Chapter 17: 17

Pelliot hired only two tutors.

But not one of them was in their right minds.

One just gave tests to his employer’s daughter who he was supposed to teach, and the other would just criticize her employer’s daughter in a subtle way.

‘Mister’s amazing too, really.’

How did he find these people and put them next to his daughter?

Leonia did not even doubt Pelliot’s sincerity that he had hired them for her own good.

On the day when she saw him off, unable to overcome the cold and drowsiness, Leonia slept in the maid’s arms.

However, even in a state of drowsiness and haziness, she could hear Pelliot’s voice as clearly as stroking her head and saying he would come back soon.

‘Grandpa Ardea isn’t a bad person either.’

Fortunately, Ardea was faithful to the nature of a tutor.

Leonia read the amount of books he gave her, took notes as soon as she saw something she didn’t understand or didn’t know, went to Ardea and asked a question.

He also showed sincerity to review and ask questions on the spot when a problem was cleared.

Then, from a certain moment, his demeanor changed little by little.

The warm-hearted grandfather, who only answered questions he was asked in detail, taught her on what she hadn’t read yet and turned into a picky grandfather who asked about what she thought of this and that.

At the same time, the quality of the classes has also improved.

After class, the two of them developed an amicable relationship, such as having a meal together or having a snack together and chatting with each other.

“Teacher, what kind of person is Countess Tedross?”

“Countess Tedross…”

Leonia asked a question while they were having a snack together today.

Ardea, who was cutting the grain jellies into small pieces and eating them, muttered the name as Leonia called him several times as if breathing.

“I remember.”

Then he nodded his head once.

“The name I remember is not Tedross.”

The name Ardea remembered was Cerena Meleocca.

It was the name Cerena had before her marriage.

“The Meleocca County is a noble household with a reputation for having a residence in the capital. Unlike others of hereditary aristocracy, the Count’s family migrated from the central region and settled down here in the north. So their influence here in the north is not as good as they have in the capital.”

Whether it was dissatisfaction with the Meleocca household or the pride of his northern descent, there was a clear distinction in Ardea’s expression.

“By the way, the hereditary aristocrats are the families that have protected the north from the beginning along with the Voreoti family.”

If they would go through history, most of them were descendants of Voreoti.

“It’s very rare that some people are born with the beast’s fang.”

Someone like Regina. Leonia nodded.

“And I think Lady Meleocca…”

Ardea remembered not long ago, when he was in the capital.

“…Was famous in high society.”

It wasn’t much different from what Pelliot said.

“She is a poisonous person.”

This was something that Pelliot didn’t say, so she was interested.

“She’s good at playing with people.”

“Why do people with such talents become yellow shoots¹?”

“Originally talented people are worse.”

Of course, she was an exception, and Ardea was uselessly asserting his innocence with a good expression.

“Anyway, Countess Cerena Tedross is a person who plays with people through words.”

Always be careful, too, Milady. Ardea told Leonia to be careful with Cerena.

“Because of that person’s backhanded words of praise, she hides behind accusations and ignorance towards the other person like a snake.”

And words sometimes hurt more than a sharpened sword.

“A heart that is hurt with words does not heal easily.”

It wasn’t advice that should be given to a seven-year-old.

Ardea took the advice seriously, as he had been convinced over the past three weeks that Leonia was smarter and of a higher standard than most of her peers.

“…Have you already been fooled?”

Leonia, who was aiming for the grain jelly left by Ardea, flinched.

In the meantime, Ardea gently moved the plate toward her. The teacher’s eyes filled with concern as he looked at the child.

“…Three times.”

Leonia confessed the truth.

For the past three weeks, during her only once-a-week class, Cerena never got tired of it and, with her very artful rhetoric, ridiculed and laughed at Leonia’s origins.

“You didn’t even eat the jelly.”

“Hoho…”

“Mrs. Tedross is begging me to kill her…”

Leonia, who stole Ardea’s grain jelly, quietly raised one corner of her lips.

“…Don’t I have to listen to it?”

But her eyes never smiled.

“When Mister comes back, I’ll tell him.”

Ardea clicked his tongue in sympathy for Cerena.

On one side, he marveled and amazed at Leonia’s cleverness.

She’s mature and clever for a child of her age. He’s been enlightened for the last three weeks of class.

Even when she was young, she was a black beast of the North, and her cruel and heartless expression resembled Pelliot.

The young beast in front of him was waiting as she crouched low.

Waiting for the moment to pounce and reveal her hidden fangs.

‘Count Tedross’ family is also over.’

Ardea was the first to mourn the future of Count Tedross’s family.

* * *

“Groooowl!”

With a strange sound, the monster vomited black blood and collapsed.

