Chapter 75
75. My Adolescent Daughter (1)
[Episode 75] – My Adolescent Daughter (1)
My heart keeps getting depressed these days just looking at Bangsho’s hair.
At one point, I was overcome with sadness and even tears welled up in my eyes. She tried to smile to forget her overwhelming sorrow, but to no avail.
“……”
“…Stop staring.”
“Oh, sorry. Even I did not know.”
I tried to look down at the papers on the desk. But, what do you do when your eyes keep wandering? I don’t want to see it again and again.
Isn’t it said that all humans are attracted to shiny things? This is because, in my experience in life, shiny things are often valuable – I remember reading somewhere.
However, stealing my gaze was never worth it. It could not be sold anywhere, and it was something that could not be boasted to anyone. Still, it keeps grabbing my attention…
I smiled shyly and looked at Bangsho.
“Well, do your best. It looks much neater compared to the days when the top of the head was messy and had hair only on both sides. Are there any black glasses to block out the sun? I think it would be perfect if you use it.”
“If you continue to do this, I will resign as minister.”
“hehehe.”
Bangshow’s scalp looks like it’s completely peeled off and shining.
Since last year, hair loss has progressed rapidly, and Bangshow finally made a big decision yesterday. Right away, a huge decision to shave the last remaining hair and go bald.
Until yesterday, there were definitely hairs left on both sides of Bangsho’s head, but when I arrived at the office today, wasn’t Bangsho completely shaved? I smiled bitterly and looked at Bang Shaw’s face. Oh, that’s crazy.
“Human beings are so strange, isn’t it? All the hair on his head fell out, but his beard was plentiful. It’s the hair that grows on the same head. How can the beard stay and the hair…”
“I think the time has come to take out the retirement letter that I have kept in my pocket.”
“Nongilse. Please don’t stop.”
So today, Bang Shaw became completely bald.
That’s also a bald beard with only a long beard left. He tried to ask why he didn’t trim his beard, but he couldn’t ask because it seemed like Bang Shaw’s last pride. Yes, if there is no top, you must raise the bottom as well.
If this place were in the Orient, passers-by would mistake Bangsho for a freshman and bow their heads. Isn’t the time really brutal? When I first saw Bang Show, half of that shiny scalp was covered with hair…
‘Well… I guess that means that much time has passed.’
Saying it’s been years, I wasn’t too concerned about it.
Obviously, this body was only 20 years old when it was possessed, but it has already passed half-fifty and turned 26 years old. In the meantime, I haven’t changed anything.
The only thing that can be said to have changed is the eyes? Recently, I’ve heard from time to time that the sharp eyes seem to have become a little gentler. Maybe it’s because she rarely frowns like Vivian and smiles every day.
Nowadays, whenever I go out to a social scene, I always hear from people I see for the first time, ‘Your Highness, contrary to rumors, has a very gentle impression.’ Of course! How hard I tried!
For these days, it was more common to receive invitations to parties and tea parties, and there were many cases in which he went out to social circles with his wife, Serena, to establish himself. Wouldn’t this be enough to change the bad perception of ‘old Vivian’?
“Mom… Stop making fun of the bang show…”
“Yes, as you said, I must stop now.”
As I struggled to hold back my laughter, Titania, who was sitting next to my desk, sighed and looked at me. Titania comes to her office and learns from me, saying that she will learn practical skills these days.
I wondered if Titania should learn this already, but Titania’s teacher said that ‘experience’ is important, and told me to watch Vinshaw and me at work once or twice a week. Is it like work experience?
I rested my chin on her chin and watched Titania beside her as she struggled to understand the papers that Vinshaw had handed me. Titania tilts her head and reads it over and over again, as if it is still difficult to understand.
‘But… It’s probably Titania who’s changed the most, not me or Bangshow.’
She smiled brightly and said, Mom, Mom, the girl she called me grew up quickly and became the thirteen-year-old ‘girl’ she calls me her mother. How tall she was, Titania, who used to come up to my waist, grew to the height of her shoulders before I knew it. Is a child’s growth so steep and rapid?
Feeling my staring gaze, Titania lifted her head and looked at me.
