“You won’t do anything wrong on purpose, Claire.”

I barely restrained the urge to respond with a “Me?”

“You hold onto things like ‘making your mom sad often when you were little,’ even though it wasn’t something you did on purpose. I regret not being there to see you when you were young enough to talk about it right away.”

“…because it’s true.”

Dad spoke neither quickly nor slowly.

“You grew up holding onto other people’s sadness all the time. If someone like you were to do something wrong, there must be a reason for it.”

The man gently pulled my head back against his shoulder.

Three months after my ninth birthday, in the sunny and beautiful spring of May. Like a gift from the May fairy, Dad suddenly appeared and took me away into a dream as he strolled slowly down the hallway.

It was like putting a nine-month-old daughter to sleep, not a nine-year-old.

In a daze, I heard Mom’s voice saying, “Oh, hold onto your clothes tightly, dear. Eciel tends to toss and turn a lot in her sleep, and this  bed is too small for four people to sleep in…”

I  felt like hearing Dad saying he would take me somewhere else to sleep.

 

* * *

 

In my dream, I was young again, about five or six years old. Seeing Mom and Dad together, I immediately knew it was a dream.

Despite knowing it was a dream, I hesitated for a long time.

Eventually, just like Eciel often did to Mom when she was younger, I stretched out my arms to Dad and asked to be hugged.

Dad effortlessly embraced me and sat me on his knee, gently combing through my hair with his fingers.

“Dad,” the words came out so naturally that it was an amazing dream. I murmured softly, wanting to remember this feeling.

“Dad.”

“What is it, Claire?”

His reply came. I didn’t feel anything strange and continued murmuring in my sleep.

“You… in the dream… you were combing my hair…”

“Was I?”

“Yeah…”

A laughing voice softly commanded, “Bring the  comb.”

The quick footsteps of someone exiting the room echoed faintly. I rubbed my eyes, trying to wake up.

No, I couldn’t rub them. A large, warm hand blocked mine and covered my eyes gently.

“You can sleep more, Claire. It’s okay. We still have plenty of time before we leave.”

I curled up my body instinctively, still in a daze. A whimpering voice emerged.

“Dad, I want to sleep more…”

If it was Mom, she would have said, “Get up now!” and pulled the blanket away, making me sit up.

But Dad just looked embarrassed and gently tucked me into the blanket.

How much time had passed? I heard Mom’s clear voice.

“Oh my, she’s still sleeping. Why didn’t you wake her up earlier when it’s already bright outside?”

“Charlotte, be quiet. The child is still sleeping…”

“What are you talking about? I thought you brought the  comb to wash and dry her hair. You didn’t even wake her up!”

“We still have plenty of time. It would be cruel to wake her up forcibly when she wants to sleep more.”

“I made Eciel wake up earlier and wash even when she wanted to sleep more.”

Mom’s annoyed voice cut off Dad’s words, and she came closer and sat on the  bed with a soft rustle. The soft  bedding absorbed the shock, and the vibration was minimal.

“Claire, wake up. If we take the carriage later, you can sleep all the way.”

I opened my eyes with difficulty, realizing that I could no longer avoid it.

And I woke up right away.

‘… where am I?’

The place where I, Eciel, and my mother have been staying so far was a typical lady of the house’s bedroom.

A space usually decorated using soft colors or elegant decorations.

The bed was very wide, but Eciel, who had rough sleeping habits, was taking up most of the bed. Because of that, I always had trouble sleeping and woke up early.

However, the main color here was calm blue. It was a room with light colors that weren’t overwhelming.

Although my mother, who was sitting while looking at me, took up most of my field of vision, I could tell that it was a solemn and detailed structure just from the visible part.

I jumped up in embarrassment.

“Woke up? Claire, let’s hurry up and have breakfast.”

It was Mom who said it cheerfully, but the person I made eye contact with was Dad. Behind him, the servants and attendants were all looking at me with sympathetic eyes.

Especially one of the attendants, whom I thought had been muttering nonsense in my half-asleep state, actually had a comb in hand.

It was a delicate comb with intricate vine patterns engraved on it, suitable for combing the hair of a young girl, emphasizing a single delicate flower.

I couldn’t stand it any longer and dashed to the bathroom.

There was a whole group of perfectly prepared people, but I was the only one in pajamas, having a tug-of-war with Dad about whether to sleep more.

My face was burning.

 

* * *

 

There was one thing for sure that became clear to me while preparing for this journey.

