Weeping Men: The Innocent Princess's Secret Delight - Chapter 1.9
Kaizen turned his head creakily. The Princess standing behind him had her head tilted to the side.
“Was the one you were meeting a puppy?”
His mind went blank at her question.
To be caught taking care of a stray dog after refusing Her Highness’s order with a false excuse. There could be no greater disrespect than this.
“It’s a capital offense…”
“No, no, Sir Pentmian.”
As he was about to kneel, a gentle hand stopped him. The Princess raised his half-bent body and gently urged:
“Rather than an apology, I’d like to hear the answer to my question.”
“…Yes, it is. I’m sorry.”
It was even more frightening. Kaizen affirmed with a miserable feeling.
‘If she strikes me, I’ll have to take it.’
Wouldn’t such a thing naturally come if she felt disrespected? Kaizen prepared for the familiar impact.
At last, the Princess moved. Kaizen gritted his teeth to avoid showing pain…
“I see. I want to see Sir Pentmian’s friend too!”
…but it wasn’t necessary.
Kaizen was dumbfounded. While he was in a daze, she even sat down completely and, like Kaizen earlier, put her head to the ground searching for the puppy.
“It doesn’t seem to be here—”
Belatedly panicking, he quickly raised the Princess up.
“What if you get scratched or hurt your head doing that!”
“But I was just doing what Sir Pentmian was doing?”
How many times has she sent chills down his spine since her first appearance? Kaizen’s lips trembled slightly as he asked the question.
“…From where did you see?”
“From when you were going ‘choo choo choo choo choo.'”
That’s from the very beginning. He swallowed hard, suppressing a sigh.
“…I disobeyed Your Highness’s order with an excuse. Please give me an appropriate punishment.”
“That’s alright.”
“I’m also sorry for showing you an unsightly appearance.”
“That’s fine too.”
“…Shamelessly, I have a request. Please… don’t tell anyone about my actions.”
“I understand!”
Though none of it was honorable, the Princess accepted everything willingly. She showed no signs of displeasure. Rather, she seemed delighted.
‘She must find me amusing…’
As the feeling of embarrassment and bewilderment faded, only shame remained. Kaizen tried to change the subject, avoiding as much as possible the spectacle he had shown. He felt his face might turn red at this rate.
He believed that if Her Highness was as kind and considerate as she seemed, she would cooperate in changing the topic.
“Why didn’t you go to the secret place?”
“Just because. Oh, maybe I wanted to see Sir Pentmian like this?”
“…If you have any business with me in the future, please just call for me.”
“I don’t want to. If I did that, I might have gone my whole life without knowing this side of Sir Pentmian, right?”
However, he failed to get her cooperation, almost to a mischievous degree. Kaizen ended up being even more flustered than when his appearance was discovered.
‘Was she always like this…?’
When Kaizen fell silent, Judith took the initiative to change the subject.
Kaizen would never realize in his lifetime that she had hurriedly changed the topic, startled at the possibility of her true nature being revealed.
“So why isn’t the puppy here?”
“Ah, well.”
Kaizen’s words began to flow. He had a desire to explain, and being worried about the puppy, his words became long-winded.
“A few days ago, I saw the puppy here. It seems that originally, a servant managing this warehouse was feeding it. But when the warehouse came under the knights’ jurisdiction, there seems to have been a personnel change. Naturally, the puppy ended up going hungry. So, to take responsibility, I’ve been coming by to feed it on the same day I met it. But since our first meeting, I haven’t been able to see it at all…”
He stopped talking, realizing he had spoken more than was typical for him.
‘What am I doing, excitedly chattering away… I should be reprimanded for lying to Her Highness, let alone this.’
He kept making mistakes. He anxiously observed the Princess.
Contrary to Kaizen’s uneasy state of mind, her eyes were sparkling. Far from finding his chatter strange, she looked as if she had barely heard it.
“Your Highness?”
“Was it really a puppy that lived here?”
When he called out to her, slightly deflated, an excited question came back.
“…? Yes.”
“Then, could it possibly be?!”
When he nodded reflexively, her reaction became even more intense. Clasping her hands together and bouncing on the spot, the excited Princess exclaimed:
“That child might be the one I was taking care of!”
“…Pardon?”
Your Highness had a pet? I’ve never heard anything about that.
When he questioned, she added with an excited air:
“I had a child I was secretly feeding! But at some point, it disappeared… So it was here!”
Pure happiness bloomed across her face. It was a smile that infected even those who saw it with joy.
Kaizen, caught up in the happiness, chimed in. He was unaware that the barrier had lowered significantly due to the sense of kinship as the puppy’s caretaker and the vicarious satisfaction from seeing someone reunite with their lost puppy.
“So it was the puppy Your Highness was taking care of. It must have been so cute, taking after its owner…”
“…”
Only when he saw his reflection in her wide-open jade-colored eyes did he realize what he had just said.
This time, his face flushed hot before he could suppress it. He covered his face clumsily with the back of his hand and averted his gaze.
“—Hmm. You’re saying it was cute like me?”
“…Shall we start by looking for where that child is?”
He attempted to change the subject, but it didn’t seem likely that she would cooperate, given how she had been subtly teasing him all this time.
The entity that resolved this awkward situation appeared from an unexpected place.
Rustle.
There was a sound from the bushes behind. Turning around, they saw the puppy crawling towards the food, then stopping abruptly in surprise upon seeing the two of them. It was the white-furred puppy he hadn’t seen since that time.
“Puppy!”
Of course, he was glad to see it. But his joy couldn’t compare to what the Princess felt.
She immediately crouched down and spread her arms towards the puppy. Naturally, he thought the puppy would run to her and express the joy of reunion.
Crunch, crunch.
However, the puppy, after assessing the situation, buried its snout in the food bowl.
“…”
Listening to the sound of the puppy crunching on the food, the Princess wore a dejected expression.
Kaizen perfectly understood that feeling. The puppy from before had no loyalty when it came to food either.
“Nngh.”
Even after finishing its meal, the puppy approached Kaizen’s feet, burying its nose and sniffing. Its tail wagged gently. The Princess looked even more dejected.
Kaizen picked up the puppy and stroked it, offering clumsy consolation.
“It seems its memory is hazy because it’s been too long. Once you spend some time together, it will quickly become familiar again.”
“…I suppose so?”
She alternated between looking at Kaizen’s expressionless face and his gentle hands that seemed to move independently, then suddenly made up her mind.
“I can’t just abandon a child that I’ve cared for.”
“Then…?”
“I’ll take it in! Father will allow it too, don’t you think?”
