IWBAACTWITOS Chapter 19

3. On My Birthday, My Wish Came True

"Bell pepper, bell pep-per."

I hummed my impromptu bell pepper song while stabbing the center of the flower with my fork. The crispy crunch in my mouth combined with the slightly bitter taste of bell pepper and the always-correct sausage was perfect.

I gave our chef another thumbs up for creating such a pretty flower using sausage and bell pepper.

I wasn't particularly picky about food, and Yan ate anything he could see, so the chef's face bloomed with a bright smile again today.

"If you need anything else, please let me know."

"Okay!"

I was happily chewing on a meatball when one dropped from Yan's fork.

Plop.

Matilda, that gaunt woman from yesterday who'd been waiting behind Yan, frowned at the meatball on the floor.

"Your Highness, you must observe proper table manners."

At those words, Julian and Roxana turned to look at me. My mouth was covered with meatball sauce.

"What."

When I shot back bluntly, Julian smiled and told me to eat plenty while adding more meatballs to my plate.

It was a signal that there was no need to nitpick about etiquette during a casual family meal.

Matilda cleared her throat with a small cough and quietly withdrew. What she'd hastily concealed was the mental satisfaction she felt from looking down on our Yan.

"Not that. Give me bell pepper."

"Bell pepper?"

"Yeah, give me bell pepper."

After extracting additional bell pepper from Julian, I didn't return the meatballs he'd given me but instead placed them on Yan's plate.

And I added my last meatball on top of that.

"My subordinate needs to eat well. Eat up, and later I'll show you around the Great Demon King's castle, so eat lots."

"I apologize, Princess, but His Highness must attend Common Language class this morning."

"Common Language class?"

"Yes. One class in the morning, and two classes scheduled in the afternoon."

'What kind of insane schedule is that?'

Right, Yan had technically come here to study abroad. But the funny thing was that they'd packed up and brought all his tutors from the Celis Kingdom.

'What's even the point of studying abroad?'

"Then I'll take the class too."

At those words, Julian and Roxana turned to look at me with surprised faces. Roxana, who'd thought I might be smart like Julian, had attempted early education exactly once.

The early education was just teaching letters and numbers, but I'd thrown such a fit that she gave up after one day.

After that, she let me play freely. The only classes I had were art or music lessons once or twice a week.

Even those weren't really education—just letting me scribble with various paints or bang randomly on the piano. Of course, since they were classes, I hated them just the same.

"But Princess—"

"Madam."

"Yes, Countess."

"I must ask this of you."

"...No."

"This is the first time Tilly has said she wants to take classes herself."

"..."

"Even just observing would be fine."

"..."

True to her stubborn impression, Matilda didn't give in easily. I watched the quiet standoff between Matilda and Roxana.

Julian also stayed quiet before handing bread to Yan and me, then bringing up something out of the blue.

"Roxy, let's think more about Tilly's education. Even if they don't take classes together, spending time with His Highness might be a good influence. We need to investigate the attack incident further and will be busy for a while. This might even become an international issue. Let's settle everything first and think about it then. They're both still young, and they'll be living together for several years anyway."

The words carried multiple meanings. To me, it sounded like a silent threat to Matilda.

If she didn't want the Empire to make this an international incident, then while staying in our house, she should obediently follow Roxana's wishes.

The smiling Julian looked like a true prime minister for the first time in a while.

"Ahem, understood. Now that I think about it, His Highness should have a fellow student studying beside him to make this study abroad worthwhile."

After thinking for a moment at Julian's words, Matilda finally gave up, probably thinking she needed to stay in the homeowner's good graces.

'That's right, when in Rome, do as the Romans do!'

Taking classes wasn't particularly appealing, but I couldn't leave Yan alone.

'And I'll skip the afternoon classes.'

I could handle getting scolded. What did it matter? Yan's time here was limited—I couldn't let them keep him trapped for most of every day.

I'd observe the class atmosphere and then sneak him out to play together. When I smiled at Yan, he smiled back brightly.

He was still wary of adults like Julian and Roxana, but his guard around me had lowered considerably. That smile was so pretty and lovable.

'Aww, my baby is so cute.'

Five years old—so about seven in Korean age—I thought it would just be learning letters, or at most words and sentences if they were ahead. I couldn't hide my bewilderment.

