[Episode 41] - My Child’s Birthday Party (3)
Titania, the Fairy Queen.
The wife of the Fairy King Oberon, and the being called the queen of the fairies. They say she originally had no fixed name, but...
After she appeared in Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream and became famous, the name came to be widely used in other works as well.
Naturally, the game Snow White used that popular name too, and within the game there also existed a fairy queen bearing the name “Titania.”
For a princess who would one day make contracts with the “Seven Dwarf Fairies,” be served by those children, and become “the queen of this kingdom,” wasn’t the name “Titania” truly fitting?
I thought it was a good name, but there had also been a reason the Queen Dowager was worried. She had said that the royals of this kingdom did not use the names of “fairies or divine beings.”
Of course, the names “Fairy King Oberon” and “Fairy Queen Titania” were among them.
Whether it was pressure from the temple, or simply the idea that humans should not covet the names of gods. Or perhaps because of the custom of avoiding witches.
They said that, among the names of this kingdom’s royals, there had never once been an instance of borrowing the name of a divine being.
That was why the Queen Dowager had worried that people would talk behind our backs, that some would nitpick and claim there was no precedent.
But nitpicking was only nitpicking. It was not some flying spark of fire; it was nothing more than dust-like faultfinding, and I could brush it off with my own hand.
“I’ll just do that.”
I slowly watched the princess walk out into the party hall. Her eyes were red as if she might burst into tears at any moment, and the fist clutching the hem of her skirt trembled.
However, the princess’s steps as she entered the party hall were dignified. She lifted her chin high, looked down at the nobles below her, and waved her hand.
As the princess climbed onto the high dais and gently fluttered her small hand at the nobles looking up at her, several nobles below were busy hiding their mouths with their fans because the corners of their lips kept rising.
At the sight of the princess appearing at her first official occasion, everyone was busy staring holes into her.
What words would come from that tiny mouth? How could she be so small even though she was seven years old? Would her first official appearance not frighten her?
In particular, the noble ladies with children of their own did not know what to do as they looked at the princess. They watched her with anxious eyes that seemed to say, “It is fine even if she makes a mistake, but I hope her heart will not be hurt...”
“E-Ehem!”
The princess, standing atop the dais, cleared her throat and opened her mouth in a trembling voice. When everyone looked at her, her legs wavered slightly from nerves.
Recalling the greeting she had worked so hard to prepare until now, the princess composed her trembling heart and slowly began to recite her words.
The greeting everyone had praised, saying she had prepared it well.
“I, on this my sevenf birfday, am—!”
Crunch.
But perhaps because she was nervous, the princess bit her tongue. Hard. So hard that it looked painful to the people watching.
The princess, who had bitten her tongue painfully enough for the sound to echo, covered her mouth with both hands as tears welled in her eyes.
She tried to endure the pain and speak, but perhaps no words would come out; the princess stood there at a loss, tears brimming.
As the nobles below began to murmur slightly, the Queen Dowager, seated in the very front and watching the princess, glared at me.
Her eyes said, “Hurry up and handle this situation so that the princess is not embarrassed.”
Receiving the Queen Dowager’s look, I slowly approached the princess standing on the dais. The princess looked up at me beside her, her eyes reddened.
Ahem.
I slipped my hands under the princess’s armpits, lifted her up, and pulled her straight into my arms.
Then, thinking it might sound a bit more dignified, I lowered my voice and, without bowing my head, only rolled my eyes to look down at the nobles below.
“Everyone, thank you for gathering here to celebrate the princess’s birthday despite the hardships we have recently faced.”
When I honored the king’s death, the nobles who did not know the truth of the incident bowed their heads and briefly commemorated his passing.
I, too, finished a very short silent bow, then raised my head and looked at the nobles again. I had expected it, but the way the nobles looked at me was not particularly kind.
Anxiety, avoidance, concern.
All sorts of negative gazes pierced me.
According to Ainsel, before Vivian became queen, she had been a beautiful and intelligent young lady, to the point of being called the flower of society.
But what of it? Her personality had been a complete mess.
They said Vivian often used Ainsel to dig up nobles’ secrets, then threatened them with those secrets as leverage. That was why everyone avoided Vivian...
So perhaps that was why, after becoming queen of a kingdom, Vivian had not even been invited to any social circles?
I understood why everyone was looking at me that way. But that was the Vivian of the past, not the current me.
Without minding their negative gazes in the slightest, I declared:
“Princess Titania is my treasure, and one day she will become the treasure of this kingdom. No, I will make her so.”
Those words were something akin to a small declaration of war to the nobles. A warning not even to dream of doing anything foolish to the princess, who was only just entering society.
If they touched her, the royal family would move.
Vivian’s threats of exposing secrets would begin again.
It was a modest check, telling them to understand as much.
So that everyone could see this sight even more clearly, I held the princess—who was sitting on my arm as if it were a chair—even closer.
When my cheek touched the princess’s as she covered her mouth with both hands, the princess mumbled with her aching tongue that she was embarrassed to be like this in front of everyone.
