/
As he heard the words ‘fun’ and ‘ride’, Ferre’s eyes started to twinkle. Just as elementary school boys were crazy about cars, Adelio’s prince was crazy about carriages.
Sera took a peek into Ferre’s room earlier, and she was instantly convinced that Ferre was three things: a ‘carriage addict’, a ‘carriage maniac’ and a ‘carriage collector’.
“What kind of fun ride?”
Ferre nodded vigorously as he asked. With golden hair reminiscent of a retriever puppy, his eyes glistened in great interest.
“A carriage. I’ll give you a carriage ride.”
“Really? A carriage ride, really really?”
Sera nodded twice.”
“Carriage! Carriage!”
Ferre jumped in excitement. It was the typical reaction of a seven-year-old. Ferre held onto Sera’s hand tightly and beamed.
At the back of her mind, she thought that things were progressing better than she expected, but when she saw how delighted Ferre was, she smiled anyway.
‘A carriage isn’t so different. I should ask if there’s a trolley cart or a wheelbarrow I could borrow as soon as possible.’
An imaginary carriage ride with a trolley cart. It was all thanks to the memories of her previous life. She never thought that her experience back then would help her like this.
At the school where she worked in her previous life when there’s no one else around the school anymore, she and one of her fellow teachers would secretly ride the trolley carts for fun along the hallway. It’s quite fun, especially when they were bored that day.
‘It’s definitely dangerous. If we were seen and the children copied us, we would’ve gotten scolded, but it’s fine since we weren’t seen.’
It depended on the person who’s pushing, but it was definitely possible for the trolley cart to speed up quickly and go out of control. As an adult, she knew it was quite fun, so she’s sure that Ferre would love it too.
Just in time, Sera saw a maid passing by. She quickly called out to the maid.
“Miss maid!”
“May I help you?”
“I have a favor to ask, if that’s alright.”
The maid nodded gladly. With a smile, Sera quickly approached the maid’s side and whispered into her ear.
“If there’s a wagon or a cart that I could borrow, can you get one for me?”
“There is, but why…”
She looked at Sera, perplexed.
“His Highness is going to ride it for fun. Please get me one as soon as possible. And please, one that’s clean.”
The maid tilted her head to the side because she thought Sera wasn’t being serious, but Sera once again whispered clearly.
“Yes. You heard me right. So please get one as soon as possible.”
* * *
Thanks to the Emperor’s orders that the servants should cooperate with Sera as much as possible, she was able to receive a clean wagon in less than five minutes. It was a wagon that porters used, with two wheels in front and two wheels at the back.
‘It looks quite sturdy.’
The wagon had short walls on all four sides, so it was less dangerous than a trolley cart. Perhaps it’s enough as a safety precaution.
“Is that it? That’s the carriage?”
Ferre, who was expecting a large carriage to be ridden outside the palace, was disappointed at this sight. He pouted his lips.
Sera smiled briefly at this because the way he pouted made him look like a baby duck.
“I didn’t know it’s gonna be like this. I thought it’s gonna be a huuuge one.”
With two hands underneath Ferre’s arms, Sera lifted up the disappointed prince and set him down into the wagon. He was wringing his fingers together.
Sera knew what he was thinking, so she turned the wagon around gently and made Ferre face her, even as his lower lip was still sticking out.
“Your Highness Ferre, it’s going to be a lot of fun. If it’s not fun, then you don’t have to tell me where Her Highness Rosé is.”
She smiled good-naturedly.
“I don’t have to tell you?”
“Of course.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Ferre frowned, contemplating it for a moment. Then soon, Ferre sat cross-legged inside the cart, perhaps thinking that the conditions weren’t unfavorable towards him.
“Okay, sure. Let’s see if this is a fun carriage ride!”
With his cute, chubby little hands, Ferre held onto one side of the wagon firmly. Sera also gripped the wagon’s handle at that moment.
“Okay, then! Here we go!”
Sera pushed the wagon with all her might. The fun carriage ride thus began.
* * *
“Waaaahhh! So fast! Go faster! Faster, faster!”
Ferre squealed excitedly as his golden locks fluttered in the wind. Ferre also didn’t forget to tell Sera to run faster. He patted one side of the wagon vigorously with his small fist as though he was whipping at a horse of a carriage.
Sera, who wasn’t that much physically fit, wheezed but pushed the wagon anyway at Ferre’s command.
Rumors instantly spread that the new tutor was giving a dangerous wagon ride to the prince at one hallway of the Star Palace. Eventually, as Sera worked hard in that very hallway, people trickled in and watched the two with curiosity.
Sera ran hard for a long time. Then, she stopped the wagon when she couldn’t go on anymore. She really felt like she was going to die if she were to push that cart forward one more inch.
Ferre wanted to go on one more lap, so he couldn’t hide his disappointment. But still, he wasn’t so stubborn that he’d keep asking Sera to push the wagon more. As Sera struggled to catch her breath, Ferre waited for her to settle down.
“Haa… Haa… Your Highness Ferre… Wasn’t it fun?”
Half leaning against the handle of the wagon, Sera asked him with a flushed face as she breathed roughly. She was more soaked now with sweat compared to when Ferre had sprayed him with water earlier. Ferre could also feel how Sera’s body temperature had risen.
“Well… The carriage ride was a little fun.”
Ferre sat back and leaned against one side of the wagon as he said this, his head tilted back. With his brilliant hair framing his features, the wide eyes that stared back at Sera were very cute.
At that moment, Sera was overcome with the urge to pat his head, but she knew it wasn’t time yet. Playing hard to get with children was an important step to getting them on your side.
t/n:
I had to resist translating that one sentence as: ‘Rumors instantly spread that the new tutor was dangerously yeeting the prince here and there at one hallway of the Star Palace’ lmao