Chapter 32
His Purpose
A green chalkboard, round, large tables and small chairs in the center of the classroom.
And a playroom at the back, divided into sections, filled with countless adorable toys and books.
In the Sparrow class of the kindergarten, filled with small things suitable for children, Emily stood alone, already composed from early in the morning.
Once called the queen bee of the Academy, the proud and dignified young lady of the Count's family, Emily.
Now, the head of a family that had become noble beggars, all she could do was break through this difficulty no matter what.
With that thought, Emily raised her head and stretched out her hands forcefully.
'Yay! Now I only have to hide during dismissal time!'
The reason she was rejoicing with tears in her eyes was that, limited to parents working in the Imperial Palace, they could leave their children an hour earlier, and Nia was in that early morning class.
"Goddess Asir, please let me hide safely today too... Ack! You scared me!"
Emily quickly reached for her waist, feeling her skirt being pulled down.
"I came."
"Oh...! Ivanne, you're here. You're so strong. But what did I tell you to say to the teacher?"
"Um, good morning, Emily Teacher."
"Yes. Good job. Will you do that from tomorrow?"
"Ung."
"Ung? You should say 'yes'!"
"Yes!"
It had already been a week since she taught her, but the resolute Ivanne hadn't changed.
Behind her, watching Ivanne run to the playroom with blurred eyes, a thin, mumbling voice was heard.
"...Good morning, Teacher...!"
"Oh! Nia, the most beautiful and adorable child in the Empire, is here! Good morning. Did you sleep well last night? Teacher slept well."
That's right. Nia, the number one student she had to impress as insurance.
Nia, who had come from the early morning class, shyly nodded, taking half a step back from all the sweet talk, and ran to Ivanne.
Emily looked at Nia's back and suddenly wondered.
'No way. How can such a timid child be the daughter of that cold Lucia?'
The child had the same black hair as her mother, but Emily couldn't believe that she was such a kind and gentle child that she couldn't imagine her being her daughter.
'Well. Seeing how she cherishes her child, it makes sense that she would grow up so preciously.'
Just looking at how Lucia handled the aftermath of the Gedarin family at the entrance ceremony, Emily knew how overprotective she was.
'Come to think of it, the parents are surprisingly quiet? If she's the child of the Black Knights Commander, there should have been a fuss... Ah, most of them were from other kingdoms this year? Then...'
The current quiet situation meant that she was deliberately not revealing her identity.
It might have been dangerous if it were the upper classes with grandchildren of high-ranking nobles, but even with rampant rumors, Lucia had disappeared for 5 years of war and 5 years of training.
It was only Emily, a classmate, who recognized her after a full 10 years of hiding her appearance.
With that, Emily decided to keep her mouth shut in order not to get involved in this cutthroat game of reading faces.
She reorganized her face, hardened by determination, and greeted the children who came in one by one with a bright smile, gathering their attention.
"Okay, Sparrow class friends. Now that everyone's here, shall we gather around?"
"Yes-!"
Most of the children who were in the playroom began to sit down one by one, and watching those pretty and cute children, Emily began to exude a bright energy for the first time in a while.
In fact, she was in a very good mood today.
Today, she was scheduled to receive a list of wealthy people through a famous dark matchmaker.
Of course, she had spent all the money she had saved up for that request, but seeing Anna, who had recently married an unknown local lord thanks to that information, showing off a diamond wedding ring bigger than a jawbreaker, she judged that it was worth spending that much money.
However, she had heard that there was a risk of going to jail if she got involved, as it was about digging up information on the wealth of nobles.
'Hehe, now that I've given up on becoming the Marchioness of the highest rank. What's honor? Money is the best in the world!'
At this moment, she had the kindest smile and was imagining herself adorned with all sorts of gold and jewels, a face of desire.
"Today, you see. A new friend will be coming, so shall we all practice clapping for that friend who will be sitting over there?"
"Yes-!"
The empty seat she was pointing to was at the round table where Nia, Ivanne, Roy, and Cezar were sitting together.
The empty seat was originally Gedarin's seat, but it seemed that someone new was coming in place of him today.
As the children followed the teacher and raised their small, chubby hands,
-Knock knock
As if a new child had arrived, a knock was heard.
"Come in-! Okay, it looks like a new friend has arrived. As promised, when the teacher raises both hands~!"
-Thump thump thump!
Suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, fully armed Imperial Palace knights began to rush in.
'Could it be that the request has already been discovered?!'
Startled as if a thief had a guilty conscience, Emily raised her hands in a pathetic manner.
Then, the children, who had been waiting for the teacher's signal, began to clap, and a small child emerged from among the fierce knights along with the welcome.
"Princess Charlotte Eldarion has arrived!"
Emily was dumbfounded at the unbelievable name.
Before her eyes was a child more doll-like than a doll, with pink hair like sweet cotton candy, wearing a luxurious dress, which clearly indicated that she was royalty.
In an instant, the survival instinct lit up in her head, and a rumor that had been circulating in society recently suddenly came to mind.
The rumor was that any noblewoman who went to be the Princess's nanny would be tormented to the point of not being able to sleep properly for at least a month, and would eventually quit.
As she stepped back in a panic, her eyes met those of Director Norzia, who was behind the Princess.
She was smiling deeply, with a mouth shape that said, "Please take care of her," and was waving her hand lightly.
That chillingly benevolent smile.
Was it just her imagination that it was no different from the trap-like smile she had seen when she faced Lucia?
