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∼Chapter 10∼
“Hmph, hmm-hmm~.”
I moved my hand while humming to myself.
Bright, colorful strokes filled the sketchbook.
Anna chuckled softly and spoke to me.
The maids had started talking to me quite often now.
It felt like only yesterday that they had seemed like emotionless pieces of indoor decoration.
“Our young lady, you draw very well. Is this a pineapple?”
“No.”
I answered sullenly.
How could this possibly look like a pineapple?
Why would a pineapple have eyes, a nose, and a mouth?
“Anna.”
“Yes?”
“This is Anna.”
I pointed at the pineapple… no, the picture of Anna.
“Oh my! You drew me!”
Kind-hearted Anna exclaimed in admiration, but I felt a little self-conscious.
Honestly, even I thought the drawing looked more like a pineapple than Anna.
“Are you and I holding hands?”
“Yes.”
“There’s a heart here, too.”
“Mm-hmm…”
I was a little embarrassed, so I fidgeted with my fingers for no reason.
Anna was silent for a while.
Well, even I didn’t think it was a particularly good drawing.
Crooked lines, coloring that went outside the edges.
The limitations of having potato-shaped hands.
‘Urgh…’
I groaned inwardly.
If I really wasn’t the Duke’s biological daughter, I was going to need the employees’ help.
‘I was trying to make them firmly take my side, but what if this ends up having the opposite effect?’
I was curious about House Phaeraton and , too!
I suddenly wrapped my arms tightly around Anna.
Then I gently patted her head.
“You’re pretty, you’re prettyyy.”
“My goodness, are you saying I’m pretty?”
“Anna is nice!”
“Young lady…”
Was she really going to cry over this?
I became awkward.
“I’ll treasure this as a family heirloom for the rest of my life. I’ll pass it down through the generations.”
Huh? Uh, no, you don’t have to pass it down…
The thought of a picture where no one could tell whether it was a person or a pineapple being inherited for generations made me want to hide.
Anyway, I didn’t understand it, but apparently my plan had worked extremely well.
I used the exact same method on the other maids.
But…
Their reactions were all completely abnormal.
“I’ll take it with me to the grave. I don’t need a husband anymore. I’ll be buried with the young lady’s drawing.”
‘…Huh? So was she originally planning to be buried alive with her husband?’
That was Nancy’s reaction, who apparently supported burying husbands alive.
“I’ll cover my entire room with pictures of the young lady. Every night, I’ll fall asleep looking at them, and every morning, I’ll wake up looking at them.”
‘Uh… isn’t that something a stalker would do?’
That was Laura’s reaction, who seemed to have a stalkerish streak.
“You gave me a heart! Do you need my heart…? If it’s for you, young lady, I can tear it out for you!”
“I don’t need it!”
“Then… someone else’s heart?”
As for Tilda’s reaction…
I’ll leave that one out.
Sob, sob, sob. They were scary.
When I first met them, they all seemed like perfectly rational, sensible, normal people.
How had things ended up like this?
Anyway, after waiting until I was alone with each of them, presenting them with my ultimate drawings, and telling them, ‘You’re pretty, you’re pretty,’ it was time for my walk.
Today, we were going to the glass greenhouse, so I was extremely excited.
A glass greenhouse in a huge mansion!
It was so cool.
I finally felt like I had really entered a romance-fantasy world.
I ran off excitedly, going skip-skip.
“Young lady! If you run like that, you’ll fall—”
“Oof!”
Thud.
As if her words had become a self-fulfilling prophecy, I immediately fell over.
So embarrassing. Sob.
“Young lady!”
“Are you all right?”
I heard the startled cries of the maids.
I must have hit my nose because it hurt terribly.
Even without looking, I knew my nose must have turned red.
I whimpered and lifted my head.
But what entered my eyes wasn’t the faces of the kind maids.
It was a pair of long, handsome legs stretched out like a highway.
‘No way.’
Because those legs were unusually long, I raised my head even higher.
I saw the cold, cold face of Duke Phaeraton.
When our eyes met, he raised one eyebrow.
“What are you doing?”
Well, what do you think I was doing?
