Chapter 5

Chapter 5

After experiencing events similar to the ones I’d mentioned, I approached the world differently. Because no matter how angry I got and hopped around like mad before any of these things happened, I wouldn’t be able to avoid misfortune.

Anyway, this was something that had already happened as well, so not planning anything was surely the way to go.

In other words, if I patched up my problems when they showed up, I’d be able to live at least one day to the fullest.

“Hmm.”

At least, that’s how it was supposed to be!

“Hooh.”

For some reason, I couldn’t stop sighing today.

I flipped over my body while lying on the bed, but no matter what I did, I still felt uncomfortable, as if something were stuck on my back.

Well, it was actually my mind that was troubled rather than my body.

“……”

I got out of bed. Looking out the window, I could see that there was still quite a while before night arrived. In that moment, I wished that instead of feeling down in my human state, that I could quickly turn into a black swan. In the end, I went outside, propping myself up on a hill next to the lake.

「You’ve come out early, Your Highness.」 (some geese)

“Yeah, mmhm.” (Catherine)

As more geese that had been floating on the lake approached to greet me, I waved my hand at them, indicating it was enough.

I’m not in the mood to receive your hellos, you know.

So then why did I even come out to the lake? Well, it’s not like I had anywhere else to go to.

「Madam, you really did come out. The geese told me, but I didn’t believe them.」

“Selene.”

No secrets could be kept in this lake.

Perhaps news traveled faster here because everyone floated and darted around in the water.

Selene arrived and sat next to me. I spread out a couple of branches from a dry bush for her to sit on.

「You don’t look very happy, Your Ladyship.」

“……Mm. I don’t?”

「You’ve been like this since Lady Rebecca came and went yesterday, no?」

She caught on quickly.

The me who’d been trying to keep a straight face gave a sideways glare at Selene.

It was probably her keen astuteness that got Selene turned into a bird.

As the first person to figure out that Rania was a dark sorcerer, Selene was someone I couldn’t seem to hide anything from.

「Do not worry so much. It’s not the first time Lady Rebecca has said such things, after all.」

“I know, but……”

Since she was my daughter, I couldn’t help but worry.

Sighhhh.

The sigh that I had been holding back flowed out once more.

In fact, the reason my heart was so depressed was because of those girls.

Rania and Rebecca.

My daughters in name were examples of the evil female characters that appear in novels. Even if I could adapt to everything else, it was hard to accept this part of my new life.

We’re the same age, how could they be my stepdaughters!

Everyone had their own priorities, and so I didn’t mind the fact that I’d been sold off or cursed as much, but I had something I valued much more.

In my past life, I grew up alone without siblings, much less parents, so I had many romanticized expectations to have my own loving family.

It would be great to have a friendly and attentive husband and a dependable son, but a lovely daughter was surely the best for a mom!

Soft, round cheeks, innocent, shiny eyes, and plump, chubby lips.

“Oh oh!”

That’s right. Oh oh it is. Read this at littleajummas.wordpress.com or you are a Rania :((

Just thinking about that made my heart so full that I felt choked up from emotion.

Perhaps because of those thoughts, whenever I read a novel, my favorite scene wasn’t when the male and female protagonists got together but when their children appeared in the extra stories.

When I read about small, cute girls that resembled their mothers in the story, I would smile as I were reading about my own daughter.

‘That’s right. I’m feeding this baby milk and changing their diapers with my novel payment, so this counts as my daughter!’

And when I read about children who successfully grew up holding their mother and father’s hands, I felt an immense sense of pride.

For me to wish that for my own childhood…was too shameless, so I was content to read about it.

“……Is what I wanted, but this, well.”

One is a psychopath, while the other is a mean woman with a twisted inferiority complex.

At the gap between reality and my expectations, I woke up from my fantasies.

Even if I gave up everything else, this was my last wish.

What sin did I commit for it to be like this!

I didn’t wish to become rich or to meet a handsome prince like other people did.

I just wanted a normal life with a pretty daughter, spending each day full of love and joy, could there be a worse bolt out of the blue for me.

“If I knew this would happen, I would’ve wished properly.”

「Huh? A wish?」

“Oh, no. It’s nothing.”

I tapped the confused Selene’s beak and stood up, dusting myself off.

If I knew that the last wish I made at the zoom would come true like this, I would have wished for that.

……Please give me a pretty daughter.

Why wasn’t I able to say those words?

I touched my black blouse with a touch of regret on my face.

Anyway, I was going to transform into a black swan soon, so I needed to go back to bed and rest my eyes a little more.

“I will go back for now. Go and catch some carp. It’s carp season after all.”

「About that, I did catch one earlier but, well, turns out that one was a human too. I was wondering why it was so big.」

“Hey, that’s not something you can say while smiling……Hold on!”

