As expected, William was the type who could understand ten things when taught one. However, there was a need to slightly modify his purely innocent interpretation as befitting a child. Though it pricked my conscience to harm his childlike innocence, childlike innocence was trivial in the face of life and death, so I had to teach politics first.
“Your Highness… people weren’t drawn to a simple heartwarming story.”
William nodded gently with a soft smile.
“I know too. People weren’t drawn to the heartwarming story, but rather to the story that opposed it.”
I smiled contentedly and said.
“That’s right. It’s called black propaganda or media play!”
William tilted his head. I went “Oh no” and hit my head. Without realizing it, I had spoken in the language of my world.
“Um… so black propaganda means…”
“You’re talking about using scandals, like how I used Kalroy’s rumors.”
“Yes! That’s right.”
In my joy and pride, I hugged William tightly. Since I had done it without realizing, I was startled and tried to pull away, but this time William wouldn’t let me go. An awkward atmosphere flowed, but I thought of this as just like a high-five shared after solving a problem with a common goal.
After a moment, William, who had separated from me, looked at me with narrowed eyes. The mood had been good, but suddenly he was sending suspicious glances, making me wonder what was wrong.
“Why, why are you doing that?”
“The thing is… it’s strange. The stories you’ve told so far were focused on entertainment…”
As expected, his intuition was extraordinary. I smiled awkwardly and said I’d tell him a different story. William dropped his suspicion and listened to my story. Thanks to that, I had to unpack three more story bundles featuring tigers, foxes, and monkeys.
***
When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar ceiling. I must have fallen asleep next to William without even returning to my room while telling stories.
I got down from the Prince’s bed to go to my room. As soon as I got down, what I saw before my eyes was bright light. A blue and white light similar to what I had seen when I first came to this world…
The light was so bright I couldn’t see properly. It was dark outside and dawn seemed still far away. What was that light?
I moved around here and there to avoid the light, but the light followed me as if it knew where I was going. A moving light… That’s strange? Since there had been more than one or two strange things I’d experienced since possessing this body, I calmly entered my room, but the light began following me.
I need darkness to sleep…
I drew the curtains. But the light remained the same. Even when I covered myself with blankets, there was light inside them.
Even when I lay face down to avoid the light, it followed me to the floor and illuminated that place.
No matter what I tried, I couldn’t escape that light. The moment I thought that, the bright light became darkness and came to strangle my neck. I was scared.
“…?”
Only when I was nearly suffocating could I open my eyes again. Something felt strange, so I closed my eyes and slowly opened them again.
It was the same ceiling I had seen when I opened my eyes earlier. Only then did I realize that the light that had persistently chased me until just now wasn’t reality but a dream.
A dream? How strange.
That’s because since possessing this body, I hadn’t been able to dream at all. Even when I thought of them and went to bed wanting to see the faces of my beloved parents and friends, even if only in dreams, I couldn’t dream. So I thought there were no dreams in this world.
But such an unpleasant dream… It was even vivid.
As is usual when you have scary or strange dreams, my whole body felt stiff as if I had caught a cold.
I tried to turn to the side to stretch, but my body wouldn’t turn. Only then did I notice the silver-haired little one who was sleeping with one arm and leg draped over my body. The sight of him smiling, then frowning, then smiling again depending on what he was dreaming was quite a spectacle.
Hey, silver-haired kid. How can you laugh after strangling someone until they can’t breathe?
It was natural that I couldn’t breathe with arms and legs larger and heavier than my body placed on top of me. I had tossed and turned trying to avoid it in my sleep, but since I couldn’t push him off, I kept having such dreams…
I chuckled softly.
I felt foolish for pondering why I had dreamed for that brief moment.
But William’s sleeping appearance was too cute. If he would slightly open his mouth and drool on that expression, it would be funny, but our Prince William probably wouldn’t degrade himself that much.
I stared at William’s sleeping form as if enchanted. It was because I vividly remembered how he had begged for the next story and then fallen asleep during the last tale.
Still, I couldn’t keep sleeping in this state, so I slightly turned my body to the side to move William’s arm and leg.
“Haaam…”
Huh, what?
The arm that had been lying obediently on my body just moments before began applying strength to not let me go the moment I moved. The sight of him desperately trying to embrace me even while sleeping was cute, but I had no choice. So I turned my body again.
