Chapter 6 (1/2)

“You stay nice and cozy in here.”

There were three wrinkles now. Shoot, I forgot that this hand is the one that I was sucking on just a moment ago.

Rolling your eyeball around is the best way to check out the atmosphere. I grabbed the other hand that was holding the towel tight so that he wouldn’t get angry.

Oh, I forgot I also sucked on this hand.

I quickly retrieved my hand to wipe it off on my clothes and held Euphil’s hand again with a silly laugh. Dumbfounded, he let out a hollow smile.

“What’s the use if you wipe it off on your clothes after you’ve already wiped it all off on me? I guess the towel was useless.”

“Mirthy likes Euphil’s hand also. Hehe.”

I guess there was truth in the saying, ‘You throw an extra piece of bread to someone you dislike and can’t get angry at a fool.’

In light of this, I held his hand tight and laughed like a fool. I didn’t forget to blink my eyes in attempt to flaunt my cuteness.

‘He’s not pushing me away this time, either.’

Even when my hand was wet with saliva, I made the splendid achievement of holding his hand without him shaking it off.

Euphil cleared his throat quietly after staring at his hand of which I had gotten a hold of.

“Okay, you can go now.”

“Hm? Where? Are we going for a walk?”

“Go home, to your palace.”

Ah, he’s kicking me out.

I dawdled out of my desire to linger. I tried squeezing his soft hand and also took a look at some books that were lying around.

“If you touch the books with your wet hands, I won’t ever let you come back here.”

“Hehe, Mirthy will never touch them!”

Whatever you say. What else can I say if you’ll let me come back here again as long as I don’t touch the books?

I tried hard to suppress my evil smile. Euphil on the other hand, seemed to be thinking something different since he was flinching and poking at his cheeks.

“If you get saliva on the books, the books will be damaged. If that happens, you can’t read the stories that you like.”

Eh? Is he trying to console me?

I had just experienced the rare feat of being consoled while trying to hide my thrill at the prize that I had received from the infamous tyrant Euphil Raize, no less.

I managed with some difficulty to stop myself from giving him a doubtful glare. He must be plotting something.

Wait, what kind of plot could he have?

The only one with ulterior motives here is me.

That young tyrant just seems like his heart is all fluffy now.

From what I’ve read briefly in the books, he had become a tyrant due to the pain of betrayal.

Perhaps this means that nothing of the sort happened before he was ten?

As I was contemplating this in my head, I saw the pair of red eyes looking at me and found myself nodding.

“Yeah, Mirthy knows how you feel. Hehe.”

Then I squeezed his hand.

Euphil’s face seemed to turn slightly red at my words just like a child his  his age would do. That was adorable.

I felt a lump in my throat.

Ever since I woke up from my sleep, I haven’t felt let down spending time with him.

That is until this moment that I described as a walk and he declared sending me back. It was a very itchy feeling.

He escorted me past the ranunculus flowers in the garden with the white wooden chair. No matter how many times I come here, I cannot seem to memorize the way when I’m with him. It was probably because he walked in a straight line taking excessively simple routes.

“Now go.”

“Okay!”

Once we parted like that, I would just stand there and wave my hands at Euphil’s back. Even if he wouldn’t look back for a long time, he would look back at least once with a frown on his face urging me on to go home.

‘Isn’t he pretty considerate?’

As I thought to myself, I couldn’t help but to wonder again today how that ten year old boy would turn into a tyrant.

A somewhat grumpy but kind ten year old boy.

Something that will turn him into a tyrant. Why is that boy trying so hard to act so mature?

Mulling over these thoughts, I returned to my palace yet again and nodded off into sleep in my bed.

* * *

The palace of Prince Euphil was one of the three palaces in the royal palace belonging to a prince or princess.

There was the eldest prince above Euphil and below, there was a princess. In other words, me.

There used to be another grown princess but she got married with an aristocrat and left the palace a long time ago. Let’s say she’s living my ideal life.

But Euphil ends up wiping out the entire family, including the princess that had left the palace. I’m going to have to cancel what I said about her life being my ideal life.

I guess the only way is to coax young Euphil and grow up as his younger sister and then, run away.

If my palace could be described as something between a maze and a forest, his palace was quite well managed.

Water flowing out of the harp held by a muse whose hair had been plated gold. The garden tree that had been trimmed into the shape of an instrument. The scenery in which there were no weeds to be spotted anywhere.

On the other hand, my palace?

I can have so much fun and stay fit playing ‘jump over the weed.’

So nice.

Anyway, that’s probably why there were quite a number of people visiting his palace.

“Don’t worry. No one is paying attention to you.”

I stuck close to him, holding his hand tight out of my nervousness about  the strangers.

That’s how he tried to comfort me. I guess it is better than nothing.

“Mirthy…… has a lot of friends.”

“Really, who?”

“Euphil, Valk, and Puffy.”