“Hikari?”

“Lady Hikari!?”

“Uuu!”

The tears that started flowing against my will are something I can’t possibly stop on my own.

“It’s alright, Hikari, it’s alright!”

My mother desperately wipes my tears with a handkerchief, but they keep overflowing.

“Uuu… Okaashama!”

I cling to my mother, trying to somehow soothe this unbearable sadness.

“Lady Hikari truly is a kind person. To think you would cry for the sake of us commoners…”

Yuth gently strokes Nats and Luka’s heads, cherishing her children.

'No, that’s not it!'

I’m probably the same as that noble.

I died before my parents, and until today, I hadn’t truly faced it.

I didn’t forget. I did want to see them.

But because this place was so comfortable, I pushed it into the corner of my mind.

“Uuu… Mama!”

“Waaahhh!”

Before I know it, Nats and Luka start crying too, and the once quiet study is filled with the cries of children who have lost someone important.

* * *

After about ten minutes, I finally calm down. Children really do have intense emotional swings… it’s exhausting.

As I’m thinking that, Nats and Luka start whispering to each other, and after a moment, they look at me as if they’ve made up their minds.

“Lady Hikari, I’m sorry for shouting at you.”

“I’m sorry!”

They bow their heads to me at the same time, offering a proper apology.

This apology is definitely not something my mother prompted, it’s coming from their hearts.

“I forgive you!”

My answer was decided from the very beginning.

'I wonder if I’ll ever be able to truly forgive myself too…'

I, who left my parents behind—“Alright! Since we’re here, let’s stop studying for today and have the three of you play together!”

In complete contrast to earlier, my mother’s bright voice changes the atmosphere.

“Hikari, you want to play too, right?”

“I want to play!”

I give the answer my mother expects and smile innocently.

“See, Yuth? My child is a genius, so it’s perfectly fine to stop after just one hour on the first day, right?”

“Of course. At this pace, she might even finish the entire curriculum before entering the academy…”

“Hehe! Even as a joke, I’m happy you praise her like that.”

“It’s not a joke.”

'No way, I don’t want to study that much though!?'

Even a four-year-old’s curiosity has its limits, you know?

“Mother…”

Yuth notices the unease in Nats’ eyes.

“Nats, Luka, does Lady Hikari look like a bad noble to you?”

Without lecturing or forcing them, she simply asks them a pure question.

“No.”

“She seems kind.”

“…I feel the same way.”

The tears Yuth had been holding back finally spill over, and now quiet sobs echo through the study.

“I truly wish there were more people like you.”

“……”

Yuth must have cared deeply for the child who passed away.

The reason she held me earlier might not have been just because of missing Nats.

“Hikari, you might not understand yet since you’re still four, but—”

“Okaashama?”

“Stay just as you are now, and grow into someone beautiful, alright?”

“Okay!”

Wingart Hikari, daughter of a count.

I want to grow without being tainted by nobility, and just like my name, I want to shine and spread my wings.