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Chapter : 8
The carriage that had left the villa came to a stop.
The place Vivian had brought Rahel to was……
“……A hill?”
It was a small hill behind the village.
A place where one could escape people’s gazes and freely look over the village.
This place perfectly met those conditions.
“You want to climb here?”
The knights assigned as escorts looked displeased at the idea of climbing the hill, complaining that it would be tiring.
“Eeeh? Did you uncles only eat a little bread today? Why are you so weak?”
Each and every one of Vivian’s words stabbed directly at the knights’ pride.
And then, the decisive blow……
“Then I’ll tell the Duke to give you uncles more bread from now on.”
A terrifying threat—telling on them to the Duke!
At Vivian’s not-quite-a-threat threat, the knights panicked and hurried up the hill.
If it reached Kalts’s ears, the already harsh training regimen of the knight order would only become even more intense.
Rahel also found the sudden hike bothersome, but she politely refused the knights’ offer to carry her and silently climbed the hill.
And finally, they reached the summit.
A cool breeze brushed through Rahel’s hair.
She unconsciously opened her eyes, which she had been half-closing against the wind, and before her stretched a blue sky and a green-tinged field.
At the center of the hill stood a single large, beautiful old tree.
“Over there, if you go under that tree, you can see the whole village.”
Vivian pointed at the tree and led Rahel toward it.
“Ta-da!”
Vivian shouted as they arrived beneath it.
Where the child’s small finger pointed was a panoramic view of the village.
“…Ah.”
Only after seeing that scenery did Rahel realize she had truly stepped outside the mansion.
As she stared blankly at the village below—
Vivian suddenly flopped down onto the grass.
“Huh? What are you—?”
Before Rahel could even finish her question, Vivian began rolling down the grassy slope.
Everyone watching—Rahel and even the knights—was shocked.
“H-hey, kid!”
Roll, roll, roll!
After rolling down a long stretch of slope, Vivian stopped where it leveled out.
Then—
“Wahaha! This is fun!”
She burst into laughter and jumped to her feet.
Her entire body was covered in grass.
Seeing that, Rahel let out a dumbfounded laugh.
“…Hah.”
For Rahel, who had grown up as a noble lady and learned proper etiquette, it was unimaginable behavior.
No—none of the noble children she had ever met in the capital would ever do something like that.
They all pretended to be adults, reading quietly or acting refined.
‘She acted so proper and clever in front of Grandfather.’
But now she looked like a wild foal unable to tell direction from chaos.
Not a cunning girl trying to impress her grandfather—but a pure child who knew nothing.
‘She really is strange.’
Vivian climbed back up the slope and trotted over to Rahel.
Still smiling brightly, despite looking utterly disheveled.
Rahel frowned at her appearance and scolded her.
“You’re dirty.”
“I just have to shake it off like this!”
Vivian ignored Rahel’s disgust and brushed her clothes off.
Most of the grass fell away, but one thing remained.
“Look! Now I’m clean, right?”
A single leaf was still stuck on the top of her head.
It fluttered there among her cherry-colored hair like it belonged.
Rahel watched it sway with Vivian’s movement, and Vivian suddenly asked,
“Would you like to try it too, young lady? You really have to try this when you come here. The grass is so soft—it’s fu—”
“No. You can enjoy it by yourself.”
Rahel cut her off immediately, her expression stiff.
“Ehh… but it’s fun.”
Vivian pouted at the blunt refusal, but Rahel ignored her and turned back to the village view.
Whatever else, the scenery and the quiet atmosphere were pleasant.
Vivian, noticing this, quietly stepped closer and pointed at the rooftops.
“That red roof over there is a fruit shop, and in front of it is a general store, and the green roof next to it is—”
She kept chattering, explaining the village one place at a time.
Following Vivian’s finger, Rahel looked at the village, then suddenly glanced at the girl beside her.
Vivian’s golden eyes sparkled like jewels as they reflected the village.
As Rahel stared blankly at those eyes—
Vivian turned toward her and smiled brightly.
“Next time, let’s go into the village together, young lady!”
In that moment, Rahel realized what made this child shine so brightly.
Freedom.
This commoner child possessed a freedom Rahel did not have.
At that realization, for a brief moment, the girl beside her—just a commoner—felt like the ruler of this small world.
It was a little envy… and a little desire.
On the way back to the mansion after leaving the hill.
Rahel looked out the carriage window at the sunset.
‘Still… the first outing wasn’t so bad, was it?’
I felt quietly satisfied and asked Rahel,
“How was it, young lady? Seeing the village like that wasn’t so bad, right?”
Rahel’s gaze, which had been fixed outside the window, turned toward me.
Her eyes, sharp when we first left, had softened a little—but…
That didn’t mean I got a positive answer.
Still a prickly young lady.
‘I didn’t expect her to praise me anyway.’
Hmph.
I pouted, and Rahel silently stared at me before placing her hand on my head.
“Hm?”
Only then did I realize she meant for me to copy her, so I placed my hand on my own head. And then—
“W-what is this?”
I felt something stuck there that I hadn’t noticed before.
A leaf.
It must have gotten stuck when I was rolling down the hill earlier.
So that’s why those knight uncles were laughing at me earlier.
“Ahh, why didn’t you tell me earlier? You knew all along!”
“Be grateful I told you before you met Grandfather.”
With that, Rahel turned her gaze back to the window.
But just then—
‘Did Rahel… smile for a second?’
When I looked again, her face was back to its usual indifferent expression.
‘Guess I was mistaken.’
There’s no way that cold Rahel would smile at me.
I searched my hair again just in case, then suddenly remembered what she said earlier and stiffened.
‘Once we go back to the villa, there’s going to be a banquet with the Duke.’
It was obvious Sally and the nanny were determined to drive me out, so I had tried to grab onto the strongest lifeline in the mansion…
‘I didn’t expect it to actually work.’
It was a relief the Duke didn’t reject me outright, but…
‘The closer we get, the scarier it feels.’
The Duke was the second most powerful person in the Hildeon Empire, right after the Emperor.
Even though his reputation had faded somewhat after the former princess—his daughter—gave birth to Rahel, the child of a rebel prince…
He was still someone said to be so terrifying that even birds would fall from the sky.
‘And beyond reputation alone…’
Just recalling the overwhelming pressure I felt when I met him today was enough to make me tense.
‘But I can’t run.’
I swallowed hard as the mansion came into view outside the window.
‘At this point… it’s all or nothing.’
