Running into the maid, Rosa, who happened to be passing by the door, I reflexively brushed off the crumbs from the snack that had stuck to my skirt.
“Jus’…feel’ng stuffy, going to the garden.”
“The garden? I’ll go with you.”
Hmm, to find the next subject right away like this.
As I made a meaningful smile and was about to invoke Control, Rosa cocked her head and asked a question.
“Miss Bella, did you eat some sweets? There seems to be some crumbs around your mouth…”
“Not at all! I didn’t eat anything!!”
I answered loudly, feeling a little pricked by my conscience, and Rosa looked at me as if she was about to die of cuteness.
“……Don’t tell Sionne. Okay?”
“Hee hee, don’t worry, I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything, Miss Bella.”
I let out a sigh of relief and took her hand, waddling to the garden.
When we arrived at the secluded spot and I was about to try Control, Rosa told me some surprising news.
“Miss Bella, do you know that Sionne’s birthday is coming soon? We’re planning to have a modest tea party for her.”
“Sionne’s birthday? When is that?”
“In two days. It coincides perfectly with Sionne’s return, so it should be ideal.”
Recently, Sionne had often been away to meet her mentor.
The main goal was to find a solution to my power depletion, but the frequency of her coming and going was increasing as there seemed to be little progress.
“We’ve decided to knit scarves as gifts. The Snow Mountain where the master is said to be is quite cold.”
“Eh… Just the three of you?”
“Yes! Actually, I have it here. Would you like to take a look?”
The long bundle of yarn that Rosa shyly extended boasted a level of despair at first glance.
Should it be called a rag rather than a scarf?
“It’s my first time knitting! Sionne has to like it.”
“……She might like it. Probably.”
“Really?! You think so?!”
I hummed a tune, looking at Rosa proudly displaying the clumsily knitted scarf, and felt a strange sense of satisfaction.
Even such a clumsy gift, with that much sincerity, wouldn’t it get through?
“……I also want to give something to Sionne.”
“Hey, Miss Bella, your existence itself is a gift. Just attending will surely make her very happy.”
Surely Sionne would feel that way.
But seeing those people without any hand skills trying so hard to convey their feelings made me feel a surge of motivation from deep within my heart.
“이건 뭐다, 어린이가?”
아직 막 태어났을 때, 그녀는 종종 꽃의 요정과 함께 동화책을 읽어 주었다.
그 요정의 이름은 Dahlia. 실제로 존재하는 꽃의 정령이었다.
Sione은 나중에 폐쇄령이 풀리면 나에게 보라색 달리아가 흐드러지게 핀 아름다운 호수를 보여주고 싶다며 들뜬 목소리로 말해 주곤 했다.
“That flower would make an appropriate gift.”
In fact, it wasn’t that I didn’t have money. If I sold the dazzling jewels that I received from Luca, I could easily buy a few mansions in the capital.
But that’s not what was important.
I too wanted to gift her something simple yet memorable, filled with sincerity, like they did.
“Perhaps Sione might come back earlier than expected. I have to move quickly.”
From then on, the preparation went smoothly.
I happened to be outside with my guardian, Rosa, and there was no one around.
I quickly gathered the necessary items for a short outing after casting a control spell on Rosa.
“Wait here. I’ll be back soon.”
“As you command, Lady Bella.”
“Hurry. I’ll be back soon.”
Inside the cutesized bag that Rosa had prepared were a map, a magic stone, and Sione’s specially packaged cookies.
The cookies were like standby medicine to replenish insufficient magic, to be carried around in case of an unexpected acute magic depletion situation.
“Yum yum.”
I unwrapped and stuffed a cookie into my mouth, and energy surged through my body.
I calmly took deep breaths and then cast an invisibility spell on myself.
The distance was close enough to be covered by a child’s walk in 30 minutes, but it was to avoid any unpleasant encounters with the possible sentries.
“Ready. All set.”
I’m excited.
Finally, it’s a deviation!
Using magic to climb over walls and fences, and occasionally spreading the map, I managed to reach the lake’s vicinity in just over ten minutes.
It felt ridiculously easy considering I had been locked up for nearly a year.
“I should have come out and wandered around earlier.”
Although I had no choice but to obey my father, the leader of the clan, I couldn’t comprehend why overcoming just one wall was so difficult and strenuous.
With a strange mixture of joy and excitement, along with a hint of bitterness at freely exploring the royal palace covered in entirely new scenery, I aimlessly wandered the paths.
And shortly afterward, I finally found the lake I was looking for.
“Wow…….”
The vast blue sky, and beneath it, the swaying waves of light.
And the endless colorful feast of flowers.
Despite being a lake, the massive body of water, moving like waves depending on the wind, would not seem out of place being called a small sea.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
I inhaled the sweet, fragrant scent of the flowers that filled the air and became deeply absorbed in the beautiful landscape.
“I think I know why Sione wanted to bring me here.”
Didn’t she say that when you find something good, you want to share it with someone precious?
Feeling an emotion I had only known through text for the first time, a part of my heart tingled.
“Oops, I have to find the flower.”
Although it was close, everyone would think it odd if I left my spot unattended for too long.
As I scampered around the lakeside with my short legs, diligently searching, a purple flower identical to the one from the picture book caught my eye.
“Found it!! This is it!”
Fortunately, the striking flower didn’t take long to find, but the next problem was what followed.
It was too far for a threeyearold child like me to pick.
“Ugh…….”
Struggling and making great efforts to finally grasp the stem of the flower, at that moment,
A soft voice from behind me, clearly audible, suddenly jumped out.
“What are you doing here, little one?”
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
