[Episode 33] - A Promise to the Princess (1)
At the absurd news that the princess had shut herself away, I hurriedly ran to the main palace. What on earth had happened to the princess for people to say that she had locked herself in her room?
“Who on earth did she learn such a nasty thing from...!”
A suspect who was already dead came to mind, but there was no point in scolding someone who was dead. I shook my head, chasing that face from my thoughts.
By the time I arrived after running at full speed, the maids and Vangsho were already trying every means to coax the princess out, their exhausted expressions frozen in place as they stood outside the tightly closed door.
My side throbbed from running until I was completely out of breath. As I held my aching side and took deep, huffing breaths, Vangsho approached me and began explaining the chaotic situation.
“Your Highness the Queen... The princess says she intends to shut herself away.”
“Huff, wheeze... Why on earth?”
“Well...”
Vangsho wiped his face with his palm as though he was truly exhausted, then looked toward the maids kneeling on the floor. Seeing the maids sniffling with both hands raised above their heads, I could roughly guess what had happened.
“...Did the princess hear the maids saying something about me?”
“Yes. Apparently, Her Highness the Princess happened to overhear them saying that it was a shame Your Highness the Queen was leaving the palace. What shall we do with the maids?”
What was there to do...?
I had known from the beginning that the maids had loose tongues.
There were even people who said that a true noble should know how to gather and make use of rumors through maids with loose tongues.
Besides, the maids had not insulted me. I had no intention of rebuking them for saying that it was a shame I was leaving the palace. If anything, did it not mean that ‘Vivian’s’ reputation within the palace was gradually improving?
“Be a little more careful with your words from now on. Lower your hands and return to your rooms. I shall not punish you.”
“Th-Thank you...!”
I left the two maids as they dashed back to their rooms, then took a deep breath and approached the princess’s door. The maids had already gathered there, busy trying to coax her out.
One of them had piled up a mountain of egg tarts and cakes in front of the firmly shut door and was waiting for the princess to come out. Those were certainly snacks the princess liked, but...
“...Haa. All of you, return to your respective rooms. I shall handle the princess.”
Once I dispersed the maids clustered there like people at a marketplace, the area in front of the princess’s room finally grew quiet. I picked up the plate of egg tarts resting on a tray and knocked softly on the door.
“Princess, let’s talk for a moment.”
“......”
When no answer came, I suddenly remembered the nightmare of how I had once babbled frantically all by myself in front of the king’s shut-in room. For a moment, I wondered if shutting oneself away ran in this family, but...
Having already learned much from His Majesty the Shut-In, I calmly set the egg tarts down in front of the door and whispered to the princess in a gentle voice.
“Won’t you at least eat the egg tarts I brought? They surely won’t taste good once they get cold... I’ll leave them in front of the door, so take them later, at least.”
After setting the plate down on the floor, how much time passed?
One minute? Two minutes?
The firmly closed door began to open ever so slightly. Through the narrow gap, a single red eye blinked before spotting the plump egg tarts placed in front of the door.
The princess, having discovered the sweet-looking egg tarts, was surely planning to quickly reach out, grab the snacks, and take them into her room—but—
I did not miss that moment and swiftly shoved my foot into the gap between the door and its frame.
Thud!
I was faster at sticking my foot through the gap than the princess was at closing the door. Unable to shut it because of my foot suddenly appearing in the way, the princess looked up at me through the slightly open gap.
Our eyes met as the princess raised her head with a creak like a machine. Once she realized she could not close the door, her face turned pale, and she seemed at a loss.
She tried grunting as she pushed my foot back out, and even attempted to force the door shut, but no matter how strong a six-year-old girl might be, she could not overpower an adult.
Realizing that nothing she did would work, the princess looked up at me with teary eyes, as if asking me to move my foot. But there was no way I would let her close the door like this.
“Got you, you little rascal!”
“Eek!”
I yanked the door open. The princess, who had been clinging tightly to it, toppled onto the floor with a thump and was dragged out of the room.
