Chapter 19
The wooden horse is certainly faster than walking maids, but it doesn’t zip along as quickly as I’d imagined.
*Clip-clop, clip-clop.*
“Oh my, Lady. You’ve acquired a cute wooden horse.”
“Lady, are you out for a stroll? Hello.”
It’s comfortable since I don’t have to walk, and it is faster than going on foot, but…
“Excuse me, Lady. Would you mind if I passed by first?”
“Oh? Oh, sure… go ahead…”
It’s slower than a servant running at full speed.
‘I knew it. There’s no way the Duke would gift me a wooden horse that zooms, zips, and whooshes around.’
This is the man who told me to eat my meals using a chick-shaped fork!
I’ve been swindled. Well, he never actually said anything about the speed, so I suppose I wasn’t technically swindled.
Besides, the wooden horse is so flashy that everyone notices the Lady coming from afar and tactfully steps aside. Or, they approach from a distance, smiling as if I’m adorable.
‘Still, it’s faster and more comfortable than walking…’
And it is the first gift I’ve ever received in my life.
Lephonia rode her wooden horse diligently around the mansion.
And by that day, rumors had spread throughout the estate that the cuteness of the Lady who received the wooden horse had been upgraded to a whole new level.
* * *
Having received the Duke’s permission, Lephonia diligently followed Pretes around.
“Senior! Please be my guard.”
“I’ve been seriously debating whether I should run away or wait whenever I see that wooden horse rushing toward me from afar. Kid.”
“Please be my guard.”
“Listen, kid. The world doesn’t always flow the way you want it to. Even if you want something, there are people who will refuse, and that is why I refused…”
“I know. I’ve been refused plenty of times before. You aren’t the first person to turn me down.”
This, at least, is not a first for me.
Lephonia said it calmly. So calmly that it almost made Pretes, who was speaking, feel sorry.
“But I’m the one clinging to you because I need you, Senior. The person who needs something is the one who has to do the clinging, isn’t that right?”
“Am I supposed to agree with that, or should I tell you you’re wrong?”
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Ha. Doesn’t Father even hire you a tutor? Huh? I mean, I’m planning on kicking you out, but Father says he wants to keep you, right?”
“The Duke might be planning to kick me out, too.”
“Ha.”
Pretes clutched his forehead and dropped his head.
“Listen well, kid.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to protect anyone. So, ask someone else to be your guard. If you don’t know who would be a good choice, I can help you find one.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I don’t want to, either.”
Pretes was firm. After stating his refusal with such determination that it seemed he had no intention of changing his mind, he turned away.
“L-Lady. Are you alright?”
“Young Master Pretes doesn’t usually let people get close to him. It’s not just you, Lady. That’s just how he is.”
Birdie and Becky, who had been watching from afar, approached to comfort Lephonia.
“Yes, I’m fine. I’ll go ask him again.”
Lephonia smiled nonchalantly, as if she were truly fine, and set her wooden horse in motion. Everyone looked at her retreating back with pity, but in reality, Lephonia was perfectly fine.
No, she was actually pleased.
‘Good. I’m buying time well.’
In truth, following Pretes around wasn’t her main objective.
Pretending to follow him, pretending to look for him, she was actually scouring every corner of the mansion to see if there was any place she had missed.
If she happened to spot Pretes, she would bring up the guard request, and once she was cleanly rejected, that was the end of it.
Furthermore, since Pretes was actively avoiding her, it was actually easier for her to roam the mansion.
“Where is it?”
Where on earth is the heirloom?
“Ha. Kid. How did you even find your way here?”
The heirloom she’s looking for never appears, but Pretes, who has nothing to do with it, keeps popping up.
She looked up at Pretes, who was resting in a tree to avoid her—she had no idea how he’d climbed up there.
“Guard.”
“…Refused.”
*Nod.*
Lephonia nodded and turned around, riding her wooden horse with ease.
‘I’d like to find the heirloom and leave before the Duke assigns me a guard.’