‘That Mom has been choosing really amazing rural places all along while raising us.’

The mansion we were staying in now was about half a day’s carriage ride from the small village we originally lived in. Barely a city, if you could call it that. Just barely.

And it took quite a while to get to the capital. If you traveled by horse and carriage on the usual route, it would take about six months at best.

However, with Duke Chelsiers accompanying us, there was no way it would take half a year.

Thanks to our wealthy and noble dad, our travel time was going to be significantly shortened.

“Let’s first head to the nearest gate in Listar. Since neither of you has ever ridden the gate, we’ll start with resistance tests.”

Dad combed my hair and calmly explained our plans ahead.

“If we take the gate and rest a day each time we travel, we can reach the capital within a week.”

Eciel was also standing next to Mom. Since Dad was combing my hair, Mom also insisted on combing her hair.

My little sister asked with round eyes.

“What’s a resistance test?”

“The gate usually requires the constant fulfillment of the three major magical power conditions demanded by the teleportation magic circle. Therefore, it accumulates highly pure, high-density, and massive magical power by fusing the improved Callas-Riet magic circle. As for non-mages, since each person’s body can accommodate a different threshold amount of magical power when surpassing the natural state and resisting the external limit of magical power, there will inevitably be magical power imbalances when entering an artificial magical space…”

Mom smoothly poured out an explanation that Eciel wouldn’t understand at all.

Fluent and knowledgeable, but since the one who asked didn’t seem to understand at all, it was pointless.

Dad intervened and summarized in one sentence.

“The gate contains tremendous magic, so some people may feel unwell if they get too close and can’t adapt to the magic.”

Mom closed her mouth tightly, shooting a dissatisfied look at Dad.

Dad muttered quietly.

“Explaining like that to a nine-year-old who doesn’t even know the basics of magic theory? She won’t understand.”

“Do you think my daughter doesn’t know the basics of magic theory?”

“Claire might, but Eciel, no.”

“How do you know?”

“Because she’s my daughter too.”

Even though this was still somewhat easy to understand…

Mom muttered more grumpily to herself.

But even Mom didn’t seem to think Eciel would understand the basics of magic theory.

Mom quickly gave up and focused on braiding Eciel’s hair.

In the end, Eciel was satisfied because she could braid her platinum hair into two strands, and Mom was satisfied because she could make her daughter look cute.

It was a good outcome for both.

Dad personally put a light and soft hat on my head. While he meticulously tied the string, Mom arrogantly said behind Dad’s back.

“Couldn’t you braid hair this nicely? You’ve never tried it?”

Even though Mom said she wouldn’t do it if she went to the capital.

Why was she so proud of braiding hair? Unexpectedly, Dad flinched and seemed slightly concerned.

He looked a little conflicted while gently smoothing the hair flowing over my shoulder.

My shiny silver hair was in such a smooth, flowing condition thanks to Dad’s careful combing, however…

It was obvious that if it was messed up by braiding, it wouldn’t be able to return to its fine state.

‘…I hope he wouldn’t do that.’

Perhaps because he lacked confidence, Dad sighed lightly and gave up.

But if you asked if he completely gave up, that wasn’t the case. Dad whispered to me quietly.

“I’ll learn and do it next time.”

I politely declined.

But looking at Dad’s face that showed something similar to resolve, it seemed that I might end up with that braided hair sooner or later.

‘…Let’s consider it as catching up on nine years of filial piety.’

Even if it exhausted me just thinking about it… I sat still like a doll, blinking my eyes.

Then my gaze naturally drifted to Eciel.

Unlike me, who had no preference and no idea what to choose, Eciel seemed to have many things she wanted to do. She was enjoying herself, playing with dolls.

That was the most surprising thing in this house.

‘According to Dad, this isn’t such a big city that it couldn’t supply us with what we need.’

Wasn’t this enough?

To a nine-year-old girl dreaming of being a princess in a fairy tale, it was more than enough.

It was a moment to think about the consumption level and income level of the nobility, and the standards of reasonable consumption.

Eciel chose a hat.

“I want this one!”

I suddenly came to my senses at her decisive choice.

Wasn’t she the one who kept laying out two or three of what she thought was the prettiest and kept hesitating?

Why the sudden rush to choose a hat…?

Dad also seemed slightly puzzled and frowned a little. It seemed like he thought she didn’t notice anything else because she was in a hurry to get it.

But Eciel smiled broadly and turned to me.

“Claire, our hats are like twins!”

Only then did I take a closer look at Eciel’s hat.