“I fell.”
Unlike my grumbling thoughts, I answered obediently and sweetly.
“Why did you fall?”
The Duke looked at me as though he genuinely couldn’t understand.
I was so dumbfounded that my mouth fell open.
Why did I fall? Because I fell!
“Children tend to fall quite often, Your Grace.”
“They’re pathetically weak.”
That’s what you say to a baby who just fell?!
I was indignant, but I stretched both hands toward the Duke.
“Please help me up, Daddy.”
I was worried he might ignore me and walk away, but Duke Phaeraton picked me up.
Even though his brow was slightly furrowed.
Dangling in the air, I received the Duke’s gaze.
His crimson eyes, utterly devoid of emotion, scanned me from head to toe before stopping at one place.
“…Your knee.”
“Huh?”
Following his gaze, I looked down.
My knee was red.
Fortunately, the skin wasn’t scraped, but I was sure it would bruise.
“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt at all.”
Ignoring my words, the Duke started walking.
With me tucked under his arm.
When we arrived at his office, the Duke sat me on his lap and stared at my knee.
‘He’s going to bore a hole through my knee!’
After staring at it for quite a while, he tilted his head slightly.
His low, chilly voice fell over the top of my head.
“Why is the color getting darker?”
“The young lady will need to apply some medicine, and it should heal after a few days.”
The Duke frowned.
“I knew she was weak, but I didn’t realize she was this weak.”
His sighing words made my heart sink.
Could it be…
‘Could this be one of the reasons I was abandoned at my maternal uncle’s house?’
Because I was too weak.
‘If I were really his biological daughter or the female protagonist, I should have … Could I really be an illegitimate child?’
I tightly clenched the hem of my dress.
In the meantime, Nancy brought some ointment.
Duke Phaeraton personally applied it to my knee.
His movements were extremely awkward.
Worried that I might be bothering him too much, I looked at Anna, but she merely smiled happily, oblivious to my thoughts.
After the ointment had been applied, I watched the Duke’s reaction and tried to get off his lap.
I didn’t want to become an annoying child anymore.
But then the Duke stood up and lifted me into his arms.
After that, he didn’t put me down.
Not when we ate.
Not when he signed documents.
Not even when he held meetings with his vassals.
I was nestled tightly in Duke Phaeraton’s arms like a baby kangaroo.
‘No way. Did he forget to put me down?!’
I pounded his chest with my soft little fists, but the Duke merely patted my bottom.
Having suddenly become a fussy baby, I puffed out my cheeks.
The vassals entering the meeting room once again wore expressions as though someone were strangling them when they saw me like that.
Just as the meeting was about to begin, Anna cautiously spoke up.
“Um, Your Grace, I apologize, but perhaps you should put the young lady down now…”
The Duke’s eyes turned toward Anna.
His gaze was so sharp that even I flinched.
Anna trembled, but she bowed her head and still managed to say what she needed to.
“Someone has arrived from the dressmaker’s.”
Apparently, the tailor Duke Phaeraton had called had arrived.
Seeing my chance to escape, I wriggled down from the Duke’s lap.
The Duke glared at me.
He looked extremely displeased.
‘But why?’
He was the one who called the tailor!
Was he regretting spending the money now?!
I looked at the Duke with a sulky expression, and he reached out toward me.
‘Aaah! Did he read my thoughts? I’m sorry!’
Feeling guilty before I’d even done anything, I shrank back.
But contrary to my expectations, he picked me up again.
“Y-You’re going yourself?”
Nancy accidentally asked the Duke, then seemed to realize what she’d done.
She turned pale and immediately shut her mouth.
The Duke simply left the office.
‘Wait, weren’t we just about to have a meeting?’
The vassals, who had been staring blankly at the situation, also stood up and hurried after him.
‘Why are the uncles coming too?’
It felt like I’d suddenly become some kind of rare spectacle.
Yutra Pellia.
She was a legendary figure who had risen from having absolutely nothing, eventually becoming so renowned for designing even the Imperial Family’s clothing that she had been granted a single-tiered noble title.
The woman who set trends across the entire continent, beyond just the capital.