This time he climbed completely on top of my body and began crushing me. Wait, is he really sleeping? Why is a sleeping person so strong?
It was cute, but the difference in strength was great and since I was the weaker party, I couldn’t do anything about my body. No matter how I twisted my body this way and that to escape from William, he didn’t seem to have any intention of letting me go.
“Uh, mom…”
I heard William’s sleep talk for a moment. I miss my mom too… Thinking about how much more this young child must miss her made my heart ache, thinking that my body being tired was unavoidable.
Our Prince is quite clingy. Well, he’s at the age to be clingy. How lonely and difficult it must have been in the imperial palace where he couldn’t trust anyone.
In the end, I gave up trying to remove the Prince from on top of my body. Perhaps because he was sleeping, I didn’t feel that suffocating scent. I patted the Prince’s back and softly sang a lullaby.
Even in his sleep, his giggling face was pretty.
***
I took a sip of cocoa. As something sweet went in, the fatigue from not sleeping properly seemed to fade somewhat. I had just declined Behern’s suggestion to eat together and came out carrying only cocoa from the dining hall.
The Imperial Knights were marching in front of me. If there was one pleasure since coming here, it was being able to see that march every day.
To be able to watch a live show daily of well-built men coming out in groups wearing uniforms and moving… Though it was a somewhat improper hobby for a teacher, I decided to allow this degree of impropriety in a war zone where life and death hung in the balance every day.
It was a desperate measure I chose because I felt like I would really go crazy if I didn’t do this.
I had several mental victory methods to overcome crises when difficult situations arose, or to avoid falling into depression. One of them was writing down the good points of the current situation one by one in a notebook. When I got depressed, I would pick out trivial good things and do them to shake off the depression, which made me feel a little better.
The knights belonging to the knight order had no interest whatsoever in a passing young attendant, and thanks to that, I could watch the knights to my heart’s content as much as I wanted.
The sight of knights in uniforms over their well-built bodies shouting “We are the great Stamili Empire’s knight order, today too for His Majesty the Emperor…!” and walking with disciplined steps was healing for me. There must be a reason why uniform fantasy exists.
“Sigh… What’s the use of them being handsome? It’s not like they’ll become my men anyway…”
I muttered like that and let out a deep sigh. This much rest was enough. Except for Behern, I was William’s only attendant, so I had mountains of work to do.
Today’s meeting with Aren was scheduled for after riding lessons. I had to hurry back to prepare riding clothes, check the lunch meal until the riding lesson ended, and also prepare tea time with Aren.
By the way, will the riding lesson be okay?
As soon as I received the Prince’s class schedule from Behern yesterday, I thoroughly investigated the people designated as teachers. Some people appeared in the information window while others didn’t. Things like the story getting twisted or characters changing didn’t matter to me anymore.
Some of the teachers in charge of the Prince’s education were conservatives who had maintained their positions by flattering Kelton’s power, while others were progressives who burned with reform will alongside Aren. I didn’t need to worry about the progressive teachers, but I was concerned about sending William to classes with conservative teachers.
Among them, Count Pusher, who was in charge of riding lessons, was a figure at the center of the conservatives, enough to be called Kelton’s right hand. With the direction of power changing rapidly day by day, I was worried about sending William since I didn’t know what schemes they might use.
I thought it would be better to hurry and either dissuade William from attending today’s riding lesson, or beg to be allowed to accompany him as an attendant.
I need to hurry! I looked up at the sky and steeled my resolve while regretfully watching the departing knight order before turning away.
“Well, well! If it isn’t the Omega who committed treason by looking down on the Crown Prince?”
An unwelcome voice was heard as I was about to enter the Prince’s quarters.
Kalroy, don’t mess with your brother today. I’m busy to death.
The moment I tried to ignore it and enter the palace, my arm was grabbed. The attendants nearby were startled and tried to stop the Crown Prince, but he wouldn’t listen at all.
Even ten-year-old William knew to fear rumors… Kalroy seemed not to know to fear rumors despite his age. After calling me dirty and lowly until his mouth was worn out, grabbing me like this wouldn’t look good for his dignity… I really couldn’t understand why he was doing this.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
