Chapter 100 [Kalista...]
Unlike her sister Sylvia, Kalista is a quiet person.
Compared to physical activities like climbing trees and swimming, she preferred to carry around a thick diary and record everything she observed in writing.
Logically speaking, Mela shouldn't have known what was written in Kalista's diary; she was a good mother who knew how to curb her child's curiosity.
Unfortunately, last month, Kalista was tricked by Sylvia into moving into the palace with her again.
So, worried that the impending rain would wet Kalista's bed, Mela went into her room to close the window, and accidentally kicked a thick notebook.
She picked the notebook up from the ground and saw that it was Kalista's diary. The page that had been turned open when it fell read:
[On April 10th, 571 of the Royal Calendar, the weather was very nice today. Unfortunately, the swing outside the house was broken. I was planning to sit on the swing and read a book.]
It seems I'll have to wait until my father comes and then ask him to fix the swing.
Sylvia said the swing existed before she was born, and it must have been built by her father specifically for her mother.
But I rarely saw my mother sit on the swing and play; she always said she was an adult and didn't like these things anymore.
Why did her father build her a swing?
Seeing this, Mela's face flushed slightly, a rare occurrence for her, but fortunately no one noticed.
Even so, Mela still coughed lightly, pretending to recall why Lex had initially wanted to build her a swing.
It all boils down to her whim, and Lex never refused, so a swing was set up on a sturdy tree behind the cabin.
As for summer evenings, Lex holding Mela on the swing, pecking and kissing her eyebrows, nose, and lips with each sway, that's something the children shouldn't know for now.
In short, after the children were born, Mela really didn't like sitting on the swing watching the clouds slowly drift by, watching the wind rustle the grass and then hearing the soft rustling sounds in her ears—how could she possibly take toys from the children?
Both Silvia and Kalista loved playing on this swing.
Lex did ask her if she wanted a new swing built especially for her, but after thinking about it, Mela decided against it.
After all, if Kalista were to leave the cabin and live alone in the future, having two swings together would easily evoke painful memories.
For many things, one is enough.
At this point, the correct thing Mela should have done was to put away the diary and place it by Kalista's pillow, which is what she did.
Although she was increasingly curious about what else Kalista had written in her diary, a good mother wouldn't do such a bad thing.
So when Kalista returned from the palace, Mela apologized to her, telling her that she had accidentally seen one of her diaries, and expressed her hope to read it openly—if possible.
“No problem,” Kalista blinked. “Anyway, what’s recorded inside is my observation of you.”
To be fair, as the one being observed, Mela can certainly see how she is described in Kalista's writing.
So Callista brought out her thick diary, sat down next to Mela, and looked through her diary with her, answering Mela's questions whenever she had a chance.
On September 14th, 569 AD, the weather was still very hot and humid. It was hard to understand why Silvia was still so enthusiastic about going horseback riding.
I chose to sit aside and watch her ride the horse.
Midway through, another group of people arrived, and one of the men seemed to provoke Sylvia, resulting in her beating him up.
He deserved it.
"Wait, why did he provoke Sylvia? Did you tell Lex about this?" Mela asked, pointing to the contents of the diary.
Kalista knew Mela would have questions.
She calmly replied, "I told my father about it at dinner, and he said that the man was just trying to curry favor with Sylvia, but obviously, his methods were very inadequate."
This is what led to the misunderstanding between Sylvia and Kalista.
They thought he was provoking them.
"However, Father also said that it was good for Sylvia to beat him up, so that he wouldn't think he would have a chance to become the king's consort in the future."
Huh? The Crown Prince? It was only then that Mela belatedly realized that Sylvia was already sixteen years old and the crown princess, the future king. It was normal for people to try every means to become her Crown Prince.
As for what kind of king consort Sylvia would like to find in the future, Mela thought about it and felt that as long as Sylvia was happy, it wouldn't be a big deal.
Anyway, her father, Lex, chose her as his queen, who had never appeared in the palace, and she's doing just fine, isn't she?
Mela flipped through several more pages at random.
On June 23, 569 of the Wang calendar, the sky was overcast, and my mother took my father out early in the morning.
As a result, after sunset, my father carried my mother back on his back, lying to me that she had fallen asleep on his back because she was too tired.
Upon seeing this diary entry, Kalista seemed to recall something and accused, "Mother, you must have been pretending to be asleep then. Your breathing doesn't sound like that when you're truly asleep."
Lex, however, pretended not to realize that Mela was feigning sleep. Before taking her upstairs, he specifically told Callista that her mother couldn't tell her the witch's bedtime story tonight.
"Hmm." Mela touched her nose guiltily and made a fuss, "I was really tired and fell asleep at first, but I woke up again in front of the cabin."
“Really?” Kalista stared at her skeptically.
"Of course it's true."
