Chapter 6

“Still…”

Estelle realized she’d brought up the wrong topic and her face crumpled.

“I-I’m sorry… please don’t hate me…”

Thick tears began to fall, and the one who panicked was Bonita.

Reina and Bonita hurried over, startled by how suddenly Estelle had burst into tears, and began comforting her.

Only after a long while did the child finally calm down, then hugged Bonita and Reina tightly, one after the other.

She hugged them again and again.

Whenever she wanted, the child seemed to cover over any difference with a warm red carpet.

Their hearts grew thicker, closer together.

The two who had nothing of their own were parting at just the wrong time.

After spending a long while holding Estelle and soothing her, it was time for Bonita to return.

“Hey… Bonita.”

“Yes?”

“Can I call you Boni too?”

“…Yes. Yes, that’s okay!”

Bonita held Reina’s hand tightly as they prepared to leave, then waved at Estelle in response to her request.

Estelle watched Bonita’s gentle, warm 모습 and felt happy, then ran off somewhere in a hurry.

“Then we’re friends, right?”

“H-Huh? Y-Yeah, but Lady Estelle is this house’s…”

Bonita knew Estelle was the young lady of the house, even though she was thinner than herself, so she hesitated, unsure if she could really call her a friend.

But Estelle took Bonita’s hand, as if grasping onto the word she couldn’t quite say.

“W-We really are friends!”

“…!!!”

“Yes. Friends!”

In the end, Bonita couldn’t deny it and became friends with the only young lady of a ducal house that roamed the empire.

Estelle handed Bonita something she’d been holding against a tall bookshelf.

“Here… this is called a friendship bracelet. Kids wore them a lot where I used to live.”

“It’s pretty…”

It was a small bracelet woven from colorful threads. Estelle smiled shyly.

“It’s originally just thread, but… I asked the other maid sisters, and they said it’d be good to string one bracelet on it, so they gave me one.”

The maids had told Estelle it was just a fake stone when she gasped in surprise, but Estelle had taken their words at face value.

Bonita seemed to believe Estelle’s explanation too. Only Estelle could truly guess how valuable it really was.

“Boni, let’s go now.”

“Okay!”

“My lady, thank you for such a precious gift. Please make sure to wear it tonight.”

“Yeah, Reina. See you tomorrow.”

Reina thought it was fortunate she was good at hiding her expression.

Otherwise, every emotion she felt right now would’ve spilled out, making her look like a foolish child.

The bracelet Estelle had casually given Bonita was worth several times more than the light green dress Bonita was wearing.

* * *

That day was no different from any other ordinary day.

Reina helped Estelle with her meals and spent playtime together.

The weather was nice and not very cold. Reina thought that if the weather stayed this good on her days off, she could spend a lovely time with Bonita.

“Reina, I’m going to play by myself today, so can you go home first?”

“What?”

“Hurry!”

Estelle pushed the hesitant Reina insistently, while proudly saying she’d go play with the other maid sisters.

Was it that obvious…?

Even to a child, it must’ve shown that Reina was lost in thought.

Left standing alone in the corridor, Reina headed back early thanks to Estelle’s consideration, toward the servants’ quarters where Bonita would be waiting.

The room was a bit cramped for two people, but it was the best place Reina and Bonita had ever lived in together.

When Reina was at work, Bonita usually waited in the quarters. Sometimes she went to watch the knights train, but that morning she’d said she wouldn’t go today.

When Reina opened the door, the unusual silence made her uneasy.

“…Boni?”

Even when Reina called out as she opened the door, there was no answer.

When she opened it fully, Bonita wasn’t there.

Panicking, she looked around and spotted a stark white envelope on the bed.

The moment she saw it, her heart thudded violently, as if she already knew what it would say.

She picked it up and opened it. The message inside was extremely brief.

[If you want your daughter to live, kidnap Estelle Winternight.]

The deadline was tonight, and there was even a threat saying that if she told anyone, Bonita would be killed.

