Chapter 25

…..A rabbit was in his arms. I don’t know how, but a real pink rabbit.

The pink rabbit that you’ve only seen in fairy tales.

“Because you like pink, I brought a rabbit from the kingdom of Melia raised by the princess.”

The third prince took the rabbit from the maid and shouted brightly as he handed it over to us.

‘Princess……the rabbit she raised?’

‘…….’

The next day there was an unwanted rabbit kennel next to the raccoon kennel.

******

“……He’s going to play.”

Iron.

Argen dropped the wooden sword in his hand. The wooden sword was broken and split in half and so the iron core that had been embedded inside fell and made a bizarre sound.

“It’s not a lie.”

“…… Play? What are you talking about?”

As if he had heard a sound that he really shouldn’t hear, his face gradually became pale and soon he grabbed my body and started to shake.

I felt more nauseous when Argen shook me, but I didn’t think I was going to throw up.

“……The Second Prince came and told me to pick a place I want to go to play.”

I met the second prince on behalf of Argen, who began sword training under the emperor’s orders.

I tried to learn swordsmanship together, but it was so hard that I gave up with a light heart. Argen also envied me in tears, but he couldn’t refuse the emperor’s orders, so he had to lift his sword.

I began to dig deeper into magic than Argen did instead. At that time, the wizard from the tower looked at me and Argen with a curious look and firmly said that Argen had no talent for magic.

Argen has only half of my mana, as if he was sharing mana with someone.

On the other hand, he said I was so full of mana that I was equal to the Third Prince.

I was glad to hear that.

Argen raised the sword and I began to learn magic with joy. It’s a difference in talent and couldn’t be helped.

“The Second Prince?”

“The Second Prince.”

No one was there except for two maids standing in the distance, so I talked to Argen in a quiet voice.

“He’s going to play? Why?”

“Maybe to get some fresh air.”

I shook my head, thinking that I had been stuck in my room for almost a month.

For nearly a week, the imperial palace was noisy. The first prince who often comes without a word, the second prince who comes to see us, and the third prince, who suddenly attacks and plays, did not come for a week.

The emperor also did not enter the bedroom even though it was his own room.

I wondered if I could be comfortable for a week like that, but the 2nd Prince, who came to watch us quietly as usual fired a bomb.

When Argen tried to pick up the wooden sword, the maids ran to stop him and gave him a new sword.

The maids stormed in and naturally cut off the conversation. Of course it was on the outside.

‘Is it a duty? Do you have to go?’

‘Ask for yourself.’

‘.…..?’

‘I’m out here.’

That said, Argen turned even more pale.

He seems to be in a bad condition these days, butI clasped my hand hoping that his stress would not build up further.

******

“Hi.”

“…… Hello.”

Argen bent down and glanced slightly and I also nodded. I already had a one-sided conversation, so I followed Argen and only bowed my head without saying a word.

When he saw us like that, the Second Prince let out a deep breath.

“Shall we stop saying such greetings?”

‘No, I don’t want to.’

At that moment, Argen’s voice rang in my head and I thought he had spit it out of his mouth and sighed.

I knew it wasn’t, but I couldn’t help it that my eyes got fierce.

While staring at Argen, I reached out when he hesitated to answer the second prince’s words.

“Would you like to come here and sit down?”

He pointed across from him.

The soft and friendly expression was so sweet that everyone who saw it would be excited and relaxed, but I was nervous about what expression might be hidden under the mask.

I took Argen’s hand, approached the chair, and sat down carefully.

Looking at the picturesque scene in front of me, I picked up the fork to eat the cake in front of me.

The emperor imposed a ban on sweet foods other than once a day because the chief of staff said we should not eat too much sweets.

And now seems to be today’s snack time.

If I miss this moment, I thought there would be no more snack time today, so I touched the cake with macaron on it.

I thought I wouldn’t be blamed for eating this, and in fact, I picked up a cake for Argen, who has been sensitive to the outside air for a long time these days.

I split the macaron on top in half and put a piece in Argen’s mouth and ate the remaining pieces.

‘Why?’

‘You like red macarons.’

‘If I like it, you like it, too.’

‘Of course I like it because it’s delicious.’

The question was asked by Argen, who was suspicious of putting half the red macaron in his mouth, but I answered smoothly.

Argen already had breakfast and finished the muffins in the morning, so today’s dessert was not left.

I would be happy if I ate something sweet, so I put it in advance so that the second prince wouldn’t make a mistake.

In particular, while others didn’t know, Argen’s condition was strangely getting worse so I was more cautious.

