/
When I lowered my shoulder, feeling so helpless I was out of strength, Rashid’s head jutted out.
“……Reina, you said?”
“Yees! That’s it!”
Ding-ding-ding!
When I rapidly regained my smile, the man flinched instead.
He remembered that!
When I stared at him with an amazed look, he turned his head and swept the back of his neck.
“Goodness, you sure are free. Giving a mere bird a name of all things.”
“Reina.”
“…..”
Rashid’s two hands above the armrests of the throne squeezed into fists. If I was me from before, one look at this figure would have me rambling on in great anxiety, but now I knew.
“……Yes, Reina.”
That at the very least, this man did not wield his fists in just any situation.
“But about the lost princess.”
“What about Haniel?”
“…..”
I’m glad your sister’s name came out right away, at least.
My expectations for this man were so low that I was actually sort of moved that he knew her name. When I beamed at him widely, Rashid’s hand, which had been covering his mouth, while his elbow leaned on the armrest indifferently, rose a little higher.
“Well, that kid wouldn’t know the difference between earth and sky.”
“What are you saying. You said she’s three!”
“…..she’s three?”
“…..”
Keep calm. He’s not doing it on purpose.
Momentarily dropping Selene, I buried my head in my hands for a second before I resurfaced. The image of Rashid staring at me like he couldn’t tell what in the world I was doing tired me out excessively.
“Anyways, let’s say that she is. What about her?”
“…..Mm, I was just wondering if you had ever called her by her name, kindly.”
“Why would I?”
“…….”
Haniel endured this for three years. To think I, her mom, was having a hard time enduring beyond three minutes.
My shoulder and neck area was slowly becoming stiffer and stiffer. Maybe because Selene felt the same, the way she stood there frozen in place, not even breathing audibly, reminded me of those mallard statues that sat at traditional Korean weddings.
“What do you mean, why? Then what have you called the princess until now?”
“You.”
“….that can’t be all, right?”
Please tell me it’s not!
Unable to hide my shock, when I cried out urgently, Rashid’s eyebrows steepened further.
“I’m only asking this just in case, but you didn’t talk to her like, ‘you sleep,’ ‘what are you doing,’ ‘wake up, you,’ ‘you eat,’ or something like this, right?”
“……you really.”
He muttered a few things about the witch being whatever, then seemed to return to consciousness belatedly and fixed his posture on his chair.
As disturbed as I had become, this man’s eyes were telling me, he too was pretty serious.
“It’s not like I only do this to that child.”
“Haven’t your other siblings said anything about that? Asking to be called by name if you need to, for example, or to be treated more gently.”
“Those things?”
Hiscold smile in reply didn’t need any more explanation. Crossing his legs, Rashid tilted his head down, as if he found this ridiculous.
“Well, I’d say they would never.”
“How can you be so sure? You can never know a person’s heart. Isn’t that right, Reina?”
“Quaaack!”
I lifted the fiercely agreeing Selene back up.
If he doesn’t know, then I should show him like this.
No matter how blind he was, he wouldn’t be able to pretend not to know what happened in front of his eyes like this.
“Oh, is that right? You feel really happy when I call you by name gently?”
“Quaaack!”
Oi, lower the volume a bit please.
You could only agree to a certain point; what are you going to do if that man actually catches on?
This was a vocalization that, regardless of who heard it, would be the equivalent of a middle-aged person’s voice in humans.
Nervous, I carefully examined Rashid, but instead of suspicion, his sour expression was so unwavering that not a single change had overcome him.
‘….Maybe I was Anne Sullivan* in my past life.’
*T/N: Anne Sullivan was the renowned teacher of Helen Keller, who is usually seen as the model of patient and caring teachers.
If I didn’t remember so clearly that I had been a contracted worker at the zoo in my past life, I could have definitely mistaken myself.
“Phew.”