Translator and Editor: Maru and Aki
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Chapter 26
A few days later, just after a lunch break, the Duke came to the room after a long time.
Rere, who was drawing on paper, hardened when an unexpected person appeared.
“…Why did you come!”
The Duke, who would normally be clueless of what to do with Rere, showed up confidently.
“A guest will come today. I came to inform you of that.”
“Guest?”
“Yes. I’m sure Rere will love them. So get ready.”
His words gave me anxiety.
That day, that night, even though I told him to communicate with Rere, the Duke never spared some of his time for Rere.
Even so, I couldn’t believe he would invite a guest so suddenly.
“No.”
As expected, Rere’s reaction was sharp.
“What?”
“No! I won’t go even if a guest comes!”
“…Rere.”
“I get it now, so stop being annoying and get out. I don’t want to see you.”
Rere’s anger was worse than ever, which was understandable. Her daddy, who never looked for her even once, informed her that a guest would come.
But the Duke crumpled his face when he saw such a child.
“…How long will you act like a kid? If you don’t prepare, I’ll let the guests come to this room, so take care of it yourself.”
The Duke didn’t know that if he strongly repressed the child, the child would become more and more deviant, but he left the room with a lot of grumpiness.
“Stupid.”
As soon as he went out, Rere vented her anger as if she had been waiting and crumpled her drawing.
“…It’s not fun. I want to do something else.”
“Yeah. What do you want to do next?”
“I’m going to play with the rabbit.”
Just by quietly looking at her, it’s easy to know if the child was in a good mood or bad mood…
‘Why doesn’t the Duke try to see the child? Why won’t he listen to me?’
“Mom.”
“Huh?”
“Mom… Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’m just curious about what Rere is doing. What you like, what you are thinking about today, and how you are feeling.”
“But why is ‘that’ not curious about me at all?”
“Well…”
Rere’s mouth sulked as if she had been seriously hurt by his actions.
“Mom, do you love Rere?”
“Of course.”
“…Then, I guess ‘that’ hates me.”
“…Rere.”
“I think we need to work on the plan to change my daddy quickly. I hate it if ‘that’ keeps pretending to be my daddy.”
Having said that, Rere took a piece of paper out of the bag that the rabbit doll was carrying. Then, she jotted things down on paper.
[Change Daddy. I will beat my daddy now. I will beat him hard. Make a fool of him. I’ll make Luca my daddy and marry my mom!],
Then, a sentence was added above the text.
[I will sew my daddy’s mouth with a needle.]
As I looked at it, I smiled and picked up a rabbit doll.
“Then shall we play now?”
“Yeah…! Let’s play!”
Only then did Rere move the rabbit in her arms as if she had regained her energy. Today, the scene was about the rabbit having a party, and I, nanny, and the maids had to play along with her.
“Today’s star is our ugly rabbit. It’s ugly, but the rabbit, whose heart is kinder than anyone else’s, is happy to meet the wonderful Prince Luca!”
“Is Rere the ugly rabbit?”
“No! It’s mom. Mom is kind. Different from me…”
“Rere is also nice.”
“Really?”
Rere, who was moving the ugly rabbit around, couldn’t hide her surprise.
“I’m saying that Rere is nicer than any child. Mom knows for sure.”
“…Mom is the only one who told me such a thing. ‘That’ and all the new moms said I was bad…”
Rere mumbled quietly and looked down at the floor.
No one had confronted Rere’s true feelings before and understood why Rere had to behave that way.
“Our Rere is not bad. They don’t know how deep your heart is.”
“Yes! Rere is nice.”
Rere, who smiled so brightly until her eyes couldn’t be seen, moved the ugly rabbit happily.
In the meantime, quite a bit of time has passed. An hour or so after the duke left, I was trying to ask the maids to prepare a snack for the child.
Suddenly, it became noisy outside. The door, which had been closed, opened up.
“Rere.”
Then the Duke’s voice was heard at the same time. While Rere, who had her back on the door, shouted without looking behind her back as if she was truly annoyed.
“I said I didn’t want to meet anyone!”
However, it was not the duke’s voice that she heard after.
“Hello, Princess Rebecca Petri. I am Lily, the Princess of Cuffs Dukedom.”
Instead of the duke’s answer, the voices of young girls came.
“…What?”
Only then did Rere turn around. Two children came through the door. The two beautifully dressed children bowed down and greeted Rere politely.
“Nice to meet you. I am Jayna Nedira, who was invited to a glorious tea time with the two princesses. I am the second daughter of Count Nedira. Please call me Jay comfortably.”
Rere, who had been sitting there since a while ago, quickly got up from her seat. All of us in the room were surprised by the sudden situation.
