I’m the Main Character’s Child - Chapter 42

“Is that a game if only one side is having fun? Then you can be the tagger.”

“You…”

She could see Neinster clenching his fist when he heard her words.

“There’s a limit to letting you off the hook just because you’re a Bardion princess. Just wait and see.”

His red eyes were burning as if they were going to burn her at any moment. The noble children nearby swallowed their breath when her identity was revealed in the mouth of Neinster.

“The Duke of Bardion…….”

“Is it really the Bardion?”

The atmosphere began to stir. They were seen whispering about Bardion, silencing each other’s voices.

“Go. This is the last one.”

Neinster told her with a gesture as if clearing the bugs. Thinking that such a child could rise to the throne in the future, she felt like she was having a fever inside.

“I will be the tagger. Let me play with you.”

“Ha! If you like!”

Neinster looked around him and hesitated. This is because the children who knew who she was were already reluctant to step up to each other.

“This is really…”

Neinster, whose face quickly turned red, strode up and put his hand on her head.

“Clap your hand? Okay!”

She hit Neinster’s hand with mana in her hand. Even if he was bigger than her, he was still a child.

Of course, I am younger, but it would be a different story if magic was involved.

“Argh!”

Neinster, who met her hand, fell to the floor in an unpleasant way.

“Oh, weren’t we going to clap together? I guess I was too strong.”

Neinster, who clapped his hands with a girl younger than him and fell down, looked blank for a while and soon lowered his head as if he understood the situation.

Looking at his trembling body, she hoped that Neinster would reflect on himself even a little. But it was a useless wish.

“Argh!”

Unable to resist his anger, Neinster grabbed a soil nearby and scattered it toward her. She closed her eyes tightly thinking that she would be hit by the soil. At that time, she heard the children’s screams along with the touch of someone hugging her. When she opened her eyes gently, she saw a person covering her body.

It was the first prince, a child covered in dirt.

The 1st Prince was still wearing an eye patch, but as soon as Neinster sprinkled the soil, he seemed to wrap himself around her. But there was a separate reason why the children screamed. It was because of the owner of a large back blocking her and the first prince.

“D, Duke Bardion.”

Cardin quietly brushed the dirt off his clothes. There was silence all around. The noble children gathered in one place and looked at their side, and the complexion of Neinster, who had suddenly sprinkled dirt on Cardin, was pale.

“You enjoy a pretty wild game. His Highness the Crown Prince.”

“Oh, no. I…….”

“But did my daughter agree to that game?”

The murderous sound that pierced their skin made their skin get goose bumps instinctively. Everyone who was hearing the cold voice that froze the surroundings was shaking.

“I don’t care what your Highness does and plays. However, … I didn’t know that you usually play like this.”

Cardin said, glancing through the huddled crowd with fierce eyes.

“Oh, no. It’s just….”

Neinster hardened in front of Cardin, he tried to make an excuse, but even that was not easy. It was because he already knew that Cardin had witnessed all this. If he makes an unnecessary excuse here, he knows what will happen to him.

“I, I’m sor….”

“Ohmy! Prince!”

It was a woman’s scream that broke the cold silence. When she turned to the side where she heard the sound, the Empress, who she had seen before, was running at the forefront among the ladies.

When the children in the garden found the ladies near the empress, they ran fast and fell into their skirt width.

‘Oh, was it today?’

A few days ago, she received an invitation to a tea party held at the Imperial Palace. The organizer of the meeting was, of course, Empress Mogris. A meeting of a small group of nobles and their children that had been lightly ignored by Cardin under the pretext of busyness.

She wondered why there were so many children in the palace, it must be because today was the day of the meeting.

“What’s going on! Why do you look like this…! Cardin?”

Empress Mogris, who was running in a hurry, saw Cardin. Her eyes widened in surprise. 

“The kids were having a lot of fun.”

Cardin, who gave a slight silent tribute to the Empress Mogris, opened his mouth with his cold voice.

“Is that so? But why is the prince sitting on the floor…….”

Sensing that the atmosphere was unusual, the Empress Mogris swallowed her dry saliva and asked Cardin.

“Is the prince healthy these days?”

“What? Of course. You don’t need to worry about the prince.….”

“I asked because he seems to have a bad eyesight.”

“……What are you saying now?”

Empress Mogris stuttered and tried to understand what Cardin had said.

“He threw dirty dirt on my daughter, who was standing still. I asked you because I was worried that he might not have seen the other person properly.”