The monster's child, the Empire's little devil, and the baby fighter Ivanne.
Amidst the children's applause, Emily became a rotten husk, as always, like a painting by Ivanne.
*
Lucia's office.
As she changed her clothes to pick up her child from kindergarten, Crown Prince Airen was still waiting.
"Wow...!"
Lucia looked up at his exclamation,
"I almost didn't recognize you. You're really pretty."
Airen, who was seeing her out of her military uniform for the first time, seemed to be mesmerized.
But regardless, Lucia quickly moved her steps, thinking about picking up her child.
As expected, he sighed and followed her, half-jokingly, half-seriously saying,
"Let's go together. But Commander, how do you feel about receiving a confession from the most popular man in the Empire, who is competing for first and second place?"
Lucia didn't feel it was worth responding to his teasing words and walked even faster.
'It's just a prank.'
He was quiet now that he was older, but the Crown Prince, who hadn't even turned 20, was once a terrible troublemaker.
For example, he had once caused a well-known loving couple to divorce, tormented a proud young lady, or caused a princess of a kingdom he was flirting with to cross the walls of the Imperial Palace, causing national diplomatic problems.
Compared to that, this was quite a light prank.
Lucia roughly guessed that he had either fallen for a joke, misunderstood, or misheard.
"Ah, you're not going to answer? Then at least go a little slower. You're shorter than me, so why are you walking so fast?"
"There's no reason for us to go together."
"I said we have the same destination."
Lucia glanced at him at his suspicious words.
"Hey, don't be so wary. We were close, weren't we? Haha, that expression makes it look like your memories are more than 100 years old?"
"..."
She coughed awkwardly at his empty joke, as if something was bothering her.
Perhaps he was referring to his escort duty, which Lucia had taken on as soon as she became a knight at the age of 16.
But no matter how much she thought about it, Lucia had no memory of being close to him.
She only had memories of putting up with his whining a few times.
"You really don't remember? I'm disappointed. I was really sad when Commander left me to go to war, I cried into my pillow every night and prayed at the temple every day..."
He followed her, grumbling in a gloomy atmosphere, as if joking or serious.
Lucia glanced at him and shook her head, seeing that he was still a whiner.
But in reality, he had opposed her going to war so much that he grabbed the Emperor's leg and rolled around in his office for more than ten days.
In the end, he had to let her go.
"What is your purpose?"
"Huh?"
"The purpose of keeping it a secret."
"I said I wanted to get closer, but you don't believe me. If you don't believe that, it means that the situation is not simple enough to be kept a secret, right?"
"...!"
Lucia seemed quite surprised, and a crack appeared on her indifferent face.
"Haha, you still can't lie, can you?"
Perhaps because he was like the Emperor and had a good head even though he was physically weak, Lucia, who was trying to find out his purpose, had instead given him information.
Because of that, the kindergarten building began to appear beyond the wall in Lucia's eyes, which had become a little anxious.
Thinking calmly, it didn't make sense that he would know that Nia was a Saintess, no matter how smart he was, since there were still more than 10 years left until her awakening.
If she assumed that, all he knew was that Nia was not her daughter.
Assuming that he was a troublemaker as she remembered, it wouldn't be strange at all if he brought it up in front of the child if the place he was going was a kindergarten.
If so, going with him at this crowded time would be a big problem.
As soon as she thought that far, Lucia, who had changed her attitude, stopped walking and pushed him against the wall.
"...Why, why are you doing this."
As he stepped back to avoid Lucia approaching, she took the opportunity to step on the wall to block the retreat to the kindergarten.
-Thud.
It was the sound of Lucia's shoe hitting the kindergarten wall right next to Airen's thigh.
"...Lu, Lucia. It's, it's a skirt~!!!"
The Crown Prince, whose sly attitude had disappeared, turned his head away with a face about to explode and said with an effort.
However, Lucia couldn't take his circumstances into consideration.
"You won't be able to take a step unless you tell me properly where your destination is."
-Psh.
He, who was weak, eventually had a nosebleed, and Lucia quickly put a handkerchief to his nose.
He was so weak that he had a nosebleed even with this kind of threat, but he was the Crown Prince of the Empire.
It was absurd to threaten such a noble royal, but it was that important for Lucia to find out his destination.
It was then.
"...Brother?"
"Your Highness!"
"Your Highness, are you alright!?"
As Lucia turned her head at the small cry, a child who could be said to be his miniature blinked her blue eyes, and soldiers began to rush in following the child.
"Brother, blood!"
"It's okay. This lady helped me. Greet her first."
As the prim-looking child approached, he, who had been flustered, calmly wiped his nose with a normal face, as if nothing had happened, and stroked the child's head.
"Thank you. Madam."
The child, whose tone was not cute, was naturally accustomed to speaking informally.
Lucia stared blankly at the two people with fluffy hair like cotton candy in front of her.
They looked so similar that it wouldn't make sense for anyone with a little sense not to notice.
Besides, the child was wearing the kindergarten uniform.
Then, Crown Prince Airen had come to pick up his younger sister who was attending kindergarten?
"...No. Princess Charlotte."
As Lucia, who had noticed the situation, said hesitantly without taking her eyes off Crown Prince Airen, who seemed full of mischief,
"See, I told you to trust me. I clearly said that we had the same destination."
He seemed quite satisfied with her reaction and proudly hugged his precious younger sister.
