Chapter 22: 22

Melody’s mother remained in prison awaiting punishment. Since Loretta’s status became clear after she was kidnapped, she could not escape her punishment. On the other hand, the Elders still argued until the end that the ‘sinner Melody’ should be kicked out. They fought even harder after her mother’s crime became heavier.

Of course, the Duke didn’t stand still while listening to their opinions. He immediately made them shut their mouths after mentioning the illegal trade between them and the guard in charge of the prisoner. Furious, the Elders left the Duchy. Soon after, Melody came back as a ‘guest’ of the Duke’s family.

Not to mention how Loretta ran out of the entryway and hugged her passionately when she got back from the prison and exited the carriage. Loretta also reached out to the Duke and hugged him tightly around his waist, which was as high up as she could reach on her tiptoes.

“Yow da best, Duk.”

There was a very pleasant dinner that evening. There wasn’t any immensely fancy food since it was a hastily organized banquet, but only a few items that they had brought from the city were left behind and uneaten. Still, it was very enjoyable to have a meal in the absence of the bad Elders.

After that, Melody took a pleasant bath and applied medicine to her wound again. She received treatment as soon as she had gotten home, but all the medicine was washed away after she took a bath.

“Ah, it must hurt to look at it again.”

The maid gave the medicine a quick blow of air to help it dry faster and frowned slightly.

“Isn’t it very painful?”

“It’s okay.”

“By the way, about Miss Loretta.”

The maid bandaged Melody’s wounds while talking.

“What happened with the Young Lady?”

“I think she resembles the Duke a lot.”

She told her Loretta’s strict response to the Elders while Melody wasn’t at the mansion. She stood straight with her two chubby legs and proudly raised her head to the Duke as she ordered him to ‘Bwing Melody back’.

“No matter what the elders said, she didn’t give in to their words in the slightest and answered like that, right?”

The maid had a face that she didn’t know what to do with Loretta’s uniqueness, but she became shy in front of Melody.

I don’t know if I deserve so much love and attention from the female lead. So after treatment, when it was time to read a fairytale book and go to sleep as usual, Melody borrowed some courage from the darkness and decided to ask Loretta about it.

Why are you giving me so much love?

“You know, Loretta.”

“Yes?”

However, in the end, I was embarrassed to ask, ‘Why do you like me?’

“U-uh, nothing, go to sleep.”

Was there something strange about her reaction? Loretta gently covered Melody’s ears with her small hands – just like Melody had done for Loretta every rainy day.

“Melody, were you skeyd?”

She heard her worried voice on her warm ears. Melody immediately tried to say ‘I’m fine’, but then stopped and decided to answer just honestly.

“Hmm, I was a little scared.”

“Sowwy.”

“But Loretta sent the Duke for me.”

“Did da Duk protek Melody?”

Melody smiled and nodded.

“Hmm, he took care of me.”

“I like tha Duk. I olso like Melody.”

Was she worried that Loretta wouldn’t say the words ‘I like you’? She gently lowered the hands that were covering Melody’s ears.

“You… know.”

Melody was encouraged by her cute confession, and carefully asked what she had been curious about since a while ago.

“Why does Loretta like me…?”

Even if it wasn’t particularly Melody, there were plenty of people who she might like.

“Huh?”

But maybe it was a bit too difficult of a question for a small child.

“Sowwy, I don kno….”

Loretta wiggled her hands at her sides for a moment, smiled bashfully, and then hugged Melody tightly.

“Stil, I weally like Melody – I like you a lot.”

Because it was such a happy reply, Melody quickly nodded and engraved those pretty words into her heart.

“I really like Loretta a lot too – I like you very much.”

After the shy confession, the two children naturally shared other stories together.

Rules to follow in bed: Don’t forget the saying ‘close your eyes and mouth when you go to sleep’. Thanks to this, the two overslept the next day, and as a punishment, they had to chew on carrots instead of apples for breakfast.

Ronnie, who was sitting across from the table, stared at the two of them the whole time as they ate carrots together. Anyway, the three of them ate all of the carrots, leaving no leftovers. That was highly commendable.

 

* * *

 

After Loretta was officially given ‘Valdwin’ as her surname, both big and small things happened in the Duke’s family.The first of those changes was Loretta moving into her room on the second floor.

At first she didn’t like that idea of moving her room farther from Melody’s, but when Melody said ‘I want to see the scenery from the second floor, so invite me up there often, okay’, she ran happily to the second floor. Meanwhile, Ronnie began to deny reality.

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“Is she really my younger sister? D-don’t be ridiculous. She doesn’t look like me in the slightest bit.”

Looking at his face, Loretta became gloomy and asked the butler Higgins, “Das Ronnie hates Loretta?”

