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[Episode 37] – Frankenstein (3)

A few hours have passed since the princess said ‘I hate Fran’.

Fran first started by correcting posture rather than dancing, saying that posture is important. The princess was taught in various ways, such as standing on tiptoes and maintaining the center of the body.

As time passed and it was already dinner time, a maid knocked on the door outside to announce meal time.

The moment I wondered where to hide Fran, Fran instead of hiding, opened the door and welcomed the maid. The maid who opened the door and met Franc was startled, her shoulders shaking.

“Oh my, who…?”

“I am Her Majesty the Queen’s exclusive maid.”

“uh…? “Was there ever a kid like you…?”

“There was.”

The moment she wiped her face in confusion at the sight of Fran insisting that she was a maid, the maid said that she remembered something when she saw Fran, and made an ahh noise and welcomed Fran.

“Oh, right~ I guess I forgot. Ah, this is not the time. Her Majesty the Queen. It’s meal time. “Do you mind if I take you to the restaurant?”

“Uh, huh? Oh yeah. I’m planning to eat in my room with the princess today, so why don’t you bring it to my room? “It looks like the princess doesn’t have the strength to go all the way to the restaurant.”

The maid, looking at the princess lying limply on the bed, covered her mouth in surprise and nodded and answered that she would do so. So the maid leaves, and I look at Fran with wide eyes.

“It is a simple magic that witches use to hide in human society. “It’s quite useful once you learn it, so I recommend learning it later.”

“okay…”

Is magic really that omnipotent in the first place? I learned that witches use magic by borrowing the power of fairies, but Fran was using magic without the help of fairies.

‘Well… I guess it’s because he’s an android. ‘Let’s not worry about it for nothing.’

I felt like I would get dizzy if I dug too deep, so I patted the back of the princess who was flopping down next to me. The princess must have been so exhausted that she seemed to have no intention of moving even when I rubbed her back.

Unlike me, who thought I was tired and should let her rest a little, Fran relentlessly pushed the princess. Before she knew it, Fran had put his hands under both of the princess’s armpits and forced her to stand up.

“Princess, you need to try a little harder. Are you losing sleep over that skill now?”

In the end, with that one word, the princess’s patience reached its limit.

The princess who was being held by Fran raised her hand high in the sky and pushed it away as if she was hitting Fran’s face with her palm. And then, I screamed in a voice I had never heard before.

“I can’t live like this!!!!”

The princess escaped from Fran’s arms and ran out of my room as if running away.

Well… after seeing Fran’s teaching methods from the side, I thought that the princess might run away like this one day…

I never imagined that one day would be now.

When I got up from the bed to go look for the princess, Fran held out both hands to stop me. When I raised my head and looked at Fran, Fran’s expressionless face seemed darkly shadowed for some reason.

“…I will come find you.”

“…Yeah, it’s probably in the princess’s room… Can you find it?”

Fran nodded and ran out of the room to find the princess. Now I think I know why Fran first introduced himself as a ‘third-class human being’.

‘They say he’s an android, but he doesn’t understand human emotions very well.’

*

Fran arrived at the princess’s room and gently opened the door to check inside. After checking where the princess was, Fran flinched and stopped for a moment as if he was startled.

The place where the princess was was under the desk. It was a secret base where blankets were spread across the desk, curtains were drawn so that they reached all the way to the ground, and books and other items were piled up and secured to prevent the blankets from falling.

Inside, the interior was decorated with pillows and cushions, and the remaining books were used to create a barricade blocking the entrance. The princess entered her own secret base and kept watch over Franc.

“princess.”

When Fran called the princess, the growling princess held up a pillow and looked out for Fran. It meant that if you come any closer, I will throw this pillow at you.

Fran hesitated for a moment, then squatted down and bowed his head while looking at the princess. The princess didn’t say anything and just looked at Fran warily.

“…sorry. “Can you tell me if I did something wrong?”

“……”

“…As I said, since I am an ‘Android’, it is difficult for me to understand human emotions. “I tried my best, but I think I offended the princess.”

To what extent did Fran’s sincerity come across? The princess put down the pillow she was holding and looked at Franc gently. Fran still had an emotionless expression, but the princess could tell this much.

Franc is really sullen.

The princess, who felt weak at that expression, remembered hitting Fran in the face earlier. She was so angry that she hit him, but looking at Fran now, the princess felt that she had gone too far.

The princess slowly removed the barricade under the desk and patted the cushion next to her. At the princess’s signal to come in here, Fran slowly entered.

The space under the desk that was made into a secret base was cramped for the two of us, but for some reason it felt cozy and comfortable. The princess hesitated for a moment and then looked at Franc’s face.

The princess, who saw the red marks of her palms on her white face, was at a loss for a moment, then lowered her head and apologized to Fran.

“I’m sorry for hitting you…”

“no. I offended the princess. “The princess did nothing wrong.”

The princess thought so too.

No matter how much you think about it, there is nothing wrong with you.

But, because hitting is hitting…

After hitting Franc in the face, the princess felt very embarrassed. No matter how angry I was, I had no intention of hitting Franc.

“Still, I’m sorry…”

“……”

Silence fell for a moment under the desk. Fran turned his head and looked down at the princess next to him, then gently placed his hand on her head and began to stroke it.

“As I said, I am a created ‘Android’. “I don’t mind the size of the princess’s palm.”

