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Chapter 111
Falling!
Flailing arms beat the air, but no matter how much they struggled, they weren’t birds—there was no way to lift themselves back up.
Just as it seemed they would tumble backward…
“Ivi!”
Arsel, who had run up without him noticing, grabbed Ivi.
But the moment he held the struggling Ivi, Arsel’s foot slipped on the wet stone, and his body wobbled.
“Uh, uh?”
The two of them slowly toppled backward. And shortly after…
Splash!
With a loud splash, they fell into the stream.
Ivi awkwardly pushed himself upright and looked back. Unsurprisingly, Arsel sat there, drenched from head to toe.
“Arsel…”
Ivi felt guilty for causing him to fall, but she hadn’t expected him to get soaked like this.
‘What should I do?’
On top of feeling bad for having eaten all the candy herself, she was now at a loss for what apology could possibly fix this.
Just as Ivi’s expression began to cloud with worry, Arsel lifted his hand and flicked some stream water at her face.
“Pffft!”
Ivi spluttered, spitting out the cold water that had unexpectedly hit her.
“Arsel! What are you—pffft!”
But Arsel didn’t stop. He splashed her again.
“Eek!”
Having been splashed twice, Ivi couldn’t stay still either.
“Take that!”
She scooped up water with her small hands and returned it to Arsel.
Though small, the hands of a child hardened from playing in streams during summer targeted Arsel’s face fiercely.
Under the clear summer sky, crystal stream water rose in droplets and splashed around them.
“Good heavens, what on earth happened here?”
The Duchess couldn’t close her mouth as she looked at the two children, utterly soaked and disheveled.
From head to toe they looked like drenched mice, and one of them even held a shoe. In the other hand, a small bouquet of red flowers was clutched.
Despite the mess, Arsel answered calmly:
“We played in the stream on the way here.”
Then, glancing at Ivi beside him, he smiled brightly.
“It was fun, wasn’t it?”
“Yes!”
Seeing Ivi’s beaming face, the Duchess’s irritation at how they ended up in the stream melted away.
“And what about those flowers?”
“We picked sage flowers and tasted the nectar. Ivi showed me how to eat it too.”
The servants behind the Duchess widened their eyes.
Plucking sage flowers and tasting their faint nectar is something village children do for fun, not something a noble child would normally do.
The Duchess shook her head at her son’s nonchalant reply and called over the maids.
“In any case, you must wash up and change your clothes quickly. If you leave them wet, they’ll stain with mud.”
Ivi flinched, glancing at her clothes.
These were a gift from Irene, and now patches of mud had stained them during their wet walk.
“Even in summer, being this soaked could make you catch a cold.”
“Achoo!”
As if on cue, Ivi sneezed and blew her nose.
“Hurry now!”
“Miss, this way!”
The maids almost carried Ivi as they guided her upstairs to the bathroom.
The Duchess watched her son, concern shadowing her face, as he stayed behind.
‘To think I’d see this side of Arsel in my life.’
Arsel had always preferred neatness and rarely played rough. Even when with Ruska, he’d only tumble in practice, not for fun.
Yet here he was, having so much fun he returned utterly drenched.
Honestly… it was a delightful sight.
“Did you have fun?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Now go wash up. You’ll leave muddy footprints all over the mansion if you stay like this.”
The Duchess smiled as she smoothed her wet son’s hair.
For the first time, he looked like an ordinary boy his age.
Arsel was the first to finish washing.
The maids said that Ivi had been coughing repeatedly, so even though it was summer, she would be given warm tea and a nap.
‘Did we play too much?’
But it had been genuinely fun. They had lifted stones in the stream to catch crayfish, chased fish, and finally picked sage flowers to suck the nectar.
The small sweetness along the way had been delicious. In fact, Arsel found the sage flower nectar even sweeter than the village candy he had eaten earlier.
When he handed his wet shoes to a maid and turned around, the Duke was coming down the stairs.
“Father.”
“Arsel, perfect timing. I was looking for you.”
The Duke beckoned him over.
“Let’s go to the study to talk.”
Arsel’s expression stiffened at the mention of the study. Going there meant something important needed to be discussed.
Once inside and the door closed, Duke Kellen spoke before even sitting down:
“I have questions for you regarding Ivi.”
“Questions about Ivi?”
Arsel’s voice sharpened instinctively. On the first day, his father had asked her strange questions. He had thought nothing of it since, but now this topic came up again.
Seeing his son’s immediate wariness, the Duke decided to be direct:
“Have you ever considered that Ivi might be Princess Evbien?”
“…What?”
Taken aback, Arsel didn’t respond for a moment.
Finally, he spoke slowly:
“Are you dreaming of rebellion or something?”
“You seem ready to run straight to the palace and report me,” the Duke laughed heartily, though Arsel remained stern.
The Duke’s smile faded, his eyes taking on the sharpness of a seasoned politician and a Duke of the realm, rather than a father.
“I thought of Lilian as soon as I saw that child. Your mother never saw Lilian because she stayed in the capital… but if she had, she would’ve thought the same. How about you?”
“I… thought of Lilian too.”
Arsel didn’t deny it. If his father had noticed the same, it couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Did you learn anything about Ivi before she came to the orphanage?”
“Very little. I don’t think it was good.”
While playing with others at the academy, she’d occasionally mentioned sleeping in straw, being scared of winter forests, and once said:
“Before coming to the orphanage, I stayed at an inn. The orphanage director brought me from there.”
“And the inn’s name?”
“No… she didn’t say.”
The Duke clicked his tongue in disappointment.
“And I heard about the matter you asked Liden to handle.”
“Liden talks too much,” Arsel muttered.
“Then you be the Duke if you feel wronged. I still pay Liden, and the task you requested will be carried out. That child, the one Madame Crevel saw, seems suspicious. And if my assumptions are correct…”
The Duke’s expression darkened.
“I’ll confirm before telling you more. For now, find out about Ivi. Learn what you can without making her feel uneasy. But…”
He recalled Ivi greeting him earlier that morning and continued:
“She’s your guest, and this is her first summer vacation. Let her enjoy herself—don’t forget that.”
The Duke intuited that if his concerns proved true, this summer might be the last peaceful one for the children.
‘Then…’
They must create happy memories. Beautiful memories to help them endure hardship.
At the same time, in another place, Izrielle was having a meltdown.
“I don’t want to eat this!”
She rolled on the floor, throwing a tantrum, while being forced to eat something by Eve.
