/
‘What is it…? Was it a hallucination?’
Olivia said that Her Majesty would not be here again… He shouted out that he didn’t like it yesterday…
Louis rubbed his eyes a couple of times and then looked ahead, but Anastasia was still in front of him.
It was the moment Louis rubbed his eyes harder as if he could not believe it.
“Oh, my!”
Someone grabbed his arm and prevented him from rubbing his eyes.
Louis stared blankly ahead, and Anastasia looked at him with a worried face.
“You’ll get hurt if you rub your eyes like that.”
“Ah…”
“Are your eyes itchy?””
“Oh, no.”
“Then don’t rub it.”
Anastasia said firmly, and Louis nodded unconsciously.
Then he quickly asked, as if it was not the case.
“What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean?”
Anastasia replied with a big smile.
“I’m here to play with Louis.”
“…what?”
Louis’ face was stunned when he heard Anastasia’s answer.
Anastasia smiled inwardly when she saw it.
‘You thought I’d never come again, didn’t you?’
That’s true. He kicked her out yesterday screaming that he didn’t want to be friends.
In the eyes of others, Anastasia, the Empress, did not bow down first.
But that’s from a power point of view.
‘There’s no such thing for family.’
Anastasia was extremely tolerant of children.
And it wasn’t a situation where she couldn’t understand at all that Louis was wary of her right now.
‘Maybe as Wilhelm said… He might think he killed his parents.’
If there is such a misunderstanding, she would surely fix it. Because it wasn’t true.
Wilhelm never killed either of them.
‘Anyway, as people say, ‘You have to try it three times.’
While Anastasia smiled grimly, Louis dodged the situation with a troubled look.
“Yesterday… I said I didn’t want to be friends with Your Majesty.”
“But I don’t think you said you didn’t want to play with me.”
“…I have a class today, too.”
“I know. It starts at 10 o’clock.”
“How did you know?”
When Louis looked surprised, Anastasia smirked unconsciously.
It was so cute to see him surprised with his eyes wide open.
Anastasia answered like a woman who hid a great secret.
“There’s a way to know everything.”
“Tell me.”
“No, it’s a secret.”
It was a trivial fact that she asked the Imperial Palace’s maids, but she didn’t want to tell him strangely enough.
Right now, she thought she should do it to arouse interest as much as possible.
“I’ll let you know later. Not now.”
Louis puffed his cheek discontentedly at the remark.
Then he spoke in a more blunt voice than before.
“Anyway, I can’t play with Your Majesty because I have a class.”
“But it’s nine o’clock now.”
Anastasia took out a pocket watch and checked the time.
“We still have an hour to go. To start the class.”
“…”
“I came to play with you for an hour. It’s going to be okay, right?
Oops, there was no justification for a further refusal. Olivia was out now, too.
There was no one to help him.
‘What should I do?’
Louis quickly rolled his head around* to avoid spending time with Anastasia.
*TN: to think
Then he soon came up with a good excuse.
“Ah, homework…”
“Huh? What?”
“I have homework left.”
Why didn’t he think of it?
Louis quickly turned into a triumphant look as if he had been embarrassed.
“I have to do it.”
“Oh, my God…”
…it’s obviously a lie, isn’t it?
‘Louis… Who would be so proud to say that they didn’t do their homework?’
But a six-year-old couldn’t have thought that far.
On the other hand, Louis, who seemed to believe that he had deceived an adult perfectly, looked just cute.
She wanted to be fooled by that lie.
Anastasia raised the question with a jittery look.
“But you sent me out to do your homework last night. Didn’t you do it then?”
“That’s… it’s the homework I didn’t finish yesterday.”
“There’s only an hour left until the class.”
Anastasia asked, struggling to hold back a smile that was about to pop out.
“You still have homework that you haven’t finished yet, right?””
“Yes, it’s… uh, it’s difficult.”
“Well….”
When Anastasia looked at Louis with a meaningful look, Louis quietly avoided Anastasia’s gaze, nervous.
Even that looked cute, she felt like she was falling in love with Louis.
‘Cause you’re so lovely.’
