Chapter 94

“T-teeacher.”

Suddenly turned into a proper educator out of the blue, I reached my two hands out to her as if clinging to her, but Lady Melleo was relentless.

[It is true that I have acted more or less cold to Reina, your adopted daughter, but I did so intentionally because Miss Reina is excessively timid and has many fears.]

“……Oh.”

[If she is hurt by my mere words, then how will she survive in this perilous wilderness that is the lake? More so because she is not the blood-related daughter of you, the Duchess, so she will end up hearing many things as well.]

“Tee-ee-aa-ch-ee-rr.”

Hiccup.

Pulling out a handkerchief and covering my mouth, sobs different from yesterday’s burst out of my mouth.

She watched me with a seemingly displeased look, then turned away as if there was nothing that could be done.

[Anyhow, I will pretend I have not seen this. Duchess as well, please go back now.]

“S-still, couldn’t you eat this all together as a snack? I prepared it specially. There’s enough for all the children to eat, too.”

[……..]

Fortunately, this time she didn’t say it was good or bad. From my experiences with this type of person recently, that much could be seen as half an acceptance already.

“Then I will be going with a heart of self-reflection. I’m sorry for insulting Lady Melleo’s excellent educational philosophy.”

[……I will accept the apology for now.]

Her sharp tone had also subsided a bit.

Before she could change her mind and tell me to take it with me, I hurriedly picked Selene up and went down the valley. My chest rose and fell breathlessly.

“Haa, haa, then she should’ve told me beforehand that she was doing that. How am I supposed to know what she was thinking? Am I her student?”

[That’s true. And it wasn’t like she was going to refuse it in the end.]

Selene was even more enraged than I was. But that anger was not only directed to Lady Melleo.

[How could you give away all the grilled fillets too?]

“……..”

[Madam can really be horrible. How could you hide something like that and pretend otherwise! If it was just the carps, then I wouldn’t be this hurt. But fish from the sea, I really wanted to try at least once….]

“I’m sorry, Selene.”

[…..]

“But I also haven’t tried it.”

[……Madam.]

“I also grilled it tightly in case I lost a piece of the fish, and I resisted and resisted and didn’t eat it to the end, you know.”

To buy that from the seagull, I had torn off a decorative gem from my dress. I wouldn’t ever wear that anyways.

But even so, I didn’t feel the slightest regret.

“…..I also know I look like a fool. And that I shouldn’t be doing this. But I just wanted to ask her to take good care of our Haniel that….”

[Heeuung, Madaaam.]

The two of us hugged one another again and squeezed out our tears. The other parents that had walked their children to school gave us strange looks, but my heart felt more refreshed.

“But you saw, right? Lady Melleo didn’t do that with bad intentions.”

[Then do you think Lady Melleo did well, Madam? I honestly don’t really. She may have done so, but what fault does the princess have?]

“Of course she didn’t do anything wrong. There’s no need to say that.”

No matter how good the intentions were, if the means were wrong, then it wasn’t right. That was something I could still say confidently, and I probably wouldn’t agree with her in the future either.

“But….. I just thought that from today on, she at least wouldn’t hate our Haniel anymore.”

[……]

“Now that I have that relief, I just thought that what’s good is good for the rest.”

With an embarrassed smile, I folded my sleeve.

Selene’s eyes turned a shade more sympathetic. There was no way I could fail to get pity, which I’d even gotten from a tyrant, from a bird.

[Sigh…. How did you live without the princess until now, Madam?]

“I know, right?”

As I intentionally glossed over that with a smile and an idle remark, Selene also gave up on me. But there was no way that she would give up on everything.

[Fine. Let’s say this is how the matter of the grilled fillet, I mean, the princess ended. Now you have to go to the Emperor. What would he do if you didn’t bring the princess?]

“…..Selene, I already told you I have a plan.”

The clear drawback of planning in advance was that it never went according to plan. To accommodate for that, my plan was now back to being ‘no plans.’

[Again? What plan do you have this time?]

“Didn’t you see Lady Melleo? Regardless of whether her way is wrong or not, she is an etiquette-centric noble to her very bones.”

[And?]

“And our Haniel is a child that has decided she would never see her oldest brother forever and ever.”

[…..So what do those two points have to do with anything?]

As Selene’s expression slowly but definitely showed how she was losing trust in me, I pulled her face close.

The pros of not planning.

Just when you think that you’re definitely doomed, a rope of help is let down from unexpected places.

“Of course they have something to do with it. It has to.”