/
***
At first, it was small whimpers, but then a larger, sorrowful cry began to pour out.
Eventually, Julianna cried like a child.
Emperor Perseus, as always since her childhood, hugged Julianna and patted her back affectionately.
But one side of his heart felt uncomfortable.
Whenever Julianna was sad or struggling, Perseus always came in as a big shield. As the most reliable and affectionate father in the world, he reassured his daughter.
But…
What was Lelia like in all those moments when he was being such a good father to Julianna?
She would have to cry alone and overcome her fear, right?
Without leaning on anyone?
He remembered a small, skinny child crying and rubbing her palm.
Perseus painfully distorted his forehead. His heart was pounding.
“Dad… If that child hates me…”
“No, she won’t.”
Perseus calmed Julianna down with a heavy heart, recalling Lelia, who he had never soothed before.
“Julianna… Don’t worry about anything. Who in the world can hate you?”
“… Are you sure?”
“Yes, there is no one in the world who hates you.”
“But…”
“When she finds out how nice and sweet you are, she will love you.”
“Really?”
“Sure. So, don’t worry about anything.”
At the emperor’s sincere words, Julianna gradually felt calm.
“Please pat my back a little more… I want to be spoiled like when I was young.”
“Yes, as much as you want.”
Julianna stopped crying and laughed.
For a long time, she was in the arms of her sweet father.
In the meantime, Perseus vowed to hug Lelia like this when she returned.
‘I will be such a reliable father to Lelia in the future.’
‘I will keep my two daughters safe like the most precious flowers in the garden for the rest of my life.’
***
“Why did we say we’re going to the capital city again?”
“……!!!”
It was as they were first setting up camp, Kalix asked.
Lelia looked at the escorting knights skillfully setting up the tents, then turned her head in surprise.
[Kalix… What did he just say?]
[It’s been a day since we left, and you’re asking that now?]
[And I explained it to you before you left, right?!]
It was clear that he was thinking about something else.
Lelia clenched her fists.
Romeo, who was next to her, was also looking at Kalix with a shocked look on his face.
But soon, he clicked his tongue with an expression of “Yes, yes.”
“Captain, cheer up…”
Romeo tapped Lelia’s shoulder a couple of times as if to cheer her up then ran away.
Lelia swept her hair away in frustration.
Kalix approached her with a really curious look.
“Why are you going to the capital city?”
“I told you… The emperor knows who I am.”
“Who are you?”
“I am not the daughter of Princess Iris, but the daughter of Emperor Perseus and former Crown Princess Elizabeth.”
“What?”
Kalix looked shocked as if he had never heard of it. Rather, Lelia was more astonished.
He tilted his head.
“But…”
“……”
“You’re a man.”
[Wow…]
[T/N: Facedesks indefinitely :)]
[PR/N: So. Much. Faceplant.]
Would it feel like this if you encountered the world’s largest and hardest wall?
[T/N: Yes, yes. Absolutely. ]
Lelia couldn’t seem to cross that wall. So firm and strong… she just wanted to give up and live in front of it.
Do I have to break it down or overcome it?
It’s too big.
It was then.
“Lelia is a man? Lelia is a woman.”
Uncle Carius, who was just passing by, spoke lightly and went out to fetch water.
Romeo watched from afar and followed her uncle.
Griffith and Oscar were both nowhere to be seen…
It meant that there was no one to help Lelia. Kalix blinked, puzzled by her uncle’s words.
“… You’re a girl?”
“Kalix.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll explain it to you from the beginning. As soon as my mother birthed me, she swapped me for the dead daughter of Princess Iris. To save my life.”
“But… you’re a man, aren’t you? I think she put a chili pepper on you right after you were born. Then did she deceive you that you were her son? Even newborn babies have chili peppers.”
“… No, I’m a girl. There’s no chili pepper!”
“……”
Kalix looked surprised and blank.
“No… What the hell have you been hearing? I said it a dozen times or more that I’m a woman!”
Lelia trembled.
Kalix’s expression gradually distorted.
“But… I saw it. You… There was something down there.”
As he held out his forearms, he looked alternately at Lelia’s lower body and his forearms.
“It was an illusion created by alchemy pills”.
“… Don’t lie! How can you make that from an illusion? Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“I’m frustrated! If you’re not a fool, who’s the fool?”
