Chapter 32: 31.2

“Uncle.”

“What’s the matter, Brielle?”

Excited as if he had something to say, he asked his nephew in a warm tone.

“Yes, I have a request.”

Kentrail wondered what it would be because his nephew doesn’t normally ask for anything.

“Yeah?”

“Bu, buy me some cookies later.”

“Cookie?”

“Yeah. Ellie says rumors have spread in the kingdom that it’s a good restaurant! It seems that Marie went to meet Erin to eat it.”

While laughing at a cute request to buy cookies, Kentrail wondered when he heard that Marie had met Erin since she hadn’t been seeing her recently. He knew that fact better than anyone else because she always got permission from him whenever she went out.

“Erin?”

“Yes. Oh! Uncle you don’t know. At that time, Marie didn’t go on a blind date, she said she went to see Erin.”

“…What?”

Hearing those words, Kentrail’s heart began to race.

Little by little, his mood, covered with depression over the past few days, came to life. Still, he continued to pretend as if nothing had happened. As the vain times disappeared, Kentrail anxiously gazed at his nephew.

“Really, Brielle?”

“Yes. I heard from Marie that day, and I heard it again from Ellie.”

When he heard Brielle’s answer, he thought that Taylor might have seen it wrong that day.

‘She didn’t go on a blind date…’

A smile spread over his face in an instant.

“All right, uncle will buy Brielle all the cookies.”

At those words, Brielle, who jumped from his seat with excitement, suddenly stiffened and said. “No, uncle.”

“Huh?”

“If you do that, other friends can’t eat it. So, no.”

He assumed the little boy was going to be greedy and happily accepted it. But Brielle, who said so, was so kind-hearted that Kentrail stroked his hair and praised him.

“Then, I’ll buy enough just to eat.”

“Yes, but let’s not forget Ellie and Barry!”

Kentrail nodded his head and promised to do so.

 

***

 

The sound of a knock rang in Marie’s room.

“Yes.”

She hastily opened the door, wondering if it was Brielle. Instead, the person who stood there was Kentrail. When the misunderstanding was cleared, he was so eager to see her face.

But when their eyes met, Marie shut her door in embarrassment. It was a sound that could make the corridor ring ‘Bang!’

Having turned him away right at the door, he felt sad rather than embarrassed.

‘My attitude has hurt her over the past few days…’

Not looking into her eyes properly, turning his head quietly, and all those other wrong actions.

After a moment, he knocked once more.

“Marie, I apologize for my past actions…”

However, the door popped before Kentrail had finished speaking.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She hastily apologized.

‘Didn’t she just shut her door in my face?’ He was taken aback for a moment. While Marie thought that even though it was a momentary embarrassment, he might be offended.

The scene after was the both of them started apologizing to each other profusely.

Then, eventually, they both burst into laughter from the sound of the butler’s cough coming from the floor below.

“Please come inside for now.”

“Okay.”

As Marie shut the door to her room after the two entered. Silence began to fill the room.

They were both busy gazing at each other.

“Sit down first.”

At her suggestion, he sat down at a small table set up, which he found more awkward. The situation somehow felt like lovers after a fight. Feeling so, Marie’s and his cheeks blushed red.

“Brielle asked me to buy a cookie that you said was delicious.”

“What? Oh… Did he say, I said it was delicious when I met Aunt Erin a few days ago?”

Marie purposely quietly included the word ‘Erin.’ Then, he replied that she was right.

‘I’m glad. He didn’t misunderstand me.’ Her face brightened.

Kentrail’s heart, who saw her face after a long time, trembled instantly. He raised his hand and touched his chest gently. It was a symptom similar to the motion sickness he had experienced for the first time.

“Why are you doing that? Are you sick?”

Marie, glancing at him, asked in surprise.

“No, just…”

‘My heart feels weird when I see you.’

Unable to say that, he bit his mouth tightly. Finally, the misunderstanding between the two was cleared up.

 

***

 

Marie has been feeling the best lately. The misunderstanding with Kentrail was cleared up, and it was even more so because she was more at ease with Barry in the mansion.

She decided to go for a walk on her own while the children went to do their own work.

“Come to think of it, the bookmark has become tattered… should I make a new one?”

She thought it would be nice to make it with the leaves of the green tree in four seasons. ‘It’s my first time trying it with leaves, will it work well?’

And so, she began to pick trees.

‘What kind of tree’s leaves would be good?’

After a long time, humming came out of nowhere.

“Hmm~”

As she continued to move, Marie spontaneously walked towards a wall. At that moment, she heard a ‘crack’ next to her. In an instant, goosebumps rose up her back.

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‘It must be the knight.’

Because the mansion’s security was being strengthened, she tried to dismiss other thoughts as it might be a useless idea.

However, again, a rustling sound was heard. She hurriedly turned her head to the area.

