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Chapter : 02
Once Elisha started talking, she began learning words at a frightening pace.
“Young Lady said ‘snack’ this time!”
In the middle of work, the duke constantly received reports related to Elisha.
“Oppa.” “Ball.” “Food.” “Snack.” “Joyi” (paper).
Up until she learned “food,” the duke had simply laughed proudly, thinking, Our daughter speaks so well.
But soon, he began growing anxious.
Then one of the servants assigned to Elisha rushed into the office.
“Master! Young Lady just—”
“Papa! She said Papa this time, right?”
“Young Lady said ‘Hanssu.’”
The duke and the butler slowly turned toward the servant standing against the wall.
Hans.
That was his name.
“I-I-I know nothing about this!”
Hans immediately threw himself flat onto the floor.
“Please spare me!”
Seeing Hans grovel so miserably twisted the duke’s insides.
Now I’m losing to even someone like him.
A deep crease formed between the duke’s brows, making Hans gasp.
The duke was indifferent toward others, but he was not so violent as to kill a servant over something like this.
“Get out.”
Still, that didn’t mean his displeasure disappeared.
Hans scrambled away after hurriedly bowing several times.
As the door closed behind him, a dejected murmur slipped through.
“Why won’t you call me Papa, Elishaaa……”
I had been born in a baby’s body, but that didn’t mean my intelligence had become that of a baby too.
I could tell something strange was happening just by watching the maids.
“Young Lady, what’s this?”
“Ball!”
“Ball! Young Lady pronounced it perfectly!”
“Hurry and report it to the study!”
They constantly tried to coax words out of me, and whenever I responded the way they wanted, they celebrated like a festival had broken out.
Does their salary increase every time I talk?
If so, then it was probably better to earn points now.
Maybe it would help me later if things went wrong and I had to run away.
So I enthusiastically opened my mouth.
“Young Lady, look at this next.”
“Picture!”
“Yes! Correct! But who did I draw?”
I pondered for several seconds.
“Hanssu!”
“Ah… no.”
The maid let out a horrified sound and lowered the sketchbook.
“What do we do? Isn’t Hans going to get fired?”
“I told you to draw better! Who would look at this and think it’s the duke?”
Their whispers carried a gloomy weight.
I tugged at the maid’s skirt while making a teary face.
“Uu…?”
Was I wrong?
As moisture gathered around my eyes, the maids panicked.
“N-no, don’t cry, Young Lady! It’s Hans! Definitely Hans!”
“That’s right! Looking again, it really does look exactly like Hans!”
“Ah! Shall we stop here for today?”
The maids fled in a hurry, and Mary entered afterward to clean up.
Mary was young and clumsy, so she worked as a probationary maid.
The truth was, she had nearly lost even that position after breaking an expensive plate on the day important guests visited.
[Oh my goodness! Young Lady, are you hurt?]
[Thankfully she’s unharmed.]
[But you mustn’t play with that. Bad, bad.]
Because I had been playing among the broken shards, everyone believed I—not Mary—had broken the plate.
Ever since then, Mary secretly slipped me snacks whenever we met.
“Master is looking forward to it very much.”
Sometimes she also told me important things like that.
Then he should’ve just said so.
So this entire commotion existed because he wanted to hear me say “Papa.”
Ridiculous… though not impossible.
So I decided to wait.
Before being Elisha’s father, the duke was the head of the household.
That meant he possessed a great deal of power.
Time passed quickly, and before long it was dinner time.
“It’s time to eat, Elisha.”
The duke, who acted like ice before everyone else, melted the instant he stepped into the playroom.
The maids hurriedly retreated like people who had witnessed something they were never supposed to see.
The duke sat on the playroom floor and settled me onto his lap.
Then he skillfully tied a bib around my neck.
He was an experienced father now.
“Elisha, say ahh.”
As I ate the baby food he fed me, I looked up at him.
Now that I knew, I could clearly see it.
The longing hidden in his eyes.
Honestly. He wants it that badly, so how has he endured all this time?
Anyway, I decided to grant his wish this once.
After finishing the baby food, I stretched my arm out.
“Do you want water, Elisha?”
The duke immediately brought a cup of water to my lips.
I drank only a little before shaking my head.
Then, when he tried moving the cup away, I grabbed his arm.
“What is it?”
