CH 23
After leaving the Male Protagonist behind, we arrived in the garden. The garden was more beautiful than I expected. It was shining brightly with a variety of colors, which was enough to fill my inner achromatic colors.

I looked around the garden as much as I could and ate the meals that Winston prepared, but didn’t drink the cocoa prepared for me.

“What do you want to do now?”

“Study.”

“Then shall we go to the room?”

“Ah! No, I’m going to my mom’s Office.”

Winston stopped walking at that remark.

I was sure he didn’t want me to go because there was an incident like that yesterday.

‘I’m also a little reluctant about it.’

But that didn’t mean I could keep avoiding going to the Office.

‘More than anything, I want to be the first to greet everyone when they come back.’

It was a little embarrassing, but when they return, I wanted to greet them ‘Welcome back’.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“It’s my mom’s room…”

The end of the conversation was a little blurred, but Winston naturally turned the wheelchair to the second floor without asking any more questions.

“How do I get up to the second floor?”

When I pointed to the wheelchair and asked him, he lifted the wheelchair I was in, saying there was no need for me to get out of it.

“Winston?”

What’s going on?

No matter how light I was, I couldn’t believe he lifted a wheelchair in one go.

The bewildered eyes moved around.

I felt a little scared so I held onto my wheelchair. Then, I heard Winston’s voice telling me not to worry.

“Even if I’m like this, I have a great strength. Even if there is an incident, I will sacrifice my body to save you. So don’t worry too much.”

“Then Winston gets hurt?”

“It won’t happen anyway.”

Even when you feel uncomfortable with your hands…

He grinned at my back.

Fortunately, it was true when he said he was confident in his strength, and so reaching the end of the stairs was a quick climb.

Of course, when I entered my mother’s Office, the body I saw yesterday had disappeared.

“There. That’s my seat.”

A small silver desk next to a large desk.

I removed the chair in front, replaced the chair with a wheelchair, and opened the book on my desk.

While I was studying with Winston for such a long time, the clock started to shine.

‘It’s not an assassin or an intruder again, is it?’

As I flinched and trembled at the male protagonist’s memory who appeared with that light, I felt a gaze and looked up.

“Nothing that you might worry about will ever happen again.”

“My worries?”

“In order not to put you in danger again, everyone took a steady step.”

With these words, Winston said to look at the clock and glanced at it.

I tightly grabbed the pen I was holding and slowly raised my head as if I made up my mind to look there.

As soon as the light disappeared, Lennox and Ricarda appeared in front of it.

The two smiled and tried to greet me, but they were stunned and froze on the spot.

“Lennox? Ricarda?”

Seeing their strangely stiff face, I tilted my head, and at that moment, I could hear a small laugh behind me.

What is it?

Looking at winston’s laughing, it doesn’t seem to be a bad situation. It was not until I tilted my head again to look at them that I noticed that their eyes were on the wheelchair.

“Oh, that’s right! It’s said that the chair was prepared from the beginning?”

My voice popped up from the childish stupidity and embarrassment that arose from my mind.

The two finally warmed up to the sound of my voice and glanced at each other.

And the first one to open his mouth was Lennox.

“No, I’m sure Rica said the wheelchair wasn’t ready. What’s going on here?”

“Obviously Hyung said it wasn’t ready. Where did it come from?”

“You two are saying opposite things right now.”

Lennox blamed Ricarda, Ricarda blamed Lennox, and at my words, they finally closed their mouths with a surprised look.

“You both deceived me.”

As soon as I continued, the two shook their heads from side to side.

“No! What are you talking about?”

“Yes, absolutely not, Daphne! So… actually… mother!”

As if he wanted to add something, his eyes curled up.

The moment Lennox tried to blame mother for this situation, the clock flashed again, and she returned. She looked a little tired, but she greeted me with a smile on her mouth.

But the moment she saw me, her eyes shook as if there was an earthquake.

“Did you have a good… day?”

With that, mother’s words were blurred.

The red eyes momentarily showed embarrassment and disappeared.

You told me that facial expressions are important.

I watched her changing expressions from beginning to end and felt a late strangeness.

Of course, my mother smiled and said to Lennox and Ricarda, as if she was never embarrassed.

“Oh, my God. If the wheelchair was already prepared, couldn’t you have said that to me, kids?”

Even mom turned the blame on both of them.

At those words, Lennox and Ricarda looked at me in bewilderment. The two’s expressions of injustice and mother’s confident eyes contrasted.

I stared at those three and took a deep sigh.

Winston, impatient at my sigh, burst into laughter with a loud noise.

“Pfft-Pfft. Do you know that all three of you are saying different things?”

