Eustar smiled with a mixture of embarrassment and affection, gently wrapping his arm around Laila’s shoulder. He enjoyed the sensation of her head naturally leaning against him. It felt like he could fall into a long sleep forever, holding Laila in his arms.

“I understand your concern for Himierd better than anyone, Laila. But if you worry so much that it harms your health, I don’t think Himierd would be very happy about that.”

“Everyone treats me like some kind of paper doll.”

Eustar laughed softly. It was a wonderful laugh. He kissed Laila’s pouting temple and said,

“The Foreign Ministry and ministers are constantly monitoring and supporting Himierd’s safety and life. They say she’s doing well. Judging by the brief reports, things are smooth with no issues.”

Laila, who had been lost in thought, finally nodded. Even so, she probably wouldn’t immediately stop her habit of sending things to Himierd, but at least today she seemed likely to avoid getting scolded for sneaking in some sewing behind Mel’s back.

Eustar continued,

“And tomorrow, we agreed to go out early together. I’d like it if you didn’t think about anything else and just got excited thinking about that.”

“Is that being spoiled?”

“You could say that.”

A hissing sound escaped from between Laila’s lips.

The two had agreed to go to the flower market that opens early tomorrow morning. It’s a place that opens every three days near the capital square, and Laila, who had always said she wanted to see it, had for the first time said, “Let’s go.”

Laila closed her eyes, leaning comfortably against Eustar, and said,

“I’m looking forward to that.”

Just as Eustar smiled and tilted his head to kiss her, there was a small knock from outside. The door opened slightly, and a small, adorable little girl peeked her head through the gap.

“Alline!”

As Laila sat up straight, Eustar beamed and spread his arms wide. The child, with her short hair twisted into a round shape on top and adorned with a pearl hairpin, tottered into the room and cutely curtsied slightly.

“Our daughter, where’s your nanny?”

Eustar said as he picked Alline up high and sat her on his shoulders. Alline pursed her small lips like a baby bird’s beak, pondered for a moment, then grabbed her father’s head with her palm and said,

“The nanny is outside, Father.”

“Is that so? Why didn’t she come in with you?”

“I told her to wait.”

“You did that, Alline?”

Alline nodded.

Alline, the first daughter born between Laila and Eustar, was a princess of Sierow with jet-black hair that sparkled like the night sea and vivid lime-green eyes. Needless to say, she was the apple of Eustar and Laila’s eyes, and even the noble officials would be completely smitten by her cuteness whenever they met Alline, their mouths gaping open.

When they realized that Alline had inherited black hair, Laila was very worried, but Alline did not possess the abilities of a witch. She was just a child with very good intuition. Though she didn’t talk much, she would sometimes casually say things that made one wonder if there wasn’t a grown adult inside her.

Sitting on her father’s shoulders, Alline fiddled with his hair and then reached out towards Laila. As Laila extended her arms to receive the child, Eustar himself lifted Alline down and safely seated her on Laila’s lap.

“What did you do today, Alline?”

When Eustar asked, Alline, who had been wiggling her little fingers as if counting something, tilted her head.

“I observed.”

“Did you? What?”

“Ants.”

Then she pressed her small lips tightly together again and moved her fingers, before suddenly looking at Eustar, and then turning to look at Laila.

“I saw ants carrying away a dead cicada. When I asked why they were taking it, the nanny said they were taking it to bury it.”

Eustar and Laila’s eyes met briefly in the air. The story the nanny had made up was quite plausible, making them smile. She must have thought it was too much to explain to a child not yet six years old that they were taking it away to use as food.

At that moment, Alline swung her short legs back and forth and looked up at Laila again.

“But that’s a lie, isn’t it?”

Laila opened her eyes wide and stroked the child’s small head.

“A lie? Do you think the nanny’s words were a lie? Alline.”

Alline nodded her little head. Eustar once again exchanged glances with Laila, then sat down beside her and gently held his daughter’s hand.

“Why do you think the nanny lied, Alline?”

