The other children scattered throughout the blooming garden saying they would gather ‘vegetables,’ and only Eric and Elodie remained where the children had been playing together.

“Eric, was it fun even without Elodie?”

Elodie asked while scratching the dirt ground with a tree branch. She clearly seemed hurt that Eric had gone off to play without her.

“No, no sir. It wasn’t fun, sir.”

Erica, who had been worried that Eric might thoughtlessly answer that it was fun, breathed a sigh of relief.

“And I wasn’t playing, I was practicing swordsmanship, sir. So I can become a cool knight like Dad later and protect Er— I mean, Her Majesty, sir.”

“Really?”

That rhetoric is definitely in my genes. Erica was certain.

“Since Elodie is king, she can make Eric a knight.”

“Really, sir?”

Elodie nodded with a proud smile. Then she grabbed Eric’s wooden sword and stood up.

She placed the blade of the wooden sword on Eric’s shoulder. After the coronation ceremony, Elodie had granted titles to many people. So she knew well how to appoint knights.

“I highly value the bravery and loyalty of Eric Winterborn, eldest son of the Winterborn family, and hereby appoint him as knight. Do you swear to become my guard knight and serve me as your master for life?”

Eric also knelt down like a knight receiving appointment and swore.

“I swear to serve Your Majesty as my master for life, dedicating my life.”

“Hehe……”

Elodie right now probably thought it was fortunate that she had become king.

“Sir Eric.”

Though it wasn’t real but just children’s play, Elodie continued to call Eric that after giving him the title. His cheeks were flushed and he was clearly excited, but……

“Sir Eric.”

When another girl also called Eric that, his expression soured.

“Could you freeze this flower for me?”

The girl held out a daffodil she had picked from the garden to Eric. It was now common knowledge that Eric had inherited the Winterborn abilities.

“It’s dangerous, so step back.”

Eric took the flower and made everyone step back far away in case of any accident.

“Wow!”

The children exclaimed in admiration as soon as they stepped back. Frost like snow flowers began to envelop the daffodil in Eric’s hand.

“It’s an ice flower.”

“Do it for me too.”

The children competed to pick flowers and ask Eric to freeze them. Meanwhile, Elodie, who remained silent alone, looked increasingly unhappy.

“Shall I make an ice flower for Your Majesty too?”

Eric was slow to understand girls’ hearts, just like his dad. Though he did belatedly notice that Elodie was sulking.

‘Son, that child doesn’t want ice flowers.’

Sure enough, Elodie didn’t take the ice daffodil Eric offered but grabbed Eric’s wrist instead.

“Eric is……”

Then she started to say something to the playmate boys but stopped. It was probably either ‘Eric is mine’ or ‘Eric is going to marry me.’

“Eric is my knight.”

The words she finally shouted were relatively safe, but turning around sharply and dragging Eric away was questionable……

When the maids and guards who had to follow Elodie everywhere like shadows all rushed to follow, Elodie shouted.

“Nobody follow me!”

But when the guards still followed……

Whoosh!

She created a barrier of fire with fire spirits to block the path so no one could follow them.

“Your Majesty!”

Erica shouted at the back of Elodie’s head as she moved away.

‘She needs to be scolded!’

But she couldn’t say this.

‘Oh, my head.’

Erica groaned while holding her forehead.

How should one discipline a king?

In the old days, she would have immediately taken her somewhere private to discipline her, but now there were too many watching eyes to do it like before.

‘What would happen if rumors spread that the head maid disciplines the king like her own child……’

That wasn’t the only reason disciplining Elodie was difficult.

‘I don’t know how to discipline jealousy.’

When it was just the two of them, she never thought Elodie’s feelings for Eric would be a problem. But after they left the elven forest and began making friends with other children, it started to become one.

Elodie became jealous and wary of anyone, regardless of gender, who tried to get close to Eric.

“Elodie will marry Eric when she grows up.”

It seemed the problem was that she had prevented her from saying this in front of others……

“If you say such things, Eric might become endangered.”

“Why?”

“Then we might be falsely accused of forcing you and grabbing the king’s husband position in advance.”