The Duke, who had done all this, stretched out his shoulders as if he were confident and gave Rere a lecture that didn’t sound like a lecture at all.
“I’ve been thinking about what you need, and I figured it out. A friend who will do everything with you. A friend who will spend time with you open-mindedly. That’s what you need, right?”
Rere clenched her fist while looking at the people who greeted her. How could he choose the wrong method among all of the solutions possible? But as if he had made the right choice, the Duke smiled and approached the open door.
“Then, have an enjoyable tea time. Daddy put a lot of effort to invite those ladies from good households, so they must be clever.”
“······.”
“At dinner time, make sure to tell daddy what you were talking about today.”
“…See you later. Duke.”
As if projecting her own mind, Rere gritted her teeth and glared at him. The Duke, who was about to leave, flinched at the word ‘duke’.
“Rere. What did you just…”
“I’ll see you later. Duke.”
“To daddy….. How can you call me duke…”
“Did I say something wrong?”
“But….”
The Duke, who was trying to say something more, nodded with a deep sigh as the eyes of everyone in the room turned to him.
“Yeah. See you later. Rere.”
“Yes, please go out. Duke.”
He thought he made the right choice, but he looked horrible as if he couldn’t figure out why Rere behaved like that.
That made me feel stuffy. My inside was stuffy as if I ate a sweet potato at night.
(T/N : 고구마 sweet potato ; used to express frustration or impatience)
The duke reacted as if he had never been sprayed by cider before and stared at Rere with a hurtful expression. I’d say he was determined if I was to speak politely and stubborn if I was to speak bluntly.
(T/N :사이다 cider ; Saying something straightforward, hurtful truth. So the duke acted like he had never been criticized before.)
You don’t even know how much you might find out about the child if you had just stayed with her for 10 minutes.
Don’t tell me you meant this when you said you understood something that night? If that was the case, then you are the biggest idiot in this world.
Meanwhile, the two children, who had not yet come into the room, were busy standing and looking around the room. Rere looked at the nanny as if she thought she couldn’t help it.
He said he was going to leave, but he still stood near the door like a man who was attached to something. The Duke, who was standing sloppily, was pushed by the nanny and disappeared through the closed door.
Only then did the two little young girls who finished their greetings step inside.
“I guess this is the princess’ room. It’s pretty… cute?”
She said ‘cute’, but her voice didn’t convey the same thing. Princess Lily of Cuffs, who has blonde hair and golden eyes, looked around as if she was disgusted and made eye contact with Rere.
“It feels like I’m looking at my sister’s room. It’s very cute.”
Jayna, who has bluish hair that looks similar to Rere’s, laughed as if she was amazed. Rere, who looked at them uncomfortably, pointed at the table with a chin gesture lightly.
“…Sit there.”
The two young ladies then climbed to the chairs, whereas Rere joined the table one step later.
“I will prepare tea and milk.”
The nanny, who was stiffened by this sudden situation like me, came out first to prepare tea. Meanwhile, Lily, who was looking around while turning her head back and forth, made eye contact with Rere.
“Allow me to greet you again. Thank you for inviting me to your small tea party.”
“I didn’t invite you. As you can see, the Duke invited you.”
The color of the two girls’ faces darkened while watching Rere clearly draw a line. To be exact, Princess Lily’s face was full of wrinkles.
Then, as if she thought it shouldn’t work like this, Princess Lily let out words in a slow yet calm voice again.
“I see. It’s true that I was invited anyway. More than that, there are a lot of rabbit dolls here, Princess Rebecca.”
“…….”
“I also liked dolls very much when I was younger.”
Lily’s snickering face was full of ridicule.
“By the way, aren’t dolls and stuff like that just for babies?”
There was no way she didn’t know those words were intended to make fun of Rere, which is why Rere’s face has become more distorted than before.
“Actually, we were a little surprised. I heard that Princess Rebecca was confined to her own home, but I suddenly heard that she was looking for friends. Not to mention, His Grace, the Duke himself, was personally looking for them.”
At Lily’s words, Jayna, who was waving her tail with shining eyes just like a puppy, hurriedly responded.
“I know right. That’s why I and Princess Lily specially came to this place.”
“Specially, huh?”
Rere’s red eyes glared at them fiercely. At that time, the nanny hurriedly set up the glasses in front of them and filled Rere’s glass with white milk.
“How about the young ladies? Do you want some milk?”
Then, Jayna shook her head and sneered.
“Oh my god, milk? That’s something little kids drink.”
“That’s right. I’d like some tea.”
“I’d like some tea, too.”
Both Lily and Jayna laughed at the sight of the milk. Why did you ignore Rere like that after coming as a friend? I almost intervened between them.
“What?”
Eventually, Rere, who was holding back, opened her mouth, but she was stopped by them again.
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