'What is this?'

"Since this is the Princess's first time, you only need to copy it once. Your Highness, copy it five times as usual."

'As usual?'

Holding the quill pen, I read the paragraph at the top of the several passages the composition teacher had distributed.

「One must not try to answer all questions in the world by saying everything is God's will. God occasionally bestows prophecies or miracles, but is generally indifferent. Therefore, those who call themselves scholars—those who learn and research—must first adopt an attitude of contemplation toward any problem in the world.」

Could Yan really read and understand this text?

I glanced sideways at him. It was painfully obvious he couldn't even read it properly, let alone understand it—he was just copying the letters like drawings.

Right now, the teacher had clearly excerpted something from some research book and was making a five-year-old copy it without any context.

'They're just making him write lines.'

A pure anger I'd forgotten about surfaced. How in middle and high school they'd made us write lines as homework just to memorize things, and how in college a crazy professor made me write over thirty pages of handwritten reports.

That had been the height of inefficiency, but at least it had been somewhat educational.

'But this isn't something where you can even discuss efficiency or inefficiency.'

It was just tormenting a young child. I put down my quill pen and raised my hand high.

"Yes, Princess."

"Can I ask a question?"

"Yes, of course. Even on your first day, you show more academic enthusiasm than His Highness, Princess."

"..."

'Are you seriously saying that in front of the person involved? Don't you see my baby looking dejected?'

If Yan had asked a question, would this person have properly answered him?

I forced a smile and snatched the paper Yan had been looking at. The crooked, childish handwriting showed traces of trying so hard to write properly.

"Yan."

"...Yeah?"

"You need to use the bathroom, right?"

"No."

"You need to use the bathroom."

"No, I really don't need to."

"Don't hold it in. Go quickly."

Yan looked between the teacher and me, not understanding the situation. The teacher nodded that it was fine to go. After Yan left, I ripped up the paper he'd written right in front of the teacher.

"P-Princess?"

"I wonder what exactly the problem is here."

"Pardon?"

"Is it God's will? Or is it the teacher's problem?"

"What are you saying?"

"Or is it the problem of whoever ordered you to torment a young child who can't even read properly with this garbage, lowering their self-esteem and making them feel incompetent?"

At my words, the composition teacher froze. But he soon decided not to take a four-year-old's words too seriously and started deflecting.

"Princess, I understand the lesson is rather difficult and you don't want to do it. Since you're just observing today, you don't have to do it if you don't want to."

"Do I look like I'm doing this because I don't want to do the lesson? I already told you, but you still don't know what the problem is?"

"...Then what do you think the problem is, Princess?"

"...What?"

"I'm simply following orders. It's not that I like it either, but I have no choice. You're in a position where you don't need to worry about others' opinions, Princess, so you can say such things. You can do this because you're a young child with good parents, can't you? Because I'm just a tutor."

"...Ha."

'Look at this bastard running his mouth.'

He was playing the victim, saying he had no choice under pressure from the Queen, claiming I was using my social superiority to crush him.

To suppress my anger, I looked down at my still-intact paper. 'God's will'—in the end, I was the author who'd created this situation for Yan, so who could I be angry at?

I had no right to be angry. I only had the responsibility to fix this situation.

Setting aside my personal dilemma about changing the original story, any human being should feel outraged by this situation and take moral responsibility.

'If they're human, that is.'

Even though he'd introduced himself at the start of class, I couldn't remember the Common Language teacher's name.

The male lead suffered abuse growing up. The people surrounding Asher were part of that "setting," making them accomplices to the abuse. Nameless extra villains who never even appeared in the original work.

I had definitely created the situation that individuals couldn't help. And they were finding joy in abusing a young child within that inescapable situation, gaining mental satisfaction from it.

'He's not happy about it?'

That's a lie. He was definitely enjoying it. With the same eyes as Matilda, that woman, yet he dared speak of having no choice.

"What's your name?"

This time, to remember it clearly, I asked his name. I'd dropped the honorifics because he wasn't worth them. The teacher frowned, clearly offended by my informal speech.

'If you're human, you shouldn't have done that.'

I'd tried to target just one nameless extra villain, but in the end, I decided to overturn everything.