Chapter 68

‘Isn’t there anything, really?’

Alice wept. She felt miserable because she could give Emir nothing. In the past, she thought it was miserable to have nothing, but it seems that was not the case.

‘I want to give everything to Lady Emir, but it’s upsetting that I don’t have anything to give.’

Alice stopped feeling dejected.

“First… I should change my clothes. I don’t want it to get them dirty in any way.”

Alice took off the pretty dress which Emir had lent her and changed into her own shabby dress that was hanging on the hanger. The white dress would get dirty from the dust in the room. In fact, her light ivory dresses had now turned grayish or light brown.

‘I have to hide it well. Otherwise… If I’m unlucky and Sister comes into my room and sees it, she might take this pretty dress away.’

Her older sister, Claire, also did not like Alice like many others in the Duchy. Moreover, Claire received a lot of love from birth because she was the firstborn in the Duchy. She had an arrogant and greedy personality and only thought of herself, while rarely showing mercy to Alice. Even though Alice didn’t have anything compared to her, if Alice had a little something that she looked good with, Claire would unconditionally take it away. That’s why Alice decided to fold and hide the dress in her bag when she went to kindergarten. If nothing else, this was something she must return to Emir.

‘I should put it under the bed. Then they will never know.’

Alice put the bag in which she hid the dress under the bed, just in case.

Cough. “This should be enough.”

Although she was coughing because of the pile of dust under the bed, she was still happy. Just as she was about to stand up, Alice’s gaze turned to the treasure chest next to the bag.

‘…there’s the treasure chest as well.’

Alice wondered to herself why she hadn’t thought of this before. All of her valuables were contained in this box. A small pouch made of silk that she picked up in the garden, a hair ribbon pin from about a year ago that Claire liked but was too small for her to use, a small, ugly pearl that she found in a shell thrown in the kitchen, and…..

Something caught Alice’s eyes as she was examining the contents of her box.

‘…I think this necklace would be nice.’

Alice took out a necklace made of metal chain straps from the box. It didn’t look like much, but there was something special about it: it was a pair.

‘Bessie made this.’

Bessie was Alice’s former nanny and full-time maid. She was particularly dexterous, and she used to make things like this for Alice. One of those was this necklace. A necklace made by beading pieces of ‘fortune stone’ into a chain. Since fortune stone is a gem that is often seen on the road, it is, in fact, not even considered one. However, Alice picked up two pieces of the fortune stone that had been split cleanly, and Bessie, who saw the pieces, made each of the two pieces into a necklace and presented them to Alice.

‘Miss Alice, later, if you find a friend who treats you well, give this to them.’

Bessie’s words, when she joked about the necklace, were still fresh in Alice’s mind. . Alice could think of only one person who she wanted to give the necklace to.

‘Because the only wonderful friend who treats me well is Emir.’

Alice smiled and tucked the necklace deep inside the bag.

***

As soon as I arrived at the kindergarten early the day after I lent Alice the dress, I sprinted towards her.

“Here. Here is the dress you lent me yesterday. I’m sorry I couldn’t wash it…”

She must have been waiting to return it to me. Alice said she couldn’t do the laundry, and looked apologetic about it. Of course, I didn’t care and said it was fine. I didn’t expect her to wash it in the first place because it was something I had anticipated to happen to some extent. Above all, I couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the condition of the dress which Alice returned.

Why? It was because of an interesting plan that I had been thinking about since last night. The plan was to invite Alice to my house.

‘Today! Well, if Alice doesn’t have time, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow is fine.’

Hmm, I think I’ve thought like this once before. When I get acquainted with Alice, I will invite her to my house to play. But last night, I suddenly realized that it was a bad idea.

‘The order has changed! I don’t invite you after I get to know you. First, I’ll invite you home, feed you a lot of delicious food, have fun playing hide-and-seek together, and visit nearby stores. That’s how we get to know each other.’

‘Ah, why did I just realize this now?’ I lamented inwardly.

Alice in the beginning has a cautious and soft personality, and does not open her heart easily. The only way to open the door to her heart is to wait indefinitely in front of it. All I had to do was shout Alice’s name to come out and be my friend. So today, I was about to ask Alice to play with me as a friend.