IWBAACTWITOS Chapter 5

"Miss, how about this one?"

The nanny pulled out a white dress she'd had tailored recently for outdoor wear, and I scrunched up my face. Good grief—a white dress with a huge pink ribbon. Whose taste was that supposed to be?

"No."

"Really? That's strange. The dressmaker said it was the hottest design for young ladies your age right now."

My hand muscles weren't fully developed yet, which meant I spilled something every time I ate. A white outfit? If my mom saw this, she would've fainted. Little kids were supposed to wear clothes with busy patterns so stains wouldn't show.

Besides, I was planning to knock the sub-male lead flat today, so ideally I wanted something that wouldn't show dirt too badly if I rolled around on the ground.

"What about this one?"

"Childish."

After going back and forth with the nanny, we settled on a purple velvet dress. The ruffles at the neck looked cumbersome, but at least it matched my taste and probably wouldn't stain easily.

'I usually just wore whatever she gave me, after all.'

Once I had the dress on and was about to head out with my rabbit doll tucked under my arm, the nanny caught me and put a hat on my head. The purple hat clearly matched the dress, but it was purely decorative—nothing more, nothing less.

After tying the ribbon under my chin to hold it in place, the nanny put an identical hat on the rabbit's ears. I had no idea why she'd put a hat on it without any clothes, but before I could comfort the naked rabbit, the nanny kissed my cheek.

"Have a safe trip, Miss."

"I'll be back."

This was my second official outing since I'd become able to walk on my own. When I went downstairs, Roxana and Julian were waiting. The moment Julian spotted me, he scooped me up and spun me around.

"Good heavens! My little goddess, why are you so pretty? Whose daughter are you?"

I answered his tiresome question in a flat voice.

"Mom's daughter."

"Daddy's daughter, right? Right?"

Julian had no intention of listening to what I actually said, so I had to spin around dizzyingly in midair several times.

'Ugh, I'm gonna be sick.'

"Okay, okay. That's enough."

I nearly threw up something unpleasant onto Julian's annoyingly handsome face—which was feeling increasingly pointless these days—but Roxana rescued me with perfect timing.

"Tilly's having a hard time."

I shook my head briefly to clear the dizziness, then settled into Roxana's arms and glared at Julian. Only then did Julian seem to realize his behavior had been excessive and apologized.

"Sorry, Tilly. You got dizzy, didn't you?"

"..."

"Tilly?"

"I hate you."

It was the most effective phrase for Julian. I turned my head away sharply and refused to make eye contact with him the entire ride to the imperial palace. Roxana seemed used to this situation by now and didn't bother intervening.

She knew that before long, I'd act like nothing happened and strike up conversation with Julian saying, "Daddy, what are you doing?" Unlike Roxana's perfect composure, Julian kept stealing glances, trying to gauge when I'd stop being angry.

"We're here, Tilly. This is the imperial palace."

Roxana opened the window to show me outside. The towering palace looked exactly like the imperial palace I'd imagined.

'Well, on the outside at least.'

"Thaleia."

"Hm?"

I'd been looking out the window, but at Roxana's call I immediately turned my head. It was rare for her to use my full name instead of my nickname.

"You learned how to greet Her Majesty the Empress, didn't you?"

'Ah, so that's what this was about.'

"Yeah, the nanny taught me."

"Right. Our smart Tilly will do just fine."

"Yeah!"

Charlotte wasn't the type to take great offense if a small child didn't follow proper etiquette perfectly. In fact, she'd been disappointed that her son had been so mature from such a young age—she wanted a daughter, but after the sub-male lead, she couldn't have more children, so she thought of Royna like a daughter and doted on her.

"Tilly."

Julian personally lifted me out of the carriage, and once my feet touched the ground, I stared up at Julian for a moment before clinging to Roxana. My anger was already gone, but I needed to put more of a brake on Julian's excessive behavior. Honestly, if he'd spun me around any longer, I definitely would've thrown up my breakfast.

"Tilly, do you still hate Daddy?"

I could feel the sincerity in Julian's expression, and I could tell he was waiting anxiously for my answer. I smiled brightly and told him firmly:

"Yeah, I hate you!"

I grabbed Roxana's hand and swung it as we entered the empress's palace. I could hear Julian sniffling behind me, but I knew that if I turned around at the sound of his crying, I'd get dragged back in, so I kept my eyes straight ahead.

"I am Thaleia of Remetio."

Following Roxana and Julian, I grabbed my skirt hem, curtsied according to proper etiquette, and raised my head to find two burdensome pairs of eyes on me. One was the all-too-familiar Julian, so I could ignore that, but the Empress's gaze was bewildering.

