Chapter 15
15
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"Yes, please. Your Highness wants to have that pink flower."
"As you wish."
The gardener skillfully climbed the ladder and plucked the flower.
Several rough scratches were visible on the man's wrist where his sleeves were rolled up.
"Here you are, Lady-in-waiting."
He held out a few blossoms to Beatrice.
"Thank you,"
Beatrice replied as she accepted the flowers, and I took a step forward without realizing it.
"Here."
I rolled up my sleeve, pointing to my wrist, and the gardener tilted his head.
"Hurt?"
"Oh..."
The gardener quickly pulled down his rolled-up sleeve, covering the wound.
"I apologize for showing such an unsightly appearance, Your Highness. I often get scratched by trees. This is..."
Then he stopped talking and chuckled.
"It's nothing, Your Highness."
"Why hurt?"
Beatrice was about to interject.
The gardener suddenly knelt down and bowed his head.
"Actually, the cat did it. But Your Highness, I swear I didn't tell His Majesty. Really..."
That gardener...!
'In the past when the cat was chased away, he earned Rosa's hatred...!'
I widened my eyes at the unexpected fact, then quickly lowered my gaze before he could see.
'So that cat is only nice to Rosa and extremely ferocious, right?'
And Rosa silenced many people because she was afraid that fact would be known, and somehow kept the cat by her side.
'She must have done the same in the past.'
I was afraid that the gardener would find out about the twins' secret, but I couldn't help but ask.
"Why did kitty scratch?"
The gardener replied in a tired voice.
"It happened when I stopped it from digging up the dirt as before."
The cat ruined the garden.
I nodded, realizing that, and the gardener added in a low voice.
"Benevolent Princess, Your Highness, I beg you one last time. We must block the hole where the cat hides, even now."
Beatrice interjected appropriately.
"There's a hole where the cat hides?"
The gardener glanced at me and continued.
"Ah, you didn't know, Lady-in-waiting. There's a burrow under the bushes on the way to Sei Palace. I've seen the cat go in there to hide several times."
Of all places, it had to be the path to Sei Palace.
'It almost got into the building?'
Beatrice also grimaced and replied.
"Block it immediately. How dare such a ferocious thing loiter near Your Highness. We don't need to ask Your Highness for permission for this."
However, the gardener's gaze was still directed at me.
'Rosa must have prevented him from blocking the hole.'
I realized that and nodded.
"It scratched me and tore my clothes."
"...Did it really do that?"
"So now you can block the hole."
Even though it wasn't specifically for him, the gardener prostrated himself, looking delighted.
"Thank you, Your Highness. I will do it immediately."
* * *
"I'm going to tell Mom that the gardener cares about me this much, and give him a reward."
As soon as the gardener left, Beatrice smiled and handed me the pink flower.
"Our Your Highness is so kind. Yes, I'll tell her too."
Then Rosa won't be able to chase the gardener away.
Mother wouldn't let us do opposing things.
"Tritz."
I felt happy and smiled, looking at the flower the gardener had picked.
"This, same Icarus eye color."
"Oh my, did you pick the flower to give as a gift to the knight? Our little angel, Rostel, Your Highness, how kind you are."
Being nice to Icarus wasn't exactly from the heart, so my conscience pricked.
So I quickly told the truth.
"No, Icarus saved Peep-peep..."
"Still! The knight will be so happy!"
I had never seen Icarus 'so' happy in my past 22 years, but I didn't break Beatrice's expectations and left it at that.
We brought the pink flower to my room and headed to the banquet hall.
'Is Father going to avoid me again...?'
I looked down at the purple flower in my hand and worried, but fortunately, Father was already seated before Mother.
'Judging by the way he flinched as soon as our eyes met, he seemed to be planning to finish his meal quickly and leave.'
I swallowed hard and hurried towards Father.
Father asked without even looking at me properly.
"...Baby, you're here?"
It was obvious that he was afraid he would cry if our eyes met.
I held out the flower and apologized for something I didn't even do.
"Sorry I cried so much yesterday."
"Huh...?"
Father's purple eyes slowly lifted and cautiously looked at me.
Then he looked at the purple flower in my hand with a puzzled expression.
I hesitated and explained.
"Ah, Daddy picked a flower for me, so I..."
The eyes of the always dry Baha High Priest wavered slightly.
"...You picked it to give to me?"
Why would he be so touched just because I picked a flower from the garden?
I was embarrassed, but Father accepted the flower with an almost moved face.
"Thank you, Rostel... Thank you so much."
Dad, I actually have another name, Lilin.
And I didn't cry when I saw Dad.
'I want to get closer to Dad.'
I swallowed those words that I couldn't say right away and forced a smile.
"Me too... Thank you."
Mother, who had just appeared in the banquet hall, watched the two of us with keen eyes.
* * *
The next day, I woke up with a start, perhaps to protect Peep-peep.
I looked around my pillow and saw Peep-peep sitting and sleeping strangely.
"Come here..."
I whispered softly, then grabbed him and held him carefully in both hands.
Soon, Gabriella appeared with Rosa.
Rosa didn't talk to me again, perhaps because she had been severely warned the day before.
However, she glared at me with resentful eyes, or rather, at Peep-peep.
'This is driving me crazy...'
Rosa guarded me so fiercely even when I didn't interfere with her path at all.
She had never glared at me with those eyes before, but she was plotting such schemes behind my back.
'But now that I've chased away the cat she's so obsessed with, we'll never get along...'
Of course, I never dreamed of getting along with Rosa, but it was bitter.
The reason Rosa was outwardly nice to me before was probably because I was a timid and weak younger sibling.
'Because I was a fool who was easy to deceive and exploit...'
I felt pathetic about myself, but I didn't forget to pick up the flower at my feet.
Gabriella sighed softly as she saw me holding a flower in one hand and Peep-peep in the other, but she silently approached and picked me up.
In the swaying darkness, Sei Palace grew closer.
"I, Icarus!"
As soon as I arrived at Sei Palace, I shouted.
Icarus escorts us from Sei Palace to Main Palace and back every morning, but he usually disappears as naturally as morning dew, so I can't see his face.
'He should have heard me by now...?'
At the same time as I thought that, there was a sound outside the door.
Then, with the sound of footsteps, Icarus appeared.
He knelt down in front of me, as if he were kneeling before Mother.
"Icarus Chenelli, I hear the command of the small Your Highness."
No, why so much?
Actually, I had never called Icarus first, so I was secretly embarrassed by his reaction.
"Uh, that's... So, that's..."
I looked down at the pink flower I had been holding tightly in my hand, and the edges were a little wilted because it had been picked a long time ago.
'It would be less embarrassing if the flower was fresh...'
I felt shy but toddled towards Icarus.
"This..."
When I held out the flower, the stoic knight only looked at it as if he didn't understand.
It took a long time for an answer to come.
"Ah, do you perhaps want to give it to His Majesty the King?"
I shook my head in frustration.
"Not that, this... Same Icarus eye color..."
He finally asked appropriately.
"...Does it look like that?"
No, come to think of it, isn't that appropriate?
I was frustrated and shook the flower in my hand up and down.
"Y, yes! Completely same! Same... Pretty..."
Ha, I think I underestimated Icarus Chenelli too much.
With an expression that seemed to want to prove that the color of his eyes and the color of the petals were different, he asked again.
"My eye color is like this? Pretty...?"
Then is it not?
Are you colorblind?
