Hide and Seek of Tears (2)
“Stop crying.”
I sighed as I looked at Edwin, who showed no signs of stopping his tears.
“I’m sorry I’m late, but I did find you in the end.”
“Hngh—!”
I hadn’t planned on allowing him to blow his nose, but the boy wiped it on my sleeve anyway.
Staring at the snot stretching stickily across the fabric, I couldn’t help but grimace.
I hid my sleeve behind my back and continued.
“Please stop crying. The head maid caught me on the way here, so I couldn’t help being late.”
She had scolded me the entire walk over, asking if I’d abandoned the prince somewhere to go on a leisurely stroll.
I could still picture the disbelief in her eyes when I told her we’d been playing hide-and-seek.
Edwin, having heard me, turned his tear-filled eyes toward me.
“…Why did you look for me?”
Why? Because hide-and-seek ends when the seeker finds the hider.
It was a truly baffling question.
“Because the game can’t end until I find you, Your Highness.”
When I answered as if it were obvious, the boy’s lips moved soundlessly.
What on earth had he wanted to hear?
I stood Edwin up, rose to my feet, and gave Emilia’s bottom a light pat.
Unlike her crybaby brother, Emilia stopped crying easily.
“Anyway, since I won, you have to eat all your vegetables.”
At that moment, Edwin’s face—which had seemed to be calming—turned deathly pale, like a blank sheet of paper.
“It’s gone cold! How am I supposed to eat this? Vegetables taste even weirder when they’re cold!”
Back in the dining hall, the boy made a miserable face as he stared at the mountain of vegetables on his plate.
“I’ll have it reheated for you.”
“Ugh, forget it!”
After glaring at the plate for a long while, he scooped up a piece of vegetable with his spoon and shoved it into Emilia’s mouth.
Unlike her brother, the princess had a healthy appetite and happily chewed away.
“A bet is a bet, Your Highness.”
When I pulled Emilia farther away from him, Edwin glared at me.
“You enjoy tormenting me, don’t you?”
“Tormenting you? Vegetables are good for your body.”
“What does that matter if they taste awful!”
“Your Highness, the world of competition is always merciless. If a loser promises to eat something, no matter how bad it tastes, they must follow through.”
The boy’s face twisted at the word “loser,” but he eventually shoved his portion of vegetables into his mouth.
“Ughhh—!”
He trembled pitifully from head to toe as he did so.
After finishing the meal through much trial and tribulation, the prince ran off toward the rear garden without a backward glance.
“Oppa! Lia wants to go too!”
The boy, now dashing across the green lawn with his sister, looked so full of life that it was hard to believe he had been crying earlier.
Standing with my arms crossed beneath the shade of a tree, I recalled what had happened that morning.
- She died.
Edwin had clearly said his previous nanny was dead.
‘Judging by how reluctant the servants are to mention her, it probably wasn’t an honorable death.’
I tilted my head as I watched the prince running around the garden.
‘From the way he talks, he must have been quite close to her.’
How could he still be so bright and cheerful after losing someone dear to him?
‘Is it just his natural personality, or is he simply thoughtless?’
Just then, something shimmered on Edwin’s wrist as he raised his arms toward the sky.
It was the bracelet I had retrieved from those insolent servants.
Even in the sunlight, the pale pearl bracelet looked strangely familiar.
Why did it keep catching my eye?
‘It’s the kind of trinket you could find anywhere.’
That was true. It was an ordinary, cheap accessory.
The real question was why a prince of the empire would carry something so common around like a talisman.
Unable to contain my curiosity any longer, I did something uncharacteristic and asked him first.
“Your Highness, I have a question.”
When I approached, Edwin turned around with a thoroughly sulky expression.
He must still have been furious about being forced to eat the vegetables.
“What question?”
“That bracelet—is it something precious to you?”
Edwin hesitated for a moment at my question, then raised an eyebrow and countered.
“Why do you want to know?”
“You seem to treasure it very much. You were the same way last time.”
The boy remained silent.
Then Emilia answered in her brother’s place.
“Oppa’s bracelet used to be Emma’s! Emma gave it to Oppa!”
“Lia! You don’t have to tell her things like that.”
Edwin scolded his sister in a flustered voice.
But the princess merely wore an expression that said, “I don’t know anything.”
Edwin sighed at his sister before turning back to me.
After staring at me for a moment, he spoke in a prickly tone.
“Yeah. It’s very precious to me. It’s Emma’s keepsake.”
