I’m a Villainess but So Popular

Editor : Aru

Side Story 7. Small and Precious Things (2)

“Dragon! Red Dragon!”

Yssius screamed, pointing to a dragon-shaped flame flying into the air.

“Wow!”

Caerine clapped her hands and screamed inside the shield.

When the children were distracted by the dragon, I quickly signalled Cassius.

“Cassius…!”

Cassius nodded and invoked healing magic, and a golden sphere enveloped the dragon.

‘Well, it’s fine because the kids like it……right?’

I thought as I looked at Yssius, who raised a small flame about the size of a shield, and Caerine, who reached for the dragon with his eyes shining.

Caerine’s hand was pushed out by a shield. Still, Caerine grinned and waved at the dragon.

Between her tiny fingers, a sphere of glass beads of light sprang up.

A sphere of light a little brighter than Cassius floated through the shield.

Yssius, who was looking at the figure, turned his flame off and shouted.

“Mom, Kael, must be in a good mood.”

Caerine, who inherited Cassius’s eyes, used to invoke healing magic when she was in a good mood.

I and Cassius held a small magic performance every holiday night, while the children seated in the backyard garden, accessible only to the royal family.

If Caerine smiled and invoked healing magic before the show ended, the show was a great success.

Of course, there has never been a time when the performance has not been successful.

“Today’s a success, Trump-nim.”

Cassius said with a smile.

“Of course we have to succeed.”

I responded by scattering dragon-shaped flames into the air.

“It’s a performance prepared by the nation’s number one wizard and the empire’s number one ruler.”

As I looked back at his golden eyes, Cassius smiled broadly.

When the protective shield disappeared, the brother and sister, who were apart for a while, laughed and held hands with each other.

Sometimes, while watching the performance, Yssius invokes fire magic, so we put up a protective shield between the two for a short time, and when the shield disappeared, the two would stick together like gum sticks.

“Mom!”

Yssius held Caerine in both hands and cried out.

Smiling at the sparkling purple eyes, Cassius approached the children.

“Caerine, are you still feeling good?”

Cassius said, accepting Caerine, who is still spewing out yellowish spheres, from Yssius.

“So cute.”

When Cassius, with a dazzling smile, pricked Caerine’s cheek with his finger, more spheres of light flowed out around Caerine, smiling brightly.

Cassius’ eyes, looking at the purest smile that only a child of that age could make, had a happy glow.

He burst into laughter because Caerine was so cute that he couldn’t take his eyes off a small child who didn’t even come to his knees.

“Cassius, you’re going to wear Caerine down.”

“She’s so cute that I can’t help it.”

Cassius looked back at me and answered in a serious voice.

Yssius, who was hanging from the width of my skirt, nodded violently and intervened.

“Right, Kael is the cutest in the world.”

The only time when Yssius and Cassius agreed without a fight was to discuss Caerine’s cuteness.

Cassius, looking still into Caerine, turned to me, stroking Yssius’s head, and asked.

“If Yerine too wants me to call you cute, feel free to~~”

“No, thanks.”

Cassius, who had shut up at the refusal of a single word, did not give up.

“Yerine is also very cute, so I can call you cute as much as you want.”

“No, thank you. I’m not buying it.”

Caerine grabbed Cassius’s hair with a small hand, which clung to me and looked up at Cassius.

“Don’t bully Mommy, Dad.”

“I’m not bullying Mommy, Yssi.”

“Mommy doesn’t like it. Then it means you’re bullying Mommy, Dad.”

Cassius looked down at Yssius’s purple eyes who looked at me with a giggle.

“Ah, really. I’m so scared of my son that I can’t even play with my wife.”

“It’s all about your image. You teased him so many years ago. Think of it as karma.”

Then Caerine in Cassius’ arms began to fret.

“Mommy, go to Mommy.”

Cassius looked glum as he looked at Caerine reaching out to me.

“Don’t you like Daddy?”

Instead of answering, Caerine looked at me and waved.

“Mommy, hurry.”

Eventually, Caerine, who was in my arms, smiled and shook her body.

“Kael, did you miss Mommy?”

“Yes.”

Nodding her head, Caerine put her soft hands on my face.

I slightly frowned at the ticklish touch rubbing my left eye, and hugged the child so that she wouldn’t fall off.

“This!”

“Huh?”

When I asked back because I didn’t understand Caerine, Caerine showed her little tooth and shouted again.

“This!”

What?

What’s she mean?

At that time, Yssius pulled my sleeve and shouted.

“Right, Kael! The Red Eye Archmage!”

When I heard a nickname that I didn’t want to come out of the children’s mouths, I hardened like a statue.

“This!”

Caerine heard Yssius and shouted again excitedly, and Yssius held my skirt with both hands, shining his eyes.

“Mommy, I saw it in the newspaper earlier, and people call you Red Eye Archmage! I heard you’re so strong!”