Instead of answering, I plunged my hand into the cup.
I splashed around until water flew everywhere, soaking my hand thoroughly.
“Elisha…?”
Hold still for a second. I have to do this before the water dries.
I pushed aside the empty food tray and rubbed the water across the blank surface.
Then I spoke.
“Papa!”
The duke’s face twisted as if he were about to cry.
“…Papa is not water, Elisha.”
That’s not it! Look carefully!
“Dis… Papa.”
This is the hair, these are the eyes, and this is the nose!
It was just a childish drawing made with water marks, but if someone looked closely enough, they could understand it.
“……”
The duke suddenly went silent.
Was it really that bad?
The moment I tilted my head in confusion, I saw him.
He had one fist pressed over his mouth, desperately holding back choking sounds.
Then our eyes met, and the duke suddenly threw his arms around me.
“E-Elishaaa…!”
Seriously, everyone here cries too much.
Wrapped in his embrace, I smiled awkwardly.
The water-mark drawing(?) caused two very different reactions.
The duke, grinning from ear to ear, shouted:
“Call a preservation mage immediately! And bring recording crystals too! No, better yet—find a way to permanently station a mage at this estate—!”
He was practically ready to dump a fortune into the Magic Tower.
Meanwhile—
“O-oppa likes them too.”
Ian had appeared at some point and crouched in front of me with hopeful eyes.
“The drawings Elisha makes for me.”
“Uh?”
“I can treasure them dearly too.”
“……Uh?”
“As dearly as Father does—no, even more dearly!”
That was probably true.
Ian was even more excessive about me than the duke was.
That change began after I got rid of his tutor.
The duke said he would keep the tray with my drawing inside his office.
And Ian, childish whenever it came to anything involving me, would definitely hang one of my drawings somewhere with as much foot traffic as the office—
Which means the reception room.
The thought of that tray covered in water marks being displayed somewhere important like the duke’s office or the reception room made me—
“……Ugh.”
Honestly mortified.
No matter what happened later, I still had to live in this house until adulthood!
What kind of humiliation torture was this?!
I can never go into the office again! I can’t even greet guests anymore!
“Elisha?”
I shook my head furiously to show my refusal and turned away.
Ian slumped sadly and muttered:
“Oppa wants a drawing too… Elisha’s drawing……”
I squeezed the duck doll upside down for a while before glancing back at him.
Strange.
Ian was obviously much taller than me, with larger hands and already fully grown.
But seeing him curled up like that made him look small.
Hmm.
Looking at him made my chest feel uncomfortable, as though someone were poking it with needles.
How should I put it…
It felt like ignoring a dog quietly sitting beside its owner, waiting for the last bite of a snack.
Anyway, it felt awful.
I tossed aside the duck doll and grabbed Ian’s clothes.
“Okay, picture!”
This was only to ease my own discomfort and get closer to Ian. There was absolutely no other reason.
I toddled across the soft playroom mat toward the sketchbook and paints the maids had left behind.
But before I reached them, Ian lifted the drawing tools high into the air.
“Picture!”
Give it back! I need those to draw!
I stretched my arms upward with all my might, but I couldn’t even reach Ian’s waist.
Ahh, how frustrating.
I clung to Ian’s leg with one arm while stretching the other up desperately.
But no matter how much I strained, all that came out were grunting noises.
Watching me struggle turned Ian’s face bright red.
“S-so cute… Ah, no. These things are still dangerous for you, Elisha. If you accidentally eat them, your tummy will say, ‘Ouch, I hate this.’”
To be fair, this was the age when babies shoved everything into their mouths.
But I wasn’t an ordinary baby.
“Not eat!”
So give me the paint already!
I kept stretching my arms.
Even though I still couldn’t reach him, I was the victor in the end.
Maybe I looked pitiful, because Ian finally lowered his arm slightly.
Immediately, I snatched the art supplies from him and plopped down on the floor.
First, the brush.
But moving a brush with the hands of a baby under two years old was difficult.
More specifically, making delicate movements was difficult.
Dipping the brush in paint.
Applying exactly the amount of pressure I wanted.
Tilting it correctly.
Every single motion.
Fine. Let’s give up.
“Ah!”
I tossed the brush aside and dipped my fingers directly into the paint.
“Elisha!”
“Stay back!”
