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Chapter : 07
“Wait for meee!”
She always stopped when I said that. I didn’t know why she couldn’t just be honest about it.
By the time I ran all the way to where Grandfather was, I was completely out of breath.
I bent over, trying to catch it, when Grandfather held out his hand.
“Let’s go to the garden.”
But before we could even take a few steps, the butler approached us from around the corner.
“What is it?”
The butler glanced at me before leaning close to Grandfather.
I wanted to listen too, but they whispered so quietly that I could barely hear anything.
“What? Him? Understood.”
From the sound of it, someone had arrived.
When I looked up at Grandfather, he let go of my hand.
“Gwampa?”
“Wait here for a moment, Elisha. Grandpa will be right back.”
Judging from the way he said it, it probably wasn’t anyone important.
“Okaaay!”
I nodded obediently.
I watched Grandfather walk away before sitting down on a nearby bench.
The shadow of the tree beside it stretched over the seat. Every time the wind blew, the shadow swayed gently before settling back into shape.
I stared blankly at the unremarkable sight and leaned against the backrest.
The moment I closed my eyes, the smell of grass and soil grew stronger.
It was peaceful.
Leisure. Peace. Comfort.
Things I had never enjoyed in my previous life.
Would I be able to hold onto them in this life?
A life where I could become happy together with the people I loved.
I curled the hand resting on the bench into a fist.
‘I wish everything could keep going smoothly forever, just like today.’
“Hey.”
If only that could happen—
“Hey!”
My thoughts were interrupted.
“Were ya callin’ me?”
“Yeah!”
Ever since becoming Elisha, this was the first kid who had called me like that.
When I stood up, I saw a strange boy.
Maybe five or six years old?
Perhaps because his face was so pale, his nasty expression stood out even more.
‘But who is he?’
I was sure I had never seen him before, and he definitely wasn’t a servant’s child.
The boy kept walking toward me while I was thinking. He stopped two steps away.
“You live here, right?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Good. Take me to where Lady Rollcade is.”
“Huh…?”
“Elisha Rollcade! Don’t tell me you don’t know her?”
Of course I knew her.
“Why?”
“‘Why?’ Watch your tone.”
“Yours ish short too.”
“What? You think you and I are equals?”
“……How are we diffwent?”
I blinked innocently.
“Obviously we are! I’m going to become the Duke of Rollcade someday!”
“You?”
Pfft.
“Y-You just laughed at me?!”
“Obvioushly! You’re not a Rollcaide.”
To inherit a family, you had to belong to that family. Wasn’t that obvious?
Of course, collateral relatives could inherit too.
But this kid wasn’t even part of the collateral line. Neither the Duke nor Ian had ever mentioned a child who looked like him.
“That problem gets solved if I marry Elisha Rollcade.”
“But she hash an older bwother.”
The principle of eldest-son succession. Didn’t he know that?
“If her brother doesn’t become duke, then Grandpa or her father won’t just sit still.”
“Grandpa? That old geezer?”
This time, the boy laughed at me.
“That geezer’s practically halfway to the grave anyway. Once he dies, there won’t be any shield users left, so the only remaining family members will be—”
What?
“He won’t die!”
Do you know how hard I worked to save him?!
“Gwampa won’t die! He can’t die!”
“What’s wrong with you?! Hey, shut up already!”
The boy glared fiercely at me. Not wanting to lose, I glared right back.
“Anyway! Do you know where the lady is or not?”
“Don’t know!”
I jumped to my feet.
The boy immediately raised his fist.
“Why do you keep shouting—”
“Shuddup!”
Why was he the one making such a fuss?! This was my house!
I kicked him in the knee.
“Agh! You little— Hey! Stop right there!”
“Idiot!”
As if I’d stop.
I stuck my tongue out at him and ran away, teasing him, when I crashed into someone.
A familiar scent drifted from them.
“No matter how much you like your grandfather, you shouldn’t run around so recklessly. What if you fell?”
Grandfather’s lips had curled upward, apparently misunderstanding the situation.
If he was happy, then that was all that mattered, so I gladly wrapped myself around his leg.
“I missed you, Gwampa!”
The boy who had been chasing after me stopped dead in his tracks like he had slammed on the brakes.
“Grandfather?”
He pointed back and forth between me and Grandfather. Judging by how unaware he was of rudely pointing, he looked half out of his mind.
“Oh? So this young lady is your granddaughter, sir?”