“But… my face got red…”

“It’s nothing.”

Looking at Fran, who calmly said that nothing was wrong, the princess decided not to pay any more attention. Just, ‘Fran is this kind of person.’ With a feeling of giving up.

Princess François, whose conversation is interrupted again.

The princess sat blankly for a moment, then suddenly became curious about what the ‘artificial human’ Fran had mentioned. Even though it was created, no matter how you look at it, Franc was just like an ordinary person.

Aside from spitting out strange chunks of iron, pulling out his wrists, and having a peculiar way of speaking, Franc didn’t seem to be much different from other people. The princess glanced up and asked Fran.

“Fran said he was an android… What does an android mean?”

“It literally means an artificially created human being. In my case, my father ‘Dr. Victor Frankenstein’ created me.”

The princess tilted her head as if those words were difficult to say. Fran thought deeply for a moment, then suddenly pulled out his wrist and held it out to the princess.

And then, boom! And a bouquet of flowers popped out of my wrist. The princess, startled by the flower that suddenly popped out, tried to stand up and hit her head lightly under the desk.

Looking at the princess stroking her bumped head, Fran began explaining himself again. The reason why I was created, and various pasts.

“Actually, I was one of the ordinary fairies.”

“fairy? Like Sylphy?”

Fran nodded.

“As a fairy, I longed for humans. I envied their lives and watched them every day. “At that time, when I was living like that, I met my father, ‘Victor Frankenstein.’”

Fran put his wrist back in place and began to talk, recalling the past. The princess listened to the story, looking alternately at the bouquet in her hand and at Fran sitting next to her.

“My father dreamed of a world where ‘humans and fairies come together.’ He believed that fear was originally born of ignorance, and that once humans learned about fairies, their fear of fairies would also disappear.”

“Humans and fairies… together? I used to live well with Ainsel, right? “Is it different from that?”

“It’s no different. However, ordinary people cannot see fairies. So my father started researching how to make me.”

Fran pounded his chest and pointed at himself. A body that is half human and half fairy.

“They say that if fairies have ‘human bodies’, everyone will get to know each other and begin to coexist.”

“Uhm…”

The princess shook her head as if Franc’s simple explanation was still difficult for her. Fran looked at the princess and patted her head, saying it was okay if she was having a hard time.

“The first successful study of turning fairies into humans. That’s ‘Frankenstein’. “I certainly believed that after my success, I would have many younger siblings, but-”

Fran paused for a moment and lowered his head. The princess felt Fran’s expression getting darker and patted Fran’s shoulder.

“…Unfortunately, my father passed away in an accident not long after I was born. “There was a fire in the lab, and the research that created me was completely ‘burned down.’”

Upon hearing that she had lost her father, the princess’s expression began to darken. Because it reminded me of Abama’s funeral not long ago. The princess hugged her knees and began to listen to Fran’s story.

“…I am following my father’s wishes and dreaming of harmony between humans and fairies. “It’s still difficult, but I live with the hope that it will come true someday.”

“…I hope it comes true.”

“In fact, I think it has been achieved to some extent.”

“huh?”

The princess, who was hugging her knees, leaned her head on her knees and looked up at Fran. Fran looked down at the princess and smiled for the first time.

“I am originally a fairy, and you are human. Just by being able to talk to each other like this, isn’t my dream come true to some extent? “I think so.”

“Yes? Is that it?”

What Fran said was very difficult for the princess. The princess was just busy tilting her head as if she really didn’t know.

Fran looked at the princess like that, then ran out of the secret base as if the story was over and held out his hand to the princess.

“From now on, we will continue to teach while reflecting the princess’s opinions as much as possible. So, would you like to continue taking my classes?”

The princess frowned again at the sound of class, pursed her lips, and glared at Fran.

To be honest, the princess did not want to take Franc’s harsh classes. I was sick of classes that were so harsh that I couldn’t even rest after the Marchioness.

As she was worrying like that, the balance in the princess’s mind tilted even further towards ‘I don’t want to hear it’…

“If you take my class, I will make it so that you don’t look embarrassed when you dance with at least Vivian. No, your queen.”

The princess’s ears fluttered at those words.

As Sylphy suggested, the princess was planning to ask ‘Her Majesty the Queen’ to dance at her birthday party’s ball.

So, without making any mistakes, I wanted to perfectly show Her Majesty the Queen what I had worked hard to do so far.

“…really? Are you going to make it like that?”

“…I’ll try my best.”

The princess thought for a moment about the answer she didn’t like, and then held Fran’s hand as if she really didn’t like it but had no choice.

Fran was a really ‘person’ who spoke and acted strangely, but the dance he danced was really beautiful.

The princess wanted to learn Franc’s dance so that she could imitate it at least a little. As Fran said…

When dancing in front of Her Majesty the Queen, I didn’t want to make a mistake or look embarrassed.

*

Time passed, and the prom was now less than a week away.

I sighed softly as I looked at Ainsel, who still groaned every night and had no intention of waking up. It was said that Fran would wake up soon, but…

Two weeks have already passed since Fran diagnosed Heinsel, but Heinsel still has not regained consciousness. At first, it was nice just to see Ainsel’s image reflected on the surface of the mirror…

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried.

Before I fell asleep again today, the moment I looked at Ainsel and let out a small sigh-

-Vivian…?

Finally, Ainsel’s consciousness returned.