Chapter 67
Chapter 67
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: One More Chance
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Follow me! I’m gonna give you a real scolding back at the monastery!”
Irina grabbed Toby by the wrist.
She tried to lead him back to the monastery herself.
“Ow— that hurts!”
“How dare you abuse the rules? You’ve always been too clever for your own good!”
Toby scowled as he was dragged along.
He huffed in a voice thick with anger.
“I have to do this just to eat and survive!”
We looked down at the 14-year-old boy with uneasy expressions.
A kid with an unusual obsession with money.
He had trauma from the poor life at the monastery and the adults around him.
“Already abandoned and now this pisses me off...”
Toby hung his head.
He muttered in a quivering voice.
“Abandoned?”
When I asked again, Irina came over to me.
She whispered quietly.
“Toby was disowned once before. That’s probably why.”
“Did the kid do something wrong?”
“I heard Toby didn’t do anything wrong. His family just fell on hard times and cast him out.”
He’d already been abandoned by his birth parents once.
Then betrayed by his second set of adoptive parents.
“Kids who’ve been disowned once can’t get re-adopted. People assume there’s something wrong with them.”
Irina looked pityingly at Toby, who had his head bowed low.
I felt the same.
“I thought he was just a budding little thug...”
But.
Even so, I couldn’t forgive all the mischief he’d caused so far.
If we let him off now, he’d grow up into a full-fledged fence for stolen goods.
“Kid.”
I strode over to him.
Overwhelmed by the height difference and the pressure of my presence, he shrank back.
To such a boy, I said flatly.
“No matter the circumstances, stealing is wrong. If you’ve sinned, you have to seek forgiveness.”
“I know, but...”
The boy mumbled evasively in response.
He knew he was wrong, but he had no choice for survival.
“Toby, I get how you feel.”
Irina came closer too.
She gently took both of his hands.
“I grew up pretty much on my own too, as a kid.”
“You too, sis...?”
Irina looked refined and well-off at first glance.
Hearing that she’d grown up alone, the boy peeked up at her.
“Yeah, due to circumstances, I hardly ever saw my father, and my mother passed from illness.”
The Second Imperial Princess gave a bitter smile.
She gently caressed the cheek of the boy she’d struck earlier.
“Even though I had inherited wealth and status, all the adults around me wanted to take it away.”
The princess’s emerald eyes sparkled.
“Like those awful people who donated money only to take it back and leave the monastery in debt.”
The boy stared blankly at that light.
As if he could feel the sincerity in her words.
“I’ll make sure nothing like that happens again.”
Her promise to right the donors’ wrongs.
At those words, Toby’s teary eyes went wide.
“Really?”
“Of course—I’m a very important person. Starting tomorrow, I’ll make new rules.”
The boy bit his lip.
She claimed she’d slash away decades of entrenched laws in the territory with a single stroke.
He couldn’t believe it.
“I promise.”
The princess held out her pinky to the boy.
And declared confidently.
“I’ll set this territory straight—nay, the entire empire.”
Sunlight filtered into the shady back alley.
That light soon fell faintly on the princess’s silver hair.
“Won’t you believe in adults just one more time?”
Was it the halo effect?
The princess’s smile shone more brilliantly than usual.
“...”
The 14-year-old boy stared blankly at that smile.
Then, looking away, he muttered quietly.
“Okay...”
The boy raised his pinky and made the promise with her.
“I’ll pretend I’m getting fooled one more time, whatever...”
A pint-sized fence who deserved a beating with a stick.
Irina had persuaded him with nothing but her smile.
“Alright, shall we head back to the monastery now? You have to return the stolen goods.”
The princess gently took Toby’s hand.
“No running away, got it?”
“Okay...”
Toby mumbled, his face flushed.
He stood up with them.
‘Yeah, that’s Irina for you.’
Overwhelming authority.
Lavish wealth.
Even without all that, the reason I’d chosen her in my past life.
It was her deep empathy, her desire to understand others’ circumstances.
That’s why she came back to me in my previous life, when I’d fallen alone and desolate.
“Veil, mind grabbing Toby’s other hand?”
With a smile tugging at my lips, I joined them.
I lightly took Toby’s remaining hand.
A boy who’d never had anyone hold his hand before.
The warmth from both sides felt unfamiliar, so he looked back and forth between us.
“But... what’s the deal with you two? You can just scrap the rules like that...”
Irina’s lips curved up.
She rolled her eyes playfully and replied coolly.
“Hmm—well, we’re people with really high status.”
“Seriously? Like you’re princesses or something?”
A sharp question, fitting for a kid who’d twisted the law to his advantage.
But soon, the boy chuckled and shook his head.
“Nah, couldn’t be.”
Irina tilted her head at his quick denial.
“Why not?”
“’Cause princesses don’t come out of the palace much. And I heard they’re super noble and radiant-looking.”
Toby’s face lit up in rapture, imagining the Second Imperial Princess.
Irina pouted at him.
She asked slyly.
“So, you’re saying I don’t look like a princess?”
“No, you’re pretty too, sis...”
Toby shyly glanced up at Irina’s figure.
Then, like before, his face reddened and he looked away.
“But you seem more like a pretty noble lady than a princess.”
Hearing that, Irina looked down at herself.
In her knit top and leggings, she didn’t exactly scream royalty.
