Chapter 97

That’s not it, it’s because she’s disheartened.

I could only look down at the tip of Rashid’s shoes. If he hadn’t kicked away Lady Melleo with those oh-so-important feet of his, then there was no way our Haniel wouldn’t be unable to spread out her wings like she was doing now.

“But what have those things gathered like that for.”

“…..”

He wouldn’t be able to imagine that it would be a class for a School of Etiquette; as soon as he saw the swarm of babies, he crossed his arms in front of his chest as if to say it was a sight to see. Not only were hints of disapproval on his handsome face, he was even beginning to look quite bored.

“Bring her here quickly. Don’t they come if you whistle at them or something?”

“Th-that’s only when you’re calling normal swans.”

“And they’re not normal swans?”

“……”

“Ohh, right. You said she was your precious daughter, or something.”

Look at him being all sarcastic.

Though I knew he was talking especially spitefully like that on purpose, I laughed emotionlessly. I mean, I could laugh naturally just by looking at Haniel’s face, so.

Though his stare prickled on my cheeks, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her.

‘Baby! Mommy’s here!’

I wanted to go out and shout that even now, but today’s goal was something else.

The person, no, the goose, that I had to meet first, before Haniel.

The Teacher that stood above God, Lady Melleo, was gradually coming our way.

“Oh….”

Of course, she wasn’t coming because she had discovered me and this man behind the tree. I already knew that after she finished teaching the older students, she came to this spot around this time every day to watch the new students.

The reason Selene had been watching her movements lay here as well.

In the meantime, Rashid’s cold eyes were still on Haniel, who was lagging behind on her own.

“The more I look at her, your daughter doesn’t seem normal.”

“That’s not it. She usually acts very adorably. When she’s happy, she comes and rubs her cheek on you first, and sometimes she pecks you like this with her beak, and she rolls her webbed feet around, too.”

“……”

Just like this.

When I lifted up my skirt slightly and rolled my feet twice to show him, Rashid cracked his neck noisily. But as I had to watch Rashid and Lady Melleo in both directions, I didn’t have the time to pay attention to what he was doing.

As soon as I saw that Lady Melleo had already reached the bottom of the hill, I quickly moved in front of Rashid’s eyes.

“……What?”

“Because I thought you might not believe what I said. It’s true.”

“That your daughter acts adorably?”

His hand still on the back of his neck, Rashid huffed out a forced laughter. To this man, it wasn’t important whether that was the truth or not—the only important thing to him was that there was a woman who refuted his words.

“She looks like she’ll die within today, though.”

“Okay siirrrrrr!”

“…….”

“She’s not going to. How could you say something like that!”

Rashid’s throat dipped longer than it had right before this.

“Fine. Let’s say that’s true.”

“…..are you afraid?”

“What?”

“I’m asking if you’re afraid that I might be right.”

“…..”

His pinkish eyes that bore down on me narrowed, as if he found this quite interesting.

I also had my head held up stiffly, but in that short moment, I first checked subtly to see if he would be bringing out his sword into his hand.

“…..That thing can really act like what you just described?”

Fortunately, Rashid’s eyes had returned to Haniel, who was scrunched up into a ball. She really was a small child, so small that she might look like a ball of cotton at a glance.

“Yes, of course. Very much so. You can even bet me on this.”

“Bet?”

The corners of his lips bent up crookedly. Though it wasn’t to the point of slashing and cutting, he was a man who had never even imagined losing to anything.

“Didn’t you say you had nothing to bet on anymore?”

“That’s true, but….”

“Fine. We can decide on that kind of thing slowly.”

From the way he dipped his chin down slightly, I could see an overflowing haughty elegance exceeding that of Lady Melleo.

But oh well.

Like he’d said, I had nothing to give, and also nothing to lose.

“Though I would like to do so as well, it looks like it’ll be too difficult right now.”

“…..why?”

“Our Reina is a very sensitive child. She doesn’t do that to just anyone, and she’s very shy. So we would need to act very delicately, too.”

“So what are you trying to say?”

His ridicule spread out as calmly as the midday’s lake.

Some people might have been mesmerized by his smile, but I already had another existence to be mesmerized by.

Lady Melleo had already crossed the midway point of this hill by now.

“Of course, we will need to practice.”

“……do what?”

“Practice. If you practice how to treat a child you first meet beforehand, then our pri- Reina will undoubtedly open her heart to you.”