Reborn as the Princess' Knight (GL)

Chapter 68: Festival with Vivienne (II).

Kein\'s POV

"U-Uwahhh!" (Vivienne) cried some more and I looked at the papers that was already on the floor. There were so many drawings of Rose among these when she was still hiding herself as a commoner.

Vivienne was standing as she cried, there were small red marks on her knees.

"Vivienne! I\'m not mad! Come here!" I ran to her side and hugged her, patting her back.

"Wahhh... Mama mwaaad..." (Vivienne) yelled out, making my ears hurt. At a time like this I would usually depend on Rose who would pick her up and cradle her until she stops crying-!

I should try doing that!

"Hup! Up we go now there, there." I held her under her shoulders and carried her.

Vivienne stopped crying and looked up to see my smiling expression. I\'m not really angry- the artworks just fell into the ground but none of them were worth scolding the girl over.

"Mo...ma... sniff..." She had a runny nose and I wiped it off with my sleeve.

Not going to lie, having children could give you such hilarious events in your life but that also includes my blood pressure rising up.

When Vivienne completely stops to look at her little mess below she frowns.

"Mama... no... no... mwad?" she asks, sniffing some more of her snot.

I patted her head for comfort and kneeled, placing her back down on the ground.

"Mama is not mad- its just- a box full of your mommy\'s portrait sketches and drawings! Look here, isn\'t she pretty?" I took a paper off the ground and showed it to Vivienne who held it gently, as if she knew how fragile a paper must be.

"M-Mommy...?! Whoa....! Pwetty..." the little girl\'s eyes sparkled when she stared at the portrait of Rose who was still in her shawl, she was posed in a sitting position looking out in the distance. This one I drew on a very normal day.

"Yes, that\'s mommy right there when we were very young. She was Mama\'s muse, and she posed for me when I asked her when I was drawing on a boring day." I explained the story behind the sketch.

Vivienne suddenly looked around hastily and took another paper showing it to me. "Hump! Stowy pwease!"

"You mean you want to hear the story behind this one?" I took the artwork in my hands and noticed that this one used charcoal in it. "This is your mommy when I was testing out my charcoal pen, I was sitting on the carriage I think and I decided to draw her because I missed her."

Vivienne took about five more papers and handed it all to me. I was taken aback with all the old artworks I\'ve been storing to hide were now being dug up, as well as our old memories together.

"Stowy!" The blonde girl demanded the story of all the artworks of Rose that she had grabbed. There were certainly a lot and if I told her all of the tales we would take up the whole afternoon.

"Uhhh- I don\'t think we have time-" I hesitantly told her, taking the artwork she gave me and stored it right where it belonged. The same box where I hid them. I do wonder how she even managed to get in here on her own?

"Mama..." (Vivienne) pouts, looking down on the ground as if she\'s threatening me that she\'ll cry if I don\'t give her what she wants.

"Vivienne first of all. Never run off on your own like that, you had me and Father worried- that something bad might\'ve happened to you. Currently, the estate is not a safe place for a little girl like you wandering around." I closed the lid of the box, once I picked up all the remaining things and stashed it away on the very top of the cabinet this time where she won\'t be able to reach it.

"Second, I don\'t know how you even get in here- but tell someone next time when you\'re going somewhere. There are many big sister maids and big brother butlers who can assist you, okay?" I sighed looking satisfied on where I put the new hiding spot of the box.

Vivienne tilts her head staring at me like she\'s confused. Right- if only Rose were here- she would know what to do. She was always taking care of children in the orphanage so no wonder she was good with children.

I\'m more used on tough love than trying to be soft to a little child-

"We just... don\'t want you getting lost, right?" I kneeled to her level and tried telling her of why she needed to be more mindful, though I\'m... not sure if she can understand what I\'m trying to get at but it\'s worth a try. "If you get lost, you won\'t be able to eat cake and I won\'t be able to tell you stories anymore."

The little blonde girl gasped when she heard my words, she started shaking her head and furrowed her eyebrows angrily when she heard she won\'t be able to eat cake and hear stories anymore. "Stowy no-no? Cwake no-no? Okay... lost no-no!"

"Pfft-!" I couldn\'t stop myself from giggling as I picked her up from the ground.

That was a lot of no.

She\'s a bit weird- but she\'s a good girl. Apparently cake and stories were the only things she could understand- and that\'s okay.

"Hehehe! Mama upsies!" (Vivienne) muttered out happily as if she wasn\'t crying a few moments ago.

Maybe… Father was right about raising children. I\'ll just have to do my best and see where it goes.

