Chapter 22

Damian decided it wouldn’t be safe for Reina to move around on her own, so he told her to return to the carriage. He thought it would be better if he, who was relatively calmer, went to look instead.

“Bonita!”

It felt like Reina and Bonita were never granted an easy life. When he first met them, Bonita had been wrapped in rags, burning with a high fever. Then came the kidnapping, and now she had disappeared again.

If anything, this incident almost felt less severe by comparison.

“Hey! Have you seen a child with pink hair and light purple eyes!”

He grabbed anyone nearby and asked, but as everyone shook their heads, his impatience grew.

After searching for a long while, Damian finally found Bonita crouched in a corner in front of a dull gray building. She was sniffing quietly.

He brushed back his disheveled hair and walked toward her. Thud, thud. At the sound of a large man’s footsteps, the child visibly shrank.

“Bonita Botn.”

“…!”

When Bonita realized the owner of the voice and footsteps was Damian Winternight, relief spread across her face.

“M-My lord…”

“Don’t call me my lord. Call me Duke.”

Damian checked to see if she was hurt anywhere, then lifted her up with ease.

“Why were you here.”

“…”

Bonita rubbed her face against his chest and fidgeted.

After keeping her mouth shut for a long time, she finally spoke.

“…Mom said, if we got separated, I should stay where I was…”

“…”

“…But I left the restaurant… I tried to go back, but all the buildings looked the same…”

Damian looked at the building where Bonita had been crouching. The tones were slightly different, but with all that gray, it was easy to see how a child could get confused.

Suddenly, thick tears began to fall from Bonita’s eyes.

“…Is Mom really mad…?”

“She’s worried.”

“Mom… is she crying again because of me…?”

“…Hmm.”

When Damian didn’t answer right away, Bonita sniffled again. Thinking that mother and daughter were both unusually prone to tears, he awkwardly patted her.

“Let’s go back.”

“…Mom’s going to scold me.”

“…”

“This time she’s really going to be mad…”

Bonita didn’t seem very afraid of Damian anymore. Maybe because he was the dependable adult who had come to find her when she was lost.

“Botn won’t be angry.”

She might get upset, but it wouldn’t be because she hated the child.

Damian found himself in the awkward position of comforting a child, something he never expected.

He could easily imagine Peter or the long serving staff staring in shock if they saw this.

“…I don’t want to go back.”

“You don’t want to see your mother?”

When he asked that, Bonita shook her head side to side and clung tightly to his neck.

“What if this time… she really doesn’t like me anymore.”

“…”

A child’s fears often seemed to go far beyond what parents imagined. Of course, Damian wasn’t her parent.

“What if she thinks I’m annoying and leaves me behind…”

Damian remembered Reina searching desperately for Bonita, her face pale with fear. To him, Bonita’s words were as absurd as the empire suddenly changing its god from Bendicion to another.

But just saying it out loud seemed to make the child even more miserable, and she burst into tears again.

‘She’s going to exhaust herself at this rate.’

While wondering how to stop her tears, Damian noticed the yellow stars decorating the streets for Star’s Birthday.

“…No one gives gifts to a child they find annoying.”

“…”

“Reina Botn took time today just to bring you to see a play.”

Even while crying, Bonita glanced up at him when he mentioned Reina.

Large tears clung to her lashes. Without realizing it, Damian gently wiped them away.

“…And Reina Botn asked me to let you study whatever you want.”

“…She asked you, Duke?”

“Yes.”

It was something Damian had meant to tell Reina today anyway. He had wanted to offer her education someday, but thought starting with Bonita might be better.

If asked about herself, Reina probably wouldn’t respond positively. But if it was about her daughter, she might.

He also thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to establish a system for educating the children of the ducal household’s servants. More than anything, he suspected Estelle would like that. A visible form of the ducal house’s protection would make it easier to safeguard both girls.

Teaching one more child wouldn’t even make a dent in the ducal finances, so Damian didn’t think much of it.

“If there’s something you want to learn, I’ll let you learn it. Is there anything you want to study?”

At those words, Bonita stopped crying completely.

She looked up at him with eyes still wet from tears.

“…I-I want to learn the sword.”

“The sword?”

Wondering if he’d misheard, Damian looked at her again. Bonita nodded vigorously.

“Why?”

Bonita glanced around, worried her request might be unreasonable.

“…I-Is that not okay?”

“No, I’m just asking. Usually there’s a reason when someone wants to learn something.”

In Eisen, it wasn’t common for women to wield swords, so her answer surprised him.

“Uncle Dean and the other knights look really cool with swords…”

“I see.”

“And if I get strong like that, I can protect Mom…”

“…Alright.”

Damian, who had taken a woman from Finecke as his wife, had no reason to forbid a girl from taking up a sword.

Under the name of Winternight, things weren’t impossible just because there had been no precedent.

“Just because there’s no precedent doesn’t mean it can’t be done. I’ll find you a good teacher soon.”

“Thank you!”

Bonita hugged him tightly.

It was the first time a child had ever shown him such open affection. He froze for a moment, then resumed walking toward the carriage.

* * *

Seeing that Bonita was otherwise fine aside from her swollen eyes, Reina finally felt a weight lift from her chest.

She didn’t know why Bonita had run off, but she held back from questioning her, afraid the child might grow tired.

Damian and Estelle both told Reina not to scold Bonita too harshly.

Damian also called Reina aside and told her that he would soon arrange a swordsmanship instructor for Bonita.

She couldn’t hide her shock, but he brushed it off as nothing, adding that it was Star’s Birthday, and left.

* * *

In the wide room, Bonita sat alone on a chair, staring anxiously at the door that still hadn’t opened.

Normally, she would have been clinging to her mother’s side, but today she sat still like a guilty child. She had disobeyed and wandered off on her own instead of staying where she was.

Thinking her mother must be very angry, Bonita fidgeted with her hands folded in her lap.

Soon, the door opened. But she was too afraid to look at Reina’s face and kept her head lowered.

“…Boni.”

Even when she heard Reina call her gently, the child didn’t lift her head.

“Boni, you have to look up. Mom prepared a gift for you.”

“…”

When Bonita hesitantly raised her head, she saw a plate holding a stack of pancakes, two layers tall.

“…Pancakes.”

“I asked the head chef and borrowed the kitchen for a bit.”

They were nothing like the shabby pancakes Bonita had eaten before.

Both sides were perfectly browned, topped with a square of high quality butter slowly melting. Honey and strawberries were neatly arranged on the side.

Reina lifted a small white jug and tilted it over the pancakes. Golden syrup flowed down.

“You wanted pancakes, right?”

“…Yes.”

Holding a refined fork, Bonita stared quietly at the pancakes, so different from before.

“…I really wanted them…”

Before taking even a single bite, she burst into tears again. Startled, yet somehow amused by the situation, Reina laughed.

“Huuuh…”

Only then did Bonita cry with a small sound, and Reina pulled her into an embrace.

“Oh dear, what am I going to do with such a crybaby daughter. Who did you take after to be this much of a crybaby.”

“…I take after Mom…”

Saying that, Bonita hugged Reina tightly, as if afraid she might go somewhere. Reina chuckled and soothed her.

“That’s right. Boni takes after Mom.”