Wiping the sweat from my brow, I thought that Hecate had really done a great job. I hadn’t expected that they would put in this much effort for what seemed like a simple prepared game.

How much time had passed since then?

Just as I was about to get up and move again, I spotted a red flag that captured my vision.

The flag, stuck on a small pile of soil under the shade of a giant tree, was blatantly saying that the treasure was here.

“You dig quickly too.”

“Quack!”

I was already confident that I was close, but to find it so directly! I hurriedly ran and enlisted Boppi’s help to dig the soil.

“Kwaaack~.”

Upon finding a small treasure chest, Boppi’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.

I carefully moved the chest onto a clean grassy spot and opened it, and inside was something I had never expected.

“What is this?”

It was a poorly finished, shoddy stuffed doll.

“A special gift, yet so crude.”

I held the stuffed doll in one hand and turned it this way and that. Perhaps my expectations were too high since the maids made it sound so special, but my first impression was not good.

“It’s uglier than you.”

Boppi, who had been tense about the doll being the same, relaxed at my blunt remark, and when I petted its head as if to say ‘good job,’ it grinned.

‘But…….’

As I looked at the stuffed doll again, I had the strange feeling that it looked familiar.

‘Where have I seen this before?’

I let Boppi roam freely and held the doll in both hands, racking my brain.

‘Hmm…….’

A few minutes passed, and suddenly a memory from my previous life surfaced.

‘Come to think of it, it looks like the doll I gave to Hecate before.’

Only now did I realize it. I couldn’t take my eyes off the stuffed doll and mumbled to myself.

“The one who couldn’t sleep without a doll has grown so much…….”

Soon, a numb feeling I had never felt before began to hurt my heart.

“What was that just now?”

It was an unfamiliar emotion.

Boppi, seeing my confusion, tilted its head and looked at me, wondering what was going on.

“Ugh.”

I grabbed the collar near my heart as the numb feeling came again.

Fwah[Dash].

At that moment, a brilliant light came down from the sky, dyeing the trees and the ground around with a blue light. Soon, a glittering silhouette of a deity appeared in my view, cutting through the air.

As the deity’s silhouette approached, a pink wave arose, coloring the place where I was, making it feel like I was being drawn into a dreamlike place.

Not knowing why it had appeared, I stood still, and the deity’s silhouette spoke.

Soon, tears welled up on their own, and the deity’s silhouette reached out and gently patted my head.

Was it praise? Or was it a consolation for me, who had been searching for answers for hundreds of years? I bowed my head slightly, trying to find the answer.
Meanwhile, my eyelids lowered, and something rolled down along my plump cheeks. The sensation of water droplets falling and touching my skin was so clear that I opened my eyes in surprise.

Then, more tears dripped and streamed down.

I looked down in confusion.

Looking at the tears pooled on my palm, my mind didn’t clear but rather twisted more and more.

“What is this? Tears?”

And at that moment, something inside me crumbled.

For some reason, I thought of the people who had left me while protecting me by my side. Tears from years flowed incessantly and poured outside, and finally, I grabbed the stitched doll made by Hecate with so much force that it could crumple.

As time passed, I felt the emptiness and the absence of those who had left me for the first time.

‘Why do I keep crying?’

I was taken aback by the ceaseless tears. I thought it would get better if I calmed down a bit, but there was no dam to stop the flood that started after the emotional barrier had broken.

What is by my side? I wanted to ask the moment I heard the voice.

But because of Ronowe, Veris, and Sasha, who came up behind me and asked what I was doing, I pretended not to see the silhouette of the deity. They can’t see a being close to God, so it would seem like I’m talking to thin air.

“Your Highness?”

Swept away by an emotional storm and without time to compose my face, the children who came close looked at me with worried expressions.

And the silhouette of the deity quietly disappeared in the meantime.

“Your Highness, don’t cry! Don’t cry!”

“What?”

Why are you making a fuss again? Ronowe and Veris looked at me for a while and then began to whimper.

“Don’t cry~.”

They started to cry, seemingly in sympathy with my heart, so I hurriedly got up from the ground.

“No, I didn’t cry!”

Please don’t cry, you guys. I shouted in my heart.

“Did you find the treasure?”

Distracted by my thoughts, I wiped my stillflowing tears with my palm and asked.

“Yes, here it is!”

Then, the children, who had stopped crying, handed me a pile of dirt with a wriggling worm and a twig.

“Will you take it, Your Highness?”

“No, no. Put it back in the bushes quickly.”

Why would I take something like that? I felt the lingering emotions of just a moment ago vanish completely. I did not want to see the wriggling worm even in my room.

“I made it to the center first, so let’s all go back now.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

I ordered the children to return home.

“Your Highness.”

Then, Carlyle hesitated and approached. I turned and watched as Carlyle handed me something.

“It’s the treasure I found.”

A toy with a wooden horse’s head on a small stick. I waited, wondering what he wanted to say with it.

“May I give it to you, Your Highness?”

“Me, to me?”

It was better than that worm earlier, but I wondered why he did that.

“You seemed to like wooden horses.”

One, I felt a sense of shame at the response that came back.

I remembered the moment when I rode hard on Tommy, thinking of it, flew back, hit my head, and Jeff was chattering.

“……Thank you, go back soon.”

I quickly took the toy, thinking I had to send this guy away as well.

“Yes, I’ll leave first.”

Meanwhile, Carlyle, who had achieved his goal, greeted and left.

I watched the children of the Fleur family, who were leaving the maze with their maids, for a moment.

“Whew…….”

I sighed with relief at the thought that no one was around.

“…….”

“Aren’t you going?”

I looked at Sasha, puzzled by why he was staring at me so intently.

“That doll. It must have been made by Her Majesty the Empress herself. It’s crude, but a very sincere item.”

“Yeah?”

I thought it was rude to stare at me, but I answered him casually.

“It feels like it was prepared only for Your Majesty.”

But this guy, his words seemed a bit off.

‘What’s with him?’
He felt awkward and didn’t listen to what he was told, wondering why it was like this.

“So…….”

Has he gone mad? Sasha’s expression instantly turned cold.

“How does it feel to have what you wanted most?”