I Don’t Want A Prince In My Life - Chapter 18. Hepatica

“Are you really Hepatica?”

When I asked the boy who he really was, he had tears in his large, light purple eyes and was struggling to keep them from spilling.

His hands, which had been flapping wildly earlier, now hung straight down toward the floor, both clenched tightly.

“Are you afraid of me?”

After a series of accidents, how could he ask that?

Sure, there was a lot to be said for being nearly blown away by the wind and falling off his lap just now, but this kid didn’t know that it was wrong.

If that’s the case, it’s the fault of the one who didn’t teach him.

More than anything, the way he was trying his best to be useful to someone reminded me of myself in the old days when I didn’t know anything yet.

I gently reached out and slowly stroked his white hair that was bouncing everywhere.

“No. Thank you for being there for me when I woke up.”

Then the tears that he was holding back started to fall.

His tears made me worry that his big eyes would fall out.

“Cesillia!” (*The boy can’t pronounce Cecilia’s name.)

The boy shouted what seemed to be my name in a lisp and hugged me tightly as I somehow managed to sit up.

I couldn’t support his body, which was a little too big for a boy, so I had to lie down on the sheet again.

The least I could say was that I was able to avoid hitting my head this time because I knew what to expect.

But still.

“In human form, you shouldn’t embrace the opposite sex so easily. Even when you are in griffin’s form, of course.”

When I warned him, Hepatica tilted his head curiously.

The expression on his face seemed like a boy, but his size was not so different from mine.

“If you’re going to stay with us, you’ll have to learn exactly what to do and what not to do.”

He looked at me in surprise.

“You don’t mind? Can I stay with you?”

“Yes. Yes, you can stay with me. Don’t you want to be with Leili?”

“I want Cesillia!”

Before I could finish, Hepatica shouted so close to me that it echoed in my head.

He did it again, I thought, while an unspoken ticklish feeling spread in my chest.

I wondered if anyone had ever said they wanted to be with me before.

Even my mother, who was with me even after I was kicked out of the country, had muttered many times as if I was a curse, “If only you weren’t here.”

I had already made up my mind to live my life without letting anyone in, but this was not fair.

It was impossible to say no when someone stared straight at me like this.

I timidly put my hand on Hepatica’s back.

But when I thought about it, it was the first time I had ever tried to hug someone, and I was confused.

Because I’ve never hugged someone to show my affection like this.

Not even my parents.

In the end, I could not hug Hepatica.

He just stared at me with a strange look on his face.