Lephonia, who had no intention of staying here for long, scurried around diligently.
*Scurry, scurry…*
Despite her grim determination, she looked even cuter riding the wooden horse.
A few days of this tug-of-war continued.
“Please be my guard.”
“I told you, no.”
Even when Pretes was resting.
“You’re not going to be my guard, are you?”
“Yeah.”
Even when Pretes was eating.
“Senior, guard—”
“Go away.”
“Okay.”
Even when Pretes was taking a nap.
She was diligently rejected, and she diligently searched. All the while, she also worked hard at her life as a Lady. Every morning, she greeted the Duke and ate with him.
She read at least one book a day, thinking that showing such sincerity would prevent the Duke from disowning her too quickly, so she made sure to read one even when she was busy.
But nothing changed.
‘I’ve searched the entire mansion. I even crawled into the crawl spaces and checked the incinerator, but it’s not there.’
As it happened, the Duke of Kreitan was away today to attend a succession ceremony for a noble at the Imperial Palace, so she searched even harder.
Lephonia sighed deeply while sitting on her wooden horse.
“Haaah.”
…Is it true that only the head of the family manages the Kreitan family heirloom?
‘Should I just do something to get rid of the eldest and become the heir myself? I heard the eldest has only studied hard since he was young.’
…That’s impossible. Even if he only studied, the eldest was a genius who learned to wield Aura at a young age.
There’s no way Lephonia could beat someone like that. No, even if she somehow managed to get rid of the eldest, the chances of her beating the second son, Pretes, were effectively zero.
“Haaaaah.”
Lephonia sighed deeply, resting her chin in her hands.
Her cheeks, which had become chubby from eating well lately, were squashed flat.
“Hey, kid.”
A shadow fell over Lephonia as she sat there feeling dejected. Lephonia, who had been resting her chin and pondering what to do, looked up.
“Senior?”
It was Pretes.
Since Lephonia had started pestering him to be her guard, he had been avoiding her, so it had been a long time since he had approached her first.
“Ha, you really are…”
Pretes ruffled his hair and sat down roughly beside the fountain.
‘What’s with him?’
Lephonia stared at him with a look of confusion, wondering why he had come to find her when she hadn’t even been looking for him, only to sit there sighing.
“…I had a younger sister.”
Pretes spoke calmly, staring into the void.
“I don’t even know if she’s alive or dead now. No, she’s dead, actually. It’s just that no one acknowledges it.”
Lephonia blinked. She hadn’t expected Pretes to bring this up himself.
‘Come to think of it…’
No one in the Kreitan Duchy.
No one had ever told Lephonia about this fact.
The dead youngest daughter.
The ‘real’ Lady who had died.
The absolute taboo of this family.
Not when the Duke of Kreitan adopted Lephonia, and not even now, when he says he considers her his true family.
Neither the Duke, nor the servants who attended to Lephonia, nor anyone in the family.
She realized anew that no one ever told Lephonia about the past.
If Lephonia hadn’t been a real five-year-old child, but rather someone who knew the whole truth and had shrunk herself by drinking a potion, she would never have known this truth in her lifetime.
‘I suppose they felt there was no need to tell me.’
It was ironic.
That only Pretes, who suspected her the most and wanted to send her away, was the one to tell her the truth.
“…I can’t protect anyone.”
Pretes lowered his gaze calmly.
“If I had been able to protect someone, my mother and my sister wouldn’t have died like that.”
She had never imagined that Pretes was thinking such things.
‘Now that I think about it, he kept saying he didn’t want to protect anyone.’
Was that what he meant?
“That’s why I have no intention of graduating from the Academy. I don’t intend to do anything after I graduate. I hate seeing Father’s face in this mansion even more. Because my family isn’t here.”
Pretes crossed his arms.
“I’m not the kind of person who can protect or save anything in the first place. And if I can’t do it—”
Pretes turned his head and finally looked down at Lephonia. His calm, sunken eyes held nothing but sincerity.
“The one who will get hurt is you, kid.”
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