🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 14
“……”
“……”
The Grand Duke fell silent, and the adjutant beside him—who had been looking at the card as well—was shocked.
The master he served was absolutely not the kind of person children would ever want to see again.
His terrible personality, which never went easy on kids, and the occasional pranks that went far beyond what was acceptable, made that especially true.
‘A child came back on her own instead of bursting into tears and running away? What on earth kind of life did this lady live until now…?’
Dwayne was staring at Aria with eyes full of sympathy when—
[I’m happy to see you again.]
Aria clasped the card tightly in both hands and beamed.
She wasn’t used to smiling. But the moment she thought of Dana, Betty, and all the servants who had taken care of her, a bright smile bloomed on her lips.
It was a first for her.
‘How strange.’
Just remembering their warm kindness made her feel soft and warm inside.
Seeing her smile so innocently, the Grand Duke let out a disbelieving scoff.
“You rode the hunting hound all the way here because you missed me?”
Aria nodded.
It was true that she hadn’t seen the Grand Duke at all since the first day.
There had been a moment or two when she wondered what he was doing.
Though not enough to come looking for him.
“I see.”
The Grand Duke’s mouth twisted.
Even his own son had never said such a thing to him before, but strangely, it didn’t feel too unpleasant.
“So? You want me to play with you?”
“……”
“And do what, exactly?”
When asked that directly, she had no answer.
‘Right. If I came all the way here, I should have a purpose…’
The two simply stared at each other.
The Grand Duke had never played with a child.
Aria had never properly played, even as a child.
After rubbing his lower lip in thought, the Grand Duke asked,
“Should I treat you the same way I played with my son?”
“That would be disastrous. Absolutely not. That is not normal play!”
Dwayne, who had been stiff as a stone the entire time, burst in urgently.
“The young lady came from outside the borders. And I also heard she’s been suffering from a fever for several days.”
Aria wondered what on earth the Grand Duke and his son usually did for Dwayne to react with such horror.
‘It’s impossible to imagine them playing warmly like a normal family.’
If she had to imagine it, she could only picture them doing something bloody and brutal and calling it “play.”
“You collapsed as soon as you arrived in the Grand Duchy. I thought you looked weaker than a bug.”
The Grand Duke finally released the grip on the back of her neck, looking at her as if it were a miracle she was even alive.
Aria recognized that gaze.
Lloyd had given her the same look before.
So had Dana and Betty…
“Are you all better now?”
Aria nodded without hesitation.
[I want to play with the wolves here.]
The Grand Duke clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“You came to see me, yet all you want is to play with the wolves? Children really are impossible to understand.”
Well, she hadn’t come to see him in the first place.
Unable to come up with a proper answer, Aria darted her eyes around and wrote something more reasonable on her card, then held it out.
[I’m fine just staying quietly by Father’s side.]
And at that moment, she quickly covered her mouth with her small hand.
The office was thick with smoke, and she felt a cough clawing its way up.
For some reason, it felt like coughing in front of the Grand Duke was forbidden.
‘Ah, I forgot. In my past life, cigarette smoke was just normal…’
Her throat stung. As she desperately held back her cough, her eyes filled with tears.
Noticing this, Dwayne whispered in the Grand Duke’s ear.
“Your Grace, secondhand smoke is not good for the already weak young lady. Also, the approval documents you must finish today have piled up.”
“So?”
“It may be best to ask her to come again another time—”
“Enough.”
The Grand Duke crushed his half-burned cigarette into the ashtray. Then, leaning back lazily in his chair, he ordered,
“Ventilate the room.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
Dwayne rushed to open every window.
The smoke cleared instantly, replaced by a fierce gust of wind that sent the curtains flapping wildly.
Aria instinctively hugged her arms and shivered.
The Grand Duke looked baffled.
“You’re a lot of work.”
He stood, removed his coat, and dropped it onto Aria’s head.
Then, naturally, he took the card she was holding.
