Chapter 9
It was a typical morning.
“What’s this?”
Elaine asked, sneaking a peek at what Alice was holding.
It was a pair of unusually fancy shoes that seemed to be too good to wear.
“It’s a gift from the Queen Dowager given by the informant. Congratulations on becoming part of the royal family.”
“My grandma…”
“Mhm. Why don’t you say thank you the next time you meet the Queen Dowager?”
“Yes! I will!”
Alice grinned as Elaine clenched her little fist.
Elaine quickly looked at the yellow shoes on her feet and glanced up.
“Little lady, why don’t we take a walk?”
“Like this?”
Wow!
Elaine took a few steps and her eyes widened. It was a pair of new shoes, but surprisingly, they felt comfortable as if it fit just right on her feet.
However, the sound of the shoes that she heard every time she walked was a little annoying, Elaine looked back at Alice, who was leaning against the wall.
“Unnie, is this how it’s supposed to sound?”
“Oh, does it bother you?”
“Not really…”
Elaine’s eyes trembled and shook her head, and Alice put her hand on her cheek.
“Well, that’s a relief. If you don’t like your new shoes, there are people who will be upset.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
Elaine, who was shifting her feet back and forth for a while, tilted her head.
It’s because she was concerned about the sound that Elaine couldn’t hear Alice properly.
Alice looked at Elaine and shook her head quickly.
“Oh no. Shall we go outside now that the restrictions in the palace have been lifted?”
“Oh!”
Elaine nodded with excitement.
She was not free to go wherever she wanted when she was just a pawn.
The palace where Elaine was staying, the path to the Emperor’s palace, the palace garden, and the artificial lake, where she went only once on a night walk, were the only places accessible.
However, when she became a princess, she was allowed to enter all places except for a few prohibited places in the palace.
Elaine, who didn’t even explore the whole palace yet, felt like it was adventure time!
Squeak.
…that sounds a little annoying!
Elaine, who was in high spirits, was busy following Alice’s guidance.
Then…
“Unnie, what are you doing there?”
Elaine followed Alice to the wide yard and hesitated when she saw two other maids waiting there.
It was strange to see two people holding large black objects and a pink ball.
Then Bailey put a huge smile on her face.
“Huhuhu. We’ve been waiting for you here for a while.”
Shwik-
Click!
“?”
Elaine heard a strange sound…
In addition, the black objects seemed to sparkle even though it was only for a moment.
Elaine tilted her head, when a mysterious chill rose up her spine right after seeing the new object; moreover Bailey’s expression made it more terrifying.
Then Cathy, who appeared out of nowhere, handed over the pink ball to Elaine.
“Princess, here you go.”
“Huh? Oh, thank you.”
Elaine stared at her serious face when she was handed the ball.
‘Aren’t I too old to play with a ball?’
Playing with a ball on the floor instead of hitting it was quite fun.
Only if Elaine was a real four-year-old.
Elaine had also played ball at this age before her regression.
With an odd ball made of leather, which was already worn out and about to be deflated.
‘After that, I always thought that playing with a ball would be too immature.’
It was not a good memory, and it was enough to make her lose interest in this type of stuff.
However, soon after that, Cathy’s words shocked her.
“It’s an artifact created by the wizards of the Imperial Palace. It’s going to be more fun than a regular ball because it has wind magic in it.”
“An artifact?”
Her hand that was holding the ball began to tremble slightly.
She couldn’t believe that there would be magic applied to a plain old ball. As expected, the toys of the royal family are different from that of other classes.
Probably from the result of the flooding income of funds and manpower.
Elaine, who was staring blankly at the pink ball, threw it with all her strength.
Fwoosh-
Bang-!
“Huh?”
The ball, which lowered to the ground, bounced off the platform and flew up in the air.
The ball flew past the clouds and alarmed a flock of birds that passed by.
As Elaine pondered at the miracle, Cathy’s voice rang out.
“I’m sorry, but I think the wind magic has been overloaded. Do you want me to take care of it?”
“What will you take care of?”
“……”
She couldn’t understand why Cathy went silent all of a sudden.
Elaine didn’t know why, but she felt chills on her back which made her gulp.
She shook her head, thinking it would be better to not dig deeper into whatever it was.
“But what’s wrong with unnie?”
“Oh, continue playing. Never mind me.”
Bailey creeped up from behind Cathy and smirked.
“You have to take a picture of the princess! Look at her cute face!”
Elaine turned her head slowly.
She didn’t know why, but she felt like she shouldn’t get involved.
More than that, what was that black thing?
‘Is that an artifact, too?’
She would like to ask about it, but she didn’t want to be a bother.
“Oh my, what are you all doing?”
At that time, Alice, who was standing far away from Elaine, rushed over and pulled her away.
“Don’t mind these two and let’s go for a walk in the garden, okay?”
“Okay! Yay!”
Elaine was really curious about the lake she saw during the day.
She shouted excitedly, raising her hands up in the air.
***
Click. Clack.
Elaine, who arrived at the artificial lake beyond the palace garden, wandered around.
It was a magnificent view.
Elaine opened her eyes wide to take in another beautiful sight of the lake from that night stroll.
“Unnie! This place is pretty!”