“…? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“My daughter always looks pretty.”
“…Even if you say that, I won’t sleep with my mother anymore. You know it’s time for me to have my own room, right? Compared to my peers, I am far behind.”
“Yes, yes. I know. By the way, are you used to sleeping alone now?”
“That, that is… Not yet…”
Titania started sharing a room with me after last month. It had happened at a tea party hosted by Titania last month.
Knowing that among her peers, she was the only one sleeping with her mother up to this age, Titania blushed and declared that she would use each room with me.
At the sudden declaration of each other, I said that you were still young and sleeping with me was not embarrassing, and that you shouldn’t be bothered by other people’s gazes, but Titania was different.
Despite my worrying advice from her, Titania insisted on me and said she would use each room. It was Titania who left my room and went back to the room she used as a child, but she didn’t know how to sleep alone yet, so she suffered from lack of sleep every day.
“I told you. You still don’t know how to sleep alone. What does it mean that a child who can’t sleep unless I hug her suddenly wants to use each room…”
“Oh, Mother…!”
“Do you think I don’t know that you ordered a big pillow for Ellie instead of hugging me? So? Can you fall asleep hugging that big pillow? I can’t sleep, so my eyes are dark. Do you think sleeping habits are so easy to fix?”
Titania, her face flushed red, her shoulders trembled. Either way, I patted Titania’s dark circles under her eyes and let out a sigh. A princess tired of not being able to sleep…
“Really, is this the kind of face a princess would have?! Look in the mirror! Who are you going to blame if you have health problems like this?!”
“Ah, ah, please give me!”
I stroked Titania under her eyes for a long time, then pulled her cheeks in irritation. Titania begged me to let go of her cheeks in agony, but I tortured her by pulling her cheeks even more.
“You have to go to the academy dormitory for the next year anyway. From then on, it is not too late to tame the habit of sleeping alone. Sleeping habits aren’t that easy to fix, are they?”
“……”
I placed both of Titania’s stretched cheeks and stroked her reddened skin. As soon as the word academy was mentioned, Titania pouted her lips sullenly. I tapped Titania on the protruding lips and looked down at the papers again.
These days, whenever she talked about her academy, Titania always pouted her lips.
The reason is, of course…
“…You still don’t want to go to the academy?”
“……”
Because Titania doesn’t want to go to the academy. Anyone would hate it if she left this royal castle where she had lived her entire life and went to live in a foreign country for three years.
I also fully understood Titania’s feelings, but the academy was not a place I could not go to.
A place to learn about the social life of the nobility, build connections with various aristocrats, and learn all sorts of knowledge. That was the kingdom’s academy.
Regarding knowledge, I was able to teach Titania enough in the royal castle, but the part related to her personal connections was inevitable even in the royal castle.
Because blood ties, regional ties, and school ties are important even in this world. No, because it was a world like this, it was especially important.
There was just one thing that I felt was really important while hanging out with Mrs. Serena. No matter how much the queen is, there is a wall that cannot be easily overcome in the social world.
That was Jiyeon, the academy’s academic relationship.
The thick walls of academic ties built up through personal connections among the aristocrats I met since childhood were not something I could easily overcome, even if I was sitting in the position of queen of this country.
“…There is still time, so think about it. If you say you really hate it even then, let’s think about it again then.”
“……Yes.”
I lightly stroked Titania’s head after she nodded, then resumed my work. As I was taking a short break after the afternoon routine, Titania hesitantly handed me an envelope.
“…? What is it?”
“That… It’s a letter from Viola. I’m inviting you to a family party…”
“Really?”
I calmly opened the party invitation that Viola had sent to Titania.
Viola, the daughter of Mrs. Serena, seemed to have been correspondence with Titania ever since the hunting competition held when she was ten years old.
Viola is also the daughter of Mrs. Serena, and since she is Titania’s first friend, I haven’t interfered much between the two until now, but…
This seemed a little bit interfering.
From noble mtl dot com
When I read the invitation to the party, one of my eyebrows twitched involuntarily. I had no idea what to say about going to a party. But the theme of the party…
“…Masquerade?”
“…Go, is it okay if I go?”