“M-My God…”

Reina collapsed where she stood. Bonita had been kidnapped. Her face went pale as she covered it with both hands.

“The young lady…”

Only by kidnapping Estelle Winternight would Bonita live. Reina remembered that there were many people who could save Estelle, but only she herself could save her own daughter.

The place written in the letter wasn’t far, but it wasn’t a distance she could take lightly either.

“I-I have to save Bonita first…”

First, she had to save her daughter.

After that, maybe she could leak information to the ducal house. Maybe Estelle could survive too. Maybe.

As Reina tried to sort through the chaos in her head, unbearable pain struck along with the realization.

It was a familiar sensation.

The pain she’d felt four years ago, when she first became Reina.

“Ugh…”

Scenes, fragments, and images flooded her mind.

Estelle begging, the Duke of Winternight she’d met by chance… Estelle entering the duke’s household and becoming the young lady… and then…

‘What… is this…?’

Reina, the maid who was kind to Estelle.

[“Do you have any last words?”

The duke’s eyes gleamed with a threatening light.

A maid with disheveled hair pressed her head against the dirty floor, begging for her life.

“Please, my lord, show mercy. My daughter was kidnapped. I had no choice.”

“If I forgive you now, then next time the same thing happens, I’ll have to forgive that too.”

No matter how pitifully the maid begged, the duke’s expression didn’t change.

The sword in his hand pierced her without mercy.

It was a cruel side of the duke that Estelle would never know.]

“What… is this?”

The maid Reina was executed for kidnapping Estelle.

This world was a novel, and Reina was the first device meant to make Estelle feel love from her father.

Any parent wanted to give their beloved child everything good. At least, that was Reina’s idea of what a parent was.

But wanting something and being able to do it were different things.

Reina had very little. She wanted to give Bonita everything, but her circumstances made it difficult. So Bonita grew up unable to enjoy many things.

Reina thought of herself as a terrible guardian. But Bonita loved her anyway.

Who said unconditional love flowed from parents to children? Looking at Bonita, Reina thought that unconditional love was something children gave to their parents.

“Boni…”

It was miserable.

Reina pitied herself and felt utterly horrified by her situation.

There was only one thing she could do for Bonita now. Kidnap Estelle to save her daughter.

That was the only option.

It was nauseating. That this would be the trigger for Estelle to receive all of her father’s love.

Reina only wanted to save Bonita. That was all.

‘In the novel… surely…’

She couldn’t remember the details, only fragments of the ending gnawing at her insides.

In the novel, Reina begged the duke for forgiveness, saying she’d done it for her daughter. But he punished her, saying that if you truly cherished your own child, you should know others cherished theirs too.

The duke had always been that kind of man.

A father who would do anything for his daughter, and who could never forgive anyone who tried to harm her.

Reina died that way, and she couldn’t remember what became of Bonita afterward.

But the ending of Bonita, the daughter of a mere extra, couldn’t possibly have been a good one.

That was the fate of love belonging to someone with nothing.

Bonita was the most precious child to Reina, but not to this empire.

She wasn’t a life that would be loved, watched, and written about like Estelle’s.

She wasn’t a treasure of the ducal house, nor spring, nor a star.

She was only Reina’s treasure, her spring, her star.

“…”

Reina forced strength into her trembling legs and staggered to her feet.

There was no time to hesitate. While she agonized, the time given to her was slipping away like sand through her fingers. When it ran out, even her one precious thing would disappear.

At moments when cold judgment was needed most, she couldn’t stay calm. Just like now.

Clutching the threatening letter tightly, Reina headed for the main building of the estate.

One fortunate thing was that Reina knew the contents of the novel well. And in that part, it was revealed who had orchestrated this.

With this much information, she would have something valuable enough to bargain with the Duke of Winternight.

No matter how he was called the empire’s monster, villain, or ice blooded man, if she handed over this information, wouldn’t he save her daughter?