#Side Story 3. The Baby Angel He Drew 2023.11.
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5. Ah……. His Highness the Prince’s office. The moment Howard recalled where the missing documents might be, he headed straight for the prince’s office. The knights standing triple guard over the palace paid their respects with every step Howard took. The prince’s office was as heavily secured as its owner’s honor was high, but the position of first aide was an exception that allowed him to enter the office even when its master was absent. Yet when he opened the door as usual, Howard was, quite unlike himself, a little flustered. The office was bright. And beneath those bright lights, the prince who should not have been here was looking at Howard. “Why are you so surprised? You’re making me feel awkward.” The prince, seated with his long legs elegantly crossed, shrugged. His languidly smiling face did not look awkward in the least, but Howard did not bother pointing that out. Instead, he tried to determine why the prince, who had finished his affairs of state earlier, was still in his office. The moment he heard the news of the princess’s muscle pain, His Highness had neatly wrapped up every report and left the office without so much as looking back……. Surely he could not have come back now to finish work he had left undone. “I’m forbidden from entering the bedroom.” Edwin chuckled and leaned back against the sofa. Forbidden from entering the bedroom. What in the world could have happened between two people who were so very close? As the expressionless Howard blinked in disbelief, Edwin added playfully, “The palace is buzzing with rumors. They say the princess, who was laid up after my training, is preparing a tremendous revenge.” “……
Just you wait, Edwin. My lessons will be quite strict too.” The words that had become the source of the rumor had been Olivia’s morning greeting. Olivia, who had looked on the verge of tears as she complained of muscle pain after two laps around the training ground, had risen from her bed that morning and, in an elegant voice, foretold the future that would soon arrive. Edwin had heard the words “just you wait” more times than he could count in his life, but never had anyone made a chill run through him the way Olivia did. For his princess, who always showed an even greater daring when he provoked her, ultimately always left him impatient at the final moment. It was only drawing a self-portrait of him as a child. What preparation could there be beyond setting up an easel and spreading out drawing paper? And yet the instant he recalled that sparkling provocation, his mind filled entirely with Olivia. Her skin white enough to seem transparent, her lovely pretty face, the red tongue she had peeked out at him……. Ah, this was rather serious. Edwin leisurely drew up the corners of his mouth. What he ought to be doing now was preparing his defenses, yet his heart was flung wide open. After running two laps around the training ground, the end of his lesson had even included a perfumed oil massage. How far would the finishing touch of the drawing lesson Olivia taught him go? The very waiting was delightful, and just as the smile on his lips deepened—knock, knock. In that instant, Edwin looked toward the door. His red eyes, staring so intently, darkened without end, enough to make even Howard flinch. He wondered if it might be Her Highness, but when Howard opened the door, he found Hannah. Only after paying her respects did Hannah get to the point. “Her Highness the Princess asked me to convey that all preparations are complete.” At the sight of the dedicated maid looking somehow triumphant, Edwin gave a small laugh. He did not know what sort of preparations they were, but it seemed something quite entertaining was about to unfold. . . . But when Edwin entered the bedroom, he looked around the room with a peculiar expression. Surely Olivia would have prepared everything perfectly. Yet the only things that had changed were an easel and a few drawing supplies set out. “You’re here, Edwin?” At the welcoming voice, Edwin looked at Olivia and narrowed his eyes as if thinking, Surely not. Unlike the splendid, sparkling dresses she usually wore, the dress Olivia had on now covered everything up to her shoulders and neck, and it was so excessively modest that at a glance it even seemed old-fashioned. The dress was not the only thing different from usual. She wore no brooch or necklace, and her hair, without a single ornament, was coiled low and tied back. The only jewels she had on were the pearl earrings on her dainty earlobes. Even so, she was dazzlingly beautiful. Edwin put on a gentle smile and strode toward Olivia. “You really do look like a teacher, my lady.” Edwin, who had been about to kiss her cheek as naturally as he always did, tilted his head when Olivia lightly pushed him away. It was then. Olivia’s eyes curved softly. “That’s right, Edwin.” “……
What is?” “The first rule of my lesson is that you call me Teacher.” For a moment, Edwin swallowed a breath as if he had been caught off guard. Teacher……. Good heavens, why had he not thought of such a wonderful idea himself? “……
If I’d known this would happen, I should have held my lesson after yours, Olivia.” To think that, in such a golden opportunity, he had focused only on running together and on the healthy sight of her cheeks flushing red. But no matter how he regretted it now, time would not turn back. Seeing his lips part in disappointment, Olivia smiled. “Olivia? You should call me Teacher.” Delight was thick in the voice that admonished him as if soothing a child. Hiding a mischievous smile, Olivia looked at Edwin. Watching Edwin’s eyes narrow as if he had finally grasped the situation, Olivia smiled with the practiced air of a real teacher. After Edwin’s training, which had been so enjoyable it nearly stole her soul away, she had been laid up for a full three days. With muscle pain worse than she had expected, she had even received the prince’s perfumed oil massage and made him serve her with only a glance. So this time, it was her turn. The goal was a self-portrait of the baby angel, but the process had to be as interesting and absorbing as the last time had been enjoyable for her. Though not quite on Edwin’s level, she had even prepared perfumed oil so that if his hand grew stiff from holding crayons, she could massage it as much as needed. She had overpowered the atmosphere. Now it was time to teach him how to draw while coaxing and soothing him. But it was at that moment. “……
