Chapter 12
“People shouldn’t be finger-pointed at. How about saying you want to help rather than just train them?”
“Then, help!”
“That’s a very good idea.”
Muniel praised Nibelia and gently patted her head.
Nibelia puffed up proudly and declared her ambition.
“Rank is important! I’ll show my fearsome side so no one climbs over me. Nini will make sure of it!”
“Means you’ll help them adjust well, right?”
“The battlefield was the problem….”
Ardores muttered sadly to himself.
Anyway, since things had come to this, the kids spontaneously took some time to introduce themselves to each other.
First, the composed Soles spoke.
“I’m Soles, 10 years old. Let’s get along well from now on.”
“All right, I’ll get along….”
The boy hesitantly took Soles’ outstretched hand. Soles smiled warmly.
Next was Nibelia.
“Nini! Four years old!”
“You have five fingers, though.”
“Oops.”
At Soles’ correction, Nibelia hurriedly folded one finger.
“Nini is earning money. Hunting hard to feed the wolves.”
Nibelia stared directly at the boy as she said this.
“…For me?”
The boy asked, embarrassed.
Whenever he was with Nibelia, he was always baffled and speechless. Why on earth did she care so much about him?
“Earn lots of money! So listen well!”
Nibelia boasted.
She completely left out that she had debt.
“And this is Deter. Nini’s subordinate.”
“You shouldn’t call me ‘this,’ Miss. And it’s an honor to meet you, Wolf Sir.”
Deter politely greeted while slightly lifting the hem of his black maid skirt.
Finally, it was the boy’s turn.
“…Wolf, 8 years old.”
“So you’re just adjusting to Nini?”
Soles smiled wryly as if it wasn’t necessary. Nibelia shot her brother a look full of betrayal.
But the boy shook his head.
“Wolf is fine. Really.”
“Hmm….”
Soles realized the boy in front of him was a kind kid who knew how to be considerate to the weaker.
“How about giving you a name with ‘Wolf’ in it?”
“…….”
“Nini’s real name is Nibelia, which means White Cat. I think you should have a name like that, too.”
“Then how about going to the library?”
Ardores, who was watching the babbling kids with a warm smile, suggested.
“While you go to the library, look around the main building too. You’ll be visiting there often from now on. Nini, you can teach him well, right?”
“I can!”
“Then let that be your last debt repayment labor.”
And so, Nibelia’s final labor to repay 1.28 million Uba debt was decided.
Nibelia and Soles took the boy straight to the main building.
As Ardores said, they showed him around inside the mansion.
“This is where Nini often lies down for naps. It’s warm and nice.”
“More precisely, it’s the hallway in front of the living room. Only Nini lies there. That room is where the family gathers to rest. You can come play with us there from now on.”
“The living room is where the family gathers!”
“That’s what Grandma named it, and now everyone calls it that.”
Nibelia subjectively guided the mansion while Soles added normal explanations.
The boy silently listened to their words.
Living room, parlor, dining room, study room.
Finally, they arrived at the library.
Nibelia lightly knocked on the closed door.
“This is the library.”
“…….”
The boy’s red eyes showed curious light for the first time. Nibelia quickly noticed and asked.
“Wolf, do you want to go inside?”
“Ah, no….”
The boy shook his head. He had to confess his embarrassing truth.
“I don’t know letters.”
“Nini doesn’t either!”
Nibelia shouted so confidently that the boy, who felt ashamed of his ignorance, became even more awkward.
“Then, how about learning letters this time?”
Soles suggested.
“Studying is fun. Just knowing how to read and write opens up endless possibilities.”
“My brother is so smart he gets almost everything right. Wolf, you should study too!”
“Nini should study together.”
“Oops?”
Surprised by the unexpected suggestion, Nibelia wore an innocent look.
The boy secretly thought that was really funny, though he didn’t show it.
“How old is our Nini now?”
“Four.”
“And you’re going to earn money, right?”
“Yeah!”
Nibelia’s expression became serious at the question.
“I have to earn money to feed and take care of Wolf.”
“…….”
Why does she keep talking as if she’s raising me?
The boy looked at Nibelia as if wondering why she was like that.
What was stranger was that the people in this house accepted the unreasonable ambitions of this little kid as if it were perfectly natural.
As if this kid really thought she could raise him.
“…Ah.”
