Volume 01 Side Story 03 - Side Story 03: Part 01 (1/2)

Volume 01; Side Story 03: Part 01

Side Story 03: The Prince’s Worry

(Prince’s Perspective)

Jeez. I don’t know how many times I’ve clicked my tongue and kept it in my mind.

I had to since the child in my arms would get frightened every time I showed that I was in a bad mood.

Why do I, who was called Prince Christopher and heir to the throne of Southlynd, have to protect these children? To begin with, I had freed both my hands just for Ellie today, but why does it have to be occupied by an unknown child?

I really didn’t understand this at all.

The start went well. Elli used to sadly say, 『I want to go, but father and people in my family said I can’t』about the book market that occurred once every three years. I decided a long time ago to invite her here. I could do this now because our relationship had progressed.

Elli was hesitant to break the order she’d been given, but her eyes shone happily because I had invited her, and she was cute when she couldn’t hide her excitement at the market and showed an innocent smile. If possible, I wanted to lock her up and spend the day off with her alone.

When I tried to deepen our relationship with Elli the other day, her eyes showed confusion ――― and uneasiness.

I thought that she wasn’t used to the touches of a lover yet but the misunderstanding between Miss Irene and I should have been resolved. Therefore, I was going to dispel her anxieties today by letting her feel how lovers act so that she wouldn’t feel uneasy anymore.

“――― Ah, Miss Elianna. Look there. It’s the Rainbow Prelude. It’s difficult to dance to this song.”

“Well. The dress is pretty long. Can you dance to that?”

“Sister, don’t you know about dance? Roma dancers show the rainbow to the audience with this song.”

Her eyes widened in surprise, and her ashy-blue eyes were curiously staring at a corner of the market where a group of dancers were putting on a musical performance.

It was an irritating scene.

By all rights, I should be the one pulling her hand and standing next to her while explaining the market as she looked up at me in respect.

Why does my position have to be taken by Alan and an unknown kid? I couldn’t understand it at all. It was impossible to hold back the urge of wanting to click my tongue.

Earlier, when I held the child with one hand and tried to hold her hand with the other, she refused and put herself between the two guards. I’m sure her attitude is because the boy, Paolo, had said something. Even though she didn’t need to hold back on anything.

Picturing the future by having a boy of the same eye colour as me and Elli by my side… it wasn’t like I was thinking about something trivial like that. Honestly.

However, things that aren’t amusing aren’t amusing. It should have been my role as a knight to protect Elli. Glenn had desperately screamed, “The guys in my squad are all young. They still have a long way to go. Please don’t order their death today!” That has nothing to do with me.

Once the books are set aside, her interest and curiosity knows no bounds. Her eyes sparkled with interest at the foreign tapestries and magic masks. “This is a counterfeit that resembles the one from the Empire era,” she said at the multi-coloured jewellery hanging at the back of the street stall, and the customers, who were negotiating the price with the owner, turned pale. She revealed the sleight of hand trick used by the so-called descendants of a magician and made their legs go weak. When she was asked to sample sweets, she hinted, “Lara Tuta means spider’s tail in old Lacan, right?” and the sales boy was speechless.

… I felt like I’d finally grasped the connection between the Bernsteins and the Roma people.

While eating the spider’s tail, the boy named Rene was entranced by the musical performance, I let out an inner sigh, and a grizzled voice asked, “――― Do you want to switch?”

My childhood friend, who was three years older than me, could guess why I pardoned this child, so he put up with it.

Alan teased me at the meeting before, “I didn’t know that Prince Chris had a hidden child,” but he should stop it with the jokes. Does this child have to be my hidden child just because his blue eyes are similar to mine? When I sullenly said, “Wouldn’t he be uncle’s hidden child because of his age?” and Alan nonchalantly replied, “Eh, Prince Theodore would definitely say 『I won’t make such a blunder』.” It’s really annoying.

“It’s because uncle’s a show-off.”

I wish he would expose this in front of Elli.

Alan and Glenn exchanged glances when I said that. What’s with that? If you have something to say, then say it.

“Blood relatives…” Alan said as if he’d given up, and then he asked about the plan, and I frowned in thought.

I understand the importance of Alan searching for me to report. They might be sabotaging the policy that had just started. They were only minor characters, and it was easy to drive them into a corner. They used Roma children on purpose so that people would doubt the credibility even if they were pulled out to testify, and to make the Roma people distrustful and suspicious.

“We can’t trust nobles after all,” ――― The Romas would say.

And, this might succeed if the mastermind is a noble. In the first place, Roma people weren’t popular with royalty and titled nobles. But, this opinion was like nothing because this is the Bernstein family.

Alan said that the Roma people don’t need to see to believe that the Bernstein would do something foolish as to steal books. They were even famous here for their reputation for loving books. However, when asked about their connection, the Roma people would shut their mouth and look disgusted.

We were currently heading towards Thistle Star to find the connection between the Bernstein family and the Roma people―――.

I noticed the blue-eyed child staring at me anxiously when he heard what Glenn had said, and I was brought back from my thoughts. I wonder if I always made this face when I was his age too.

“――― I’ll tell you an old story.”

It’s cute when children tilt their head in confusion. There’s no need to say this if Elli was the one in my arms.

“… Once upon a time, there was a little boy with blue eyes. The little boy was uneasy every day because his mother was seriously ill, and they couldn’t see each other.”

The child blinked his eyes. He was interested in a story that sounded as if it was about him but wasn’t. Looking at his blue eyes, it felt as if it was about himself.

“The boy’s mother was moved to a distant place to cure her disease, and the boy was separated from his mother. And they couldn’t meet each other for a long time. The boy wrote many letters to his mother and prayed every day. Mother… I hope that mother will get better soon, he prayed. When the boy was 12, his mother beat her disease and returned to the boy. But…”

I made a serious face at the boy, Rene, who was listening carefully.

“His mother had turned into a completely different person. She wasn’t the gentle mother she was before she got sick. She had turned strict and cold, and she didn’t smile at the boy anymore. The boy was very hurt and he might have cried a little. Then, the boy thought, I’m sure mother was cursed by a bad magician.”

“Roma shamans won’t do that,” the boy said, and I nodded and laughed. I could tell that even such a small child seemed sensitive to prejudice.

“The boy studied hard every day to dispel his mother’s curse. But, he didn’t know how to dispel it and was a little annoyed. Then, a Princess, who dispelled the curse, appeared.”

“Princess?”

I laughed at his sparkling blue eyes as if to convey my excitement at that time. Nearby, Glenn muttered, “That’s a really abridged version.” Shut up.

“The Princess was a library fairy. She knew a lot of things from books. But that wasn’t all. The Princess read a lot of books and tried to understand the feelings of the people who wrote them. Then, she taught the boy how to dispel his mother’s curse.”

I continued as the boy stared at me. I tried to imitate her at that time.