Chapter 12 - Kiehl’s Birthday

Chapter 12 – Kiehl’s Birthday

“How do you do that?”

Bella was a little flustered, but she soon felt a bit sad. Siyun, who was her three-year-old nephew in her previous life,

[ “Auntie, ppo-ppo! you don’t know what that is?” ]

[ “Did your mother never kiss you in your life?” ]

Shrugging off the memory, she moved closer and closer to Kiehl so as to not worry him. The ‘chu’ sounded embarrassingly loud on his cheek in the midst of the silence.

“This is it.”

How hard would he have lived so far to not know what it is?

“A ppo-ppo… can only a princess do it?”

“Huh?”

“Can only the prince and the princess do this?”

Most of the children’s books Bella read to him were stories about princesses and princes—Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast…

Besides, most of the endings were about the prince’s kiss breaking the curse or something like that.

“No. Anyone can do it to anyone they like.”

That was then,

Kiehl moved closer to Bella and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

‘….?’

Bella’s face turned red in an instant and she gazed at Kiehl intensely, as if her thoughts had stopped.

Then, Kiehl said in a shy voice. “The person I like…”

“….”

“So, I did it for you…”

This is really heartbreaking.

This was the novel she transmigrated to.

***

She came to the human world in the spring. In the summer, the flowers planted in the garden are in full bloom, in autumn the distant mountains are colored with autumn leaves, and in winter, they are covered with pure white snow.

After experiencing the four seasons and small daily routines, it is another autumn again, and the distant mountains change their clothes with red maple leaves.

Wearing a maid outfit, Iwer said confidently.

“Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve shown my skills!”

The banquet was spread out in the dining room. As everyone sat down, they peered around in surprise at the ever increasing number of food.

Zanbar started by murmuring in front of all kinds of food.

“Heh. Why do we have to eat so much?”

“What day is it today?”

“It’s the Young Master’s birthday today!”

Kiehl’s eyes widened in embarrassment.

“What, the Young Master didn’t know?”

In the novel, Kiehl did not know when his birthday was. Knowing only that he was born in the fall, he only grew older by one year after summer.

But, the day he found out was when he was the Crown Prince. He had designated that day as his birthday in the sense of being reborn.

November 10th.

Since he would designate this day as his birthday anyway, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take care of it in advance.

“Now, today is Kiehl’s tenth birthday.”

As Bella pointed with her finger, Pur handed out the cone hats she had prepared in advance to everyone.

“Oh, I love this!”

Among the demon clans, the cone hat was the best suited for the doll-like Pur. Bella put a paper crown on Kiehl’s head herself.

“Our Kiehl’s is the main character of this birthday, so I’ll give him a crown!”

Saying so, she clapped her hands and started singing.

“Happy Birthday, happy birthday.”

However, no one was singing with her and was staring instead.

Bella stopped her singing and cleared her throat.

“Guys, don’t you sing?”

The demons looked at each other. ‘You tell me,’ they were delaying their reply to each other. In the end, Jenkins, a half-demon, sighed and said. “It’s the first time I heard this song.”

The next year, she thought that she should teach singing first for his birthday, so she offered a cake to Kiehl, who was sitting next to her.

“Come on, Kiehl. Do you have any wishes? I’ll grant them all.”

Unlike Bella, who was smiling brightly, Kiehl’s peace seemed to be cracking.

‘…How does Bella know my birthday?’

Nonetheless, the first answer to the question was the explanation that Kiehl had returned to the time he was ten years old. How would Bella react if she found out that he was actually eighteen years old?

‘Damn it…’

The last time he pretended to be innocent and asked what a ppo-ppo was, it was the most memorable.

As Kiehl was hesitating, Pur was the first to speak.

“I want to hunt after a long time!”

Starting with Pur, Iwer raised her hand as well.

“I want to go to the city and enjoy the energy of men.”

“Then, can I eat him?”

“People who have lost their energy don’t taste good, are you okay with that?”

Bella covered Kiehl’s ears with her hands and stared at the demons. Jenkins then calmed the agitated demons.

“A wish is for the main character that is having the birthday.”

“I want to be the main character, too! Though what’s a birthday?”

It was because demons do not care about the sense of date and time, so they do not care

about things like birthdays.

Bella replied with as much patience as possible, holding back the urge to scream.

“Yes. It’s a celebration of the day you were born.”

“Humans celebrate all sorts of things.”

Instead of getting angry, Bella cut Zhanbar’s torso in half.

“Mister Zanbar is so fast that it’s fun to play. It would take three days for me and Pur to be cut.”

“Then, why do you keep messing with her, Mister Zanbar.”

When Jenkins grabbed Zanbar’s upper body, Zanbar became furious.

“I don’t need your help.”

“Oh my God, Jen. He doesn’t need your help. How can he be so cruel?”

“Stop clinging to me.”

She asked Kiehl again without listening to the demons’ chatter.

“Kiehl, it’s your birthday today, so if there’s anything you want to do, just tell me.”

“Why is today… my birthday?”

At that, Bella whispered the answer she had prepared in advance to Kiehl’s. She smiled and said, “This is a secret, but an angel came and told me at night.”

Is being told by an angel better than a demon?

Fortunately, the demons were arguing with each other as if they had not heard.

Kiehl was a bit nervous but simply nodded his head.

