Damian didn’t think it would be safe for Reina to move separately. He told her to go back to the carriage. As an emotionally calm person, he thought it would be better for her to move.
“Bonita!”
For some reason, it seemed like Reina and Bonita were never given an easy life. When she first met him she was suffering from a high fever and wrapped in a pile of her clothes, and then she disappeared this time when he kidnapped her. At least it made him think that this incident might be less serious.
“Hey! Have you ever seen a kid with pink hair and lavender eyes?”
He was looking for Bonita’s whereabouts by grabbing random people, but when everyone shook their heads, he became more and more anxious. A while later, Damian found Bonita in front of a dull gray building. Bonita was crouched in the corner, sobbing. e walked up to Bonita, ruffling her tangled hair. I could see the child flinching at the sound of the giant man’s footsteps.
“Bonita Borton.”
“…!”
An expression of relief appeared on Bonita’s face when she confirmed that the owner of the footsteps and voice was Damian Winternight.
“Lord, master…”
“Call me Duke, not master.”
Damien checked Bonita to see if she was injured and then picked her up.
“Why were you here?”
Bonita snuggled into his arms, rubbing her head. The child kept his mouth shut for a while and then spoke.
“…Mom. I told her that if I were to be separated from her, I would stay where I was… But, I left the restaurant and tried to go back to find it, but all the buildings looked the same.”
He looked at the building where the child was squatting after hearing Bonita’s words. The tone was subtly different, but the gray color could have made it look similar to a child. Bonita shed big tears, wondering what was so sad about it.
“…Mom, is she very angry…?”
“She is worried.”
“Mom…is she crying because of me again…?”
“…hmm.”
When Damian didn’t respond, the child whimpered again. He just said that both mother and daughter were crying a lot and comforted her by looking at her awkwardly.
“Let’s go back.”
“…Mom will be angry.”
“…”
“She’s going to be really mad this time…..”
Bonita didn’t seem to be that scared of Damian anymore. Maybe it was because he was a reliable adult who came to find her when she was lost.
“Borton won’t be angry.”
No, she may get angry, but it won’t be because she really hated her child. The Duke found himself in the position of comforting the child and was very embarrassed. He could imagine Peter and others who had served him for a long time opening their mouths wide when they saw this scene.
“…I don’t want to go back.”
“Don’t you want to see your mother?”
When he asked again if that was the case, he turned his head left and right and hugged Damian’s neck tightly.
“What if mom really hates me this time?”
A child’s fears often seemed to exceed her parents’ imaginations. Of course, Damian was not Bonita’s parent.
“What if she throws me away this time because I’m annoying her?”
Damian recalled Reina’s face turning blue and running around looking for Bonita, and thought it made as much sense as changing the religion of the Empire from Bendysion to another god. However, the child began to shed tears again, as if he was so sad just hearing the words come out of his mouth.
‘I’m going to get exhausted at this rate.’
While Damian was wondering how to stop Bonita’s tears, he looked at the yellow star decorated to celebrate her star’s birthday.
“…No one gives anything to a troublesome child.”
He asked for water.
“…”
“Reina Borton took the time to come see the play for you today.”
Even as Bonita cried, she glanced at Damien as she told her story about Reina. She could see tears welling up in her big eyes. Damien unconsciously and affectionately wiped away the child’s tears.
“…And Reina Borden asked me to help you study at Negawon.”
“…To the Duke?”
“Yes.”
Actually, this was what Damian had to say to Reina today. He wanted to give Reina education someday, but he thought it would be a good idea to start with Bonita. If you asked her about Reina herself, she didn’t seem likely to give a particularly positive answer, but if you asked her about her daughter, she seemed likely to get a positive answer. And he thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use this opportunity to create a system for the children of the duchy’s employees (above all, he thought that Estelle would be happy if he did this), and it would be easier to protect them if the duchy’s protection was directly revealed. Damian didn’t think much of it since teaching one more child wouldn’t make a dent in the Duke’s finances.
“I will let you learn anything you want to learn. Is there anything you want to learn?”
Bonita stopped crying when she heard those words. It seemed like there was something the child wanted to learn. Damian thought so. She looked at Damian with moist eyes from crying earlier.
“…Well, I want to learn swordsmanship.”
“Swordmanship?”
Damien looked at Bonita, wondering if she had heard wrong, and the child nodded her head vigorously.
“Why?”
Bonita glanced closely to see if her request was unreasonable.
“…Oh, can’t I?”
“No, I was just asking. If you want to learn something, isn’t there an opportunity to do so?”
Since there were not many cases of women holding swords in Aizen, what Bonita said was quite unexpected.
“It’s cool to see Uncle Dean and the other knights holding swords.
“Right.”
“Because if I become that strong, I will be able to protect mother…”
“…okay.”
However, it was Damien who took the woman from Fineke as his wife. There was no reason for him to say no to a woman who wanted to hold a sword. Things going on under the name of Winter Knight were not impossible just because there were no cases.
“Just because there hasn’t been a case so far doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done. I’ll find you a good teacher soon.”
“Thank you!”
Bonita immediately hugged Damien warmly. It was his first time seeing a child treat him so kindly, so he stopped dead in his tracks and headed back towards the carriage.
* * *
Reina was relieved to see that Bonita had no problems except for her eyes being swollen from crying so much. She did not know why the child ran away, but she was afraid that if she inquired about the situation, the child would be distressed. Damian and Estelle did the same, and she told Reina not to scold Bonita too much. Also, Damien called Reina aside and informed her that he would soon give Bonita a swordsmanship teacher. She couldn’t contain her surprise then. However, he added that it was the birth of a star as if it was no big deal and left.
* * *
Bonita, who was sitting on a chair in a spacious room, looked at the door that had not yet been opened with an anxious face. Normally she would have snuggled up next to her mother, but today she just sat still like a criminal. Because she didn’t listen to her mother and left her group at will, she didn’t stay there. Bonita thought her mother must be very angry with her, so she calmly wiggled her hands together in her lap. Soon the sound of the door opening was heard, but Bonita lowered her head because she was afraid to see Reina’s face.
“…”
The child could not raise her head despite Reina’s voice calling her affectionately.
“Bonnie, you need to lift her head. Your mom prepared a gift for you.”
“…”
When Bonita hesitantly raised her head, there was a plate of two-story pancakes on it.
“…pancake.”
“I asked the chef to borrow the kitchen for a while.”
It looked very different from the humble pancakes she had ever eaten. On top of the appetizing pancakes, browned on both sides, high-quality butter was melted in square pieces. And next to it were tangerines and strawberries beautifully placed. Reina lifted the small white jug next to her and tilted it over her pancakes, golden syrup flowing down.
“You wanted to eat pancakes, right?”
“…”
Holding her luxurious fork in her hand, Bonnie Ta stared at the pancakes, which looked very different from her previous ones.
“…I wanted to eat…”
And before she could even take a bite of the pancake, she burst into tears again. When the child suddenly cried, she was embarrassed, but the strange situation made her laugh, and Reina laughed.
“…”
Only then did Bonita cry softly, and Reina hugged her.
“Oh my, what should I do if my daughter is such a crybaby? Who does she resemble to be such a crybaby?”
“…I look like my mom…”
As Bonita said that, she hugged Reina into her world as if telling her not to go anywhere. When Reina saw the child like that, she giggled and comforted him.
“Yes, Bonnie takes after her mother.”
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released tomorrow.
Want to read more?
Ughhh this is so cute. I love this story 🥹