Chapter 6 (2/2)

“Oh… Yeah, you’re right.”

It would be easier to leave it at that. She beamed brightly as she offered a non-committal reply to the coachman.

“Then, my Lady, I’ll be standing by the carriage and waiting for you so please have a safe trip.”

“Yup, yup.”

Kynemeia waved her hand. The coachman lowered his head deeply to bid goodbye, clutched the reins, and mounted the carriage again.

‘Where should I go now?’

Standing side by side with Eian in the midst of the crowd, she surveyed her surroundings.

‘There are so many people that it might be hard to find it.’

Ugh. With a groan, she set off with Eian close on her heels.

“Where are we going, Young Lady? What are you looking for?”

As they struggled to pass through the crush, Kynemeia spoke up,

“I’m looking for a signboard in the shape of a frog. I’m headed there.”

“Frog?”

“Yep, yep.”

‘Ah, there are so many people.’

The calls of the merchants opening their stalls and trying to solicit people into making purchases caused a great din, and the crowd shuffled at a snail’s pace because they were studying the goods. People on both sides squeezed her, and she kept striving to push herself out of the mob.

‘He’s following me well, right? It’s so easy to lose each other like this.’

“Eian, there’s such a crush here so we shouldn’t lose each other and…”

She said as she turned around only to stop in her tracks.

“Ah?”

In the thick of the throng navigating the narrow streets jammed with stalls, she was standing all alone like a boulder hindering the waterways.

He’s gone. The pitch-black hair and pitch-black eyes that always accompanied on her trail. The Eian who would always stick out no matter the place.

“Eian?”

Quick as a flash, her blood ran cold. No way. Kynemeia turned her head, feeling that he might just be someplace no one could see.

“Eian!”

She raised her voice by a notch. But no matter where she looked, there was only an unfamiliar crowd.

‘Why?’

Kynemeia once again scanned her surroundings.

‘Gone? He’s gone?

‘Was he pushed by the crowd and managed to get separated? Then I should return there.’

At that instant, when Kynemeia resolved to do that and wheel around—

Someone grabbed her hand.

“So you’re here!”

‘What?’

The individual holding a flustered Kynemeia turned out to be an unknown man. The man, possessing a short stature and a stubby nose, smiled.

“C’mon, Mom is calling us so let’s go.”

Kynemeia’s eyes quivered. Usually, she wouldn’t have searched high and low just like a lost kid. She was all at sea due to the unforeseen incident, and felt wretched that she’d opened a window of opportunity for this man to discover that she had no guardian.

“What are you doing?! Let me go!”

Kynemeia shouted at the top of her lungs. Now that it had come to this, she needed to create a hoo-ha to snag the public’s attention before she got taken away by this man. Since she screamed, the people passing by and the merchants in their stalls started to clamour around as she expected.

“Who are you?! Let me go, I said!”

Kynemeia twisted her body with all her might and raised her voice. As the people nearby began shooting him dirty looks, the man clicked his tongue then smiled as he asked for an understanding.

“No, no, don’t misunderstand! This child is my daughter. She kept on running away from home, so I came to bring her back. It seems like this brat is feeling especially hurt today.”

Daughter? Daughteeeer? The squirming Kynemeia felt wrath welling up within her.

“How am I your daughter?! My dad isn’t as ugly as you are!”

As he heard the word ugly, the man’s face contorted. Seeing the man’s ugly face crumple even more horribly, Kynemeia’s anger spiked.

“With a face that looks like you got kicked by a pony in the face, you dare pretend to be my dad?”

“Gosh, why is my daughter like this today of all days…!”

The man stealthily raised his beefy hand to stifle her mouth.

‘This ugly thing is still!’

Kynemeia whipped off her bonnet with her free hand.

“My dad is the most handsome man in the empire! How can a daughter like me come out of a creature like you?! Do you have no conscience?”

Rather than the reality that the man was about to abduct her, Kynemeia took greater offence at the fact that this ugly thing claimed to be her father.