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“Is this a childcare story?” Chapter : 06
After passing through the door, the scenery of the villa, previously hidden by high walls, was revealed.
Even before stepping inside the building, the view of the surrounding garden was so beautiful that admiration naturally escaped her lips.
“Wow! This feels like another world! Just like Mom used to describe!”
It was as if a forest and a lake had been shrunk down and placed here.
If you brought your face close between the rose vines, it felt as though a fairy living inside would pop out with a poof.
“Hmm, is it really that impressive? I’m not really….”
Even as his words trailed off, Iestin struggled to keep the corners of his mouth from rising.
Get a grip. Are you going to act all smug and embarrassing yourself?
Seeing Mielia’s reaction, his shoulders unconsciously lifted a little in pride. Until just moments ago, her eyes had looked like nothing more than dull brown chestnuts, but now they sparkled like they held the night sky itself. It was the first time he had seen someone express such pure, transparent emotion.
If I go back to the main estate, I could show her even more amazing things.
She was just a commoner girl he had happened to meet in this random town while staying here for rest.
Someone he would never normally cross paths with in his own ducal territory.
He knew he didn’t need to take her seriously.
So why do I keep wanting to show her more things?
The unfamiliar feeling made Iestin pause.
Right. It’s just because she’s so clueless, isn’t it?
He tried to shift the blame onto her. Since she didn’t know anything, it was only natural that he enjoyed teaching her bits and pieces of his knowledge.
Yes, that’s all it is.
He lightly dismissed his own emotions. For now, he had brought her into the villa, so he intended to feed her some freshly baked bread and send her back.
It’s only proper to repay someone who saved your life.
He didn’t even realize how strange it was that he was using “repayment” as an excuse—something he would normally never bother with.
In truth, from the moment he met Mielia, Iestin had been changing little by little.
“Wow, it’s so big! The ceiling feels like the open sky. Even if I jumped as high as I could, I don’t think I could touch it!”
Mielia exclaimed again as she entered the interior of the villa.
It was a level of luxury completely incomparable to her house, which was on the verge of collapsing.
The place was so spacious it looked like it could fit the entire village population. No wonder the townspeople always spoke of it with awe and envy.
If I tell Meria I’ve been here, she definitely won’t believe me.
That thought suddenly crossed her mind. Meria was a girl her age from Mielia’s village.
The reason she didn’t really call her a friend was because Meria didn’t consider Mielia one either.
“……”
Suddenly, a memory from a few days ago surfaced, and Mielia’s happy expression dimmed.
—
“Hey, you smell! Go wash yourself.”
“S-sorry. I washed in the stream yesterday… I just sweated a lot today.”
—
Standing in front of Meria, who was wrinkling her nose in disgust, Mielia had been flustered. Meria’s parents ran a grocery store in the village.
That day too, Mielia had spent the whole day helping them and was just about to receive her wages and leave.
Meanwhile, Meria, their real daughter, had not helped at all and instead played outside with other village children.
—
“Oh right, Mielia, you said you don’t even have soap because you don’t have money? How sad.”
—
Meria tilted her head as if sympathizing, but her face was smug. A neatly washed dress dried in the sun, contrasted against Mielia’s worn, dirty clothes.
There was such a huge gap between them.
I want to play with the other kids too.
While chopping vegetables and organizing them into baskets, sweating heavily, Mielia had looked out the window at Meria and the other children with envy.
But she couldn’t bring herself to ask to join them. The other kids never accepted her.
Now I understand. It was because I smell… that’s why they wouldn’t play with me…
Realizing this, Mielia scratched her cheek in embarrassment.
“U-um, sorry I don’t have soap. Sorry I smell. I’ll wash twice from now on.”
“Hmm? I think even if you wash twice or three times, you’ll still smell! Ahaha!”
Meria laughed brightly while stabbing her words like daggers.
Even Mielia, innocent and slow to catch on, couldn’t fail to sense the malice in them.
She fell silent, unable to respond. She honestly felt like crying.
But her mother had told her not to cry over things like this. A protagonist should endure anything. So she had to endure!
I won’t cry. I won’t. I absolutely won’t cry.
She widened her eyes stubbornly and let the moisture in them dry in the wind.
—
Why am I thinking about that now?
Back in the present, standing inside the luxurious villa, Mielia became oddly self-conscious.
She found herself worrying whether Titi’s expression might be twisted like Meria’s had been that day.
“Hey… Titi?”
Her suddenly timid voice made Iestin look up.
“What is it?”
“Um… I feel a bit embarrassed asking this, but… do I smell?”
“……What?”
“I mean! This place smells really nice, so I feel like someone as dirty as me shouldn’t be walking around here. The young master you serve probably wouldn’t like it either…”
“Ha.”
So that was why her expression had darkened.
A laugh escaped Iestin before he could stop it.
She really was an absurd, strange girl the more he saw her.
“If you were going to worry about that, you shouldn’t have stepped inside in the first place.”
Taking his words as literal, Mielia panicked.
“Huh?! Should I leave right now? Before the young master finds out and gets angry?”
Seeing as if she might actually run out of the villa, Iestin quickly grabbed her hand.
“No, you can’t leave. Sorry, but it’s too late, Mielia.”
“W-what do you mean?”
Watching her widened brown eyes, Iestin’s green eyes curved playfully.
“The young master of this villa doesn’t send away guests just because they smell or are a bit shabby.”
Of course, no such rule existed. He had just made it up on the spot.
Meanwhile, Mielia looked deeply shocked.
“So I really am smelly and shabby?!”
“Hmm, want me to be honest?”
“Y-yes! …Huh, what are you doing?”
Midway through nodding vigorously, Mielia jumped as she felt a faint breath on her hand.
Titi was sniffing her hand like a dog from the village. Then he shrugged casually as if nothing was wrong.
“I don’t really think you smell.”
“……!”
“If anything, you smell like flowers. Like the scent I smelled in front of your house earlier.”
“R-really? Maybe it’s because I made flower rings earlier…?”
She never expected him to say she smelled like flowers.
The feeling was oddly ticklish, making it hard for her to look at Titi directly. She averted her gaze slightly.
Meanwhile, Iestin delivered a blunt blow. He had a talent for giving comfort first, then the injury afterward.
“Still, whether or not you smell, it’s also true that you look dirty.”
“……!”
His blunt words made Mielia’s brown eyes tremble.
Only then did he realize she might have been hurt and hurriedly tried to fix it.
“The young master here doesn’t like dirty things. But if something dirty is cute, he might tolerate it to some extent.”
“Then… he probably won’t tolerate me, right? No one’s ever called me cute…”
“Well, who knows.”
Iestin answered shortly and pressed his lips together.
The words “In my eyes, you look cute enough” almost slipped out.
