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☾ six ☾

"Ah, I'm sorr-"

Not wanting to offend my father, I quickly apologized.

I made to move my hand but was prevented by my father who grabbed my wrist.

"Stay still."

All of a sudden, my field of vision shook.

I let out a gasp when I found myself in my father's arms, in the famous princess carry that was too embarrassing to even say out loud.

"Um, F-Father?"

I was embarrassed to be in this position in front of so many eyes that I ended up stuttering, which was unlike me.

Instead of answering, he began walking somewhere while carrying me in his arms. 

"We're going back to the carriage."

Hearing that we were going back, I looked up at him in surprise.

Cold, icy blue eyes and a strained face.

It seems he was annoyed that I disrupted his plans.

"Father, I'm really okay."

I tried to appease him but was ignored.

"Be quiet."

Stuck being held in the embarrassing princess carry, I felt ashamed.

'Why is today like this?'

First, the incident at the armor shop earlier and now this.

Was it because of stress? For some reason, my head kept throbbing in pain.

When I was finally seated in the carriage, my father proceeded to take off my shoes, but I couldn't find the opportunity to say anything.

'Ah, it hurts.'

I felt a stinging sensation on the back of my heel, leaving no doubt that it was scraped.

'I'll have to put some medicine on it when I get home.'

While I was enduring the pain, I heard a hard voice speak up.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

It seems my father was in a really bad mood because I disrupted his schedule.

'That's why I said I was fine when you insisted we go back.'

The stress was piling up quite heavily, but I tried hard not to show my discomfort.

"It's not a big deal, we can resume our shopping."

I answered calmly, pretending nothing was wrong.

This way he wouldn't think of me as useless.

'This should be fine, right?'

Contrary to my expectations, I heard a cold voice dripping with ice.

"We're going home."

"Huh? But..."

"Stop saying nonsense and stay still."

Closing my mouth at his words which stopped me from saying anything further, I let out a sigh.

Despite doing my best to be nice and obedient all day, my father's expression wasn't good.

'Ah...it's so hard to please my him.'

It might've been because of the piled up stress, but my forehead felt hot and my head was still throbbing.