Chapter 16

Reina glanced at the duke, who had once again sunk into thought, and spoke carefully.

“…W-Would you like to try making one yourself? If you give it to Lady Estelle as a gift, she’d be happy.”

“…”

At the mention of Estelle being happy, the duke’s eyes wavered.

“Would she really like it?”

She might want the crown Reina made rather than one he made himself. Giving her his own clumsy work might only disappoint her.

The duke, known to the world as someone who lacked nothing, was in truth a pitiful man who feared that Estelle might find him even a little frightening.

Reina quietly watched him, then said,

“She won’t dislike it.”

“…”

“Lady Estelle is clever and kind. She understands sincerity.”

“…Then I’ll try.”

The duke stepped closer to Reina. She tensed slightly at the sudden closeness and demonstrated how to weave the flower crown.

Unlike the children, the duke made the crown clumsily in a completely different way. The man who looked like he’d never spill a drop of blood stood solemnly before his first flower crown.

Before him lay a crown that was slowly collapsing. He stared at it with the seriousness of someone handling a critical matter.

“…Huh?”

The children returned with armfuls of flowers and froze when they saw the duke sitting in the gazebo, weaving a crown.

“Lady Estelle, His Grace is making a flower crown just for you.”

“!”

Estelle clapped her hands. She looked awkward but not displeased.

Whatever Estelle’s silence meant to him, the duke took it as encouragement and focused even harder. The more he concentrated, the more pressure his large hands put on the flowers, crushing the petals until they puffed up.

“…”

The result was predictable. A beautiful crown made by Reina, and one that was not.

Reina smiled awkwardly, while the expressions of the other three became hard to describe.

The duke stared intently at the crown he had made.

“…Just wait a little, Estelle. I’ll go to the flower market and buy every flower there.”

Reina realized that the duke was seriously planning to buy all the flowers and practice making crowns.

Estelle fidgeted with her hands as she looked at the first crown the duke had made, then lifted it and placed it on her head.

“…I-I like this one.”

“!”

At that moment, the duke’s expression changed strangely. It looked as though he was desperately holding back a smile. Reina felt like she could vaguely tell what he was thinking.

Startled by his expression, Estelle gathered her courage and handed the duke the small, wrinkled crown she had made herself.

“…Um, th-this is a gift. I got a crown from you, so… an exchange?”

“…”

When the crown Estelle made landed in his hands, the duke stared at it for a long time with a deeply moved expression. Estelle watched him anxiously, worried that he might not like it.

Then the duke shouted,

“This is a celebration!”

Not only Estelle, but also Reina and Bonita, who were sitting nearby, jumped at the sudden shout.

“Summon the seven magicians. Ones who can use preservation magic!”

It was a historic moment where magic that looked thousands of years old was used for a tiny flower crown.

* * *

In the end, the crown Reina made was placed on Bonita’s head, and Reina received Bonita’s crown in return.

‘It’d be nice if His Grace softened his expression just a little.’

Even to Reina, he was an overwhelmingly imposing man, yet in front of children much smaller than him, he seemed oddly gentle.

The duke summoned craftsmen and had magic placed on the crown Estelle made for preservation. Estelle watched the entire process with a bright, glowing face.

Every servant in the ducal residence spared no praise for Estelle’s crown. They said her hands were skillful, her sense for choosing flowers was wonderful, her love for her father was admirable.

And only Reina looked at Estelle with quiet concern.

The adults around them couldn’t understand that it wasn’t just cheerfulness they were seeing.

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Huh? Nothing, it’s nothing.”

After a day full of events, night had already fallen.

Bonita seemed to love the crown Reina made and kept wearing it all day. Reina wasn’t rich enough to call magicians, so she had to think about how to preserve it.

“Boni, should we dry this crown and keep it?”

Reina wasn’t as wealthy as the duke, but she secretly wanted to keep the first crown Bonita ever made. Not being able to express it well didn’t mean she loved her any less.

Bonita’s crown had a few petals missing from uneven pressure, but to Reina, it was lovely.

