---

Edgar sighed deeply as he replayed the events from earlier in his mind.

Everything was fine. Being celebrated for his birthday, receiving precious gifts, and even shedding tears from being overwhelmed—all of it was good.

However, there was one colossal problem left.

“Hey, Crybaby Ed, what are you doing?”

‘Ah, I want to die.’

It was that he had been witnessed by none other than Ariel.

While he was busy crying over a scrape from rolling down a hill, she was relentlessly teasing him all day long, calling him a crybaby while ignoring his emotional outburst.

Should he punch her or let it slide?

“I’m just sitting here.”

“Hehe, are you sulking? Did I hurt your feelings by calling you a crybaby?”

Ariel poked at him from over his shoulder, and now she had come right in front of him, stretching his cheeks.

Edgar was discovering for the first time today just how elastic his cheeks were.

“Yiff….”

“Why? If I keep this up, are you going to cry again?”

“Ugh.”

There was no escaping this. Whatever he said, she would just brush it off as ‘Crybaby Edgar’ and nothing more.

Edgar decided to shut his eyes tight and completely ignore her.

It felt a bit childish, but there was no method that worked better on kids than this.

‘If I can just ignore her for about three minutes, I’ll be clear.’

At that point, Ariel would surely be stomping her feet, begging for reconciliation.

It wasn’t like it would benefit her to turn Edgar into an enemy, seeing as she had to stay in this mansion for at least another week.

Of course, that meant she would have no one to play with.

“Crybaby Edgar? Why so quiet?”

“……”

“If you ignore me like that, do you think I’ll just hang around? Hmph.”

What’s this? Is it not working?

In truth, Edgar had never used this tactic on Ariel. He simply tried it because he heard it worked well on children.

Perhaps each individual reacts differently. If that’s the case, this was a more significant issue than he thought.

“What? Are you really going to ignore me after just a little teasing?”

“……”

Is this the mindset of a bully?

At least it was the most powerful move he had experienced from Ariel, yet she acted as if it was nothing significant.

‘How infuriating.’

It seemed he would have to uproot this behavior. It was time to set this scatterbrained princess straight.

That meant he needed to escalate his approach.

With that thought, Edgar opened his eyes wide and shot up.

Ariel, who had been poking him, naturally stumbled backward. Ouch!

“Hey, you can’t just do that!?”

Ignoring her entirely, Edgar turned and walked away.

Honestly, his heart raced with anxiety.

What if Ariel went and told Helene? That thought sent waves of fear through him.

But what could he do? He had already drawn his sword; he might as well cut something.

“Hey, Edgar! Wait up!”

“…….”

As Edgar silently opened the door, Ariel rushed over and grabbed his sleeve.

She wouldn’t be swinging a fist at him, would she?

For that lone wolf, the possibility wasn’t zero, and his heart was pounding hard.

Maintaining an air of nonchalance, Edgar turned to find tears welling up in Ariel’s eyes.

Wait a sec.

“I won’t tease you anymore… Just don’t ignore me. I’m sorry…….”

Before long, droplets of tears began streaming down Ariel’s cheeks.

She wasn’t angry; she was crying? That was an unexpected twist.

He thought she’d be the first to reach out for reconciliation, but crying was not on his radar at all.

“N-No! It’s okay! Just stop!”

“I’ve been bothering you all the time… Waaa….”

‘Well, that’s true.’

He couldn’t possibly say something like that in front of a crying child, so calming her down took precedence.

Why does this princess weep every time it’s her fault?

The problem was that her tears were the most devastating weapon against Edgar.

‘Crying is cheating.’

Is there no law against tears?

While he entertained such trivial thoughts, Edgar hurriedly took out a handkerchief and wiped away Ariel’s tears.

The translucent droplets running down her crimson eyes felt strangely out of place.

“It was just a joke. I wouldn’t get mad over something so trivial.”

While he tried to console her with utter nonsense, once the tears started falling, they showed no signs of stopping.

What if Helene came in on this situation?

‘Ugh, I don’t even want to imagine.’

Still, as he held her small body and patted her back, her shoulders gradually stopped shaking.

He almost felt like he’d have to write a will today.

Usually, when Ariel cried, it was usually because she had done something wrong, so it didn’t matter. Still, today, even that felt like a grave sin.

No matter how kind Helene was, she wouldn’t let this slide without a word.

“Stop crying, let’s go look at the stars.”

“The s-s-stars…?”

Edgar’s exuberance caught Ariel off-guard with the sudden offer.

“Tonight, the stars are supposed to shine beautifully. You like stars, right?”

“I like them, but… how did you know that?”

“Huh? I-I read it in a book?”

He hadn’t talked sense for the second time today.

