NOVEL WEB Chapter 26: Dead Week Continues
Lucillia
Some time after breakfast~
"Mama!" [Lucillia]
"Yes?" [Corinna]
"Nothing~." [Lucillia]
"Okay then." [Corinna]
Hehe~.
An indeterminate amount of time later~
"Mama!" [Lucillia]
"Yes? Are you going to tell me what is it this time?" [Corinna]
"Nope!" [Lucillia]
"Hmm, okay then." [Corinna]
Eheheh~.
A slightly more determinate amount of time later~
"Mam-waagh?!" [Lucillia]
"What's gotten into you today, hm? Why are you so silly? Was it your sisters? Or was it something that you ate? You better tell me or else I'll have to keep removing the silly myself." [Corinna]
"BWUuuhBWUUuhHBWUhhbwuhbuwhbwuh-BLULULULU!" [Lucillia]
"Oh, you escaped it. Well done." [Corinna]
Waahh, Mama's a boolie!
"Well? Was there anything you actually wanted to say or were you just trying to distract me from work?" [Corinna]
"Uhhh, maybe?" [Lucillila]
"Was that an answer for the first question or the second one?" [Corinna]
"I dunno." [Lucillia]
"Hmmm. Well when you do, just let me know, okay?" [Corinna]
"Kay." [Lucillia]
"Good. Now let me finish this stack and go back to being cu-" [Corinna]
"MAMA!" [Lucillia]
"...Haha, yes sweetie?" [Corinna]
"How long is next week?" [Lucillia]
"'How long is next week', you ask?" [Corinna]
"Mhm!" [Lucillia]
"Let's see. Today is the 13th of Second Autumn and your sister will becoming back on the 17th. Can you tell me how long it'll be until then?" [Corinna]
"FOUR!" [Lucillia]
"Four what?" [Corinna]
"Four minutes!" [Lucillia]
"Noooo, four days." [Corinna]
"Booo." [Lucillia]
"Relax. Time will go by nice and quick. By the time they're here, you won't even realize it's been a couple days." [Corinna]
"But life is so boring!" [Lucillia]
"Hey now, if you've only been around for about six months now. How are you going to live out the rest of your life if you're bored already?" [Corinna]
"Mama's boring, but Mama's still alive. If Mama can do it, I can do it, too!" [Lucillia]
"Excuse me, young lady, is that how you talk about your mother while you're talking to your mother?" [Corinna]
"Uhuh." [Lucillia]
"Hmmm...you really hate making my life easy, do you?" [Corinna]
"Yup!" [Lucillia]
"Well, that clearly makes you a naughty child, and naughty children must BE PUNISHED!" [Corinna]
"Waaaaa-bwuhBWUH, bwuhBWUH-BWUHHH" [Lucillia]
Not the face, not the face! My cheeks aren't supposed to pull that way!!
"HNNNNGGGG!!!" [Lucillia]
"Allllmost there. Just a little more and you'll be free~." [Corinna]
Must...escape! Push...FORWARD, I mean, BACKWARD!!!
"Bwuuuuuu-WAHHHHH!!!!!" [Lucillia]
RUN AWAY!! RUN FROM THE BIG MEANIEEEE!!! RUN FOR YOUR LI-OOF?!!
"AHA! I knew something fishy was going on here!" [Silvania]
"Actually, that's just Mira." [Caelenia]
"My apologies, Your Highnesses." [Mira]
"Nah, you're fine." [Caelenia]
"More importantly, what do you think you're doing?!" [Silvania]
"Playing with a child in need of entertainment?" [Corinna]
"Hmph, are you sure about that? All I can is YOU bullying my sister!" [Silvania]
"Excuse me, she's my daughter." [Corinna]
"Well, she's your daughter AND my sister, and clearly, she's suffering in your company!" [Silvania]
"What are you talking about? She's having a great time. See? Just a bit cheeky is all." [Corinna]
"Bwuuuuuhhhh." [Lucillia]
Waah, my cheeks!
"In what world do you call that joy?!" [Silvania]
"This world, obviously." [Corinna]
"Not anymore!" [Silvania]
Waah, my comfy seat!
"She'll be much happier with us. I'll show you!" [Silvania]
I don't know what that means, but I don't think I like the sound of it!
"If you really want babysit that bad, all you have to do-" [Corinna]
*Zoom goes the dragon, and slam goes the door!*
WAHHH!!! I'm being dragon-napped again!!
"-is just ask...Haah, good lord. Who in the world raised those girls to be like that?" [Corinna]
...
"Oh wait, I did. Teehee." [Corinna]
.....
Bleh.
"Alright. Great job, Silvie. You've kidnapped our little sister. Did you think about what to do after the fact, hm? You do realize that you're the one who has to take care of her for the day now, right?" [Caelenia]
"Uhh...no?" [Silvania]
"Of course. Welp, consider this one of your final lessons on being a big sister." [Caelenia]
Ooh, shiny rock.
"The first important thing to keep in mind is to never let the child out of your sight." [Caelenia]
There's another one!
