No, how could they skip over something this important!?
She felt like grilling the author of the book if she ever had the chance to meet them.
Since the book described everything from Princess Ellia’s point of view, many events were brushed over and only later explained with a “Actually, this happened back then….” sort of note.
She never imagined such a huge event was buried inside one of those skipped parts.
She understood why it had been left out, though.
It wasn’t something Princess Ellia had caused—this was something tied to the previous generation. And after that, the Berndt family didn’t appear again.
Besides, Princess Ellia had just lost her own parents at the time. It made sense that she didn’t have the energy to worry about someone else’s tragedy.
Ellie had also been thrown into chaos the moment she possessed this body, with the king and queen’s deaths and the funeral all happening at once.
But the fact that this was a “world inside a book” helped a lot.
Events she had already seen or already knew about allowed her to step back and watch from a safer distance.
Thankfully. It allowed her not to overlook what happened to Cleus.
“What did the late king and queen do?”
“They suddenly summoned my parents to the palace at night. It was raining, too…”
“And then?”
“On such a dangerous night, the two of them rode hard toward the palace… and had an accident on the way. They died.”
It wasn’t the worst-case scenario of the king and queen ordering a direct execution, but if they hadn’t called them that night, the tragedy never would have happened.
Only then did Ellie understand Cleus’s cold gaze.
If not for the late king and queen, that accident wouldn’t have happened. He had suddenly lost his parents. How shocked and devastated he must have been.
But the ones he blamed were dead. So that anger had nowhere to go and ended up shifting to someone unrelated—Ellie.
“How old are you, Duke Berndt?”
“I’m eight.”
He was only one year older than she was.
It must have been far too heavy a burden for a child.
Ellie was overwhelmed at suddenly having to become queen one day, and the young duke must have felt something similar. Neither of them were old enough for the roles they had to carry.
Princess Ellia was pitiful, and Cleus was pitiful too.
“You’re so young, but you’ve had such difficult things happen…”
“I’m not young!”
Cleus gritted his teeth and yelled.
“No, we are young. Kids should be allowed to be kids.”
If you don’t act like a child when you’re young, you won’t grow up properly later.
“A duke must not be childish.”
“But I’m supposed to become queen, and I’m still a kid.”
“You’re a year younger than me.”
“Then how can you not know that kids should be allowed to be kids? You’re older by one whole year and you understand it even less than I do!”
In a world under age twenty, a year’s difference mattered a lot.
Ellie was so frustrated that she ignored the taboo completely.
Even Cleus, who always tried to act mature, couldn’t keep calm when his age advantage was dismissed.
“How could you say that to someone a whole year older!”
“Seven or eight! When we’re a hundred, being a hundred or a hundred and one will feel the same!”
Ellie shouted back.
“Ninety-nine and a hundred are VERY different!”
Cleus refused to back down.
The two children glared at each other, huffing and puffing.
Then Cleus suddenly remembered he shouldn’t act like this toward the princess who would become queen, and he shut his mouth. But the anger didn’t cool.
She was a whole year younger, yet treating him—who had to stand as the duke already—as a child. He was furious.
His stomach churned, but Cleus pressed his lips together, holding himself back like he’d done many times before.
Seeing him like that made Ellie even more discouraged.
She meant to comfort him, but everything had gone horribly wrong.
“So…”
Cleus waited with an angry expression. One more mistake and he looked ready to flip the table and storm out.
Seeing those cold eyes, Ellie shrank even more.
The harder she tried, the more it felt like slipping on an oily floor—everything sliding in the wrong direction.
This isn’t what I meant. This isn’t what I meant…
Ellie’s voice wavered.
“It must have been… so hard for you…”
That wasn’t what Cleus expected.
He froze like someone had smacked the back of his head.
Since Cleus didn’t answer, Ellie misunderstood and thought she’d made him even angrier, and tears welled up.
“But I can’t remember anything e–either… and it was because of Ellia’s mom and dad, the king and queen, so that makes me even sorrier…”
“……”
Cleus kept his mouth tightly shut.
As the duke, he didn’t know how to react.
