🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 26
After the young duchess left, Count Rodick looked down at the neatly arranged four-leaf clovers.
But… even Kalterion was staring at them.
At those clovers.
His master — the man who had long since lost all traces of humanity and emotion — was gazing at them too.
“Your Excellency, have you ever received such a gift before? When that rascal Hector was young, he used to pick clovers quite often. He could never find a four-leaf one, though, so he’d sneakily glue an extra leaf onto a three-leaf clover and bring it to me.”
When Kalterion turned his gaze toward him, the old count grinned brightly, just as he had in the old days.
“If I may be so bold, my lord — you’ve clearly changed. But it doesn’t seem like you’ve lost your mind.”
While Edwin tried to interject, his grandmother firmly stopped him.
The old count, looking down at the basket full of four-leaf clovers, murmured,
“When a person goes through something great, they do tend to change, don’t they?”
As expected, maybe gifts were the answer?
Descending the spiral staircase of the tower, Bella recalled Kalterion’s reaction, turning the thought over in her mind.
Of all his reactions so far, that one had been the best.
As she stepped out into the courtyard, Ron came running toward her on his short little legs.
“S-S-Young D-Duchess! C-can I p-play with Kero again?”
As soon as one child spoke up, others, watching nervously, rushed over to her too.
“I want to play like we did today!”
“Shh! …Forgive us, Young Duchess. The children don’t know any better.”
Suddenly surrounded by little ones and their parents, Bella frowned slightly.
The ones who bothered her more weren’t the children, but the adults—constantly bowing and apologizing.
She waved her hand lightly, signaling them to quiet down.
When the noisy adults fell silent, the children followed suit.
Their round eyes gleamed like small fruits, wide and bright.
She wondered whether these fragile little humans—who couldn’t even safely enter the grass alone—could ever be useful for anything.
Still, things always turned out unexpectedly.
After all, even today, they had been of help.
If not for them, would she have known Kalterion cared about those so-called “four-leaf clovers”?
After some thought, Bella pointed at the children one by one, who were all gazing up at her.
“John May, Ron Brown, …”
It was her habit to call names whenever she made a contract, so she made sure to say each child’s name correctly.
Each time she called one, the child shot their hand up high.
“From now on, if you want to keep playing here, you’ll have to help me if I ever need something. And Kero has to agree before you play with him. Got it?”
“Yes!”
“Dismissed.”
“Dismissed!”
A few of the children, recently obsessed with pretending to be knights, shouted it proudly before running off. The younger ones, not even knowing what “dismissed” meant, simply followed along and scattered.
Among them, Ron Brown’s mother—her eyes glistening red—bowed deeply.
“Young Duchess, I’m Susan Brown. If you ever need anything, please call on me.”
Why was she crying now? Bella thought. And yet, other maids started doing the same, offering their gratitude one by one.
Among them were John’s parents.
They hesitated before bowing last.
“Thank you for even remembering our son’s name.”
“…?”
Remember? What’s there to remember? If I don’t call John May by his name, how else would he know I’m talking to him?
Bella, not wanting to argue over trivialities, abruptly called out to the boy.
“John May. I need more four-leaf clovers. Can you tell me where you picked them?”
“Oh! If you need them, I can pick as many as you want—”
“Young Duchess, follow me!”
Before his father could finish speaking, John, thrilled, shouted and took off running.
As Kero—who’d been playing hunting games with the boy all day—bounded after him, Bella followed at a steady pace.
The boy ran vigorously toward the beech tree standing in the rear garden.
“There are lots here, Young Duchess! I picked mine here too!”
“Ugh, damn this body—huff—how am I slower than that little kid?”
Panting, Bella climbed the slope and tossed off her yellow coat.
John’s mother, following behind, bent to pick it up but froze for a moment.
Realizing her mistake, she looked around at the guards and said cautiously,
“Um, sirs. My hands… they’re used to handling livestock, you see…”
While Kyle quietly picked up the coat instead, John’s father—who had been searching the ground with his son—hurried to stop Bella from coming closer.
“Young Duchess, please stay in the shade. We’ll look for them.”
“Huff, huff… John May, you just find it. I’ll—huff—be the one to pick it.”
They tried to insist she rest, but she ignored them as the family searched through the grass.
A few minutes later, John’s triumphant shout echoed across the garden.
“I found one!”
“Where!”
Bella, who had been sitting by the tree trunk, jumped up at once, and John’s parents rushed over, excited.
“Here, this one!”
Indeed, among the dense clusters of three-leaf clovers, one proud little four-leaf stood tall.
“John May! You have a sharp eye!”
Beaming at his son’s praise, John’s father added eagerly,
“When a four-leaf clover grows from a stem, the whole stem tends to bear them. If there’s one, there’ll be more nearby. Look here! Every one on this stem has four leaves!”
“Really? Then can we just take the whole stem instead of one?”
“Just a moment, Young Duchess!”
Skillfully parting the grass, he soon lifted a whole clover stem and showed her.
“Here, please pick it yourself, my lady! That way, it’ll be your doing.”
“Here?”
“Yes, right here!”
Bella’s neatly trimmed nails pressed into the tender joint of the stem—snap—and it broke with a soft sound.
At that moment, John, watching intently, sprang up and clapped.
Startled, his mother and father joined in, clapping along with him.
Clap, clap, clap, clap.
Under the dappled shade, the echo of applause tangled oddly together.
And strangely enough, something beneath Bella’s collarbone gave a small flutter.
Her heart—thumping, faintly faster than usual.
Why… was it beating faster?
Not knowing why, Bella held out her hand to John’s father.
She had plucked the stem herself, but it was still in his rough, calloused hand.
He hesitated to hand it over. His hands—cracked and hardened like tree bark—weren’t ones noble ladies usually touched.
Even among servants, there were strict divisions by rank.
Some of the more arrogant ones refused to even dine at the same table as a stableman like him.
“Hurry up.”
To him, the woman before him was a noble standing in a realm far above his reach.
Even other servants avoided his hands, saying they smelled of manure…
“Come on, hurry.”
Pressed again by the young duchess, he finally passed it directly into her hand.
Her hand—soft and untouched by labor—did not flinch or draw back from his.
“What’s your name?”
“Ah, E–Eric May, ma’am.”
Suddenly caught in Bella’s gaze, John’s mother turned bright red and stammered,
“L–Laura May, my lady.”
“Eric, Laura, John May. I won’t forget your help.”
Finding it tedious to say their full names each time, Bella shortened them however she pleased and began walking back down the hill.
Kero rolled across the grass, mimicking her descent in an exaggerated tumble, while Kyle and Jonathan turned to follow her.
Left under the tree, the May family stood silently for a long while, watching the young duchess’s figure grow smaller in the distance.
And then—
“My goodness, you actually brought them?”
Count Rodick’s eyes widened at the bunches of four-leaf clovers dangling in her hand, before bursting into hearty laughter.
“With this much luck, you could live another two hundred years and still not use it all, Young Duchess! Wait—hold on. Isn’t mine fuller than His Excellency’s?”
