But he wasn’t displeased. If Meiyana hadn’t tipped off Ariante, he would have gone straight to his room after dinner.

Meiyana brushed it off.

“Then, Your Highness, please have fun with your father. But, you must go to sleep by 10 o’clock, understood?”

Ariante suddenly clung to Meiyana’s hand.

“Where are you going? Don’t go! Stay and play with us.”

Meiyana briefly looked at Sedilroy. Funnily enough, their expressions mirrored each other at that moment.

Meiyana thought to herself, this is quite a handful. Even if Ariante is still a child, what’s Sedilroy’s excuse?

Calming Ariante’s hand, Meiyana spoke softly,

“You can play games like dice or dolls without me.”

“No! Not that. Um… something the three of us can enjoy. Ah! I want to play house. Marshal taught me that. It’s more fun with three people. Can’t we play house?”

“Play house? Well, for that, we would need…”

“I have it! My tea set! And I’ll bring other things!”

“No, wait a moment, Your Highness!”

Despite Meiyana’s desperate call, Ariante dashed off without looking back, heading for the playroom. Soon, the sound of her rummaging through things could be heard.

With her hands on her hips, Meiyana frowned and looked sternly at Sedilroy.

“My lord, are you really going to do this?”

Sedilroy looked back at her, puzzled.

“What have I done?”
“I want to drink quickly. Dad, you go first.”

After pushing the teacup toward Sedilroi, Meianna also pretended to pour tea into the cup in front of Ariante. Then, she silently tilted her own cup—annoyingly diligent in her participation—while leaning toward Sedilroi and whispered quickly.

“Say something.”

Startled, Sedilroi looked into his empty cup, then shifted his gaze to Ariante, who was sipping her tea, her eyes darting around.

“The tea is, um… delicious.”

A sigh escaped Meianna’s lips.

‘I’m going insane.’

At that moment, Ariante silently placed her teacup down and took out a soggy cookie from the cookie jar to place on the plate. Meianna immediately understood what the child was trying to do.

“Ariante, Mom will cook for you. What would you like to eat today?”

“Can I have cookies for dinner, Mom?”

Ariante grinned. However, her expression was somewhat ambiguous… Obviously, she would insist on having cookies or cake for dinner, arguing, ‘You said it was okay when we played house!’

Meianna spoke.

“Sure, that’s absolutely fine. But just for today, okay? Because today is special.”

For a moment, a triumphant look flashed across Ariante’s face. Normally, she would have playfully punched and said, ‘How cheap!’ But not today. Because Mom said so!

Meianna, wearing a satisfied smile, divided the cookie into three pieces. She placed one on Ariante’s plate, and the rest on Sedilroi’s and her own plate respectively.

“Alright, our delicious meal is ready. Ariante, go ahead and eat.”

“When Marshal said that during pretend play, Mom and Dad would lovingly feed each other. No, that’s what he said.”

Sedilroi, who had picked up the soggy cookie awkwardly, quickly glanced at Meianna.

Meianna had no choice but to sneak a glance at Sedilroi as well.

Ariante continued to speak.

“That’s what happy families do.”
Damn it. Meianna muttered curses under her breath. According to Ariante’s words, Marshal was also a well-behaved young child, teaching such upright and useless phrases.

“Hurry!”

Finally, Ariante, running out of patience, began to shake Meianna’s knee to hurry her up.

There was no choice at this point. Meianna looked at Sedilroy with a resolute expression, holding a piece of cookie in her hand. She thought he would be awkward like her, but surprisingly, he looked rather unfazed, which irked her.

“Um, uhm… Please, eat this. Your Grace.”

“No!”

Ariante stood up abruptly, as if completely forgetting her role as a ‘cute daughter,’ and appeared more like a finicky director. She was about to vehemently shout “cut,” as if to bring down fire and brimstone.

“It’s not ‘Your Grace!’ Meianna is mom now! Moms call dads ‘honey.'”

“…Your Highness, did you learn that from Marshal too?”

“No, I just knew it. Hurry! Do it right!”

Meianna, who almost crushed the cookie in her hand, looked at Sedilroy with a stiff expression again.

“Ha, ha… Please, have dinner. Hon… hon, honey.”

The piece of cookie held in her hand barely moved in the air. Finally, Sedilroy leaned in to pretend to take a bite.

For a moment, Meianna noticed that the tips of his ears turned red.

At the same time, she felt her pulse race surprisingly fiercely at the tip of her fingers where his lips briefly touched. It throbbed and reverberated as if a tiny heart was sprinting.

“Father needs to do it too.”

Sedilroy coughed.

“Me too?”

“You also have to feed it to mom.”
It was as if she was saying, “If you’ve done something wrong, you should reflect on it.” Sedilroy, subdued by the solemnity of his seven-year-old daughter, picked up a piece of cookie from his own plate. Then, just as Meianna had done moments before, he paused his hand at an awkward position and spoke.

“You too, ahem. Have, have some. Ho… hm, honey.”

“Haha, my goodness. You’re quite affectionate, too. …Honey.”

Sedilroy’s arm reached a little closer. Meianna, who bit the piece of cookie with her front teeth, hastily swallowed it, only to choke. While coughing as if her breath would get caught, she found it annoyingly unfair to see Sedilroy, his face flushed, turning his head away at an angle.