23 - The Youngest is Hiding a Lot
23
What did you say?
“I think you’re getting your words twisted.”
“Ugh.”
He seemed quite flustered.
It was somehow unfamiliar and strange to see an adult so flustered, thinking I was angry.
Looking up at his unusually insignificant-looking large frame today, I continued speaking clearly.
“I’m not angry. I was surprised yesterday, but I wasn’t upset either. I’m the one who should apologize for raising my voice so rudely.”
I even bowed deeply.
I felt a stinging gaze on the top of my head.
Clatter. A bust sculpture fell.
Glancing over, half of the face of the first family head was tragically gone...
“You weren’t mad at me?”
“Why would I hate Old Duke? I thought you hated me.”
“Who would hate such a tiny speck of dust like you?!”
Was he picking a fight, or trying to make up?
But by now, I could roughly understand Old Duke’s pattern.
His words and actions were so big and rough, but if you thought about it carefully, most of it was praising me.
“Where did you pick up such polite manners?!”
Like this.
“Please don’t rub your cheek on me...”
Before I knew it, Old Duke had picked me up and was pushing his bristly chin at me. I gently pushed his face away.
“Alright, let’s go!”
“Yes!”
We crossed the lobby and went outside.
Wow, the weather is nice.
In front of the castle, there was a carriage with no roof and open on all sides.
“You said you don’t ride well in enclosed spaces, right? Hmm, the weather is somewhat warm today, though.”
At Old Duke’s gesture, Maurice brought another coat from somewhere. Ugh, it’s stuffy.
I got into the carriage with my puffy body.
“…Are you a chick today?”
“Pardon?”
Old Duke, sitting next to me, flicked the pin with his thick finger.
“Where did you get so many of these pins all of a sudden…”
The gruff voice suddenly stopped.
Old Duke turned his head towards Hazel, who was standing still near the carriage.
“Hazel.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“Don’t tell me that guy gave you the key to the east room?”
Hazel answered quietly that he had.
“…I see.”
A dark and chilly look suddenly crossed Old Duke’s wrinkled face.
It was an emotion that seemed like sadness, anger, or longing.
What on earth was in the east room?
‘Exploration later.’
I made a small resolution and gazed at the scenery outside the slowly moving carriage.
Rattle, rattle.
The carriage shook.
The Duchy Castle’s main gate had been wide open for a while.
“I’m so excited because it’s my first time in Zellox city!”
When I couldn’t hide my excitement, his thick eyebrows twitched.
“Can I look around other places besides the clothing store?”
Rattle, rattle.
“Can’t I?”
“Aish, of course you can! Stop talking! You’ll bite your tongue!”
A large, thick hand firmly held my body.
\ \ *
I might have been misunderstanding Old Duke a bit.
Since he has such a great spirit, ordinary people would naturally find him difficult and avoid him… something like that.
People would part like the Red Sea wherever he went, sending admiring glances but not daring to speak easily…
‘That’s the image of the Northern Duke!’
At least, that’s how the people in the capital looked at Leviathan.
But.
“Your Excellency! It’s been a while!”
“Mr. Balock! How have you been? Your beard is amazing as always!”
“Your Excellency, please take a look at the ore! I’ll give you a discount!”
I calmly turned to the side and asked.
“…Old Duke, are you a celebrity?”
“What’s a celebrity?”
“Like a popular person.”
“Hmph! Popularity, my foot.”
That’s right.
The previous head of Jebert was truly a grandfather loved by everyone!
We parked the carriage at the entrance of the shopping district and walked down the street. The gazes of the people looking at Old Duke were simply full of joy.
‘Come to think of it, it was like that when I saw Leviathan.’
I remembered when I first entered Zellox with Uncle Leviathan.
Of course, I was completely nervous back then, so I didn’t see it in detail…
‘The people of Zellox must like the Duchy family.’
Trust and affection. It wasn’t something built up over one or two years.
It felt like the camaraderie unique to those who live together in harsh lands.
‘Wow, this is nice.’