Alline shrugged her tiny shoulders without even thinking and said immediately,

“Just because. It felt like that. Like when… her voice changed. People’s voices change when they lie.”

This is how it was. Laila looked at Alline with a worried expression once again and stroked the back of the child’s head, which was rounded in a pretty shape.

There was no special basis for Alline’s ‘intuition’. She hadn’t had any shocking experiences—well, she hadn’t even passed her fifth birthday yet—and no one had secretly bullied or mistreated the child.

But Alline always, accurately, picked out people who were lying or harboring malicious thoughts. Sometimes she even precisely identified people who hadn’t lied yet but were about to deceive someone. According to Alline, such people had ‘voices that changed’ and ‘smells that changed too’, but it was a strange sense that neither Eustar nor Laila could understand exactly.

Eustar fondly fiddled with his daughter’s tiny fingers and said,

“Alline, actually, what the nanny said wasn’t a lie.”

Alline looked at Eustar with an expression of doubt beyond her years. On the other hand, she also seemed to think that it must be true since her father was saying it.

“…It’s not?”

“That’s right. Did Father’s voice change too? You can tell when Father lies, can’t you?”

Alline tilted her head pensively. Alline had caught Eustar in a lie only once. Last year, when he said there were only five presents for Alline’s birthday—when there were actually seventeen.

“…I’m not sure about Father.”

“That’s because Father never lies to our daughter.”

“So do they really bury them? The ants?”

“Yes, they do.”

Eustar nodded and glanced at Laila. She had an amused expression. She was quietly smiling as if curious to hear what he would say next.

“Ants work hard sweating in the summer, don’t they? When cicadas sing for them then, it gives them strength to work well. So ants are always grateful to cicadas.”

“But cicadas die quickly. While ants live for a long time.”

“That’s right. Our daughter knows everything. Cicadas come briefly in summer to sing and then die. Then the ants, feeling sad, remember their gratitude to the cicadas and take them away to bury them respectfully. And they bring flower seeds to make a grave around it.”

Alline slowly moved her lime-green eyes as if imagining Eustar’s words, then said,

“Can ants hear the cicadas singing? Even from very far away?”

“Yes, they can hear it. They hear it from anywhere and work hard. Just like how Alline can fall asleep faster when she hears mother’s lullaby.”

Alline nodded as if she understood—Eustar finally breathed a sigh of relief—and this time she turned to Laila and placed her hand on her rounded belly.

“Mother, are the babies sleeping?”

Laila replied,

“Well, Mother’s not sure yet. Why? Would you like them to be sleeping?”

“I don’t think they’re sleeping because there’s sunlight. Sleep is for nighttime. But then, aren’t they bored?”

“They won’t be bored. Don’t you think they’re listening with their ears perked up because Alline is telling such interesting stories?”

“The babies can hear when Mother sings lullabies, right? So they can hear my voice too.”

Laila smiled and gently touched Alline’s soft cheek.

“That’s right. Then would Alline like to tell an interesting story for the babies? Anything will do.”

Young Alline put on a serious expression, in her own way, and fell into contemplation. The atmosphere suggested she was carefully choosing from the stories she knew, making Eustar and Laila have to try their hardest not to laugh.

Finally, as if she had made her choice, Alline leaned in close to Laila’s belly, almost touching it with her lips, and whispered,

“Babies, this morning your elder sister ate soup with beans in it. Beans are very round and hard, but when you boil them in soup, they become soft and mushy. Did you know that one bean pod has many beans inside? Some have two inside, just like you two.”

Laila bowed her head, her shoulders shaking as she tried to hold back her laughter. Alline looked up at her mother with an innocent expression, then pressed her lips close to the belly again and started whispering,

“So I wonder if you’ll look like beans when you’re born. And now it’s not so hot at night anymore. When the wind blows, we have to cover up with a new blanket, and it’s really heavy. It’s like a small mountain has climbed on top. What if a mountain grew on my belly? If we planted trees there, would pine cones grow?”