I wondered where I heard they heard that sickly nickname, and I think they saw it in the newspaper.

I heard that the article was going out a few days ago, but I didn’t know they wrote that nickname.

‘It’s meaningless to hide it as long as they already know it.’

When I sighed, Cassius patted me on the back.

“As I did say last time, I think it’s a great nickname. So, it’s okay.”

Cassius whispered and comforted me.

“It’s so cheesy.”

“Well, I guess the kids like it, too. Look at those sparkling eyes.”

As soon as Cassius was finished, Yssius opened his mouth in a voice full of expectations.

“Mommy, can we be like you if we have red eyes like you?”

“Hmm?”

When I was wondering what this was about, Yssius pointed to my eyes and said.

“Mom, when you use magic, your red eyes sparkle! So if Caerine and I have red eyes like Mommy, we can become Archmage like Mommy, right?”

Listening to Yssius’s excited voice, Caerine also moved her little mouth.

“Caerine too, Caerine too, red eyes………”

What should I do?

‘I was so worried that Dragon’s eyes might be inherited….’

The dragon’s eye gave me a tremendous opportunity, but passing it on to my child was different.

I didn’t want to pass on to these children the experience of having to pour blood and feel the burning pain around my eyes every time I overuse the magic.

The original Yerine, which is Yoon Se-Yeon in the world I originally lived in, would not want this eye to be delivered to anyone else.

Fortunately, whether the Dragon Woman noticed my concern, she appeared in my dream a week before Yssius was born and left me no worries because my eyes were not inherited.

Crouching down with Caerine in my arms, I set my eyes on Yssius.

Patting black hair that resembles Cassius.

“Why? Both Yssi and Kael already have pretty eyes.”

“Well, I just want to be like Mommy.”

Yssius replied with embarrassment.

He wants to be like me.

What a lovely and comforting thing to say.

“Yssi, Kael. You all can be strong without red eyes. More than Mommy and Daddy.”

“Right.”

Before I knew it, Cassius, who was sitting on the grass with his knees bent, wrapped around Yssius’s shoulder and tapped him.

“It’s not because of that eye that makes Mommy strong. It’s because Mommy practices a lot.”

I indeed practised a lot, but without this eye, I wouldn’t have had this much mana, so I was stabbed a little.

‘But what can I do? I should at least say it like this.’

They wouldn’t talk about that anymore if I said they could be strong enough whether their eyes are purple or golden.

“Oh, so Mommy is not strong because of Mommy’s eyes…….”

“That’s right, so Yssi and Kael can be as strong as they want without red eyes.”

“Well, I see.”

Yssius nodded and fiddled with the buttons on his shirt.

“But I don’t have to be strong, so I wish I had a red-eye like yours.”

Surprised by the unexpected response, I looked at Cassius.

He also had slightly surprised eyes as if he knew Yssius’s interest in the red-eye would disappear.

“I’m sure Kael thinks the same thing. Isn’t that right, Kael?”

“Eung! Caerine wants red-eye, too!”

Wasn’t it the problem that they wanted to become stronger after all?

“Why do you want to have the same eyes as Mommy? Yssi and Kael have prettier eyes than Mommy.”

“Uh….”

Yssius hesitated, scratching his cheek, ashamed to explain why.

Then, Caerine, looking up at me, clasped my collar in her hands and burst into my arms.

“Because I like Mommy.”

Feeling the warm child’s temperature, I asked in a small voice.

“……Kael, you like Mommy?”

“Yes.”

“You like Mommy, so you want to be like Mommy?”

“Eung!”

Yssius also took a step closer and put his hands on my shoulders and said.

“I like Mommy, too.”

And wrapped one hand around Caerine in my arms, and the other around my shoulder.

“That’s why I want to be like Mommy.”

Laughing and holding the two children tightly up.

Before I knew it, I could see Cassius’s beautiful golden eyes.

Gesticulating slightly with fingertips holding the child, Cassius smiled and wrapped his arms around the three of us.

I thought I’d give a lot of love when I have a family.

Rather, I was receiving tremendous love from them.

“No, guys. You don’t have to be like Mommy.”

I said, looking up at the purple and gold eyes.

“I like you all just the way you are.”

On a starry night, the dark back garden was filled with children’s laughter.

And the ‘Red Eye Archmage’ case seemed to come to a close.

I thought so.

***

“This is my sister, Caeline, and they say she’s the Princess. There is only one Princess in our country. Isn’t she so pretty?

“………”

“Right, I’m a Prince. It’s similar to a king, but it’s a little different.”

Seeing Yssius, who talked well, the silver-haired man made an embarrassing expression that he didn’t know how to react.

“And my mother is The Red Eye Archmage! She’s so cool!”

So I took a step into Eugene’s eyes which desperately longed for salvation.

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