Ch#111
Falling!
Her flailing arms thrashed wildly in the air. But no matter how much she flailed, she wasn't a bird and couldn't lift her falling body back up.
Just as she thought she was going to fall backward like this.
"Evi!"
Arsel, who had rushed over in an instant, grabbed Evi.
But the moment he caught the struggling Evi, Arsel stepped on a slippery stone and his body staggered.
"Eh, eh?"
Their bodies slowly tilted backward. And shortly after.
Splash!
With a loud sound, the two fell into the stream.
Evi awkwardly got up and looked behind her. Naturally, there was Arsel, sitting there completely soaked.
"Arsel...."
She already felt sorry for causing him to fall, but to get him soaked like this too.
'What do I do?'
She already felt guilty for eating all the candy herself, and now she was at a loss for how to apologize.
Just as Evi's face started to cloud over again, Arsel casually raised his hand, scooped up some stream water with his fingers, and splashed it on her face.
"Pfft!"
Suddenly doused with cool water, Evi sputtered and spat out the water that had gotten into her mouth.
"Arsel! What are you... pfft!"
But Arsel didn't stop and splashed her with more water.
"Eek!"
Having water splashed on her twice, Evi didn't stay still either.
"Take this!"
With her small hand, she scooped up water and splashed it back at Arsel.
Though small, her hand—trained from playing in the stream with the Poorhouse children during summers—aimed sharply at Arsel's face.
Under the clear summer sky, droplets of clear stream water splashed up.
* * *
"My goodness, what on earth happened."
Duchess Kailun couldn't close her mouth at the sight of the two children entering in such a mess.
Not only were they soaked from head to toe like drowned rats, but they were holding their shoes in their hands. And in one hand, they clutched a bouquet of red flowers.
Unlike their disheveled state, Arsel calmly replied.
"We went into the stream on the way back and played."
Then he looked at Evi beside him and grinned.
"It was fun, right?"
"Yes!"
Seeing Evi smile brightly, Duchess Kailun lost even the will to ask how they ended up in the stream.
"But what's with those flowers?"
"We picked Salvia flowers on the way back and sucked the nectar. I showed Evi how to do it too."
This time, the servants behind Duchess Kailun's eyes widened.
If you pick a Salvia flower and put the end in your mouth, you can taste a faint sweetness like nectar.
But that was something village children did playfully while running around the fields, not for a noble duke's heir.
At her son's innocent answer, Duchess Kailun shook her head and called the maids behind her.
"Anyway, you need to wash up and change clothes quickly. If we don't wash those wet clothes soon, they'll get muddy stains."
At those words, Evi flinched and looked at her own clothes.
These clothes were a gift from Irene. Because they had walked after getting wet, there were mud stains in places.
"Above all, even though it's summer, staying soaked like this makes it easy to catch a cold."
"Achoo!"
At that moment, as if on cue, Evi sneezed and sniffled.
"Hurry up!"
"Miss, this way!"
The maids practically carried Evi under their arms as they rushed her up to the bathroom.
Duchess Kailun looked at her son, who was watching Evi disappear with a worried expression.
'Really, to think I'd live to see Arsel like this.'
From a young age, he had liked being neat and hardly ever played around.
At best, he roughhoused a bit with Ruska, but half of that was for sparring practice, and even when Ruska suggested going out to play ball, he wasn't that enthusiastic.
For such an Arsel to come back from playing so excitedly that he's a complete mess.
Honestly... it was a good sight.
"Did you have fun?"
"Yes."
"Then that's good. You go up and wash too. Walking around like that soaked will leave footprints all over the mansion's carpets."
Duchess Kailun straightened her son's wet hair with her hand and smiled.
For the first time, her son looked like a boy his age.
* * *
Arsel was the first to finish washing up.
He asked the passing maids, and they said Evi kept coughing, so even though it was summer, they were giving her warm tea and putting her down for a nap.
'Did she play too much?'
But it had really been fun. While playing in the water, the two caught crayfish by picking up stones in the stream and chased fish too.
Then they picked the Salvia flowers as originally planned and sucked the nectar.
The slight sweetness of eating them one by one on the way back to the mansion had been so delicious.
Honestly, the Salvia nectar had tasted sweeter to Arsel than the candy he had from the village.
As Arsel handed his wet shoes to a servant and turned, Duke Kailun was coming down the stairs.
"Father."
"Arsel, perfect timing. I was looking for you."
Then the duke beckoned him.
"Let's talk in the study."
At the words to go to the study, Arsel's expression hardened.
It meant there was something important to discuss.
Once in the study and the door closed, Duke Kailun spoke before even sitting down.
"It's about Evi, so I have something to ask you."
"Something related to Evi?"
Unknowingly, Arsel's voice sharpened.
Even on the first day, his father had strangely asked Evi all sorts of questions.
But after that, he had seemed normal, so Arsel let it go, but now bringing up Evi again.
Seeing his son immediately on guard, Duke Kailun thought for a moment before getting straight to the point.
"Have you ever thought that Evi might be Princess Evebien?"
"...Pardon?"
At the sudden words, Arsel was speechless for a moment.
It was only after a long pause that he slowly opened his mouth.
"Are you perhaps dreaming of treason?"
"Oh dear, you look ready to run to the Imperial Palace and report me right now."
The duke chuckled in response, but Arsel's stiff expression didn't soften.
Soon, the duke dropped his smile as well.
His eyes were no longer those of a father, but of a seasoned politician and the duke of a nation.
"The moment I saw that child, I thought of Lilian. Your mother never stayed long in the capital, so she never saw Lilian... but if she had, she would have thought of her immediately too. What about you?"
"I...."
Arsel recalled the first time he saw Evi.
The children entering the Imperial Palace for the first time were walking tensely behind the Genius Academy staff.
Among them, one particularly small and thin child who looked pitiful. But when she smiled, it was clearly....
"...Lilian came to mind for me too."
Arsel didn't deny it. If his father felt the same vague sense he had, then it surely wasn't coincidence.
"Did she say anything about before she came to the Poorhouse?"
"Just a little. It didn't seem like good memories."
There were times when playing with everyone at the Genius Academy that she let slip things.
Like sleeping in straw, or how going into the winter forest alone was too scary.
And she had said one thing exactly once.
"She said before the Poorhouse, she stayed at an inn. That the Poorhouse director brought her from there."
"Did she say where that inn was?"
"No, not that far...."
At Arsel's answer, the duke clicked his tongue with a regretful face.
"Ah, and I heard about the task you asked Riden to do."
"Riden's looser with his lips than I thought."
"If you're aggrieved, become the duke yourself. I'm still the one paying Riden's salary. Of course, we'll continue the task you requested. That child seen at Madam Crevel's Shop... there's something suspicious about her. And if my suspicions are correct...."
The duke's face darkened.
"I'll tell you after confirming more. For now, I want you to look into Evi. As much as possible without making her think it's strange, find out about her past. But...."
The duke recalled Evi greeting him brightly that morning and said,
"Before that, she's your guest, and it's Evi's first summer vacation, so have fun playing. Don't forget that."
The duke had a hunch.
If the things he suspected were true, this summer might be the children's last peaceful time.
'In that case.'
They needed to make good memories.
Beautiful recollections to endure hard times.
* * *
At the same time, Izriella was beside herself with frustration.
"I don't want to eat this!"
It was because she was dealing with Eve, who was screaming that and rolling on the floor.
