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A boy?
“Hmm?”
Lephonia tilted her head. The information she had and the knight’s testimony did not match.
‘I’m certain it was the lady from next door and this knight who came to the cabin back then.’
That was why she had even thanked the knight for reporting it. Could he have been the lady’s son?
“However, since the person who reported it disappeared suddenly… the lady from next door, whom I met while patrolling the area, was the second person to report it.”
The lady from next door was the second reporter? Then that meant there was someone else who reported it before her? Who on earth could it be?
‘…Could it be the person who swapped the Shrinking Potion?’
If not, how would they have known there was a child in that house to make the initial report?
“What did the first person who reported it look like?!”
Lephonia asked Sir Belic urgently. Her pronunciation seemed to have become a bit clipped, but that wasn’t the time to worry about such things.
“Did you hear her pronunciation? It’s so cute….”
“I didn’t think much of it when the Young Master Villemon couldn’t pronounce things properly, but… she’s really cute.”
The knights seemed to be muttering to each other, but Lephonia lightly ignored them.
Sir Belic, recalling his memory, slowly opened his lips.
“The child had very distinct features, so that stood out… but, well, I didn’t look closely.”
“What about their hair color or eye color?”
“Nothing special. Their hair was black and their eyes were golden.”
Huh?
The moment she heard Sir Belic’s words, Lephonia couldn’t help but think of that boy from back then.
Could it be…?
‘That boy back then, he definitely looked at me and said, “You’re alive,” didn’t he?’
What if he said that because he thought Lephonia would die after he swapped the Shrinking Potion?
Everything fit perfectly.
“What is it, kid? That sounds similar to the description of the boy you mentioned earlier. Were you asking because they seemed similar?”
At Pretes’s question, Lephonia simply brushed it off with a laugh.
Of course, that boy might not be the initial reporter. But Lephonia’s gut told her there was some connection.
‘Just let me catch you.’
Lephonia clenched her fists tightly.
* * *
She had circled the training grounds, but Lephonia couldn’t choose a guard. Pretes had recommended a few, claiming they were highly skilled, but Lephonia refused them all.
The reason was simple.
‘Ugh. That knight is the one who persistently chased me when I was stealing. And that person is the one who almost caught me on the day I infiltrated!’
It was because every single one of them was a knight she had encountered while working as a spy for the Pope. Fearing her identity might be exposed, Lephonia desperately buried her face in Pretes’s chest and whined that she didn’t want them.
Of course, she wore a mask while performing missions, so they wouldn’t recognize her face, but she had to be careful.
Besides, she didn’t want such persistent and skilled knights as her guards.
She felt a sense of shame as a grown adult, but fortunately, those around her dismissed it as the tantrum of a five-year-old.
“Kid. After what happened, you need to choose a guard. If you’re uncomfortable with them sticking by your side, I can have them hide and guard you from a distance.”
That was the problem. That right there.
She couldn’t go around looking for the heirloom with an anxious heart, not knowing where they might be watching from.
Lephonia glanced at Pretes from the corner of her eye.
Pretes had carried Lephonia in his arms all day. He could have put her down, but in the training grounds, he held her, saying it would be difficult for the servants to clean the sand off her shoes, and in the hallways, he kept holding her, claiming she was the perfect weight for exercise.
‘I’ve gotten used to it without even realizing.’
When she was first held in the Duke’s arms, she thought it was embarrassing, shameful, and absurd to be carried around like that.
To think she was now so comfortably nestled in his arms, wandering the training grounds all day.
‘My social dignity….’
She was thankful that no one knew she was only five years old in body.
“If you have something to say, say it, kid. Don’t just look at me like that.”
He was unnervingly perceptive, even though she had only looked at him for a split second. If Pretes was like this, and she had to think about someone similar sticking to her as a guard… ugh.
“You’re going to kick me out once I’m all better anyway.”
Lephonia opened her lips, trying to persuade him somehow.
“According to you, I’m someone who’s going to be sent away, so is there really a need for a guard… Ouch!”
Before Lephonia could even finish her sentence, Pretes ruffled the child’s hair into a mess.
“Don’t, don’t do that!”
Lephonia flailed her short arms and swatted at Pretes’s hand.
Because her hair was scattered in a mess, she couldn’t see Pretes’s expression clearly. Lephonia, having barely managed to fix her disheveled hair, glared at Pretes.
Pretes was looking at Lephonia and smiling.
“You ruined my hair!”
“Oh. You look prettier now than before, though?”
Lephonia glared with all her might, but Pretes just laughed, as if a child’s body couldn’t pose any threat.
“Isn’t it because you’re always thinking strange things with that tiny head of yours? Why on earth do you hate it when someone says they’ll protect you? It’s better to be safe until you leave, isn’t it?”
“Even a child has things they find uncomfortable and dislike.”
Lephonia said firmly. Pretes paused.
“It’s uncomfortable and unpleasant to have a stranger nearby. Even if they’re hiding to guard me, the thought of someone secretly watching me all the time makes me feel stifled and scared.”
Lephonia muttered calmly.
“But I know you’re trying to assign a guard to prevent the same thing from happening again. So….”
Lephonia stopped talking and widened her eyes. A brilliant idea popped into her head.
