🔊 TTS Settings
chapter 40
└ [My kid just started learning baby talk]
└ [Isn’t the order backwards?]
└ [Adult language → baby language lololol]
Those comment fairies really did come and go however they pleased depending on their interests. I thought they’d disappeared earlier, but—
Turns out they’d been watching everything. They just hadn’t said anything.
└ [You only read comments when it’s your POVㅠㅠ]
I don’t really know what that means, but—
“You pretended to be a kid as much as you wanted because you thought we weren’t watching!”
└ [You say “as much as you wanted” but you were totally stutteringㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
Embarrassed, I shifted my attention elsewhere.
“Isn’t it heavy?”
“It’s not.”
Right now, I was being carried in Rubery’s left arm.
Why was I clinging so closely? Because earlier, when I saw him with a puppy, I realized something.
No matter how scary someone looks, they seem less scary if they’re with something cute!
└ [So you’re saying you’re cute?]
Kids are small—that’s all I meant!
We needed to look like we were clearly together, but holding hands wouldn’t work. Our heights and strides were way too different.
So being carried it was. Plus, this was more eye-catching anyway.
“Or… are you uncomfortable?”
Rubery looked a little awkward holding me, so I asked—but then he answered:
“You’re warm.”
“…?”
Of course I’m warm. I’m a person.
Wait. He hasn’t… seen a child who’d gone cold, has he?
Worried I might trigger some war trauma, I shut my mouth.
The Duke of Valent too—why do people keep dragging horrific war memories into everyday life…?
Turning my head away, I asked the comment fairies who’d reappeared:
Is there a good way to speak baby language?
We’d be meeting a lot of people from now on. There was no way to suddenly change Rubery’s intimidating impression or speech style, so it’d be better if I became the bait that softened people’s guard.
Since the comment fairies seemed knowledgeable about this, they immediately started a crash course in baby talk.
└ [Start shyly with “uuung…” when you talk]
“Uuung……”
└ [Isn’t “iiing” cuter than “uuung”?]
“Iiing.”
└ [Ung.. iing.. ><]
└ [Uuuk]
└ [Uuiiiingiiiiiingwiing~~]
“U-ui, ii, wiing…?”
└ [Are you a blenderㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
└ [Rose malfunctioned]
Collective intelligence always veers off course.
I finished learning on my own and pointed in the direction we needed to go.
“Ung. We need to go see Sage unni.”
“Where is she?”
“Over there. At the café.”
When we returned to the café I’d come from earlier, Sage was looking around anxiously.
“Unni!”
“Rose! I went to the post office and you weren’t there—I thought you’d disappeared—Rubery-nim?”
She’d been a bit distracted by the puppy, but she’d quickly fixed up the shop on the way back, so it hadn’t taken that long.
Still, maybe it seemed long for just a quick trip to the post office.
“I apologized to the shop earlier. And we found the wallet that was stolen.”
“A wallet was stolen?”
After I explained the situation behind the earlier commotion, Sage scratched her cheek.
“O-oh. I see. You went through a lot…”
She looked awkward, probably remembering how she’d complained about the knights earlier in front of me.
Come to think of it, Sage was also the one who used to pass along rumors from outside when we stayed in the maids’ quarters.
She’ll probably tell the other maids about today once we’re back.
Alright—rumors inside the ducal estate handled!
“I’m going to take a short walk with Sir Rubery. Let’s eat pancakes together next time.”
“Oh—o-okay.”
She seemed a little sorry to end up with dessert alone, but not overly upset.
Now that Sage was taken care of, time to choose our next destination.
“Are there any other shops that were damaged?”
“There was a time earlier when I broke a table while stopping a fight at a restaurant.”
“Then let’s go there!”
If repair costs were involved, they’d definitely still be holding onto it.
Money problems are best solved with money—even if it’s late.
After making a round through the market, we returned to the ducal estate.
When the knights heard about today’s pickpocket incident from Rubery—
“Who dares commit such a crime in our commander’s territory?”
“Let’s break his fingers so he never does it again.”
“There’s a high chance he’s still nearby. We’ll scour the place like rats—”
They were already grabbing their swords, ready to charge out.
Right. This was exactly why I’d followed him to the knights’ quarters.
“No!”
When I stepped forward, the knights briefly went on guard—then recognized me.
“Damian-nim’s subordinate?”
“When did you get here?”
Well, I’d been hiding quietly, planning to leave if nothing happened.
