Arbyone lay in bed, looking up at her mother with a mournful expression.
"Mom, you're not going anywhere, are you?"
"Of course not."
Even with Neris's gentle voice, the child didn't seem reassured. Arbyone asked again and again.
"You really won't go anywhere."
"I know."
"It's dangerous to go anywhere, okay?"
"Yes."
"Yoni will protect Mom. You know that, right?"
"Yes, I know."
Neris's heart ached at that desperate confirmation. At first, she thought her daughter was clinging to her because of the scary feelings left over from her dream, asking her to protect her. But now, after spending time with her child, she knew for sure.
It was the opposite.
The emotion that remained in Arbyone was not fear. It was a pure and strong heart, too pure and strong for her young and small body, a heart that wanted to "protect her mother."
Who would have known that she would feel such intense guilt towards her daughter, who was still in her belly at the time? Neris sat by Arbyone's bed and kissed her forehead.
"Mom won't go anywhere while Yoni is taking a nap. My love, my life… Mom will be here until you're okay. Don't worry."
Neris had been worried lately. No matter how easygoing Arbyone was, she couldn't help but feel a little hurt having to share her parents' attention with her siblings. But she couldn't focus all her attention on Owen, who was different from other children, or on Maeve, who was still a baby.
Even though the emotional instability she was showing was basically a side effect of her trip to the past, could it be that her usual feelings of hurt were not reflected at all? Neris couldn't be sure. After all, wasn't it common for children with siblings to want to monopolize their parents' attention?
It was a truly unfortunate situation for the other two children, but Neris wanted to focus on Arbyone for a few hours, if possible. After all, Arbyone was so strong-willed that she had been left alone a lot since her siblings were born.
Arbyone looked uneasy, but she seemed to have believed her mother's words. Slowly, the child fell asleep. Even as she slept, she held her mother's hand tightly.
It was touching to see her daughter breathing shallowly. Neris gently stroked her daughter's belly with the hand that Arbyone wasn't holding. The door opened quietly.
"Is Yoni asleep?"
Cledwyn, who had come to comfort Maeve, who had been clinging to her mother instead of her eldest daughter, asked with a tired face. Neris chuckled.
"She just fell asleep."
"You must be tired from holding Yoni all day. Go and rest for a while. I'll be here with Yoni. Then, it'll be okay if she wakes up for a bit."
Cledwyn, who had spent a long time with Arbyone in the memories of the past, seemed a little hurt that Arbyone was only looking for her mother, not him.
"I'm fine, you go and rest. I wonder if the other children are uncomfortable with us doing this."
"They seem to be playing well."
Arbyone let out a loud sigh. At the same time, the stiff couple let out a sigh of relief as their daughter quieted down again.
***
Mom? Mom!
The surroundings were filled with fog. Arbyone frantically searched for her mother. She was definitely next to her just now, and they were holding hands, but where did she go?
Honestly, Arbyone didn't know why she kept wanting to see her mother and felt so uneasy. She was seven years old, and she knew it was embarrassing for her siblings to see her clinging to her mother. But who cared? Protecting her mother was the priority.
She couldn't protect her mother if she wasn't next to her. If bad guys bullied her mother or she got hurt, she had to appear, *poof*, and scold them all and hug her mother. Where should she go to find her mother?
Mom! Mom! Where are you?
Arbyone ran through the fog, calling out to her mother loudly. But no matter how many times she called, she couldn't see her mother, or even her father.
Tears welled up in Arbyone's eyes. Then, a rumbling voice came from the fog.
Nuni (Sister).
A needlessly mature tone with a lisp. It was her brother Owen's voice. Arbyone looked around.
Wenny? Is that you? Where are you?
Nuni. I'm here.
Suddenly, the fog cleared, and the surroundings became a turquoise sea. Above her head, golden sunlight streamed through a net-like pattern, and below, countless coral reefs of various colors, as bright as jewels, formed a colony.
Ah, this is a dream. Arbyone vaguely realized. Since it was a dream, it wasn't difficult to breathe underwater, and the school of small silver-scaled fish that swam past her laughed as clear as bells.
It soon became clear where Owen was. Owen swam towards the spot where the school of fish had passed. It was cute and funny to see him struggling with his little arms and legs.
Haha! Arbyone laughed, clutching her stomach. Owen soon approached Arbyone and said.
This is your dream, sister. It's the place that appears in the book you like.
That's right. It's from *The Red Hat Captain's Voyage*! How did you know what's in my favorite book?
You told me, sister.
It's true, Arbyone often talked about the parts she liked from the books she read to her siblings. But Maeve was too young, so she didn't know if she understood or not, and Owen never reacted, so she thought he wasn't listening.
He was listening all along. Arbyone laughed again, happy. The anxiety she had felt because her mother wasn't there gradually faded when she realized this was a dream. Her real mother would always be by her side.
Then there's a castle made of pearls here, and a merman king, right? Shall we go together? Let's catch some diamond-scaled fish and raise them!
Yes.
What's the matter? You didn't want to play with me.
I wanted to play with you, but my body wouldn't cooperate. This is a dream, so my body moves freely. Let's play together.
That's it! The disappointment she had felt towards Owen went away a little. Arbyone raised her hand high above her head.
Okay! Let's go!
The two children immediately began to explore the underwater world.
Above, emerald green, below, sapphire blue, the water was vast, clear, and filled with all sorts of wonders. In the pearl-built castle, there was a merman king lost in thought, and his wife, the largest pearl shell in the world, slept. Diamond-scaled fish swam, scattering dazzling light, and the smallest one nestled in Arbyone's arms.
