kscans

Chapter 20 - The Little Person's Thank You

"Papa, can we talk for a little bit?"

With eyes as calm as the surface of still water, Chihiro looked up at Drago. A faint, unsettling ripple in that gaze made Drago’s heart pound. But he had no objections. Placing his beloved daughter on his lap, Drago sat down deep into the sofa.

"Is something wrong?"

Despite his shaggy, bear-like appearance, Drago’s eyes as he looked at Chihiro were gentle. He treated her with the utmost care, as if she were the most fragile, precious thing.

Still cradled sideways in his arms, Chihiro tightly gripped the front of Drago’s clothes.

"You know... about me...."

Chihiro once again told her story, from before she met Adoris and Drago. She omitted the part about reincarnation, but talked about being called Fatimah in the royal palace and being raised with care. About being suddenly abandoned and locked away. About feeling her life was in danger, escaping the room, and being found by Adoris.

Drago already knew the rest.

Breathing hard, her words faltering and stumbling, the small child spoke. Drago gently stroked her head and nodded again and again.

"That must have been hard. You did so well. You don't have to remember it anymore. You were so brave. God gave you to me, your Papa. That's why you had to go through such a painful thing. I'm sorry."

God gave me to Papa?

Chihiro was taken aback.

It was true that if not for that tragic situation, Chihiro would never have come to Drago. Paradoxically, it was because of that suffering that Chihiro was able to be found by him.

Thinking of it that way, that terrible memory softened a little.

Though if this really was all in the palm of God’s hand, she’d like to punch him. Couldn't there have been a better way.

As Chihiro pouted, she saw Drago’s conflicted face in her field of vision. With a troubled expression, Drago glanced at Chihiro.

"According to your story, you were the Eighth Princess... but the Eighth Princess is here, you know? Chihiro."

Drago’s words were a bombshell.

"Then who on earth am I?"

When she compared her memories with Drago’s explanation, a clear contradiction emerged. The King she had been told was her father. So she had thought the Queen beside him was her birth mother. But the Eighth Princess born to the official Queen was in the palace. And her name wasn't Fatimah.

Then Chihiro remembered what the King's brother had said earlier.

What did he say? Didn't he call Fatimah Theodore's twin sister?

In the sudden turn of events, she had let it pass by, but if she was Theodore's sister, they must be twins.

The consort gave birth to twins? I'm the consort's child??

It didn't add up. Something was wrong.

There's something I don't know.

"Naya, send a message to the palace. Ask if we can meet with the King's brother."

"Huh? Ah, very well."

"Chihiro?"

Drago looked at Chihiro with a puzzled expression.

"Let's hear what Romel has to say. We interrupted him yesterday."

Drago’s eyes widened. The ambiguous milky tea color had vanished from Chihiro’s pupils, and a brilliant, shining golden iris had emerged.

"Welcome."

When they sent a messenger to Romel, an affirmative reply came back immediately. The baron and his daughter hastened to the palace, were shown into Romel’s office, and sat on the sofa facing him.

"I want to know the information you have about me."

With a slightly surprised look, Romel nodded and explained to Chihiro what he was permitted to share.

That Cyril and her group had concealed the newborn Chihiro's existence. That they had threatened the wet nurse and raised her in secret in the palace. That something had happened, he didn’t know what, and they had abandoned Chihiro and disappeared from the palace.

"That's about as far as we've uncovered. We're still investigating, but most of the people involved are missing, so it's proving difficult."

Chihiro was dumbfounded.

Good heavens. The King and the others didn't even know I existed.

"I've made a promise that no one but me will approach you. He was complaining that he wanted to see you right away, but I've stopped him. I told him we should hear you out first."

Romel gave a wry smile.

And we were the ones who turned him away. Without even hearing him out properly.

She didn't know who Cyril and her group were or what they were trying to do. But they were the root of all evil.

Chihiro quietly closed her eyes.

