Chapter 131: How to Smile
No matter how you looked at it, it all seemed a little strange, or maybe just a little funny. To put it in a joking way, it was like a student learning something that ends up hurting the teacher.
Evelia learned the idea of "running away" from Armand, but as for Armand himself, the one who claimed to be a master of escape, he swore he'd escape… and yet was still stuck in the same place.
“Mr. Armand,” Evelia said as she noticed that although he was smiling, the corners of his mouth were slowly falling. “Is something bothering you?”
“Ah, it's nothing really.” Armand gave a bitter smile and brushed aside the hair that the wind had blown into his eyes. “Adults… sometimes we just get into these moods where we suddenly start reflecting on our lives.”
“Then… how do you feel about your life?”
“Hmm—”
Faced with Evelia’s question, Armand rubbed his chin, as if he were trying to find the right word in his mind to describe his life. But no matter how long he thought, he just kept dragging out the sound of “Hmm,” as if he couldn’t quite find the right word.
“Sounds like your life is really complicated.”
“Haha, you could say that.”
After all, he had reached the point where he didn’t even know what kind of word to use anymore.
“And what about you, Eve? What do you think of your own life?”
Naturally, since Evelia had asked Armand this question, Armand threw it right back at her. It wasn’t really a test, just a casual kind of back-and-forth between friends.
“…Not worth mentioning.”
Unlike Armand, who didn’t know how to describe his life, Evelia had found her answer quickly and clearly.
“Not worth mentioning?”
Armand repeated the words with some confusion. He wasn’t sure if Evelia meant she didn’t want to talk about her life, or if she meant her life truly was meaningless.
Maybe it was both.
After all, she had come from the House of Nightingales, and the value and meaning of the lives of the people there had long been squeezed dry by the Royal Family.
But—
“Don’t be so negative, Eve.”
Here, it was different.
This wasn’t the Royal Court, and it wasn’t the House of Nightingales either. This was Armand’s manor. More precisely, his favorite horse ranch.
So she didn’t need to live as if she were still trapped in that kind of world.
…Yes. She didn’t need to live like that anymore.
It felt like Armand was comforting Evelia, but at the same time, he was also comforting himself.
He should be saying to himself too, ‘Armand, you can’t go on living like that.’
But, like most people who are good at giving advice, he could talk to others, but just couldn’t talk to himself.
“I remember at the beginning of our conversation, we were trying to get you to smile, weren’t we?”
Emotions are just joy, anger, sadness, and fear. For someone new to emotions, sadness and anger are easier to understand and feel. But Armand didn’t want that. He knew that negative feelings would only make someone like Evelia become even more extreme.
And, to be honest, part of him just selfishly wanted to see Evelia smile.
Sometimes, when he looked at Evelia’s expressionless face, he couldn’t help but wonder what she would look like with a smile.
He had even imagined it in his mind before, but maybe his imagination was a bit too limited, because no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t picture what Evelia’s smile would be like.
And every time he tried to imagine Evelia smiling, Armand's mind would automatically picture the moment she had fed him with a gloomy face and furrowed brows. Just remembering that scene gave him goosebumps. You really could say, first impressions matter a lot.
Since he couldn’t picture it, maybe it’d just be easier to teach Evelia how to smile?
But then, the thought that if he taught Evelia how to smile, she might someday smile at others, even that second prince, made Armand feel a little sick to his stomach.
Still… that was a problem for the future.
Armand had avoided making a huge bet in the name of “responsibility,” but setting up a smaller game wasn’t out of the question either. Trying to “teach Evelia about emotions and get her to stay by his side”, that was a bit too ambitious. He wasn’t sure he could make that happen. So for now, he chose just the first part, to simply teach Evelia what emotions were.
What she would do afterward was up to her.
Armand felt that even if these two things weren’t exactly the same, in some way, if he could pull Evelia out of that deep pit she was stuck in, it would be like… paying back a small part of the guilt from that "nightmare."
Of course, just a very small part.
“Smile, huh…” Evelia mumbled.
Then, just like last time, she stretched her mouth into a stiff, rectangular shape. If a regular kid happened to walk by and saw her, they’d probably get spooked by that creepy face.
“Pfft…”
Seeing Evelia make that awkward expression, even though she didn’t manage to smile, Armand ended up smiling instead. If he had a crystal to capture photos, he would’ve definitely saved that moment.
