Chapter 36
36
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“Pfft.”
Gray burst into laughter, then stopped, noticing my gaze.
He then gestured to a servant, receiving a stack of paper.
“What’s this?”
“Actually, I made this because I thought Your Highness might be bored if you kept being like that……”
“Huh?”
Flipping through the paper, I saw several drawings done only in black.
There were also letters and small bird drawings resembling Yan.
“I thought it would be good for you to color when you’re bored. Victory likes it too.”
“Wow, did Gray draw this himself?”
Gray explained shyly.
“I should have sent it to you sooner…… but Victory messed up the first one I made.”
Oh my god.
I looked at Gray’s hands, which were only slightly bigger than mine, with a fresh perspective.
‘He’s got golden hands……!’
I put down the paper, jumped up, and hugged Gray tightly.
“Y-Your Highness……?”
“You’re the best, Gray! I like it so much! I’m so happy!”
“Ah, really……?”
Of course.
A vassal with a special talent is precious!
The pretty child, who only does pretty things, blushed and smiled.
‘He’s really, completely pretty……!’
I ruffled Gray’s light blonde hair, rejoicing in the talent of my potential vassal.
As I was showering Gray with affection, Victory came running over.
“Bitori too, hug!”
You didn’t bring anything……?
‘And you don’t do anything well yet.’
But Victory Clotilde will grow into a wonderful lady who will dominate Ruelle’s high society in the future.
‘Just like she helped Rosa in her past life, she’ll help me too, right?’
I stretched out one arm towards Victory as well.
“Okay, Bitori, come here.”
I hugged my friends, Hestia’s siblings, tightly in both arms.
Holding them in my arms, they were both so pretty.
‘Like masterpieces of life made by a doll artisan!’
They were so pretty that I kissed them on the cheeks, and they both blushed.
‘So cute……!’
Yan chirped and flew above our heads, happy for us.
We lay side by side in the garden, watching Yan.
After a while, Gray said as if suddenly remembering something.
“Oh, Your Highness.”
“Huh?”
As he reached out his hand to the sky, Yan landed on Gray’s fingertip for the first time.
Gray stroked Yan curiously and continued to ask.
“A while ago, His Majesty the King chased away the cats, right?”
I nodded, and this time Victory chimed in.
“Kitty! We have it at our mansion too! Kitty!”
“Kitty……?”
I turned to Gray, who was easier to communicate with than Victory.
“Victory is right, Your Highness. A few days ago, an injured cat appeared in our mansion’s garden. It…… looks like Joy.”
“Joy? That, Joy?”
That was the name of the cat that Rosa had been desperately searching for, and I grabbed Gray’s wrist in a fluster.
“L-Looks like? How does it look?”
“Um…… only its belly is white, and the rest of its body is black, and its eyes are yellow. Of course, there are many cats like that, but……”
I recalled what Icarus had said about Rosa’s cat.
“It was limping, as if it was injured, and it was caught by a priest while wandering near the Royal Palace and got scolded……”
He definitely said it was injured, that it was injured too.
“Where…… does it seem to be hurt?”
Anxiously asking, Victory chimed in with innocent blue eyes.
“Leg hurts. But our butler fixed it.”
“Fixed it……?”
Gray nodded slightly.
“It’s not completely healed, though. It’s probably not the cat that scratched Your Highness. It must just look similar.”
After that, I was so distracted by the cat story that I don’t even remember what we talked about.
‘Yan said he had to chase that cat away……’
I barely endured the time with my friends who had come to visit, and after the children left, I eagerly waited to be alone with Yan.
* * *
“Do you know where their mansion is?”
After making an excuse to send Beatrice to the garden, Yan asked immediately.
‘Of course.’
I quickly nodded and then hurriedly unfolded the paper.
Then, I drew a rough map based on Sei Palace.
Yan flapped his wings in the air, examining the map, and sighed.
“I can’t really understand it.”
Heeing…….
‘If I had known this would happen, I would have asked Gray to draw it earlier.’
I had no choice but to explain it verbally.
“After leaving the Royal Palace, go straight to the plaza. Then there’s a lake on the right. The blue-roofed mansion in front of it. It’s huge. As big as Sei Palace.”