“Princess, don’t run, it’s dangerous!”
“Oh no! I’ll be careful.”
Elaine, who stopped running after hearing Alice’s warning, paused and looked out from behind the railings.
This was because another scene that could not be seen at night, was unfolding right in front of her eyes.
“Oh my gosh! It’s in the water!”
“Pretty, huh? It’s a silk carp that’s been handed down from generation to generation since the founding of the empire. That biggest carp over there is the oldest.”
“The oldest?”
“Yes, that’s right. Aw, you’re so cute, princess.”
Leaving Alice behind, Elaine slowly made her way closer.
She saw a carp that made her mouth hang open with surprise.
“Would you like to feed it?”
“Huh? Give it something to eat?”
“Cathy.”
Cathy, who appeared slowly at Alice’s call, held out something.
Elaine looked at it. It was a basket full of sandwiches and cool drinks. Various picnic dishes were filling the basket.
Elaine found macarons in the corner of the basket and looked at Cathy with a touched expression.
“Unnie is the best…”
“Aww, princess. I brought it because I knew you would like it.”
“Cathy unnie, as expected.”
Cathy rubbed the tip of her nose proudly at Elaine’s praise.
Her high spirits, which differed from her usual emotionless tone, was surprising.
Elaine smiled and took out a roll of macarons in one hand and looked at the silk carp.
First of all, she needed to have a bite of the macarons!
“Hmm!”
Hah!
It was delicious!
The satisfaction rose from her toes to the top of her head.
Elaine, who devoured the whole macaron with a strange munching sound, took a handful of bread this time and broke it into bite sized pieces.
The surface of the lake reflected off the sun’s rays beautifully.
When the bread was sprinkled, the silk carp jumped up to catch the bread in a rush.
Plop!
As the carp began to eat its meal, Elaine also reached into the basket.
‘Okay, I’ll eat all the macarons first!’
***
Elaine began having her delicious meal.
A few steps away from her, Alice reached out to Bailey.
“?”
An abrupt but definite gesture was concurred.
Bailey, who stopped doing what she was doing for a while, looked at Alice.
“What is it?”
“Why do you pretend not to know? It’s all because of you, now you’re banned from doing dangerous stuff like from earlier.”
“What are you talking about? Cathy was in it too.”
“Cathy went to get the ball.”
The remark left Bailey speechless.
“…Okay I’ll give you your share. But not for free. You have to pay for your share. You know how expensive it was for me?”
It was the black object that Elaine had been curious about.
Bailey smirked when she touched the artifact called “Memory Storage”.
It was a smile of arrogance because it was expensive.
However, Alice merely shrugged her shoulders.
“You must have forgotten. I’m a Count’s daughter. Money doesn’t matter at all.”
“Yea, I almost forgot, but you weren’t making it very obvious.”
“I’m going to do that for today, so get your stuff ready on time.”
“Of course.”
“You should at least pretend to not…”
Bailey pouted when Alice and Cathy stepped in.Thanks to that, her share will be reduced a little, but there was nothing Bailey could do about it.
Now that they had finished discussing, it was time to take more pictures!
Ka-chak!
Bailey burned with a strange enthusiasm.
Elaine, who had begun eating her sandwich, tilted her head.
‘It’s weird. Why is there something shiny over there?’
It was next to Elaine.
If she followed it, there would be a strange and beautiful light overflowing just around the corner.
An oddly warm light.
At a distance that was likely reachable, Elaine stretched her short arm towards the light.
But at that moment…
“Huh?”
“Krik!”
Her foot stumbled.
As soon as she lost her balance, the world suddenly spun upside down.
Elaine blinked as she saw Alice running towards her and the two frightened maids leaning over to examine her.
The fastest was Cathy, who caught Elaine’s clothes in a hurry. However, the hem she caught ripped and Elaine started falling again.
And…
Plop-!
-What to do?
-The princess fell into the water!
-Princess! Princess!
Rumble.
Elaine, who fell into the cold lake, cried as she heard a sound.
‘Oh no, was my head always this heavy?’
She had just leaned over a little bit.
Elaine was going to give up if she couldn’t reach it, but she ended up falling.
A perfect miscalculation.
Surely, Elaine, whose life had ended as quickly as it happened, was about to go through it again.
Elaine was struggling to push away her embarrassment and held her breath. Suddenly, a bright light rose again behind her.
And she felt warmth.
‘What is this…’
How could it even make this cold water feel warm?
Elaine wanted to know what it was, but the body of the vulnerable child cried out “It’s too much.”
She started to lose her breath.
To make matters worse, Elaine’s eyes were slowly beginning to close.
Flash!
A colorful gemlike stone appeared before her eyes, only to fade away along with her vision.
‘What on earth is this?’
The stone trembled as if it were trying to answer Elaine’s question. The surrounding water rippled, and Elaine felt a shiver up her spine again.
Up until now, Elaine had just thought that the stone was a little unusual.
But that thought was shattered as the stone quickly approached her.
-Child… Child…
‘I must have gone crazy, it even talks…’
Her eyes completely closed after such an incredible phenomenon.
The sound of wind rushed into her ears.
-Elaine!
Elaine fainted after feeling the warmth of someone’s embrace.