“His father is Richard, and his mother is Lucy,” Rufus said lightly.
It suddenly dawned on me that no wonder the thin boy resembled Lucy. And he was probably admitted to the royal kindergarten because his father was Prince Richard.
Although Richard was banned for the rest of his life, his son was innocent. Firman deserved his rights. But his privileges brought by the identity as Richard’s son might not be a good thing for him. Most importantly, Firman’s biological father was Kyle, not Richard.
However, Rufus had apparently forgotten this, as he had permitted Firman to attend the same school as the other children of noble families.
“Where is his mother now?” I inquired nonchalantly, acting as though I didn’t know Lucy.
“After giving birth to Firman, Lucy has been living in a secluded area of the imperial palace to raise him alone. She seldom goes out.”
“Oh, alright.” I nodded and refrained from asking any more questions. I thought that I should ask Laura where Lucy was staying so that I could avoid that place in the future. I didn’t want Lucy to recognize me.
Beryl’s anger hadn’t subsided, and she was still muttering about how she wished she could punish the chubby boy.
But Rufus didn’t allow her to do anything reckless. He held Beryl tightly and comfort her for a while. Then he punished the chubby boy to go back to the classroom and wrote the kindergarten rules twenty times or else he wouldn’t be let out of class.
The chubby boy pouted. He was not reconciled, but he did not dare to resist. After all, he really did something wrong.
When the other boys heard what happened to the fat kid, they hid even more. They were too afraid to even poke their heads out.
Crystal’s POV
I walked up to Firman, helped him up from the ground, and took out a handkerchief to wipe his face.
I could feel the little boy trembling with fear as he looked at me. “Thank… Thank you.”
I smiled at him gently. “You’re welcome. If something like this happens again in the future, go to your teacher, okay?”
Firman stuck out his lower lip and lowered his head sadly. “I can’t. There are too many of them.”
The despair in his words pricked my heart. I could recall being in the same situation, bullied and abused as a young child.
I took a deep breath and comforted him. “Trust me. At least they’ll know that they’ll be punished if they’re ever mean to you again.”
“And you can also come to me. I’m going to be a student here. If they bully you, I’ll kick their butts!” Beryl swung her small fists aggressively.
Firman looked at Beryl in bewilderment and thanked her.
Beryl jutted out her chin and said proudly, “No need to thank me. It’s my duty to help the weak and punish the bad!”
Amused, I wanted to reach out to touch Beryl’s head, but she dodged.
I withdrew my hand awkwardly and wondered why Beryl was avoiding me again.
“Maybe you’re not wearing the right mask today.” Rufus cast a sidelong glance at me. In fact, it seemed he was the one who disliked my mask.
I touched my mask dubiously and murmured, “Really? I think it’s beautiful.”
Moreover, this mask fit my mysterious image. It was shaped like a purple butterfly. It was elegant!
Rufus didn’t look at me anymore, as though he felt speechless.
Smiling awkwardly, I pulled out two lollipops from my pocket. One for Firman and the other for Beryl.
Firman took his obediently. “Thank you.”
I smiled and turned to Beryl.
To my disappointment, the little girl refused my lollipop. She buried her head into Rufus’ neck and clearly didn’t want to talk to me.
“What’s wrong, Baby Beryl? It’s Mommy. Why don’t you want to talk to me?” Feeling wronged, I tried to get near her. I didn’t know what I had done to make her shun me like this.
Rufus pressed the back of his hand against Beryl’s forehead. He likely thought Beryl was not feeling well, but it turned out that she was fine.
Beryl lowered her eyes and refused to look at me. I went in front of her and tried to make her laugh, but Beryl then burst into tears.
I was flustered. Didn’t Beryl’s love to see people mimic gorillas? Every time she saw me pretending to be a gorilla, she would laugh hysterically.
“You’re scaring her.” Rufus chastised me and wiped away Beryl’s tears with a handkerchief.
I felt terrible. It seemed that Beryl’s attitude towards me had reverted to the time when she had just lost her memories.
“If Baby Beryl doesn’t like gorillas, then how about bunnies?” I refused to give up, hoping that Beryl would accept me one way or another.
Beryl finally turned her head to look at me with her big, watery eyes. “What kind of bunny?” she asked curiously.
“Give me a second.” I took a candy wrapper out of my pocket and started folding it carefully. Soon it transformed into the shape of a bunny.
Beryl’s jaw dropped in surprise. “How’d you do that?!”
“I can teach you if you want.” I was so proud of myself for finally getting through to Beryl. I reached for her hand and happily taught her how to fold a bunny.
Crystal’s POV
Just then, Rufus had to take a call and left Beryl with me. Beryl was focused on the origami bunny and didn’t care about Rufus’ leaving at all. She just waved at him goodbye and then proceeded to play with the candy wrappers.
Smiling helplessly, Rufus sighed and rubbed her head before leaving in a hurry.
Now that I was alone with Beryl, I tried to get my daughter to talk to me. I wanted to ask if she was alienating me now because I had used witchcraft on her previously. But after prodding her a little, I found that she didn’t seem to even know about the witchcraft. She just remembered falling asleep after talking to me.
If that was the case, then she shouldn’t have had any reason to distance herself from me again. So could the witchcraft have affected her mental state? Thinking of this, I felt a little nervous and couldn’t help but ask Beryl several times if she felt uncomfortable.
But she simply shook her head, focused on her work. She didn’t even raise her head. Although she allowed me to touch her, she didn’t want to talk to me at all.
“So… Baby Beryl just hates Mommy?” I asked at last, feeling distressed.
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