By Zephyria 
I spent my days so busy that I didn’t know how they passed. The Crown Prince was even busier than I was, as he took on most of the Emperor’s duties.
He had to sort out the messed-up internal affairs of the Imperial Castle, so he had no time to pay attention to what was happening outside. Thanks to that, all external security issues became my responsibility.
The Crown Prince never explicitly told me to do it, but I was too ashamed to just stand by and do nothing.
At first, I used to get beaten up a few times while I was at it, but it was too hard to get up the next day, so I stopped doing that a while ago. Living like this, my goals became blurred at some point.
Was it because I was dreaming less and less? I took out the letters I had sealed away as if I were possessed. I expected them to be full of my resentment, but the contents of the letters were actually quite ordinary.
Neither excessively resentful nor excessively grateful, just simple updates like where they planned to go and what they planned to do, that they were thinking of settling down somewhere and opening a bakery, that they were going to get married and have children…
Just extremely ordinary things like that.
“…”
At first, I was a bit shocked, but as I read on, I felt more at peace. It was similar to the feeling I had that day when I was being tortured in the underground prison. Refreshing, peaceful, and somehow calming.
I wanted to feel that again, so I deliberately got kidnapped and beaten up by all sorts of terrible guys, but it was all useless.
I reread the letters several times and then had someone track down their locations. And every month on the last day, I sent them all a certain amount of money as compensation.
Now I had a lot of money to spend. I wasn’t a child with nothing like I was back then. Anyway, scattering some money around made me feel strangely at ease, so I decided to use this method for the rest of my life.
It was cost-effective since I didn’t have to go through the trouble of getting kidnapped or beaten up.
“Eek!”
I was wondering how to use the territory I had been granted when I suddenly heard a strange scream. Curious, I went to the window and saw a girl sitting on the grass, rubbing her bottom.
She looked to be around Sakira’s age, and she couldn’t get up, whimpering as if she had tripped while walking. Was she a child brought by a Servant? She looked too young to be working.
Besides, when I looked closer at her clothes…
I frowned as I observed her from head to toe. The accessories the child was wearing were not ordinary items.
“Aish…”
She grumbled and stood up, stomping her feet on the ground. What family did she belong to that she was acting like this in the Imperial Palace?
I opened the window and jumped straight down. Seeing me suddenly fall from the sky, she fell backward again, landing on her bottom.
“Mommy!”
“What are you doing here?”
At my question, she blankly stared before jumping to her feet. Then, she circled around me as if observing me. After scanning me up and down for a while, she widened her eyes and muttered.
“Kyle? You’re Kyle, right?”
“…”
She knew who I was and yet she was speaking informally? I was momentarily flustered and couldn’t answer, so the girl suddenly clapped her hands and started cheering.
“Right? Right? I finally met you!”
“…”
“I’ve only seen baby Kyle on the video stone, but now I’ve met the real Kyle!”
Baby Kyle? Video stone? What was all this about? I was curious and she didn’t seem dangerous, so I frowned and asked.
“Where did you come from?”
“Where did I come from? Are you talking to me?”
“How can you be so rude when you know who I am?”
“Friends are supposed to speak informally.”
What was she talking about…? Friends? What friends? Was she mentally ill? I was so dumbfounded that I thought she might have something wrong with her head.
I carefully asked again.
“What is your name?”
“My name? Nadia!”
“Nadia? Who are your parents…”
I stopped speaking mid-sentence. I remembered where I had heard that name before. It was someone I never expected to see. I made a sour face and asked again, just in case.
“Crown Princess?”
“That’s right. Mahir told me a lot about you. But you’ve been getting hurt a lot recently, so he said we should wait until you’re fully healed to visit you, so it kept getting postponed. But then he got super busy and didn’t have time. So I just came to see you by myself. Good job, right?”
Nadia spoke urgently, panting as if she was being chased by a ferocious beast. She kept staring at me intently and saying things, and I didn’t know how to react.
“Why did you come here?”
“Ah! That’s right! To give you this!”
She took out a handkerchief that had been folded several times from her pocket. She held it out as if telling me to take it, but I didn’t move. How did I know what that was?
“I baked these for you.”
Since I didn’t react, Nadia carefully unfolded the handkerchief. Inside, I saw pieces of unknown objects of various sizes.
“Oh no, did they break when I fell earlier?”
“What is that?”
“Cookies I baked.”
No matter how I looked at it, it didn’t look like cookies… The color was a bit strange too. Did she put poison in it? I stared at it suspiciously, and Nadia picked up a slightly larger piece and handed it to me.
