What Universe is This Again?

VI

It's amusing how she sang it, although she's scared. He silently listened to her song and pretended to sleep.

He can feel her picking his hair after seeing him asleep. He didn't mind, though. He just let her be and kept his eyes closed.

"That is unusual; he does not usually show himself uncomposed."

What is Felix saying?

"Your song had to have worked, princess."

"Bah. that tone-deafening song?" Yhan snickers and laughs outside.

"Ugh, if he had not insisted, I would not be singing that."

He can see the panic on Athy's face.

However, Felix revealing their history was a setback.

"Actually, I also lost my mother at a young age, though not as young as your highnesses," Felix said, his voice trembling. It is the first time he has heard him speak in this manner.

"My mother was also His Majesty's nanny, so His Majesty and I are, in a sense, Bosom brothers."

Felix... was almost like a brother to him. A friend who was with him when everyone betrayed him. Also, his most trusted man.

"To be honest, I resented my mom when I was young. She spent more time with his Majesty than me. So after she passed away, i used to say I didn't miss her at all. I really didn't think i'd miss her. Since she didn't spend that much time with me while she was alive. I didn't feel her absence very much."

He continued to listen.

"By chance, one day, I was staring at a handkerchief... It had my name embroidered on it, made by my mother when she was alive."

His daughter continued to mess with his hair.

He can make Felix shut up if he wants, but hearing his daughter's hesitation and the way her hand trembled while listening, Claude realized what she would been keeping in her tiny body of her.

"I began to cry because I despise my mother; she was nothing more than a name or a distant image to me... but in reality, I was missing her."

He could hear Yhan's soft sigh.

"Mother, huh," Yhan said again. "We can not relate; we are better off as orphans."

The coldness and distance in his voice made Claude want to wake up.

"We are born not knowing our mother's face, poorly treated in the ruby palace—finally meeting the father we only heard about from the maids... If... we were given a chance..."

Claude's heart ached as he heard Yhan's soulful voice.

"We would like to live somewhere where we could start a family."

Being unable to trust. Being unable to do anything other than go with the flow.

They have matured early.

That was his thinking.

And he is the one to blame.

"You know..." Athy's voice echoed, "When I told you, I didn't want to see mommy, I lied."

Felix and Yhan remained silent.

"But I still have Daddy, so I didn't need to cry anymore."

"I'm here too." Yhan looked at the throne and stared at his sister.

"I am not alone anymore." Athy happily spoke and felt a bit drowsy.

"Does your Highnesses have a wish?"