└ [Hiding with your presence suppressed is basically screaming ‘I’m an assassin’ㅋㅋㅋ]
└ [Fact: Rose is not an assassin]
└ [Huh??? Since when is that a lie]
Since birth!
My presence was so faint that they hadn’t even noticed I’d followed Rubery.
I’d wanted to avoid the knights if possible, but someone needed to say this.
“If you do that, people will be scared!”
“If they didn’t commit a crime, what is there to be afraid of?”
“If knights go around carrying swords in groups, people will think something terrible happened and panic. You’re not the city guard.”
Right. Petty criminals like pickpockets should be handled at the city guard level.
Not by elite knights who once fought on the battlefield alongside Duke Valent!
Of course, security would technically improve—but the problem was that residents would start thinking the knights themselves were the source of danger.
“But we can’t allow suspicious individuals to roam freely.”
“Yes, I know. I’m not saying to ignore it.”
Telling them to do nothing after witnessing a crime today would be absurd.
“Just handle it quietly, where people can’t see.”
└ [Rose-style solution is terrifyingㄷㄷㄷ]
└ [What did you even learn on the trot circuitㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
└ [A town where criminals disappear without a trace is scarier though]
└ [But the residents wouldn’t know, right?]
No, by “handle,” I didn’t mean killing them! Quietly handing them over to the city guard would do.
The knights looked doubtful.
“Wouldn’t it be better to make an example of them? So others don’t get ideas.”
“If they’re really bad, they’ll just hide better and commit crimes more secretly. Then it’s harder to catch them.”
From what I saw today, they were already sharing information in the alleys.
The knights murmured—this perspective seemed new to them.
“True. That soldier who stole weapons ran even harder because he knew what would happen if caught.”
“And the roads here make escaping easier.”
They were people who understood quickly once they applied things to their own experiences—like Damian.
“Yes! And the city guard needs work too. If you see a bad person, give them a spanking and hand them over.”
The knights nodded, enlightenment dawning.
I wasn’t sure what level their “spanking” would involve… but that wasn’t my problem anymore.
Damian’s academy enrollment was just around the corner.
The academy wasn’t close enough for daily commuting, and it was fundamentally a boarding school.
Lately, I’d seen Damian and the servants preparing luggage to take with him.
└ [Damian is cute—can’t we see more of him?]
└ [All the boys around the heroine are leavingㅠㅠ Leon, Edin, Damian]
└ [Jeff too (sneaks in)]
└ [Is it the aura of eternal singleness]
What even is the aura of eternal singleness…?
Even with dorms, students weren’t locked inside. They could come out after school or on weekends.
But apparently, there were restrictions at the beginning.
After the Grand Master’s swordsmanship lesson, I asked Damian while he was resting.
“Sir Damian. After you enroll, when will we be able to see each other again?”
“Hm. After enrollment, there’ll be entrance exams, class assignments… There’s a visitation day about a month later.”
At the entrance ceremony, one or two servants could accompany students. No other companions were allowed.
This was an academy rule meant to preserve its status as a pure educational institution.
If parents showed up from day one saying things like, ‘That one’s from a friendly house—get close,’ or ‘That one’s from a rival house—stay away,’ the atmosphere would collapse.
It would just turn into adults competing through their children.
So the first month was an adaptation period where students lived among themselves.
After that came a parent visitation event to mark them officially becoming academy students, and from then on, outings became relatively free.
└ [Parent visitation? Rose can’t miss thatㅋㅋ]
└ [Didn’t Rose attend the academy before regression?]
Unless a noble daughter had strong academic ambitions, she usually didn’t attend the academy. Few daughters inherited families or businesses.
When young, they learned etiquette and culture from private tutors. Once older, they took bride training—it was the norm.
└ [What a garbage world]
└ [Didn’t Rose say she studied a lot?]
That was… me doing everything I could to cling to the count’s family.
A bad memory surfaced, but since I thought of it, there was something I wanted to ask Damian.
“I have a personal favor.”
“What is it?”
“Could you really—do your absolute best on the entrance exam and get good grades?”
└ [WHAT????]
└ [This is like saying ‘I have a small favor’ and asking your son to go to med school]
└ [He’s not bad at studying—he just doesn’t tryㅠㅠ]
Studying hard is a student’s duty, of course.
‘It’s not like the young duke’s future would be ruined if he did poorly. And Damian is more interested in swordsmanship anyway.’
Honestly, it’d be fine if he wasn’t good at it.
That’s why this was truly a personal request.
Because… Count Torto’s son, Gerold Torto, was also scheduled to enroll in the academy this year.