"Very important that you can always see them, because if you can see them, you can see what shenanigans they're up to." [Caelenia]
There's more over here!
"And if you know what shenanigans they're up to, you can start the damage control before its too late." [Caelenia]
There's so many! It never ends!!
"Plus, if they somehow end up hurting themselves, you can to come in, save the day, and you'll be their hero for a whole five minutes...maybe." [Caelenia]
MOAR! GIMME MOAR SHINIES!!!
"But more importantly, you can catch them in time if they try to run away. You should already know how slippy they get." [Caelenia]
"Mhm, mhmmm...can you repeat that last part again?" [Silvania]
"Nope. Finish your last sentence and put the notebooks away. Your pop quiz starts in five seconds. Five-" [Caelenia]
"Nononono, I'm not ready yet!" [Silvania]
"Four~" [Caelenia]
"STOOOOO-" [Silvania]
"Threetwoone, start! Oh, by the way, you're already failing." [Caelenia]
"Eh?" [Silvania]
"Take a gooood look around." [Caelenia]
"...*panik*" [Silvania]
Mwahaha!! I've conquered the shinies! But this isn't enough. I demand MOA-eh? What's this leaf doing here and why does it look so suspicious?
*sniff sniff*
Hmm, it smells kinda suspicious, too...I wonder if it tastes suspicious. Only one way to find out!
*CHOMP*
Wahh?! It moved!
*CHOMP*
It moved again! Stop it! Stop it right now!!
Come back here!!!
While the little dragon embarked on a wild leaf chase, the slightly-not-as-little dragon had the wondrous task of chasing the little one to the point where the two literally ran many circles that somehow exhibited concentricity around the garden.
Even better, the concentric circles were all the same diameter!
The chase continued for a grand total of 17 minutes. In that time, they drew exactly 17 circles around the garden, and since the diameter of those circles happened to be a precise 25.4821Some of you use commas rather than periods to denote decimals depending on your region. To clear that up, you can read this as 'twenty five and a half meters'. Plus, common sense dictates that the circles being twenty-five thousand meters wide would be oddly doable for our dragons but not very practical. meters, the dragons were running at exactly 17 meters per second (61 km/h)!
In other words, they ran 17 circles in 17 minutes at a speed of 17 meters per second. Outrageous! Truly, truly outrageous. But perhaps the most outrageous detail was that the suspicious leaf was never caught! It ran and ran until the little dragon could run no more.
When the sister dragon finally caught up to her, the little one was not only back where they started, but she had also ended up in the arms of a strange-er, plant. A strange plant. With arms. And booba. And what seems to be a maid outfit made from colorful petals.
"HALP!" [Lucillia]
The child was subjected to only the most devious of punishments within her prison. Punishments such as: tail massages, chin scratches, and above all, headpats! The touch of plant felt a bit alien to the little one, but once she realized that her predicament was just an ordinary day for her, she ceased resistance.
After all, she's received headpats from a bunch of dragons, a fish, a spider, a few whales, somehow a turtle, and now a plant.
In any case, the situation was not anything particularly unique nor perilous to the tiny one. The perpetrator this time was also someone the sister dragon was very intimate with, so the aftermath was fairly tolerable.
"More, MOAR!!" [Lucillia]
"I'm doing my best." [Plant Lady]
"Cinthiya! Let her go right now!" [Silvania]
"And why should I do that, hm?" [Plant Lady Cinthiya]
"Because I'm your boss!" [Silvania]
"And I'm your nanny. That puts me at a higher position than you." [Cinthiya]
"That's not how it works!" [Silvania]
"Really? We ought to discuss that with your mother then. But that can wait for another time. Have you any idea how long I've been waiting to meet our new princess?" [Cinthiya]
"Uh...six months?" [Silvania]
"Precisely. I thought I might take matters into my own hands at this point." [Cinthiya]
"But you don't have hands." [Silvania]
"Hush, child." [Cinthiya]
So hushed the child. The smaller child, on the other hand, was becoming rather allured by a certain scent of an alluring nature. 'Twas sweet. Too sweet. Almost as if it was biologically designed to be that way.
Meh. That didn't matter to the little one. What mattered was the source of the sweet scent and how to access it. But unfortunately, her current position made the search for the precious source a bit...inconclusive.
Struggle as she might, there was no breaking through the network of definitely-not-vines hands that held her in place.
The sister dragon was also unable to better the situation and could only hope salvation would come when the others caught up, which happened about two minutes later.
Soon enough, the older sister dragon and a fishy maid arrived at the scene.
"Yo. How's the babysitting going?" [Caelenia]
"Terrible." [Silvania]
"Why's that? Because the job you took yourself turned to be different from what you expected?" [Caelenia]
"No. It's because a giant plant's trying to steal my job!" [Silvania]
"Larry's out here? I thought he only stayed in your room." [Caelenia]
"No not Larry, I meant this one!" [Silvania]
Both finger and tail pointed their pointers at the plant lady to be pointed at. The plant lady being pointed at by the tail and finger whose pointers were pointing at her responded by pointing her own pointers at the dragon that was pointing pointers at her with pointers. At that point, the tiny dragon, who of course had no idea what was going on, pointed her own pointers at the sister dragon, the plant lady, and even herself, such that the three were pointing their own pointers at each other while being pointed at by pointers from each other.2English is fun, smiley.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the pointing of the pointers ended when the older sister dragon bonked the heads of the two so-called adults and booped the little one's nose.