“Kiehl, is there anything you want to do? What do you want to have?”

He hesitated and grabbed Bella’s hem.

“Huh? Want me to buy you some clothes?”

Silence filled the bow as he hesitated for a while before answering.

“I… I want to be a prince.”

Bella laughed as she stroked Kiehl’s hair.

‘Oh my gosh. You have been a Prince from the beginning.’

“Yes. Kiehl’s the Prince today.”

She banged on the table and talked to the demons who were bickering with each other in useless words. Turning their attention back to Kiehl again.

“Come on, today Kiehl is a prince, so everyone should call Kiehl a prince! Okay?”

“Is there such a weak prince?”

Bella’s lips twitched at Zhanbar’s sarcasm.

‘I’m dying to cut you to pieces.’

Kiehl, who became a prince today, said in a low voice, blushing his face.

“Because I’m a prince, then the princess…”

But suddenly, Pur raised her hand and cut off his sentence, “Then there is something I want to do with the prince!”

“What?”

“Play tag!”

Bella continued to have a smile on her lips, but she was sweating inside. From the birthday song to now, there wasn’t a single thing that Bella liked.

‘What kind of tag are you playing with the prince? Isn’t that weird…?’

Pur rummaged through the drawer, pulled out several eye patches and placed them on the table.

“If you cover your eyes with this, the tagger will catch you. You can eat the person caught by the tagger!”

“What are you eating? Are you crazy?”

“Obviously, Iwer said that she was going to catch the princes and eat them…”

When everyone’s eyes turned to Iwer, Iwer pulled out her own tail and fiddled with it.

“Oh my gosh. It’s not like that.”

“Crazy…”

Bella’s expression quickly cooled. While Jenkins, who was examining her complexion, hurriedly intervened.

“Well, then, why not try the tag game of the human world instead of the tag game played in the Animal Kingdom?”

“Wow!”

Kiehl and Bella hated both, but sighed as they looked at the rest already excited and out of control.

And so, the tag began.

It wasn’t the weird tag like what Iwer suggested earlier, it was just a normal tag game. The demons who went out into the garden shackled their two feet so that Kiehl could catch them well.

“Isn’t this too much?”

“Look at the stride. You have to play with a human.”

Pur was the first to become a tagger after playing rock, paper, scissors.

“Then, let’s go!”

As soon as Bella started playing this game, she was thinking ‘Oops.’ It was because Pur jumped on all fours and caught Jenkins first. It wasn’t even a few seconds.

“This is a foul.”

“Yeah, run on both feet, no matter what!”

At that, Zanbar said, ‘Sheesh,’ before spewing out smoke and turning into a human again.

‘Did you also try to play tag as a leopard?’

Again, Jenkins became the tagger. He ran a lot faster than expected. And the moment he was about to catch Iwer, who was right in front of him,

“Isn’t it a foul to fly?”

“I agree with the foul. Don’t fly.”

“Heh…”

It seemed to go beyond common sense to play tag with demons more than she thought. The demons rushed while Kiehl only ran away with a small step.

“Hey! Kiehl fell!”

Suddenly, when Kiehl became a tagger, they ran away so far that he could hardly catch up.

‘Those are…’

When Bella cut Zhanbar in half, Kiehl was barely able to catch the severed Zanbar.

“Isn’t this also a foul?”

“No.”

Then, Pur vomited out anger and whined. “Lady, you are so mean!”

“What.”

“Why do you only like the young master?”

Bella approached Kiehl, wrapped around him, and glared at the other demons. ‘Why so serious? What’s with them now… Should they be this serious about a game?

“Kiehl’s a child.”

“I’m a teddy bear, too!”

“It’s been two hundred years since you were born.” Bella stared at Pur, but Zhanbar nodded his head at Pur’s words.

“Bears at two hundred years old, they’re still babies.”

“That’s right! Bear life is from the age of five hundred! Please like Pur as well!”

“Okay. I like Pur too. All right?”

“Wow! It’s exciting! Tomorrow is my birthday!”

When Pur ran to Bella and hugged her, she frowned slightly.

It’s not that simple.

She was said to have been designated as Bella’s maid even before she was born, but rather than her maid, it was like a burden Bella had to take care of.

‘Well, it’s still like a doll, so I’ll let you off the hook.’

Letting go of the fact, she turned her head to Kiehl, who was gazing at her gently.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“It’s okay.”

“Should we stop playing tag?”

Kiehl nodded his head as if he had waited.

“Kiehl, is there anything else you want to do because you are a prince today?”

“Well then, since I’m the Prince…”

He was rather shy as he blushed and said one word at a time.

A wish that can only be said at this age—

He grabbed Bella’s hem.

“Get married to the Prin…”

It wasn’t even a pause. However, Pur snatched it up and interrupted again.

“Can I be the prince tomorrow?”

“Oh, you can do it tomorrow.”

Bella barely shrugged Pur off as if she was annoying. Meanwhile, Kiehl was frustrated. What kind of obstacles are there in making just one wish? He hurriedly made a wish to Bella, fearing he would be disturbed again.

“Will you marry me, Princ…”

…Nonetheless, Pur raised her hand again.

“Ah! Then, Pur will get married tomorrow!”

“Then, we can marry the Young Master and Pur.”

“Wow!”

Kiehl bit his lip.

‘I’m supposed to get the prettiest.’