“Fleur, the Key of the Western Lands, has arrived at the call of the Light.”

The woman who entered with three children bowed her head respectfully. The greeting, filled with flowery language, felt quite peculiar as I hadn’t heard such formality in a long time. Moreover, seeing her elegant movements without any unnecessary gestures, I thought she was indeed a noble.

“Your Majesty, have you been well?”

The woman looked at Jeff and me with a smile on her lips. Thanks to this, I was able to examine her appearance.

Hair close to cream color and red eyes.

The woman seemed to be a descendant of the person who was in charge of supplies when I was the emperor in my previous life. It wasn’t difficult to deduce this, as it was rare to see red eyes in this empire.

“Welcome, Marchioness Fleur. You must have had a difficult journey.”

More than that, I was slightly surprised that Jeff addressed the woman as a marchioness.

This was because when I was emperor, that family was just a nominal noble family that produced many knights.

Of course, it’s been about 20 years since I abdicated to Jeff and died, and they say everything changes in 10 years, be it land or mountains, but still, it’s rare to overcome one’s innate fate in a class-based society.

That’s why I couldn’t help but admire the Fleur family for rising to the rank of marchioness in such a short time. Of course, I didn’t show this outwardly.

“Thanks to Your Majesty’s care, we were able to arrive smoothly.”

With a light greeting, Marchioness Fleur took a step back. This made the children who arrived with her more visible.

One child was being held in the arms of the maid who came along, and at a glance, seemed smaller than the children standing on either side of the marchioness. Unlike Marchioness Fleur, the child had snow-white silver hair, but the red eyes clearly showed that they were of Fleur lineage.

“They all look intelligent. Are these children under your care?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Jeff looked at each child in turn and then adjusted his hold on me. As if telling me to take a good look at those children. Though I was already observing them well enough without him doing this.

“Children, you should greet them, shouldn’t you?”

When Marchioness Fleur spoke in a gentle tone, the child in the maid’s arms flinched. Then, burying their face in the maid’s chest, they turned their gaze away. It seemed they were shy around strangers.

“Hello, Your Majesty!”

In contrast, the girl with twin tails greeted according to etiquette. Seeing her gently lifting the hem of her dress and bowing her head, it seemed she had received proper etiquette education.

‘So this is what a noble child is like?’

I thought, this young one is quite proper.

“My name is Ronowe Marsha Fleur!”

When the name of ‘Ronowe’, the demon of ancient knowledge, came out of the girl’s mouth, for a moment, I wondered if a demon had disguised itself.

However, the girl’s red eyes didn’t show the waves of sin I would have seen in demons. Rather, her eyes seemed very clear.

“Please take care of me!”

Ronowe nodded her head again and stood up straight. When our eyes met, she smiled broadly. She seemed far too benevolent to be a demon.

‘Well, it’s been so long since demons disappeared from the earth, how could there be a disguised one?’

Moreover, if that child were a demon, she would have twisted my neck as soon as she saw me.

That’s because I didn’t get along particularly well with demons, as a long time ago, God had broken their wings for tormenting me. There was also the fact that I was favored by God.

“I am Carlyle Facinelli Bergamot.”

While I was lost in thought for a moment, the boy next to the girl opened his mouth.

The boy, who looked 2-3 years older than the other two children at a glance, exuded a maturity unlike a child. His black hair and blue eyes with a hint of green were impressively calm.

I could tell from his name to his appearance that Carlyle didn’t resemble the Fleur family at all, and I wondered why the ducal Bergamot family was being educated by the Fleur family.

“Young master, you should greet them.”

After the two children finished their greetings, the maid spoke to the boy she was holding. However, the boy was still shy and only acted coy.

“Berith.”

At this, Marchioness Fleur put on a slightly stern expression. Her voice was still gentle, but for some reason, it reminded me of a high-flying eagle.

“The child seems to be shy around strangers, just leave him be.”

Jeff raised one hand to Marchioness Fleur as if to say it was alright.

“Thank you for your understanding, Your Majesty.”

“No, it’s only natural.”

Jeff glanced at me. My brow furrowed unconsciously, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“I entrust our princess to you from now on.”

What do you mean, entrust?

I tilted my head in confusion, not understanding what was going on. Soon after, I was transferred from Jeff’s arms to the maid’s.

* * *

A few minutes later, we arrived at the playroom that Jeff said he had made for me.

‘What am I doing now? I feel like I’ve become a nanny rather than a companion.’

And currently, I’m building blocks with the Fleur children. I’m not sure why I’m doing this, but Jeff insisted that I should get along well with them, so I’m doing it without complaint.

“Kyaa! Whoosh!”

Berith, who was shy during the greetings earlier, was now running around the playroom like crazy. I don’t know where he got it from, but there was a toy sword in his hand.

“You mean sister! Take my sword!”

“Berith! Where are you hitting!”

“I’m not hitting!”

