I Live With My Villain Uncle Chapter 13

I stopped short.

Realizing I was pointing at my sky-blue collar, I puffed out my cheeks sulkily.

“It’s not a bib. It’s a collar. This is supposed to represent the sky. The dress is the flowers, and the socks are supposed to be grass, but there wasn’t any green, so Zenda said to make it grass covered in snow.”

“Whatever……. Then why are your shoes pitch-black?”

Oh, Uncle. How could he not know that?

He didn’t have even the slightest sense of fashion.

I focused on explaining rather than caring whether Uncle’s face was getting more and more crumpled.

“Uncle, you don’t know that either? It’s dirt. You need dirt for grass and flowers to grow.”

“Then is your hair a rain cloud?”

“…….”

I was so shocked by those words that I stopped walking toward Uncle.

……H-how could he say something so mean?

“Go back and tell Zenda to dress you properly.”

Properly? But I looked so pretty like this!

I stomped my foot angrily.

“I-I’m going to wear this. They said that as long as I brought a handkerchief and wore my bag properly, I could wear whatever I wanted.”

“Fine. Do whatever you want.”

Even then, Uncle didn’t look particularly interested. He crooked a finger, signaling me to come closer.

“Uncle, did you see the present I gave you yesterday?”

“Would I have?”

“Huh? I told Reto to put it on your desk. You didn’t see it?”

“Who knows? I think I might have.”

Worried that I might not even get to show him and that he might have lost it, I anxiously shifted from foot to foot and spoke hurriedly.

“Look for it carefully later, okay? I told him to put it in the middle of your desk. It’s a square box like this, with blue and purple and yellow all over it.”

“I’ll think about it.”

His tone was annoying, but Uncle looked really cool today.

His uniform looked similar to the one Mom wore to work every day, except there seemed to be a lot more decorations on his.

When I approached him, Uncle hung something around my neck.

“Uncle, but what is this?”

I opened my eyes wide and looked at him.

Before our outing to the Imperial Palace, the thing Uncle had given me was a necklace.

But the necklace was strange.

A long, rectangular gold plate, almost as big as both my palms put together, had something written on it.

[CASSEL DE REGUIER]

In huge letters.

What on earth was this?

It wasn’t even my name.

“……That’s Uncle’s name.”

And why was it so huge if it was a necklace?

While I was filled with nothing but questions, Uncle instead tapped the necklace bearing his own name with a finger and looked quite satisfied.

“Any bastard in the Empire with eyes in his head should know my name.”

“…….”

“Don’t go running around like some stray puppy just because you’re wearing this. If anyone gives you trouble, show them this. Don’t cause me any headaches.”

I held the flat, rectangular pendant in my hand, looking back and forth between it and Uncle.

This was basically a dog tag…….

“Uncle.”

“What.”

“……I’m embarrassed to wear this.”

Why did I have to wear something like this when I wasn’t even a dog?

I had gone to all that trouble to dress up nicely, and it looked like all anyone would see was this shiny gold necklace.

“Just wear it so you don’t cause trouble outside and make people deal with you.”

“I won’t cause trouble. Then can I take it off?”

“No.”

“Eeeh.”

“Go back to your room and finish getting ready. We’re leaving.”

“I’m already ready.”

“Then go wait by the carriage with Gerard.”

“……Do I really have to wear this?”

Really?

I didn’t want to wear this.

I had gotten all dressed up in my pretty clothes, and now this?

I tried to persuade him somehow, but when he threatened to attach something even bigger to my back if I took it off, I clamped my mouth shut.

Still, a necklace was better than a golden turtle!

So I had no choice but to head toward the carriage with the enormous gold necklace hanging around my neck.

It seemed to swing and bump against me with every step, making a clunking sound.

Zenda, who was supposed to come with us, seemed to be staring at me too, just like everyone else.

Zenda put me into the carriage and said she would follow behind us, telling me to have lots of fun talking with Uncle and all that.

I wanted Zenda to ride with us, but apparently she was scared to ride together with Uncle.

Before long, Uncle hopped into the carriage, and we set off.

The carriage slowly left the garden, but the moment it reached the road, it picked up speed.

Fresh green leaves flashed past us in a blur.

The sun was already high in the sky, and even with the windows closed, it felt as though I could smell the sunlight and the grass.

I reached a hand toward the window, trying to catch the fluffy white clouds that were doing their best to follow us, at least through the glass.

“Uncle, do you work at the Imperial Palace like Mom did?”

“No.”

“Mom went to the Imperial Palace every day, though.”

“She was the Prime Minister. Of course she did.”

Suddenly, I became curious.

What happened to the place Mom had left behind?

“Then who’s doing Mom’s work now?”

“The old man is handling it temporarily.”

I whipped my head around from the window.

“Grandfather?”

“Yeah.”

Then wasn’t Grandfather busy too?

Whenever I asked Grandfather to play with me, he always played with me.

Come to think of it, there had been times when Grandfather wasn’t there when I woke up in the morning, but whenever I looked for him, he would appear before long.

Grandfather must be someone who could work even faster than Mom.

“Then can I see Grandfather today too?”

“You probably will.”

After hearing that, I found myself wishing the carriage would go even faster.