"You little rascal, why don\'t you come with me to school today? Then I\'ll show you around the capital where people are preparing for the festival . Let\'s go grab something to eat after our school tour. How about that?" I told her, gently squeezing her nose into both of my fingers because that was something we did to children back then in my old hometown.

"Food!" I could feel feet kicking in the air as she yelled those words.

Food it is.

"Come on, I\'ll have Alfred pull up a carriage for us and er... we need to tell Father we found you wandering around my room. I think he\'s still panicking wondering where you are." I rubbed the sides of my temples forgetting about that. The whole estate must still be wandering around pocking in any small places a child may be able to crawl to. I think some other servants are already ordering for all weapon displays to be taken down.

I decided to go to the designated meetup if one of us ever found Vivienne.

Father\'s study was a little far, jeez children are scary how did she even run around that fast.

.-.-.-.-.-.

When we arrived, some of the servants were already there including Alfred who was looking pretty out of it. They must\'ve been getting strict instructions from father on where Vivienne could possibly be and ordering them out on the search.

It has only been an hour but to think- "Oh damn." I muttered out quietly so Vivienne won\'t hear. "Are you guys alright?" I walked towards them holding the little girl in my hand.

"I found the little rascal wandering around in my old room." I told the whole group where they breathed a sigh of relief, I could feel some of their souls leaving out of their body which was a funny sight to see.

Vivienne looks around the room tilting her head, "Hehehe!" she clapped her hands together as she didn\'t cause any commotion. I feel like her personality is more suitable with Rose, my heart being smashed into pieces worrying about her this whole time when she went missing.

"Vivienne!" Father was a bit late to the group and I think he just got back from his search. He ran up to us and checked to see if the little girl had any injury of the sort.

When he saw that nothing bad happened to Vivienne, he could finally relax and reached out to pat her head. "Thank goodness, you\'re not hurt."

"Gwanpa?" (Vivienne) called out to him, Baron Hills looked like he was about to cry.

"Yes... its grandpa. We\'ve been looking everywhere for you. Kein, where did you find her?" (Baron Hills) turned to me and I laughed looking at Vivienne who didn\'t seem to have any trace of guilt in her face.

"She was apparently in my room, looking around and fiddling with some of my things." I explained to my father who seems to have forgiven her already for making everyone run around for nothing for about an hour.

"Vivienne would like to say sorry to Grandpa and everyone for making them worry?" I held Vivienne and looked at all the servants who worked hard and tried their best on finding her.

Vivienne saw the expression of my face, looking at everyone else in the room that looked frazzled, tried and out of breath. Some of their servant uniforms has grass stains, wet stains, and dirt. One servant even has animal scratches on their face.

"O-Oh..." (Vivienne) muttered and looked guilty, as if understanding the situation she lowered her head for a moment turning to everyone and apologized. "I-I\'m... sowrry." she hides her head into my shoulders and suddenly felt shy.

Every servant who went through that trouble smiled widely, the atmosphere of the room changed and it became more flowery so to speak.

"It\'s alright, young miss. We don\'t deserve such an apology."

"It was all worth it to find you safe and sound."

"Young miss, no need to be embarrassed!"

Every servant inside the room was looking away, flustered and proud of themselves.

Vivienne pouts still not wanting to show her face to everyone. "Mama... go... pwease..." she holds onto my sleeves and pulls it, telling me to move already.

"Alright. Everyone, thank you for trying to find Vivienne. See to it that you\'ll have your monthly bonus being double today." I announced and everyone erupted into cheers. I mean I can\'t blame them- who doesn\'t like getting double their bonus?

"You\'re all excused. I still have to talk to my father, continue doing your work and see to it that it\'s done well." I instructed them and they immediately fixed their cheers into their professional faces.

All the servants in the room either bowed or curtsied with a reply towards my direction.

"Yes, Master." They scurried out of the room and for a moment I heard some of the maids looking away in my direction with a red face before leaving but surely that\'s nothing.

Father walks up to us as if he remembered something, "Ah right-! I have a little gift made for Vivienne just this morning. Let me take it out of my [Storage Ring]." (Baron Hills) took out the colorful painting of his Pegasus with a little wiggly drawn Vivienne on top.

"Welcome to the family." he softly says to the blonde girl who accepts the canvas into her hands, eyes shining.

"Horsie?" She looks up at father as if asking for confirmation if the thing that he drew was a horse.

Father shakes his head, scratching the side of his cheek a little bashful about his work. "It\'s actually your mother\'s Pegasus, Vanilla."

"Oh! Ohhh! Pwegasus! Hehehe! Thank you!" She hugged the canvas and reached out to Baron Hills asking for a hug. I leaned over and did what she was trying to do, he successfully hugged Father and now he was leaping for joy.