Don’t Remember Me

“Hmmm… Ah!”

The child crinkled the bridge of her nose as if contemplating something while hugging the teddy bear, then opened her eyes wide, seemingly realizing something.
Then, before Nanny had time to catch her, she jumped up and approached Rosé.

Round light green eyes stared up at Rosé.
Rosé was taken aback by Flitta’s sudden behavior and couldn’t do anything about her.
After belatedly realizing that she was looking down at the child, she hurriedly knelt down.

It was then.
Flitta hugged Rosé’s neck.

Her sweet and savory smell, a unique smell, filled her nose.

“…!”

Rosé suddenly opened her eyes wide, startled by the warm body temperature of the child in her arms.
The head maid and the nanny were also startled that they stopped breathing.

“I remembered now!”

With her short arms wrapped around Rose’s neck, her child whispered softly.

“In the water, Rosé hugged me tightly.”

She laughed sweetly with words, ‘Hehe’, as if proud of herself for remembering.
Rosé lifted her arms that were hanging down.
And she tried to hug her little child.

Like the moment when she jumped into the lake without thinking and saved her child.

Like the moment she pulled the sinking child into her arms and held it in her arms.

“Princess, wake up!”

At that moment, as if mocking Rosé, the nanny’s shrill voice poured over the top of her head.
And the small body in her arms was pulled away by the hand of her nanny.
Rosé unknowingly reached out and tried to grab her child.

But she held nothing in her hand.
The hem of Flitta’s skirt just briefly brushed her fingertips.

“You’re hugging a lowly maid?! Didn’t I always tell you? Since the princess is of noble blood in Guinters, always act accordingly.
But you are acting immature and reckless again.”

“I, I, just want to thank her….
Because Rosé saved me.”

Flitta’s voice trembled as if she was frightened.
Rosé turned her head towards Flitta.
She saw her child stammering as the nanny held her by one arm, and she continued to say something.

“So, I’m glad to meet her….”

Flitta struggled to explain the reason for her behavior, but Nanny snorted at Flitta’s words.

“Did you hug the maid? Could it be that even with her high education, her ‘low blood’ could not be helped?”

“… !”

Rosé’s expression froze at the contemptuous words that came out of the nanny’s mouth.
At the same time, the head maid shouted bitterly at her nurse.

“Mrs.
Miguel, that’s harsh! Isn’t you, the nanny of the Princess follow Her Highness’s commands?”

After hearing the head maid’s words, the nanny sighed and shut her mouth, as if realizing that it was only then that she, Flitta, and Rose weren’t the only ones here.
She then looked around the room for no reason and took a step back.
It was as if she had just announced that she would no longer be involved in the situation.

“Anyway, I’ve done my duty, so I’m leaving now, Princess.”

The head maid looked at the nanny for a moment with her disapproving gaze, then she turned her gaze to Flitta and opened her mouth.
Flitta, intimidated by their bloody conversation, only turned her eyes to her surrounding, then nodded her head hurriedly.

“Then I’ll be away for a while too, princess.
Well… Even if I don’t have to stay by the princess’s side, she has got a dedicated maid.”

As if the nanny had been waiting, she opened her mouth.
She didn’t forget her words of sarcasm toward Rosé.
Rosé felt the gaze of the nanny staring at her, but she did not dare to return the gaze.

No, should she say she didn’t have the capacity for that?

Haa.

The head maid and the nanny left, and the door was closed behind them.
The only people left in the bedroom were Flitta and Rosé.
And there was a moment of silence between them.

“… Hnng.”

Flitta looked at Rosé with a slightly embarrassed expression and put her thumb in her mouth.
Then she took her finger out of her mouth in surprise and looked into Rosé’s eyes.

“Ah! May I wipe your hands, Princess?”

Rosé was lost in her thoughts for a while, then came to her senses when she saw the marks on the child’s fingers.
Then Flitta stared at Rose and held out her hand.

Rosé’s eyes shook as she looked at the hand that resembled a maple leaf.
But she immediately made up her mind and took her handkerchief from the pocket of her skirt.
It was what she received with her maid outfit.

Flitta was still staring at Rosé with her hand in her hand, and she asked in a small voice.

“Are you hurt?”

“… Yes?”

Even though her spittle marks had already disappeared, Rosé, who could not let go of her child’s hand and kept wiping it here and there, raised her head at Flitta’s question.
When Flitta’s eyes met hers, she timidly avoided her gaze, then shook her head while holding her mouth firmly shut.

“…?”