‘It’s delicious.’

‘The yellow macarons are delicious.’

‘That’s right, that’s right, yellow. It’s fresh, sweet, and delicious.’

With a red macaron in his mouth, he answered as if he were escaping from reality. It’s a private conversation, but after this, I was afraid that the Second Prince would bring up the idea of going to play again.

He was just watching us quietly mumbling away.

When Argen had nothing to do after eating the macarons, the strange atmosphere made he even more wary.

With fingers rubbing, I ended up sharing half of my cake with Argen.

“Delicious?”

He said abruptly without saying anything else.

In order to ignore the second prince, both of us stopped while immersed in eating the cake.

Then he reached out and lifted my chin up.

I took a breath while he rubbed the whipped cream off on my lips with a gloved hand as if it were nothing

When Argen saw him, he quickly licked his lips with his tongue.

‘Traitor!’

‘…… That could have been a disaster.’

The second prince looked disappointed, turning his head toward Argen as if he was planning to wipe it the same way.

I heard Argen say he got goosebumps, but was really relieved.

“So, have you decided where to go?”

“…… oh, no.”

When the subject of the place to go to play came out, my arm muscles were tense.

Looking back at Argen, he had a blank face all day long and only I could recognize it.

Why are you trying to be so nice to us?

When I saw Argen talking out of the blue and I secretly thought so too.

“To play……Why?”

I nodded my head at Argen’s words. That’s what I asked him earlier.

He said while closing his eyes languidly.

“You told our father you wanted to get some fresh air.”

With the words, I quickly spoke to Argen.

‘When did we?’

‘Have you ever done that?’

‘No way.’

‘It doesn’t make sense.’

‘Then what does that mean?’

The second prince swept Argen’s cheek with his index finger like he had found something. The fattened cheeks were pushed up and down with elasticity.

Argen groaned and hung on to me while avoiding the gaze and I clasped the drink with both hands.

“It’s soft. Is it baby fat?”

“…….”

“Eiji doesn’t have it, but he’s still a baby.”

He rubbed Argen’s cheek a couple of times with his index finger so it wouldn’t hurt.

“When I was five……I went to war with my father.”

Hueb. Both of us inhaled. I felt like my throat was clogging up, so I took a straw and sucked up the drink.

” It’s not possible because you’re babies.”

“…… that’s fine.”

“No way, I can’t forgive that.”

“…….”

The Second Prince leaned his head against the chair and gave a laugh.

“For young babies, that’s too much.”

Did they leave us like that because it was too much? Instead of picking up the decorated chocolate craft next to the cake, I blinked my eyes.

“You’re not like us.”

What do you want to say to us?

The eyes sank low.

“You only need to see good things…….”

He cut off a piece of chocolate cake in front of me and picked it up with a fork. Argen spoke to me as if it were trivial.

‘What we’ve seen is the scars left on our bodies.’

I comforted him a couple of times to calm down by the melancholy words.

Argen’s condition was a little dangerous. Even the teachers who came today were so low in pressure that he was determined to bite them somehow.

“Listen only to the good things.”

The second prince held a fork in front of Argen’s mouth and I grabbed Argen’s clothes because he was in big trouble.

‘I prayed to Lulahel a lot when I was a real baby. And I’ve heard a lot of curses from Lulahel.’

We were like a walking time bomb walking around. We lived there and grew up there. How can we not go crazy? We were proud enough to be fine.

“You’re little children who we have to give good things to. Right?”

However, if there was a problem, I sometimes couldn’t control my anger and Argen was in a hurry to express his feelings.

‘No matter how good it is……Is that really good for us?’

There’s no situation in the Imperial palace that could provoke us, so it seemed fine, but…….

Argen couldn’t bear the unfair feelings and shouted at Lulahel several times. So did I, but not as much as Argen.

It was just so.

At some point, We couldn’t express our emotions and lived like that, but the resentment came out from time to time.

Argen’s hands were tightened.

I have never been out of the cage for five years. I just lived like that without getting a comfortable haven for what I want to do, what I want to eat, or a place to rest..

Now you say you want to do something good with a pretentious face.

“So I wanted to show you something good.”

It meant nothing to us.

“Let’s go out to play, huh?”

Don’t force us to make good luck.

Tears streamed down from Argen’s eyes.

I know it’s not worth crying, but who will know if I don’t know why he was crying. Argen held my hand with feelings of anger and I held his hand calmly in return.

From some point in time, Argen’s eyes were shedding tears for my share of tears.