This place is at a late medieval level of civilization at best. An era full of holes, where everything runs on manpower. One or two people can easily be hidden or disposed of. The Middle Ages on Earth were similar. Without rigorous scientific investigation or medical technology, crimes could succeed by chance. In Japan, it would be around the Warring States period. Anything could be concealed, buried in darkness. People could be condemned on a pretext. If you want something, you take it, and if someone is in your way, you kill them. A time when human life was thin and light. That's how it was on Earth.

Compared to Earth's Middle Ages, this is probably still better.

At least Frontier hadn't resorted to forceful measures. They had respected Chihiro’s wishes in every way. If they had wanted to, Chihiro would have long been abducted and locked away in the palace.

A king in this era was someone with that kind of power.

Chihiro didn't know. She didn't know that the very Romel before her had stopped them from taking such forceful action. Romel, in a way, understood Chihiro well.

She doesn't seem to think at all, yet she is always thinking and acting. She is reckless, yet pays attention to the details and is cautious. She has an incredibly rich knowledge, yet is surprisingly ignorant of common sense (things).

A child who was a bundle of contradictions.

But this much he understood.

For her, being free was the natural state of things.

Free to go wherever, do whatever. She doesn't think that can be obstructed. That way of thinking was alien in this world. She recognized status and position. She knew what was wrong and what was dangerous. But at the root of it all was a question mark, so what?

So what? What does that have to do with anything?

It was difficult to put into words, but her unrestrained freedom was peculiar. As if she had come from a world with no shackles at all. Status, position, everything.

Thinking that far, Romel’s lips curved upwards.

Come to think of it, the cooks and the knights called her a fairy or an angel. When she's this free-spirited, you start to want to believe it.

In any case, she was a creature that couldn't survive without being free. That's what Romel thought.

Not far from the mark. Even without knowing about Chihiro’s previous life, the astute Romel had seen through to her essence.

After a moment of silence, Chihiro opened her eyes.

"I understand the situation. But that doesn’t mean I can forgive it."

Yes, I know.

Romel gave a small nod.

"But, could you tell them thank you for me?"

"Eh?"

Chihiro scrambled up onto Drago, who was sitting next to her.

Heaving and hoisting herself up, Chihiro sat on Drago’s lap and broke into a wide grin.

"For delivering me to Papa. I'm happy. Please tell them that."

Wha...

Romel was speechless.

Drago’s wide eyes quickly welled up with tears.

"Yes, yes, that's right."

Drago hugged Chihiro tightly and looked at Romel in the same way.

"I would also like to express my gratitude. I thank you for giving me such an adorable daughter. Chihiro is my treasure."

"I'm so glad I met you, Papa. I'm so very lucky."

"So am I. There's no angel like this anywhere else."

The super sweet parent child drama unfolding before him. Hadn't he seen this somewhere before?

Romel let out a long, thin sigh, expelling all the stagnant air from his lungs.

Good grief. The Little Person had brought the matter to a close all by herself. With no mention of what to do next or what she wanted, she had cut the royal family off with satisfying finality.

The future is going to be hell for my brother. I can't say it's entirely his own fault, but isn't this too tragic?

Thank you for not knowing about me, she had said. It was good that she wasn't a princess. It was good that she could become Drago’s daughter.

Just how much irony are you packing in there.

Well, that’s just like the Little Person.

She sublimated her anger, which had nowhere to go, and replaced it with words of gratitude.

I'm happy now, so it's fine. Once she says that, there's nothing we can say. We can't destroy that happiness, nor can we obstruct it. Knowing the miserable hardships the Little Person has been through, we couldn't possibly do that.

Ah, checkmate, brother.

Throwing his hands up in surrender, Romel signaled his consent.

"I will convey your message to His Majesty the King. Be happy. Well, your surroundings might get noisy, but you'll be fine, won't you? You have Drago, after all."

Seeing Romel raise his eyebrows cynically, the Little Person’s face lit up with a huge smile.

And so, the general discussion was concluded, and a deep wail was said to have been heard in the royal palace.

The talk of Drago quitting vanished, and the kitchen staff smiled. The Little Person was well again, and the knights and guard bees smiled too. The royal palace, with the exception of one part of it, was filled with smiles, and the Little Person is doing fine today too.