Yes, Teacher.” There was something strangely peculiar about the word as he pronounced it on the tip of his tongue. Only then did Olivia realize anew that this special student was far too beautiful, and so affectionate it was almost excessive. Oh no. But in the face of a game that had already begun, Olivia could not be the first to show weakness. Even under the gaze that seemed to bore through her cheek, Olivia steadfastly explained how to draw the structure of a face, then looked elsewhere as if avoiding that blatant stare and pointed to the white drawing paper. “What are you doing? Draw.” “I’m looking at you, Teacher.” If she had been a suitably experienced teacher, she would have pretended not to hear. Unfortunately, Olivia was not an experienced teacher, and she was weak to a pretty face and earnest pleading. All the more so when the object was, in truth, her husband. Her earlobes, avoiding his richly sinking gaze, gradually reddened. It was beautiful, the way skin as translucent and white as her pearl earrings became tinged with color. Edwin brazenly added another remark. “What should I do if the subject I suddenly want to draw changes, Teacher?” “……
Would it not be better to finish what you originally set out to do first, then draw something new?” Olivia laughed softly as if she found it absurd. “What if the new subject I want to draw is so beautiful that I can’t concentrate on the picture I meant to draw?” “You should concentrate.” “On where? The blank white paper with nothing on it? Or…….” His gaze, which had been tracing the line of her delicate jaw, grew increasingly tenacious. His red eyes, laden with impure implications, kept trying to meet Olivia’s. “……
On my beautiful Princess?” As the cheeks of the proper lady flushed rose-pink, their two gazes tangled together beyond measure. Before Edwin kissed the face his gaze had traveled over, he sought permission like a gentleman in order to conclude this delightful game. “Pardon me, but may I see Teacher tomorrow, and have you return tonight as my beautiful Princess?” She blushed for a moment at the roundabout expression that he liked this game very much, but then Olivia set down the crayon with an elegant face as if nothing had happened. “Then draw it as homework, Edwin.” . . . It was a night steeped in moonlight. Her hazy, heated face had fallen asleep in exhaustion. Edwin, who had been looking down at her with endlessly sweet eyes, smiled only after her breathing had evened out. Her face, alone in sleep, was so peaceful that a needless mischief rose in him. Edwin lightly tapped her pretty nose. When a sleepy whimper slipped through her red lips, Edwin, who had familiarly patted Olivia’s back, found himself smiling. The princess in his arms was more harmless and peaceful than at any other moment in the world, and she felt so noble that he could scarcely touch her. If this pretty one was not an angel……. In that instant, Edwin went rigid as if struck by lightning. After some time passed, it was only natural that Edwin rose and brought over the drawing paper. * * * The drawing of Bichander’s baby angel was completed three days later. “It really does look like a baby angel…….” Olivia looked at the drawing, marveling again and again. In the picture, whose features were vividly captured, was a lovely baby with cheeks as red as apples and a bright smile. Six-year-old Edwin, with black hair curled prettily at the ends like a kid goat’s, was terribly cute. Olivia carefully took in the drawing with her eyes. He was this cute even on paper, so what would he be like if she saw him in person? One corner of her heart quickly swelled. But Olivia soon shook her head. This was satisfying enough. To think that, as his art teacher, she had even received such a fine work from the student she taught……! But Edwin smiled slowly and tilted his head. “……
I’m not so sure.” “Why? Are you boasting that you’re prettier now?” “The real baby angel should be on the next page.” The next page? Now that he mentioned it, another sheet of drawing paper was layered behind Edwin’s portrait. Without thinking, Olivia lifted the other portrait. In that instant, her green eyes shook violently. It was a drawing of a little girl enjoying a picnic, seated on a white muslin cloth beneath the shade of a lush green tree, in front of a wide, pale-green wheat field, taking a bite of a sandwich. The child, smiling brightly as if she were happy, was unmistakably……. her. Sparkling silver hair and green eyes curved deeply with joy. There was even a pink ribbon, the same color as her dress, tucked into the long, combed-down silver hair. When I was the age of the child in this picture, my hair was actually a mess. Of course there was no ribbon like this, either. She was about to laugh as the past came to mind, but in that instant, Olivia swallowed her breath. Because that child, who was only a drawing, looked so very happy. It felt as if the happiness that was now as natural as breathing to Olivia Lowell Bichander had been delivered through the picture to her younger self. Emotions too varied to distinguish surged up all at once. Gentle kisses rained down over her stiff shoulders. “I thought that if a baby angel existed, perhaps she would look like that.” It was strange. His lips were touching the nape of her neck, yet the soft sensation kept feeling as though it were kissing her heart. Pretty colors kept being layered over impatient memories. Edwin’s voice shattered by her ear like brilliant sunlight. “As I drew myself, I found I wanted to see it. I grew curious about your five- and six-year-old self……. Because you must certainly have been like an angel too, Liv.”