“Won’t you stop crying, your highness? Her grace’s words might make her out to be a very scary person but that’s not the case at all. Oh! Why don’t you ask her grace to read a fairy tale to you tonight? I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to do so!”
Edmund, who was cheering Tita up, winked at her. Clette snorted at him.
“Well, I might have so free ti..”
“Really?”
Tita sniffled and furtively glanced at Clette. She, who was being stared at by his tearful eyes, didn’t have the heart to refuse him.
‘Damn it, isn’t it too unfair to have such puppy eyes?’
Edmund, who had sohow figured out what she was thinking like a psychic, grinned.
“Now your highness, go on.”
“Well, your grace, could- could you please read a fairy tale….”
“Su- sure.”
The answer left her lips as though it had a mind of its own.
‘Why does it feel like I’ve just fallen into Edmund’s sche?’
While such thoughts crossed her mind, Clette could not take back her agreent to Tita’s request.
“What are you doing?”
As soon as Tita was sent back to his room, Clette began questioning Edmund.
“Fairy tale my ass! That kid is scared out of his wits of . I didn’t even say anything and he imdiately burst into tears despite the fact that I even smiled at him.”
“Your grace, could you please show that smile?”
Clette complied, smiling brightly at Edmund just like she had done earlier in front of Tita. Edmund’s face stiffened. He spoke after a short mont of silence.
“Just wear your poker face, your grace. That would be much better. I’ve witnessed a sight I never should have.”
“……”
‘He’s lived for long enough hasn’t he?’
Clette seriously agonised over his life and death. Edmund, who had no clue of the thoughts in her head, consoled her.
“At any rate, stop worrying so much, your grace. His highness really likes you.”
“That’s not possible. I’m telling you Edmund, he doesn’t say a word to despite how chatty he is towards you.”
Edmund smiled softly at the grumbling Clette.
“There are tis where one can’t talk much in front of a person they like, your grace. Don’t waste your ti worrying about this and go to his highness already.”
“Hah, I don’t know what to do anymore. Just know that if Tita cries again, the bla will fall on you, and you alone.”
That day, Clette quickly wrapped up her work and headed to Tita’s room, in order to not be too late. She carried an unamusing fairy tale book in her hands as she approached his room.
Knock, knock, knock.
After a little hard knocking, the door opened. Clette looked down and there, in the opened doorway, stood a tottering Tita.
“May I enter?”
“Ah, yes!”
As Clette entered the room, Tita dashed back to his bed. She sat by his bed and opened the book. Clette did not want the atmosphere to worsen more than it already had due to their useless small talk, and instead decided to get straight to the point. Clette’s face crumpled as she gazed at the fairy tale’s title. Of all books she could have grabbed, it had to be one titled “The Snow Queen”.
Only
‘Of all the many books there were, why is it this one? If soone else was here, I would be thought of as a narcissist.’
“Excuse , your grace, but could it be that you’re still very upset with ?”
Tita asked Clette this very carefully after he saw her face pucker. Afraid of making the child cry again, she hurriedly smoothed out her harsh expression.
“That’s not the case.”
Clette decided to read Tita the fairy tale since she had already brought it with her. She placed the oil lamp closer to the book.
“Once upon a ti, in a land of ice, lived a snow queen. She was an ill-tempered, an and cold woman.”
‘Say what?’
Although the content seed weird to her, Clette decided to continue reading the fairy tale. As if to add sound effects to the story, a blizzard, just in ti, rumbled from outside the window.
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