Chapter 55
1840 Words
Chapter 55
I felt thoroughly embarrassed to the point of wanting to die... why... why are they like this? Why must I go through this chagrin dilemma? Though thankfully (not really), the doctor arrived quicker than I thought.
’Okay... I’ll just get quickly checked up and show them that I’m completely fine. That would be the best-case scenario.’
.....But as usual, god would not allow things to go as I wished it to.
Slam!
"Mabel!"
The door swung open with a loud bang and the emperor hurried inside with a sense of heavy urgency.
"Greetings, Your Majesty."
"Mabel, are you all right?"
.....Did... did he just ignore her...? Yes... he did.
The emperor passed by the nanny who bowed to him. He never once realized her presence as he dashed straight away to the cradle, his hands stretching out towards me.
"!"
I turned my head to the side and shut my eyes tight. A moment later, his hand reached out and touched me softly, his movements cautious, afraid I’d break apart. When I opened my eyes, albeit slowly, I saw the emperor’s face. He was sweating, his hair madly disheveled. A weird feeling went through me.
"Doctor!"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
A fairly aged doctor expert examined me, then turned around to face the emperor.
"After examining her–"
"Well, what is it?"
"Her Highness is–"
"Is she sick? Go on, tell me."
"....."
Because the emperor kept cutting off the doctor before he could finish his words, even he lost the energy to reply. Even I felt tired from their sorry exchange.
’Just let him talk.’
In this suffocating and tense moment, the person who broke the ice was Oscar who stood at the corner without showing signs of his presence.
"Your Majesty, please calm down first and listen to what the doctor has to say."
"Why are you here?"
".....Ah...!"
Oscar let out a surprised gasp realizing that he was not supposed to be here.
’.....Dummy.’
The emperor dominated over Oscar with a simple glare, then turned around to face the doctor.
"Well, go on. Speak."
"Your Majesty, after examining Her Highness, the conclusive result I found was that she’s very healthy. According to reports, it was stated that she was having cold sweats, but it seems to be from a sudden rise in temperature than anything else."
Yes, that’s right. It was hot. The doctor’s examination was spot on, but the emperor’s eyes filled with suspicion did not stop.
"Why would she suddenly feel a heated temperature? You know well the inside of the palace has its temperature controlled by magic."
"I-I’m not sure the reason why, but since she’s no longer sweating, Her Highness will do just fine."
At the doctor’s assurance, the emperor’s tense mood quickly subsided.
".....Then that’s good."
He put his hands on my underarm and lifted me, pulling me into his chest and patting my back with better finesse this time.
’Huh...’
A strange feeling swelled over me this time as well. His comforting pats that were annoying at first caught me off guard and for a slight moment gave me a feeling of assurance and comfort...
T/N: This father and son duo c***k me up.
: Mabel is Sick?
: Mabel is Sick?
: Mabel is Sick?
minutes before Esteban had plans to see Mabel, he was caught amid a periodical conference meeting. The atmosphere was calm and quiet. The servants, as well as Igurni and Esteban who sat at the top seat all wore a severe expression on their faces.
"More than were injured among the guards instructed with transportation, Your Majesty."
"How were you able to know beforehand, Your Majesty, that was simply a young boy?!"
The topic at hand was the man, no, youth commonly nicknamed .
’.’
The youth had caused him a trouble of headaches and problems to the Ermano Empire as of recent. was famous for his complete black dressing without proper armor or weapons on hand. He’d oftentimes go on a merciless one-sided murder rampage before disappearing completely into the shadows. As the soldiers of the Great Ermano looked on, helplessly watching their allies brutally cut down without any semblance and chance of retaliation, the youth was dubbed . The youth had no other information of his past other than his birth origin, Deblin, and that his gender was male.
The servants yelped in shock.
"To think he was caught!"
Less than a month ago had passed since the soldiers of the Ermano Empire successfully captured alive.
Esteban tried to recall the details of the report of his capture.
’He was in the midst of brutally cutting up the flesh of a soldier before ceasing all actions suddenly. Huh...’
After took off the black robe covering his body whole, the nearby onlookers were shocked to the core that he was simply a small child. None had noticed his small frame due to his extremely sharp and quick movements and moving around from one target to another so fast that no eye could match his movements.
"How close is he?"
"We predict his arrival within a few days. However, if he goes crazy, his arrival will be delayed."
".....Huh."
"We believe that he has no semblance of logic and rationality."
"We’ll find out once he’s here. Make sure to keep security high and a lock on him so he does not escape. See to it that this does not occur."
As the tense conference continued, a servant quietly walked in and shyly sauntered to the emperor and whispered a grave matter to his ear...