I was worried that a four-year-old Princess knew the way to someone else’s mansion too well, but Yan didn’t seem to care, perhaps because the situation was urgent.
“How far do I have to go straight?”
Well, a four-year-old who is smarter than a talking bird is more realistic.
“It won’t even take an hour by carriage.”
Yan landed gently on the desk.
“……That’s too far.”
Ah…….
‘Yan is much smaller than he sounds.’
While thinking the same thing, I finally confirmed with Yan.
“Are you going to see the kitty?”
“……I think I have to.”
“You shouldn’t get hurt again…….”
After worrying about it, I had a good idea.
“Ah! Then I’ll ask Mom to let me go play at Hestia’s.”
“Will she allow it?”
Yan asked suspiciously, but I nodded confidently.
“In the morning, I’ll go with Icarus.”
Then Yan fluttered up.
“That’s not allowed.”
“Why?Yan also seemed to be contemplating as he flew up and down in the air, but he didn’t give me an answer to my question.
He just repeated the refusal he had made.
“Anyway, that knight is not allowed.”
Perhaps Yan is also needlessly afraid of Icarus like other people?
‘But Yan even saw Icarus get a fake bracelet for me.’
Thinking that, I tried to persuade Yan.
“You know Icarus saved you from the very beginning, right? If I go with Icarus, Mom won’t worry at all.”
“No matter what, it’s not allowed.”
He was incredibly firm.
I sighed and asked.
“Then what do I do…….”
Yan flew to the window alone, looked down at the garden, and muttered.
“Tris is coming back.”
“Ah, what should I do……?”
Yan’s gaze suddenly returned to me.
“Tell those kids to come again.”
“Hestia’s kids?”
Yan nodded.
“I’ll have to ride in those kids’ carriage. Make it seem like you don’t know anything.”
I was startled and asked.
“Then how will you come back?”
“Just tell them to bring me back. Have you send someone.”
“What if they don’t take good care of you in the meantime?”
Yan looked worried, but he didn’t change his plan.
“I…… they’ll think I’m your bird, so they won’t dare to treat me carelessly. Those kids are nice, aren’t they?”
I was a little relieved that Hestia’s siblings seemed nice in Yan’s eyes too.
Because they looked so pretty, like dolls, I thought I was the only one who was foolishly charmed.
“Really, you don’t need me to go with you?”
When I asked worriedly, Yan answered definitively.
“You have to do what you have to do.”
“What’s that……?”
Yan chuckled.
“Cheer me up.”
“Tsk, are you asking for a hug again?”
Then Yan went one step further.
“That’s good too…… but aren’t you going to cry today? I’ll be so worried!”
As I was shaking my head, Beatrice returned.
‘I only told her to pick one pink flower to give to Icarus……’
She was holding a large bouquet of flowers in her arms.
‘No wonder it took so long.’
Beatrice said with a bright face.
“I think it’s because it’s rained a few times recently. The flowers are so, so pretty, so I picked a lot, Your Highness.”
“Thank you, Tris.”
Beatrice soon arranged the flowers and decorated them in a vase.
I mentally marked the most fresh-looking bud among them.
‘I should replace Icarus’s flower with that one.’
Yan didn’t even allow me to have a moment of other thoughts and beeped.
―Beep beep beep beep beep!
Ugh, okay.
I’ll give you a hug, I’ll give you a hug.
* * *
Two days later, Icarus smiled slightly with a fresh flower pinned to his chest.
I went to give my morning greetings with his escort.
“Mom. I don’t have class today, can I call Gray and Bitori to play?”
“Of course, my dear.”
My mother happily called the children.
Preparations for the Thanksgiving Festival were in full swing throughout the Royal Palace, but we decided to take a corner of the garden and enjoy a rare day off.
“Your Highness!”
“Your Higness!”
The children seemed happy to come to the palace to play again.
We were now quite close and greeted each other with hugs.
“Today, I have prepared a treasure hunt for you!”
Beatrice said ambitiously.
“Wow!”
The intention was definitely good, but……
Some of the treasures were hidden so well that they were difficult to find.
‘Of course, I pretended not to see a few of them.’
It was when Victory was about to get annoyed, saying she couldn’t find anything.
“Oh!”
Gray exclaimed with wide eyes.
“Why?”
“Your Highness, look at this! Yan found a treasure.”
