🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 48
“Why should I show you any respect? You’re not my superior, and you’re not a good adult either!”
“A good adult?”
Riena muttered the awkward combination of words, and Brizny nodded as she answered.
“You are a good adult. Eloise said so! She said we should learn from the actions and words of good adults!”
Alex, who had been ignoring them while staring at the documents, turned his head at the unfamiliar title referring to himself.
“…A good adult?”
Muttering in a daze, Alex buried his face in his hands. Still, his ears were noticeably red, unable to hide the flush.
“Alex, lucky you. A good adult, huh.”
With a teasing voice, Riena watched as he buried his head even further.
“Go….”
“I came to report, didn’t I?”
Seeing Alex in a rarely exposed state, Riena replied mischievously.
“Later….”
Suppressing a laugh, Riena turned to the children.
“Alright then, Brizny, let’s go. And you too, young lady.”
“I want to stay next to the Duke, though.”
Eloise clung to Alex’s trouser leg as if reluctant to let go. Lately, due to the recent beast attacks, he’s been so busy that they couldn’t even have breakfast together…
“I’ll stay next to Eloise!”
Brizny shook her head stubbornly. Watching the two of them, Riena smiled lightly and bent down slightly.
“Miss, do you see all those enormous documents on the desk?”
“There’s so many. Looks like the mountains of the North!”
“Right? Last time, you said you wanted to go on a picnic with His Grace. We have to finish these first to go on the picnic.”
“But…”
“If we want to finish it before the perennial snow of the mountains reaches the village again, we have to hurry.”
Eloise shook her head vigorously, clearly disappointed at not being able to go, then brightened her expression and raised her voice.
“Duke, let’s finish quickly and go on a picnic with me and Kylean!”
“All right, let’s do that.”
Alex, still hiding his face in his hands, replied.
“Brizny, let’s go!”
Since Eloise was leaving, Brizny had no objections and took the hand Riena offered her.
“Okay!”
Riena, leading the children out of the room, peeked her head back in.
“Your face must be hot and hard to focus. Good luck.”
With a playful smile, Riena quickly closed the door as a flying quill came near.
“Now, if we don’t have anything else to do, should we go to the training grounds?”
“You want to go, Riena! No way.”
Brizny spun her head with a huff. But Eloise, suddenly having a thought, spoke with serious eyes.
“No, we have to go to the training grounds!”
“Why?”
“Even though the Duke is so busy, Riena is the head of the knights and always playing around! She’s definitely putting off her work!”
“What? You really are a bad adult! Adults who put off their work are bad adults!”
“….”
Seeing this again, Riena looked down at the children with a hazy expression.
“Riena, hurry up!”
“You bad adult! Let’s go!”
Before she could react, the children grabbed each of her hands. It felt like she was being surrounded and dragged along.
“Shouldn’t… we go somewhere else?”
Riena’s will to go to the training grounds completely disappeared. But the children ignored her and shouted.
“No, we have to go!”
“You have to become a good adult instead of a bad adult!”
Dragged along by the children, Riena muttered gloomily.
“I could just stay a bad adult…”
The sun shone down on the training grounds. Rian moved among the knights in training.
“Looking for a wooden sword? Here it is.”
Until six months ago, he had stayed here as the young master Leston, so the knight handed him the wooden sword naturally.
“Thanks.”
Greeting the familiar face, Rian took the two wooden swords. The knight, who was about to return to training, glanced toward one corner of the training grounds. The sunlight seemed to avoid that spot, leaving it unusually dim.
“Nothing serious has happened to Master Kylean, right?”
“The only reason he’s like that is one thing. Don’t you know that?”
“You don’t know! Even though he argued with Miss, he’s never been this troubled before.”
With a hint of frustration, the knight raised his voice.
“Seems like it’s going to last a bit longer this time.”
Ignoring their concerned bickering, Rian muttered while watching Kylean.
“See, I was right. Those two, who are usually so close, have been avoiding each other lately.”
“Kylean and Miss?”
The knight asked, incredulous, bowing slightly to Rian. Another nearby knight bowed as well.
“They’ve always wanted to at least say something when Kylean was struggling. They regret not having reached out when his face looked so troubled. Even for minor disagreements, they want to help him not get gloomy.”
“I was planning to go to Kylean anyway. Don’t worry.”
Immediately, Rian walked over and lightly handed a wooden sword to Kylean.
“Kylean, let’s duel.”
“….”
But Kylean sat down on the dirt of the training grounds, silent. Rian quietly sat beside him.
“Not going to duel now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Not sure if you want to duel? Or… talk to Eloise?”
Pausing slightly, Rian brought up the person who complicated Kylean’s thoughts. As expected, Kylean flinched.
“Sigh… How can we get closer if we talk like that?”
He muttered, utterly confused. He thought of Eloise and Brizny, always together like best friends.
‘Eloise’s usual spot was supposed to be next to me.’
Really… why do I even need friends? Kylean only needed Eloise.
“Besides, your uncle was also there, and he seemed perfectly fine with them being close.”
Like a dam breaking, all the worries he had been bottling up for days poured out.
“Remember the night Brizny acted like that? Eloise probably talked with His Grace. That’s probably why.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
‘Was I not reliable enough? Of course, my uncle is more reliable than I am…’
Kylean absentmindedly poked at a small stone on the dirt, his actions dripping with lingering resentment. Rian shook his head, searching his pocket.
“Here, take this.”
“Chocolate….”
Kylean stared at the chocolate Rian handed him and popped it into his mouth.
“I didn’t give it to you to eat.”
“I know.”
Kylean frowned at the rich chocolate melting on his tongue and replied sulkily.
“I gave it to you so you’d talk. You can find out quickly if you just ask. And I’m sure she would have told you too.”
“She’s avoiding me. We need to meet first to talk.”
“You’re avoiding her too, aren’t you?”
When Rian pointed out the fact that they had both been avoiding each other for days, Kylean sighed.
‘How am I supposed to reconcile?’
In fact, his biggest concern was ‘reconciliation.’
‘People always misunderstood us as constantly fighting, but this is actually the first real fight… or maybe not.’
He recalled the first big argument with Eloise not long after meeting her. Even reviewing it now, he couldn’t remember how they reconciled.
“You have Brizny… oh, she’s your younger sister.”
When he was about to ask, ‘How do you reconcile with Brizny?’, Kylean scratched his head.
“Why?”
Rian asked, puzzled. Kylean realized for the first time that he had been complaining about his own sister.
“She’s family.”
Rian nodded, as if he understood.
“No matter what she says, you can’t really argue. Besides, you’re not weak enough to take care of her and protect her from everything.”
Thinking of his wild younger sister, Rian smiled.