Reeling from the shock, the plant lady set loose the little one for a few seconds before the fishy maid captured her with the allure of a cookie.
"Look, I know the two of you might be babies compared to me, but you don't have to act like it every time." [Caelenia]
Headpats. Headpats for the child from the older sister dragon that happens to be older than the younger sister dragon and the plant lady combined.
"I mean, don't get me wrong, you girls are technically adults, but you really can't call yourselves that until you join the five-digits club." [Caelenia]
Another cookie for the child as well. Make sure to wipe off the crumbs on her mouth!
"But hey, it never hurts to start a little early. Just look at Mira. She's barely a couple hundred years old, but she's got it all under control." [Caelenia]
Tail pats! Pat the tail, scratch the tail! Full massage to the tail!!!
"*happy dragon noises*" [Lucillia]
"So how come Lia doesn't get a lecture?!" [Silvania]
"She's an actual baby?" [Caelenia]
"Fwahhh~...zzzz..." [Lucillia]
Nap time, shhh~.
Mira
Heh.
Is it odd that I find this rare moment of peace rather...unsettling? That, despite the one time of the day where I may afford a break, I cannot help but worry a bit?
There is nothing wrong, of course. I just feel the way I do.
Just as this little one cannot help but sow chaos and some amount of destruction wherever she goes, I cannot help but worry whenever she is not. Silence has now become something of an oddity, but that too is quite normal for her.
Hmm, I understand that my worries are for naught, but I still worry all the same. It seems my mind understands clearly what my heart does not.
I cannot say this is the first time I have felt this way, but this certainly is the first time I am experiencing it in such magnitude.
While I may have ran an orphanage in the past, most of the children were largely capable of fending for themselves already, and whenever they could not, some of the older ones such as Alex would step in. I hardly needed to lift a fin aside from providing shelter and food.
But now I am the caretaker for a very young child who requires a near constant amount of attention. The oddity here is that she does not require an extra caretaker in the first place. In other words, I am the oddity.
She does not need physical protection, for it would take a miracle to harm her.
She does not need food, for she does not need to eat to survive.
She does not need company, for her family already provides plenty.
And yet, she cannot part with me for more than a single day.
So I often wonder. I wonder why Her Majesty decided to place me in this position. The others, my colleagues, they all came here willingly. They all made the choice to leave their previous lives to venture forth to this distant land. Some of them were even born here.
But I...I did not come here by my own choice. I only washed ashore after leaving my former home. The circumstances demanded it. I am a drifter, a product of decisions that were not my own. I am only here because I had nowhere else to go, and Her Majesty's generosity exceeds what I deserve.
How could she trust me with her newborn child if I was the one who left behind those children in the orphanage? How could she trust me when I cannot even remotely compare in age nor power with the others? I am a mere speck of ash and dust in this house. I could not even break through the materials used to build it if I wanted to.
But still I must carry on and fulfill the duties I have been given, and now, I must especially do so for Her Highness' sake. I have begun to look forward to the next day again. I have been told that my smile has even started to show itself once more, though I hardly remember the last time I did that.
I do not deserve this life. I have done nothing to earn any of this comfort. But, every time I try to voice my thoughts to Her Majesty, she brushes them away and entrusts me with more tasks instead.
It would be a fitting punishment for speaking out of line were it not for the...comedic nature of those tasks. But regardless of how I feel, orders are orders, and they must be completed.
Recently, however, she has only tasked me with two things: taking care of the little one napping on my lap, and safeguarding the rather large cookie jar Her Majesty returned home with a few days ago.
I hear Her Highness had been missing her sister dearly, so the two of them went off to visit. In the process of doing so, it seems she ended making her first friend that was her age.
How I wish I could have borne witness to that moment, but alas, I am not her mother. I am but her nanny as my colleague put it. It surely must have been the most heartwarming of happenings.
It is truly strange.
Every one of my thoughts, every single doubt I ever had, they all seem to disappear whenever this little one is around. Whenever she is, the only thing that comes to mind is how I can maintain the smile on her face. And conversely, it seems that her duty, albeit unintentionally, is to maintain the smile on my own face.
I suppose the both of us have had enough of the days where stoicism was the norm. It certainly gets boring after a while. I wonder how Her Majesty keeps up such a life.
"fwahhh~.....mmm?" [Lucillia]
But anyways, the days to come are to be filled with nothing but smiles and cheer, and I shall endeavor to keep it that way.
"!! Miraaaaa~! Cookieee~." [Lucillia]
"Here you go, Your Highness." [Mira]
"Eheheh~, om nom nom..." [Lucillia]
May this be the beginning of our lifetime of smiles together.