“And princesses don’t go around in casual clothes with their boyfriends, right?”
Toby glanced indifferently up at me as he said it.
“Boyfriend...?!”
Irina let go of Toby’s hand in surprise.
She covered her twitching lips with both hands.
But soon, her lips stopped firmly in place.
“Kid, there are things you can say and things you can’t.”
I glared down at him with a stern, menacing look.
“Who’d do something as dangerous as dating a princess...”
Ridiculous.
A knight from commoner stock, daring to court royalty?
“Veil, don’t scare the kid like that.”
Irina pouted.
She cut me off with a prim expression.
“He’s only 14. He can say stuff like that.”
“This is the sharp kid who was collecting protection money in the back alleys until just now...”
No matter what I said, Irina fussed over Toby like he was a lucky charm.
The quick-witted boy grinned and added.
“You’re not lovers? You had your arms linked at the theater earlier—”
I let out a deep sigh.
And warned the boy firmly.
“Listen up, kid. This lady is way beyond someone like me.”
I closed my eyes and coldly erased those fantasies from my mind.
Toby replied nonchalantly.
“She’s the strong one? Like a married couple, then.”
“Married couple—?!”
Irina’s face turned red.
Unlike my calm self, she pressed a hand to her chest to steady herself.
“My parents were like that too—Mom had way higher status than Dad.”
We both tilted our heads.
The boy shrugged nonchalantly.
“Every night, Dad would beg in bed for mercy today, and Mom would be like, ‘How dare you act up...’”
The princess jumped in shock at his words.
She was so flustered that her ponytail twitched like a tail.
“W-what is this kid saying?!”
Irina’s pale face flushed red.
Toby looked up at me innocently and asked back.
“So what are you two, then? Not boyfriend, and from the clothes, not guards either—”
“...”
Ignoring the boy’s question, I tried to walk on silently.
But when even Irina eyed me slyly, I finally sighed deeply.
“Just friends who know each other.”
Just friends who know each other.
At the dry label, Irina muttered to herself.
“Just friends who know each other...”
Toby glanced at her.
He patted her shoulder and comforted her deftly.
“It’s okay, sis. Relationships always start as friends anyway.”
‘This punk doesn’t seem 14...’
Grown up rough, Toby was overly mature.
Well, that’s why he’d abused the rules.
“We’re here, so enough chit-chat.”
While the two whispered.
We’d arrived at the monastery before we knew it.
At the entrance, the Mother Superior waited for the tardy Toby.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Having finally calmed down, Irina met the Mother Superior with the boy.
She returned the stolen goods and said.
“Make sure he goes around apologizing to every single person he stole from tomorrow.”
“Do I have to go that far...? It’s kinda embarrassing...”
Irina lightly tapped Toby on the crown of his head.
She made sure the lesson stuck.
“Of course. Did you think I’d let it slide quietly?”
Thanks to the new knight order, perhaps.
The Second Imperial Princess now had more responsibilities to shoulder herself.
She felt more grown-up than in my previous life.
Like a kind mother.
I watched her fondly.
“Veil, sorry to keep you waiting.”
Irina emerged from the monastery with a calm expression again.
She came to my side.
“Not at all.”
Irina smiled brightly with her hands behind her back.
We walked side by side to the fountain where we’d first met.
“I had a really great time today.”
“Yes, thanks to you, I got to see a lot of interesting sights.”
Standing before the fountain, the princess quietly gazed at the red horizon.
The sun sank, dripping lava.
As if our time together was ending.
“Sorry, I took up so much of your time we barely did any patrolling.”
The Second Imperial Princess looked up at me steadily.
Was it the sunset glow?
Her eyes were tinged red, shining softly.
“No, thanks to you, we fixed those abused rules.”
I showed her a genuine smile for the first time in a while.
“It was an honor to see you act like a true sovereign.”
Irina stared blankly at my smile.
Then, as if resolving something, she curved her lips up.
“Yeah, thanks for saying that.”
Irina shyly covered her lips with the back of her hand.
She looked up at me steadily and asked.
“Guess it’s time to go, huh...?”
“I’ll escort you back to the mansion.”
Perhaps because we could spend a bit more time together.
Irina edged closer to my side cautiously.
But...
Soon, she locked eyes with Dasha signaling from behind the fountain.
Dasha touched her chest and made a cross sign.
I caught it instantly.
*The palace summons you.*
As her guard from my previous life, I knew her signals well.
“Sorry, looks like I’ll have to skip the escort this time.”
“Understood. Please head in.”
I nodded understandingly right away.
She hurried off to Dasha.
But midway, she stopped abruptly...
And turned back to me with a wistful look.
“Veil.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Irina’s lips trembled.
Swallowing it, she mustered her courage and spoke.
“Can we patrol together again next time?”
I looked at her silently.
The princess averted her gaze and mumbled.
“Y-you know, the patrol we didn’t finish today. We could pick it up next time...”
A cool night breeze blew.
The stray locks by her face swayed gently.
I gazed at those soft ripples.
Then, smiling faintly, I replied.
“Yes, let’s patrol together next time too.”
The princess’s somewhat tense expression.
It brightened like the sunset sun.
“Thanks.”
The princess smiled broadly, satisfied.
And left with Dasha.
To the imperial palace that had summoned her.