Rather than admitting that she had deliberately made Lex carry her all the way back, Mela chose to tell Kalista a little lie.
"Let's quickly read the next chapter," Mela said impatiently, turning to the next page in an attempt to change the subject.
On July 18th of the year 569 in the royal calendar, the mother fell ill.
The sick mother was weaker than usual and preferred to make the father do chores.
She had her father painstakingly peel a plate of grapes for her, but she didn't eat a single one, leaving Silas and me to enjoy them instead.
Now I don't know whether to sympathize with the poor father or support the unreasonable mother.
However, it seemed that my father sensed what I was thinking, and he talked to me alone for a while.
I asked him if he had never felt dissatisfied with his mother.
He replied that the prince, who had just escaped death and had once lived a life of luxury, was naturally dissatisfied. He felt that he was enduring humiliation simply to survive.
But Lex, who fell in love with Mela and later became her husband, found it sweet to fulfill her requests. After all, there wasn't much he could do for Mela; she didn't need his power or wealth, she just needed to be pampered by him.
I think this is probably the difference between love and not love.
Love turned my usually wise father into a fool, but I will never indulge my mother like that.
She can be really unreasonable sometimes.
After reading this long diary entry, Mela commented, "That's the difference between your father being my husband and you being just my daughter."
“Then I’ll stay your daughter forever,” Kalista replied matter-of-factly, “because I also want to be pampered by you.”
"Okay, okay, I really can't do anything with you." Mela hugged Kalista and smiled.
She reached out and turned many more pages.
Because Mela flips through pages entirely according to her mood—sometimes forward, sometimes backward—she doesn't read them sequentially. This time, she landed on Kalista's diary from two years ago.
She was only seven years old at the time.
On November 12th of the year 567 in the royal calendar, my mother took me to the cabin to look at the stars.
The clouds are really thick today.
But I still found my own star.
I asked my mother which star she was.
She said it was next to the brightest star.
I understand now. The brightest star must belong to my father, because the two stars are very close, almost touching.
My father and mother are usually like this; whenever I look up, I can see that they've somehow ended up snuggled together again.
Later, my mother began to teach me how to interpret other people's fates through the stars.
But she also taught me not to always look up.
The road ahead is more interesting when you walk it yourself.
Moreover, fate is unpredictable. Always thinking of taking shortcuts will only lead you to fall into a trap carefully laid by fate one day.
Okay, but I still can't help but ask my mother, since she can see other people's fates through the stars, did she already know that my father liked her?
But the father said that he had liked the mother since he was a teenager, but the mother only agreed to be with him much later.
My mother is so mean.
She must have done it on purpose.
However, I knew that if I asked, my mother would be furious, so I decided to be a sensible daughter and didn't ask anything.
Mela looked at Kalista with a half-smile.
I never expected to hear Kalista's bad things that she had kept hidden for two years; this was quite a surprise.
"Is there anything else you want to ask?" Mela asked deliberately, wanting to see Kalista's embarrassed expression.
However, Calista, being her daughter, remained unfazed and met Mela's gaze even after Mela had seen her secretly gossiping about her.
“The problem lies in the diary,” Kalista said, feigning nonchalance.
Anyway, she knew very well that Mela wasn't the kind of mother who would bring up the past, so it didn't matter if Mela saw these things.
As expected, Mela had no intention of teaching Kalista a lesson.
She simply smiled and shook her head, answering the question Kalista had asked two years ago:
"There's no need to ask the stars about such a small matter. Before I even saw another star approaching, I already felt another heart drawing near."
As for why she only agreed to Lex's request later, it's probably because Mela didn't know whether fifteen-year-old Lex would like her, or twenty-year-old Lex would still like her.
"Silly girl, time is the most difficult test in the world. If someone confesses their feelings to you in the future, don't be silly and immediately agree to it."
Mela gently rubbed Kalista's cheek, offering advice as someone who had been through it all.
If his love is just a fleeting impulse, then time will take it all away, and then she'll be crying.
Of course, Mela said that because Kalista is different from her.
Kalista frequently visits the palace, and everyone knows she is Sylvia's sister. Perhaps in the future, some people with ill intentions will try to get close to her.
Mela didn't want her daughter to get hurt easily.
"Hmm... then Father and Sylvia will definitely give him a good beating to vent my anger... thinking about it that way, I'm not so sad anymore..." Kalista said innocently, like any nine-year-old girl.
She would then bury herself in her mother's arms, inhaling the familiar scent of grass and trees emanating from her, and drift into a tranquil dream.
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Author's Note: This concludes the extra chapters. One hundred chapters is a good number. Lex will pass the throne to Sylvia as soon as possible, and we'll return to the cabin to live happily ever after with Mela. Let them experience that in the unfinished story! [Let me see][Let me see]
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