Chapter 19 – Bella Knows
Mayu slowly raised her head.
He was dressed like a commoner, but a pretty boy with a flowing shirt who has grown up in a rare and precious way threw bread at her.
‘Who is this bastard?’
However, she had been starving for several days, so she grabbed the bread with trembling hands and ate it in one bite.
“Cough—”
Seeing that, Kiehl turned his lips slightly into a pout and turned around.
“I guess it’s because I gave you bread.”
And, he hurriedly ran to Bella.
“I gave the bread.”
Bella pinched Kiehl’s cheek and complimented him with a wide smile. “You did great! Did you ask her name?”
“…Yes.”
Kiehl’s conscience was pierced for a moment. He lied so plainly.
“What’s that little kid’s name?”
He swallowed his saliva as he reached out his hands.
“I… I think she’s thirsty. Can I have some milk?”
“Ahh. You’re cute. Wait a minute.”
Bella winked, and Jenkins handed her the extra milk he had brought.
“How long has that little kid not eaten?”
As Bella continued to question, Kiehl took the milk, turned his back around, and ran to Myu.
At that, he asked, handing her milk.
“If you want to drink this, answer this huge question I ask.”
Myu blushed when she saw the pretty boy who had come back. Nodding her head and sipping the milk Kiehl had handed her, she recalled a scene from a romance novel.
‘Maybe something like Cinderella happened to me, too…’
But, before she could finish her thoughts, Kiehl shattered her imagination.
“Name.”
“How long have you been here?”
“How old are you?”
“Do you have any brothers?”
…What Cinderella.
‘Are you a detective’s assistant?’
In the end, Myu answered Kiehl’s question heartily with the feeling of being interrogated.
In the carriage back to the mansion from the city. While Zanbar drove the carriage, Jenkins, Kiehl, and Bella sat inside.
Suddenly, Kiehl fell asleep on Bella’s lap.
At last, with the thought that one important setting in this novel had been filled, she was overwhelmed with emotion.
‘Yeah, this will be fine.’
As they got closer to the mansion, they could see the wizard’s tower where she was summoned the first time in the distance. It was said that there were many tourists in the village because of that wizard’s tower, but at some point, the number of people became rare.
“Is there a wizard in that tower anymore?”
Bella asked without thinking.
“Oh. There is one. Very gloomy guy, but he’s a reclusive type, so he probably won’t be noticed.”
“How do you know that?”
“Um… I met the wizard before I met the Miss. That’s why I stayed at the inn at that time.”
The wizard Jenkins spoke of seemed to be referring to the wizard Zanbar had bitten.
“When did you meet? Is that the strange summoning wizard?”
“Yeah, that’s what I meant to summon…”
Jenkins’ purple pupils grew bigger and bigger, and she smacked his knee with her palm.
“Ah, so…!”
“What?”
“I was the one who properly taught that wizard the summoning circle.”
Then, he shook his head and laughed. “Although I didn’t expect the princess to be summoned. Haha.”
Even though Jenkins informed her at the time, he said, ‘I never expected to even summon Bella.’ At that time, that wizard was only motivated, though he wasn’t a man full of magical powers.
The summoning circle was like an address.
When he didn’t have enough magic power, he thought that he could randomly summon a low-level dream demon.
“It’s possible to summon even General Zanbar. In fact, the Miss is not yet an adult, so you must have been summoned.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Did the summoning circle appear right in front of the Lady?”
“….”
“Isn’t that what you were waiting for to come to the human world?”
Jenkins smiled and asked, before biting his mouth. It was because she was staring at Jenkins so frighteningly.
“Did you know what the materials required for that summons were?”
“It’s just one life…”
Slowly, Jenkins took turns looking at Kiehl and Bella, and then covered his mouth with his hand that was placed on his lap.
“Did you ever meet the Young Master there?”
Jenkins knew he had to use life as a material, but he didn’t see which material he used, although he had some guesses.
He condemned his demonic bystanders with a human conscience.
“…Sorry.”
“Don’t say that we’re going to have a hard time in the future.”
Bella’s heart was twisted.
Jenkins informed her, so she was summoned there, and she had saved Kiehl.
“How much Kiehl’s life was twisted because of that…”
Of course, Bella knew. She shouldn’t pass the blame on anyone else for all of this. It wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t come to the human realm.
‘If he hadn’t killed him then, would Kiehl have gained divine powers…?’
However, instead, Kiehl would have lived through a lot of hardship.
‘Yes. He doesn’t have to go through an unhappy childhood.’
In the end, she was trying to rationalize herself and see Kiehl sleeping.
When he woke up, Kiehl looked up at Bella from her lap.
“I’m fine.”
This child always made her heart weak.
Bella smiled softly and pinched Kiehl’s cheek slightly.
“If you’re okay with that, that’s it.”
“I’m sorry, Princess.”
“No. All of these things are meant to be, huh?”
Jenkins glanced at Bella, smiling as he swallowed his saliva.
Kiehl calmly organized his thoughts. He heard it from the middle of his sleep, but it wasn’t clear.
‘Summon.’
