Arora looked set on helping me move the gifts. I felt weird making a child work for me but neither Eulisses nor Arora let me lift anything.
"Arora... Are you sure that it's not too heavy for you? You can put it down. Eulisses and I will take care of it."
Arora shook her head and lifted a huge package as if nothing. I was taken aback for a second and wondered how strong that child was.
"Do you perhaps have powers?"
It must have been a lighter package but it didn't look light and she carried it without any difficulty. It was rather impressive. Even I struggled moving the packages. Not that I was the most in shape person in the mansion but still. At least I was an adult.
"The doctor said you should rest, dad.
-Sit down, Mister Sliske. We will take care of this.
-Sit down? Where?"
I looked around myself. I couldn't even move my body and just looked as far behind as my head could go. Seeing me puzzled, Arora put down what she was carrying before making me space on top of a package to sit. She then grabbed my hand and helped me to the new found chair as if I was a dying person.
"I'm okay. I won't die from walking around a bit. I'll help you."
Arora and Eulisses shot me murderous glares. I never saw a child look at me like that before. I was never very serene around children before and seeing one of them angry made me immediately sit down. I had seen a lot of horror movies. Children were more dangerous than we thought!
"I'll just stay here."
Arora immediately got her smile back which made me realize how pathetic I was to fear a literal child.
"Just leave it to us, dad. We will take care of these."
Therefore I just sat there, on a not so stable package, and watched Eulisses and Arora carry as many gifts out the room as their arms could carry. It seemed some knights took pity on the child because when they came back, three nights were following them. Eulisses looked rather grumpy but he accepted the help without complaint. It took them long minutes but they finally managed to get most of the presents into another room.
By the time I could move again, I grabbed Arora and forced her to stop:
"That's enough for today.
-But... There's still a lot of packages left.
-At least we can move around now. Why don't we open one of the packages?"
Arora's eyes started sparkling and I let her choose which package she wanted to open. Her only problem was choosing. There were so many she could choose from that she just rushed from one to the other. She shook all the packages before coming back to the first one:
"May we open this one?
-Of course."
I let Arora open the package and what we saw inside was a red fabric. None of us knew what it was at first but it hit me way before it hit Arora:
"Wait!"
I jumped on the package and being taken by my momentum, I completely fell over it. Arora immediately jumped up, worried and she rushed to me to help me stand up:
"Dad! Are you okay? What happened? Should I call the doctor? Do you feel sick?"
Seeing her panic, I quickly shook my head:
"I'm fine. I just lost my balance."
While Arora was focused on me, I quickly hid the lingerie behind my back. Eulisses understood what was going on and took the lingerie out of my hands before switching out the package with another one.
"Did you feel sick suddenly? I am so sorry, I shouldn't have stayed so long.
-No, no. It's not your fault. I really just lost my balance. I'm the opposite of a flamingo."
Arora didn't believe me and forced me to lie down. Once again, this child was way stronger than she looked! Fortunately Arora completely forgot about the package and she left me to rest. Seeing me overpowered, I could feel Eulisses's gaze on my face:
"I couldn't say no.
-I didn't say anything, Mister Sliske.
-I can hear your thoughts from here. She was panicking, I couldn't say no.
-If you say so, Mister.
-Hey! I really couldn't.
-I believe you.
-It doesn't sound like it."
Eulisses ignored my grumbling and took the red lingerie out from behind his back:
"Should I put this in your wardrobe?"
Seeing the red fabric, I immediately jumped up and snatched it away from Eulisses, my cheeks red:
"That crazy! Why would he send me something like that?"
Eulisses didn't answer. I put the lingerie back into the package and suddenly realized something. I looked at all the packages left in the room and wondered if some of them had such shameful things in them as well. Not that I had anything against lingerie but having it gifted to me by that man sent shivers down my spine.
It was like Schrödinger's cat. As long as I didn't open all these packages, it was as if all of them contained lingerie. Or even worse! Despite Arora having left me to rest, I couldn't relax at all. I couldn't ignore the gifts even if I wanted to. The sofa was covered in packages, as well as all the chairs, the table...
Eulisses felt my frustration and he tried his best to calm me down:
"I am sure that it was a mistake.
-No. I think he did it on purpose. He must have wanted to humiliate me.
-You are married and you even have a child together. Why would that be humiliating?
-But I don't want to be married!"
I quickly shook my head:
"Anyway, we don't plan on having another child and having intimacy with him outside of that is not on the table either. He has no reason to send me this other than annoy me. And he succeeded!"
Seeing me get angry, Eulisses tried his best to calm me down:
"His Highness the Grand Duke said that he took an interest in you. Maybe this is his way of trying to make it up to you."
I raised an eyebrow:
"And you believed that?"
Eulisses pinched his lips:
"I don't wish to speculate but maybe he felt it was time for another child.
-With me?"
Eulisses tilted his head:
"Who else?
-Naha. Not happening. If he wants a child he should adopt one. Or have one with a second wife or I don't know what they are called."
Eulisses looked shocked:
"Mister, you shouldn't wish for such a thing. That would mean you wouldn't be the Duke's only wife anymore.
-I don't want to be his wife in the first place."
Eulisses looked agitated, trying to think of something to say:
"What will you do if His Highness the Duke takes another wife? That would be humiliating.
-That would be the happiest day of my life.
-You wouldn't have as much power as you have now.
-What power? I can't go anywhere without being spied on. I don't care. Seeing how he treats Arora, he should never have had children. I am not going to give birth ever. I am going on strike!"
I grabbed the lingerie and put it back into the package that I had opened.
"Mister Sliske? What are you doing?"
I struggled to jump to the window and by the time I got there I was already out of breath. My ankle hurt really bad by then but I didn't care anymore. I opened the window and threw the package out without hesitation. What I heard next however was a painful cry and I immediately looked down. What I saw was a knight, sitting on the ground, the package at his feet.