Maybe I’m the pet of this kid?
“If so, I have to do as I’m told.”
Only then did the boy understand the whole situation.
Although the orphanage never properly taught the kids anything, they were very good at reading situations, so he clearly got the gist.
Soles kept telling Nibelia why she needed to learn letters.
“If you know letters, you can write ledgers yourself and read contracts. If you want to earn money, letters are essential.”
“But Deter will do all that.”
The kids all looked at Deter.
Deter quietly standing behind Nibelia smiled mysteriously and said, “Then later I can steal from Miss’s store? Since she doesn’t know letters, she won’t notice what lies I use to steal.”
Not something to say to a four-year-old.
“But that’s Deter for you.”
Soles thought, glancing at Nibelia.
Just as expected.
“…I’ll do it.”
Feeling threatened, Nibelia suddenly declared.
“I’ll learn letters too!”
Nibelia Deiamore.
Her first ever declaration to study.
In fact, Nibelia hadn’t completely avoided studying.
Since she was two, when she vowed to earn money, Nibelia gained knowledge by listening to adults a lot.
“A little savings grow into a mountain. Let’s start by filling the piggy bank.”
“Oh, you’ve saved quite a bit? Want to entrust it to Dad?”
“Nini, where is the money you saved in the piggy bank? Huh? You lent it to Dad? And he said he’d pay back ten times more?”
“…Sorry. Dad thought he could win this time.”
Family love nearly got badly hurt, but there was some kind of education.
One, saving money is hard.
Two, money disappears easily.
Three, Kaleo is bad at gambling.
Actually, Kaleo didn’t gamble away Nibelia’s money.
He put it in an account opened under Nibelia’s name. Later, every time Nibelia lost money, the adults deposited the same amount into that account.
To gift it to the child when she could pursue her dreams someday.
Of course, not knowing this, Nibelia repeatedly lived an endless cycle of earning money, losing it, and earning again.
“But Nini won’t fail anymore!”
Nibelia sat at the desk in the library and said firmly. There were four cushions on the chair she sat on.
“Want to know why, Wolf?”
The boy sitting next to her answered. His chair had two cushions.
“Because you’re going to learn letters…?”
“Yeah! I’ll get smarter by learning letters!”
“Nini, you have to be quiet in the library.”
Soles appeared from between the bookshelves and warned them. He was holding a thick biographical dictionary.
Soles sat in the empty spot in the middle without a cushion.
Opening the dictionary, Soles said,
“All the names written here are people’s names.”
“But I can’t read…”
“You just point to anything with your finger. I’ll read it for you. Watch closely. This is studying too.”
“What kind of studying is that?”
The three kids, who had their heads buried in the dictionary, suddenly looked up.
There stood a boy with neatly combed black hair, smiling. Next to him was another boy who looked like him.
“Brother Al! Rubens!”
Soles smiled brightly and stood up.
Meanwhile, Nibelia quietly hid behind the boy.
“Is she scared?”
At the orphanage, little kids often hid like that when they saw strangers.
Thinking it was a bit pathetic that she wanted to take care of him like that…
Suddenly, Nibelia jumped up and hid the boy behind her back.
She stretched out her short arms sideways.
So that no one could approach the boy.
“…….”
The startled boy was speechless.
“Really trying to protect me…?”
Meanwhile, after finishing talking with the guests, Soles looked toward Nibelia.
“Ni….”
He was about to say “Nini” but hesitated. Nibelia, with a wary expression, was growling.
“Ni, Nini? Why are you like this all of a sudden?”
“It’s probably because of us.”
Al smiled as if enjoying this. His relaxed and gentle smile was unbelievable for a 12-year-old.
“Nini, don’t you remember us?”
Rubens pointed at themselves with his finger.
“We’re the boys next door.”
“Nini only has one brother.”
Nibelia summoned her courage.
“Go!”
“We even brought your favorite chocolate cookies as gifts.”
Al took out a paper box he had hidden behind him.
Nibelia’s fierce gaze softened a bit.
Everyone saw hesitation in the child’s blue eyes. They didn’t miss the gulp she swallowed.
“…You can leave that.”
“If you greet and play with us, we’ll leave it.”
“But Nini is too busy to play with kids like you.”
Suddenly called ‘kids like you,’ Al and Rubens burst out laughing.
