Chapter 83
No, but did I need to be this careful everytime I went out, considering my age now? At least when I went to hide my pretties I was a baby.
If there was one silver lining, it was that there was no one around. But as I walked further down the hall, I saw someone familiar.
“Princess!”
Oops, I got caught!
She was holding a warm towel that was still steaming. Thank goodness it was Hannah, and not Ces or Lili!
“You can’t come out like this!”
“I’m not hurt anymore. I’m just gonna take a walk.”
She quickly ran at me with a surprised expression. But I didn’t blink and just calmly headed down the stairs.
The only people who could stop me in this Emerald Palace were Felix and Lili, and both of them weren’t here.
She pattered after me and tried to convince me.
“But your face is still pale.”
“It’s because I haven’t been getting any sun.”
I wasn’t planning on listening to her anymore, so she couldn’t convince me no matter how hard she tried. Hannah just shifted her feet uncomfortably.
“Blackie’s in the garden?”
As I thoughtlessly ask the question, Hannah stopped.
“Uh, Princess. How about going back to your room? I’ll bring you tea and snacks. We made a lot of cakes that you like today.”
It was only a moment, but I grew suspicious. She furiously tried to take me back to my room, and I only wanted to leave more.
“I’m going to the garden.”
“P, Princess!”
I left Hannah behind, running towards the garden. And I shortly arrived at my destination.
But the usual place where Blackie was was completely empty.
Actually, it had been a while since I came to see Blackie. I didn’t come to see Blackie because of that incident recently, and especially because Claude got hurt.
Also, I was hesitating to meet Blackie again. However, now that I thought about it, I needed to check on him at least once. If the unfortunate event had really happened because of Blackie, like Lucas said, then he could still be dangerous.
So I decided to come see him…but he wasn’t in sight. Yeah, he could be playing somewhere else since the garden is big.
“Blackie.”
I began to search for him high and low. But regardless of how many times I called, he didn’t appear.
“Princess!”
After a while, Lili appeared with Hannah following right after her. She was speechless upon seeing that I was covered in twigs and leaves.
“Lili, where’s Blackie?”
However, she wasn’t able to answer right away like Hannah. I only thought of one reason why.
“Did Dad take him?”
“Princess, that’s not it….”
“Dad took him to kill him right?”
Lili opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but she just remained like that like she didn’t know what to say. I became even more sure that Claude had something to do with it.
Wow, that was what happened? I thought it was too quiet these days. I can’t believe he just took Blackie like that!
“I’m going to Dad.”
“You can’t, Princess!”
I suddenly felt rushed. What Lucas had said a few years ago was swirling around in my head.
‘You seem to be quite loved. When I saw you almost died because of this, he almost killed him right away. But if he killed him, it would be dangerous because the magic in the beast would’ve moved to your body.’
If what he said was true, another accident could happen soon.
I pushed Lili away and started to run. This was probably the reason why Claude didn’t ask for me.
To think that Blackie, who had been completely fine until yesterday, was gone suddenly! This was why I wanted to leave my room so badly. I was going to explain about Blackie as soon as I woke up, but with Claude’s business, I completely forgot about it.
“Dad!”
Claude wasn’t in his bedroom or even in his office. After searching thoroughly in the entire Garnet Palace, I couldn’t find him, so I headed towards the garden where we normally took walks.
“P, Princess!”
Claude was there. Felix widened his eyes upon seeing me. Claude slid his gaze on me.
It was the first time in forever that I was seeing Claude. It felt longer than that, actually, because we saw each other everyday.
Claude looked healthier than I expected. His complexion was rosy, as if asking when he had ever vomited blood.
I guess he was fine with moving since he was taking walks in the garden. Well, it’s already been 3 weeks, so that was probably to be expected.
I was relieved seeing he was okay. I almost cried. I heard from Felix and Lili, he was fine, but he didn’t come to see me once!
Feeling wronged, I was about to say something. But then, Felix stood in front of me and cut me off.
“Princess, you can’t do this now. First you should return to the Emerald Palace…”
Sheesh. I was trying to talk to my dad, so what was wrong with that?
“Dad, did you take Blackie?
I was upset at him, so I didn’t say it nicely. First, after we discuss Blackie, we have other things to talk about!
Felix flinched the moment I brought Blackie up. And my suspicions were confirmed.
Blackie’s kidnapper was Claude!
“Dad, don’t kill Blackie.”
He wouldn’t have already killed him, right?
“So….if you say we should quarantine him, that’s fine, but we can’t kill him.”
I continued making an argument for Blackie’s life. But he hadn’t spoken once. He wasn’t someone to kill Blackie without telling me…the Claude of the present respected me and loved me, but maybe this was too much.
“Dad, Blackie is…..”
His life was in danger because of Blackie. He had tried to save me after the magic explosion…after thinking up to there, I was speechless. I felt like someone punched me.
I tried to deny it, but Claude really had almost died because of me. Thinking of his bedridden body, I felt dizzy. Claude had been in a coma because of Blackie, but the first thing I said to him after not seeing him for a while was ‘Don’t kill Blackie!’
Of course, I had my reasons for saying that, but this wasn’t the method to say it. But maybe this wasn’t just for Claude to decide. There was a case in Obelia’s history when the princess’s cat scratched the emperor and the servants all clamored to kill the cat. And the cat was really killed by the Emperor. Furthermore, there were other ladies involved in this, so he might’ve thought he needed to kill the origin of the incident.
But I tried to convince him again. I needed to let him know about the transfer of magic power once Blackie was killed. And also, what if he got hurt again….
“Dad, I was wrong. I should’ve told you earlier, but the reason for the magic explosion wasn’t because Blackie is dangerous but….”
“Felix.”
But I didn’t get the chance to continue, because Claude spoke up.
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