Chapter 29
Chapter 29
I was just raising the corners of my lips in a smirk.
Uni placed paper and a pencil on the table.
"You're going to do your homework, right?"
Ah, right. I came up with the excuse of doing homework.
I was about to grab the pencil when I noticed a wound on Uni's hand.
"Uni, you're hurt."
"Ah, I was clumsy and got cut. It's nothing, so don't worry."
Then Seria approached us.
"I have medicine."
"It's okay..."
"Employees' health is their wealth."
She directly applied the medicine to Uni, who, with a slightly embarrassed face, said, "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Jacob slipped in between Uni and me.
"Can I help you? It's too noisy here, so in the study..."
"It's not that noisy here."
"...Actually, I want to look around the study."
His mumbling made him look awkward as usual.
After finishing my homework, I headed to the Duke's office after leaving the greenhouse.
'I know who the wanted criminal is, so now I need to gather evidence and get the bounty.'
To do that, I need to keep the wanted criminal by my side and observe them.
I planned to make an excuse that I wanted to receive a proper lesson from the Duke and make the wanted criminal my teacher.
I knocked and entered, and the Duke was in a conversation with his vassals.
On the Duke's desk was a box I hadn't seen before. What was inside...
'Etwal!'
It was the relic that allowed Mina to exert powerful force.
But that's different from Mina's. Mina's is platinum, but this one is gold.
And the jewels attached to each corner of the hexagram in the center were missing.
'That's it. The second Etwal.'
The one Turba tried to get his hands on, even daring to deceive Duke Dubled.
'But how did he get it so quickly?'
I heard they were waging war, but it couldn't have ended this quickly.
At that moment, a vassal said to the Duke.
"The people of the other continent, suffering from tyranny, directly opened the gates to our soldiers. Thanks to that, it ended easily."
"Did you send the king's head to the Emperor?"
"Of course. He said it was the most satisfying of this year's gifts and sent an edict to commend your achievements."
"That's troublesome."
Viscount Dubois looked at me.
"This is all thanks to the young lady. If the young lady hadn't recognized the con artist, how would we have known about the existence of the second Etwal?"
The vassals laughed and agreed.
I felt good too.
'Duke Valois must be a little jealous.'
He put a lot of effort into this year's Anniversary Celebration gift.
Even borrowing money from the Duchess's family.
And thanks to that gift, he gained the Emperor's favor and obtained the tea trade rights he had been eyeing.
He had been preparing for the business even before obtaining the trade rights, but if it fell through, he would suffer quite a bit from the debt.
I was inwardly chuckling when I quickly came to my senses.
'Oops, that's not the problem.'
What's urgent now isn't someone else's money, but my money.
I've found out who the wanted criminal is, so now I have to catch them.
'I have to catch them alone.'
That's how I get the bounty.
I stretched my arms out to the Duke, who was sitting in his chair.
"Gongzhanmi, hug me."
"......"
The Duke stared at me intently.
'That's strange. He usually hugs me.'
He said he was in a bad mood, but hasn't it been resolved yet?
Just as I was cautiously trying to read his mood, the Duke finally sat me on his lap.
"What brings you here?"
Well, since he's willing to listen, it seems he's not in such a bad mood that I need to run away and avoid him for a while.
"Leubu wants to study too."
"You must already be learning the letters."
"I know all the letters now. I want to learn difficult things like Annie and Ishak."
The Duke stared at me intently before opening his mouth again.
"If you start taking lessons in earnest, it will be difficult to spend time with Henri and Isaac."
"It's okay."
"Aren't they your favorite ones? You wouldn't want to be apart from them for even a moment."
Huh?
Why is that coming up here?
I widened my eyes and tilted my head.
But everyone in the room was looking at me with earnest expressions.
I don't know what it is, but the experience I've gained through thick and thin was telling me.
If I don't get through this well, it could be incredibly tiring.
"No. Annie and Ishak are just my favorite in the world. Gongzhanmi is my favorite in the universe!"
"......"
I anxiously watched the Duke's expression.
"...Who taught you such things?"
The Duke, letting out a hollow laugh, slightly turned his head and looked at the vassals and administrators in front of his desk.
Then Viscount Dubois quickly replied as if a button had been pressed.
"Where would the child learn such words?"
"Is that so?"
"Of course. The young lady seems to really like Your Excellency the most. I've never heard such words from my own children."
"Really? You don't have one?"
The other vassals also chimed in loudly, "We're envious!"
"My daughter hates it when I even try to hug her."
"This one asks for a hug every time."
"You are blessed."
"She's always trying to stick to me, and now I've even heard that I'm her favorite in the universe."
When the answer "We're envious!" came back again, the corners of the Duke's lips tilted upward.
It wasn't an unpleasant face, so I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand.