Higgins shook his head, remembering the disrespectful nature of the second master.

“No way. He must be very fond of Young Lady as you are very cute.”

Is that so? Loretta wanted to know if Butler Higgins’ words were true, so she ran straight to Ronnie’s room. After knocking on the door, Ronnie opened it rudely and asked her, ‘What is it?’ Loretta decided to try the ‘cute move’ Melody taught her to show her older brother.

She had to work hard. Once you inhale a lot of air and your stomach is full, you need to exhale deeply. A loud ‘puuuh’ sound came out of her little mouth. She then looked up at Ronnie with a face that indicated that she was expecting something from him.

“……?”

Of course, he didn’t understand why Loretta suddenly showed up and showed him her breathing.

“What is that?”

“Loretta is cute even if she just breathes. Ta-da!”

A moment of silence passed. Soon after, Ronnie’s face turned red as if he was angry and he screamed.

“D-don’t make me laugh!”

With a loud thump, the door closed. Loretta became a bit gloomy. On the other hand, the Duke was worried as well. Of course, he was worried about Loretta.

「Yow the best, Duk. 」

Now that their relationship became clear, Loretta shouldn’t be calling him ‘Duk’ anymore.

‘If you ask her to change how to address you suddenly, she may feel rejected.’

It wouldn’t be a good idea to rush. Especially in the case of other extreme changes in her environment like Loretta was experiencing while changing rooms.

“Duke, by any chance,” Then one day, Melody cautiously followed behind him in the hallway. whispered in a small voice, “Are you worried?”

“……?”

Puzzled, he turned around and saw Melody with her clasped hands and she smiled at him. Her face was somehow telling him ‘I know everything’.

“I’m talking about how she addresses you.”

Before the Duke could even ask how she knew, Melody quickly added an excuse.

“That, every time Miss Loretta says ‘Duk’, everyone in the mansion, including the Duke, frowns and stares at her.”

It was an incident that plunged Loretta into a deep depression in the original novel. While everyone was taking care of Loretta and didn’t point out what she called the Duke, she agonized, ‘I think everyone hates me’.

The Duke asked Melody, who was thinking about the contents of the original story.

“Did she flinch?”

“It’s not very noticeable.”

Is it possible to see everything in the eyes of quick-witted children?

“Right,” The Duke nodded his head. “…….Thanks.”

On the day Melody gave him the advice, the Duke honestly told Loretta about how she should call him the right way. Fortunately, Loretta accepted his request to call him ‘Father’ without much resistance.

“Gon – Beoji.”

(T/N: Duke is 공작(Gongjak) in Korean and Loretta pronounced it as 곤작님(Gonjak-nim), since she was still a little girl. The second part was how she should call the Duke, her father, as 아버지but she can only pronounced the last two syllables, which read ‘-beoji’.)

Of course, accepting the title as one’s head and actually using it were very different matters.

Loretta called him ‘Gonjak-nim’ as she always did, then she quickly turned it to ‘Father’ and called for the Duke. Thanks to that, the strange title ‘Gon-beoji’ resounded all over the Duke’s mansion for a few days.

Although Loretta calls him the ‘wrong’ way, just like in the original, no one paid heed to it. Everyone made sounds like ‘pfft’ trying their best to hold back their laughter. Of course, the Duke also enjoyed the word ‘Gon-beoji’ very much – to the extent that he wrote the sign-off ‘From Gon-beoji’ in the notes he would leave for Loretta.

Thanks to this, Loretta did not fall into depression over the name issue.

“Loretta knos!”

Besides, it has a very good application.

The diligent girl ran straight to Ronnie’s room to demonstrate the good realization she had come up with. Knock, knock, she knocked on the door, and Ronnie opened the door unkindly, again saying, ‘What is it?’

Loretta jumped in front of him and shouted loudly.

“(Older) Brother!”

“…!”

Ronnie was startled by the sudden title she had called him and answered stupidly.

“Wh-why am I your (older) brother?!”

“That, sins Loretta is fader’s daughter, Ronnie is (older) brother of cors.”

That was the perfect answer that could never be refuted. Ronnie was just grunting, saying, ‘What the heck, not long ago, it was a hot topic that you were calling father ‘Gon-beoji?’

“Aren’t you happy when Loretta calls you brother?”

“I-is there anything good about that? It’s just the relationship between family members.

“Hmm, Fader, brother, Loretta, and Melody ar family!”

Ronnie crossed his arms and smiled at her excited response. He was finally happy that he had something to point out.

“Why is she my family? Melody is just an outsider. Totally an outsider!”

There was a stern tone when he emphasized the word ‘outsider’. Then Loretta froze as if she had been slightly frightened by him. Ronnie, who was now satisfied, slammed his door shut in front of her and went back into his room.

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