At the end of the sentence, Cardin threw his eyes at Neinster, who was sitting on the floor. Neinster, who received an indifferent look with no emotion, lowered his head to the floor reflexively.

“Then I’ll be on my way. May your Highness be well.”

Cardin came close to Emiliette, turning his back to Empress Mogris, who couldn’t say anything.

“Let’s go.”

Holding his hand, she stopped Cardin for a moment trying to go back the way he had come. She took the first prince’s hand and led him in front of her.

“Wound, I want to treat…it?”

She couldn’t leave the first prince full of wounds and dirt in this place while wearing an eye patch. Fortunately, the first prince followed her calmly as he was caught in her hand. They walked out of the garden, leaving the stunned empress, Neinster and a number of nobles behind, and headed to Cardin’s office.

The most appropriate place to treat the wound right now was Cardin’s office. Cardin’s office was very quiet since everyone had already gone home. She led the first prince to Cardin’s office.

“…….”

She brought him there, but she was worried about what to do. First, she thought that she had to untie the eye patch that covered his face. 

“Let me untie this…first?”

The first prince flinched for a moment and calmly entrusted his face to her. She was a bit embarrassed because she wasn’t expecting to meet the first prince this way. The eye patch was loosened and the first prince’s face was revealed in front of her eyes.

The first prince had sparkling silver eyes and blonde hair. She was lost for a while looking at his sparkling eyes. 

“Wow, your eyes are like a piece of…. Art.”

Without realizing it, her mouth moved again.

The first prince twisted his head to the side awkwardly because he felt burdened by her staring into his eyes. Like his calm appearance, the first prince has not uttered a word so far.

“There’s a lot of dirt on your hair, too……?”

She gently brushed the dirt off his hair, and the golden hair wrapped around her fingertips reminded her of Ad.

‘He has dark blonde hair like the first emperor.’ 

After the fountain incident, she asked Cardin about Ad, but she couldn’t find him at all. She sent away her life’s benefactor, who had brilliant golden hair and a blunt way of speaking. She made a promise to keep her gratitude in her heart with the thought that he would pass by at least once in her life. She felt sorry for the first prince, who strangely reminded her of Ad.

“I’ll treat the wound.”

Before she knew it, Cardin, who brought a simple treatment drug, sat next to the first prince. Looking at his face, Cardin murmured softly.

“What a fool.”

Despite Cardin’s harsh words, the first prince looked at Cardin with no expression on his face. She felt somehow familiar with the first prince she saw today. Soon she realized that she had seen that face somewhere. An empty expression that has become impossible to contain any emotions through repeated pain.

It was the face she used to build in my previous life. The expression that comes out because nothing changes even if you express your emotions.

“What could have been tactfully avoided…… Why did you just suffer?”

Cardin opened his mouth by applying medicine to the first prince’s face. It seemed to be roughly applied, but Cardin seemed to be paying a little attention to the first prince, given the careful application of the medicine only to severe wounds.

“…….”

The first prince kept silent. 

Cardin also quietly looked for a place to treat it, perhaps hoping for an answer. Next to the face, Cardin’s hand turned to the hand of the first prince. The back of his hand and the palm of his hand were covered with scars, probably because he fell repeatedly. She was just looking at the hands of two people in this heavy atmosphere.

“Ah?”

Seeing the hand of the wounded prince, she jumped from her seat and shouted. This is because of the old scar she saw across the palm of the first prince. She definitely knows that scar.

“Ad…?”

It was just like the scar of Ad that night in the square. Her question caused a great stir in the face of the first prince. Thinking of Ad, the golden hair he had seen that night and the golden hair in front of her looked even more identical.

He might have been silent for a while, maybe for some other reason.

“The scar on the hand that I saw back then. It’s the same as this one.”

The first prince swallowed dry saliva with his shaky pupils. Judging from his reaction, she probably guessed right.

“If it’s Ad, isn’t it the one who saved you? Why is that name coming out now?”

Cardin had heard the story of Ad who had saved her that night and ordered someone to find him and give him a reward. In the end, they couldn’t find Ad, but Cardin also knew the story about Ad. 

A curious light appeared on Cardin’s face when Ad’s name appeared in an unexpected situation and place.

“Right…? I’m not mistaken.”

She asked the first prince for a definite answer. The first prince, who suddenly came out and received Cardin’s attention at once, hesitated and nodded quietly.