Quiet.

I didn’t try to explain to Selene and just put a finger to my mouth.

Selene looked around, afraid it was Rania or Rebecca who had come, but it wasn’t them.

No, to be precise, whatever I heard wasn’t human.

「……Your Ladyship, what is going on?」

“Wait a second……Didn’t you hear that just now?”

「What do you mean……」

“Look, just now. It was the same sound!”

Rustle.

At the repeated rustling sound, I lowered my body once more.

There was something hiding among the reeds.

I pushed Selene behind me and carefully approached the sound, step by step.

“……Is there someone there?”

I called out at first, but there was no response.

Though my appearance was human at the moment, I was the ruler of this lake’s ecosystem, so if there was no answer, that only meant one of two options.

It was either someone who’d just been cursed, or it was an ordinary animal.

「Her Ladyship is calling for you but you dare ignore her? Come out. Or else I will go over there and find you myself.」

“No no, it ’s okay.”

And, for some reason, I felt like it’d be the second option.

After placating Selene, I sneakily approached where the sound came from and bent back a couple reeds.

“It’s okay, you can come out……Oh my!”

I covered my mouth with the hand that had pushed aside a few reeds.

It was definitely a living creature I’d never seen before in this lake. A small, white, and adorable being was looking at me, blinking its red eyes.

“……Why. It-it’s a baby swan!”

◇ ◆ ◇

I can’t believe you didn’t read this on the littleajummas blog. How could you.

Oh my god.

My breath stopped for a moment because you aren’t reading this on littleajummas, are you?

My breath stopped for a moment, and I could only keep looking. It was trying to hide itself within the reeds……no, it was so small that it didn’t even have to try. It sat crouching, its head tilted to the side, cuter than a doll.

“Look at it, it’s a swan. That’s definitely a swan!”

「Yes, it looks like it hasn’t been long since it hatched……Perhaps its mother is nearby? Or did it lose its way?」

“Shh, it looks frightened.”

I carefully lowered my body to the little swan that had been cowering at Selene’s prattling. Fortunately, it only blinked its eyes and didn’t look like it was scared of me or was planning on running off.

“Why is a swan here? The only swan on the lake is Sir Lemington and his wife! Did the two of them already have children?”

「I doubt it. A short while ago they were fighting a great deal, blaming each other for getting themselves cursed. And so for the two of them to then meet up and have a kid after that, it seems a little……」

“R, right?”

It was a misconception that the cursed humans in this lake were only depressed or peaceful. Rather, maybe because they had been changed into animals, their mood swings were now wilder, and that their romantic relationships as human beings were nothing compared to them now.

They seemed to have a tendency to do whatever they wanted, perhaps because there were less restrictions and no one to judge them, and a desperation from the uncertainty of ever breaking from the curse.

In fact, I had only been here for 3 months, but I’d already witnessed a married couple divorcing and three new couples forming.

「……But should I ask Sir Leamington just in case?」

“No. If the answer’s no, what are you going to do then. And can’t you see the baby’s scared? I don’t mean to speak ill of him, but you know how Sir Lemington is sort of rough-looking. What if the baby cries after seeing him, who’s going to take care of that?”

「Th, that’s true, but-」

“First we need to calm down the baby. We can’t accidentally cause it trauma by uselessly meddling in those sorts of things, we’ll ruin its future then. We absolutely can’t be too excited. We have to set a good example as the adults, got it?”

「……Your Ladyship, I think you’re the most excited out of all of us here.」

She hesitated but still ended up saying what she wanted to say. I pretended like I didn’t hear her.

Ergh, that keen sense of hers.

I could feel that my cheeks and the nape of my neck redden, and my fingers had been tingling from the start.

“Ah……”

Exactly where did such a thing like you fall from?

Soft, white, baby feathers covered a body that had yet to grow proper plumage.

I hadn’t seen a baby animal like this one in a long time.

As most of the cursed people in the Lake Perdium were exiled, young animals were rare. To be precise, if any of them wanted to have children at some point, they had changed their minds because of the curse……Anyway, it was a baby.

A baby, this was what I’d been wishing for!

“Since it hasn’t talked at this point, it probably isn’t a person. Just a newborn swan.”

「I agree. It would have said something if it were a person. And no matter how terrible Lady Rania is, I don’t think she’d curse such a young child.」

“Yeah you can tell, right?”

「……Exactly why are you liking this so much, Your Ladyship?」

“What do you mean, I’m not.”

I belatedly tried to behave myself, bringing my hands to my cheeks to cool them down.

There wasn’t anything in appearance that could distinguish cursed humans from normal animals. If the animal didn’t speak then we had no idea of knowing if they were animals or cursed people. Apparently, some cursed humans weren’t able to talk for up to several years because of the shock of being turned into animals.