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“Young master, I am no longer evil. I decided to repent of all the bad things I had done and live a good life.”
She smiled at one of the children with still doubtful eyes and pointed to the cookie in her hand.
“Now look. If I were really an evil witch, would I be able to give delicious cookies to the young master, who called me a warlock?”
“Isn’t it poisoned?”
“Don’t give it. Hazel’s cookies are a luxury for that rude man.”
“For me! Give it to me.”
The cookie that Luna snatched from the boy’s hand ended up in Luca’s mouth.
“Let’s do it.”
The eyes of the children watching Luca enjoy eating the cookies were full of envy. So she took out a tin of cookies from her bag and gave it to Luca and pushed him on the back.
“Prince, happiness grows when shared.”
And it’s also a good way to make friends. It was like that when she was young. Every school year, her grandmother would cram a bunch of snacks in her hand on the way to school. She begged her to share it with her friends. That’s how she was able to make friends.
“What shape will you give me?”
Every time Luca handed out a cookie, he popped one into his mouth. The children who hesitated after receiving the cookies saw Luca eating the same cookies without hesitation, and began to put them in their mouths one by one.
“And…”
And as expected, as soon as everyone put it in their mouths, their eyes widened in admiration. The boy, who was still watching with suspicious eyes as everyone enjoyed the cookies, began to lick his lips. It was when she pushed Luca, who had returned to her, toward the boy.
“Don’t give him that, Luca!”
“Luna, rather than that…”
“No. If he thinks Hazel is really evil, can he be afraid to say bad things in front of her? He knows Hazel is good and he does that on purpose. He is an evil child!”
Oh wow, clever. It was logical, so while she was speechless for a moment, the boy’s face turned red, and he shouted in a huff.
“I don’t need those cheap cookies baked by witches! In my mansion, the best baker in the empire…”
The moment the cookies in the cookie jar stood up together, the boy stopped talking with his mouth wide open.
“Wow!”
When the cookies in the hands of the other children started to move, admiration erupted from all over the waiting room.
“How did you do it?”
“Hazel knows how to move cookies.”
One child asked, and Luna crossed her arms and exclaimed triumphantly. At that moment, the eyes of the children turned to Hazel. Their eyes were startled, but unlike a moment ago, they contained envy, not fear.
“Oh… I envy you.”
“They do a puppet show with it.”
“Wow, wow. Show us too.”
Then, it suddenly came to her mind. Her grandmother bought her nice toys too. To make a lot of friends. The waiting room quickly became a puppet theater.
“My lady, please tell me your name.”
“I can’t do that, my prince.”
“It’s Cinderella.”
“Shh!”
A boy, who was watching Prince Cookie and Cinderella dance among the gathered children, shouted as he ran out of the waiting room.
“Mom! I want a witch sitter too!”
The Grand Duchy children were finally able to see the Empress. When she went inside, the Empress, who was sitting on a luxurious chair, narrowed her eyes and said something like this rather than the children, but to the person standing behind her.
“How upset these children are, how can the Grand Duke bring in a witch to get them to do bad things?”
At that moment, Luca tried to approach the Empress, holding out his cookie from her pocket.
“Cookies, please.”
It seemed like they were trying to change the atmosphere with cookies, just like they did outside. It’s cute, but it might be rude to the Empress. Besides, weren’t the imperial family villains? It was the time she held onto Luca to keep him away.
“Your Highness the Empress, with all due respect, Hazel has never cast a spell on us.”
Luna began her rebuttal to the Empress in her manners.
“Contrary to the vicious rumors…”
As Luna sided with here, as she did outside of her, she gave the Empress a disapproving look and clicked her tongue.
“She’s not that cute, so the nannies have no choice but to run away.”
At that moment, Hazel was dazed as if she had been beaten.
“…”
She was even more upset when Luna, who had never been discouraged anywhere, shut her mouth. However, she seemed to be a villain as well, and she smiled even more brightly as she saw Luna hurt. No matter how Empress she was, she couldn’t stand touching an innocent child! But she couldn’t fight the Empress. If she did, her throat would be sore and the Grand Duke’s family would tremble. So she secretly cast a small and sure curse on the Empress that no one could detect.
“Ouch!”
The Empress, who had been leaving after swearing at her, screamed in front of the nobles gathered outside the door.
