“This is a game prepared by Her Majesty the Empress.”

When the children came running, the maid bowed her knees, and I stepped aside. I didn’t particularly want to be in the middle, and I wanted to avoid Ronowe after she had just buried her head in my chin.

“What is it?”

“I want to see too!”

They usually just stacked blocks, did puzzles, and played with dolls in the playroom, so how excited must they be? The Fleur siblings showed tremendous interest in the appearance of a new game. They reached out their hands, trying to grab the map.

“I’ll show you now, please wait a moment.”

The maid who calmed down the rascals with a gentle smile called another maid and unrolled the scroll together.

“It’s called a treasure hunt!”

The maid who shouted loudly, more excited than anyone else, proudly spread out the treasure map.

With X marks scattered throughout maze-like areas and a large tree picture in the center, it seemed like it would sufficiently stimulate the children’s sense of adventure.

“So we’re looking for treasure?”

“Shiny things?”

And as expected, the Fleur siblings did not deviate from expectations. Anticipation and excitement overflowed from two pairs of red eyes, and their tightly clenched hands said they wanted to start the treasure hunt right away.

“Yes, of course.”

The maids answered with a smile at their innocent appearance.

“I’m going to find a huge chocolate cookie!”

“I’ll find an even bigger one!”

The children who started jumping up and down soon circled around Sasha, spinning round and round.

“I’m so excited!”

“With smart elder brother here, we’ll find it in no time!”

Sasha responded positively with a smile, perhaps because he was praised, or because his companions were younger than him.

“Treasure! Treasure!”

“Let’s go quickly, Your Highness!”

“Now~ You must receive the fairy’s blessing before you go.”

Why are they making such a fuss? They’ll start soon if they just wait a little. I shook my head inwardly as I watched the children go ahead.

‘Kids these days…’

Clicking my tongue inwardly, I unfolded the treasure map that had been passed to me.

Then Carlyle, who was standing nearby, approached.

“Princess…”

It was the moment Carlyle was about to speak to me.

“A treasure hunt. Aren’t you excited already?”

Sasha, who had been a little distance away, suddenly interrupted and spoke to me. Because of that, I ended up looking at Sasha when I was about to turn to Carlyle.

“Not really.”

By the way, what’s there to expect from such a childish game? I answered Sasha, who was smiling broadly, in a blunt manner.

“Come this way~ This is where the treasure is hidden.”

Soon after, we followed the maid. The two maids, with Ronowe and Berith by their side who had followed them first, looked at me, Sasha, and Carlyle as they explained.

Poppy obediently followed on its own, and the maze looked familiar as I had been here once in my previous life.

“You can see the red marks on the map, right?”

I nodded as I looked at the map in response to the maid’s explanation.

“There are very special gifts in those places.”

Of course, since it’s a treasure hunt. I waited for the next words.

“Among them, the treasure in the center is the most precious! It’s the only one of its kind in the world!”

“Moreover, we’ll give delicious candy to the person who reaches the center first.”

Just giving candy? I thought the reward was trivial.

“If you happen to get lost in the maze, you can call us loudly.”

“Then, please start one by one!”

Thinking it was fortunate that I wasn’t going with the kids, I gripped Poppy’s head with the hand not holding the map.

I judged it would be better for me to run while holding the creature for quick movement. Every time I ran, Poppy opened its mouth wide with a terrified face, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

So I wandered around the corners of the maze, looking around.

“Your Highness, did you find it?”

While catching my breath standing still, Berith called out to me loudly from afar.

“No.”

“Let’s have a race to see who finds it first!”

“I don’t want to.”

Always unnecessarily energetic. I answered indifferently.

“Start!”

Regardless, Ronowe ignored what I said and loudly declared the start of the competition.

“Let’s go together~”

“My hair got caught!”

Noisy brats. I broke out in a cold sweat knowing that Ronowe and Berith were sticking together.

‘It would have been chaotic if I went with them.’

Because it’s already dizzying with just one of them attached, it would be tiring if both siblings went together. I waited until the children’s presence faded away before looking at the map again.

‘By the way, this maze is quite different from before.’

The structure seemed to have changed in some places from before, so relying too much on old memories might lead to getting lost.

However, making such thoughts meaningless, as I got closer to the treasure’s location, there were maids hiding behind bushes holding signposts with arrows blatantly pointing the direction.

I wonder why they’re going to such lengths. Feeling embarrassed, I pretended not to notice and passed by the bush where the maid was hiding.

“That Hecate…”

And near the treasure’s location, I sat down for a moment to rest as my stamina hit rock bottom. Poppy, also quite tired, sprawled out on my lap.

“Seeing how much effort she put into preparing this, she must have really wanted to do it herself while planning it.”

Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I thought about it and realized Hecate was truly remarkable. I simply thought it was just a prepared game, not knowing she had put in this much effort.

After that, how much time had passed?

Just as I was about to get up to move again, I spotted a red flag that caught my eye.

The flag planted on a small mound of dirt in the shade of a huge tree was blatantly saying that the treasure was here.

“You dig quickly too.”

“Quack!”

I was already certain we were nearby, but I didn’t expect to find it so quickly. I hurriedly ran over and even mobilized Poppy to dig up the dirt.

“Quaaack~”

Upon discovering a small treasure chest, Poppy’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.

I carefully moved the box onto a clean patch of grass before opening it, and inside was something I never expected.

“What is this?”

It was a crudely finished, shabby stuffed doll.

“They said it was a special gift, but it’s quite shoddy.”