“Everyone knew and deceived me.”

And without even knowing that, I kept being held around.

Again, I took a deep sigh.

The three people who had flinched at the sigh, exchanged glances and laughed awkwardly.

“Just because I thought that carrying you around in my arms would make you more stable… that’s why I did it.”

“I did it because I was afraid Daphne would be cold!”

“I did it because I wanted to carry my baby around.”

As if they had given up on changing subject, they are now piling their excuses.

When Ricarda, Lennox, and Mom’s excuses continued, I laughed as if I had no choice.

“What’s that?”

Even the excuses that they took out to save themselves were because they were worried about me.

If they are this warm-hearted, I can’t get angry at them anymore.

For some reason, I had a hunch that I could make a natural smile now.

Not the awkward smile that I practiced looking in the mirror one day, but a kind of smile that could come out naturally without shaking.

So I smiled with the feeling that I felt right now.

Curl your eyes and gently lift your mouth so that you can return back the smile that they showered upon you.

“Welcome back home.”

Lennox blinked wildly at my smile.

Ricarda fumbled and rubbed his eyes asking if he saw something wrong.

My mom opened her eyes wide and smiled with me.

And she answered me.

“Yes, I’m back.”

Mom came up to me and opened her arms.

I asked you to hug me until yesterday, but today my mom asked for a hug first.

And I like my mom’s arms, too.

I rationalized myself and was held tightly in my mother’s arms.

So what if you’re a little embarrassed and shy?

I like it.

As if they had finally came back to their senses when they saw me being held in mother’s arms, Lennox and Ricarda also greeted me.

“I’m home, Daphne.”

“Me too, me too. I’m back!”

Soon after, the Office could be filled with everyone’s laughter.

Of course, my smile was included in it.

***

“No.”

Winston’s report, about how the day was yesterday, seemed to have reached her.

With breakfast in front, my mother said firmly not to ever go near that boy.

“But it’s cold and lonely there…”

“But if I said you can’t then you can’t. You don’t know yet how dangerous a child who grew up as an assassin is.”

When she said that because she worried for me, I had a thought that I would not be able to get her permission even if I tried to be stubborn until the end.

My mother’s attitude was stronger than I thought.

‘First of all, I have to get close to him and…be nice to him…’

In addition, he may skip his meals again….

I don’t think he is going to take his meals if I don’t go.

Looking at the warm breakfast in front of me, I raised my head. Mom was looking at me with a determined look.

I also spoke with a firm expression.

“Then I’ll use my wish! My second wish.”

“Daphne.”

Lennox tried to stop me, but Ricarda dissuaded him, saying they should hear it first.

“I want to use the second wish to spend time with him, and I’m sure he’s going to starve without me, and he might be scared being there.”

As if she found my words naïve, my mother sighed.

“Even if the brainwashing was cleared, something dangerous will remain unchanged.”

Upon her worried voice, Lennox and Ricarda nodded hard like they sympathized her words.

“Baby, Mom doesn’t want you to get hurt anymore. The marks on your neck still haven’t disappeared.”

“He didn’t do it. And I promised him that I’d visit him again.”

My mother’s eyes headed for a dainty handkerchief around my neck.

Under the cute pink handkerchief, there were still bruises left from the man’s strangulation last night, which was enough to worry about.

I understood why my family was worried, but I couldn’t back down on this opinion.

“It’s because I can’t wait to be friends with him.”

“Friend? He’s an assassin…”

“I’m not going into the cage, and I’m not going to open it. If you’re worried, I’ll only go there when I’m with someone else!”

As my words continued, my mom just listened quietly.

Then Lennox next to me tried to persuade me as if the permission shouldn’t be allowed.

“But if he doesn’t change, and still threatens us, when that time comes, even I’ll give up.”

“Do you feel sorry for him?”

“A little bit.”

Finally, with my final words, she surrendered.

“It’s your wish, so you can have it your way. But you have to keep your word.”

“Yes!”

Lennox frowned upon my mother’s permission and my ecstatic response.

“Mother, but…”

“And Ricarda, stay with her today.”

“Yes…?”

But it’s mother’s turn today…

Ricarda nodded his head as he sensibly looked at mother, Lennox, and me at once.

“I’ll go and make sure it’s clearly taken care off.”

I guess you’re going to check if the brainwashing magic worked out well.

Anyway, with a little excitement after my second wish came true, I told Ricarda.

“Ricarda! Come on, let’s go.”

“Wait, you have to have your morning breakfast.”

“Ah!”

The hand, that was spoon-feeding the soup, got faster.

The reason the soup was especially delicious today, was probably because of my mood.