Rosé shook her head and looked at the child with a sullen expression.
But she didn’t ask her child back.
She just wiped the child’s hands with her head down again.

She was very careful.

As if treating the most precious thing in the world.

Then, Flitta’s gaze cautiously returned to Rosé.
The child saw her maid wiping her own hands as she knelt in front of her.

Her memory of when she fell into the water was not clear.
It’s just that the feelings of that time remain faint.

She was terrified.

As a young Flitta, she had no choice but to express her feelings at the time in such a lumpy manner.

It was scary.
She was scared when she stepped on the wet ground at the lakeside and slipped and fell into the water, and she was scared when she struggled in the water.
But what scared me most of all was the fact that she was alone in that dangerous situation.

She cried out for help, but no one came.
No one came, neither her father nor her nanny.

「 “Oh, ugh, Mom….” 」

She swallowed the water, and it was her mother who called last in her mind.
The mother she doesn’t even remember.
Her mother who left her.
Nonetheless, she is her mother whom she missed so much.

… And the person who came at that time was Rosé.

Flitta looked at Rosé silently and then opened her mouth again.

“Being my maid, don’t you feel bad?”

Rosé lifted her head while gently holding Flitta’s hand.
She asked again, wondering if she had heard something wrong.

“… Do you feel bad about being the Princess’s maid?”

“Yes.”

But Rose wasn’t wrong.
Flitta nodded her head up and down her, then she hesitated, then she added:

“I’m… lowly, blood.”

Rose’s mouth wide opened.
But she couldn’t say anything.
Even a sigh can’t be heard from her.
She was speechless and could only gasp.

She must have misunderstood her silence.
Flitta shrugged her shoulders and continued her speech in an even quieter voice.

“Everybody did.
So is my nanny.
Even the maids.
If I’m wrong, it’s because of my mother.
Because my mother is a commoner… therefore…”

Sniff.

When Flitta stopped talking to her, she suddenly wept.
Then she started rubbing her eyes with her little hands.

“Don’t worry, hnng… Mom isn’t lowly.
It’s my fault.”

“… Fli, Princess.”

Rosé almost called Flitta by her name without realizing it, but she managed to correct it.
She was not a child who blamed herself.
When she thought of the hurt her child, who suffered because of her, she was so sorry.
She hadn’t done anything for her child until now, and she thought that it was because of herself that the child was so scared, and her heart broke.

“I’m sorry I made you feel bad.
But don’t hate mom.
Mom…  Didn’t do anything wrong…”

“I don’t feel bad about that, princess.”

Rosé hurriedly spoke, holding back from wanting to tap her clogged chest.
Then Flitta wept and rubbed her eyes before looking at Rosé.
She wiped her child’s wet eyes with her handkerchief and smiled.

“Rather, I am happy as it was.”

Tears welled up in Flitta’s round eyes while staring at Rosé.
Rosé nodded her head, wiping the tears down on her child’s cheek.

“Of course.
Because you’re a very lovely child.”

“…”

The child blushed as if embarrassed by Rosé’s words and moved her fingers.
Rosé smiled again at that figure, then continued talking to Flitta.

“And those words, I don’t believe them.”

“… Yes?”

“The princess’s… bad words about her mother.
She gave birth to someone as lovely as the princess, but she is not of low blood.
I’m sure she is a precious…woman.
She must be a very beautiful person.”

Flitta’s face flushed as Rosé praised herself.
However, Rosé wanted to raise Flitta’s self-esteem.

How could she hurt her child with words like that?

She was genuinely angry with her nanny and her maids.
They were not like Rosé, who had a meek personality and rarely got angry.
If they were here right now, they might have questioned her.

The child seemed so accustomed to seeing herself shrinking at the attention of others.
Judging her with the rhymes of low blood, it was clear that she had already received many contemptuous glances.

After all, it was something that could be guessed from the way the nanny treated Flitta a while ago.
While talking about the princess and emphasizing her noble lineage, the nanny treated Flitta inappropriately.

“… Really?”

Flitta listened to Rosé’s words and asked, dyeing her face red.
Rosé raised the corner of her mouth and nodded her head vigorously.

“… It’s my first time.
Someone said good things about Mother.”

Flitta rubbed her big cheeks with the palm of her hand, and she laughed cutely.
Then, looking at Rosé with her sparkling light green eyes, she opened her mouth.

“I like Rosé.”

“Me too.
I also like….
Princess.”

Rosé smiled at her child, hiding the grievance in her heart.
She only wanted to show her child a smile.
And she wanted to make the child smile as she does now every day.

Even she has to give her all.