/
However, the moment he removed the armor that covered his chest, a blush began to appear on his face.
“Oh, unfortunately, the crown prince won’t say such a thing at the funeral.”
Elliot followed the medic’s gaze and lowered his head to his chest. The point of the stinger that had penetrated from his armor to his shirt was not in his chest, but in the wrong place.
‘A gift from a witch.’
Was it God’s protection, or did the witch secretly use magic? Instead of Elliot, the witch gave him a locket that was poisoned.
Thanks to that, his life was saved, but Elliot’s expression only darkened.
“Damn it… … .”
He pulled out the poison needle and opened the tattered locket. Where the younger siblings’ faces had been, there was only a large hole through which venom dripped.
“He only got bruises, but your skin is fine with no cuts. However, since the impact seems to have broken your ribs, it would be best to rest until it heals.”
After examining his symptoms, the medic made a diagnosis.
“It will take care of itself.”
It was the Grand Duke’s usual voice, but the medic tilted his head, wondering that his voice was unusual today.
“… Your Highness?”
“I don’t feel well.”
Elliot shook off his throbbing pain and mounted his in one breath.
“I have to go home.”
* * *
“Now, angels, what should you do before you go to bed?”
“Pray!”
But there was a constant roar of puck-puck and gleeful laughter. The kids in pajamas didn’t listen to her and just ran around Luca’s bed and had a pillow fight.
“Kyaa-! The sea!”
“Ah! Revenge!”
“Huh, it’s scary!”
“Uh ha ha! If you surrender meekly, I will spare your life!”
“Am I doing something?”
“It’s not happiness, it’s surrender… Lucas Blaine, take your writing class seriously!”
“Yoss, write this!”
She watched the children with her eyes narrowed, then put her hand on my waist and warned them.
“Oh dear… You mean you don’t want to pray? God might be so angry that he won’t grant your wishes.”
Only then did the children drop their pillows and kneel on the bed. It was cute to see the little hands gathered neatly together.
“God! God!”
The prayers of children these days were the same.
“Please let my older brother come back safe!”
“But please leave the nagging outside the house!”
She laughed as she tapped the pillows that the children had thrown at random to shape them softly. These guys really didn’t have a beagle. Even after working in the garden in the morning, taking horseback riding lessons, and even playing ball with Daisy, she still has energy left over.
They couldn’t control their overflowing power, so they didn’t pray in a whisper, but shouted loudly so that it echoed throughout the bedroom. They have to do that so that the god in the sky could hear them well or something.
‘God will become deaf.’
When the prayer was over, Luca lay down. As the blanket was being covered, the child asked with shining eyes as pure as starlight.
“Will brother come over after sleeping for a few nights?”
“Uh…”
She heard there were no promises. They said that they could return only after driving out all the monsters that had taken over the forest. Sir Daniel said that it was approximately 15 days to 1 month, but given that there was still no news after 10 days, it might be better not to expect the Grand Duke to return after just 15 days.
“Wouldn’t he come before the broccoli is all grown?”
It will take at least three months from now to grow up. It might be easier for Luca, who can’t count over 10, to count the days when his older brother would return while watching the broccoli grow.
“Then brother and I will pull it out…”
Broccoli wasn’t pulled like carrots. She couldn’t help laughing.
“If you eat it at the time it will warm you up.”
“Yes, yes. You must have a delicious meal with your brother.”
She hoped they could learn the taste of broccoli with it.
“I! I will read a story for you!”
Taking one storybook from the bookshelf, Luna reached for hers. These days, Luna has fallen in love with reading her letters, probably because her skills have improved dramatically.
“After a few days, the witch gave me… Oh, it’s growing… It’s growing right?”
“That’s right. Good read.”
“After growing up, the flowers bloomed in pairs. The, the lady who looked into the petals… Wow, I was surprised. Very small, yes… Aren’t the pretty girls sleeping?”
Seeing that she stutters every time a double consonant comes out, she would teach her mainly double consonants tomorrow. Thanks to that, bedtime became an untimely reading class, and it took both of them a long time to fall asleep.
