I Became The Stepmother Of An Irrevocable Dark Family

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Chapter 72

At his words, Rere nodded.

“Yes! Let’s go there!”

According to the novel, she met the Crown Prince there. It was planned by the Emperor. Therefore, there’s no way I could view the Emperor in a good light. Now I know why I got a little relaxed when I met him.

‘Because I didn’t think highly of him. I wasn’t worried about looking good in front of the person who would harass Rere.’

That’s the only conclusion that came to my mind.

“Hoho. You’re a brave princess. Then I’ll let a maid accompany you. Please come back safely.”

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At the time, I hurriedly intervened.

“I will go with my child, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor, who had been pretending to be a caring person and showing his benevolent smile, suddenly tensed.

“My, my. Seems like you’re afraid to leave your child alone, Duchess.”

The tactless Duke grabbed my wrist. Since I wasn’t the one who grabbed his hand, I shook it off easily and replied with my utmost courtesy.

“Even so, she’s still too young, so I feel uncomfortable if I can’t see her around.”

“Other people will think you’re truly a mother and daughter.”

“Because she is my precious daughter.”

“Daughter, huh?”

The Emperor kept trying to block me as if he really didn’t want me to leave my spot.

“You seem to really care about the Princess.”

It sounded to me he was saying ‘Why are you going too far when you’re not even her real mother?’
.
“Right. She’s a child that I cherish more than my life.”

“She will be too dependent on you if you keep her close all the time.”

Eventually, his true colors showed up.

“Rather, I think it can have a worse impact if you force us apart at a time like this.”

I did not lose a word while putting on my best smile. The Emperor had given me permission to be at ease near him anyway, so I spoke my mind without hesitation.

The Emperor also stared at me intently, his mouth twitching as if he wanted to retort.

At that moment,

Rere got up from her seat first and grabbed my hand.

“Your Majesty! I want to go with my mom!”

Whether she read the atmosphere or noticed that I wanted to go with her, Rere opened her mouth again.

“If my mom is not coming with me, then I won’t go either. Whenever I see pretty things, I feel the happiest when I see them with my mom!”

In this situation, Rere was way better than the useless Duke.

The Emperor, who had been alternating his gaze between me and the Duke, hurriedly relaxed his expression. Perhaps he wanted to be a kind person only in front of Rere.

“My my. Looking at it like this, I feel like I’m a wicked villain who separates a mother and daughter, so you may do as you please.”

“Thank you.”

I forced myself to smile knowing so well the kind of person the Emperor was.

It was when I rose from my seat and held Rere’s hand tightly.

“Take the Princess and the Duchess there.”

“Yes. Your Majesty.”

A maid approached us as soon as the Emperor raised his hand.

When Rere and I stood from our seats, the servant took the lead as if asking us to follow her.
Before following her, I briefly turned my head and looked back at the Emperor and the Duke.

The two men, who had been busy conversing, were staring at us.

I turned my back to those people and quickly left the room. The door where I came in opened and closed again, only then did I feel comfortable.

Perhaps excited, Rere jumped up and down.

“Garden, garden, pretty garden!”

“Rere.”

“Yeah! Mom.”

“You’ve been calling me Mom ever since we arrived here.”

“Because you are my mom! Ehehe~ If people in the palace know that my mom is a cute flower bunny, they might want to have you. That’s why I should call you Mom.”

“Rere. By the way.”

“Yeah!”

“What kind of man do you like?”

“Hmm… As for Rere… someone who’s like Big Bunny!”

Usually, children would want someone who resembled their father, but Rere clasped my hand tightly.

“Someone like Mom?”

“A gentle and kind person. Someone who only loves me and only looks at me!! Hehe~ But I don’t think such a person exists, so I’m just going to be single.”

“Huh? Suddenly?”

“Mom was upset last time.”

Memories of the past suddenly passed my mind. As I was busy musing on the past, Rere clenched her small fists strongly.

“So I made up my mind. I won’t let my mom be disappointed. I’m fine even if I don’t have a man!”

Rere looked brighter than ever while flailing her arms back and forth.

“All I need is my mom!”

I couldn’t hold back my smile.

“Thank you for saying that.”

“I’m serious!”

She nodded her small head eagerly as if showing her sincerity. I don’t care about other things. I’m content as long as Rere said that.

‘Of course, she might have a change of heart after meeting the Crown Prince…’

I put a little force in my hand that held Rere’s. Even if it was an inevitable future, I promise to protect you.