Charlotte clasped both hands together as she looked down at me. When I tilted my head in confusion, her expression changed alarmingly. Her clasped hands reached toward me as if to capture me, and I unconsciously stepped backward.

'What, what is this? What's going on?'

"Mother."

When the sub-male lead Aegis called out to Charlotte, she finally came to her senses and hurriedly withdrew the hands she'd been extending toward me.

"Oh, oh my. I'm sorry, Lady. The young lady is so small and cute and adorable and lovable that I couldn't help myself..."

Had she shown this kind of reaction when she first saw Royna too? When I was writing, I'd only described it as Charlotte having doted on Royna since childhood—I hadn't known she'd be like this.

"Let's sit down for now."

The garden of the empress's palace was beautifully filled with lavender, colored a lovely purple with a wonderful fragrance.

"Do you like the garden?"

I'd been staring blankly at the garden when Charlotte spoke to me, so I nodded. She'd calmed down more than when we first met, but she was still looking only at me.

I pretended not to notice that burdensome gaze and focused on the desserts on the table instead. The colorful desserts looked incredibly appetizing. Charlotte looked at me, smiled, and personally placed a strawberry cream cake on my plate.

Once everyone's plates had cake, I picked up my fork without hesitation and stabbed the strawberry on top first, popping it into my mouth. You were supposed to eat the best things first, after all. I finished off the strawberry in one bite and was licking the cream from my lips when Julian asked me:

"Is the strawberry good?"

"Yeah. Daddy's strawberry is mine now."

I naturally extended my fork and stole Julian's strawberry. Julian smiled and pushed his plate toward me. I was eating my second strawberry when a new strawberry rolled onto my plate. The one who gave it was Aegis, who'd been quietly eating his cake.

'Wow...'

How could his eyes possibly be that blue? I'd hated the typical prince character type, but Asher had an insane beauty that pierced right through my preferences. If Julian had a sacred beauty, Asher had a doll-like beauty. Like an expensive ball-jointed doll? I stared at him blankly for a moment before belatedly coming to my senses.

"Thanks."

At my gratitude, Asher smiled sweetly and said:

"Eat lots."

'Holy crap, the doll smiled.'

This kid was supposed to grow up into a 190-centimeter tall puppy-dog type? No way. The strange sense of disconnect made me shake my head rapidly and pop the third strawberry into my mouth. Asher kept looking at me with that same beaming smile. Not caring about his own cake at all.

'What's with him?'

Charlotte, who'd been looking back and forth between Asher and me, let out a small sigh and brought up the topic.

"I understand that Philius brought up the engagement matter to both of you last time."

"...Yes."

"I'm sorry. I did say first that I hoped the two of them could be friends, but I didn't know Philius would suddenly propose an engagement."

At that, Julian chuckled softly. His expression said he'd expected as much.

"I thought so. That's just how Rus is. Your Majesty the Empress bears no fault. And Rus isn't thinking about it seriously yet either."

"...But."

"It's still far in the future. For now, I'd just like them to be good friends. They're both lonely without friends."

'Ooh, Julian.'

Polite and clean answer. Very good. When Julian drew a clear line, Charlotte also looked relieved. By contrast, Asher looked at the adults with a confused face.

"I'm not going to marry Thaleia?"

At the word marriage, I choked and started coughing. Wait, when did we skip all the way to marriage? Julian patted my back and looked at Asher with a subtle expression. Since he couldn't exactly get angry at a clueless little kid, he was showing his displeasure in his own way as much as possible.

"When Your Highness the Prince meets someone you truly love someday, that's when you should marry."

"But Father said it would be good if the imperial family and the Remetio ducal house were joined."

At those words, I raised my head and looked at Asher. What the doll-like prince character was saying was pure in some way, but not childlike at all.

'What's with this kid?'

"That's right, Asher. You should marry someone you love. But if you worry too much about things like family lineage, you won't be able to meet someone you really love."

"But people say..."

"Asher."

When Charlotte called his name affectionately, Asher seemed to think for a moment, then changed the direction of his question.

"Then if I love Thaleia, can we get married?"

"No. Only if the Lady says she loves Asher too can you get married."

At Charlotte's answer, Asher looked at me with expectant eyes. The strange unpleasant feeling I'd been sensing since a moment ago meant I could only answer sharply.

"You're not my type."

Everyone fell silent at that single phrase, but it wasn't really my problem. What I sold was the black-haired male lead. No matter how doll-like, I didn't go for prince characters.

"So I'm absolutely never marrying you."

Shocked by my firm rejection, Asher looked at me with hurt eyes and spoke haltingly in a small voice.

"But I... I gave you strawberries..."

A proposal strawberry? Insane.

"Want me to spit them back out?"