CH 3

Staring at Mia with a strange gaze, Taleia struggled to free her arm from Royna’s grasp. It actually wasn’t too difficult to get her arm out of the still-young baby, but what makes it difficult is the cradle, which was a little too high for her. [t/n: mia is the nanny’s name]

Taleia’s butt was floundering as she climb onto the chair with her short feet. The nanny, occupied with the thought that the twitching butt in front of her was cute, did not remember to help the struggling Taleia.

She tried to climb on her own but eventually, Taleia end up asking Mia to help her.

“Nanny, help me.”

Only then the nanny grabbed her by the waist and put her on the cradle. Taleia took a deep breath, stared at Mia, and then turned her head away.

Taleia don’t actually want to ask for help, so she struggled to climb on her own, but her child body couldn’t pull it off that she end up with no choice but to ask for help.

The nanny’s job is to foster independence in children, most of the time she watched over and tries to help a bit, but today, she was selfish and didn’t help until Taleia spoke directly, so she felt apologetic.

‘But how can our young lady be so cute when she’s pouting?’

Mia, who looked at Taleia’s cheeks that’s swelling with her grumpiness and triangular eyes as if they were cute, finally couldn’t stand it and hugged Taleia and rubbed her cheeks.

“How can you be so cute and lovely?”

“Originally, babies are cute.”

She accepted it for a while, but eventually, feeling annoyed at her, Taleia pushed Mia’s cheeks away from her as she said so.

Taleia was the most unbaby of the babies Mia had ever seen. Her reaction, like she knew all too well that she was still a baby, was so funny.

“You are the cutest and most adorable baby I have ever seen.”

“Royna?”

“Of course, baby Royna is also cute and lovely.”

Taleia opened her eyes wide and played an innocent look, she asked, as if she was taken aback by Mia’s answer.

“Then who do you like better, Royna or me?”

It was a variation of the so-called ‘Who do you like more, mom or dad.’

“Well…”

“Nanny is only with Royna these days, so Royna is better, right?”

“No, no! It’s because the young miss is still young so she needs more assistance.”

“Then do you like me better?”

“…In fact…”

“In fact?”

Mia knew that Taleia was just making fun of her, but since she was compelled to answer, she whispered softly to Taleia’s ear.

“I prefer Miss Tilly.”

Mia’s heartfelt answer to her playful question radiated an inconceivable joy to Taleia’s face. She answered, so this time it was Mia’s turn to avenge her teasing.

“For now.”

“…What?”

“Well, I’ve been with Miss Tilly for four years, and I only recently met Miss Royna, so of course I still prefer Miss Tilly. But I think I’m going to like Royna more and more.”

“……”

Taleia’s eyebrows began to rise. Mia laughed to herself and teased Taleia until the end.

“So if you don’t want to let go of my love, will young miss stay as a good child until the end?”

“Nanny, that’s fifty points.”

“Yes?”

“The narrator should describe her thoughts, but in fact, the author has her own scoring criteria, so she doesn’t care about what the narrator thinks.”

“…Um, yes?”

Mia, who thought Taleia would throw a tantrum, did not understand her cold judgment. Taleia said with a smile at Mia’s bewildered face.

“Don’t worry though. If you get 50 more points from Royna later, the combined score will be 100 points. So when Royna can speak later, ask for fifty more.”

Still, Taleia, who did not inform her of the heartless physiology of the South Korean scoring system that her average was just fifty points, chuckled at Mia, who’s still tilting her head.

At the sound of Taleia’s laughter, Mia realized that she had touched Taleia’s temper wrong. Before she gets into trouble, she needs to cheer her up Taleia, so she asked another maid to bring Taleia’s snacks, even though they have a little snack time left.

＊＊＊

“My lady, how’s it.”

She didn’t quite get the story, but somehow she seemed to notice Taleia’s disappointment in the answer that the nanny replied to the joke. Still, she accepted the bribe obediently.

“Miss.”

“Is it delicious?”

The nanny smiled heartily as she wiped the whipped cream from Taleia’s mouth.

“My lady can eat her snacks really well, and even while eating well, she doesn’t know how pretty she is.”

Taleia opened her mouth to ask for another bite. This sinful taste sure makes her fatter, but her weight did not increase at all, instead, it was her stomach that grown bigger due to her passiveness. In order to prepare for her plan to get fat later, the road to be a ‘great pig’ is under construction.

But to her nanny, who didn’t know about her grand plans, she was just a pretty kid who wasn’t picky of bell peppers and carrots.

“What are you going to do after snack?”

“I will sleep. Sing me a lullaby.”

Nanny smiled at the thought that she was going to sleep, but her concern was revealed in her smile. She seemed worried about her sleeping too much. After all, she once called the doctor one day and asked why Taleia was sleeping so much.

The doctor told her that there was nothing wrong with Taleia’s body, and that she might just have been born needing a lot of sleep.

She didn’t really interfered after that, but sometimes she would wake up Taleia if she was worried when she slept too long. On those days, no matter how annoyed and grumpy Taleia was when her sleep was disturbed, the nanny just accepted it. Taleia wanted to tell her not to raise a child to be spoiled, but she couldn’t say anything in the end because it was her who was making a fuss.

‘Well, I’m usually strict.’

