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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Naming Arep
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“Nini! You can’t talk like that!”
Solles scolded her sharply, his face drained of color.
“That’s a really bad thing to say!”
“But Grandpa uses it a lot…”
“When did Grandpa ever say that?”
Feeling wronged, Nibelria pouted her lips. But even so, Solles didn’t soften his stern expression this time.
In the end, Nibelria apologized.
“I’m sorry…”
“It’s fine. It’s our fault for bothering busy Nini.”
Al reached out to pat her head, saying it was okay. But Nibelria dodged his hand with flashy finesse.
“Don’t touch Nini’s hair.”
Only permitted people could touch Nibelria’s hair.
Because patting someone’s head meant you were higher in the pecking order than them.
Nibelria still saw Al and Rubens as beneath her.
“You’re always so fun.”
Even after being rejected, Al grinned from ear to ear.
“So, what were you up to?”
Rubens approached the desk where Nibelria and the children had gathered moments before. An encyclopedia lay wide open on it.
“A dictionary of names?”
“We were naming this child. We decided to give him a new one since he didn’t have a name.”
“Huh?”
Rubens tilted his head curiously, staring at the boy with a puzzled look.
“Don’t you have a name? Rima told me.”
“Rima?”
“The girl from the orphanage with him. Father’s going to sponsor her, so he brought her to our house too.”
Rubens explained she was a girl with pink hair.
“When I said I was coming to see you today, she asked me to say hi.”
At those words, the boy’s face twisted strangely.
But only Nibelria, who had turned back to check on him, and Al, who happened to glance at the boy while watching her amusingly, noticed it.
“If he has a name, maybe we don’t need to make one up.”
Solles felt a bit disappointed inwardly.
“Rubens. Rima? What did she say his name was?”
“It was a cool name. Meant ‘lion’ or something…”
The moment he heard that, the boy recalled what Rima had said to him.
“Hey, your hair’s like a shiny yellow lion!”
“Le…! Whaddya think? Cool, right?”
“Actually, it’s a bit longer name. Le…”
But just before he could fully remember the name Rima had given him, the boy’s recollection cut off abruptly.
He lowered his head slightly at the hand clutching his tightly.
“No!”
Nibelria said, gripping Wolf’s hand firmly.
“Wolf is Wolf! Not a lion!”
“……”
“Wolf, you can’t be lion? Nini will find one quick!”
Nibelria clambered onto the chair alone with a grunt and flipped through the dictionary wildly. But unable to read, there was nothing she could do.
“Oppa! Oppaaaa!”
In the end, she whined for Solles to come read things for her.
“Wolf! Find Wolf names!”
“Okay, calm down. Don’t stand on the chair with your shoes on.”
“Should we help too?”
“Nini, I can read! I’ll help.”
Before long, the children were all focused on finding a new name for the boy.
The boy himself, who would receive the name, could only watch from the sidelines, detached.
They were clearly naming him, yet somehow he couldn’t bring himself to join in.
These kids were all noble-born from the start, while he was a scrawny orphan with nothing to his name.
The sad thought that he could never fit in rooted his feet in place.
“Wolf!”
But Nibelria grabbed the boy.
His feet, stuck to the floor like heavy iron weights, came loose so easily.
“Hee hee, found it!”
The children, now gathered around the floor instead of the desk, had jotted down wolf-related names on paper.
Nibelria pointed to the first one with her finger.
“Arep!”
“That’s pronounced Hirpa. Arep is this one.”
Solles pointed to another name, correcting Nibelria’s bold mistake.
“This is Arep.”
“Arep…”
The boy tried saying the name.
It felt comfortable, like a missing puzzle piece clicking into place.
“Arep.”
He said it again, emphasizing it.
“Looks like you like it?”
Al explained the name’s meaning.
“That name belonged to the wolf that fought alongside Grandfather Ardores in the Crepatna War forty years ago.”
Forty years ago.
The world was plagued by monstrous beasts called magical creatures that slaughtered the living.
The heroes who ended that disaster were Saintess Muniel and Holy Knight Ardores.
Just as Saintess Muniel kept a white cat named Nini, Ardores had a wolf named Arep with golden fur by his side.
“Arep means golden wolf. After the Crepatna War ended, lots of people started using that name.”
