“Lady Sera, how did you get hurt to this extent?”

One of Ferre’s maids applied a red disinfectant to Sera’s forehead.

The disinfectant, as it bubbled, also caused a stinging pain akin to a needle’s pierce. Every time it was applied, Sera could feel tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

“If I wear this around, there’ll be so much attention on me. Is the wound big?”

Sera asked the maid who was finishing up the disinfection, cutting up a large gauze and putting it on her.

Sera also joked for no reason as she continued to say that she’d be a sight to see with such a huge gauze on her swollen forehead. However, the maid’s expression was still dark.

“No, that’s not it, but…”

Strangely, Ferre’s maid hesitated to answer and trailed off.

Sera could guess what she was going to say. It wasn’t a serious injury, and it’s not as if she needed stitches for it, but…

‘It’ll probably scar.’

“I think there will be a scar left, Lady.”

Just as she thought.

“Ah… Hm…”

She had already expected it, but apart from the dull pain, Sera felt a little depressed when she confirmed that she’d have a scar of about three centimeters on her face. In the end, she did like her own appearance now because she was a little pretty, so a scar on her forehead was a bit regrettable.

“It would be nice to have divine power at a time like this.”

The maid looked sympathetically at Sera’s forehead.

Divine power was the best there was to heal wounds and remove scars, and this was impossible to do with only general magic. However, people who had divine power were rare, and most of them were at the temple. And more than that, no matter how much money you had, they weren’t the sort of people who’d waste their time on a trivial wound such as Sera’s.

“Well, it’s not like there’s no other way.”

Sera smiled regretfully.

‘I could buy an expensive magic potion that erases scars, or I could cover it with makeup, though it won’t be concealed perfectly. Where else would I spend all the money I saved?’

Sera comforted herself as she gingerly touched the thick gauze on her forehead.

“But how on earth did you get hurt like this?”

The maid’s eyes were wide as she asked again, but in response, Sera only smiled awkwardly in silence.

The maid was perplexed and she tilted her head to the side, but she soon realized just how Sera got injured. Then, she tapped Sera’s shoulder a few times.

“You’ve worked hard.”

* * *

When Sera returned to the study, Rosé and Ferre obediently sat in their seats without speaking. Their stiff expressions looked serious, and when Sera looked at their arms that were on the desk, their sleeves were soaked in water as if to show how much they did their best to wash their faces.

As she got closer, their hair and tummies were similarly wet. Water dripped down from the blond and silver hair of the twins.

“Have you finished washing up?”

It was a more relaxed tone than before, but it was still not as friendly as usual.

Rosé and Ferre nodded quietly without looking up to see Sera’s face. The two bit the insides of their cheeks and tried to hold back their tears even as they breathed roughly as though they were crying already.

“Perhaps there is something that Your Highnesses would like to say.”

Sera stood straight with her arms folded in front of her, her face still expressionless.

Rosé and Ferre glanced at Sera right then and immediately saw the large gauze on her forehead. Then, they lowered their eyes again. The tightly closed lips opened after a long while.

“I’m sorry, Sera.”

The tearful, trembling voice was heard. And if you looked closely, their small chins were quivering.

If Sera was her usual self, she would have let it slide here, but right now, she had no intention of letting them off easy. No, forgiveness given too soon was not the right answer because it wouldn’t prevent another case like this in the future.

“Your Highnesses are sorry.”

When the monotonous, unfeeling voice reached their ears, Rosé and Ferre flinched in shock and hunched their shoulders forward.

Their throats began to sting. They were about to cry again.

“W… We… played a prank, but Sera got hurt…”

With a face on the verge of tears, Rosé said this out of guilt.

Her runny nose made her look miserable and Sera wanted very much to wipe it for the child, but not now. She had to wait a little longer, just a little longer, so that the two highnesses would say it themselves that they would never play any pranks ever again.

Sera’s lips were in a hard line and she tightened her arms over her torso so that she wouldn’t be tempted to console the kids.

“So then? What shall Your Highnesses do from now on?”

“W… We won’t… do pranks anymore. And we’ll listen well to Sera! Really.”

After saying these words, Rosé burst into tears once more as though she couldn’t hold them back anymore. She kept crying and crying, so she felt dizzy and her eyes were now hurting.

When he saw his sister weeping next to him, Ferre began to cry with her as well.

“I also… I also won’t do pranks anymore. I’ll really listen to Sera well.”

Rosé and Ferre sobbed abundantly and their vision started to blur, so they couldn’t see anything in front of them clearly. They couldn’t tell whether Sera was smiling or scowling.

Then after a while, warm hands touched Rosé and Ferre’s cheeks and wiped their tears away. Sera, who was smiling now, also had tears brimming around the corner of her eyes.

“Alright. Your Highnesses promise to be good now, okay?”

Sera hugged the two children tightly. Rosé and Ferre came down from their seats and cried louder in Sera’s arms. It couldn’t be counted anymore just how many times they had cried, but they spoke once more.

“Huuu… S… orry! Sera, we’re… sorry… hiiic.”

“Hiic… huu… W… we were wrong… huuu.”

“We were reallyyy wrong… hiiic! We won’t… do it again… hiic!”

Sera hugged the twins for a long time until they calmed down. She gently patted their soft hair. It was the first time in a long while that she felt emotional while taking care of children.

Somehow, warmth had spread through her heart. Sera was also choked up as tears filled her eyes.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like