A strange voice cut in.
It was probably the “him” Grandfather had mentioned earlier.
I instantly disliked the man.
The oily smile on his face, the way he kept twisting his beard, and the way he looked me up and down like he was appraising merchandise—I hated all of it.
“To think she’s already this lovely at such a young age. Her future is certainly something to look forward to. I don’t know who’ll end up taking her hand someday, but I envy him greatly.”
He chuckled before turning toward the boy.
“Oh, Leon. Were you playing with the young lady?”
The boy quickly lowered his hand.
“Y-Yes, Father! We were playing hide-and-seek!”
“Oh? Already? What a good boy.”
The stiffness in the boy’s face eased slightly.
“To get along this well despite meeting for the first time! Children really do become friends quickly, don’t they?”
Friends my foot. Was this man blind?
I looked up at him while suppressing the urge to stick my tongue out.
Watching the greed drip openly from him reminded me of something.
—Please don’t feel too resentful. The living must survive, after all.
When the ducal house had fallen apart and Elisha had fled from the Crown Prince—
—That mad Crown Prince is searching the entire capital. This was bound to happen eventually anyway. Think of it as happening a little earlier than expected.
There had been a man who captured Elisha, handed her over to the Crown Prince, and accepted money for it.
Brown pomaded hair. A goat-like beard. The appearance of a drenched rat thrown into a dryer.
There couldn’t possibly be another man in the world matching that description.
‘It’s definitely him.’
Eric Romford. That had to be the scoundrel’s name.
Now that I knew, I hated him even more.
And his son annoyed me too.
‘Then I should send them away.’
Hehehe.
“Gwampa.”
I released one of the hands clutching Grandfather and tugged at the edge of his clothes.
“What is it?”
“That boy said…”
I jerked my chin toward the man’s son.
“He asked me to mawwy him.”
“W-What?”
Grandfather’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly.
Apparently the shock hadn’t fully sunk in, so I delivered the finishing blow.
“What’s militawy mawwiage, Gwampa?”
I tilted my head innocently.
“Get out this instant!”
That day, I learned just how thunderous Grandfather’s voice could be.
He was very healthy indeed.
Eric Romford and his son were thrown out.
He clung desperately to the fence, shouting nonstop, but despite the pitiful sight, I felt no sympathy.
‘He was never going to be useful—either now or in the future.’
Besides, Grandfather admitted he had never liked the man much in the first place.
“I didn’t invite him because we were close. I only lured him in because I wanted to know why he kept following us around like a clingy goldfish.”
It seemed unlikely he would ever be allowed into the mansion again.
Which was good.
Three peaceful days passed after that.
“A newspaper?”
I lifted my head immediately.
“The Pwince ish in the newspaper?”
Mary nodded.
“The Founding Festival was recently held, remember? I think a photograph from then was printed.”
“Ooh….”
The other family members didn’t care much about those kinds of events, but Mary was different.
The reason she had joined the ducal household and ended up working as a maid despite not being suited for it in the first place was because she loved things like nobles and the royal family.
“They say the First Prince’s face was clearly shown this time… You’re interested too, aren’t you, Miss?”
“He’sh the Pwince.”
The First Prince, Claude Hakerlion.
The future obsessive tyrant who would destroy the Rollcade family.
Though he was still too young to be formally named Crown Prince, he was unquestionably Enemy Number One—the person I needed to watch most carefully.
It wouldn’t hurt to learn what he looked like.
“But the newspaper is in the study. You know… where the master works.”
Once she said that much, I understood why Mary had brought it up.
She wanted to see the newspaper but, as a probationary maid, couldn’t enter the study easily—so she was trying to tempt me into going with her.
Of course, there was no reason for me not to play along.
“Let’s go.”
“R-Really?”
“Should I go alone?”
The moment I walked out of the playroom first, Mary hurried after me.
“N-No!”
The study was empty. Mary had deliberately chosen the timing carefully before coming to find me.
The newspaper in question was sticking slightly out from the corner beside the desk.
Various documents and desk items were piled messily on top of it. At a glance, it was impossible to see the article.
“Ah….”
Mary looked disappointed. She stared at the newspaper regretfully before grabbing the exposed edge.
“Should I try pulling it out?”
“W-Wait!”
If you pull it like that—
‘Everything’s gonna collapse!’
The newspaper didn’t tear.
Instead, disaster struck elsewhere.
Thunk.
Rattle—!
Crash!