“Come to think of it, it suits you. Your hair’s blonde too!”
Rubens grinned, saying it was cool.
The boy fiddled with his own hair for no reason.
At the orphanage, the teachers would yank his hair, saying, “If it was all gold, how nice that’d be!” while cursing him.
He didn’t like his hair color because of that. Just thinking back made his scalp throb.
“Look, Wolf!”
Nibelria grabbed her own silver hair and showed it off.
“Nini’s white, Wolf’s yellow.”
“……”
“All cool colors!”
The boy’s red eyes rippled gently as he watched Nibelria grin with her mouth wide open.
At that moment.
While the children were enthusiastically finding a new name for the boy.
Duke Kalarop Degladis was conversing with Muniel in the drawing room.
“Thank you. Thanks to both of you, his condition has improved greatly.”
“I’m so glad. So, when do you plan to head back to your territory?”
“Not until summer, I think.”
“Then until then, we could…”
Mid-conversation, Muniel set down her half-finished tea on the table.
“…Ralph.”
Kalarop was a father with children. Fitting for a swordsman, he boasted a sturdy muscular build and tall stature.
Yet Muniel still treated him like a little kid.
Kalarop didn’t mind her calling him by a nickname either.
If anything, he was grateful to have a protector he could turn to even at his age.
“Did you bring another child from the orphanage besides the one I asked for?”
But sometimes, like now, when she divined facts he’d never mentioned like a fortune teller, it gave him chills.
“…How did you know?”
“Dear, no matter how old I get, I’m still a saintess.”
“Does that child have holy power?”
Muniel was known in imperial history as the strongest—and most terrifying—saintess.
For her, sensing who among the neighbors across from her had holy power was like eating cold soup.
Muniel crossed her arms uncertainly and closed her eyes.
“…It’s ambiguous. But there’s some power there.”
Too greedy to be holy power, too ignorant to be magic.
And too insignificant to call it ‘power’ at all.
“Honestly, I felt that child was no ordinary one too.”
Kalarop said.
“He blocked my path, insisting I take him along, boasting he’d be helpful. I was so taken aback.”
“And you brought him anyway.”
Muniel said, sounding surprised.
“For your personality, that’s quite the decision.”
“I admit it. Normally, I would’ve been harsh and left him. I’d have just sponsored the orphanage and called it a day.”
“……”
“But his hair color…”
Kalarop’s red eyes narrowed.
“It was that person’s hair.”
That pink hair.
Exactly like the hair of that beloved person he could no longer see, always missed and cherished.
Muniel, listening silently, asked.
“You didn’t bring her today? You had her ride in the carriage yesterday.”
“You knew that too?”
“Don’t underestimate the saintess.”
“I planned to. But she declined, saying she was fine. She seemed to understand my position.”
“If you’re just sponsoring, it’s better to draw a line.”
It might be cruel to the child, but better to show reality to avoid misunderstandings.
Muniel smiled bitterly, then suddenly chuckled.
When Kalarop asked why, she waved it off, saying it was nothing.
“…It reminded me of a story I read when I was young. Similar to what you just said.”
Recalling old memories, Muniel shared the plot.
“It was a bit childish, but fun in its own way. There was this rich young duke who adopted a child from an orpha…”
The old lady’s cheerful expression froze solid mid-explanation.
“Lady Muniel?”
Sensing something off, Kalarop called her urgently.
Muniel was more of a parent to him than his own birth parents. He’d never seen her like this before.
As if she’d witnessed the world crumbling.
“Grandmaaa!”
Knock knock!
At that moment, a cheerful voice from beyond the closed drawing room door broke the silence.
“Nini’s here! Nini!”
“Father, we’re here too.”
Rubens’s voice followed.
Only then did Muniel snap back, giving Kalarop a reassuring smile.
“Should I call the physician?”
“No, better let me be alone for a bit. Just a moment. I need to sort my thoughts.”
“Understood.”
“Hold the children for a second. I’ll be out soon.”
Kalarop nodded and opened the drawing room door.
“Gran…”
Nibelria, who had been excitedly calling for Grandma, clamped her mouth shut at the sight of the towering unfamiliar man.
“……”
She grabbed the boy’s hand tight and hid behind Solles.
