The Maid With a Child - Chapter 47

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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47. The Coward Begins Again
“……Is it the same fabric?”
It matched Adlen’s Dress.
With the two of them placed side by side, they looked like one connected piece—the material and the very aura were identical.
“Ah, yes! It’s quite fashionable these days. Rather charming to look at, don’t you think?”
Dressing in matching sets made even their wearers seem like a matching set. They looked for all the world like a real mother and child.
Racalt found himself picturing the three of them standing together.
He would look like someone who had shown up alone.
That wouldn’t do. The Crown Prince of an enemy nation had to appear to be under his protection. Otherwise, it might look as though there were no connection between them at all. And that would run counter to His Majesty’s wishes.
“Though it’s sudden……could you alter my clothing?”
He had seemed to brush past it so easily, but why had he suddenly looked troubled? The tailor swallowed hard.
There was precious little time left. Depending on what was to be changed and how much, it might or might not be possible. The tailor prayed fervently that the request would at least be reasonable.
“Which parts would you like altered, and how?”
“The cut doesn’t matter, but I’d like the fabric to match hers.”
“The fabric……did you say…….”
My lord. That’s essentially asking me to make a new suit…….
“Is it difficult?”
Of course it’s difficult.
But the man before him was Count Sigelion, the greatest general in Teplen and His Majesty the Emperor’s right hand.
One misstep and the tailor might find his neck literally flying, or his business ruined altogether.
There were indeed things in this world that simply had to be done. And given that he was a soldier, it was likely he thought in military terms.
If ordered to do it, do it. If ordered to cut, cut. So if told to alter it, alter it.
“……I shall do my very best.”
The tailor resolved to simply comply without complaint.
* * *
By the time the clothes were finished, the Party date loomed suddenly near—the reality of it struck Adlen all at once.
Until now she had hardly spared it a thought, but bit by bit, one worry after another began to surface. These anxieties didn’t fade on their own; instead they swelled and ballooned until Adlen’s mind was thoroughly consumed with concern about the Party.
“Ahtuh! Ahtuh!”
“…….”
“Ahtuhhhh! Na-a-a, aaa-a!”
“Ah, yes, yes? Young master, what are you saying?”
She couldn’t even hear the child calling her.
By the time she responded belatedly, the child had already grown sullen.
“Ahttu-eh, I’m upset!”
“Oh! ……I’m so sorry, young master. Forgive me. Shall I play with you? Would you like to play ball?”
Adlen pulled out her ultimate trump card to win back the child’s affection. Ball play! A solemn vow to throw herself into the game, though it left her gasping and collapsed after every ten rounds.
“Mm!”
Fortunately, the child’s mood softened immediately at the promise of ball play.
Still, she was grateful he had forgiven her at all. His stubbornness seemed to grow stronger day by day, and more and more often, once he took offense, she couldn’t smooth it over in a single apology.
Adlen hurried to retrieve the ball she had hidden away long ago, before the child could change his mind again.
“All right, shall we begin?”
Ball play was simple. You threw and caught. Nothing difficult about it.
The problem was that the child threw the ball anywhere at all. She had to chase after it like a stray dog. Which meant it was exhausting work.
The child had such strength that when he threw it, the ball flew from one end of the room to the other. So during ball play, she had to concentrate as hard as possible. That way her body didn’t suffer quite as much.
But today, she couldn’t even manage that much focus.
She’d managed to dash after the ball as it came flying toward her, but the instant she reached out her hand, another worry suddenly popped into her head.
‘What if the young master asks to play ball at the Party?’
When she’d met the King before, it had happened so abruptly that there was no time for her to feel nervous or anything else. And she hadn’t encountered that many people.
The King was frightening, certainly, but the crowd frightened her more.
If you had to compare the abuse one powerful person could heap on you with the abuse you could receive from a hundred people in a crowd, the hundred were definitely more terrifying.
‘What if the young master starts saying he hates it, hates it, over and over? Will people say it’s noisy? I don’t mind if I’m criticized for not looking after him properly, but if the young master receives disapproving looks for causing trouble……if my master is reprimanded for failing to manage him properly……!’
