The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 331

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

3. Summer Mountain (1)

“If you don’t show, you’re it, rock-paper-scissors!”

“Ah! Your Highness, you were late again!”

The children’s voices rang out cheerfully across the courtyard.

The young prince with short platinum hair made a tearful face and grabbed his older sister’s sleeve.

Leticia shouted.

“You guys are making Yushis nervous so he keeps making mistakes because you’re getting angry!”

“We’re not getting angry!”

“You did get angry! Yushis is still young so he just can’t move his hands quickly!”

For Leticia, whose body was overwhelmingly faster than her thoughts, this was something she could hardly understand, but anyway, that’s what the wet nurse had said.

“The one who gets angriest and shouts the most is Lady Tisha though…”

When Ken, the siblings’ milk brother, muttered this unheard lament, his sleeve was tugged. It was Prince Yusys.

“Ah, Lord Yushis. What is it?”

“I want to go.”

“To your room?”

“No, over there.”

While Leticia was fighting an unwanted proxy war, Yusys decided to satisfy his curiosity.

He toddled around behind Ken’s back and went toward the Karam halfblood boy who was standing on the opposite side. Ken was startled and followed after him.

“Lord Yushis, you can’t move around alone. And you shouldn’t point at people like that.”

Ken said this, but Yusys didn’t listen and asked.

“Hey, big brother, why do you have three eyes?”

The boy unconsciously brought his hand to the eye on his forehead. Ken, who was older than Yusys and had grown up as a child who was more mindful of others than Leticia, said with a burning heart.

“Lord Yushis, didn’t you learn from the head maid that you shouldn’t carelessly ask questions about other people’s bodies?”

Yusys blinked as if hearing this for the first time and said.

“It’s not a body. It’s eyes.”

“Eyes are part of the body too.”

“Eyes are the body?”

Yusys asked with an innocent face. Ken became frustrated, but he didn’t have the ability to clearly explain the inclusive relationship between eyes and body to a baby.

The boy touched around his eyes with an awkward attitude. He felt sorry for making Ken troubled for no reason, and also thought it would be rude for someone like him to not answer when a high-ranking prince was asking.

“I was born this way.”

“You were born with three eyes?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Yusys tilted his head with a face that showed he absolutely couldn’t understand.

“Mom said there’s no such thing as that being normal in the world.”

“But I’ve had three eyes since I was born. My mom is like that too.”

“Mom has three eyes too?”

Yusys’s eyes widened in surprise.

“My aunt has four arms too, and she’s this big. She splits firewood the best in our neighborhood and is really strong. My grandmother was Karam.”

The boy spread his arms wide to show the size and said proudly.

Not to be outdone, Yusys raised both arms high and shouted.

“Our dad is this big too!”

“Well… His Majesty the Emperor is tall, but compared to Karam…”

Ken muttered.

Just then, Leticia’s loud shouting drowned out Ken’s muttering.

“Yushis has to stay with me! Mom told me to take good care of Yushis!”

Even though they had only met two days ago, Leticia had already captured the children’s hearts.

Playing house was one thing, but having a child who was too young in a game of freeze tag wasn’t fun. But if Leticia said she would leave, there was nothing they could do.

“Okay. Then His Highness can be the pickle.”

“What’s a pickle?”

“A pickle can keep being frozen over and over.”

“Then that’s no fun.”

“Otherwise, if His Highness becomes ‘it’, the game will never end.”

There was no way young Yusys could catch up with the seven or eight-year-old children.

Leticia hesitated. No matter how she thought about it, unlimited freezing wouldn’t be fun.

But everyone had decided to play freeze tag. If she insisted any more that this wouldn’t work, the outcome would be either going to play house with Ken and Yusys, or going to the stuffy room to fiddle with toy soldiers in boredom.

“Fine. Okay, then again!”

Having reached an agreement, Leticia said energetically. Yusys just stared blankly at the scene, bewildered.

“If you don’t show, you’re it, rock-paper-scissors!”

“Wahhh—!”

The winner was decided excluding Yusys.

The halfblood boy quickly ran away. But Ken couldn’t get far from Yusys, so he hesitated.

Leticia ran over and grabbed Yusys’s hand.

“Let’s run away, Yushis!”

“Sister! Hueng!”

Yusys couldn’t keep up with either the force or speed of Leticia’s pulling, so he made a tearful face and had no choice but to run. Soon he was panting heavily.

It was at this moment that Sedric came out to the courtyard.

The nannies and guards who had been watching the children with smiles politely bowed. Sedric waved his hand to tell them to be at ease.

And he called out loudly.

“Tisha! Yushis!”

“Wow, it’s Dad!”

Leticia turned around quickly and shouted excitedly. Then, still holding Yusys’s hand tightly, she ran toward him with quick steps.

“Sister, ahh!”

Yusys, who was clumsy at running, tripped over his own feet and fell down with a thud. Leticia reflexively pulled Yusys’s hand upward to try to lift him up.

This caused Yusys’s body to spin around his held hand as an axis and fall sideways instead.

“Ah!”

Leticia was startled and crouched down next to Yusys.

