RWMU 09

Chapter 09

“Wouldn’t I be the one losing out if we become friends?”
When I said it jokingly, Leonhardt smirked.

“It’s too late to start calculating profits and losses.”

He tried to sound serious, but the way his pronunciation slipped made me burst out laughing again.

“Stop laughin’!”

Leonhardt didn’t like it, but thanks to that the atmosphere lightened a lot.
After saying I would come again soon, I parted ways with him.

I had wasted quite a bit of time, so I needed to hurry.

Using the secret passage I had taken to reach the detached palace, I quickly returned to the Crown Prince’s palace.
Avoiding Hans, who was wandering around the carriage, I slipped inside and hid in the space beneath the seat. Just as I did, Lester came back.

Things are going well today.

Perhaps tired from dealing with the Crown Prince, Lester simply urged the carriage to depart without saying anything.
Considering that I had listened to him grumbling the entire way here, that was good news.

The rabbit bag that had been stuffed full earlier had shrunk quite a bit after I ate most of the snacks, so the space felt slightly bigger now.

Should I come along like this next time Lester visits the imperial palace?

Feeling the carriage begin to move, I pondered the idea.

I figured this method might work once or twice more.

Then my thoughts naturally drifted back to Leonhardt.

Even if your mind is an adult’s, when your body becomes a child’s, there’s definitely a sense of dissonance.

That was because I realized I had acted rather childish earlier.

With the mind of an adult yet forced to play the role of a child, it was hard to suppress emotions that suddenly welled up.

It was embarrassing that I couldn’t control my feelings, almost like a real kid.

Still…

At least he seems to think of me as a friend.

Because of that, I had learned a little about how Leonhardt saw me.

To hide my awkward feelings, I hugged my rabbit bag tightly.

“I’m tired.”

Carrying the heavy bag and moving quite a distance had been too much for a child’s body.

Besides, this was originally my nap time anyway.

Hans drove the carriage carefully for the sake of the foul-tempered Lester, and it was dark inside.

Before long, I fell asleep.

Something noisy woke me up, and when I opened my eyes, everything around me was dark.

“What is this—oh, right.”

Feeling the rabbit bag in my arms, I grasped the situation.

“I fell asleep.”

Judging by how refreshed I felt, quite some time must have passed.

“They must’ve discovered me by now, right? Obviously?”

Realizing how badly I had messed up, I felt despair.

Just then, voices calling for me came from outside.

“Miela!”

“Lady Miela! Where are you?”

Even ignoring the voices I couldn’t distinguish, it sounded like dozens of people were searching.

It seemed I had been discovered long ago.

“Wow… what do I do now?”

Realizing I had caused a massive incident, my vision went blank.

Clutching my head with both hands, I despaired for a moment.

“What else can I do? I’ll just have to get scolded.”

My body might be young, but my mind was that of an adult.

I gathered up my courage.

First, I had to get out of here.

Twisting my body around to get into position, I pushed the door with my foot.

“Huh?”

The door that had opened so easily earlier wouldn’t budge.

It seemed Hans or Lester had locked it after noticing the latch had come undone.

“Neither Lester nor Hans are that meticulous, though.”

With a faint hope, I pushed the door harder than before.

But it still wouldn’t open.

“I thought I was already doomed, but now I’m really doomed.”

A heavy sigh escaped me.

Then I kicked the door with all my strength and shouted,

“I’m here!”

Thump! Thump! Thump!

But my voice didn’t reach outside the carriage at all.

Even though I kicked the wooden panel with the hard soles of my shoes, the sound wasn’t very loud.

Partly because the space was too cramped to stretch my legs properly—but mostly because my strength was weak.

I kicked the door several more times and shouted, but the voices searching for me only grew more distant.

Realizing this wouldn’t work, I stopped kicking, panting.

“They’ll search the carriage soon… right?”

At the very least, if someone came nearby, they would hear my voice.

So I decided to conserve my strength for later.

But as time passed, the voices searching for me grew fainter.

“What if they already checked inside the carriage?”