A perfect way to avoid dealing with both Pretes and a guard.
“I’ve chosen my guard.”
“Suddenly, in the middle of talking?”
Pretes tilted his head.
“Yes. You, Pretes.”
Lephonia pointed at Pretes with her small finger.
“……What?”
“You be my guard.”
Lephonia had chosen the fossil who was drifting through life without graduating from the Academy as her guard.
In any case, Pretes currently thought Lephonia was a swindler and was monitoring her every move. Having a guard wouldn’t reduce that surveillance.
In that case, she might as well….
‘Let’s just drag Pretes around as my guard!’
Besides, if she kept the second son of the Kreitan family as her guard, she could naturally approach the Duke from time to time.
The heir to the Kreitan family was the eldest, anyway. Pretes, the second son, would either return to the Academy and remain a fossil or graduate and become a knight.
So, it meant Lephonia could choose Pretes as her guard.
‘Thank goodness my brain didn’t become that of a child’s.’
Lephonia smiled, feeling proud of her choice.
“……No.”
Of course, only until Pretes refused.
“What?”
Lephonia, who had been smiling contentedly, asked back with an absurd expression.
“Why, why?”
Lephonia, who hadn’t even considered Pretes’s refusal, stammered as she asked.
Pretes suspected Lephonia of being a swindler. She thought he would naturally agree since being a guard would allow him to watch her from up close!
Pretes stared intently at Lephonia in his arms. Unlike usual, his gaze was cold, without a hint of playfulness.
“Because I don’t want to protect you.”
Pretes answered in a low voice and set Lephonia down from his arms. They were already in front of Lephonia’s bedroom.
After her bedroom had burned down, it had been moved to a different location until it could be cleared.
The inside was full of new furniture and items, but since they weren’t hers anyway, she didn’t pay much attention to them.
“Think of another knight.”
After patting Lephonia’s head lightly a couple of times, Pretes turned around.
Watching Pretes’s retreating back, Lephonia turned around without any lingering attachment and entered her bedroom.
“Lady, you’re back… Oh my, Lady. Why is your expression like that? Did something happen?”
“No. Nothing happened.”
Lephonia replied lightly to Birdie’s question and turned her face away. At Pretes’s calm, serious refusal, for just a moment.
She didn’t need to let anyone know that her heart had skipped a beat for a split second.
* * *
After sleeping through the night, Lephonia cleared her thoughts neatly.
‘Is it over just because he refused? If he refuses, I can just follow him around until he accepts.’
Come to think of it, being rejected by someone wasn’t a one-time thing, so she couldn’t understand why she had been so shocked yesterday.
‘I’ve just become too accustomed to this child’s body. They say people are animals of adaptation, and that’s not a wrong saying at all.’
Lephonia organized her thoughts inwardly while preparing for the morning with the help of Birdie and Becky.
‘Everything here is meaningless anyway. Steal the heirloom, return, find freedom, get money from the Pope, buy the Nullification Potion, and drink it. Once I return to my original form, it’s not a relationship that will continue anyway.’
She should do everything she can in this five-year-old body.
And come to think of it, the more Pretes refused, the better it was.
Lephonia would say she only wanted Pretes, and Pretes would keep refusing.
‘That way, the assignment of a guard knight will keep getting delayed!’
It was perfect.
Lephonia clenched her fists and headed to the dining room for breakfast. The Duke of Kreitan and Pretes were in the dining room.
“Ponia. Did you sleep well last night?”
“Kid. Why are you so determined today? Are you planning to go on an expedition this morning?”
Lephonia sat in her designated chair. And as soon as she sat down, she got straight to the point.
“I want you to be my guard, Pretes!”
Perhaps not expecting her to throw such a direct hit in front of the Duke first thing in the morning, Pretes coughed in embarrassment. He even turned red, as if he had choked on his food.
“……Pretes?”
The Duke asked back, looking as if he had misheard. But Lephonia nodded, smiling brightly like a five-year-old who knew nothing.
“Yes. I asked yesterday and was already refused, but I still don’t want anyone but you!”
What could they do if a five-year-old said she didn’t want anyone else? It was the privilege of being five.
“Ha. I clearly said no.”
“Yes, I heard you.”
Lephonia countered with a laugh at Pretes’s reaction.
“I’m going back to the Academy soon. Even if I say I’ll be your guard now, I won’t be by your side.”
“Then you can just do it while you’re here. After that, I’ll talk to the Duke again and find someone else.”
At the five-year-old’s retort, which was a proper mix of whining and logic, Pretes silently put food into his mouth instead of answering.
Seeing Pretes’s reaction, the Duke said as if to soothe Lephonia.
“Ponia. Pretes is returning soon, so choose another knight you like….”
"But I'm scared of people I don't know."
I knew the Duke would say that. After all, no matter how much of a troublemaker he might be, Pretes was his real family by blood, while I was just an adopted child—a fake family member—so I expected him to take the other side.
That was why I had already prepared my answer.
"Because of what happened a while ago, I get nervous when someone I don't know comes near me. Even if I know they're a knight assigned to protect me."
I smiled.
"I would like it if you were the one to guard me, Senior."
There it was. The terrifying tantrum of a five-year-old.
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