BDPVF 15

Chapter 15

Lartel checked to make sure there was nothing wrong with my head, then pressed another piece of candy into my hand.

“You must only eat one a day.”

“Okay.”

Well, this wasn’t the modern world where you could just replace rotten teeth.

Since I was thinking about it anyway, I resolved to brush my teeth properly from now on.

“Then please take care on your way.”

Lartel waved goodbye to me.

I waved back at her a couple of times before leaving the infirmary.

There was only one place I planned to go after coming out of the infirmary.

The duke’s mansion library.

People often judged a family’s status by the size of its library or banquet hall.

Among them, the imperial palace library—said to be the greatest of all—was rumored to contain not only confidential state documents, but even ancient grimoires.

‘And those rumors are actually true.’

Later on, the male lead visits the imperial palace and obtains a seemingly useless book there, but that book eventually becomes the key to defeating Duke Arpote.

I never found out what the book actually was since I didn’t finish the novel, but if the duke wanted it that badly, it had to be something incredibly important.

Anyway, since people judged noble families by the size of their libraries, the library here was also enormous.

Of course, compared to the main estate’s library, it was tiny—but it was still larger than most noble households’ libraries.

The problem was…

I didn’t know where it was.

“……”

Deciding to just wander around until I found it, I peeked into hallways here and there while searching for the library.

‘Why is this place so huge…?!’

Even though it was the duke’s residence in the capital, I’d assumed it would be smaller.

That assumption had been completely wrong.

The duke’s estate was ridiculously large.

No matter how hard my tiny legs carried me around, I still couldn’t find even a hint of the library.

“Haa…”

After letting out a deep sigh, I reluctantly decided to ask one of the passing maids for help.

I knew they disliked me, but surely they wouldn’t refuse to answer a question.

Just then, a maid happened to be walking toward me, so I quickly approached her.

“Excuse me…”

“Y-Yes? Me?”

Startled that I had suddenly spoken to her, the maid pointed at herself in shock.

Judging by how red her face had become, she looked seriously angry.

“Yeah. Where’s the library?”

‘Not like I want to talk to you for long either.’

I got straight to the point.

“Ah, if you go straight that way, you’ll find it.”

The maid pointed out the direction with a flushed face.

Feeling like she might hit me if I lingered any longer, I turned away haughtily.

“The young lady talked to me…”

I heard her mumbling something behind me, but I couldn’t make it out clearly.

I was already briskly heading toward the library with my nose in the air.

Thankfully, she hadn’t lied to me.

When I followed the direction she’d pointed out, an actual library appeared.

“Oh my, Young Lady…?”

As soon as I stepped inside, the librarian recognized me and spoke up.

I’d never met her before, so I wondered how she knew who I was—then remembered that I was the only child in the entire duke’s estate.

“Hi.”

I waved at the librarian.

Apparently pleased that I greeted her, she smiled warmly and said,

“There aren’t many fairy tale books here. Will that be alright?”

“It’s okay. I came to study.”

Since that wasn’t technically a lie, I stopped the librarian before she could rush off to gather every children’s book she could find.

Apparently thinking I had come to use the library as a playground, she smiled brightly.

“Then have fun.”

“Mm.”

Shouldn’t librarians normally worry about books getting damaged?

Tilting my head in confusion, I decided not to overthink it and continued deeper inside.

The library was so well maintained that there wasn’t even a trace of dampness, nor a single book lying on the floor.

‘Proof that the librarian works hard, I guess.’

After raising my opinion of the somewhat airheaded-looking librarian, I headed toward the section where medical books would probably be.

But then another problem arose.

Normally, when searching for books, you could roughly figure out where something was thanks to the decimal classification system.

The problem appeared when I looked up to read the signs.

‘What kind of letters are those?’

I suddenly realized something.

I couldn’t read this world’s writing.

The shock hit me hard.

I’d finally made it to the library only to realize I couldn’t even read the language.

How had I not thought of this sooner?

If anyone ever found out about this, I’d probably spend the whole night kicking my blankets in embarrassment.

“Hah.”

Letting out a hollow laugh, I stared at the incomprehensible squiggles.

I had studied the imperial language diligently, so I could read a little.

But I hadn’t mastered it completely.

If it were English, I would’ve recognized it instantly.

Feeling miserable, I turned around and headed out of the library.

On the way back, I’d have to stop by the office and ask for more lessons in reading and writing.

“Goodbye, Young Lady.”

“Bye…”

Unlike the excitement I’d felt earlier, I now trudged along completely dejected, trying to remember the path I’d taken before.

‘But… where’s the office again?’

