“Melissa!”
Karina shouted and called Melissa in embarrassment.
Melissa repeatedly asked in a confident tone.
“Do you have it or not?”
“There is.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah.”
Claude bent her knees to meet Melissa’s eye level.
“She’s the princess of the South. She’ll be happy to see you.”
“……..”
Karina’s eyes got bigger.
‘You have a daughter.’
Claude was not lying to persuade Melissa.
The duke and his family were not ordinary nobles, but immediate family of monarchs.
Naturally, the Duke’s daughter will be called a princess.
Melissa grumbled as the situation did not go as expected.
Claude asked a question in a soft voice.
“Is there anything else you want, Melissa?”
“… I’ll go.”
“You’re a good kid.”
Claude lightly patted Melissa’s shoulder and stood up.
“If it’s okay with you Madam, I’ll ask the Landlord to get the carriage right away.”
“I have to pack my things.”
“I will send someone to do that. You’re still in pain. Excessive movement is not good.”
Karina opened her eyes in a circle.
‘How did you know?’
Although there was still some pain, she could endure it without blinking.
She thought she wasn’t making it obvious at all, but he noticed it.
“Mom, are you sick?”
“It’s nothing. I tripped over a stone on my way here.”
“Mom is big, so it will hurt more if you fall down. Are you okay?”
Roland spoke with a worried face.
Karina smiled and stroked Roland’s head.
“Let’s go. I don’t think there’s much time to delay.”
Claude gave the innkeeper gold coins and ordered him to call a carriage for four people.
The innkeeper shook his hands, put the gold coins into his pocket, and hurriedly left to call the carriage.
In a little bit.
The carriage arrived in front of the inn.
“…….oh.”
Karina blinked her eyes.
The carriage was the most luxurious carriage Karina has ever seen, with a shiny gold coat all over it and a silk curtain attached.
Claude’s absurd voice came out.
“It’s a little too much.”
It was all the more luxurious inside. Karina first learned that there was a carriage with a table inside.
On the table, snacks piled up with a wrapper that was too good to be torn off. Claude picked up one.
The words came out of Karina’s mouth earlier than expected.
“Sir, I think it would be better not to eat it.”
“Why?”
“There’s dust.”
Karina slightly swept the remaining snacks with her hands.
Dust that is seemingly invisible but cannot be hidden is on the hand.
“Originally, there must have been quite a lot of dust. But when we said we were going to ride it, I think they just shook it off.”
This carriage was really unsuitable for the cheap inn street where Karina stayed.
Perhaps it was made in case a wealthy merchant who stays on this street looks for a carriage.
Since it has never been used, the snacks must have remained untouched for a long time.
“You have good eyes.”
“In the past, I worked as a maid before I got married. We need to find out about this kind of thing right away.”
Karina was a little surprised at herself, talking about the past to the Duke without hesitation.
‘I need to watch my mouth.’
Karina closed her mouth.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Melissa whined all the way to the duke’s residence, so there was nothing more to talk to Claude than necessary to soothe the child.
How long has it been?
Roland pointed at the window and shouted.
“Mom, it’s a castle!”
As Karina approached the window out of curiosity, she soon realized how much she was under illusion.
Subconsciously, I thought that the duke’s residence was only a few times larger than the house of a general nobleman such as Sir Renke, but the sight in front of her was.…….
“It’s a palace.”
Melissa looked strange as she clung into the window.
The carriage arrived at a space that seems only to be used as a stop for the carriage.
Claude was the first to get off, followed by the children, and finally Karina.
“Mom……”
As soon as Karina stepped on the support of her high foot and carefully got off, Roland’s powerless voice came out.
“Roland?”
Karina hurriedly turned toward Roland.
“……!”
Her body hardened on its own.
A cute puppy with fluffy brown fur was waving its tail vigorously at Roland and Melissa.
In Karina’s mind, an event just a few months ago came.
A cute brown puppy caged in a dark basement.
Roland and Melissa looked pale.
She couldn’t help but watch them both.
Finally, at Lord Renke’s cold command.
“Roland, kill that.”
“I don’t think I can do it.”
Roland, who was trembling, eventually failed to kill the puppy, and Melissa was punished instead in return.
Of course, that wasn’t the end.
Sir Renke continued to urge Roland to kill the puppy.
Roland, who panicked while alternating looks between Melissa and the dog, eventually shouted a spell at the dog.
And….
Roland’s attack spell caused a major wound at Karina’s back, but at least the puppy was unharmed. Karina hugged the puppy.
However, the wounds the children received emotionally at the time did not disappear.
The duke’s dog shook its tails alternately toward both sides, as if it didn’t know who to welcome more, Roland or Melissa.
“Huh, uh, uh.”
Eventually, Roland collapsed as if his leg had lost strength.
The dog thought it was an attempt to get close, so he climbed on Roland’s knee, which had frozen completely, and began licking his chin.
Karina immediately hugged the puppy softly, but Roland’s tremors did not stop.
“Give it to me.”
Claude immediately took the puppy from her.
“The children must be afraid of dogs.”
“……yes.”
Karina simply answered and approached the children.
Roland was not the only one who crouched down and wrapped his head with two hands.
Melissa stood alert and stared straight at the ground.
Something came up from deep inside her heart.
Melissa used to endure Lord Renke’s torture in that position.
Although, she used to fall on the floor in less than an hour.
Karina hugged the two at once and patted their backs silently.
“Mom, mom….”
A sob burst out of the two children’s mouths at the same time.
My eyes turned red.
The children were still unable to escape Lord Renke’s nightmare.
“…Uncle’s dog.”
It was Melissa. Karina shook her head vigorously.
“No. It’s just a dog that looks similar. You didn’t get hurt anywhere, right?”
Roland trembled as if he remembered the memory of that time.
Karina regretted what she said only then, but what she said once cannot be taken back.
“Anyway, it’s very different from that puppy.”
Puppies with fluffy brown fur were a common species everywhere in the continent.
Karina fully understood the children’s fear, but did not want the two children to tremble with fear whenever they saw a dog.
Right now, we have no choice but to take the dog out of sight of the child.
But one day, there will be a time when they have to face this problem head-on.
Roland asked in a trembling voice.
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Karina nodded her head.
“You guys were so frightened that you did not see properly. At that time… the puppy we saw had a white spot on its head?”
It wasn’t just two children who were there.
Karina, too, hugged the puppy and got hurt by Roland’s magic instead.
She was even the one who secretly handed over the puppy that survived safely to a dog-loving maid.
Of course, the appearance was still vivid in her mind.
Roland’s lips twitched, and a sound came out as if he had read Karina’s thoughts.
“My mom was injured at the time, right?
“It’s a thing of the past. I couldn’t help it. And I came in knowing I was going to get hurt.”
Karina poured out her words quickly.
‘You remember.’
In fact, Karina hoped Roland would quickly forget the incident.
The fact that he hurt Karina on his own must have been quite shocking.
Unfortunately, rather than forgetting, it seemed to have remained a kind of trauma for the two children.
“I, I’m afraid mom will get hurt again.”
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Karina’s hand, which was tapping Roland’s back, stopped.
“Oh my gosh.”
When the children saw the puppy, they did not recall their own suffering in the laboratory.
But children’s heads don’t roll as cold as adults.
It was about time Karina’s frozen head tried to think of something she could say to the children.