“You……. You’re so cute!! How come! You’re the wellbehaved girl I’ve been dreaming of!”

“…….”

Contrary to Lucia’s expectations, it was Marien who was making a fuss with sparkling eyes and tightly clasped hands.

“Cesar is so wellbehaved that I wanted a lively child if I were to have a daughter next time. But you know? There’s a girl among the child’s playmates, and well, she’s no ordinary child? If that child comes to the house, we have to check all the items again. Something is always broken. Ohoho……!”

Could the feeling that that girl was Ivonne just be a feeling?

Marien continued to rattle on about the children as if she had boarded an unstoppable train.

Just before her ears were about to burst, luckily, she escaped Marien’s helllike chatter thanks to Cesar’s urging and looked at Nia, who was stretching her arms with full tension in the fitting room, and Lucia thought.

‘……She might adapt quite easily.’

The time listening to the stormlike chatter was painful, but thanks to it, the adults’ gaze at the child seemed more relaxed than she thought, and Lucia was relieved.

“Well, she’s wellbehaved, so it ended quickly.”

“Ho ho, that’s true. Now, where shall we give her a prize?”

“Come on, pick one, young lady. Two is fine too.”

The middleaged women did not stop their kind smiles at the shy child’s appearance while measuring her size, and one of them offered a basket filled with luxury candies.

But the child seemed to hesitate and think for a long time.

And then she shook her head.

‘Again…….’
A child refusing candy.

Whenever candy was offered as a snack at the lodging, the child had always smiled brightly.

Knowing that, Lucia thought that the child’s habit of not talking about what she liked had shown itself again.

The middleaged tailor, upon the child’s refusal, spoke with a disappointed face.

“This child is quite mature. Well then…….”

As she turned to put the basket away, she suddenly felt a slight tug at her hem and looked back.

Then,

“……Co, cookie.”

The child’s timid mumbling spread through the tailoring room.

“What? What…….”

When asked, the child with a desperately pleading face.

“The cookie earlier……! Have to give to Lucia. Little Lucia has never seen such a thing before. Never eaten it even once. So just one, just one. Please! I beg you……!”

The child began to plead with someone for the first time in her life, with a desperately pleading face.

The changed eyes of the tailors turned to the shocked Lucia at the child’s pitiful request.

“Young mothers these days! They talk about dietary habits, but is it really for the child if they can’t give even one coo. kie. they love?”

“That’s what I’m saying. I don’t believe in that! Not being able to feed a coo. kie. to the child, but sending them to just one kindergarten is considered excellent education.”

“Right. Begging to give such a common coo. kie. to a younger sibling, I can’t believe it? My heart hurts so~ much. Doesn’t it?”

It was like the backtalk that poured out after witnessing child abuse.

Lucia broke into a cold sweat for the first time in a long while.

Was being careful with words in front of the child for this very reason?

Nia, who shyly handed the pile of cookies, accepted with a pure and innocent smile, to Lucia.

Receiving it, Lucia had no choice but to face the terrifying eyes of the tailors who looked at the cold and emotionless mother headon.

Perhaps because she saw the sparkling eyes hoping for praise for the precious gift brought for the first time for her mother, it was impossible to clarify the misunderstanding.

Yes, as long as you are happy, I am content…….