It seems Berith quite likes the wooden toy sword.

‘What’s so fun about playing knight with such a trivial wooden sword?’

I stared blankly at the Fleur siblings playing and then looked at the clock on the wall.

‘Damn. Ugh, damn!’

Not even 10 minutes had passed since we came to the playroom.

It felt like I had been here for about 10 hours, but today the time seemed to be flowing sluggishly.

So I spent time building blocks, then breaking them down, and repeating. Occasionally Berith asked me to have a sword fight with him, but I ignored him.

“Princess, let’s make a pretty castle!”

At some point, Ronowe came to my side and started stacking blocks. It seemed like this was because blocks were strewn all over the place here.

Before long, Ronowe, who had been wandering around here and there, started to build something like a tower by picking up blocks. After a few minutes, the blocks Ronowe was stacking roughly took the shape of a building.

“Oh, Ronowe. You’re quite good, aren’t you?”

She had made it very well for a child, so I couldn’t help but clap a couple of times.

“Hehe. Thank you, Princess!”

Ronowe looked pleased after receiving the praise.

“Is it finished now?”

“No, Princess! Now we have to put on the roof!”

Ronowe’s eyes sparkled as she held a cone-shaped block.

‘Well, a castle needs a cone-shaped roof.’

I agreed with Ronowe’s opinion in my mind.

“Princess, if we put the roof on like this, whoosh!”

Ronowe put on a triumphant expression.

Crash!

The carefully built toy castle collapsed in an instant with a dull sound. Wondering what had happened, I turned my head to see Berith had knocked down the castle with his toy sword.

Judging by his surprised expression, it wasn’t intentional, but Ronowe was so upset that she burst into tears.

“Stop! Be good, okay?”

“Waaah! The castle! The castle collapsed! Princess! Waaah!”

Oh my, oh my. I put my hand on my forehead and then removed it. Then I picked up one of the dolls rolling around on the floor.

“There, there. Be good, okay? Play with this.”

“A, a doll?”

“That’s right, it’s a doll. You can have it.”

“Thank you, Princess.”

I handed over the doll and patted her back. Then Ronowe got up as if she had never cried and ran around the playroom with Berith.

‘Children will be children after all.’

Just giving her a doll made Ronowe and Berith play nicely together, which I found quite cute. Come to think of it, children don’t seem to hold grudges. You can see it just by how they fight and quickly make up to play again.

‘By the way, why is Carlyle so quiet?’

I looked around and found Carlyle standing in front of the window. He was staring intently out the window as if there was something outside.

‘Is it because he’s more mature than the other two?’

He seemed precocious. Also, I don’t know if it was because Ronowe and Berith were playing so boisterously, but looking at Carlyle made me feel peaceful.

‘I like that one.’

That kid, no matter how you look at him, he’s general material.

‘I might as well call him general material from now on.’

If that kid is taught well, he seems like he could become a loyal subject. As I thought about this for a moment, I saw overlapping parts between Jeff and Carlyle.

‘What made you become such a foolishly doting father?’

I withdrew my gaze from Carlyle and sat on the sofa. No matter how much I was born as a young child, playing with such young kids doesn’t suit my temperament. Rather than building blocks again, I preferred to rest like this.

Come to think of it, thanks to Berith and Ronowe playing by themselves, I had a moment to rest, though.

“Kyahaha! Kyaha!”

Of course, the rest didn’t last long. It was because the two troublemakers, Ronowe and Berith, were running around every corner of the playroom, screaming. Watching them narrowly avoid the blocks scattered on the floor while running wild was like watching an eccentric performance.

‘I’m definitely not doing this because I like you.’

If an accident happens and they get hurt, it’s my responsibility. So I cleaned up the blocks scattered on the floor one by one. If those young ones stepped on them and got hurt, it was obvious that I’d be caught up in troublesome matters.

‘Ugh, just thinking about it is awful. I hate it so much.’

If they get hurt, they’ll cry their eyes out for sure, and then I’ll have to listen to their crying until my ears go numb. Just imagining it gave me goosebumps.

“I found it first! It’s mine!”

“No! It’s mine!”

In a short while, Ronowe and Berith were arguing again. Wondering what they were fighting about, I looked and saw colored pencils and paper in the hands of the two children.

‘When did they pick up those things?’

Earlier it was a toy sword, and now they’re fighting over who gets to draw pictures.

“Both of you, stop it!”

I got irritated by their constant fighting and yelled. At this, Ronowe and Berith, who had been bickering among themselves, stopped their argument and stared at me.

“It’s your fault we got scolded!”

“Why is it my fault? It’s your fault!”

But that was only for a moment, as the two glared at each other and growled.

‘At this rate, they’ll be fighting, crying, making up, and laughing all day long.’

I shook my head.

“Both of you, give them to me.”

With no other choice, I took the colored pencils and paper from the Fleur siblings. I thought if I took them away from both of them equally, they wouldn’t fight anymore.