“Damn it! My toes!”
She hoped that the incident of bumping her toe on the doorstep at the New Year’s party and swearing obscenely and even screaming would become a laughing stock in the social world throughout this year. It was a New Year’s gift from her to the Empress.
“Luna, Luca. I am proud of you.”
On the carriage back to the mansion, the Grand Duke began praising the children.
“To eat vegetables without complaining.”
“In addition, isn’t it the first time they’ve eaten in a place with so many people, Your Highness?”
“That’s right. Even so, it wasn’t enough to eat calmly without shaking, so they didn’t make a single mistake. Great.”
“It deserves an award.”
The Grand Duke smiled as she blew it.
“Okay. Good kids should be rewarded. Tell me what you want.”
“So I…”
Luca was talking about what he wanted to receive, but Luna kept her mouth shut. Her expression continued to be sullen from a moment ago. Luna, who seems like an adult, was also a child. Her desire to be loved by adults was no different from that of other children. That child didn’t know that the Empress was a bad person. Besides, since she would know her as one of the tallest adults in the world, wouldn’t she have more desire to be loved?
She moved towards the children and hugged Luna.
“You are lovely, Luna.”
“But not cute.”
“In my eyes, you are so very cute. I thought you didn’t like being called cute, so I put up with it all this time, but I don’t have to do that anymore, right? Cute, cute, Luna.”
Only then did Luna smile.
“But Luca is cuter.”
“Me?”
Luca, who had been looking at her in bewilderment, became even more bewildered and tilted his head from side to side.
“I think I am far from being cute.”
“Luna, the standard of ‘cute’ is different for each person.”
That would be the difference between whether or not you like the other person. In other words, it meant that the Empress hated Luna. Clever Luna already knew that.
“Then, what are Her Highness’ standards? Did I say something too arrogant?”
“You’re being cheeky. You weren’t arrogant at all. I say our Luna is good, and I clapped her inwardly. Luna’s sharp side is her charm.”
This kid did nothing wrong. The Empress obviously harbors ill feelings toward the Grand Duke’s family that she didn’t know about, so she’s just venting her anger at the innocent Luna. How could she tell that to a child? Besides, it wasn’t her role to say that. She looked at the Grand Duke sitting across from her. Before getting into the carriage, his expression was bitter as he had already heard about the affair with the Empress from her.
“Luna, do you think your brother is loved widely because he is cute?”
The moment she said that, Luna burst into laughter, and the Grand Duke glared at Hazel with unkind eyes.
“You can be loved even if you are not cute.”
“Then, will Her Highness be fond of me when I grow up like my brother?”
“Luna, Her Highness doesn’t like me.”
When the Grand Duke suddenly revealed it, Luna’s eyes widened.
“It’s a complicated story, so I’ll tell you when you’re older.”
The quick-witted Luna nodded her head gracefully.
“And let’s know this. We can’t be loved by everyone. There is no need for that.”
She spoke a truth that hurted but Luna had to realize as she grew up.
“You don’t have to be unhappy if someone doesn’t love you. That’s their problem, not yours.”
These were the words her grandmother told her when she was young, hungry for love and wanting to be loved by everyone but crying after being rejected. And it was the advice she wanted to give to children who had been hungry for love for a long time because her parents were not around.
* * *
“Well then, shall we try it?”
After putting the children to bed, she came to the nanny’s room and sat down in front of the desk to open the magic book.
✢ Sensory Transfer Spells ✢
✢ A spell that allows you to obtain sensory information by giving your senses to an object or body.
✢ Be especially careful when using spells that allow eavesdropping, peeking, etc.
✢ Refrain from using for immoral purposes, and use only when absolutely necessary. If you are caught abusing this spell, you will be severely punished, so be careful.
There were a series of dire warnings before the method of casting spells, but none of them applied to her. It’s moral when it comes to finding evidence of a crime. She even needed it. And it would be good practice for her.
She read the instructions again and closed her eyes. When she parted with the prince in the garden, she remembered the cookies she planted in his pocket, and she chanted a spell in her mind, but sure enough, it didn’t work out. Was it because she used too much magic today? After all, she drank the mana recovery potion she saved…
– Your Highness the Crown Prince, I’m worried.
Godness! It was wonderfully successful.