“That never happened.”

“To people who don’t like us, whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter at all.”

When she said that Mom, Dad, and Eric could all become endangered if things went wrong, Elodie understood and never said those words in front of others.

So since she couldn’t mark him as hers in front of others, her anxiety and jealousy seemed to have exploded over today’s trivial matter.

‘I can see the sprouts of an obsessive woman……’

Erica worried as she watched Elodie’s disappearing figure. In the original story, the villainess Elodianna was also obsessive. Wasn’t it because she was obsessed with her dead first love, Eric, and tried to bring him back to life that the entire world became a land of death?

‘I need to cut off the sprouts of obsessiveness before they grow……’

Erica, who was far from being obsessive, had no way of knowing how to do this.

Every person passing through the palace corridors stopped the moment they spotted Elodie and Eric, then stepped aside and bowed. However, Elodie didn’t acknowledge their greetings and continued past them with an angry face.

Eric was obediently dragged along without asking where they were going. He already knew.

The cabin.

Everyone had difficulty adapting to the suddenly completely changed daily life. Especially Elodie, who had to live apart from her family. And everyone missed the old cabin life.

So they had recently built a cabin in one corner of the palace. Almost exactly like the cabin they had lived in in the elven forest.

They left the palace buildings and headed straight into the forest. Unlike the elven forest where trees grew wild and thick without human touch, this was a forest where gardeners had cultivated trees to stand in orderly rows like disciplined soldiers.

Somewhere in such a forest, the cabin for just their family of four was hidden.

They had been able to hide the cabin in the palace where countless people came and went thanks to Grandma Greta’s magic.

“If you install these in all directions, when people come near this area, they’ll think ‘Huh, why am I here? Come to think of it, I have a mountain of work to do, I should go back!’ and turn around.”

They passed the markers Grandma Greta had planted and crossed through the forest where gardeners no longer tended, allowing weeds and undergrowth to grow wild. After walking for a short while, the cabin appeared.

Only then did Elodie let go of Eric’s hand. Then she went into the cabin, brought out toy dishes, and set them on the garden table while saying.

“I want to play only with Eric. Eric wants to play only with me too, right?”

“Your Majesty.”

Elodie’s lips jutted out.

“Elodie.”

“Mm?”

“I like Elodie.”

“Hehe, right?”

“But I like cool women like Mom better.”

“……”

Elodie knew well the word ‘cool’ that Mom often used. That’s why she was making an expression as if a rock had fallen on her head.

“H-how can I become a cool woman like Mom?”

Meanwhile, at the same time, Erica was pressuring the innocent Roderick, unaware that Elodie’s obsessive sprouts had already been nipped in the bud.

“What do you think?”

Roderick, who had come out after washing his dirt-covered body from training and was drying his hair, replied nonchalantly.

“To me it just sounds cute?”

“Ugh…… I’m an idiot for asking you.”

“I’m the idiot.”

“How unusually honest of you?”

“I only know you.”

“……”

Erica’s expression soured while Roderick was beside himself with joy.

“Please be serious! Think of yourself as Elodie. How could we stop her from being obsessed with Eric?”

“How would I know that?”

“You were obsessed with me.”

“When was I?”

“Hah…… We’re going to have two kids. Now that I won’t run away, are you going to pretend your old days of chasing after me never happened?”

“That shouldn’t be called obsession, it should be called pure devotion.”

Roderick approached and kissed Erica, who was leaning back in her chair. During the kiss, Erica’s gaze remained fixed on what was below Roderick’s waist, covered by the towel he had wrapped around himself.

“Actually, I have a lot of complaints about your pure devotion lately.”

“Why?”

“Because your pure devotion has become too pure lately.”

When Erica grabbed and pulled down the towel, Roderick panicked and held onto it. For the past few months, Roderick had been like this continuously. Erica had reached the point of going crazy from holding back.

“Preventing a pregnant woman from eating what she wants. This is pregnant woman *buse.”

“There are things you shouldn’t eat, right?”

“As an experienced midwife, let me tell you that husbands are safe to eat.”

Roderick burst into laughter.