Who wouldn’t be fascinated by such a pretty child?
Anastasia asked with a smile.
“Do you have a lot left?”
“No, a little…”
“Okay, I’ll be waiting.”
“What?”
“I’ll wait here until you finish your homework.”
“Oh, you’ll have to wait a long time.”
Frustrated by the unexpected answer, Louis hurriedly added.
“You have to wait for about 30 minutes!”
“It’s alright. I’m good at waiting. Half an hour is worth the wait.”
“Ha, but…”
“Come on, do your homework, Prince Louis.”
Anastasia smiled graciously and pushed Louis on the back, and eventually Louis had to sit at his desk to do his homework again.
Of course there was nothing to do, and Anastasia was staring at Louis like that behind his back.
With persistent gaze, Louis, who pretended to tease the pen on the already filled book, eventually declared his surrender.
“All….”
Louis opened his mouth, trying to hide his embarrassment.
“I’m done.”
“Already?”
Anastasia, who was still staring at Louis, replied with a surprised look.
“It’s only been ten minutes.”
“I told you. There’s only a little bit left…”
“But it was over soon. Well done, Louis. That’s great.”
Anastasia approached Louis and patted his head naturally, praising him.
Louis unknowingly stiffened at the unexpected touch of Anastasia.
But Anastasia just kept patting Louis on the head regardless.
“Then we can play for 50 minutes now.”
“Isn’t 50 minutes too short to do anything?”
“Well, no, it’s fine. That’s enough.”
“What are we going to do?”
“What does Louis usually do?”
Oh, he said he didn’t have time to play.
“I should change the question. What do you want to do?”
“…”
“Oh, no. There isn’t anything.”
Anastasia seemed to have expected such an answer.
“You don’t have to worry. I told you yesterday, right? I’ve been thinking all night about how to play with Louis all night.”
Louis nodded cautiously.
Anastasia raised her corners of her mouth and grinned at the dim expectation beyond his eyes.
“I’ll show you the results now. Now, sit down.”
“Are we playing with toys?”
“Yes. It’s a very fun toy.”
“What kind of toy is that?”
“Ah, that…”
Liquid monster, maybe he’s heard of it.
~~~~
It wasn’t a lie to say that she thought about how to play with Louis all night.
Playing with a child wasn’t as easy as one might think.
It was because if it wasn’t funny, they wouldn’t be interested, and they would get bored quickly.
In addition, Louis was now extremely wary of her, making it more difficult to attract interest.
‘I have to make a strong impact on the first game. That way, he’ll keep trying to play with me.’
Even after finishing the game, she had to find a game that was so addictive that he kept thinking about it and would miss it.
Then, what came to mind was a liquid monster.
A liquid monster, also called slime, was a flowing toy in the form of mucus. Should she say it’s a sticky jelly?
She bought it out of curiosity because it was so popular with children, and it had a soft touch and a firmness, so she felt a strange pleasure when she touched it without thinking.
In addition, the liquid monster was a toy that satisfied all five senses except taste.
Most of them have bright colors, which are pleasing to the eye, and the effect is doubled if you add parts that sparkle like jewels.
The smell was fragrant and nice, and the peculiar sound it made when touched was strangely addictive.
To say it was nice to touch was definitely nagging. Time went by quickly as she was scrambling with a few of them, which were so diverse.
Anyway, Anastasia was convinced that the liquid monster would steal Louis’ heart.
But it was impossible to get a liquid monster here.
After much consideration, Anastasia decided to make her own liquid monster.
In the past, she saw a video showing how to make a liquid monster using natural materials, because the process was simple and she still remembered it.
‘The process of making a liquid monster will definitely be a fun time for Louis.’
Rather than making the liquid monster too good from the start, Anastasia decided to step it up gradually.
That will keep Louis interested for a long time without getting bored too quickly.
~~~~
After a while.
“… Is this all?”
“Yes.”
“This is nothing.”
Expectations must have been high since she had been thinking all night about how to play.
Louis inflated his cheeks once more, perhaps disappointed by the shabby appearance in front of him.