“Try this one.”
“Why would I eat that?”
“It would be a waste to throw it away just because it’s broken.”
“You’re telling me to eat it because it’s a waste? Do you think I’m a trash can?”
I frowned and spoke coldly, and her face turned sullen. It was absurd that she was glaring at me with stubborn eyes, but I couldn’t scold her for being rude.
If she wasn’t the Crown Princess, I would have just kicked her out.
I clicked my tongue and asked.
“What did you put in this?”
“Flour, eggs, butter, nuts… and so on.”
There wouldn’t be poison, right? Even if there was, I could digest some of it, so it would be okay. I had no choice but to take the cookie piece she offered and put it in my mouth because she looked like she would keep nagging me if I didn’t eat it. It didn’t taste like much, but it was good to chew because it had nuts in it.
“I’ll be careful not to fall next time I come.”
“You’re coming again?”
I asked in surprise, but she didn’t answer and folded the handkerchief again before turning around and running.
“……?”
I was bewildered as I watched her small back getting further and further away.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
I thought it would just end as a unique experience, but Nadia really did bake a lot of cookies and brought them again, just like she said she would. I couldn’t chase her away, and they actually tasted pretty good, so I just accepted them.
“Mahir also cried when he was young because he didn’t want to study.”
“Lies.”
“It’s true. Mahir doesn’t lie to me.”
“He really cried?”
The Crown Prince in my mind was… like a giant pine tree covered in armor. He was someone who had mastered everything in the world and knew everything, so he was also nosy, not human at all.
I couldn’t believe that such a person cried because he didn’t want to study.
“But this is a secret, so pretend you don’t know. He might get sulky if I told you.”
“Sulky?”
I couldn’t imagine it at all.
“And actually, he told me not to tell anyone. Ah, I accidentally said it…”
Nadia slapped her forehead with her tiny hand, blaming herself. I frowned as I watched Nadia hurting herself.
“How can you be so careless as the Crown Princess? Tsk tsk.”
“I’m usually tight-lipped. I only told you because you’re my friend. And you’re Mahir’s brother too.”
“You should be most careful of me. Originally, royals should be most careful of their siblings. You’re too young to know anything, you pathetic thing. The Crown Prince will never let you off if he finds out about your reckless behavior.”
I started to feel anxious, wondering if she would act like this in other places too. The nobles were already trying to find fault with the Crown Prince with their eyes burning with ambition.
Nadia smirked mockingly when I frowned.
“Mahir can’t scold me.”
“Why?”
“Because he likes me.”
Was she naive or just stupid…? I was dumbfounded and couldn’t say anything. I was staring at her with a look close to contempt when she suddenly gasped and muttered.
“He can’t scold me, right?”
The confident expression from before had disappeared, and she was suddenly getting anxious. I instinctively sensed something and asked, just in case.
“Did you cause some trouble?”
“Actually, I didn’t tell anyone I was coming here.”
“What?”
“I skipped class…”
What was she talking about?
I dismissed it as nonsense, but the Crown Prince appeared not long after. Judging from his stern expression, he was clearly angry.
Nadia panicked and fidgeted, then suddenly pointed at me and said urgently.
“Kyle tempted me to play with him!”
“……?”
I couldn’t help but be greatly surprised by the unexpected accusation. The betrayal was even greater because she was someone I hadn’t been wary of at all. The Crown Prince sighed and approached Nadia.
“Didn’t I tell you that you always have to be careful in the Imperial Castle? This is different from Oa. I clearly told you that you can’t act without formality like you did there, right?”
“No, I didn’t mean to do that…”
“Why is your nail broken?”
“Huh? When did this happen?”
He smoothed out Nadia’s wrinkled clothes, brushed off the dust, and examined her here and there. I slowly backed away as I watched him. I thought he might blame me for the Crown Princess’s injuries.
But the Crown Prince came to me and personally smoothed out my wrinkled clothes, just like he did for her. He brushed off the dust and groped my shoulders and arms before sighing.
“You’re coming too.”
“……”
Then, he suddenly put his hands under my armpits, lifted me up, and started walking. Nadia followed the Crown Prince, chattering constantly.
“I dug up the dirt and made a house, but ants came out.”
“Stop playing with dirt now. How old do you think you are?”
“T-That was also because Kyle tempted me to do it…”
“……”
I was completely bewildered by the situation and could only blink as I was being dangled in the air.