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Where Water Flows II (7)
Translated by Wook
Edited by Wook
“Hah.”
Elisha sighed softly.
Elisha wanted to do anything for him and was usually confident that she could do it, but there were still some things she couldn’t help with.
Among them, this was the hardest and worst.
An incredibly beautiful man with black hair and blue eyes appeared in Elisha’s mind and then disappeared.
All the brilliant words in the world seemed to be for him, but under the light, all those amiable words were buried in the darkness.
Nothing could remain by his side to keep him as one person.
Someone’s son, someone’s husband, and someone’s father.
Kaiden denied and rejected all of them himself.
He wanted to exist only as himself.
Therefore, Elisha would not be able to give her child a father.
In the future, forever.
Elisha curled up her lips and lowered her head…
“Eeek! Baby, are you crying? Why is this pretty child crying on the street?”
An old woman walking out of the alley was surprised to see Leon and asked.
Then, looking around, she found Elisha.
It’s the same hair color as the crying child.
It was a perfect silver hair that was rare in the Empire, especially difficult to see, but in the hazy eyes of the woman with age, it only came out as a mysteriously shiny color.
“Hey, the child’s mother over there!”
“…”
At first, Elisha didn’t know she was calling her.
“The child’s mother, what are you doing standing there? He’s crying.”
Only after the second call came, Elisha pointed at her own nose with her index finger.
Even as she thought, there’s no way.
But the older woman frowned and clicked her tongue.
“Then, when a child’s crying, if they don’t call their mother, who should they call? Why are young people nowadays so crazy?”
Elisha, who had never seen anyone treat her so recklessly, was bewildered.
Even if it was not because of her status or abilities, Elisha’s temperament and coldness were unusual.
Just because she was dressed to look ordinary didn’t mean she was someone one could easily talk to.
Rohan said that the old woman might be the empress dowager who hid her status or a transformed dragon, to Elisha, who muttered.
“Is that possible?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
As Elisha responded coldly, Rohan nodded his head as he held the corner of his mouth, which was trying to keep raising for some reason.
“Hey, the child’s father over there. What are you doing? Hurry up, come with your wife and hug the baby! If one is slow, the other should be quick. How can you both be so slow, huh?”
Just like the 2nd Empress did before, Rohan pondered over and over whether the old woman was saying that to himself.
In a way, what he did just now was useless.
Knowing but still doing it, he felt himself embarrassed.
“She will get her tongue cut off like that.”
Elisha’s voice was heard.
There was a sense of coldness, but it didn’t seem to be unpleasant.
She did not show anger in her haste steps.
When Elisha approached and stood behind Leon, the old woman closed her lips and smiled softly.
“Baby, your mother is here now. It’s time to stop crying.”
She bent her already slumped back and fumbled over the toy, picked it up, and handed it to Leon.
When Leon accepted it, she wiped the corners of Leon’s eyes, which were still brimming with tears, with her wrinkled hands.
Elisha then tried to advise that her hands could be cut off. It might sound like a threat.
I was telling the truth, though.
“Huh? Your father is here too, baby.”
At that time, the tongue, not the hands of the old woman, became dangerous again. She never thought of what evil thoughts the other party had about her.
However, since the mother and father were here, she felt like she had done everything she had to do, so she slowly left.
“The roads are complicated here, so be careful not to get lost. Hold your mother and father’s hands tightly. I wondered how a child can be so pretty, it looks like it’s because he resembles his parents. You will make a lot of the children in the neighborhood cry later!”
Until the end, she threw a few shocking remarks that one could not refute.
***
“How can you do this to me?”
As Tricia murmured, Perry let out a sigh.
How long have you been doing that already?
“Just wait in the carriage. We’ll be right back soon.”
He tried to recommend it again gently, but Tricia pretended she didn’t hear it.
Even Perry, whose temper was usually good, couldn’t stand it anymore and his face stiffened.
Perry’s treatment was not because she was the baron’s daughter.
Since Rohan became the leader of the team, there was at least a minimum qualification requirements for the 1st Knights, whose skills take precedence over the background or political purposes.
Of course, Perry was also a noble.
He was the second son of a quite famous viscount. At least, even if he acted a bit more roughly, people would still say he was a knight, not a bandit from who knows where.
It would not be easy to say a word even if one only considered his rank and title, but considering that he was also a member of the 1st Knights, the closest to the emperor, it should not be easy to just make eye contact with him.
Therefore, what kind of guts did this daughter of a baron from the border area have?
Perry even wanted to ask how she could do that and still live with her head, which was not used for thinking, intact.
But, well.
If Perry thought about how she approached the leader so frivolously enough to even make the viewers feel more embarrassed…
He thought the leader was having a hard time, too.
Not to mention before marriage. There were many women who approached the leader even after marrying one of the most beautiful princesses in the empire.
They were all talented women with outstanding beauty and talents from a good family, but…
The leader drew the line thoroughly, and no one crossed that line.
Most of the women stopped in front of the line and only looked.
This was because it was too much of a burden to step on that line unless the head of the leader reached out first.
Nevertheless, there was no one who was too greedy, and they disappeared so quickly that they were forgotten.
Perhaps their respective families had cracked down on them, or that they quietly gave up and settled down because they knew it was impossible.
There had never been a big commotion in the past, but it was true that it was complicated.
But to have to go through something like this even when performing an important mission…
This was the truth that Perry, the closest aide to the leader, had witnessed himself.