When Lelia jumped up in exasperation, Kalix stared at her.
His eyes began to burn.
For a long time, staring blankly as if organizing his thoughts.
It wasn’t until Griffith, Romeo, and Oscar came close that Kalix seemed to have finished organizing.
Kalix grumbled as if he were angry.
“Hey… You. Then what is it? Did you fool us all this time?”
“……”
The friends looked at Kalix with a blank face.
Lelia wondered how to deal with this fool.
[Really… You’re such a dolt. To a level where it’s impossible to fix…]
Kalix looked at his friends alternately while shouting, “Hey! Say something! Oh, wait a minute! So you’ve been a girl since you were young, right?”
“……”
“Our captain was a woman…”
“You’re a girl?”
Kalix blinked and soon his eyes opened wide.
He suddenly screamed like a seizure.
“You even saw my chili pepper when you were young!”
[T/N: Now I get why it is called ‘chilli pepper’… I think…]
“……!!!”
Lelia frowned between her eyebrows.
[I didn’t know you’d remember that.]
When we were young, we lived in a temple.
One day, it was time to swim in the lake together and go back to the room.
Kalix didn’t have time, so he said let’s take a bath together and dragged Lelia into his bathroom.
After she followed him into the bathroom, Lelia, who came to her senses, told him to go first, and the moment she was about to leave…
She witnessed Kalix undressing.
At that moment, Lelia stared at Kalix for a long time in shock. Kalix, who noticed the gaze, somehow smiled with a confident look.
“……”
As that incident came to mind, Lelia’s face turned pale.
Kalix remembers what she forgot because it was only a moment…
[How do you remember that when you’re a fool?]
Kalix rushed forward pointing at Lelia.
“No way! You! What the heck! You! You saw my chili pepper! A girl saw mine? Eeee… Eeeeeee!!!!”
Romeo and Griffith calmed Kalix down by holding him from both sides.
Oscar hid Lellia behind his back.
As Lelia hid behind Oscar’s back, she stuck her head out, and said. “…What are you doing? You were a kid anyway!”
She was so annoyed, angry, and frustrated that she seemed to have said something she shouldn’t have said.
“What? What?!”
Kalix’s face turned red.
It repeatedly turned red and blue, and soon he shouted back.
“Oh, I am a kid? A kid? Ehh… This is really… Hey! Let go of me! Let go of me! Who said it’s a chili pepper of a kid? You’ll be surprised when you see it! It is longer than my forearms now… Hey! Let go! Let go! I’ll show you. Let me go!”
Kalix struggled as if he were in a frenzy.
The bull, whose whole body is muscle, seemed to be causing a disturbance.
Eventually, Romeo and Griffith were forced to use magic and divine power on him.
After a while, Kalix, who was tied up with a transparent rope, lay on the floor and struggled.
“You perv! I can’t believe it. It was definitely a man’s… Hey, Leo! Take it off. Come here and take it off! I know! You have chili peppers!
“……”
“Take out the chili pepper! Take out the chili pepper! I’m going crazy…”
Kalix was outraged for a long time, tired of the grass, and huffed.
Tears filled around his eyes.
No way.
“You’re a girl? You’re really a girl?”
He thought it was just an excuse. He was afraid and shocked that he had to marry a man, so he thought Lelia was reassuring him by saying he was a woman.
It was ridiculous every time he heard it.
‘I don’t care if he is a man anyway.’
‘I didn’t care because I had finished preparing my mind.’
So Lelia, who tried to explain herself as a woman, was perceived as being rather cute instead.
‘But she is a real woman…?’
Kalix has never held a woman’s hand, and has never even had a proper conversation.
Yet, Leo is a girl?
He remembered spending his childhood with Leo without hesitation.
It was with a girl…
He couldn’t believe she was a woman with whom he used to communicate with every day.
Beyond that, the most shocking thing was…
‘Then it was a woman who carried me on her back then?’
‘You carried me on your back with a girl’s body? And you’re three years younger than me?’
He couldn’t speak properly because of the shock.
He was spaced out as if he had been hit on the head.
‘At that time, if Lelia hadn’t saved me…’
He would have lived without one arm.
Recalling those thoughts, he could vividly see how painful the feeling was.
‘But that was a girl who saved me… three years younger than me too! How is that possible?’
[PR/N: You underestimate women buddy.]