Her worries spiraled one into another in an instant. The anxieties had swelled so large they clouded her vision, and she lost sight of the ball altogether.
“Oof!”
The ball struck her directly in the face.
Adlen wrapped her face in her arms and sank down.
When it hit, the sound wasn’t a soft thud but a sharp crack.
The young master’s strength had improved even further. She was so dizzy she couldn’t even push herself up.
“Ugghhh…….”
“What’s wrong?”
While Adlen lay groaning, Racalt returned and saw her in that state.
“Are you hurt?”
“Oh, no. I’m not hurt, I just——”
“Let me see.”
Adlen was too slow to answer even as she gasped in pain.
Racalt impatiently pulled Adlen’s arm away and tilted her face upward. Her nose and forehead were flushed from the impact of the ball, and her eyes glistened with tears that had welled up at the corners.
“I failed to catch the ball the young master threw——”
Racalt’s eyes darted sideways. He could see the ball that had rolled to a stop. Then his gaze returned to Adlen.
Morn’s attacks had completely ceased of late. But that made this the perfect moment to grow careless.
The instant Racalt saw Adlen collapsed on the ground, cold shock washed over him. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what had alarmed him.
Was it that Morn might have attacked again? That the Master’s Chamber, which he’d guarded so thoroughly, had been breached? That his precious ally might have sustained an injury?
One thing was certain: if they were under attack, he should have prioritized surveying the surroundings before examining any wounds.
But his body moved on its own.
The iron rule he’d upheld his entire life, the principle he’d followed instinctively without thought, crumbled as easily as dust.
Yet Racalt didn’t even realize his rule and principle had been breached.
Adlen’s chin held in his grasp, her head tilted upward. Her orange eyes trembling with shock. They were simply too close.
His own face reflected in Adlen’s pupils—rigid, unable to conceal his surprise.
Like when he’d chance upon a mirror while passing and found his feet unable to move, now his eyes could not look away.
The moment he swallowed the dry lump that had lodged in his throat, Adlen blinked as if released from a spell and lowered her gaze.
“I’m fine.”
And with that, Racalt too was released.
“……I see.”
Shame at having floundered over something trivial came only then.
Racalt withdrew his hand from Adlen’s face and turned away as if nothing had happened.
“Throwing the ball directly at someone—that’s rather dangerous.”
And he’d deliberately redirected his irritation toward the child instead.
It wasn’t without cause. The danger was real. As the child grew, his strength would only increase, so precautions had to be tightened all the more.
The young master, too, seemed quite startled that his throw had sent Adlen tumbling, and he’d gone rigid.
“No, I was lost in thought and failed to catch it properly. I’m sorry, young master. Did I frighten you?”
“What were you thinking so hard about?”
“The truth is……”
Adlen sighed as she lifted the child into her lap and settled him there.
This wasn’t something she could puzzle through alone. It was fortuitous that she could consult with her master just now. After all, he was the closest person involved.
“……I was worried I might make a mistake at the Party.”
“What mistake could you possibly make?”
He was already dismissing it out of hand.
There goes the world’s greatest worrywart again, Racalt thought with routine indifference.
But Adlen had already begun trembling as vividly as if she were standing in the Party hall itself, merely at the thought of it.
“W-w-what if I spill a drink on my Dress?”
“You wipe it off.”
“B-but the Dress……?”
“It’s yours. Why would it matter? Anything else?”
“Or, or, what if I t-trip on the Dress while walking……?”
“I’m walking beside you. What are you worried about?”
“Or else, if, if the young master climbs the wall again……?”
“I’ll take responsibility for that. Anything else?”
“I don’t know what all might h-h-happen, but things like Etiquette and such. What if I accidentally do something strange and get ridiculed……? What if I bring shame on Sigelion……?”
However did she manage to excavate worries so endlessly?
Racalt was astounded by this newly discovered talent of Adlen’s.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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