In the coral reef, there was a kingdom of tiny people, no bigger than a finger joint, and a tiny prince and princess who were grieving over a war between their kingdoms. When the two children stopped the war, the prince and princess held a wedding ceremony and gave them a rainbow-colored drink as a token of their gratitude. After drinking the beverage, the children became the same size as the tiny people and enjoyed a ball together. When the ball ended, the children rode on the diamond-scaled fish and left the tiny people's kingdom.
At the bottom of the trench, there was an octopus that glowed by itself and a fisherman who had been trying to catch it for thirty years. The fisherman was actually afraid to go home, but he couldn't give up trying to catch the octopus. When the two children made friends with the octopus and the fisherman, the octopus gave them a gift of star sand made from its solidified light.
Near the surface, lived a Nereid who tried to catch stars with a net woven from the morning sunlight. The Nereid, a sea fairy, couldn't stick her head out of the water and couldn't imagine the sky, but she loved the stars. The two children gave the Nereid the star sand and were praised by the Blue Dragon who ruled the sea.
After enjoying the sea to their heart's content, Arbyone gradually wanted to do something else. As if reading her mind, her surroundings were enveloped in fog again, and this time, the ground beneath her feet was made of cheese stars, and above her head was a universe full of stars.
Let's play here this time, Wenny!
Fortunately, Owen was still by her side. And even though they had played a lot, no one told Arbyone it was time to eat or time to sleep. Arbyone shouted excitedly.
Let's keep playing as much as we can!
The anxiety she had felt from being separated from her mother gradually faded. Seeing her sister's bright expression, Owen smiled and nodded vigorously.
Yes, sister!
***
"Where's Yoni?"
"Where's Wenny?"
The nanny broke out in a cold sweat at the questions from the twin brothers, who looked exactly like their father, Joyce McKinnon, the young duke.
The brothers were a few months past their third birthday. They were still little children with chubby cheeks and protruding lips, but they had a certain intensity in their eyes, perhaps because they resembled their father.
They even resembled their father in their tendency to become completely absorbed in something, as they were doing right now. Even when they were out in the sunny garden with the other children, they weren't interested in dogtail grass or ants like the other children, but rather, they were fixated on those who weren't there, as if they were obsessed with them.
Garrett, the eldest, who particularly liked Princess Arbyone, tilted his head to the left and asked the nanny again.
"Yoni still sick?"
Jarett, the younger, who particularly liked Prince Owen, tilted his head to the right and asked the nanny again.
"Wenny and Jarett, eat cake?"
Originally, each twin had their own nanny, but Jarett's nanny had to leave for a pressing matter, so Garrett's nanny had to take care of both of them. The nanny was completely overwhelmed, but she answered as best she could.
"Princess Arbyone is resting with her mother. Prince Owen is taking a nap. You two, Ipa and Lian, Joybell and Lara Belle are all out here now, so have fun playing with them."
"Want to play with Yoni."
"Want to play with Wenny."
"Later."
Their faces weren't satisfied, but the brothers seemed to have accepted it and joined the other children. The nanny wiped her brow.
When Princess Arbyone was around, she would drag all the children around, so the nannies didn't have to worry too much about the children throwing tantrums. Even very young children who would burst into tears over trivial things would stop crying immediately when the princess soothed them with her strong spirit.
Without the princess, gathering six children between the ages of two and four was a sight to behold, as adorable as a flock of chicks, but if one started to throw a tantrum, it was impossible to control. Right now, they were finding amusement in the grass by the roadside, showing each other flowers and saying, "Look, this one," but the tension couldn't be eased.
Sure enough, the twins, who had been playing with Ipa and Lian for a while, ran back to their nanny and said,
"Then let's go see May!"
"Then let's go see May!"
They also enjoyed imitating each other. The nanny was on edge, knowing that if the two of them started throwing a tantrum together, their actions would escalate in a competitive manner, and no one could stop them. The children didn't yet understand the difference in status between nobles and royalty, so they spoke like this, but how could they say they wanted to see the baby princess? Especially with a mere nanny escorting them.
Fortunately, Princess Maeve appeared in the garden before the twins could throw themselves on the ground.
"I'm out here too."
Maeve's nanny, Dora, was a woman with short hair and a tall stature, with a higher status than any of the nannies present. She was a close confidante of Lady Ellen, the head lady-in-waiting of the Imperial Palace, and also the head of the Empress's quarters, so even some low-ranking noble wives couldn't treat her lightly.
The nannies sometimes speculated in private about why such a person was assigned the role of taking care of a baby who had just turned one. They heard she was a former soldier… Perhaps the Emperor and Empress, who found their youngest daughter the cutest, had assigned her as a bodyguard?
Few people knew that it was actually Lady Ellen who found the youngest princess with her turquoise eyes the cutest, and Dora had been unable to resist Ellen's strong will.
Baby Maeve, held in Dora's arms, made unintelligible sounds, "Woo, woo." The nannies couldn't help but smile, recalling the time when their own charges were that age.
"How come you're out here?"
Garrett's nanny asked, happy to see her. Dora shrugged.
"It seems like Her Highness wanted to go out."
"Oh, really?"
So she can express herself so clearly? She's so smart. She can't even speak properly yet.
Maeve yawned, receiving everyone's attention. She seemed to enjoy the sunlight. The nannies were momentarily delighted, then they rushed back to their charges who had started digging in the dirt.