That said, it was clear that the animal kingdom meant another world. like heaven or hell.
‘Jenkins seems to know how to summon.’
At that time, if Bella had crossed over to the human world through the summons.
[ “How much Kiehl’s life was twisted because of that…” ]
Kiehl gripped his pendant.
There were two things that were clearly different from the past he knew—it was the appearance of Bella and the fact that the divine power was not contained in the pendant.
He got what he wanted, and Bella knew amazingly well and made up for it without even questioning why commoners would want to learn it.
‘Bella is more likely to know that I am the Crown Prince…’
Kiehl gulped his saliva while fiddling with the pendant hanging from his neck.
The evening, they returned home.
Iwer prepared a splendid dinner to commemorate Bella’s achievement.
“Ta-da! I made this to commemorate the return of my heart.”
The demons were excited by the number of things that filled the table.
“Can you eat all of this?”
Bella was also sarcastic, but she was in a good mood. However, when Kiehl entered the dining room, her mood changed 180 degrees.
“…Bella.”
“Huh? Kiehl, are you crying?”
Kiehl wiped his red, bloodshot eyes with the back of his hand.
“I lost my mom’s keepsake…”
“What?”
He was startled by Bella’s sudden shout.
“Uh, where did you lose it? Since when?”
“It was there until I got to the mansion. After that, I don’t know.”
Bella rolled her feet and asked the demons sitting at the table. “Have any of you kids take it? Let’s turn ourselves in quickly and find the culprit.”
“Why are we taking human things?”
“It’ll be in the mansion. Let’s all find Kiehl’s necklace. Get up!”
“I’ll eat and then look for it.”
“How important is that! Find it before I drill your top part, quickly.”
The smell of delicious meat stimulated them, so the demons began to search the mansion like a scavenger with much more concentration than at other times.
Jenkins was also puzzled as he looked for it in his room.
“In the first place, the Young Master couldn’t come here…”
Come to think of it, he remembered that Kiehl came to Jenkins’s room today and asked him something.
“Oh, wait. Maybe…”
Jenkins looked back and forth behind his bedside table. When he saw the gold pendant, he reached out. Then, he glanced down at the pendant in his hand.
‘Wait for a sec. This is somehow familiar…’
Exotic patterns in quite delicate workmanship. It looked like something Jenkins had seen a long time ago.
He then carefully opened the pendant.
If his memory is correct, he once gave this pendant as a bribe to the Emperor in order to contact the Imperial wizard. The pendant itself wasn’t that great, though the pendant had a protective magic on it.
A protective magic that will one day save you when your life is in danger.
‘…No way.’
Inside was a small piece of paper, and when he opened the paper, the name ‘Kiehl’ was written on it. It was also in the cursive writing of the Imperial Family.
The magic that Jenkins cast had not yet been activated.
Meanwhile, Kiehl was convinced by Bella’s reaction.
‘Bella knows that I am the Crown Prince.”
Unlike Kiehl, who leisurely watched the situation, Bella groped her body with urgency. It was because it was the only way to prove that Kiehl was the Crown Prince.
“You mustn’t lose it… You have to have it… Uh-huh, what should I do?”
Kiehl asked Bella carefully, with his neck blushing. “Bella says the same thing as my mom. She said that I should never lose it either.”
Bella stopped her hand and met his curious eyes.
“And, they say I have some special blood. Does Bella know? What is it?”
She thought she’d tell him about it someday, but will Kiehl’s accept it…?
At that time, Kiehl’s eyes, which had been crying a while ago, were still there, and she spoke quite clearly.
“Tell me.”
“Actually, your father…”
Bella hesitated for a while, and then she slowly lifted her voice.
“Is the Emperor of this Empire.”
Kiehl’s eyes widened, and he placed his hand on his empty neck as if he had heard it for the first time, but had guessed it.
“It may be hard to believe now, though one day he will come to pick you up from the Imperial Palace.”
She thought maybe it was hard to accept, and Bella patted Kiehl’s shoulder.
“How does Bella know that?”
Bella muttered excuses she had been thinking about for quite some time.
“…The Goddesses of fate told me.”
The Goddesses of fate in the founding mythology of the Empire. It was appropriate for her to use that as an excuse whether there was such a thing.
“They said I had to help you. My mistake could almost change your fate.”
“So, that’s why you’re so nice to me?”
Bella looked sadder in Kiehl’s eyes than when he said he had lost his belongings. She smiled softly and grabbed Kiehl’s cheek with one hand.
“No? I just like Kiehl, so I’m nice to you.”
Then, Jenkins came down with a shocked face and called Bella.
“I found it.”
“Where did you find it?”
“He must have dropped it when he came to my room earlier.”
At that, Bella took the pendant and gently hung it around Kiehl’s neck.
“You can’t lose it now.”
Her face was about an inch right in front of Kiehl’s.
“Thank you, Bella.”
Moments later, he carefully lifted his heel and kissed Bella’s lips lightly. It was a brief moment, less than a second, but he was satisfied with this.
“This is a thank you kiss.”
“Young Master, I was the only one who found it…”