Sure, he had heard that books detailing celestial bodies and star movements existed, but those books were light-years away from Edgar’s experience.

It was merely a ruse to lure Ariel outside.

He figured that some fresh air might do them good.

Fortunately, his desperate wish seemed to have reached the heavens because Ariel soon regained her smile and nodded.

The two quickly layered on more clothes and exited the mansion.

“Ed, where are we going?”

“There’s a place behind the Main Building where the stars show up well. Follow me.”

Edgar led Ariel’s hand to the stargazing room set up behind the Main Building rather than the Garden.

This area served as a residence for the users and others, and next to it was a storage shed mainly used by the gardener.

The shed towered over them, nearly too tall for an adult to reach without a ladder.

Edgar circled around the shed and smiled upon spotting what he was looking for.

“Ariel, can you step up on this?”

“Uh-huh, I think I can.”

“Alright.”

Outside the shed, several small stands were placed, no taller than the two of them.

He wasn’t sure of their exact use, but they looked like tools for tending the garden.

The two climbed up, one step at a time, until they finally reached the flat roof.

“Try lying here.”

“Isn’t it going to collapse?”

“Don’t worry. It’s strong enough.”

Confidently responding to Ariel’s anxious tone, Edgar assured her.

He had been here enough times before.

Though entirely by accident, he had often come here on nights when the stars appeared particularly bright.

Thanks to those visits, he had verified that this shed wouldn’t collapse under ordinary weight.

“Isn’t it cold?”

“A bit?”

“Then cover yourself with this.”

He draped the coat he had on over Ariel’s shoulders and lay down beside her.

“Wow—!”

“Isn’t it amazing?”

“Yeah, it looks like the stars are going to pour down.”

Unlike the usual nights Ariel would look up to the sky, lying down transformed the night sky into something vivid and close.

It felt almost as if they were covered by a blanket of night.

“How did you find this place?”

“It just came to be. Do you like it?”

“Yeah! I love it!”

Hehe.

Ariel giggled like a child and immediately stretched her hand toward the sparkling stars in front of her.

Among them, one star shone exceptionally bright, as if she were staking her claim to it.

“But why do you like stars?”

“Probably because my mom told me a story about the star prince when I was little.”

“Star prince story?”

By the way, how young is ‘little’ anyway?

Anyway, a story about a star prince.

He was curious about what content could make this rambunctious princess so captivated by stars.

‘Do stars fall in love or something?’

Edgar wracked his brain for a creative idea, yet nothing sprang forth. If anything, he almost pitied his own pitiful creativity.

He stole a glance.

As he turned his head slightly to check on Ariel, she was for some reason looking at him instead of the stars.

Fortunately, they weren’t so close that anything awkward could happen, but he was curious about her reasoning.

“Why are you looking this way? Your favorite star is over there.”

“Then why is Edgar looking this way?”

“Uh….”

That’s a good point.

Edgar scratched his cheek, feeling a bit sheepish at being caught flat-footed by a ten-year-old.

There really wasn’t an explanation. If he had to justify it, he was just curious about how wide-eyed Ariel would look while staring at the stars.

With words failing him, Edgar took a moment to find something to say and decided to return to the previous topic.

The story of the star prince. What kind of content was that?

He had taken her out with the intention of cheering her up, but since he introduced her to such a lovely place, isn’t it fair to ask for some compensation?

“Ariel, what’s the story about the star prince?”

“You’re curious?”

“Of course, I am.”

Although it felt a tad annoying to hear her create mystery out of her own curiosity, he decided to answer honestly.

Ariel sat up abruptly, wearing a mischievous grin, and said, “I can’t tell Edgar yet!”

“What? Are there conditions for telling me?”

“Yeah. Mom told me so, you know?”

If it’s Helene’s word, I guess there’s no arguing that.

Sighing sadly, Edgar nodded and turned his gaze back to the night sky, but one corner of his heart remained tickled with lingering curiosity.

It might have been better if she hadn’t mentioned it at all, but now that she had said ‘not yet,’ it made him even more curious.

Was it something more than a simple fairy tale?

“What’s so funny?”

As Edgar gazed at the starry sky above, he noticed Ariel’s stare and turned to see her watching him with that peculiar smile still on her face, which created an odd atmosphere.

The usual scatterbrained princess seemed to have vanished, and instead, it felt like she was savoring Edgar’s presence with her eyes.

“No, it’s because the stars are pretty.”

“They are indeed pretty.”

“And me?”

“Huh?”

Yes, yes.

Thanks to her unexpected question, Edgar stumbled over his words but fortunately managed to provide her with a rather satisfactory answer.

Why’s she acting like this today?

Edgar found Ariel’s increasingly unpredictable behavior rather strange.