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“Did you have fun today?”
“No, I think I’m going to die of exhaustion.”
The ladies went home, and I slumped on the sofa.
How can they be so excited to talk about me?
Sometimes I felt like a grain of wheat sown before the pigeons or a chunk of meat thrown into a pack of wolves. Because everyone surrounds me and pokes at every corner of me and bites me.
It was a time when I could feel how much patience it takes to live a good life. If it had been like before, I would have shouted out to the ladies and said one word, no, ten words.
‘Well It’s done, Dorothea.’
“It was so good to see the princess being loved so much.”
At Clara’s words, one of my eyebrows went up.
‘being loved? I?’
Was that awkward, tiring, and unbearable compliment the scene of love?
“Everyone liked the princess, so they didn’t know what to do.”
Clara said that the reason they made a fuss was that they liked me.
They want to take care of me a little more, think about something more, and say something more.
“Because I’m a princess, I’m doing this to make connections.”
“I don’t watch the princess with a loving eye to see if the princess is chewing on mushrooms just to make connections. I wouldn’t have hit my knees because of your cuteness. Is it because my eyes are different?”
Ugh, I hated those eyes.
I’ve never been treated like this in my past life. Ethan often said tickling things, but I skipped his pretense.
Cynical eyes, blunt words, cold manners, indifference-filled individualism, confrontation, and competition, were accustomed to such things. And eventually, I thought it was right.
Only the strong can survive.
People recognize me and do not ignore me only if I have cool charisma.
It’s too sweet to be complimented and staring with tickling eyes.
“It all comes from loving the princess.”
Clara could see why Dorothea had won the hearts of the ladies.
First of all, she looks like a pretty and cute doll!
In addition, her words were clearly broken, and sometimes comments like old people who were not of her age made Clara laugh.
It was not unreasonable for the ladies to call themselves ‘mother of a princess’.
“It’s a loving heart…”
making a fuss with laughter was too flashy and felt like a cluttered and miscellaneous room.
Light, frivolous, and annoying.
“I’ve never done that to someone I love.”
I’ve never been so snarky and teasing at Theon before. Of course, I had many thoughts of wanting to receive Theon’s touch, but I never forced it.
I was a staunch weakness in front of love. I was afraid that if I did that, Theon would hate me.
When I reached out to grab his hand, he hid it first.
Later, he would appear wearing gloves because he didn’t want to touch me.
My only courtship was to give him countless gifts, praise him, and suffer on my own to please him.
As I can imagine, the picture of Theon putting food on my plate was not well portrayed. The way they laugh at each other, joke around, and laugh about small things…
‘Strange.’
I felt like I wasn’t the real me in that imagination.
But if this sweet is the true way of love for good people.
“I’m in trouble.”
I thought seriously. Giving or receiving love doesn’t seem to fit me.
I thought about it. I don’t know how to love properly, so it might be impossible for me to live a good life.
* * *
“Welcome, Princess.”
“Long time no see, Duke Bronte.”
I saw the Bronte family coming to meet me. It was the Duke of Bronte and his wife, and his servants
They even arranged a meal for me.
The large table was full of food that seemed to have been prepared in several days.
Onion macaroni topped with cream and cheese, sirloin steak topped with assorted spices, crispy browned turkey, rose rolled salmon topped with chickpeas, non-alcoholic apple-flavored sparkling wine, hazelnut and lemon Yogurt musley, rice pudding…
It was too much for Bronte and me to eat, but Ethan wasn’t there either.
I pretended not to know anything and sat down without mentioning him.
The meal began and conversations with the Duke and the Duchess were made on various topics, but Ethan was not mentioned anywhere.
“By the way, I heard that you have a son…”
Even though I knew everything, I got annoyed at him being erased, so I broke my luck first.
“Do you know our Jonathan?”
The Duke smiled broadly.
Oh right. he was there too
Jonathan Bronte was the daughter and eldest son of the Duchess.
And he was also the man who got hit in the head when I threw stones because I was annoyed with the episteme.  But other than that, his existence was hardly remembered. Because he died before I became emperor.
Did he die in an accident while hunting? Did they say he died riding a horse?
Anyway, he wasn’t that important to me. He wasn’t friendly, and he was closer to Ray than I was.
