Chapter 18

“…Why?”

In the end, I couldn’t hold back and asked.

It’s fine.

I’d already decided yesterday that I was going to be a bold child.

“Why didn’t you hug Daddy?”

“…Because I didn’t want to raise him to be spoiled.”

He continued in a somewhat bitter voice.

“Those children were imperial princes carrying the bloodline of the great Einhart family. They had to serve as examples for others at all times and maintain their dignity.”

“…”

“Because of that, they had no choice but to live differently from ordinary children. This was part of that as well.”

“But.”

I stared straight into his blue eyes and blurted out my thoughts.

“Daddy was a child once too.”

“…”

“If being a princess meant I couldn’t hug my dads, I’d be very, very sad.”

How could a little child understand what it meant to be an imperial prince or what kind of dignity an imperial prince was supposed to have?

And even if he did know.

‘Understanding it and feeling hurt by it are two completely different things.’

Just thinking about it made me want to cry from sadness!

“…”

After hearing me, the Emperor slowly closed and opened his eyes without saying anything for a long time.

From where I sat, he looked deep in thought.

“…Was that where everything went wrong?”

Soon, he finally opened his tightly shut mouth and murmured.

It seemed he was trying to figure out why his relationship with Daddy Harzen had fallen apart so badly.

‘I don’t think that’s it.’

No matter what, would Daddy really have come to hate the Emperor this much over that alone?

‘Well…’

It could be one of many reasons, but it didn’t feel like the decisive cause.

“Then.”

Since we’d come this far, I might as well gather a little more information.

I asked my next question as naturally as possible.

“Did Grandpa have bad relationships with the other uncles too?”

Even putting Bertolt aside, was the Crown Prince I hadn’t met also on bad terms with the Emperor?

There was strangely very little information about the Crown Prince.

All I knew was that Bertolt was the Second Prince, meaning he had an older brother.

“That…”

The Emperor seemed to think for a moment before answering.

“I don’t believe so.”

“Ooh?”

“At the very least, my relationship with the others wasn’t like walking on thin ice the way it was with Harzen.”

Then he looked into the distance as though searching through old memories.

“It always felt as though something about your father and I simply didn’t align.”

“Didn’t align…?”

“He constantly did things that I couldn’t tolerate at the time. Almost as though he were deliberately provoking me.”

“…”

“He even lied frequently back then. I truly couldn’t tolerate those… behaviors.”

My jaw dropped.

Daddy Harzen… lied?

‘That’s about as believable as saying Mom is ugly.’

In other words, completely impossible!

‘I really am starting to think Bertolt had a hand in all of this.’

If Bertolt had been driving a wedge between Daddy and the Emperor, it wasn’t hard to understand how their relationship could’ve deteriorated this badly.

I’d already picked up a few signs myself.

“Daddy.”

If Bertolt had driven them apart, then what if I brought them back together?

Could I help Daddy recover at least a small part of the childhood he’d lost?

Could he become a little happier even without Bertolt in the picture?

Together with Mom.

“Daddy thinks Grandpa hates him a lot.”

Holding on to a tiny bit of hope, I spoke clearly.

“But from what I’ve seen, I don’t think Grandpa hates Daddy.”

Otherwise, he wouldn’t keep making remarks that sounded so full of regret.

Granted, the things he actually said sounded more like he was picking fights with Daddy.

“I wish that child could understand that, just as you do.”

This time, he stroked my head a little more firmly and whispered as though talking to himself.

The moment I heard that, my eyes narrowed into little triangles.

“But!”

I am Cecilia Miller, the boldest child around.

If there’s something I want to say, I’m going to say it.

Even if my opponent is the Emperor!

“What you want is selfish, Grandpa.”

I spoke even more boldly than before.

“We children believe what our moms and dads tell us.”

Wanting someone to understand your true intentions without saying them out loud was a parent’s selfish wish.

Even a smart child like me couldn’t fully understand what my parents were thinking.

“Expecting people to understand everything without expressing anything is a very, very cowardly thing to do.”

Bertolt might’ve been the main culprit behind all of this, but that didn’t automatically absolve the Emperor of responsibility.

In other words.

“Even if Daddy hates Grandpa, Grandpa shouldn’t get upset about it too.”

This is completely your fault!

Even if he never physically harmed the child, neglecting a child was still obvious abuse.

Of course, this world didn’t really have that concept.

‘Especially in a place like the imperial palace.’

People here had probably grown up hearing things like “An imperial prince must always maintain dignity” and “An imperial prince must never act spoiled.”

The Emperor had probably raised Harzen the same way he’d been raised himself.

But…

‘That doesn’t erase the wounds Daddy Harzen suffered.’

Daddy never received the affection he should’ve gotten, and in the end he came to see life here as a nightmare.

“And another thing!”

Still glaring fiercely, I continued.

“I heard you called Mom and my dads a disorderly rabble! That was really mean!”

“No, how did you…?”

The Emperor’s eyes widened in surprise.

I snorted.

How do I know?

Because I read it in a book!

“…At the time, I truly was worried whether those children alone could defeat the demon king.”

After a long sigh, the Emperor finally confessed.

“How could anyone believe that merely five people could defeat an enemy that hundreds of years had failed to overcome?”

Well, that’s true, but…

‘So that comment was actually because he was worried about Daddy Harzen.’

If you put on such a serious atmosphere and then call them a disorderly rabble, of course people will take it as an insult. How is anyone supposed to think you’re worried?

“You know, Grandpa.”

At least I understood one thing now.

The Emperor was softer than he looked.

I wriggled around and turned to face him directly.

Then I opened my mouth with sparkling eyes.

“Can I say one thing?”

“You may say two.”

“One is enough.”

Because that one thing was the important part.

I shook my head firmly and placed my hands on my waist.

I wasn’t sure whether it was okay to say this to the Emperor, but at this point I didn’t care.

I was a lovable child sitting on the Emperor’s lap.

That meant I could be confident anywhere!

“Grandpa’s problem is the way you talk.”

“Hm?”

“Since yesterday, you’ve only been saying things that make Daddy angry.”

I honestly thought he was deliberately provoking Daddy Harzen.

“Do you want to fight with Daddy?”

“No…”

“Then why do you talk like that?”

“That’s simply how I’ve always spoken…”

“Nobody is just naturally like that!”

I shook my head firmly.

Fine, maybe some people naturally spoke that way.

But!

“Effort! The important thing is effort!”

“…Effort?”

“Daddy Kyle literally can’t talk without swearing, you know?”

I used the Emperor’s blue eyes as my target while giving an example.

“But because he didn’t want to swear in front of me, he implanted one of his own inventions into his body.”

“An invention?”

“It’s a device that turns every swear word into a beep.”

That’s the kind of thing that makes people say, “At least he tried.”

“Do you want one too, Grandpa?”

Maybe I should ask Daddy Kyle to make a modified version.

One that started singing whenever someone said something mean.

I felt like he’d build it while laughing.

“No… that’s alright.”

This time, the Emperor slowly shook his head.

He looked exhausted.

Then he let out a long breath and asked me again.

“What do you think I should do?”

“Other than the invention?”

“Other than the invention.”

“Then…”