“Hu, huaang! Uwahhh!”

Yusys burst into loud tears. Sedric hurried over to Yusys and lifted him up in his arms.

Leticia sniffled.

“Yushis, what should I do. Your forehead is bleeding.”

“Let me see. It’s just a small scrape. It’s okay.”

Sedric moved Yusys’s hair aside to examine the wound area on his temple. Leticia made a very tearful face and apologized.

“Yushis, are you okay? I’m sorry.”

“Hueoong!”

Yusys wailed as if his grief had exploded. Sedric stood up while holding Yusys and patted his back.

“If you cry, you’ll get a fever again, Yushis. You don’t like being sick.”

“My arm hurts. Huk. Dad.”

Yusys hugged Sedric’s neck.

“Your Highness, are you alright?”

Ken approached hesitantly with an anxious face. Sedric patted Ken’s head with his other hand while holding Yusys.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry.”

“But…”

“When you play, you get hurt sometimes.”

“Yes.”

“Tisha, did you forget what Dad told you? Yushis is young and can’t run the same way as you, so you shouldn’t force him by pulling him, right?”

“…I was wrong.”

Leticia said in a dejected voice.

“Who should you apologize to?”

“To the person who got hurt. I’m sorry, Yushis.”

“Waaah.”

Yushis shook his head back and forth and buried his face in Sedric’s shoulder.

Sedric shifted Yushis to his left arm and lifted Leticia with his right arm. Leticia was now heavy enough to make his arms ache considerably.

“Oh my, this little one. Already getting so heavy. I won’t be able to carry you much longer.”

Ken’s Father, who had followed as an escort knight, quickly picked up Ken from behind and said what Sedric wanted to say.

Sedric chuckled softly. Leticia said.

“Father, but I need to say goodbye to my friends.”

“Look, your friends are over there. Wave your hand and say ‘goodbye.'”

Yushis, who had stopped crying at some point, heard this and waved both arms. But Leticia complained while waving her hand.

“It’s not right for just me to leave like this. It took forever to decide who would be ‘it’ because of me and Yushis.”

“You can see your friends again tomorrow. Did you forget the promise you made with Father?”

“Mmm…”

Leticia tilted her head. Yushis whispered in a small voice.

“Visiting the grave.”

“Ah.”

Leticia exclaimed in surprise. Sedric smiled and asked.

“Did Tisha forget the promise she made with Father?”

“No! I didn’t forget!”

Leticia answered with an obvious lie, then her face turned bright red as she hugged Sedric’s face.

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay. You can forget things when you’re having fun playing. But lying is not allowed.”

“Yes…”

Leticia said in a small voice, seeming embarrassed.

Sedric strode inside while carrying both children.

In the room of the inner residence that had been set up as the children’s room, clean clothes and warm water were already prepared. This was because he had prepared everything in advance before going to fetch them, wanting to let them play even a little longer.

“Oh my, there’s a wound on Yushis’s forehead!”

The Wet Nurse forgot she was in front of the Emperor and cried out while reaching out her hand. Ken got down from his father’s arms, grabbed his mother’s skirt, and explained.

“Tisha was holding Yushis’s hand and they fell while running.”

“Oh dear… I always tell you to be careful. Yushis is still young and can’t run as well as Tisha.”

“Yes… I was wrong. Yushis, does it hurt a lot?”

Leticia’s face became gentle as she asked Yushis again. Yushis shook his head back and forth, saying he was fine.

“Come here. I’ll take care of the wound.”

“Please do.”

Sedric handed Yushis to the Wet Nurse and put Leticia down as well.

The Wet Nurse wiped Yushis’s forehead with a wet cloth. The scraped area must have stung, as Yushis began to whimper again.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“Yes.”

“What were the nursemaids doing to let this happen? What if this beautiful forehead gets scarred?”

The Wet Nurse glared sharply at the Nursemaids. The maids hung their heads.

Sedric spoke instead.

“Don’t be like that. At an age when they can still play freely, they should play comfortably. It’s not a serious injury.”

Moreover, after Leticia had grown enough to clearly express her intentions with words, the maids couldn’t easily restrict her range of activities even though they were adults. It would be presumptuous to block the princess’s steps.

Of course, Leticia rarely got hurt, and even when she did get slightly injured, it wasn’t a major concern.

But Yushis was slow in development. Because he was the spitting image of his mother, he had a slender frame and looked frail, perhaps due to his hair color.

He was often sick with minor ailments, keeping Sedric awake at night.

While thinking that since he was the same child, he should be raised as freely as Leticia, it was difficult to resist the urge to wrap him in warm blankets and keep him from moving.

“Tisha, come here. Let’s wipe your face and hands before changing clothes.”

“We will wash them and change their clothes. Isn’t it your first time visiting the grave in a while? You must have many things to prepare.”

Mel spoke respectfully. Sedric nodded.

“Then I’ll leave it to you. Tisha, you must listen well to Mel and behave properly.”

“Yes.”

Leticia, who had recently started learning etiquette from Mel, answered with disappointing composure.

Sedric smiled bitterly, stroked Leticia’s head once, then went outside.

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