I only remember those yellow eyes that were staring back at me in the dim light. The man who threatened me and took me away. The person who threw me violently. The person who coldly said, âFind her even if sheâs weak or dead!â
The edge of that personâs mouth was slightly raised. Iâm certain. Heâs a bad person.
âLei, whatâs wrong?â Without replying to Bartâs voice, I unfastened the Rug Dragonâs pocket, scavenged through and walked to the man holding the short string I had scavenged. The man with yellow eyes raised his eyebrows as he watched me walk towards him.
I stopped in front of the man and looked up at him. We made eye contact for a while. People around us got noisy wondering what was going on. I measured the distance between us, turned sideways and dangled the pocket.
âLei, what are you doing?â Nii-sama said hastily, and I twisted my body with all my strength.
*WHACK* The Rug Dragon made a heavy sound and hit the man in the shin.
âArgh!â The manâs voice leaked out, and he crouched down to hold his shin.
How is it? A Rug Dragon with a magic stone in it is pretty heavy.
I made sure to maintain eye contact with him as I stared at him closely.
âYou...â
âBad pershon. Lei didnâth forgeth.â
I glared at him. He frowned and reached out towards me, but I was quickly pulled into a hug from behind. It was Bart. And Nii-sama stepped out in front before Bart lifted me up.
âHow can this happen? Even though itâs something a baby did, my sister was rude to you. Iâm sorry.â He opened his arms and shouted so that everyone could hear.
âAre you alright?
âWhat? Itâs just a stuffed animal. Your sister seems to be in a bad mood. Hahaha,â the man laughed emptily.
âLeila, apologise,â Nii-sama said, and I turned to the side. You should apologise for kidnapping me first.
âLei.â
âAi. Sowwy.â But, I canât be stubborn after being told twice. I apologised straight away. I was a little selfish, but Iâm sure everybody recognises me as a normal, cute baby.
And, he canât do anything to me in front of everyone. I turned away from the bad guy and faced the King.
âDown.â
âDonât be naughty anymore,â Bart reminded me as he put me down. Nii-sama took me to stand next to Alistair.
âIâm Alistair Lisburn.â
âIâm Leiwa Awbansh.â
We canât say formal greetings. This is fine. Still, I didnât think that Alistair would name himself as a Lisburn.
The King, who had heard our greeting, nodded placidly and spoke to Alistair first, âI heard that you had a hard time after you lost your mother. You can live freely under the protection of the capital, Sebel.â
âYes. Thank you very much.â
Then, he looked at me with stern eyes. They were eyes that people used to look at naughty children.
âYou...â
âOh my, how adorable,â The Queen, who was next to the King, interrupted him, stood up and went down the steps. She had wavy brown hair and gentle brown eyes. I reached out to her reflexively. The Queen quickly lifted me up, put me on the left side of her waist like she was used to it and looked at my face.
âYouâre still so small, but you worked hard. Honey, honestly men. It makes me want to protect her if big people with scary faces look down at her. You have to be gentler.â It was a rash order. However, my rudeness faded with this. The audience ended, we were taken to a different room and had a meal with the nobles.
We slipped out of the meeting place for a little and met up with Prince Huu.
âLei, donât tell me...â
âThreathened Lei and thhe othhersh. Bad pershon.â
âNo way! Iâm sure their eyes were yellow, but thatâs Easterâs Third Prince! Why would someone in that position do such a reckless thing?!â
âNoth jushth Lei. Threathened Huu thoo.â
âBut...â
Huu couldnât believe this. Neither could I. Why did another countryâs Prince attack me?
âNiini, do you wnow shomethhing abouth Eashther and Wingdom?â
âNope. The relationship between the two countries is very good. I canât believe this either.â
Nii-sama immediately denied it when I asked him if the relationship between Easter and Kingdom was bad. However, it seemed like he thought of something.
âHowever, I donât like his attitude. Your Highness, and Bart and the others, can you investigate Prince Cyrus as the culprit who attacked you guys?â
âWe canât. Lei is the only one who saw his face and confirmed his eye colour. I will send a messenger to Kaylie to see if he was really there on business, but the testimony is weak if we just go by Leiâs words.â
âRegardless of it being weak, it can be labelled as an international incident.â
Huu and Nii-sama looked conflicted.
âWe donât know if theyâre the culprits behind Leiâs first kidnapping, or if they just took advantage of that incident. It wonât be good to cause a fuss now. But if what Lei said is true, then that means he could stay at Wester castle while looking as if nothing had happened after heâd attacked us.â
If that really is the case, then Iâm going to get dizzy by how wicked he is.
âNo one would attack the Four Marquises in public at Kingdom, so we should return quickly. More importantly, Your Highness, Wester has it rather hard.â
âYeah, itâs bad to get stirred up by royalty from other countries. Iâll talk to him properly and be more vigilant.â
âThatâs good. This may be rude, but Wester is in Frontier, but youâre more idealistic than Kingdom.â Huu made an indescribable face at Nii-samaâs words. He probably knows his fatherâs and brotherâs personalities.
âAt any rate, I was really surprised, Lei. Why did you do that?â
âHe widnapped and thhrew Lei. Bad pershon. Hith.â
âLei.â
Brother and everyone dropped their shoulders.
âLei, if itâs a bad person who kidnapped you, then you should be scared and run away. I canât believe you would counterattack as soon as you see him.â
âBufo.â Kyaro burst into laughter. I thought he was going to do that soon. Honestly.
âYou hit him with a stuffed animal, no, he wouldnât respond at all from being hit by a one-year-old infant. Itâs pointless.â
I laughed.
âWell, or itâs not, right, Lei?â
âAi.â
I agreed with Millâs words and handed Kyaro my stuffed animal.
âYou... this is rugged. Oh!â
Kyaro handed the stuffed animal to my puzzled Nii-sama.
âWhat is this fluffy thing? Huh?â
Nii-sama squashed the Rug Dragon. âOh, take care of it, alright?â
âIs there something inside?â
âA magic stone.ân/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Mill grinned.
âIt made a great sound, Lei.â
âAi. Whacw.â
âThis, this hurts. Lei knew this, argh, whatever.â
I wonder if I got my revenge a little. Afterwards, Nii-sama hugged me.
When we returned to the room, Easterâs Prince wasnât there anymore, and we were told that he left quickly because he had received a message from home. Iâm sure he ran away because the situation wasnât good for him.
âHe probably didnât think that an infant would remember him. What would happen even if she did remember him?â
Who would believe a one-year-old? But that one-year-old is me. There are a lot of people who I can trust. Anyway, he probably wonât do anything but flee for now.
âThere are still some problems, but weâll be returning tomorrow. The border is close by.â
âAi.â
Then, Iâll be able to see Otou-sama soon.