There was a piece of paper lying on the wall. Marie approached it with cautious footsteps while peering around to see who was behind the wall, but there was no one there.

When she picked up the paper and opened it, it said,

[ Traitor. ]

It was only one word, but Marie couldn’t move for a moment.

This was the last straw that made her decide to tell Kentrail all that she had been thinking about for a while.

With this paper being sent to her like this, it seemed that the enemies could hurt Brielle in front of them at any time.

She ran into the mansion.

‘If I stay like this, I could really lose the young master. Trust the Count and let’s tell him everything.’

Marie ran to find Kentrail with tearful eyes.

 

***

 

A knock resounded in Kentrail’s office.

He raised his head towards the person who had come, and hurried up from his seat. Marie was crying.

“What’s going on?”

He hurried to her side.

She was clutching something with her trembling hands.

“Let’s sit down for now.”

As she was in no condition to stand, Kentrail helped her and put her on the sofa.

Marie, who was sitting on the sofa, moved her lips several times as he sat next to her, trying to calm herself.

“What’s happening? Where does it hurt?”

She shook her head.

“Then… what happened to the children?”

She said it wasn’t that this time either.

As time went on, he got more and more nervous. He couldn’t understand her heart, as if it was blocked by a large wall.

Marie tried to regain her courage, which she had struggled with to answer his question. She was afraid to break this peace with her own hands. But at that moment, she noticed a piece of paper in her hand.

‘The more I try to run away, the closer the enemy will come…’

Her mouth was finally open.

“Look at this piece of paper. I was walking in the garden and found something someone had just left behind… it was for me.”

Kentrail’s eyes turned to the paper in Marie’s hand.

Silence eloped at the end of her words. She clenched her trembling hands.

She wanted him to say anything.

“Traitor… What does it mean? Who do they mean?”

“…Me.”

When she answered, Kentrail gave a confused look.

‘Traitor…’

If it wasn’t related to herself, she wouldn’t have brought it like this.

‘Is it because I keep thinking about my brother’s death? Why does it feel like a confession that one of the men threatening our family was related to her?’

With everything running through his head, he couldn’t believe it. He had been living with her for the past few years. Marie couldn’t be the one who could do something like that.

‘If they are saying traitor, I guess she has even cut ties with them now.’

As Kentrail hesitated to answer, he began to notice trembles spreading throughout her body as her eyes squeezed shut tightly. Marie didn’t have the courage to look at him.

All of a sudden, a warmth flew over her shoulders. When she opened her eyes to confirm what it was, it was the blanket that she used to cover the Count in his office whenever he was cold.

At last, Marie gazed up at him with the courage she had gathered. He was already staring at her quietly.

It was a breathtaking silence. Nothing could be found in his eyes.

After pondering for a while, he opened his mouth and asked Marie again softly.

“Honestly, I don’t understand what you mean. Whom do you mean you betrayed, and why did you bring this note to me?”

Marie knew she was at a crossroads of choices.

She could either talk about the things that the real Marie had been doing instead or talk about the world here. While choosing the former would threaten not only her own lives but also Barry and Ellie, choosing the latter would lead her to become a madman and be trapped in a distant facility…

The choice she could only make in this situation was, of course, the latter. The only way she can alert him of danger while protecting Barry and Ellie.

“Have the Count ever thought I was weird?”

“…What?”

He responded as if he didn’t understand her absurd question.

“Do I feel like a stranger, that one day, I suddenly woke up and became a different person?”

Pondered through her words deeply, the moment when he first saw Marie came to mind.

One of the people who interviewed Marie was Kentrail. She didn’t completely fit him in mind as a nanny. Although the other interviewees liked her, he was concerned about the lack of vitality in the younger siblings she had brought with her.

Even the eyes filled with greed were disgusting. However, sometimes his instinct would tell him something, and it gave him a feeling that this person should be chosen.

And so, he picked Marie.

Though he was still viewing her in a bad mood. In addition, Brielle, who was known for his gentleness, also rejected her. All that together made him feel even worse.

Kentrail had thought about changing the nanny dozens of times a day. In time, when it was the day he tried to put it into practice, he found his nephew smiling.

More surprisingly, the target was the nanny.

He looked at the nanny once more. However, the atmosphere was quite different from what it had been before. That had him worry for a long time whether he had seen people with prejudice until now.

People in the mansion used to say that the nanny seemed to have changed as well, but they weren’t that close to her to begin with, so they all said that they saw the wrong person instead.

“Is that an important answer now?”

“Yes…”

He sighed and gave an answer.

“Well, there was. At first, though, I wondered if I must have misunderstood the person. Your atmosphere was completely different.”

“I see…”

Saying so, Marie clenched her hands and swallowed.

Gathering her final strength, she then opened her mouth to confess everything to him.

“…I’m not originally from this place. It may sound like I’m insane, but… this is a book, and I’m actually from outside the book..”

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