CH 19

It had been about a week since Cain and Ilvalino had started using the time they had after dinner for practicing embroidery. Diana came into the room during one of these practice sessions.

“Bwother! Please play with me!”

In her little arms, she held a picture book, a stuffed animal, and a small blackboard. She was fully prepared and waiting to start playing. 

“Diana,” said Cain, “Weren’t you just practicing your embroidery with Mother?”

Cain put down his half-finished embroidery frame, hurried over to Diana, and knelt beside her. He hugged her, toys and all, then patted her on the head and buried his nose in her hair. 

“M’broidering’s boring, though,” said Diana.

Cain tilted his head to the side questioningly and looked at Diana’s deflated expression.

Diana had been excited about learning embroidering from Mother Elise. As the wife of a duke, Elise was always busy and didn’t have much time to spend one-on-one with Diana. They always had meals and teatime together, but Cain was always around for that, and Father was often, present, as well. 

In other words, embroidery practice was a time when Diana could have Mother all to herself. She had been overflowing with excitement and motivation to try her best and get complimented by Mother.

But, for some reason, now…

“Embroidery is boring?” asked Cain.

“She said we can make drawings on the cloth, but now, it’s just straight lines, straight lines. That’s boring. Mother lied,” said Diana.

Look at how she’s puffed up her cheeks! Oh my God, isn’t that adorable? She’s seriously an angel. She’s cute even when she’s angry – what an absolute treasure.

Cain had these thoughts running through his head as he turned and looked over at Ilvalino.

Ilvalino pointed at Diana with his chin, and responded with a look that said: Why don’t you concentrate on helping her?

“Diana,” said Cain, “Mother has not lied to you. Come here.”

“Bwother?”

Cain stood up, took Diana by the hand, and brought her over to the low table. He picked up a single cloth from the mountain of practice cloths with thread running across them and spread it out for her to see.

“Look,” said Cain, “Your big brother embroidered this. Can you tell what it is?”

It was a cloth that he had practiced some basic stitching on. He had been working on curved lines. They were arranged in a simple outline, but an image could be made out.

“A rabbit with short ears!” exclaimed Diana.

“No,” said Ilvalino, “actually that’s a be- Ow!”

“That’s right!” said Cain, “It’s a rabbit with short ears!”

It was actually a bear that Cain had tried to embroider. Ilvalino was crouched down, clutching his shin and muttering behind Cain, but Cain ignored him. 

If Diana declared that it was a rabbit, it was a rabbit.

“And here,” said Cain, “Is a rabbit who got his long ears!”

“It’s the rabbit from the story!” said Diana.

The picture book called “Why do Rabbits Have Long Ears?” had become one of Diana’s favorites. In it, a rabbit with short ears, after many twists and turns, ends up getting long ears. 

Diana had identified the bear Cain had embroidered as the rabbit from the beginning of her picture book. 

“You m’broidered this, Bwother?” asked Diana.

“That’s right,” said Cain, “And look here!”

“Ah!” said Ilvalino, “Hey, no, stop!!”

Cain picked up another cloth from the table and showed it to Diana. On it was a chain stitch sewn with thick thread in the shape of a flying butterfly.

“Butterfwy!” Diana exclaimed.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

“That’s right!” said Cain, “It’s a butterfly. You figured it out. You really are clever, aren’t you, Diana? You know a lot of things. That’s very good. Ilvalino embroidered this one.”

“Ilu-kun did?” asked Diana.

As Cain continued to pet her hair, Diana looked up at Ilvalino with wide, round eyes. Ilvalino looked away awkwardly, and mumbled, “Yeah, I did, but…”

As a side note, Diana had started calling Ilvalino “Ilu-kun” since he had returned to the mansion to begin working as a chamberlain, and she was told to stop calling him “Bwother Ilu”. “Ilvalino” was too hard for her to pronounce, and since Mother Elise was calling him “Ilu-kun”, Diana started calling him that, as well.

“See?” said Cain, “Your big brother and Ilvalino have been drawing pictures on cloth. Why don’t you try drawing with some thread, too, Diana?”

“Okay!” said Diana, “Di’s going to draw pictures, too!”

“Yay!” said Cain, “What are you going to draw, Diana? A rabbit? Maybe a bear?”

“Rabbit!”

“All right! A rabbit, it is!”

Cain put aside the bookstand that stood in front of his seat and had Diana sit on the sofa.

He put a white cloth on the table and had Diana hold a colored pencil. 

“First, draw a rabbit on the cloth,” said Cain.

“Okaaay!” 

Diana started drawing while humming, apparently in a good mood. Cain sat beside her and removed his unfinished cloth from its frame.

“Done!” Diana exclaimed, and proudly handed the cloth over to Cain. Cain fastened it in the frame and handed the frame back to her.

“You learned how to do the pokey poke sewing with Mother, right?” asked Cain, “This time, you’re going to pokey poke sew along the line you drew.”

“Sew on the picture, right? Not straight lines, straight lines, right?” asked Diana.

“It doesn’t have to be straight,” said Cain, “You can be a little off from the picture, too. Just try it, okay?”

“Okay.”

Diana held the needle in her little hands and started sewing. Cain made sure she didn’t poke her fingers with the needle by keeping her hands on the right places on the frame and the needle and guiding her movements from time to time. He watched Diana trying her best and working so hard, and had another fit of cuteness overload, throwing his head back and letting out a soft squeal. 

With a wobbly running stitch that wavered along her sketch, Diana’s picture ended up a charming image. Cain added a little bowtie on the rabbit’s chest, and Ilvalino threw in some small flowers in the spaces beside it. 

Diana gazed happily upon this collaborative piece, which ended up being named “A Dapper Rabbit in a Flower Garden”. 

“The picture Di drew turned into a real picture,” said Diana.

The rabbit was quite warped, but Diana seemed in awe of it, and she held the frame this way and that, looking at it from all angles and laughing at how the picture was all fuzzy from behind. 

“Mother wasn’t lying, was she?” asked Cain, peering over at Diana. She put on a big smile and nodded. 

“I’m going to go show Mother!” said Diana, as she left the room with the frame in hand.

Cain and Ilvalino watched the door that she had left open.

“She took your frame with her. How about we call it a night?” said Ilvalino.

“…Yeah. We’ve stayed up late practicing too many nights in a row, anyways,” said Cain.

Cain had Ilvalino bring him his change of clothes for the night (Ilvalino was still training to be a proper chamberlain, after all). He got into bed and closed his eyes.

Ilvalino’s room was a servant’s room attached to Cain’s room, but usually, Ilvalino went out into the hallway and returned to his own room the long way. 

The door between their rooms was actually hidden and was disguised as a part of the wall. In case of emergency, it could be used as a passageway between their quarters, but since this was not one of those times, Ilvalino went out to the hallway.

There was still a month and a half left before the embroidery meeting.