But I held that princess even tighter in my arms and appealed to everyone watching that “the princess and I are this close.”
“May there be blessings upon Princess Titania’s future. I do not doubt that all of you will pray with the same heart as mine.”
When I lightly pressed my lips to the princess’s forehead as if blessing her, applause burst out from below.
As the Queen Dowager began clapping first, all the nobles around her, who had been watching for cues, busied themselves following her and applauding.
The princess’s greeting had unfortunately failed, but at least the congratulatory address seemed to have ended not too badly, so I could let out a sigh of relief.
I looked at the princess in my arms, smiled brightly at her, and wiped away the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes with my finger.
“Titania. From now on, this name is your name. What do you think? I hope you like it—”
No sooner had I finished speaking than the princess, who had both hands clamped over her mouth, grew tearful again and reached out to throw her arms around my neck. Then she rubbed her face against mine, acting as if she were truly happy.
I patted the princess’s back, and following the emotions I felt at that moment, I smiled with genuine happiness. I was certain the princess was making the same expression as me.
“I sincerely congratulate you on your seventh birthday, Titania. And I hope we will get along well for the rest of our lives. Just like the ‘promise’ we made together.”
At those words, the princess buried her face in my shoulder, nodded, and whispered to me in a tearful voice.
“Yes...! I look forward to being with you too...!”
*
After finishing the congratulatory address, the princess and I descended from the dais to offer our greetings to the Queen Dowager, who had been watching us from the very front.
When we went down to where the Queen Dowager was, she was once again in a foul mood for who knew what reason, holding strong liquor in one hand while folding and unfolding a fan in the other, making a tap-tap sound.
Looking at that now-familiar sight, I ordered a passing servant to bring some suitable snacks.
After accepting the plate from the servant, who had brought several kinds of the abundant food in the party hall, I quietly approached the Queen Dowager and smiled as I offered her the snacks.
“Your Highness, if you keep drinking on an empty stomach, it will be harmful to your health. Since Your Highness keeps doing this, does it not make me act somewhat like a maid?”
When I spoke with concern mixed with a joke, the Queen Dowager’s eyes flew open and she glared at me. Just as she was about to pour out a scolding beginning with, “You, of all people, really—” I gently pushed the princess forward by the back and presented her before the Queen Dowager.
“Titania, you have something to say to Her Highness the Queen Dowager, don’t you?”
At my words, the princess nodded and shyly approached the Queen Dowager. She lightly lifted the hem of her dress and spun around once in front of the Queen Dowager.
Then, bowing neatly at the waist to greet the Queen Dowager, the princess smiled bashfully and looked at her.
“Thank you very much for giving me such a pretty dress! G-Grandmother...!”
“......What did you just say? Grandmother?”
The Queen Dowager, one eyebrow twitching as she looked at the princess, once again turned to look at me with a deep frown. Watching her, I covered my mouth and laughed with a “kyo-kyo-kyo.”
“Your granddaughter is offering her thanks, ‘Mother.’ You should hurry and accept your granddaughter’s greeting.”
“......”
The Queen Dowager looked at me with an absurd expression, hurling all manner of curses at me with only her eyes. Then she glanced down at the princess, worked her lips for a moment, and finally, as if admitting defeat, let out a small sigh and smiled at the princess.
“...It is a small gift for my granddaughter, so if there is ever anything you need, tell me, not the queen. This grandmother will listen to anything you ask.”
“Yes, yes...! Grandmother...!”
Watching the princess smile brightly at the Queen Dowager’s answer, the Queen Dowager gulped down her liquor as if to hide some inexplicable embarrassment.
As I watched the Queen Dowager and the princess with a pleased expression, the Queen Dowager frowned with the same expression she always wore when looking at me and waved her hand.
“Do not stand here blankly. Go already. Surely you have not forgotten that the royal family must present the first dance at a party? Why are you here instead of going to your partner’s side?”
“What are you talking about? My partner is right here.”
“What?”
The Queen Dowager looked at me as if asking what on earth I meant, but I deliberately ignored that gaze, turned to the side, bent at the waist, and held out my hand to the princess.
In the typical posture of a man asking a woman for a dance.
I smiled brightly and invited the princess.
“Princess Titania, would you grant me the honor of sharing your first dance?”
The Queen Dowager, the princess, and the nobles around us who had been watching were all startled by my words and could only stare at me without saying anything.
Originally, social dancing was something men and women did together.
Women could dance together as well, but that was only something done at unofficial events, during dance lessons, or in secret, hidden from the eyes of others.
This was “common sense” known even to the princess, who had only just turned seven. That was why the princess had probably been planning to invite me to dance secretly in her room after the party ended, without anyone else knowing...
After hesitating for a moment at my unexpected invitation, the princess looked at me, puffed out her cheeks, and, with a sulky expression, took my hand as if she had no other choice.
“I was going to ask you first...”
“Hoho, with things like this, the first to act gets to claim it.”
Holding tightly to the princess’s hand as she held mine, I slowly led her toward the center of the party hall.
So that we could share each other’s first dance.