At such a brief and clear answer, I momentarily rubbed the fingers that had been holding the knife together. Out of all the words that had come out of this man’s mouth, these rang the most with truth.
“How the child did cry.”
“….But I’m sure the child wouldn’t cry for no reason. Perhaps you may have done something to give fear or….”
“Me?”
“…..”
“Impossible.”
At his shamelessness, which was not only sincere but also gave no room for doubt, I calmly folded my two hands together.
I really wanted to beg him to say he was joking, but the Emperor was extremely serious himself.
“All I do is go there, and the child randomly cries. What am I supposed to do.”
“…..did, did you go alone?”
“Now that I think about it, I did take a dog. As a servant of the last evil beast, I tamed it personally, but most reasonable people would admire….”
“Oh wooooow!”
This is soo delicious!
I lowered the hand I raised high in the air to the back of my neck, as if I was just supporting myself.
Come now! In your eyes, do you think a three year old baby would go into the category of ‘a reasonable person’?!
The more we talked, the more I was automatically understanding why our Haniel had to leave her home.
“….anyways, it’s a shame that something like that happened to you, Your Majesty.”
“What do you mean, shame? This should not be unrelated to you anymore.”
“Huh?”
The formality of dinner was now over.
Only after I realized the Emperor, resting his chin in his hands, was looking at me meaningfully did I realize again why I had come here.
“I presume you know what’s happening to the promise and the debt you made to me?”
“…..Of course.”
Though it was only that we had begun the inevitable talk, when my eyes met his, I was awash with nervousness, like I’d become the prey of a beast.
Before I was even more discouraged, I stuttered out all the words I’d prepared in advance.
“As I’ve informed you before this, my circumstances are a bit bad. But I may be able to do something to be of help to Your Majesty while you are here.”
“For example?”
“……”
This wasn’t an audition, goodness.
When I looked up at him with no clue of what to say, Rashid’s request came back in more detail.
“Tell me where and how I can use you.”
“Ah….”
His words, if nothing else, sure were the real deal.
The tyrant’s appearance that I’d considered a bit lacking just a while ago was appearing like this once more.
He leisurely rested his head on his hands that were threaded together, dropping his eyes.
“Did you say you can do anything with your body?”
“…..Yes, well.”
But there’s really no need for you to say that with that subtle tone.
Rashid himself didn’t say anything, but I became flustered all by myself, and ran a hand through my hair.
Before I was swept away even more, I brought out more of what I’d prepared, hesitantly.
“I am relatively confident in things like managing the villa….”
“For what reason.”
“Or perhaps cultivating the lake garden.”
“Who’d see that.”
“…..”
When my most confident skills were cut down flatly by mere shakes of his head, my heart gradually became hasty.
“I-I’ve also heard I’m quite good at cooking.”
“What kind?”
This time, he did show a bit of an interest, but I couldn’t bear to answer that it was bird feed. If I did, I would probably be skinned alive for the crime of deceiving the emperor before I even found what I was good at.
My increasingly anxious eyes became plaintive.
“It’s a bit strange to say this with my own mouth, but I am surprisingly good at socializing and have high sociability.”
“Oh really?”
Of course, of course.
I nodded my head fiercely for him to see. There had to be something that he liked in order for me to see a way to live, and now that I had a child strung along, I didn’t want to live with my heart in my mouth anymore.
“Not only people, I also don’t discriminate against animals or plants…”
“Not things like that.”
“……”