Chapter 9
#09
"What story?"
"Why did you tell Lara about our marriage?"
"Was it a story I shouldn't have told? Isn't it something the whole country knows will happen anyway?"
"You've never said it like that before."
That was my question.
Until now, Ricardo's stance on our engagement, and further, on our marriage, was something along the lines of, 'We're engaged, so we'll probably get married.'
In a way, I was the same.
We were engaged, so of course, I would marry him.
"You weren't interested in marriage."
But there was a clear difference between his position and mine.
For me, it was 'of course' and 'must.' My marriage to Ricardo was like that.
Not for Ricardo. For him, our marriage had previously been somewhere between 'maybe' and 'perhaps.'
It was something I had recently realized deep in my bones: that Ricardo himself wasn't an indifferent person, but indifferent to his marriage with me.
So, the fact that he had just told Lara that he was going to marry me was a surprising reaction to me.
"It's true that I wasn't very interested."
He said nonchalantly.
"But I never said I wouldn't do it either."
He said this just as casually.
"What?"
"I have never once said that I would not marry you, Bianca."
Ricardo's dark eyes stared at me. As if to say that there was not a shred of shame or a single lie in his words, only the truth.
What he said was true.
He was a man who had never approached me. But he was also a man who had never retreated.
And I, too, had felt a little impatient with his attitude, but I had assumed that we would get married.
But now it was different. Now that the strange book had appeared, the situation could no longer be the same as before.
Marriage to a man who might stab a sword into my neck could never be the same as before.
"Um… Ricardo?"
But I couldn't explain my situation either. Who would believe it? A book that sees the future!
"Princessss!"
As I hesitated, calling out his name, not knowing what to say, Lara came running from afar.
"Please read this book to me!"
The book Lara chose was, of course, a fairy tale with a pretty blonde princess on the cover.
"Lara, I'm talking to Ricardo right now, so why don't you read it by yourself?"
"I can't read that book."
"Huh?"
"I don't know the letters?"
Lara smiled brightly, and I was embarrassed to see that bright smile. She's still young, but I don't think she's too young to know how to read?
"You… don't know how to read?"
Lara nodded, still smiling brightly.
"Why?"
"Because… I don't know?"
It was a correct statement, but it was incomprehensible. Almost everything Lara said was hard to understand, but what she just said was even worse.
Why doesn't she know how to read?
"Lara, why don't you ask Nicole to read it to you?"
Ricardo intervened between the two of us, who couldn't communicate.
"I want the princess to read the princess book……."
"She'll read it to you. But a little later. Okay?"
"Okay! Lara is good!"
Lara nodded and ran back, calling Nicole's name with the book in her hand.
"Ordinary commoner children learn to read late."
"Why?"
"Because there's no one to teach them."
"Doesn't she have a nanny?"
"…No."
"What about a tutor?"
"She doesn't have that either. Ordinary families don't have nannies or tutors."
"Then who raises the child?"
"Well… usually the mother. Or they just grow up on their own."
I couldn't understand. The child is so small, how can she grow up on her own? It's not like a flower that grows when you water it?
No, even flowers don't grow on their own. Unless they are weeds in a field, you have to water them, fertilize them, and prune them to bloom beautiful flowers.
"Especially these orphanage children, since they don't have a mother or father, they learn to read even later. In severe cases, they grow up without knowing how to read at all."
"They don't know how to read? Then how do they read books?"
"They don't read books."
I just blinked at Ricardo's explanation. But soon I came to my senses.
"I can't let Lara grow up like that."
"The children here will at least grow up being able to read and write. The older children teach the younger ones when they have time."
"It's a relief, but it's still too late not to have learned to read yet. I had already memorized the entire Croford Family genealogy by Lara's age."
"Lara doesn't have a family genealogy to memorize."
"That's not what I meant……."
"Yes. I know what you mean. But Lara's case is the normal case."
"But Lara is not a normal child!"
I was angry that Ricardo was saying it as if it were obvious.
That little thing doesn't even know how to read yet! Then when will she learn to read, read books, and gain knowledge to become a great adult?
"If Lara isn't normal?"
"Lara is very honest, kind, and cute."
"……."
