Chapter 21: 21

A few days later.

Leonia got up from her bed and apologized to the people who were still bedridden because of her. No matter how clumsy she had been, her fangs were still a beast’s fangs, and the five employees who were working in the entrance hall at the time were still on sick leave.

“Sorry.”

Leonia handed them a short letter with an apology and a bag of cookies.

“Are you in a lot of pain? Are you okay…?”

The droopy eyebrows and hoarse voice showed how sorry the child was.

“We’re fine.”

“I’m more worried about the Lady.”

“Are you sick anywhere?”

However, the employees were rather worried about Leonia. The reason Leonia’s fangs went wild was because they were told it was Countess Tedross’ fault, who was here as her etiquette teacher.

“The master is going to scold her severely!”

Connie, who was closest to Leonia, was angry, boasting a healthy complexion.

“Besides, it’s good that we’ve been resting for a long time.”

“By the way, is Sir Gabel alright?”

Seeing Connie asking shyly while fiddling with her nails, the employees smiled mischievously.

“Lady, actually, Sir Gabel’s feelings for Connie…”

“It’s, it’s not like that! Thank you for helping me that day…”

“Heeey, that’s right.”

Mia, who was next to Connie, mimicked the tone of her voice.

“Actually, we are dilly-dallying right now.”

They recovered a few days ago, so the employees put their fingers to their mouths and giggled. Leonia, who had just released her stiff expression, covered her mouth with her finger and promised to keep it a secret.

“Felica.”

Leonia, returning from the visit, often walked up to the maid, Jean. At the same time, Felica was chatting with Ardea. Felica turned her head at the sound of her call and lowered her body to examine her complexion.

“Oh my, Lady. You can’t run yet.”

“Are you all right?”

Ardea clicked his tongue, saying that he knew that one day she would make an accident.

While he was living in the capital, a young girl of a local noble, who was his student, was harshly beaten by Cerena and her crew at a social gathering.

“How much the child cried.”

“Oh my God.”

Mrs. Felica was fed up.

“I knew she was a bad person, but I didn’t know she was going to be like that even in the Voreotti estate. Our Lady is so sassy and smart, she knew the bad news early, how stupid and mean she was.”

“It is what it is, literally.”

So don’t worry too much, Ardea said while looking at Leonia.

“…Ah!”

Leonia’s eyes widened.

“That woman was there!”

The baby beast had completely forgotten about Cerena. Rather, it was only after Mrs. Felica and Ardea had mentioned that she belatedly became aware of her existence. The tutor might have been seriously injured because of Leonia.

But that was it.

“She picked a fight first.”

Leonia shrugged her hands and shoulders, giving a nasty look, as if she was going to do something.

She could apologize by kneeling down on her knees and begging her hand if the employees were hurt by her, but she didn’t care at all for Cerena.

“How can our Lady be so courageous and brave? You really have the spirit of a northern beast!”

Mrs. Felica smiled warmly. Ahem, the praised Leonia put her hand around her waist and held out her chest.

“It doesn’t look very good for emotional education, but…”

At least, Ardea expressed concern to the extent that he tilted his head. But he, too, had no intention of sympathizing with Cerena’s excessive behavior, so he soon nodded and gave a wrinkled smile.

“Well, but…”

Leonia twisted her body back and forth, poking the nose of her red shoe on the floor.

“…What, what about Mister?”

* * *

‘Is heaven always near?’

At the saying left by a famous saint, Lupert smirked and refuted.

‘What is heaven?’

Hell is right in front of him.

Lupert contemplated the hell unfolding before his eyes.

Based on Duke Pelliot Vorreotti, who was seated in the front, the northern nobles gathered in the mansion after receiving his call were only crouching and bowing their heads like criminals. They were careful with their actions, as if they had to be allowed to breathe even once.

They were precious guests invited by Pelliot himself.

However, there has been no conversation yet.

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‘Has ten minutes passed?’

Lupert measured the time that had passed, but those ten minutes were like eternity—for those invited here.

Teacups were placed in front of everyone. The hot tea brewed well by the two maids, who were not here now, was now lukewarm. No one could even hold up the cup and have a sip of tea.

Pelliot was only enjoying by himself.

‘Lady Gray.’

It was the name of the tea according to the teacup.

Lady Gray is the first type of tea that beginners or noble children who are not yet familiar with tea drink when they start refreshments, and it was quite far from Pelliot’s taste. At first he didn’t even enjoy the tea.