If Cleus forgave Ellia now, the royal family would gain an advantage—they could win over the Berndt household, their biggest potential enemy.
But he could tell Ellie wasn’t calculating anything like that.
As a duke, he should refuse her apology. But his heart was already halfway to forgiving her.
She said she had no memories. It wasn’t even her fault.
Cleus’s heart shook as unsteadily as the baby tooth he’d recently lost.
“I—I’m sorreeee!”
The tears that had been pooling in her eyes finally spilled over.
Ellie burst into tears.
Cleus gasped in shock.
“N-no, Your Highness…!”
His panicked voice only made Ellie cry louder.
She hadn’t meant to upset him or fluster him.
She just felt sorry for him. She just wanted to comfort him.
But she was living as Princess Ellia now, so the responsibility was hers too.
And what happened to Cleus’s parents wasn’t an accident caused by weather or fate—the king and queen had summoned them, and the tragedy happened because of that. The only thing she could say for such a loss was an apology.
“Y-Your Highness, you don’t need to apologize for—”
Ellia didn’t know anything back then. But she was royalty. The only daughter of the king and queen who caused the tragedy.
If anyone should apologize to the Berndt family, it was her.
But when Cleus actually received the apology, his mind went blank.
Ellie kept apologizing through her tears.
“B-but still, I’m just sorry for everything… f-for making you remember, a-and also… for calling you out to drink tea even though you must hate the royal family… sniff…”
Cleus tried to answer politely out of habit, wanting to say that wasn’t the case, but then his throat tightened. Ellia’s words were painfully true.
It was the first time someone else had spoken his heart for him.
Like something poking at his organs under his ribs. And at the same time, like a huge warm hand wrapping around him, giving him warmth.
His face grew hot. His eyes stung. His nose prickled like he’d eaten something spicy.
…Oh.
So this is the feeling you get right before crying.
Cleus always thought he was someone who didn’t cry.
When he first heard the news of his parents’ deaths, at the funeral, even when everyone whispered about him—he had stayed cold and expressionless.
He never had to hold back tears; they simply never came.
But seeing Ellia cry so hard in front of him… her tears must have rubbed off on him.
“P-please d-don’t cry…”
Cleus’s voice shook.
“I can’t help iiit…!”
“S-still… ugh—”
A tear rolled down Cleus’s cheek.
Only the first drop was heavy.
The moment it fell, all the tears he’d been holding back poured out at once.
Ellie had been right.
Cleus was just a kid too.
“Waaah…”
“Hnghhh…!”
The two children cried loudly for a long, long time.
*****
Cleus went back with his pride badly hurt.
‘I did NOT accept Your Highness’s apology just because I cried!’
After he stopped crying, he actually got even angrier.
Ellie hadn’t been hurt by it—she had only cried because she felt sorry for Cleus. But the people around her didn’t stay quiet.
“For His Highness to shed tears for him, and yet he stood there so stiff! That is not the heart of a loyal subject. It’s rebellion!”
“The Berndt family’s grudge won’t be light. They’re such a strict and stubborn house that they’ll pass that resentment down for generations.”
“Your Highness, keeping the Duke of Berndt close could be dangerous. So please don’t trouble yourself and forget about it. The late king already completed all compensation measures.”
Everyone said the same thing: it would take a long time for his heart to heal, so she shouldn’t worry too much.
They were sweet, comforting words. If she followed them, she probably would feel much better.
But Ellie thought of her brother.
Her brother made mistakes often. Sometimes he accidentally hurt her feelings.
Whenever that happened, he tried his very best to cheer her up until she smiled again.
“But even so, until your feelings are better, you’re still unhappy.”
Thinking that far, Ellie shook her head.
If she let this go, Cleus would have to keep living with his anger and resentment.
When her brother upset her, the one who suffered the most was Ellie herself—holding onto that hurt and sulking. She knew exactly how painful that was.
“I’m going to inherit the throne, so it’s right that I take responsibility for the royal family too.”
Ellie had already made up her mind.
She would ease Cleus’s heart—no matter what it took.
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