"Maybe she's smart too. No one knows because no one knows. Goodness, gracious! No wonder I couldn't understand anything Lara was saying. It's because she doesn't know how to read, so she's still illogical."
"Hey, Bianca."
"Why?"
"I thought you didn't like children?"
"…I don't particularly dislike them."
"But whenever there were children at banquets or gatherings, you stayed away from them, didn't you?"
"Well, they don't come to me, so why would I go to them?"
Isn't that obvious?
Why would I need to look good to kids with short arms and legs? They should look good to me.
"I see. I thought you… didn't like children."
"I don't particularly like them, but I don't dislike them either."
"I see. That's what it was……."
Ricardo muttered something to himself. But what he was muttering wasn't important to me right now.
"I need to see the headmaster right away."
"To see her?"
"I'm going to increase the donation so they can hire a teacher to educate the children."
I strode into the building.
"What should I do?"
The coachman fidgeted and looked at me.
"Why are you asking me that?"
I looked at the unmoving carriage once, then looked at him. Then he bowed his head even more, sweating profusely.
If the horse doesn't move, the coachman should take care of it, what do you want me to do?
I stared at him intently, meaning to ask him to find a solution. Then sweat began to pour from his forehead like tears. It didn't seem like that hot of a day.
"What's going on?"
Ricardo's Wincaiser Family carriage had also arrived at the entrance, as if he was about to return.
"Ah, well… the horse won't move."
The coachman, with a look of relief, quickly said to the coachman sitting in the other carriage.
"I guess we loaded too many books on the way here. It seems tired, it won't move."
"That's troublesome."
Ricardo opened the window and showed his face, as if he had heard the conversation inside the carriage.
"Yes, it is. I can just wait for him to move again, but my young lady is busy."
"Looks like you have a schedule later."
Ricardo turned his head and looked at me.
"Then I'll take the young lady to the Croford Family."
"Oh, thank you!"
I glared at the coachman, who was thanking him without even asking me, and I could feel him flinching.
But I knew that was the best way right now.
"Excuse me."
The maid, who had already taken some of my luggage from the carriage, was already preparing to change carriages.
He said he didn't reveal that he was a nobleman, so he must have come in the smallest and most modest carriage. It wasn't the kind of carriage Ricardo usually rode when he escorted me.
Thanks to that, Ricardo in the front was even closer, and I could see his face even better. And it seemed that he was the same.
"There are a lot of books."
He, who had been silent for a long time, opened his mouth as he looked at the bundle of luggage that the maid was carrying.
"I've heard a lot of rumors that you like to read. But……."
Ricardo's eyes narrowed slightly. I wondered if something was wrong, so I followed the end of his gaze. He was looking at the books.
The books I bought today.
"The books are very… interesting."
I shouldn't have gotten in this carriage.
"Books about war and trauma."
This time, Ricardo turned his gaze to me instead of the books.
"……."
I quietly chose silence.
"Perhaps……."
"No."
I quietly denied his words, looking only at the empty air.
"To say that, the titles of the books are all……."
"I'm reading these books because I've recently developed an academic curiosity."
"About what?"
"…War or… things like that."
"A noble lady is interested in war?"
"There are no forbidden areas for human intellectual curiosity."
"What about corpses?"
"Everyone is interested in human life and death. I think corpses are evidence at that crossroads."
Goodness, what am I saying now?
"It's just an academic exploration. It has nothing to do with you."
"…I didn't ask if it had anything to do with me?"
Oops, I thought.
"……."
"……."
A quiet silence flowed through the carriage. I was frozen and kept my mouth shut, and Ricardo was looking at me with interest.
"…Did you receive Lord Wendsbury's ball invitation three days from now?"
Before Ricardo could bring up the subject again, I changed the subject.
"Ah, that. I received it."
Fortunately, Ricardo willingly followed the changed topic.
"I'd appreciate it if you could come to escort me an hour earlier."
"Of course, I will."
"That's good."
I looked straight at Ricardo and smiled gracefully, as if telling him not to talk about the books again.
Fortunately, Ricardo understood my intention and didn't talk about the books again. However, he kept glancing at them as if he was bothered by them.
But like a young master of a duke's family who had been well-educated in etiquette, Ricardo didn't say anything.
