposite the one the prince's actor had entered, a familiar voice drifted out.
“Was your father a thief?”
“Excuse me?”
“Because he must have stolen jewels and put them in your eyes...”
Helena slapped her forehead.
“Philip...!”
Philip's back was visible through the crack of the open door. At Helena's cry, Philip, who had been hitting on the actress, turned to look at her.
“Oh, Mom? Where were you? I was looking all over for you! No, I was lost and wandering when this lady...”
Looking at them now, Helena's son and daughter weren't so different. They both took after Helena completely.
✵ ✵ ✵
I stayed up all night, my eyes wide open.
I felt like I would have a bad dream if I fell asleep.
The place Young Lord Eric had arranged for me was a room in an inn downtown. It was smaller and dirtier than I expected, and the voices of drunks could be heard all night long. In a way, it was familiar and nice.
Eric's 'knights' stood in front of my door and at the building's entrance.
*'Are they protecting me or watching me?'*
With the lingering resentment of the 100,000 gold, I stared at the floor with a sour expression.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
*'Who is it?'*
“It's me.”
A low, deep voice answered. It was Young Lord Eric.
Didn't he say he couldn't come today?
I quickly opened the door.
Even after the door was open, Eric just stood there.
“...?”
I looked at him, puzzled.
“What are you doing?”
“Waiting for permission to enter?”
I gave him a look of disbelief. This isn't some mansion. It would be one thing if he'd actually gotten me a mansion!
“You're a strange one... Just come in. If you don't want to, you can stand there all night.”
Eric hesitantly stepped into the room.
“This room... is dirtier than I thought.”
“I know. Thanks to someone.”
I replied curtly and sat on the bed. The bed creaked.
“Finer inns have too many watchful eyes.”
Eric stood there awkwardly. The inn's ceiling was low, forcing him into an uncomfortable posture with his neck slightly bent.
“Don't tell me I have to assign you a seat, too?”
“I'm not going to sit.”
Right. Of course you wouldn't. Judging by the look on his face, which screamed that this was the first time he'd been in such a small, dirty room, even breathing in here must be torture for him.
Then why did he even bother coming here?
I watched Eric as he stood in his uncomfortable posture, maintaining an uncomfortable silence.
“...Did you see the photograph?”
I pointed to the photo on the table. Lily had brought it. A picture of Eric and me, taken in the royal garden.
Eric walked to the table and picked up the photograph.
“See? You're smiling.”
The developed photo would have been sent to the newspaper office tonight. In the picture, Eric was smiling brightly.
“...I wasn't smiling.”
Such denial. Eric glanced at me and muttered softly.
“I must have been copying you.”
“...?”
“Madam Helena came to the duchy.”
Helena.
The moment I heard that name, I felt the complicated thoughts I had barely pushed away invade my mind once more. Like the image of my mother, excited as she looked around the temple where the wedding would be held.
“H-how did she seem?”
“She didn't seem particularly shaken.”
Eric replied calmly, putting the photograph down.
Right. I'd written a bombshell of a secret about being pregnant and all that in the letter, so she couldn't have shown her true feelings at the duchy.
“And she showed no sign of trying to find you.”
Eric walked to the window and glanced down at the night street.
“...She probably never dreamed I would betray her.”
I said gloomily.
It was the only way for Mom, Philip, and me to survive, but even I had to admit this was a huge mess. To ruin my mother's wedding like this!
“Do you want to stop?”
“What?”
Eric said something unexpected as he walked toward me. On his way, he picked up the ring that was on the table.
“I'm asking if you want to stop, even now.”
I stared into Eric's red eyes as he drew closer.
Looking at my reflection in those blood-red eyes, the premonition unfolded vividly before me again.
My mother and Philip, collapsed. Baldeck Orleans' expression, like a hunter proud of his prey.
I furrowed my brow.
“Why are you asking that? Are you the one who wants to stop?”
Because even a psycho like that is still your father?
*'I'm your father! Your only blood! Do you think you can live without me?!'*
Words someone had once said came to mind.
A family connected by blood.
How ridiculous those words were.
But at the same time, the reality of being alone with such a large man in this dark, cramped inn room finally began to sink in.
If he decided to kill me here, I wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight. Not unless I escaped through the window.
I glanced at the window.
“Why? Planning to jump out the window again?”
Eric scoffed. Why is he laughing? It's unsettling.
“There's no way I could win in a fight against you, right? Even if you're not some Aura Knight.”
I shot back curtly. Eric looked particularly flustered at the words 'Aura Knight'. He hesitated, then said.
“I'm not stopping. There's something I must find out about my mother's death.”
A shadow fell over his eyes.
So, in the end, it's about blood ties again.
Just as protecting Philip and Helena is what drives me, protecting the honor of his bloodline is what drives this man. Even if he tests me with things like 100,000 gold, what's most important to him will never change.
Friend or foe. Does something like that even matter at this point?
I gazed at the unprecedented shadow in his eyes.
Our enemy is Baldeck Orleans.
That fact is the most important thing.
“I have to protect my mother and Philip. And I have to protect myself. Family is about protecting each other.”
“Family is about protecting each other...”
Eric quietly repeated my words, then knelt before me. In his hand was the ring he had picked up from the table.
*'Put it on.'*
I thought he would say that, but for some reason, he didn't.
Instead, he held out his hand to me. As if offering a handshake to seal our cooperation.
As if mesmerized, I extended my hand.
He took my hand and slipped the ring onto my finger.
*'This definitely seems like a real diamond ring.'*
Even in this situation, that's what I was thinking.
A real ring for a fake marriage. What an ill-fitting combination.
He gave an awkward smile and said.
“I'll be honest.”
“You're always honest.”
“...”
I shut my mouth.
“It's true I suspected you. And I might have cause to suspect you in the future, but...”
“Oh, wonderful.”
“Fraud or fake, I'm your husband. I will protect you, and if anything happens to you, I'll be there.”
Eric said this with his usual serious expression.
“I promise you that. I'm a man who always keeps his promises.”
I'm a man who always keeps his promises... he says.
Who doesn't know that?
Damn it.
I was grateful for how crappy this inn room was, dark without even a common lamp.
Because my face was growing hot from holding back tears.
It was a night of betrayal.
Philip, who always said family sticks together, and Helena, who said family protects each other—tomorrow, they would call me a traitor.
Only the man before me, Eric Orleans, would unexpectedly become my family.
Those I thought were closest would become the furthest, and the one I thought was furthest would become the closest.
It was a night where friend and foe traded places.
