Chapter 21
There are days like that in life.
A day when it’s hard to be alive, even if it’s normal.
For her, it was today.
“…?”
Mehen’s voice was thick with questions and distress, though she clung to him anyway.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s been hard.”
“What happened to you to make you…?”
“A lot has happened.”
“You look like it.”
She burrowed deeper, her nose catching the heavy scent of dry wood.
As she continues to do that, her nerves, sharpened by the twins and the crown prince all day, calm down.
‘You say you want to be alone, but you can’t do that with Mehen.’
The cynic in her sneers at her, but she can’t help it.
Mehen had been raising her since she was a… little baby who couldn’t even walk.
Just as a child can only vaguely hope for the love of a parent, so must Mehen be to Arellin.
Awakening to the memories of her past life didn’t make them go away.
‘Even with that in mind, I’m still a danger to this man.’
So is he, Mehen…
was the person she knew best in the world.
Not the kind of knowledge that comes from reading novels from a previous life, but the kind of experience that comes from living and bumping into things.
“Mum.”
“…”
Mehen purses her lips in reflexive denial, then closes them.
She can’t help but smile at his struggle, and she wonders if he realizes that it makes she want to call him mum even more.
“Hug.”
The only person she can lean on, the one person who wants her to leave, who is fed up with her foolishness, but who makes me want to keep going.
“Okay…”
Mehen stares down at her, uncomfortable and unfamiliar, and then carefully hugs her in an uncomfortable position.
It’s been a long time, and she can feel him tense and stiff.
She buried her nose in his arms and breathed in, thinking.
‘He’s so calming…’
For some reason, she only feels this comfortable with Mehen and not with people who are trying to be nice to her.
She had a moment of doubt, and then she thought she knew the answer to this question.
“…?”
Mehen wants nothing from her.
‘Not even bothering me.’
So good.
“What perfume are you wearing?”
“Perfume?”
Mehen’s scent lingered on the tip of her nose, comforting.
“I don’t really wear perfume.”
“Really?”
Then what is this scent?
As she buries her nose in the heavy, soothing scent, she notices the people watching us.
“You look good.”
“Indeed, Dylan.”
The butler and Dylan turn to look at me and Mehen with wide eyes.
And then.
“You’re too good, Mehen.”
“Me, too!”
The older siblings in the nursery, full of jealousy and envy.
“You’re the only one we want to befriend.”
“We are.”
“We’re not close enough.”
Love and war.
Still, they never bothered or annoyed me like the twins or the crown prince, so she felt relatively at ease.
A home is a home.
‘This is a peace that will be lost without the Mehen.’
Anyway, she have a Mehen now.
That was the important thing.
“Did something happen to you?”
“…Mmm. No.”
There had been a lot, but nothing earth-shattering, just the crown prince hitting on me, and then there were the twins. Aaron was…
Aaron was no help.
“It’s so hard.”
Mehen stroked her hair as she was held in a wide embrace.
“Please feel free to talk. Are you sure nothing happened?”
“…”
Mehen asks her again if she’s worried. His tone was still that of a government official taking a complaint, but Mehen gave her a strange look when she said she liked it.
“Young Lady?”
It’s nice to hear his voice, even if he’s gently urging her to answer.
What should she say?
About how the twins suddenly dueled for her best friend’s spot today, or how she used Aaron as a shield and proved useless, or how Pession gave her a blank stare the whole time?
The more she rolled her eyes, the worse Mehen’s expression became.
“I see I still haven’t convinced you to trust me.”
“It’s not that.”
It’s just that things are hard to explain and annoying.
“Can’t I not to go out?”
“You don’t want to go?”
She shook her head, wiggling her fingers, and was met with disapproving glances from all sides.
‘Absolutely not.’
‘No way!’
‘A young lady’s only outing, it must be protected!’
She’s a girl who stays in her room and sleeps on her bed all day, and the only ‘active schedule’ she has is going to these collections.
Opposites attract.
Naysayers from all sides.
Mehen decided.
“Then you don’t have to go.”
Sighs and wails. Accusing glances flew, but Mehen, locking eyes with her, never wavered in his promise.
“If you don’t want to go, by all means, leave your reasons to me. I’ll stop you.”
“Mehen…”
An indescribable emotion wells up in her at the sight of Mehen offering himself as a shield, even though she vaguely knows it won’t be easy.
She cringes slightly.
“Lady, are you all right?”
So this is what grown-ups do.
The kind of protector she’s never had.
“Mum!”
“…”
She threw her arms around Mehen’s neck. His body stiffened as he wrapped his arms around her.
To her, Mehen was already a good enough protector.
“Mum.”
“…”
“Mum,” she says, though she’s still struggling.
***
‘Oh, I want to play with Arellin more.’
Pession had been thinking a lot lately.
‘How can I play with Arellin more?’
Nowadays, Arellin was coming to the meetings more often, so he could play with her more often than he used to, but he still didn’t like it.
‘I want to play more! I want to play longer!’
He wanted to play all day if he could.
Like, every day.
Playing two days a week wasn’t enough for him, he was tired and bored.
But Arellin didn’t realize what he was feeling!
‘She’s been so cold to me lately.’
Pession was sad.
‘Why? What have I done wrong?’
Even the shocking events of just yesterday.
‘How could you leave me for Aaron!’
The day they were pitted against each other, against the twins. Arellin chose Aaron.
“Aaron, were you always friends with Arellin?”
“No.”
“Did you know her before?”
“I haven’t spoken to her.”
But why!
The twins giggled and told the dumbfounded crown prince the truth.
“Isn’t that because Arellirin likes Aaron better than you, of course? Don’t you know that?”
Pession was shocked.
Pession had been naively fooled into thinking that the word “Arellin” would make it impossible to make a proper judgment.
“Why is Aaron better than me?!”
“How do we know that?”
Aaron was indignant.
The twins were just making fun of him, saying he’d gotten away with it, that it was fun. It was obvious they were talking nonsense.
He’d just gotten mixed up in the wrong thing!
“Aaron, traitor!”
“…”
Suddenly he was a traitor.
“He’s an Aaron traitor!” giggled.
“Traitor, traitor~!”
Aaron was furious. He was so angry.
She couldn’t say how she felt, so she just fluttered her eyelashes.
“Aaron, are you angry?”
“If I was, I wouldn’t have accepted Arellirin’s hand!”
“That’s right, we wanted to be chosen!”
Aaron realized.
The unchosen twin had been plotting against him!
Aaron felt even more resentful.
Aaron, unable to protest, clutched his chest and vowed.
‘If I see Arellin in the future, I must run away.’
He will never go near her!
As Aaron made his new vow, Pession was still lost in his own world.
“Hah…”
Aaron glanced over at Pession. Pession was not paying attention to his training today.
It was a strange sight to see in Aaron’s eyes.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.’
Aaron had never seen Pession this distracted before, but he had always been serious about his sword training.
It was then.
“You’re not concentrating on your training at all today, Your Highness.”
A member of the Emperor’s Royal Guard, the crown prince’s drill instructor. Lord Jade lowered his sword. Pession snapped to attention.
“Ah, sorry.”
Instead of chastising him, Sir Jade asked the Crown Prince gently, taking advantage of his rare lack of focus.
“Is something troubling you?”
“Trouble…”
Pession looked at Aaron. Aaron’s body tensed.
‘What?’
Aaron looked at Pession with anxious eyes.
“What can I do to get healthy?”
The Royal Guard fell silent at the sudden question.
“…?”
What did he hear?
Momma Mehen for president