“Uuu…”

But when I took the colored pencils and paper, Berith started to whimper and Ronowe’s nose turned red as she was about to cry.

“Ah, kids! Wa-wait! I mean… I’ll tell you an interesting story!”

I hurriedly opened my mouth, worried that they might burst into loud wails.

“Really?”

Then Berith, who was about to cry, looked at me with round eyes. Ronowe also wiped her nose with the back of her hand and looked up at me.

‘This is bad.’

I said I’d tell them an interesting story, but I couldn’t think of any story off the top of my head. I thought about asking for help from Carlyle, the general material, but he too, being a child, seemed to be expecting my story.

‘What should I do?’

I fell into thought, wondering what interesting stories I knew.

‘Ah, that’s right!’

Then suddenly, the time when I was a monarch came to mind. Since my own story is the most thrilling and interesting to me, I was certain it would be the same for those kids.

“Kids, listen well.”

I called the three children to sit in front of me and took out the colored pencils. Perhaps because of my young body, gripping the colored pencils wasn’t as easy as I’d like, but there was no difficulty in drawing.

“Once upon a time, there was a person…”

I started explaining while drawing pictures on the paper one by one. When it came time to draw my face, I put all my effort into it, but frustratingly, what I drew wasn’t a beauty but something that looked like a tangled mess of threads.

“Puhaha! It’s grass, grass!”

Seeing Berith holding his stomach and laughing out loud, I once again realized that I had no talent for drawing.

‘How annoying.’

Still, I felt bad, so I glared at Berith who kept laughing, and after his laughter stopped, I told the three children my past story very slowly.

From the moment I first set foot on earth to the process of being punished by God and exiled, I told them everything without missing a single detail.

Actually, I didn’t intend to tell the whole story from the beginning. I just told them in case these children might know the answer. The innocence of children is close to the flawlessness of God, so I had a vague expectation that one of the three might guess the answer correctly.

“That’s how God left. What do you think was the answer to the question God posed?”

After drawing the last picture, I showed it to Ronowe, Berith, and Carlyle.

“Raise your hand if you know!”

“Umm…”

The children stared at the picture I drew and tilted their heads. Having had expectations earlier, I felt deflated when I didn’t get the desired response.

“I know!”

Just as I was about to give up.

‘Finally, I’ll be free from the shackles of eternal life!’

Ronowe raised her hand high and came towards me. At her words saying she knew the answer, I couldn’t help but hold my breath and feel my heart swell with excitement.

“What is it? Tell me quickly!”

I blinked my eyes, full of great expectations.

“Cake!”

But Ronowe, who said she knew the answer, suddenly blurted out nonsense. I wondered what this irrelevant comment was about, when I saw the maid entering with a tray of strawberry cake.

“Please have some snacks.”

Of course.

‘I’m a fool for expecting an answer.’

I put away the colored pencils and neatly folded the paper in half. I decided never to ask those kids again.

“Princess.”

Just as I was sighing softly, immersed in disappointment, Carlyle, who had approached without me noticing, called out to me.

“Would you like to go have some cake?”

Is it because this young one is so considerate of others? I thought it would be better to use this kid as my guard in the future.

You know that saying, right? A good tree can be recognized from its seed.

This kid was exactly like that, exactly!

“Sure.”

As expected, he’s general material. I just gave a slight smile without revealing my inner thoughts.

Several hours later. I was finally able to escape from Ronowe and Berith, the two little demons. They seemed to have arrived at the imperial palace early in the morning, but they didn’t leave until sunset.

‘At this rate, I’ll grow old and die again before finding the answer.’

Perhaps it was because I had dealt with young children all day. My whole body felt stiff as if I had caught a cold.

‘I don’t understand in what aspect Jeff thought those children could be companions.’

Indeed, Ronowe and Berith, whom I met today, were too young to even be companions. Rather, I felt like my brain was freezing because of them.

“Oh my, why is our princess so lifeless?”

It’s because I’m exhausted from playing nanny to those kids, why else?

I pouted my lips, and the maid soon brought an unfamiliar rattle and shook it. Was it because my energy was completely drained? With each shake of the rattle, I had the illusion that someone was whispering ‘Jingle! Jangle!’ in my ear.

‘Ah, even that rattle is making me dizzy.’

Finally, unable to bear it anymore, I snatched the rattle from the maid’s hand.

“You should have asked for it if you wanted it so much. Did you like it that much?”

That’s not it! I turned away with the rattle in hand, too tired to even respond.

‘It would be faster to find the answer alone. From tomorrow, let’s try meditating quietly.’

I pretended to be asleep, closing my eyes, and soon drifted off to sleep.

‘Companions or whatever, it’s all so troublesome…’

I hope I never see them again. I fervently wished as I departed for the world of unconsciousness.

And the next day.

“Princess!”

“We came again today!”

I froze on the spot when I saw the children rushing in.