“Jonathan is currently attending Episteme and is living in the dormitory. Did the Crown Prince ever tell the princess about our Jonathan?
haha!”
The Duke of Bronte smiled proudly.
It was as if their shoulders were shrugged when they thought that the Crown Prince and Princess knew their son.
“Oh, it’s not that, but I saw the son of the Bronte family a while ago. It’s Ethan Bronte…”
Ethan’s name had not come out of the Duke’s mouth, so I had to say his name directly.
Then the Duke and Duchess met their eyes in bewilderment.
I didn’t want to see him not knowing what to do.
“Ethan Bronte, isn’t he?”
When asked again, the duke answered quickly.
“There is. You have met him before!”
“Yes, we met by chance while walking on the beach. Is Confucius Ethan also absent?”
The two of them smiled at my continued question. Their eyes glowed with triumphant light as if they had found something.
They must have mistakenly thought that I fell in love with Ethan at first sight.
Well, it’s not unreasonable to be mistaken as most young girls who see Ethan will react like that.
Whether you’re mistaken or not, it doesn’t really matter.
I ate milk pudding and waited for an answer.
“You are interested in our Ethan! Ethan was not feeling well today, so he was unable to eat, so he was absent. He has been disrespectful to the princess.”
Their attitude has changed quite favorably.
Because the princess was interested, they seemed to be calculating whether to continue the relationship somehow.
I don’t know what kind of misunderstanding I’m making, but I’m just going to use that misunderstanding.
“I thought he could be friends with me. May I meet him?”
“Then I will guide you after dinner. Perhaps Ethan will be happy to visit you.”
“Thank you.”
After dinner, Ethan’s nanny, who had been waiting in advance, took me to the garden.
Because the climate in the south was mild, the garden was in full bloom. A flower garden where the scent of lilies descends so deeply that it makes you dizzy.
The nanny led me down the long vine arch.
Stefan was tall, so he bent his shoulders and followed.
“Master Ethan, Princess Dorothea Milanaire is here.”
As they exited the arch, the nanny turned to the boy sitting at the outdoor table.
Then the boy who was sitting among the white lilies looked back.
Her silver hair fluttered and glistened in the sunlight. An aesthetically beautiful boy, as if gold dust was only scattered around him. Perfect beauty as if the god of beauty never left his side for even a single moment.
Ethan’s eyes widened as if surprised by the sudden visit.
Do you remember what happened at the beach last time?
But he quickly got up from his seat and smiled. His beautiful golden eyes pierced my heart.
If I hadn’t loved Theon, I must have passed on to Ethan like all the other girls.
‘The short hair suits him really well.’
I thought his beauty would shine brighter by letting his long silver hair down, but it wasn’t.
He perfectly digested even the neatly cut short hair like a young man.
I asked after trimming my neck for nothing.
“Ethan Bronte, right?”
He looked surprised for a moment as if he didn’t expect his name to be called, then returned with a polite smile.
“Nice to meet you. It is an honor to meet Princess Dorothea.”
Ethan greeted me with a calm and polite voice.
“Me too, nice to meet you.”
“I am happier that the princess is looking for me.”
Ethan smiled once more. It was a smile that perfectly matched the white lilies.
Then something fell on the floor next to me.
When I turned around, the nanny didn’t even know that saliva was dripping from her mouth because looking at Ethan.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
After I turned around, the nanny came to her senses, wiped her lips, and bowed her head.
Then Ethan looked at the nanny and smiled again. As if He wanted to kill once more.
As he intended, the nanny clenched her mouth with a pounding heart.
Ethan was young, but he knew he was handsome.
‘Yeah, this is the Ethan I knew.’
“Then call me if you need me.”
The nanny hurried away with a face that seemed to make a fuss at any moment.
“Stefan may step back for a moment. I’m going to play with Ethan.”
At my command, Stefan glanced at Ethan and nodded.
Everyone backed away and I approached him carefully.
Stefan was watching us from afar beyond the flower.
Ethan calmly guided me to the seat. It’s like someone who doesn’t remember what happened at the beach. Or like he doesn’t recognize me.
But there’s no way he couldn’t have recognized me. He was obviously surprised to see me. But now he was pretending not to know me.
‘It means you don’t want to talk about that day.’
* * *