Yet, contrary to her reputation, she was extremely nervous right now.
Her client today was that special.
‘At last, I’m going to meet the mysterious princess.’
“I’ll finally get to meet the owner of those dresses.”
Perhaps thinking the same thing as Yutra, the head tailor beside her whispered.
“I never thought we’d actually get to meet her. For the past few years, around this time every year, they’ve always ordered dresses, but we’ve never once seen her.”
Every year, House Phaeraton would place an order with the same instruction:
Price didn’t matter. Make absolutely the best dress possible.
When Yutra first received such an order, her competitive spirit was fired up, and she made a dress worth the price of a castle.
But House Phaeraton paid the full amount without the slightest hesitation.
Children grew quickly.
A castle’s worth of money for clothes that would only be worn for one season.
Even a princess wouldn’t have dresses made to this extent.
‘That was when I became certain. This was my chance to pour my entire artistic soul into something.’
She had been able to unleash countless ideas she couldn’t pursue because of money.
There was only one disappointing thing.
She had never once been able to see the owner of the clothes.
All Yutra knew were her measurements.
“What kind of person could she be? The youngest young lady of House Phaeraton never appears outside even in a single portrait, so I’m curious.”
“Perhaps she resembles Duke Phaeraton and the young masters?”
Jet-black hair, as though not a single ray of light could penetrate it.
Clear, blood-red eyes.
A fierce and ferocious presence, even more untamed than a wild beast.
Those were the characteristics of House Phaeraton’s direct bloodline.
“Even though she’s still young, I imagine she must have incredible charisma.”
Listening to the employees chatter, Yutra sighed inwardly.
As she imagined the youngest princess being overflowing with charisma, she could feel her anticipation fading.
‘I’ve been designing while imagining a soft, squishy little cutie all this time.’
That freedom had been possible because she had never seen the young lady herself.
Yutra was a professional.
Even if the young lady of House Phaeraton turned out to be a carbon copy of Duke Phaeraton, she would create clothes that suited her perfectly.
‘It isn’t some other family. I really shouldn’t expect a soft, squishy sweetheart from House Phaeraton.’
Not a single model had ever captured her heart until now.
As befitted an artist, Yutra had very particular tastes.
‘Even if she’s a mini Duke Phaeraton, don’t be too disappointed.’
At that moment, the door opened.
Yutra composed her expression and lowered her head.
Like a professional, she didn’t allow even the slightest personal feelings to show.
But the moment she saw the person entering the room, Yutra’s pupils shook violently.
The dozen or so assistants who had come with Yutra also stared at the person entering with bewildered expressions.
‘D-Duke Phaeraton? Why is His Grace here…?’
He wasn’t the sort of person who would show up to order clothes for his young daughter.
‘T-The Duke is actually holding a child?!’
‘Am I seeing things?’
They were seeing it with their own two eyes, yet they couldn’t believe the sight before them.
But Yutra wasn’t paying attention to Duke Phaeraton.
Her entire attention was focused on something else.
‘This can’t be…’
Thud.
The measuring tape in her hand dropped to the floor.
“…Songi.”
The word escaped her lips like a low moan.
Yutra exhaled sharply through her nose, trying to calm herself.
‘What is that adorable, squishy, fluffy little thing?!’
Even the terrifying Duke Phaeraton disappeared from her mind.
The moment she saw the adorable, squishy, fluffy little thing with a lush head of pink hair nestled in his arms, a sharp shock struck her very soul.
At the same time, limitless inspiration began to well up inside her.
That sweetheart with plump, rosy cheeks was exactly like the ideal she had imagined—or rather, even more than she had imagined.
“Perfect!”
Without realizing it, she clapped her hands and shouted.
But that joy didn’t last long.
Only then did Yutra realize the situation when a chilly silence descended.
Feeling Duke Phaeraton’s gaze, which seemed capable of freezing her to death, she forced her mouth to move.
“I-I just thought the youngest young lady was so adorable that I couldn’t help myself…”
She thought this was how her life would end, but the Duke merely adjusted the child in his arms and said nothing.
“Take her measurements.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Yutra and her assistants approached the Duke.
