Chapter 3
Episode 3
"How docile.""
The vassals who burst into laughter soon entered a heated meeting.
Meanwhile, I sat quietly on the Duke Dubled's lap. And I only answered when they asked about stories they had heard from the Temple or the Imperial Family.
After a while, the meeting ended.
The vassals left one by one, and the grandfather who remained until the end approached me.
"Thank you for the valuable story."
'You're welcome. It's all for my own good.'
I had a lot of resentment towards the cult that made me a fake Child of Destiny, then wiped their mouths clean when the real Child of Destiny appeared and threw me as a sacrifice for the ritual.
Besides, I can't dig up orichalcum from the old highlands teeming with Monsters with this young body.
"Here, a gift."
The grandfather held out a candy to me.
I snuck my hand out while nestled in Duke Dubled's arms and snatched only the candy.
'If I were less shy, I would have let him pat my head.'
Still, I could wave to the grandfather.
"Da-gga. (Goodbye.)"
The grandfather grinned broadly and left the conference room, saying, "As expected, daughters are cute, daughters are."
Only the Duke and I remained in the conference room.
He stared intently at me struggling to unwrap the candy, then snatched the candy away.
Shocked, I froze and looked back and forth between my empty hand and the Duke holding the candy.
And soon I became incredibly sad.
Candy…….
My candy…….
You bad guy, how dare you steal a child's candy!
Duke Dubled cleverly unwrapped the candy in one go. And.
"Mouth."
Is he going to give it to me?
'Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all.'
As soon as I thought that, the Duke pressed my cheeks with both hands.
Because of the pressure, my mouth opened like a goldfish, and he shoved the candy into my mouth.
'……Bad guy.'
Still, the candy was delicious.
He poked my cheek, which was puffed up with candy.
"Even if you return to the capital, will you tell someone about my family's affairs if they give you candy?"
"Ahnyeo. (No.)"
"Why?"
Why would I tell the people in the capital such things?
The Imperial Palace, the cult, and the other Duke families all tormented me.
But I couldn't explain all those reasons in detail, so I summarized them roughly.
"I am Gongzhanmi pyeonikka. (I'm on Duke's side.)"
So far, Dubled was the only family that didn't leave me with sad memories.
With the memories of the past few days, I felt like I could endure the painful things I would experience when I returned to the capital about four times.
The candy was so delicious back then.
The blanket was cozy.
Leah's lullaby was nice to listen to.
Duke Dubled wasn't as heinous a villain as I had heard.
-While thinking that.
I looked at the Duke.
'Huh?'
Was that a smile on his lips just now?
At that moment, Leah came in to pick me up.
"Agi- Ah, Master."
Leah, who had come in happily to see me, stopped abruptly and bowed her head.
The Duke put me on the table and got up.
"Make sure she doesn't wander around noisily."
"Yes."
As expected, there's no way such a cold-blooded person would smile.
Back in my room, I stood in front of the sofa table and became engrossed in playing with blocks.
'Okay, just one more block and it'll be 12 stories.'
Just one more.
More!
The maids, who were watching me play well on my own with motherly smiles, were already chattering.
"Really?"
"Yes."
When Leah nodded, the maids covered their gaping mouths with their hands.
"Goodness."
"Unbelievable."
"Did the sun rise in the west? For the Master to be concerned about the Agi-nim."
Who's concerned about me?
I was so surprised, like someone who had heard a bolt from the blue, that I slipped my hand. As a result, the blocks came crashing down.
Startled, I groaned, "Heok!" and Leah quickly ran to me.
"It's okay, Agi-nim. You can build it again. Here."
Kind Leah gathered the fallen blocks and slowly stacked them up.
"Leah-nim, tell us more."
"That's right. How was the Master concerned?"
Yes. Yes. Tell me.
How does that guy care about me?
Leah opened her mouth as she stacked the blocks for me.
"He told me to take good care of the Agi-nim because it's dangerous at night."
How can 'Make sure she doesn't wander around noisily' be broken down and combined like that?
I was so amazed and impressed by her positive thinking.
"Then will he adopt the Agi-nim?"
"It would be nice if that happened. The young masters would be happy to have a younger sibling."
'Ah, the three young masters of Dubled.'
They were famous since I was young, and even more famous as they grew up.
They all boasted handsome looks, martial arts skills, intelligence, and cold personalities.
I had never seen them, but I had heard their names enough to be sick of them.
In the future, there was a name that was called more often than the three young masters of Dubled.
'Mina's brothers.'
They were as cold and indifferent to others as the Duke, but as sweet as honey to Mina.
It was a famous anecdote that when Mina was kidnapped to a foreign country, the three young masters rushed over and completely trampled the foreign country.