"What?! Mable is in pain...?!"
He slammed the conference with a crashing thump and hurriedly stepped foot out of the conference room.
".....?"
Losing the presence of the king, the vassals looked at one another in a momentary sense of confusion.
Murmur, murmur...
The periodical conference room became noisy suddenly.
"If it’s Mable..."
"Is that not the princess born not too long ago?"
"I’m sure the holy capital of Abelardo aimed to take her and raise the princess in the holy city."
A while had passed that they’d forgotten the grave discussion regarding the scuffle that occurred at the border of the Deblin Empire as the vassals began sharing information about their precious princess, Mabel, to each other.
"I heard that her hair has the color of cherry blossoms, like the late queen herself."
"And that she inherited her blue eyes as well."
"I heard that she was a lovely existence."
"So cute that you could just to take a bite of her..."
They all came to the conclusion that the princess was cute. As she was too young to be placed in the public light, many rumors about her circulated en masse.
The topic quickly moved onto a different route.
"But didn’t His Majesty said the princess was unwell before leaving?"
".....What terrible news."
"Indeed..."
The vassals began worrying about Mabel’s health. When the death of their late queen was announced, tension and uneasiness rose throughout the empire, but thanks to Mabel’s existence, the higher-ups were able to stop the empire from experiencing a possibly troubling time. This fact made the vassals quite fond of the princess’ existence in many ways.
"She’s our future’s only hope."
.....On that night, many servants from affluent families lined up to Mabel’s building palace bearing rare and precious medicine from all over the world.
’Please grow up healthy and well, so that you may be able to one day suppress the emperor’s fiery personality!’
The servant’s repeated their master’s wishes, but unfortunately, their wishes did not reach Mabel who, at this time, slept soundly without a single idea of what was happening outside.
: Mabel is sick
: Mabel is sick
: Mabel is sick
Through this incident, I learned a very special and important lesson.
’From now on, I’ll only exercise while everyone’s sleeping.’
To think the world turned upside down in a colossal commotion over my supposedly cold sweat. After that incident, the emperor tirelessly checked up on my well-being often. Though if he came to visit me often, would it not actually be a regressive move as it’ll only stress me out to the point of pain?
"Ababa..."
But all I could muster were weak sounds that had no words or meaning.
Oscar, this older brother of mine, did not care whether he’d be scolded for seeing me and visited the room as often as he could – didn’t matter whether the emperor’s presence was here or not.
It was a leisurely afternoon when Oscar visited me as usual. This older brother of mine hanged onto the cradle as he studied me.
"Nanny, how long will it take for Mabel to speak?"
"Hmm... I think it would take at least years. Though that’s a bit too fast as well."
" years...?! In years?"
Oscar’s eyes widened in surprise, though it lasted only a moment as he looked back at me and smiled cheekily while poking my chubby cheek.
"Ah, well, that kind of time will pass on by in the blink of an eye."
".....?"
’Excuse me, you’re only years old, you know? Why are you acting so old?’
I was in disbelief.
The nanny smiled, finding my expression cute. But... two years... and that’s if I develop quickly. Though honestly, if only I had teeth then I’d be able to speak properly, but I need not hurry myself and attract unnecessary attention. I only hoped to grow up normally so I could escape the burdensome stares of everyone heavily invested in me.
’In any case, he’ll grow bored with me sooner or later and not visit me anymore, so I guess it doesn’t matter.’
"Your Highness, please stop touching Her Highness’ face."
"Okay."
With the nanny’s words, Oscar put his hand away from my cheek that was hot with warmth.
’I wonder when he’ll leave?’
I turned my head and looked out the window. Dinner time was far as the sun still hung high up in the sky.
"Mabel, are you bored?"
"Au." (No.)
"Nanny, it seems that Mabel is bored."
’.....I said no.’
But the nanny showed signs of disapproval.
"The problem is that Her Highness doesn’t show any interest in toys."
It’s not like I had the mind of a baby to begin with. If you whimsically shook those toys in me, I would show no interest in them, though I had to wonder whether to fake my interest to play the part of a normal baby.
Then, Oscar suddenly stood up.
"Let’s go out!"
"Nuwaa!" (Don’t want to!)
I strongly declined, but of course, my pleas were wrongly misinterpreted.
"What? You want to as well, Mabel? Nanny, Mabel said she wants to go out as well."
’I said no...!’
I sent pleading eyes towards the nanny. I was desperate, really desperate as our eyes met.
’Nanny, you know my feelings, right?’
The nanny gave a warm smile.
"Then let’s take a stroll outside."
.....Is there no one in this world who understands me?
***
- Writer