“The movements of the barbarians have become rather suspicious lately.”

Arpote Silas listened to the report from one of his knights with a deeply troubled expression.

But not a single word actually entered his ears.

His mind was filled entirely with Lagrasha.

Just remembering that vicious woman grabbing Lagrasha by the head made rage boil within him.

All he wanted was to finish his work quickly and go see Lagrasha.

“You should finish matters here quickly and return to the estate.”

As he half-listened to the knight while walking, he suddenly sensed a familiar presence.

Like a tiny animal hiding in the bushes, Lagrasha was looking around cautiously with perked ears.

She had appeared before him.

“Mm… maybe it’s not here?”

Even though he was right in front of her, she failed to notice him and continued hurrying somewhere.

“So then—”

“Artinis.”

Silas turned his sharp gaze toward Artinis, the commander of the knights.

“Y-Yes?”

“You’re noisy.”

“……”

Only after Artinis finally fell silent did Silas begin following behind Lagrasha.

The sight of her toddling along was so amusing that he secretly swallowed a laugh.

It was simple curiosity.

He wanted to know what this little child—who kept shaking up his emotions—would do next.

“Found it.”

After wandering around with great difficulty, I finally discovered what seemed to be his office: a large door.

Compared to the others, it looked far more luxurious, though not excessively flashy.

It looked exactly like what a duke’s office should.

Knock, knock.

I tapped on the door.

“Is anyone there…? Ah, are you there?”

Remembering the promise I’d made earlier at the last second, I hurriedly corrected myself.

‘That was close. I almost lost my snacks.’

Placing a hand over my tiny chest, I let out a sigh of relief before pressing my ear against the silent office door.

‘I can’t hear anything.’

Apparently, no one was inside.

“What are you doing there?”

“Kyah!”

At that moment, Silas’s voice struck my ears.

Right from behind me.

Startled, I practically jumped into the air.

“D-Duke!”

Gasp.

I clamped my hands over my mouth.

I’d only just reminded myself of the promise, yet I’d already forgotten and called him “Duke” again.

I desperately hoped he hadn’t heard me, but there was no way he could’ve missed something that loud at this distance.

If he hadn’t heard it, then he probably had hearing loss.

Naturally, Silas had heard every word, and his eyes narrowed lazily.

“Dad…”

I corrected myself as quickly as possible, but it was already too late.

His expression didn’t change at all.

“You remember our promise from earlier, don’t you?”

So he really intended to violate my snack privileges.

“Y-Yeah…”

I answered gloomily.

“I’ll reduce your snacks. However, if you bring me efforts worthy of compensation, I’ll forgive your offense.”

‘Bring him effort worthy of compensation…?’

I tilted my head in confusion at his vague words.

“Until then, your snacks are confiscated.”

Boom.

It felt as if thunder struck behind me.

I stared up at him in shock, but Father remained firm.

“Pfft…!”

That was when I noticed the man standing behind him.

A neat black uniform.

The crimson cape draped over one shoulder made him look even more disciplined and intimidating.

His brown hair carried the beauty of nature itself, and like his hair, his black eyes were sharp and intelligent.

The loyal subordinate of my father—the future main villain.

Artinis.

At present, he was the commander of the Blue Flame Knights.

As I stared at him carefully, he swallowed his laughter and addressed me.

“It is an honor. I am Arpote Artinis, commander of the Blue Flame.”

He had earned the Arpote surname after gaining Father’s recognition.

“Hi.”

I waved at him.

“The honor is mine.”

For some reason, his ears seemed a little red, but it was probably my imagination.

As the villain’s loyal subordinate, he had committed all sorts of crazy acts himself.

There was no way someone like that would make such an expression.

Looking at him suspiciously, I quickly turned away and spoke to Father.

“I’m leaving.”

Naturally, I didn’t wave goodbye to him.

It was my own little protest.

“Pfft…!”

I heard laughter behind me once again, but I ignored it and headed back to my room.

Fortunately, I met a maid on the way and easily found my room after asking for directions.

Sitting down, I sank deep into thought.

‘Bring me effort.’

He wanted proof of my efforts, but the wording was so abstract that it was hard to understand.

Still, I already had an idea.

‘Effort means art. And art means effort.’

I placed one of the dolls I had brought from the main estate in front of me.

Then I quickly grabbed a quill pen and began sketching it.

The key feature of the white tiger doll was its stripes.

Compared to drawing human anatomy models during my pre-med art classes, drawing a small doll like this was child’s play.

And it was turning out pretty well too.

So I sat there diligently, pouring all my focus into the drawing.