I did not miss the opportunity and hurriedly tried to pick up the princess who had fallen to the floor, but she quickly curled herself into a ball to evade my hands, then scrambled to her feet and leaped onto her bed.
Then she pulled the blanket all the way over her head and hid herself completely.
“Tch...!”
The quickness of a child...!
Vangsho, who had been watching the princess and me from behind, clapped his hands in admiration.
“You have grown quite skilled, Your Highness the Queen.”
“Praise is unnecessary. You should go in as well. I shall handle the princess myself.”
“Heh heh, then I shall leave Her Highness the Princess in your care.”
I left Vangsho as he headed toward the office. After sighing, I entered the princess’s room and locked the door so no one could come in. I did not want anyone interrupting the flow of our conversation.
As I approached the princess, who had wrapped herself up in the blanket like a caterpillar and made it into a secret base, she squirmed and crawled around the bed, trying to avoid me.
“Princess...”
I gently sat on the princess’s bed and softly stroked her curled-up, caterpillar-like body. Then, from inside the blanket, I began to hear squirming and muffled sobs, as though she had started to cry.
...I understood the princess’s feelings. Her real parents, from whom she had wanted to receive love, had died, and now even I—the person she was closest to—was leaving.
The news must have left a bitter and painful shock in the princess’s heart.
I dragged the princess, still tightly wrapped in the blanket, onto my lap and held her. It looked as though I was hugging a sack, but I gently searched for an opening in the blanket and dug around inside until I found the princess’s face.
After rummaging through the blanket for a while, the princess’s hair, thoroughly disheveled by it, poked out. Her face was a mess from her tear stains, and because she had climbed into the blanket without even taking off her clothes, they were all wrinkled and rumpled.
With only her face poking out from her blanket-wrapped body, the princess nestled in my arms looked exactly like a baby bundled in a swaddling cloth. Perhaps she did not even want to look me in the eye.
She sharply turned her head away, avoiding my gaze.
And what was even more shocking was—
“Liar.”
“L-Liar?”
“They said that people who lie about snacks are the worst people in the world. I don’t believe anything Your Highness the Queen says anymore. You’re a liar and a bad person.”
“Th-That’s...”
As the princess looked at me and called me a liar while tears dripped down her cheeks, I felt a stab of guilt in my heart. Just as I wondered whether I should go bring in the snacks left outside—
The princess suddenly shouted at me through her tears.
“I told you not to come in! I told everyone not to come in! I said I wasn’t going to leave this place!”
“P-Princess...”
The princess pulled both hands out from under the blanket and began pushing against me. Her small fists pounded against my body, each little blow filled with sorrow and resentment.
“Why doesn’t anyone listen to me! The maids! Elly! Vangsho! Your Highness the Queen! And, and...”
Drip, drip.
The large tears pooled in the princess’s eyes fell, one after another, down her cheeks. She wiped them with the blanket wrapped around her body and continued in a sobbing voice.
“Mommy too... Daddy too...”
Her sobs soon turned into heartbroken wailing.
The princess buried her face and cried bitterly, calling out for her mother and father in a hoarse voice as tears poured down her face. All I could do was quietly hold her in my arms.
“Mommy... Daddy...”
“......”
Once the princess’s shoulders finally stopped shaking after a long while, I was able to take out a handkerchief and wipe her face. The corners of her eyes, reddened from roughly rubbing them with the blanket, looked painful.
...How should I tell the princess?
Should I say that I would not leave until she became an adult? In the end, would that not still mean I was leaving her side? And if I said that now, would it not hurt the princess even more?
But...
“Princess, look at me.”
For now, I simply wanted the princess to stop being sad.
Just as the world had a term called a white lie, I felt that I had to lie for the princess’s sake. Even if this lie were exposed someday and she came to dislike me, hate me, and resent me.
I had no doubt that this was the right thing to do now.