Aria struggled inside the oversized coat before poking her head out to look up at him.
He slipped the card that read [I’m fine just staying quietly by Father’s side.] into his pocket.
‘Why would he keep that?’
Aria adjusted the enormous coat that kept slipping off her and tilted her head.
“Then just sit there and breathe properly.”
Instead of playing with her, the Grand Duke gave her that one instruction.
Aria wondered why he would say something so obvious—she was always breathing. But once she started thinking about breathing consciously, it suddenly became difficult.
‘Okay, inhale… exhale…’
She began counting her breaths with her fingers.
Watching her struggle to breathe, the Grand Duke let out a small laugh.
“At this rate you’ll stop breathing altogether.”
Aria felt wronged.
She had been breathing perfectly fine before she started thinking about it.
“You seem awfully relaxed.”
Dwayne arrived with a stack of documents and dropped them on the desk.
“These must be completed today.”
“I’d appreciate a moment to breathe myself, you know.”
“Your Grace can survive even if your breathing stops for a while.”
“So you’re telling me to work even if I’m not breathing.”
“Of course not.”
The Grand Duke didn’t hide how irritated he was, but surprisingly, he began reviewing the papers seriously and working as though nothing was wrong.
The desk was close enough that Aria could see what he was reading.
She had nothing else to do, so she stroked the wolf’s head while carefully looking over the documents.
‘This is…’
They were reports involving Viscount Cavendish.
The envoys sent to negotiate peace with the Valentine Grand Duchy were all returning in critical condition.
People were keeping quiet out of fear of the Grand Duchy’s might, but among the common folk, rumors were spreading that the “curse of the devil” had struck again.
‘Right, that incident…’
Aria remembered the disgusting smile of Viscount Cavendish from her past life.
“Several retainers died before we could even react. It was clearly our mistake, but they demanded an enormous compensation fee and I gladly paid it. The Valentines weren’t so great after all.”
He had stirred up public opinion, insisting that his people had fallen ill due to the Valentine curse.
Thanks to that, his failing territory had been saved by the compensation money from the Grand Duchy.
“We never even granted them entry, yet they wandered near the borders on their own and claim they got cursed… They could at least put more effort into their tricks.”
The Grand Duke asked, “And the investigation?”
“There were traces of a fire being lit in the forest. Other than that, nothing notable.”
“Troublesome. Should I just kill him?”
Aria flinched.
“With this much money, we could kill Viscount Cavendish a hundred times and still have plenty left.”
“Killing him will only cause more problems.”
“Is that really my concern?”
“Of course not, Your Grace.”
Dwayne’s expression suggested he meant: It will be my problem.
‘So killing him is something the adjutant would handle personally?’
Valentine truly had its own laws.
Aria felt a renewed sense of awe.
“Hm, no. On second thought, giving him more money could be amusing.”
The Grand Duke changed his stance instantly.
Dwayne grimaced, as though he already knew where this was going.
“I’m curious to see how far he’ll fall clinging to useless hope. He’ll roll in the mud, crawl at my feet, and eventually beg me to kill him.”
“Ahem… Your Grace, the young lady is listening. It may give her nightmares.”
Aria silently listened, deep in thought.
‘There’s a better way. No need to feed a scammer when he’ll just cause more trouble later.’
Viscount Cavendish was a man who lived off gambling and wasteful indulgence. It would be better for him to go bankrupt now.
‘People don’t change easily.’
Even after receiving the compensation, he had visited Aria whenever he had spare time—wanting to hear a song from the Siren that cost a fortune each time.
He would waste any money he received anyway.
Aria pulled out a fountain pen and began writing.
Both the Grand Duke and Dwayne turned their eyes to her.
[I know how to cure the illness.]
“You?”
The Grand Duke looked surprised for a moment, then propped his chin in his hand as if telling her to go on.
[They just need to take antiparasitic medicine.]
Aria presented the solution.
Completely serious.
A brief silence—
Then the Grand Duke burst into loud laughter.