'Especially the eldest son had a love triangle with the Crown Prince over Mina.'
"But would being adopted necessarily be a good thing for the Agi-nim?"
"What?"
"That's right. The Master is someone who even turned his sword against the late predecessor, so being adopted into another Duke family would be emotionally good for the Agi-nim-"
"Linda!"
Leah called out sharply, and the maid flinched and shrugged her shoulders.
Leah glared at the maid and gestured for the other employees to leave.
Then she gently took my hand and said.
"The Duke is not such a bad person."
"……."
"He doesn't keep people by his side because of complicated circumstances, which causes misunderstandings in the world."
"……."
"The Master is not a heartless person without humanity like people say. He loved and cherished the Madam very much. If she hadn't passed away during childbirth, the Agi-nim would probably have had a good mother……."
Leah's eyes darkened with sadness.
'Childbirth?'
The Duchess was pregnant with her fourth child?
I hadn't heard that story even before the regression.
Anyway, I felt sorry for the Duke.
'The Duchess and the child both died during childbirth…….'
If so, I can understand why the Duke became as cold as the frost of winter. How can you live properly after losing two loved ones?
"I hope the Agi-nim won't be afraid of the Master."
"Nye."
"So I hope the Agi-nim will have a good father."
"Nye."
Leah, who carefully held me in her arms, stroked my back with a gentle touch.
"How kind."
The voice whispering in my ear was gentle, and the wind blowing in through the window was cool.
Thanks to that, I leaned my face on Leah's shoulder and slowly closed my eyes.
I woke up in the middle of the night and buried my head under the pillow, groaning.
'I'm hungry!'
I used my memories from before the regression to pay the room rate, so I used my brain a lot, but I didn't even eat dinner.
Leah and the maids must have thought I was fast asleep, so they didn't wake me up and let me sleep.
I wondered if I should wait until morning, but I couldn't bear the hunger at all.
'All I ate in the afternoon was just candy and a glass of juice.'
Because I was hungry, my already lacking reason hit rock bottom.
All that occupied my mind was the fear of starvation I had felt through repeated regressions.
When I was Young Lady Valua, the cold gazes of the employees I saw when I was locked in the attic for days and came out because I was hungry.
The pain of starving to death when I was a beggar.
'I have to find food to eat.'
In the end, I entrusted myself to instinct and carefully got out of bed.
I groaned and pushed open the huge door and went out into the dim hallway.
I endured the fear of the dark and reached the kitchen, but the door was locked.
'Shoot.'
I roamed the castle again.
After a long time, I was finally able to find a piece of bread in the servants' waiting area.
Half of it was cut off as if someone had left it unfinished, and it was dry, but I was satisfied with finding something to eat.
I hugged the bread and ran excitedly down the hallway.
'I have to go back to my room and eat it quickly-'
"Ack!"
While running with my mind focused on the bread, I bumped into something hard and collapsed.
Wondering what it was, I looked up at what I had bumped into and gasped, "Heok!" and hurriedly hid the bread behind my back.
Duke Dubled was looking down at me with cold eyes.
He was so scary at night that my hands and feet were trembling.
Suddenly, I remembered the story Mina had told while resting her chin on Duke Amitie's lap.
[……So Jean Valjean was sentenced to death for stealing bread, uh, and what was it-]
Jean Valjean.
Yes, I think that was his name.
What happened to that Jean Valjean after he stole the bread?
[-He was executed!]
As Mina's bright voice came to mind, the blood drained from my face.
"What were you doing in my castle."
"……."
"Was the reason you were unusually smart for a child because you were a schemer sent by the Empress Dowager to spy on my family?"
"……."
I swallowed hard. Duke Dubled, who was deliberately revealing his ominous aura, was not someone I could handle.
When I couldn't answer out of fear, Duke Dubled muttered in a low voice.
"Child of Destiny."
"Neue, nye……!"
"I hate guys who lie."
"……."
"Especially those who pretend to be innocent with the cheap lie that they are on my side."
He stroked his sharp chin slowly and continued in a languid tone.
"All those guys had their mouths torn."
My back trembled.
The Duke bent down slightly towards me.
"What should I do with a young rat?"
I hurriedly prostrated myself. I curled up my body as round as possible like bread and put my hands together.
"Da, da, dalmot…… dalmothaesseoyo! (I, I, I'm sor…… I'm sorry!)"
"For what."
"Hungteotto……. (I stole…….)"
"Money?"
"……."
"A sacred object?"
"……."
"Military secrets?"
"……."
"Then."
The Duke's eyes, shining blue in the darkness, were so scary that I sobbed and handed it over.
"Ppa……. (Bread…….)"