In the meantime, my line of vision spread widely. We arrived at the green garden after leaving the stuffy palace. That alone was sufficient to release my frustration.

“Woah!”

Rere already ran into the garden as soon as she saw it. The maid smiled slightly and took a step closer to me.

“This is where His Majesty the Emperor asked me to bring you.”

The Emperor was right. The vast garden was very beautiful at a glance. There was a large and beautiful tree in the middle, and the garden was filled with a variety of flowers which were neatly assorted within each area.

“Mom, come on! There are so many pretty flowers!”

The Duchy’s garden was large enough and filled with flowers, but this place exuded an entirely different feeling. I couldn’t believe there was such a big garden between buildings.

“Come on!”

Rere urged me because she couldn’t wait to look around.

“There are so many flowers!!”

“Yup! There’s a lot everywhere!”

But then,

“If you go toward the beautiful tree over there, you can find more amazing flowers.”

The maid was quite far from us now, yet butted in as if she didn’t want to miss her chance.

“Ah! She said there are more beautiful things over there!”

Rere looked at the said beautiful tree admiringly. But instead of that beautiful tree, I noticed something near its top.

The young Crown Prince was clearly climbing that tree.

How can I not see when the leaves were falling abundantly from the thick branches?

Leaves fell each time he moved.

“Let’s go!”

“Rere, there’s a lot of pretty flowers over here, too. Do we really have to go there?”

“Ung! I wanna go!”

Rere was busy dragging me there. If we go there, we will eventually meet the Crown Prince. But even though I knew that, I couldn’t stop heading there.

Somehow I got the feeling that nothing would happen.

“Okay. Let’s go over there and take a look.”

My anxiety surged when the excited Rere led me there. It was inevitable to deal with the Crown Prince, who would appear anytime.

‘There’s definitely a difference from the novel. According to the original novel, Rere should’ve come here with the Duke. She fell in love at first sight with the Crown Prince.’

The engagement took place due to interest. The Emperor needed Duke Petri’s backing, and Rere really fell in love with the Crown Prince.

The fact that she became the Crown Prince’s fianceé itself made her ecstatic as if she was on cloud nine, but eventually, she turned evil due to unrequited love.

‘It’d be fine as long as I changed that.’

I lifted my head slightly to look up at the tree. He pretended to not notice us, but it was clear that he had been waiting for us.

No, to be exact, he waited for the right time to strike up a conversation. However, contrary to his expectations, Rere was circling around the tree.

She wanted to make a flower crown for me.

“The flowers here are prettier!”

“Really?”

“Yup, yup! There are so many flowers I haven’t seen!”

Rere was distracted by the flowers. This made the Crown Prince, who was reading a book leisurely while perched on a branch, direct his attention at us for quite a while.

How funny it was to see him stealing glances at us.

‘In the original story, Rere was the one who found him first.’

Rere didn’t mind him at all, so time passed by just like that.

“Whoa, Mom! I’m sweating a lot!”

“Really?”

“Ta-da!”

Rere sprang up and put a flower crown on top of my head. She looked happier than ever.

“My flower bunny is so pretty!”

“Do you think so?”

“Yeah! Hehe. By the way, it’s so hot here. Let’s go home so Flower Bunny can play with Little Bunny!”

Rere called herself Little Bunny and grinned as she shook the dirt off her dress.

“Let’s go now!”

“Ah, really?”

“Yeah! Do you want to stay here? Gosh, if Flower Bunny wants it, I have to listen to her!”

“No! I’ll make my Rere a flower crown from roses in our rose garden! How colorful!”

“Yippie! Then let’s go now!”

I grabbed Rere’s hand so I could lead her away from the beautiful tree. But just as we were about to turn around, a loud thump came from behind the tree.

“Who’s coming into my garden and being so loud?”

I didn’t think it was supposed to be like this….but not that I cared anyway.

I hurriedly turned around and looked at the Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince greatly resembled the Emperor. Anyone could tell that he was a noble child. It looked to me that there was a ‘I’m the Crown Prince’ tag on his forehead.

“Oh, I’m sorry. His Majesty allowed us to come here. I didn’t know it was owned by someone else. Just in time, we were about to leave.”

“…A-Are you leaving already?”

The Crown Prince was a little bigger than Rere and was puzzled by my adamant answer.

“Yes. Rere’s going to leave too, right?”

“Yeah! I’m going back to my daddy.”

Rere’s reaction was also unexpected. She paid no attention to the Crown Prince at all.

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