Without realizing that the attention being poured on Old Duke was being directed at me, I was lost in thought and moved my feet.
“Welcome… Oh my. Your Excellency, what brings you here?”
We arrived at a large and fancy clothing store.
“I’ve come to buy clothes that fit this child.”
“This person is… perhaps.”
It was a place full of good smells. A beautiful woman dressed in a beautiful dress looked down at me.
Feeling shy for some reason, I slipped behind Old Duke’s cloak.
“H-Hello?”
“Hello! I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Yusana, the designer here!”
The beautiful woman’s face immediately brightened. Her long eyelashes fluttered like butterflies. But…
‘Rumors?’
What rumors?
“But Mrs. Ivelin won’t be back for a few days, so what should we do?”
The sign ‘Evelyn Boutique’ hanging at the entrance came to mind. I had naturally assumed that the beautiful woman was the owner, Mrs. Ivelin, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
“We need to get something that fits this kid, even if it’s ready-made! Look at this mess!”
Old Duke dragged me out from behind him.
My son is really hopeless in this kind of thing, blah blah.
Old Duke started listing his son’s flaws again, but no one paid attention.
“Hmm. You mean you need something to wear temporarily, right?”
Yusana’s eyebrows tilted sadly as she looked at my sleeves, which were flowing down.
“Okay. I’ll help by altering existing clothes. Give me three hours.”
“Okay…”
I answered awkwardly. Honestly, clothes were outside my interests…
“Shall we take your measurements first?”
That made me snap back to my senses.
“I don’t want to take off my clothes!”
“But to measure accurately, it would be better to change into something thinner than this.”
“I, I don’t want to…”
I reflexively clung to Old Duke’s leg.
Huh? Old Duke, who was looking down at the floor, shouted.
“Hey, the speck of dust says they don’t want to!”
My loud-voiced ally is the best!
“Then I’ll measure over the clothes you’re wearing. Is it okay to take off your coat?”
“Yes. That’s okay!”
I quickly took off my coat and had my measurements taken.
Snap! At Yusana’s finger snap, the maids moved in an orderly fashion. Rattle, rattle, the hangers came in endlessly.
Surely those aren’t all my clothes, right? I heard that a person named Mrs. Ivelin would come to have my clothes made again in a few days?
“Put out ready-made clothes that are like custom-made! Alright, let’s go!”
Old Duke, who spoke like a gangster, turned around abruptly. Because of that, I missed the chance to ask.
“Let’s go together!”
“Aish, troublesome. Just eat cake or something quietly, why are you trying to follow me?”
When I held onto the hem of his cloak tightly, Old Duke, who was staring down at me, shouted, “Ugh, it’s ticklish, it’s ticklish!”
Did a bug get on his body?
Meanwhile, at Evelyn Boutique.
“That’s strange. Did I hear wrong?”
Yusana, who was carefully looking over the measurements she had written down, tilted her head. A junior designer, who was unfolding a pair of children’s shorts, asked.
“Ms. Yusana, what’s wrong?”
“I’m sure they said a handsome young master…”
Something…
Yusana couldn’t finish her sentence. It was a kind of feeling. A designer’s eye for detail, an aesthetic point of view, something like that.
“Am I the only one who felt it?”
Those inside the boutique exchanged glances. In fact, some of them had been thinking it inside, but there were words they couldn’t bring themselves to say.
The junior designer who was listening shook her hand.
“No way. They’re probably just very, very pretty. You know, even His Highness the 4th Prince is more beautiful than most girls.”
Well, thinking someone is a girl just because they’re pretty and cute could be rude in itself.
“That’s… true.”
“No matter how gruff our Duke is, only knowing about swords.”
“Right?”
“He’s not so clueless that he wouldn’t know a child’s gender.”
“Right?”
Hahaha, that’s right, that’s right. Bright laughter spread.
Yusana lifted up a boy’s top with a large collar with a slightly relieved feeling.
Ah, cute. It’s the perfect color to match the eyes of that lovely person from earlier.
“…”
But why wouldn’t the uneasy feeling go away?
