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“I feel bad for Harris.”
“What…”
He shook his head from side to side and made eye contact with Harris.
“Crying doesn’t mean everything will go your way.”
“I’m not crying. You and I, who were officially brought in to demonstrate a strange power, are different from the beginning, right?”
The child who was snorting came closer to me.
“If I turn out to be real, my dad will be more sorry for me for doing those things to me!”
“I see.”
“…Do you think that’s it? I’m going to kick you out. You pretended to be a princess when you weren’t even a real princess!
Her voice grew louder and louder, just as she realized that she was just saying it to herself. It wasn’t like that before, but it was a pity that I was wearing shabby clothes today.
“I’m a princess. I officially got the family name.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I-I-I have been trying to get into the Grand Duchy. You… You who came in after doing that… You! You can’t be the same as me! These gifts are ridiculous, too. It’s your birthday! Don’t make me laugh!”
Harris began to kick around countless gifts that the knights were organizing.
There was no one to stop.
‘Why are you doing this?’
What else do you have to gain from making such a fuss?
Was she just trying to vent out her anger? If that’s the case, that’s really bad. Seeing the knights not knowing what to do, I felt uncomfortable in one side of my heart.
Eventually, I ran to Harris and held her hand.
“Stop it.”
“What? Are you stopping me now?”
“Yeah. I’m going to stop you. I’m going to stop you now and in the future, unless you’re a person who can’t fulfill your dreams.”
Theo and the knights here were all good people to me.
But they even ruined what they were trying to do.
“That’s funny. You can’t stop me.”
At that time…
Someone came into the room.
“What’s going on? I didn’t know Harris was here.”
In the past, it was Harris who would have rushed to the arrival of the Grand Duke and would do anything, but today she was quiet. Even looking at the Grand Duke, he bit his lips as well. The Grand Duke approached Harris, seeming a little puzzled by her unusual appearance.
“You’re different than usual, Harris.”
Rather, when he paid attention to himself, Harris closed her mouth even more.
“What’s wrong with you?”
For a long time, Harris didn’t talk. As if she knew that this would attract the Grand Duke’s attention, the child remained silent for a while.
“Are you not going to keep talking?”
“…You’re suspicious of me anyway, so I won’t say anything.”
“It’s just an unavoidable process. You can bring that thing and prove yourself, but why are you so upset?
“Do you have to do that? Was I someone you can’t trust?”
Before I knew it, Harris’s eyes turned moist. Looking at her eyes filled with resentment as if it were unfair, the Grand Duke sighed deeply.
“Harris, isn’t it not difficult? I’m just checking a bit of your blood. Why are you so upset?”
“My dad doesn’t trust me. After that came… it’s so sad that… you don’t think of me as your daughter!”
Tears dropped from Harris’s big eyes.
“I’m your daughter… I was so happy  to see you again… I was so happy to have a family…”
I stepped back from the affectionate reunion of the unexpected father and daughter.
Harris was that kind of kid. I only think that she was such a gentle, good, and pretty person to the person she wanted.
‘You’re so good at acting.’
“I guess I haven’t been paying too much attention to you lately, Harris.”
“You didn’t make it that fancy on my birthday.”
“It’s because the more you go through it, the better it gets.”
His big hand stroked Harris’s head. Watching that made me uncomfortable somewhere in my heart. It’s not that I envied Harris, nor that I wanted the Grand Duke to only love me.
But it’s just that… I felt bad.
‘You shouldn’t have made it during spring because I wasn’t originally a member of this family. It’s a bad thing for me to do that.’
Even if I tried to pull myself together with such thoughts, I couldn’t feel better.
I kept stepping back from them. One step. Two steps.