Edwin fiddled with the bracelet on his wrist.
“She said it was her last wish.”
“Her last wish, you say?”
“Yes. Emma said she wanted me to be happy. That was probably her final wish.”
To wish for the happiness of someone else’s child in her very last moments…
‘…Her way of thinking really does resemble that woman’s.’
Just then, someone tapped my hand.
It was Edwin.
“Here. A present.”
The boy held out his clenched right fist.
He had looked angry just moments ago, and now he was suddenly offering a gift.
Still, he knew how to show respect to adults. What a surprisingly decent child.
“Thank you.”
The moment I reached out with my thanks, the boy’s lips curled into a mischievous grin.
“Puhaha, revenge!”
Edwin dropped a large green object onto my hand.
Its long, slender form revealed itself to be…
None other than a grasshopper.
“……”
Edwin stared at me with an excited expression.
He seemed to be hoping I would faint from shock.
But I had no intention of playing along with what he wanted.
“I’m not particularly fond of insects. I’ll return it to you.”
I politely picked up the grasshopper by its hind leg and placed it gently on top of Edwin’s head.
Both Edwin and the grasshopper stared at me blankly, looking equally bewildered.
“Ack! What are you doing!”
Only after belatedly grasping the situation did the boy frantically shake his head and huff in anger.
“That wasn’t funny at all! I’m going back to my room!”
“As you wish.”
“Emilia, come here! Let’s go inside and play!”
Edwin gathered his sister and headed into the palace.
I was about to follow them when the back of my neck prickled. I quietly turned my head.
All that stretched behind me was a long wall, trees, and bushes.
‘Even the Shabby Prince has eyes watching him, it seems.’
The imperial family’s excessive suspicion was something to be noted.
I gazed up at a distant tree and let the corner of my mouth curve upward.
‘Though their skill doesn’t seem particularly impressive.’
While I stood there with my eyes fixed on the spot, an impatient shout rang out.
“Hey, what are you doing? Hurry up and follow us!”
Edwin and Emilia.
Two pairs of innocent eyes were looking at me.
“I’m coming.”
There was no point in worrying about trivial matters when I wouldn’t be staying long anyway.
I straightened my clothes and turned my steps lightly.
‘Maybe my luck’s run out.’
While walking with the prince and princess, I ended up running into the head maid.
She acted as though I didn’t exist.
She gave the prince a light curtsy before sweeping her sharp gaze over him.
“Your Highness, did you perhaps leave the prince’s palace yesterday?”
Edwin shrank back excessively at the head maid’s question.
He looked just like a frightened fawn.
‘He was bold enough to call her an old hag to my face.’
After hesitating for a long time, Edwin finally managed to squeeze out a single word in a barely audible voice.
“N-no. I didn’t go out……”
“Please tell the truth. You really didn’t leave?”
At the head maid’s icy tone, Edwin’s face filled with fear.
“Lying is wrong, Your Highness.”
“Th-that’s……”
“The maid who attends to Your Highness clearly stated that you visited the stables yesterday. Is that not true?”
Ah, so it was that maid who brought the wash water.
Come to think of it, I had mentioned the stables while she was present.
‘To think she reported it so quickly. What remarkable loyalty.’
I clicked my tongue at the unknown maid’s devotion to the head maid.
“I’ll ask one more time, Your Highness. Did you truly not go outside yesterday?”
“I just……”
“In that case, I suppose I’ll have to discipline the maid who gave me a false report.”
At the head maid’s words, Edwin hurriedly spoke up.
“I-I only went out for a little while! I just went for a walk and came back!”
Why was he so terrified?
It was a reaction I couldn’t understand.
This was the same boy who had fearlessly charged at the burly stable hands.
Meanwhile, the head maid’s expression grew even sharper after hearing Edwin’s answer.
“A walk? I distinctly recall telling you not to wander around without my permission.”
“He went out with me.”
When I suddenly cut in, a crease formed between the head maid’s brows.
Edwin looked just as surprised.
He seemed genuinely shocked that I had taken his side.
“What do you mean by that, Lady Brown?”
“His Highness said he felt suffocated being confined to the prince’s palace, so we went for a walk outside together.”
Good. That was a proper nanny-like answer.
While I was feeling quite pleased with my own response, the head maid’s expression twisted even further.
It was an even more displeased look than the one she had worn the day I first opened my eyes here.
“How absurd.”
The head maid sneered, narrowing her eyes.
“Lady Brown, by what right do you think you can take His Highness outside without permission?”