As a result, he looked at Miller, who was far away, who had said that he might go crazy first if he heard the girl crackling a little more.
“So peaceful. I wish I could be as peaceful. That’s a face that doesn’t have anything to worry about.”
Perry thought it was enviable, and vowed to live like his leader.
There may be adversity, but that was because the other party was the leader, and if Perry himself became the person involved, the scale would be smaller.
“Look at that. How could I not think it’s weird?”
There’s no way I’d get tangled up with a woman like this who keeps muttering to herself.
Perry, who was shaking his head, turned his face in the direction she was looking, puzzled by how strange Tricia’s condition had become.
“Hmm?”
Perry blinked.
His eyes were looking properly, right?
“Tell me. Am I really the only one who thinks that’s weird?”
Hearing what she said, Perry rolled his eyes a wide circle and answered.
“Our leader really cares about the 3rd Prince. That’s why, there’s nothing particularly weird about it. No, what’s wrong with that in the first place? Isn’t it just giving a ride on his shoulders? The 3rd Prince must’ve asked him. Isn’t it because he’s still young?”
He shrugged his shoulders and said nothing was wrong.
Since Tricia had been abnormally obsessed with the leader all the time, she would surely take anything with prejudice.
As he cautioned himself that he did not need to be swept away for nothing, Perry looked at his leader, who was getting closer and closer with the 3rd Prince on his shoulders.
“Hehehe!”
Leon smiled brightly.
As his view rose, he felt like he became a giant.
He could see the tops of the heads of passers-by.
Some children looked up with envy as the dignified and handsome Rohan gave Leon a ride on his shoulders and walked affectionately.
Surely, Leon himself must have looked at the child who was riding away on his father’s shoulders with those eyes, right?
Leon, whose chin was rising as if he were showing off, quickly blushed and rubbed his forehead against Rohan’s hair.
Rohan’s auburn hair was like the color of an old tree growing in the forest, and the soft earth color that supported his feet.
Rohan had the warmth and scent that calmed the heart.
As he put his cheeks on Rohan’s head and closed his eyes, a small vibration came up every time Rohan spoke.
“Did you really try to cut her tongue?”
When Rohan asked, Elisha, who was walking side by side with Leon’s toy in her arms, tilted her head.
“Why would I cut someone’s tongue?”
“Didn’t you say that earlier?”
“I was talking about Sir Rohan, not me. If it’s Sir Rohan, if you believe that disturbing remarks are unfaithful to His Majesty, then whoever you are dealing with will have their tongues and hands cut off.”
“I take the situation into account. And in that case earlier, there is no reason to go there.”
“But would you have cut it if it had gone far?”
Elisha turned her head to Rohan.
In front of the clear sky-blue eyes, Rohan couldn’t say anything for a moment.
See.
“Look at that. Am I right?”
Elisha bent her eyes.
Then, she turned around as if easing the cold air and walked forward.
Rohan himself didn’t seem to realize that either.
A small voice came from above Rohan’s, who was standing quietly, head.
“That’s why you said no, Sir Rohan?”
“What do you mean?”
“About earlier.”
Rohan couldn’t even see Leon with his chin resting on top of Rohan’s head, but Leon shut his eyes tightly as if he was ashamed.
Leon recalled the following when he encountered a kind grandmother in the alley.
As the three of them were contemplating for different reasons, an old woman who was selling things in a stall nearby asked.
She asked if they were a family.
She asked if he was not the father and looked at the three with strange eyes.
The appearance and atmosphere were unusual, but even if the dirty old woman bothered him a while ago, he thought it wouldn’t be a problem to just let go.
Leon bit his lip tightly.
He couldn’t say anything himself.
So Leon looked up at Rohan.
He stared intently and hoped.
He didn’t mean to be greedy, but just for a moment…
Even for a very short time…
However, Rohan looked directly at the person who asked the question and answered.
He said they were not family.
He said he wasn’t the father of this child.
Leon shed tears again.
However, as he tried not to cry, Rohan turned around in front of Leon and lowered his body.
Showing a wide and reliable back.
At first he didn’t know what it meant, but he realized when he saw his mother pushing his back slightly.
Leon sat down on Rohan’s neck, just like the child did earlier.
The fact that someone completely entrusted the back of the neck, which could be called a weakness.
The knight commander put someone who was not his master on his shoulder, and made his clothes dirty from their feet stepping on the soil.
Leon didn’t know how much it all meant yet, but he was certain.
“Is it because you’re afraid that old lady will get her tongue cut?”
“No.”
Rohan replied, but Leon did not believe it.
No, actually it didn’t matter either way.
Sir Rohan was a good person.
Leon, who leaned on his neck and curled up in a circle, hugged Rohan’s neck tightly.
“I wish Sir Rohan was my father.”
“You can’t say things like that, Your Highness.”
Rohan spoke with concern, but his tone was quite rigid.
“…. Then keep it a secret.”
As Leon rubbed his face against his auburn hair again, Rohan sighed and answered.
“Alright.”
Elisha, who was ahead, looked back and confirmed why the two were so late.
As Rohan accelerated, Elisha moved again.
However, her pace was a little slower than before.
Soon the three of them were walking side by side again.
Not long after that, they ran into the group of people they had separated from, who were still standing there.
The expressions of the subordinates were strange, but Rohan did not notice it as usual.