The end of the dream, and a reunion crossing time②

 ☆

 
 Having reached my twelfth birthday, and a whole month had passed, when that day came.
 
 I was summoned from the Owleyes territory’s mansion to the royal capital, and went with my father to the royal castle.
 
 We proceeded to the audience room.
 
 In the front on the dias was a throne of delicate workmanship, and seated there was this country’s… the Heilland Kingdom’s ruler, a man in the prime of his life.
 
 My first time in the royal castle.
 My first time meeting the king.
 
 I hope I’m not rude. I hope I don’t make any mistakes with court etiquette. I felt my head fill with lots of things like that.
 For better or worse, my father hadn’t yet told me what the significance of this meeting was.
 
 Once the formal greetings were over, the king instructed the chamberlain to “call Alvin”.
 
 Alvin… Alvin Sanaaq Heilland.^[1] Even the young me knew that that was the name of the second prince.
 Though I couldn’t find a reason why the prince was called.
 
 In the time it took for the prince to arrive, the king enquired about various things.
 
 How my relationship was with my family.
 What do I usually study.
 And then what my interests are.
 
 I answered these questions honestly. Of course, I spoke about my ambition for making magic tools too.
 
 
 
 In the meantime, the second prince showed up.
 
 Entering from a door exclusively for royalty, that boy greeted the king, and then the king introduced him to us.
 
 The father-daughter pair face the prince.
 
 Luxurious blonde hair.
 Well-featured looks.
 And then those sullen blue eyes.
 
 I was captivated by his appearance which lived up to the rumours.
 
 The prince greeted my father and I.
 
 He looked at us with such a glance, and murmured as though vomiting the words out.
 
 ”A declining Count’s House, seeking power by trying to get a connection with the royal family… I’ve been seriously made fun of.”
 
 A gaze with scorn and irritation mixed in.
 Two blue eyes that observed as though looking at garbage.
 
 ——— in the next moment, I couldn’t help but scream.
 
 
 
 A vast collection of memories suddenly filled my head.
 
 Two blue eyes glaring at me.
 A blade hoisted below a cloudy sky.
 Two teddy bears.
 A funeral in the rain.^[2]
 A motorbike losing its balance.
 Two approaching lights.
 A stream of program code.
 The image of 3D CAD software.
 A highschool graduation photo.
 Kind parents and a geeky brother.
 
 A whirlpool of multiple scenes swirl in my head.
 Quite like a fast-motion timelapse.
 
 And like that, the memories returned to me, and I lost consciousness.
 

 ☆

 
 ”Gasp”
 
 I desperately try to breathe in, and out.
 
 ”Hah, hah, haah”
 
 ”Ojou-sama! Are you ok!!??”
 
 Anna’s distressed voice.
 Disorderly breathing.
 
 I clung to Anna, and buried my face in her arms.
 My mind was in chaos, and my body wouldn’t do as I willed it.
 
 How long did I stay like that before I calmed down? Before I knew it, I had my head in Anna’s lap while she stroked it.
 
 ”Ann… na…”
 
 ”! Are you alright, Ojou-sama?”
 
 Anna, who peered at me with concern.
 
 Seeing her face up close, she looks younger than the last time I saw her.
 
 When she was executed, Anna was in her mid-twenties.
 But the girl before me still had traces of being a young girl. At most, twenty years old, or if unlucky, she’s in her teens.
 
 I close my eyes, and repeatedly take deep breaths.
 
 I see.
 Maybe, that’s how it is.
 
 And so I somehow managed to calm myself down, and sat up while Anna supported me.
 
 ”Say, Anna. Can you bring me a hand mirror?”
 
 ”Huh… ah, yes.”
 
 Anna got a hand mirror from the dresser, and handed it over to me.
 
 I peered at myself in the mirror.
 
 ”…”
 
 Just as I thought.
 
 Reflected in the mirror, I saw the long, beautiful silver hair and blue eyes of a bright-featured twelve-year-old girl.
 
 She, the countess who will later be framed with false charges and decapitated, is Leticia Ainsworth.
 
 In other words, the “me” as a child.
 
 
 
 Before I realised, the morning rays shone through a gap in the curtains.
 
 ”Then, I shall go and inform Danna-sama.”^[3]
 
 Anna pulled the curtains open, and in order to let father know of my waking, she left the room.
 
 ”Fuu…..”
 
 Sitting down on the bed, I took a deep breath, picked up the differently-coloured teddy bears laying beside the pillows, and placed them on my lap.
 
 Their names are “Cocoa” and “Caramel”. Shortened, they’re “Coco and Mel”.
 
 Coco is an olive-brown boy.
 Mel is a golden-brown girl.
 
 Having received them from my mother as a present on my 5th birthday, my mother passed on soon after that, and they became my dear friends who distracted me from my loneliness.
 
 Coincidentally, they were also the family that kept me company in my last moments in my previous life. ^[4]
 
 ”Coco, Mel, sorry. I won’t let you go through that again.”
 
 I hugged them both tightly.
 Before I knew it, tears were running down my cheek.
 

 ☆

 
 Shortly after.
 From the corridor outside, I heard steady and regular, yet somehow hurried footsteps.
 
 The pounding of those footsteps came closer, and before long they came to a stop in front of this room.
 
 And then, the door opened with a clank.
 
 ”Leticia.”
 
 Appearing from the doorway was the master of this mansion, Brad Ainsworth, the Count of Owleyes. My father.
 
 That person, with somewhat dull grey hair, despite the dignity drifting about him and his sharp eyes, appeared noticeably suspicious when he saw my face.
 
 Both arms, spread out halfway.
 A body that shook aimlessly and hesitatingly, wondering whether to rush over or not.
 
 That image, and the image of this person right before he was executed, begging for my life to be spared while still battered from torture, overlapped in my mind.
 
 
 
 In my previous life, I wasn’t very good at dealing with father.
 
 It wasn’t just me.
 My two brothers as well, I don’t think they spoke with father very casually either.
 
 His sons would say with honorifics, “Chichi-ue^[5], would this be alright?”, to which father would curtly reply “yes” or “no”.
 
 That was, how should I put it… like a subordinate and superior in the workplace.
 Business communications and reporting, followed by instructions.
 Nearly no casual chatting.
 
 Even the mood when everyone was around the dining table, it was as if it were the army camping out.
 
 Looking back, it may have been the influence of such a home environment that led to me being called things like “The Frozen Rose Princess” or “The Inhumane Lady”.
 
 But for me, it was in my final moments that I realised.
 
 Father undoubtedly loved me and my brothers deeply.
 This person appeared scary and taciturn, yet he was just absolutely ridiculously awkward.
 
 That’s why, this time, I’ll make a move myself.
 
 I moved Coco and Mel from my lap to the bed, and unhurriedly stood up on both of my legs, their muscles atrophied.
 
 And then,
 
 ”… Papa!!”
 
 I came walking staggeringly to where father was, and hugged his body.
 
 
 
 ——— the result.
 
 Father was very surprised to be hugged by me for the very first time, but…… he hugged me tightly with both arms.
 

TL Notes:

[1]fyi, Sanaaq was the best match I could find, but it appears to be the name of a widow from an Inuit novel by the same name. ↩

[2]I don’t recall a funeral. Maybe this is after she died in the car crash? ↩

[3] “Danna” is a respectful term for the one’s master, typically of a house or shop. ↩

[4]I assume this is referring to Heilland life, round 1. I don’t recall her mentioning her two teddy bears being in the taxi with her. ↩

[5]the particular word used here is a very respectable form of saying father ↩