I held the stuffed doll in one hand and turned it around. Perhaps because the maids had built up such high expectations by saying it was special, my first impression was not great.

“It’s uglier than you.”

Poppy, who had been tense for some reason because it was also a doll, relaxed and smiled brightly when I patted its head, meaning “good job,” after I blurted out those words.

‘But…’

As I examined the stuffed doll closely again, I thought it seemed strangely familiar.

‘I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before.’

Letting Poppy roam around on its own, I held the doll with both hands and racked my brain.

‘Hmm…’

After a few minutes passed like that, a memory from my previous life suddenly came to mind.

‘Come to think of it, it resembles the doll I bought for Hecate in the past.’

I can’t believe it only occurred to me now. I couldn’t take my eyes off the stuffed doll as I muttered.

“That kid who couldn’t sleep without a doll has grown up so much…”

Soon after, an unfamiliar stinging emotion began to painfully tug at my heart.

“What was that just now?”

It was an unfamiliar emotion.

Poppy, seeing me at a loss, tilted its head and looked at me with a face that seemed to ask, “Why are you acting like that?”

“Ugh.”

As another wave of that stinging emotion hit me, I unconsciously clutched at my clothes near my heart.

Paaah-.

At that moment, a kaleidoscopic light descended from the sky, coloring the tree and surrounding ground in a blue hue. Soon, amidst the sparkling view, the silhouette of a god appeared, cutting through the air.

As the god’s silhouette approached, a pink ripple occurred, coloring my location even more brilliantly. It felt as if I had been pulled into a dreamlike place.

[You have finally found one of the answers to the question I posed.]

Not understanding why it had appeared, I remained still as the god’s silhouette spoke.

Soon tears welled up involuntarily, and the god’s silhouette reached out and gently patted my head.

[Well done.]

Is this praise, or is it comforting me who had been wandering for hundreds of years looking for the answer? I slightly bowed my head and tried to find the answer.

Meanwhile, my eyelids lowered, and something rolled down my chubby cheeks. The sensation of droplets falling and touching my skin was clear, so I opened my eyes in surprise.

Then more tears formed beads and flowed down.

I looked down in a confused state.

Looking at the tears pooled in my palm, my mind became more tangled rather than clearing up.

“What is this? Tears?”

And at that moment, something inside me crumbled.

For some reason, I was reminded of the people who had guarded me and then left. Years worth of tears kept surging and flowing out, and eventually, I wiped my eyes with one hand while gripping the stuffed doll Hecate had made so tightly it might crumple.

As more time passed, I felt the emptiness along with the vacant places of those who had left me for the first time.

‘Why do the tears keep coming?’

I was bewildered by the tears that showed no signs of stopping. I thought it would get better if I calmed down a little, but there was no dam to stop the flood that started after the emotional levee broke.

[Do not grieve. I am always by your side.]

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

However, I pretended not to see the god’s silhouette because of Ronowe, Berith, and Sasha who approached from behind asking what I was doing. They cannot see beings close to gods, so it would look like I was talking to thin air.

“Your Highness?”

Because I was swept up in the storm of emotions and didn’t have time to compose myself, the children who came close examined me with worried faces.

And in the meantime, the god’s silhouette quietly disappeared.

“Your Highness is crying! Don’t cry!”

“Huh?”

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

“Don’t cry~”

Then, as if empathizing with my feelings, they started crying, so I hurriedly stood up from the ground.

“No, I wasn’t crying!”

Please don’t cry, you brats. I shouted inwardly.

“Did you find the treasure?”

Thinking I needed to divert their attention, I asked while still wiping away the flowing tears with the palm of my hand.

“Yes, here it is!”

The children, who had stopped crying abruptly, held out a pile of dirt with tree branches and a wriggling earthworm.

“Do you want to take it, Your Highness?”

“Ah, no. Quickly put it back in the grass.”

Why would I take something like that? I felt the lingering emotions from earlier completely vanish. That’s how much I didn’t want to see the wriggling earthworm, let alone take it back to my room.

“I arrived at the center first, so everyone go back now.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

I ordered the children to return.

“Princess.”

Then Carlyle approached, hesitating. I turned around and watched as Carlyle handed something to me.

“This is the treasure I found.”

A toy with a wooden horse head attached to a small wooden stick. I waited, wondering what he was going to say with that.

“May I give it to you, Princess?”

“To, to me?”

It’s better than that earthworm from earlier, but I wondered why he was doing this.

“I thought you liked horses.”

However, I felt ashamed at the answer I received.

The moment when I rode vigorously thinking of Tomi, flew backwards, hit my head, and Jeff made a fuss came to mind.

“…Alright, thank you. You should go back too.”

For now, thinking I should send this guy away quickly as well, I hastily accepted the toy.

“Yes, I’ll take my leave first.”

Meanwhile, Carlyle, having achieved his goal, bowed and left.

I watched for a moment as the Fleur family children left the maze with their maids.

“Phew…”

It was the moment I sighed in relief, thinking no one else was around.

“…”

“Aren’t you leaving?”

I wonder why he’s staring without saying anything. I gazed blankly at Sasha.

“That doll. It seems Her Majesty the Empress made it herself. It’s crude, but a lot of care went into it.”

“Is that so?”

I thought it was rude of him to stare, but I responded casually for now.

“It feels like it was prepared solely for Your Highness.”

But this guy, the way he’s talking is somewhat strange.

‘What’s with him?’

I felt awkward and wondered why he wasn’t leaving when told to.

“So…”

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

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