Still, he’s drinking Lady Gray as if he’s not happy.

The implications of that tea were very heavy. The only person in the Vorreotti family who could be called “Lady” was the enigmatic illegitimate child that Pelliot had brought from an orphanage two months ago.

The duke personally gave the child the name of ‘beast’ and listed her as a family member.

‘It’s also called black tea because the color of the tea leaves is dark.’

A tea called Lady.

The daughter of a duke in black.

Lady Gray meant Leonia Voreotti.

“…I,”

Lupert, who had been anticipating the gloomy future of the nobles who had been gathering for a while, raised his head.

“How long have I been away from the North?”

Pelliot, who had been silent, finally opened his mouth. Pelliot’s movement, who stood up from his seat, reminded him of a wild beast that stretched languidly. He didn’t even seem interested in this situation he had made. The teacup that Pelliot had been drinking a while ago showed the bottom.

“About three years. Three years and two months to be exact.”

Lupert answered immediately.

“If we round it up annually, it’s four years.”

Pelliot, who got up, moved slowly with broad strides and wandered around the seats of the invited nobles. He looked intently into their faces, as if searching for prey. Each time they met his black eyes, the nobles trembled and let out a short, strange groan.

A sarcastic smirk suddenly formed on the corner of Pelliot’s lips. In the end, these were things that would crumble mercilessly in front of him. Still, they couldn’t understand their place and went around.

“Viscount Lupert Ricos.”

Pelliot gestured to Lupert, meaning that he was dismissed.

Lupert left the conference room without looking back, turning his back on the closed door and exhaling the breath he had been holding back.

‘I finally got out of hell…!’

Lupert had unintentionally experienced the beast’s fangs up close several times. So he didn’t want to be there any longer. Even after countless experiences, the unfamiliar feeling of fear was clear, and it was the moment when he was about to sit down on the floor, feeling relieved that he had escaped from there.

“Mister Lupert.”

Tug, tug, someone gently pulled the hem of his pants. Lupert, who was standing in an awkward position, looked down. There, there was Leonia with her black hair split in two and tied in small pigtails.

* * *

There in the meeting room, where the black beast roamed, it was quiet.

At the same time as Lupert ran away from the conference room, Pelliot silenced all his sounds. The wild beast always erased the sound of its footsteps and hid its presence when hunting, and that was perfect enough to pressure the foolish chicks gathered here.

“…While the master is away.”

A sense of intimidation that was felt beyond the ugly ridicule gradually tightened the breath of the nobles.

“Setting it without notice.”

It was hard to live quietly with those dark eyes.

“How cheeky.”

Each time Pelliot interrupted and chewed on a word, the nobles’ necks descended more and more. They were even desperate to bow down as if begging to hit their own neck. Even so, they wanted to run away from the beast.

The wild beast had not yet unsheathed his fangs.

“Are you begging me to kill you?”

He asked them as if he was genuinely curious, but Pelliot wasn’t interested in their answers at all.

‘Should I just kill them all?’

Leonia’s desperate tears and painful sobbing, which are still vivid in his mind, made Pelliot feel an uncontrollable murderous intent and anger. He never thought that the bravest and most courageous child would have endured so far alone.

However, Pelliot had to admit that he was no different from them. After all, it was Pelliot himself who misjudged Cerena even when Leonia said she was suspicious, yet he went ahead and brought that woman next to the child and left her alone.

It was an inexcusable mistake.

‘Children are not pets.’

Kara’s rebuke, which suddenly came to mind, was as heavy as a lump of iron. He had no intention of doing so, but he thought that such a misunderstanding may have arisen in his actions in caring for and raising Leonia. Didn’t even Leonia wonder about her impulsive adoption?

If that’s why the child didn’t lean on him and endured it alone, it would be quite depressing.

‘You’re smart and have good sense…’

He thought she was so nice and quirky. An innocent child whose feelings he couldn’t see somehow made him lonely and sad in a different way.

“…Count Tedross.”

Deeply hiding his confused feelings, Pelliot called out the man with the most unhappy complexion among those gathered. Count Tedros, whose name was called, trembled enough to shake his chair.

“What do you think?”

“I, I…”

“By the way, is your wife doing well?”

Count Tedross’s face turned white. The moment Pelliot’s mentioned the Count’s wife and asked if she was doing well, it sounded like a threat, as though the Count wouldn’t be able to get out of this scott-free.

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