And since she was already grown up mentally, she didn’t have any bad habits. After Taleia brushed off her worries about the nanny, she mumbled while thinking nonsensically about what lullaby should she ask the nanny to sing.

Then, suddenly, when Taleia looked at the watch, she had no choice but to change her plans.

“Miss, what’s wrong?”

“I’m not going to sleep anymore. I’m going to play house with my dad.”

Today was a holiday, and thanks to that, she could visit Yurian, who was working at the estate. Snacks were all eaten, and since more than four hours had already passed since Yurian entered the office, he had to be dragged out and exercise.

So today, Taleia thought of teaching Yurian to play a real house game. Originally, playing house requires villains, hostages, and heroes, not mothers, fathers, and babies.

＊＊＊

“Dad, hello!”

When Taleia burst into Yurian’s office without any warning, Yurian had a startled look on his face, then he looked at her and smiled brightly.

“Tilly, are you here to see Dad?”

“Yes, play with me.”

“My pretty girl wanted to play with her dad. Where shall we go to play?”

“Garden.”

Yurian seemed to want to hold Taleia in his arms, but she lost her temper and dragged the stuffed rabbit into the garden, saying she would walk on her own. After taking a quick look around the garden, Taleia tied the bunny doll’s ears in a suitable tree branch, then climbed the rock holding the branch, and shouted at Yurian.

“I kidnapped the rabbit! If you want to get the hostage back, you have to obey me!”

After coming to the garden to play with his lovely daughter, Yurian was taken aback when he was suddenly threatened.

So to start, Taleia asked him something to do to set the rhythm.

“Run.”

“…Yes?”

“After warming up, run around this mansion. Got it?”

At Taleia’s command, Yurian turned around and checked their mansion. The Duke’s residence was divided into a main building and an annex, as well as the central garden where they are now. There was even a lake and a forest behind the building, so it was close to impossible to go around it in one try.

Especially for Yurian, who lacks exercise in his 10,000 years.

“…Then how about you?”

“Ugh! Don’t you want the hostages back?”

When Taleia threatened the poor rabbit by thrusting a branch into its neck, Yurian looked at her with even more incomprehensible eyes. Since she doesn’t have any friends, it might be seen as playing a prank on Yurian, but in fact, she didn’t mean it as a simple prank.

While Roxana was pregnant with Royna, Yurian’s belly fat increased dramatically as they ate together. Unlike Roxana, who regained her original body not long after giving birth to Royna, Yurian didn’t even seem to want to exercise.

Sitting on his lap every day, Taleia knew. Because of sitting for a long time at work, the weight went to his stomach and thighs.

Just like when she was in the senior year of high school, that kind of fat doesn’t come off easily.

“I have a question, um, so…”

“Call me the Great Demon King.”

“Yes, Great Demon King. First of all, what kind of rabbit is that rabbit?”

“He is a Prince from a neighboring country.”

“…Why do I have to save the Rabbit Prince from the neighboring country?”

“Because the Rabbit Prince in the neighboring country is worth using in his daddy’s country.”

“What? Then, even if the Rabbit Prince is rescued, it’s won’t be very good, right?”

“The world is like that.”

Taleia placed her hands on her hips and shouted confidently, then Yurian grabbed his stomach and started laughing. In fact, this story was quite realistic for Yurian right now. After all, he has to take on some useless responsibility, but if he does well, he will get a justification for intervening in Celis Kingdom.

Yurian never does anything that will lose him money. Even though he cries a lot and looks like an idiot in front of his family, he is a person who is capable enough to take away the real power held by the nobles for hundreds of years within the span of only ten years.

However, the scale has not tilted yet whether which weighs better in this case, the loss or the gain.

Yurian’s eyes sharpened for a moment, but when his eyes met Taleia’s, he smiled again and raised his hand with a silly smile.

“Then, let me ask you one more question, Great Demon King. What would be my advantage if I rescue the hostage?”

“Simple, you will gain the neighboring country.”

“I don’t want it, Great Demon King.”

“Then just give the kingdom to the Prince. There’s nothing wrong with being friends with the King of the neighboring country.”

“Hmm…”

“If you try to rescue this friend, then you can just run around the garden, not the whole mansion anymore.”

Taleia stuck out her chest and pretended to be merciful. In fact, from the beginning, she had no intention of letting him run the whole mansion.

Although she has an intention of orchestrating things to flow according to the original story in order to help the male lead, her most important goal is to help her father to exercise and take care of the chancellor’s health.

Yurian, who was worried about going around the mansion, accepted her so-called threat calmly. Still, she ran alongside Yurian under the pretext of surveillance.

Yurian was faster, but Taleia had better stamina. After completing a full circle, Yurian breathed heavily as if struggling.

“Are you letting go of the Rabbit Prince now?”

“Yes!”

After releasing the rabbit, Taleia approached Yurian and touched his belly. After he started working out, it was now the time to give him shock therapy to keep him working out.

“Daddy’s belly is bigger and softer than the rabbit prince!”

At Taleia’s words, Yurian looked at her with a shocked face, and she withdrew her innocent smile and said firmly.

“Lose weight.”

“Yes, Great Demon King.”

Even today, the Great Demon King kept playing house to keep the happiness and peace of the family through hostages and threats.