“…Looks like my smile is weird.”
Noticing that Armand couldn’t help but laugh, Evelia realized just how terrible her expression was. She reached up and touched the corners of her mouth, pinching and pressing her cheeks like she was trying to mold her face out of clay.
In the end, she simply lifted her fingers to push up the corners of her lips, trying to make her mouth curve into a smile. But without a mirror, the result was terrible. And because her eyes and eyebrows didn’t move at all, her “smile” actually looked worse than crying.
“Ha… looks like I’ve made things hard for you, asking you to smile.”
Armand shook his head helplessly as he watched Evelia struggle with this thing called a “smile.” It was a little funny, but also kind of sad. She was already this old, and she still didn’t know how to smile properly. It made him wonder just how painful her life must’ve been in the House of Nightingales.
“It’s not hard, Mr. Armand. I’ll learn how to smile.”
“No, no, don’t say it like that. I didn’t ask you to smile just so you could learn to fake it. I wanted you to smile because you feel happy.”
“Happy…”
Evelia mumbled the word. It sounded familiar, yet so distant.
“Hmm…”
Watching Evelia fall into thought, Armand’s eyes shifted slightly. Asking her to figure out what “happiness” meant on her own might be too hard right now. In this kind of situation, maybe he needed to be the one to make her laugh.
Should he tell her a joke? Maybe do something silly?
No, no…
Armand knew he wasn’t good at that kind of thing.
But maybe if he used something else—
Ah… right!
“Eve!” he called out suddenly, clapping his hands as if he had just thought of something brilliant.
"Hm? What is it, Mr. Armand?"
"Do you know what 'itchy spots' are?"
"What is... that?"
"'Itchy spots', it means ticklish places. It’s kind of like a prank. Because of how the body reacts, when people are touched in certain areas, they can’t help but laugh."
If he couldn’t make her understand the joy of emotions right away, then maybe he should try the oldest and simplest way to make her laugh.
"I see..." Evelia thought for a moment. "I’ve heard a little about that... something like, tickling the soles of the feet?"
Evelia had read about it in novels. In those stories, the main characters would sometimes play harmless little pranks on each other when they got close, to make things more fun.
Of course, Evelia didn’t really understand the second part of what those novels meant. She only remembered the part about tickling feet.
"Yes, that’s basically it. Many ticklish spots are on the soles of your feet—"
"Okay, I understand, Mr. Armand."
Before Armand could go on to explain that the neck, underarms, palms, and waist were also ticklish areas, he suddenly saw something white moving toward him. He instinctively reached out, and was surprised by the feeling in his hand.
"...?"
When he looked down, he saw that Evelia had taken off her shoes, lifted her leg, and placed her foot, still wrapped in white stockings, into Armand’s hand.
Her foot was very pale and soft, and with the white stockings on, it felt smooth like silk. Normally, stocking fabric would feel cool to the touch, but what he felt was warm from the heat of her sole. Since she had just taken off her small black shoes, even the top of her foot was warm.
The sole of Evelia’s foot was very soft. Just looking at it reminded him of a fluffy marshmallow. Without thinking, Armand gently pressed the softest part of her foot, and her toes instantly curled, as if they were trying to scrunch together. The folds in her white stockings got caught between her toes, but she quickly relaxed them again, as if giving him permission to keep going. She even stretched her toes upward, openly showing off her stockinged foot.
"Mr. Armand?"
Evelia didn’t seem to think she was doing anything strange. She even wiggled her foot a little, like she was greeting him with it.
"E–Eve..."
Armand opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He was so flustered that he just stood there, still holding her foot, not knowing what to do.
"Sorry... I guess you don’t like my foot..."
"What? No—I like—wait, that’s not... what am I even saying...!"
Armand was completely tongue-tied. He kept trying to explain, but then suddenly noticed from the corner of his eye that he was still holding her foot. Embarrassed, he quickly let go.
"You... no—I mean... never mind..."
Armand looked down awkwardly, turning his gaze away.
It wasn’t even the first time he had held Evelia’s foot. Every time, she somehow gave him a totally new feeling, every time was bold in its own way.
"This is bad..."
Armand muttered as he rubbed his forehead.
"If this keeps going... I won’t be able to take it..."