If they failed to notice the space under the seat and concluded I wasn’t inside…

What if they expanded the search outside the ducal estate?

The possible situation ahead formed vividly in my mind.

Suddenly breathing became difficult, and my vision swam.

“Why did I have to fall asleep at that moment…”

I knocked my head with my fists, blaming myself.

But reflecting could wait until after I got out of here.

Grinding my teeth again, I kicked the door with all my strength.

Bang!

The sound was a bit louder than before, but it didn’t make much difference.

However, it drained several times more stamina.

This wouldn’t work.

How could I gather people here?

As I thought about it, one idea came to mind.

When is a child’s voice the loudest in terms of decibels?

When they cry—or when they play.

Then…

“I’ll cry.”

I began recalling every sad moment I had experienced since birth.

My peaceful and happy childhood memories passed quickly.

Like the time Lester tried to hug me and dropped me, leaving me injured.

That time I hit the edge of the table and got a scar on my eyebrow.

Or the time I tried to help Father and stamped approval seals all over documents that were supposed to be put on hold, getting scolded badly.

I thought of various memories, but with my adult mind, they all felt like fond recollections rather than sad ones.

The only memory painful enough to make me cry was when my nanny died in my place after I was deceived and kidnapped by the Crown Prince.

“Hic…”

Thinking about that instantly made my eyes moist.

But right before I burst into tears, the sorrow of losing my nanny turned into rage toward the Crown Prince.

“I let that bastard off too easily.”

The heat of anger dried my tears.

My six-year-old brain was already coming up with various revenge methods far beyond its physical age.

That failed too.

The only memories left were those after marrying Leonhardt.

“Leonhardt went straight to the battlefield right after our wedding.”

The remaining forces of the Crown Prince had taken advantage of the empire’s tense atmosphere relaxing after the imperial marriage and declared civil war.

And he only returned three months later.

I understood Leonhardt—but that didn’t mean I wasn’t hurt.

Not even a single letter during those three months.

Along with that, countless moments when Leonhardt’s tactlessness had upset me surfaced in my mind.

My eyes stung, and it annoyed me.

Opening my eyes wide, I made a firm vow.

“Since I’ve returned to the past anyway, this time I’m absolutely bringing in a husband who’s a complete wife-obsessed, henpecked man as my live-in son-in-law.”

After clenching my fist and revising my marriage philosophy, I gave up trying to squeeze tears out with sad thoughts.

“You don’t have to be sad to cry.”

It wasn’t a method I really wanted to use, but—

To steel my resolve, I bit down hard on my teeth.

Then I mercilessly pinched my thigh.

Twisting it with all my strength hurt enough to make tears spring to my eyes.

Thinking about how I had to do something like this just because I fell asleep made me feel miserable.

Forgetting even my mental age, I began sobbing loudly.

Even though air seeped in through the cracks of the door, it felt like I couldn’t breathe.

This carriage was only used when my siblings and I went out.
Thinking it might take a long time before someone found it made tears stream down naturally.

“Waaah! Mom!”

My voice, freed by my sorrow, rang out loudly even to my own ears.

“Waaahhh…”

As I cried until my throat hurt, I felt the surroundings becoming noisy.

“Over there! I hear a child crying!”

“Where?”

“Near the carriage!”

“You—go inform the master and madam immediately!”

The voices rapidly approached.

Perhaps they had been nearby already, because before long I could hear my mother and father too.

“Miela!”

“My baby!”

Clatter—bang!

Hurried footsteps landed on top of the small four-person carriage.

Soon the latch was pulled out and the door opened.

When I met the blue eyes filled with worry, relief washed over me without thinking.

“Dad—”

I stretched out my dirty hands, covered in tears and sweat.

My father reached out as well.

“Miela… Thank the gods.”

Carefully pulling me out, Father hugged me tightly before handing me to Mother.

“Mom—”

I clung to her, acting spoiled.

“Miela.”

But the tone of my mother’s voice brushing my ear…
didn’t sound normal at all.