'Good flattery.'
The Duke allowed me to take noble lessons in earnest.
"I'll tell Noth."
"No!"
I shouted in surprise, then quickly came to my senses and smiled awkwardly.
"Noth has so many papers. I want to do it with someone else."
"Then."
"The prospective administrative sisters and uncles are smart."
I spoke as childishly as possible, and the administrator in the office nodded, saying, "Ah."
"I heard you had a pleasant time with the prospective administrators in the greenhouse, and it seems they've won the young lady's heart."
The Duke, hearing the story, nodded, and I succeeded in making the wanted criminal my teacher as planned.
The next day, morning.
Leah and the maids surrounded me. Each of them held a wrapped box in their hands.
"It's a Children's Day gift."
"Aren't you curious what it is?"
"Right?"
Handmade gloves and a scarf, a ribbon, a fountain pen, a sketchbook.
I had heard them whispering about it since yesterday, so I knew everything, but I pretended not to know and protected the adults' innocence.
And I didn't forget to jump up and down and be very happy each time a gift was revealed.
The maids squealed and hugged me.
"How cute."
My joy wasn't all acting.
I was truly grateful for the sincerity of carefully choosing the gifts for me and personally going out to buy them without fearing the cold.
'I have to take these with me even when I defect.'
I carefully put the gifts in my elephant bag, took out only one notebook, and headed to the greenhouse.
Charlie, Seria, and Jacob were already there.
"It's an honor to teach the young lady. I may be lacking, but I will do my best."
Seria greeted me and explained the lesson plan.
"Jacob and Charlie will teach the young lady the Imperial language, and I will teach history."
"Yes."
"Today, you will first learn the language from Jacob and Charlie, and then you will tour the castle with me and feel the history of Dubled!"
Seria was very enthusiastic. Her eyes sparkled with excitement.
I nodded, and the lesson began. The maids watched our lesson from near the greenhouse door.
Perhaps because their gazes were so intense, Jacob had a nervous expression.
"I heard you memorized the letters in two days. Now, by combining those, those letters, you can make words, to make-"
"Let's do a foreign language first instead of that."
Charlie suddenly interrupted and placed a thick book on top of the lesson materials Jacob had brought.
"But the young lady can't even speak the Imperial language yet, so how can she learn a foreign language..."
"You naturally learn your native language unless you're an idiot."
With that, he pushed Jacob aside and looked at me.
"I could memorize and write the Bible at that age. You can learn the Imperial language on your own, right?"
Good grief.
Who do you think you are, a Duke of Dubled? Memorizing and writing the Bible at the age of four.
Even after being so humiliated yesterday, his attitude hadn't changed.
He seemed even more conceited.
"I don't know where the Duke heard my rumors, but choosing me as a teacher was an excellent choice."
He thought being selected as my teacher was entirely due to his own abilities.
"Honestly, I think I should be in charge of the young master's education. But well... let's consider this a practice run and look forward to the future."
He's too bad at teaching to say that.
It was completely different from Noth's lessons, which focused on the main points and encouraged me to actively participate in the lesson.
It was a lesson where he only showed off his knowledge. If I were really just a child, I wouldn't have understood any of it.
After the first lesson, I left the main castle to go to Seria's lesson.
The maids who had seen me off entered the castle and I could hear them chattering.
"All the administrators this year except for Seria are creepy."
"I agree about Charlie, but why Jacob?"
"I don't like how he keeps saying the young lady is small every time he sees her."
"It's true that our young lady is small and cute, though."
"But his eyes are like he's appraising an animal."
"You're probably too sensitive."
When everyone had left except for Leah, Seria ran up, saying, "Young lady!"
She was holding a thick bundle of materials in her hands.
She was panting, as if she had been running, and lowered her eyebrows.
"I should have come out earlier, I'm sorry. I stopped by the library for a moment to do a final check..."
"It's okay."
"You're so kind."
Seria smiled and walked closely beside me. Leah naturally stepped back.
What I realized while taking the lesson was that Seria was truly a good teacher.
'She's used to teaching children.'
Her explanations weren't difficult at all, and she increased concentration by bringing up topics that children would find interesting in between lessons. On top of that, she was good at handling children.
"Ah!"
When I fell while concentrating on the explanation, Leah ran over in surprise.
"Young lady, are you okay? Oh dear, your knee is red."
Unlike Leah, who was upset and didn't know what to do, Seria dusted off my skirt and said nonchalantly.
"Are you alright?"
If an adult is surprised, the child will think something terrible has happened and burst into tears.
So she knew that it was good to say "It's okay" nonchalantly in these situations.
She who dusted off my skirt stood up. Then, the hem of her skirt was pushed up, revealing her instep.
There was a scar on her instep that looked like it had been burned.