Pelliot lightly swung the blood-stained sword into the air. Blood was splattered on the pure white snow with the sound of a stroke cutting through the wind.

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“Sir Charis.”

Mono, who was nearby, approached. Pelliot took a short breath and looked around him.

“Where’s the offspring?”

“I can’t see any traces of it.”

“Even without me, you guys cleared the snowy mountains for three years, and considering the grade of the monsters that were active this breeding season, this is a bit strange.”

  

Pelliot approached the monster he had killed just now. Then, with his foot, he struck the fallen corpse and shoved it aside.

Pelliot’s black eyes, as he was examining the exposed monster’s stomach, moved loosely.

Shortly after giving birth, the bosom was swollen.

“…In the first place, the bifera was not even a target for hunting.”

The bifera, which Pelliot had just hunted, was a monster that gave birth in winter and spent the winter with the young in the burrow until the spring of the following year.

Although it is a large and menacing carnivorous monster, it preys on small animals such as mice as its main prey.

It wouldn’t harm anyone unless it’s been attacked first.

But it’s traveling alone without the young.

Developing the five senses with the fangs of a beast and looking around.

There was no sign of anything other than the traces of this monster that’s a mother.

“The violence of the monsters is more than what I remember, and the offspring are nowhere to be seen…”

Pelliot tilted his head at an angle.

Even though it was a static movement, the knights around him, including Mono, had to bow their heads as if they were hiding their necks.

A suffocating silence covered the snowy mountain carved out of the rock.

“…I’ll descend first”

The first priority was to finish the hunt that took three weeks and three days.

As soon as the order was issued, the knights could finally breathe. Now, this long and tedious monster hunt was finally over.

In particular, the regular knights and apprentice knights who came along for the first time this time were relieved as if they were going to collapse at any moment.

“Dame Levipath.”

Meleis approached Pelliot’s call.

“Yes, sire?”

“Do you know a place that sells snacks that kids like?”

Meleis’s eyes, who thought the Duke was going to give her the necessary instructions when he was descending, fluttered to and fro.

She soon understood the meaning, and quickly gathered his expression.

“…I don’t know if it’ll suit the Lady’s taste, but I know of a bakery where my younger brother kept telling me he wanted to eat.”

Meleis recommended the ‘soft cloud cream puff’ sold there.

She said it was very popular among the ladies.

* * *

“Isn’t the bed uncomfortable?”

“Uh-uh.”

“If anything happens, wave the bell.”

“Okay, Connie. Good night.”

“Good night, Milady.”

Connie, the maid, looked over to Leonia’s bed and turned off the lights, closing the door behind her.

Leonia looked around her dimly lit room, buried in the feather-light and soft blanket.

A large and beautiful canopy bed and a soft carpet under it.

Luxurious dolls and toys in the corner across the street, bookshelves tailored to the height of a child, and numerous books.

A large and spacious desk and a chair with two layers of soft cushions.

When she took out her arm under the duvet, pajamas made of high-quality silk flutter.

“……”

When she turned her head to the side, there was a glass bottle full of strawberry milk candies.

Leonia got up from her seat and took the glass bottle in her arms. The empty glass jar was now so heavy that she had to hold it with her two hands.

As the candy spilled onto the blanket, the sweet scent fluttered in the air.

“One, two, three…”

Little fingers picked up the candies one by one and put them back into the jar.

“…Sixty-nine, seventy.”

When she counted, the number of candy was much higher than the days she stayed in the mansion.

Even when she didn’t do something pretty at some point, the candy was more often given for no reason.

It’s been two months since she came to the Voreoti estate with Pelliot.

And it’s been a month since Pelliot hasn’t been in the mansion.

“Mister’s late…”

There was no strength in the child’s muttering voice.

Leonia herself did not know whether it was because she was sleepy or if it was because of her legal guardian who she had not seen in a month.

However, the seventieth candy in her hand was not returned to the bottle after a long time.

‘It’s all like a dream.’

Leonia still couldn’t figure out what was real.

One day, when she woke up, she was a skinny orphan, and while she was enduring in the midst of unreasonable abuse, she luckily met the protagonist in the novel and became his adopted daughter, then she became a noble lady who was treated so preciously.

How desperate was she in this young body at one time.

‘Come back soon…’

The gloomy and sad thing that she had never felt ever since she came to the mansion secretly showed a presence in her heart.

Leonia shook her head and went under the duvet, embracing the glass bottle tightly in her arms.

The eyelids closed slowly, unable to overcome the drowsiness.

‘…Come to think of it, there’s an etiquette class tomorrow.’

The sleepiness that had been creeping up suddenly drifted.

——

¹ an idiom meaning that we know they’re pretty bad even from the beginning

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