CH 109

“I’ll take you to your room. The hallways are too dark to walk alone because it’s already late.”

“. . . I may be younger than you, but I’m not a little kid who can’t find his room alone.”

“I know. Still, this mansion is my . . .”

Without realizing it, I said that naturally.

“Because this is my home. Here.”

Now that I had said it, I felt half reluctant and half surprised.

When I turned my head so that I didn’t look shocked when I was the one who said that, the stars that shone brightly entered my view through the window.

While I stopped for a while engrossed in the night sky, the prince suddenly talked.

“I don’t think it’s a collection normally owned by a noble young lady.”

“I guess so. That’s right, this is not a collection that can be owned by a noble young lady.”

“In addition, it’s not that pretty.”

I meekly nodded to the prince.

He somehow was wary of me while saying that, but because it was completely true, I had no reason to refute him.

“Shovels are supposed to be used, so there’s no need for them to be pretty.”

If it could fulfill its role, then that was enough.

I had already known about it, but I felt it again about the prince’s frank opinion.

His reaction was utterly normal, but there was no one inside this mansion who said ‘strange’ when they saw me holding a shovel.

Everyone naturally accepted it to the point I couldn’t notice that it was strange if it wasn’t for Dana’s nagging.

“Even if it’s not pretty, it can be useful.”

The prince, who was walking, asked as if he was curious with what I said.

“Do you also use it?”

“Of course.”

The conversation stopped again.

The prince looked confused as if he wanted to say something, but didn’t know what to say.

I had no intention to make a reason or beautify it, so I waited until his confusion subsided.

“. . .”

The gaze of the prince who had been silent was directed somewhere.

I followed the prince’s gaze to the tailend edge of the hallway.

Between the pillars that met each other, I saw a blue sprout sprouting from the bulging soil under it.

“There’s a sprout sprouting here.”

“Before it gets bigger, someone will pull it out while cleaning anyway.”

The prince who said that calmly had his gaze stayed on the small sprout.

I walked past him, then stopped and bent my body, checking the sprout’s condition.

“The sprout managed to germinate, but it seems like it’ll be difficult for it to grow here. The soil for its nutrition is too little, and it will be hard for it to receive water as well.”

All directions were marble and on top of that, the pillars blocked the rain, so it wasn’t a good place for plants to grow.

The prince mumbled.

“It is because it’s born in the wrong place. Because it’s accidentally born, it is not given the right to live either.”

“To say it has no right to live when it’s just begun to sprout is a bit cruel.”

“That’s how the world works.”

The prince’s voice was gloomy.

The word I said in order to change the awkward atmosphere felt like pushing us into a more big dark abyss.

How scary the pubescent is.

The prince who commented ‘it has no right to live’ while looking at the sprout with a very gloomy face, looked like he empathized with this sprout more than anyone.

I waved the shovel to the prince who was looking at the sprout with a pale face.

“Then we just need to move it to a place where it can grow well and have a lot of friends.”

When I shoveled it up to the bottom of the soil from which the bud came up, a small sprout was put on the shovel without injuring a single root.

The prince didn’t let out any words, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the sprout on the shovel.

“Shall we move it to a small pot? I’ll put it in your room.”

“I’ve never raised a plant.”

“You just need to learn. I can’t say it’s easy, but if you devote yourself, it will grow nicely without problem.”

Since it had a life force for it to sprout even in such a narrow and difficult place, wouldn’t it grow well if it was taken care of a bit more?

It’d be good if this could be a little help for the prince who was tortured by the room that was fully covered with yellow and pink.

While I asked a maid to bring me a small pot, the prince stood next to me without saying anything.

He pretended to be calm, but his gaze didn’t leave the sprout even until it was moved to the pot.

* * *

“From now on, this kid is your responsibility, Your Highness.”

He looked at me in confusion.

Furrowing his eyebrows, he looked down to the sprout with a serious face then asked.

“Am I raising this?”

“Yes.”

“. . .”

The prince was silent again.

A worry if I had planted a thought that his future would be the same like the sprout if it went wrong flashed.

Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it.

“If you don’t want, then I-”

“Can I give this a name?”

“Do you want to?”

Was he being silent to think of its name?

The prince, who unexpectedly accepted my proposal easily, carefully held the pot with both hands and pulled it in front of his eyes to observe the sprout.

Actually, it was a weed that scattered in the garden, but since it was the first plant he raised, I could understand if it was special.

“I can’t decide whether Florence or Matilda is better.”

“Flo-”

The prince who had been looking at the sprout, asked for my opinion seriously.

“Florence means beautiful, but doesn’t it also mean white? It will be a bit awkward if this sprout doesn’t bloom white flowers, right?”

I never think about it that seriously, though, sir.

I indeed liked to raise plants and use farming tools, but since I had never given plants names, I didn’t know what I should say to the prince’s sensibility.

Can’t he just call it sprout?