“Phew…”
She hugged Luna, who fell asleep holding her book, and laid her on the bed in her own room, and her arm almost fell off. A seven-year-old who is on the taller side than her peers was too heavy for Hazel.
“If it was Thumbelina, I could easily lift it with one hand…”
As she covered herself with the blanket and talked to herself, Luna responded in a sleepy voice to her sleep.
“Me too…”
“Yes?”
“… I want to be Thumbelina.”
“Why?”
“Flying through the sky riding Mr. Swallow… Sleeping in a walnut shell bed… ”
A bed of walnut shells with a bed softer than marshmallows…
She kissed Luna’s forehead while she was talking in her sleep and returned to her own room.
“Well…”
No matter how she thought about it, it’s too wide to sleep alone. Lady and Daisy would sleep well, but lately Lady slept with Luca and Daisy slept with Luna.
“Would you rather go to the cabin?”
It was the moment when she was about to open the closet door after washing and changing into pajamas.
Rumble!
Thunder rumbled through the sky enough to shake the entire mansion.
When she pulled back the curtains, it was already raining heavily. Far away, a thunderbolt of lightning struck the mountain beyond the fence of the mansion.
“Is it a shower?”
As she muttered to herself, the door creaked open behind her back. She could tell who it was just by hearing the whimper that seeps in before the door even opened properly.
“Luca, why are you crying?”
“The sky just roared. Heck, it’s scary.”
When thunder struck again, Luca came running towards her screaming. The Golden Retriever who came in through the wide open door sighed deeply with a stuffed rabbit in its mouth.
“It’s fine. It’s fine.”
She hugged Luca, who was hanging by her legs. When she patted his back, the child who was sobbing with his head on her shoulder asked,
“Hey, Hazel?”
“Yes?”
“Can I sleep in here?”
She looked down at the big eyes full of tears and fell into trouble.
‘Hmm… I thought your brother didn’t…’
But thunder was a terrifying monster to a child. It was too harsh to have it survive alone in a dark room. A particularly delicate child like Luca might think that an adult had abandoned him alone in a ghastly place and close his heart. On a day like this, even the Grand Duke would overlook it.
“Is it only today?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
She was on her way to bed holding Luca, who was holding her collar with trembling hands. She heard small footsteps through the open door.
“Is Luna afraid of thunder too?”
As soon as Luna, hiding behind the wall, asked, she stuck her face out as if she had been waiting.
“No? I came to protect Luka and Hazel, so they wouldn’t be scared.”
“My older sister is afraid…”
“No! The head of the Grand Duke’s family shouldn’t be afraid of thunder…”
Boom!
“Wow!”
As soon as the thunder struck, Luna slipped into the blanket.
“Daisy, close the door when you come in.”
In the end, like the day she first came as a babysitter, the six of them, including Lulu, slept together in a huddled bed.
“Today, it is thundering, so I will watch over you.”
“Hey, thank you…”
“God must be angry because we delayed our prayers…”
Luna whispered in a nervous voice under the covers. At that time, she was also a child.
“No, it’s not that God is angry… ”
She explained the principle so that the children would not be afraid of thunder.
“Aww the clouds collided! And screamed.”
“Then what about lightning?”
“Doesn’t that spark flicker when you hold the doorknob sometimes? It’s just like that.”
Of course, she had to use words that were easy for children to understand. Luca stopped crying. When the sky made a low rumbling sound like a wine barrel rolling down a hill, this time, without crying, he asked me.
“Then, the clouds are overdoing it?”
“That’s right.”
“Looks like the clouds are having a party. Making a fuss this late at night! Come back home!”
Seeing that Cloud keeps colliding with each other, it seems that to Luna, a party is a place where people keep bumping into each other. The ingenious imagination of the two children was fun and they laughed nonstop.
Then at some point the thunder stopped and everyone fell asleep.
She sure did…
‘Who is this… Noisy in the middle of the night…’
She was awakened by a commotion in the hallway. She just closed her eyes and waited, thinking it might be someone passing by, but it only got louder.
Clink!
When that wasn’t enough, she couldn’t stand it anymore when she heard the sound of something breaking, be it a window or a vase. No matter how hard she put them to sleep, if they wake up again, that person would be responsible to put them to sleep again.