‘Would it dry well if we do that?’

To others, it might look like a poor excuse for a crown, but to Reina, it was a precious keepsake filled with an ordinary child’s memories.

Bonita didn’t look convinced by Reina’s suggestion.

“…The one I made is ugly…”

“Mom thinks this is the prettiest crown she’s ever seen.”

“That’s only because you’re comparing it to the one you made!”

To argue back, Bonita pushed the crown she was wearing toward Reina.

Placed side by side, the difference between the two crowns was obvious.

Bonita felt embarrassed by her own crown, thinking it shabby, but Reina’s eyes remained fixed on it.

‘What will my child grow up to be…’

Reina hadn’t lived a life comfortable enough to dream about what she wanted to be as a child. Until fourteen, her only dream had been to fill her stomach. She helped her mother work, then struggled on her own to survive. Reina had lived a poor life with little education, but she wished that Bonita wouldn’t inherit that hardship and could enjoy something better.

“I’ll make you an even prettier one later, okay?”

Bonita fidgeted, staring at her clumsy crown, then tried to persuade Reina.

“But the one you make later won’t be the same as this.”

The meaning of first moments makes people special, and a parent never wants to miss any of their child’s firsts.

“But…”

Children rarely understand that kind of parental feeling.

Bonita hesitated, then hugged Reina tightly and murmured softly.

“…Then let’s dry yours too.”

“Shall we?”

“Yeah. Keeping only mine would be mean.”

Reina stroked Bonita’s hair, looking completely puzzled about what exactly was mean about it. It was hard to tell what went on inside this little girl’s head.

In the end, the two crowns were hung side by side on the wall. The pair of small crowns looked almost like a mother and daughter standing together.

Until just before falling asleep, Bonita lay in bed glancing at them again and again. She seemed to like the idea of drying them after all.

After staring at the crowns hidden in the darkness for a while, the child quietly burrowed into Reina’s arms.

It was a warm, loving, and comfortable night.

* * *

The crown Estelle gave to the Duke of Winternight was preserved with magic and placed in a frame inside the ducal residence.

The duke looked at the crown, signed a document, then secured the frame.

Watching him fail to focus and move restlessly, Peter let out a deep sigh.

“My lord, please calm yourself.”

“…No matter how I think about it, my daughter’s a genius.”

He hadn’t always been like this. The Duke of Winternight, who once filled his household with fear, now looked like nothing more than a doting father.

“What if my daughter says she wants to open a flower shop? Look at this. Using flowers like this. A child who can choose such harmonious flowers exists in this empire?”

“…”

“I might have to open the largest flower shop in the empire. Run it under my daughter’s name. Should I open branches in every district?”

“…Before that, shouldn’t you ask the young lady what she wants?”

The duke didn’t look like he planned to listen. He gazed fondly at the framed crown and went on and on about how adorable Estelle was.

He was moved when she said she liked the crown she made herself. He couldn’t understand how such a lovely child could be his daughter. At the same time, it saddened him that he hadn’t been there to watch her grow.

“When do children usually start talking?”

“…”

“When do they start walking?”

He remembered how his wife had made a fuss over everything when she was pregnant.

He’d studied to become a good father, sent people to find whatever food he thought she might crave, and summoned the family physician whenever she complained of pain at dawn.

He’d cried when he first felt the baby move, and he and his wife had debated names every day. Estelle if it was a girl, Benjamin if it was a boy.

But all of that vanished emptily over eight years, and all the duke could do was fill the blank time with imagination.

Peter, who had neither children nor a wife, couldn’t answer the duke’s questions.

“…I’ll get some air.”

“Please do.”

Outside, the sky was dark, lit only by cold moonlight. The duke preferred walking alone, so Peter stayed behind to finish the remaining work.

Most of the servants were asleep at this hour. Footsteps echoed loudly in the quiet halls.

Unintentionally, the duke found himself heading toward Estelle’s room.

As he drew closer, he noticed the door was slightly open.

“…Sniff.”

Hearing a small sob from inside, his heart dropped sharply.