I wiped away the tears clinging to the princess’s eyes with my finger and tried to meet her gaze. Perhaps she still disliked me, for the princess refused to look at me with even her eyes.
“The maids have misunderstood. Where would I go? Just as this is the princess’s home, it is my home as well.”
“......”
“...What should I do to make you believe me...? Should I make a promise?”
At the mention of making a promise, the princess nodded. She glared at me with the wary eyes of a stray cat, as though she would never trust anyone again otherwise. I smiled gently and stroked the princess’s head.
“Princess, who am I?”
“Your Highness the Queen...”
“No, before that. What did I say I was?”
The princess thought hard, then opened her mouth as though she had remembered something.
“A good? Witch...”
“That’s right. A good witch. Did you know? When witches perform this act, they can never break a ‘promise.’”
I held out my little finger to the princess. She stared blankly at the little finger I extended, then tilted her head and looked at me as though she did not understand.
Did they not have promises sealed with little fingers here? I decided that was actually for the best, and took the princess’s little finger, making it match mine as I urged her to extend it too.
“Do you know why witches cannot break a promise? If they break a promise made by hooking their little fingers, they receive a very, very terrible punishment.”
“A-A punishment...?”
I spoke as though trying to frighten her a little, and the princess’s shoulders flinched. I had to scare her at least this much for her to believe that I would not break my promise, so I had no choice.
“That’s right. If you go this far and then break the promise—”
“If, if I break it...”
“You have to swallow a thousand needles as punishment.”
At the mention of having to swallow a thousand needles for breaking a promise, the princess’s face filled with horror. It was only a figurative expression, but perhaps she believed it was real, because she stared at me with a face gone pale.
“Do you want to swallow a thousand needles, Princess?”
The princess shook her head again and again and again and again.
“Neither do I. If we break a promise and have to swallow a thousand needles, it would hurt terribly, wouldn’t it?”
The princess nodded again and again and again and again.
Her intense reaction was so cute that I laughed without meaning to. When I held out my little finger to the princess, she seemed so shocked by the thought of swallowing a thousand needles that she tried to retract hers, but—
“Now, the promise. ‘I will always remain by the princess’s side!’ Will you believe me now?”
I forcibly hooked my little finger around the princess’s and shook our linked fingers up and down. The princess cried out in horror and tried to pull her finger free, but our intertwined little fingers did not come loose easily.
“B-But if you break it... A thousand needles...”
The princess looked at me with genuine concern. Afraid that I would truly have to swallow a thousand needles, she began worrying about me, having already forgotten that she had been crying moments before.
“You just have to avoid breaking the promise, right? Now, our thumbs too.”
I even forcibly pressed my thumb against the princess’s to seal the promise. The princess did not know what to do, busily looking back and forth between our linked fingers and my face. Then, before long, her eyes began to well up again, as though she might start crying.
“...You really aren’t going anywhere...?”
“...Of course not. We even made a promise, didn’t we? A witch’s terrible promise—if I break it, I’ll have to swallow a thousand needles.”
At those words, the princess buried her face in my chest and threw her arms around me. This might have been the first time the princess had clung to me like this. I patted the back of the princess nestled in my arms.
...As I looked down at the princess sobbing against me, my guilt felt like needles pricking my chest over and over. Even so, I had no choice but to tell this lie.
If I told her the ‘truth’ here and said that I had no choice but to leave the palace... the princess might truly have fallen apart.
So even if this lie were exposed someday, and the princess called me a liar, hated me, resented me, and despised me—
I would not regret telling the princess this ‘white lie.’ I had made up my mind.
I hugged the princess in my arms tightly and gave a bitter smile.
As I continued holding the princess, a growl from her stomach rumbled all the way into my own. Perhaps embarrassed that her stomach had made such a sound, the princess buried herself in my chest and could not raise her head.
I stroked the embarrassed princess’s head and chuckled as I made her a suggestion.
“It’s late, but would you like to have a snack together?”