[IHTTMBW] Chapter 14

The endless hours of boredom continued.

The letters in the books refused to be comprehended.

It was unusual. He had never found books difficult before. When he read the letters, they were effortlessly deciphered in his head and became knowledge; all he had to do was take it in.

It was since that child had appeared in front of him that this all became difficult.

The long silver hair with a tint of violet-pink twirled into curls, and the violet eyes filled with tears struggled to hide them when faced with his stern face.

Euphil wasn’t familiar with such descriptive use of language, but he knew that her face was like that of an angel in a fairytale. Perhaps that was what made it more difficult to push her away.

‘When did I start to notice her absence?’

She would constantly make efforts to come closer to him. She looked as if she was barely five.

The child’s clothes were worn down. Euphil did not know what poverty was, but he knew her clothes were shabbier than his.

Judging by the fact that she rotates only a few sets of clothes, she must be as stubborn to the maid as she is to him.

The child who eats cookies with the happiest faces and clings to him constantly says she likes him. Because he had never been told that someone liked him, he had to try hard to conceal his embarrassment whenever he heard her words.

He wasn’t sure why he had to conceal it. For some reason, he felt he could only be himself if he hid it before her.

‘She’s not coming.’

However, he told her not to come; it had already been several days. On the first day, he refrained from going to the princess palace, where he habitually used to go, but he had already started to head toward the Princess palace garden on the second day.

‘This isn’t because I want to see her. I always came here often.’

This wasn’t a lie. He only met her because there was someone new in the Princess’s palace, which he always visited.

The Princess’s palace had been abandoned for a long time. He had heard rumours that a child was living in it, but he didn’t think anyone would be inside.

‘I guess it’s still quite well maintained inside for someone to live there.’

The desolate garden, which looked like it hadn’t been cared for by anyone in ages, was a great place for him to spend his time.

The garden you might expect to find in a fairytale was like a maze about to turn into a forest. It calmed his mind if he jumped up in a tree and looked at the scenery. He felt that it had much in common with him.

‘…And she got all tearful because she liked me.’

He was getting somewhat angry. Once again, he was on the tree where he met her for the first time. The wind tickled his nose.

He felt half offended and half relieved.

He was relieved because he felt that if she were with him, she would become hated by the King on top of being the abandoned Princess, so he liked things as they were now.

‘If she can become close to someone other than me, she could escape this place.’

Euphil was certain that it would be him if you had to pick someone the King hated the most in the whole palace. He didn’t know the reason. Perhaps his mother had done something wrong?

‘Or maybe he just hates me.’

He once read from a book about someone who believed that the greatest mistake in his life was being born.

Maybe he should think that, too. But whenever he thought of something like that, he saw the little girl who told him she liked him.

‘How could she smile like an angel after being abandoned?’

There was a statue in the Princess’s palace. It was an angel statue. Even though it was half-covered by vines, he thought it resembled her, especially her smile.

“Hmph.”

He got down from the tree with a movement like the wind. It was almost inhuman. It was as if he knew congenitally how to carry his body with such lightness.

He shook off the leaf that stuck to his blonde hair and continued.

“Just once. I’ll just check if she’s sleeping well.”

Nobody asked him, but he muttered into the air as he headed in one direction.

It was the Princess’s palace where Myrthi lived.

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