But they couldn’t get any further.
Duke Phaeraton’s gaze instantly became fierce.
Yutra broke into a cold sweat and spoke.
“Um, Your Grace, to take her measurements, you’ll have to put the young lady down first…”
Flash.
His cold crimson eyes gleamed dangerously.
“N-No, never mind. We’ll manage somehow.”
Yutra, pale as a ghost, shook her head and gestured to her assistants.
She had no idea how they were supposed to take proper measurements while the young lady was being held tightly in his arms, but they were professionals.
They had to make it work.
As Yutra measured the length of the young lady of House Phaeraton’s arm, she stole a glance at the Duke’s face.
He didn’t particularly seem to be in a bad mood.
At least, he was much better than when she had taken Duke Phaeraton’s measurements.
‘Hmm?’
Her instincts, honed from dealing with all the most prominent nobles in the capital, were tingling.
Yutra swallowed nervously before speaking.
“Even while having her measurements taken like this, she remains so peacefully in your arms. It seems the young lady really likes you, Duke. What a lovely daughter.”
The moment she finished speaking, she felt gazes coming from every direction.
They were looks that seemed to say, If you’re going to commit suicide, why don’t you at least do it properly?
Yutra quietly waited for the Duke’s answer.
“She said she wanted to stay glued to me. It’s troublesome.”
As expected.
The corners of Yutra’s lips curved softly upward.
“Even so, you’re holding her. It seems you must cherish the young lady very much as well, Duke.”
“She keeps falling over like a newborn fawn. It looks unsightly, so I’m simply carrying her.”
Yutra’s smile deepened.
Who would have thought that Duke Phaeraton had a side like this?
The vassals, who had followed them and had been watching the scene, slowly gathered their courage and spoke.
“Our youngest young lady really likes Your Grace.”
“When she fell asleep so peacefully on Your Grace’s lap last time, she looked so comfortable.”
“Oh my, really? I suppose there’s nothing better than her father’s arms.”
The corners of Duke Phaeraton’s expressionless lips lifted.
Just slightly.
Very, very slightly.
The vassals’ eyes gleamed like hyenas.
They had discovered a lifeline that could finally give them some breathing room in the Duke’s residence, which had been frozen solid.
“When I returned from the war, my daughter saw me and started crying, saying, ‘A scary uncle is here!’”
“My son didn’t even recognize his own father. I’m truly envious, Your Grace.”
The Duke said nothing.
He even hardened his expression as though he disliked what they were saying.
But the vassals who had worked with him for a long time knew.
Duke Phaeraton was in a better mood than he had been in a very long time.
‘Have these uncles all eaten something strange together? What on earth are they doing?’
Whenever they said things like how much I liked the Duke or how comfortable I was around him, his expression hardened.
Seeing his face grow more and more murderous, I trembled.
I tried to escape from the Duke’s arms because I felt like something terrible was about to happen, but he was holding me so tightly that I couldn’t move at all.
I ended up with both hands planted against the Duke’s firm chest.
“Ahaha! Look at how she’s hugging her father even tighter. Isn’t she adorable, Your Grace?”
No, I wasn’t hugging him!
I was trying to get down!
“She’s merely troublesome.”
If I’m so troublesome, then just put me down!
“Our young lady, do you like Your Grace that much?”
One of the vassal uncles asked with a goofy grin.
I thought about it for a moment before nodding.
“Yes.”
Well, I couldn’t exactly say I disliked him.
And honestly, he was a hundred times, a thousand times better than Marquis Tarenka.
“Really? How much do you like him?”
I glanced at the Duke.
He’d said sticking to him was troublesome.
He’d said hugging him was bothersome.
And he’d even said I looked unsightly.
‘…I shouldn’t be too annoying.’
I raised my potato-like hand straight up!
“Huh?”
The vassals, as well as the maids and the men and women from the dressmaking shop, all looked at my hand with expectant eyes.
Riding on their anticipation, I spread apart my index finger and thumb.
Just a little.
Enough to fit one tiny bean between them.
“This much!”
Whoooooosh—.
For some reason, a silence colder than the northern winds and snow settled over the room.
