Chapter 46: 46

And they sat face to face with each other, saying that they would arm wrestle for their first duel.

“If I win, Young Master won’t make Mel work like a maid – for the rest of her life.”

Melody was somewhat concerned that Isaiah didn’t use polite words to address the Duke’s precious son.

“Heh, then if I win, you won’t care how I make Melody work!”

Fortunately, Ronnie didn’t seem to feel uncomfortable with Isaiah’s way of speaking. He didn’t point it out otherwise.

The two people who were ready, clasped their hands and looked at Melody – as if they were asking her for a signal. Of course, Melody was unwilling to cooperate with such a thing.

“… Do you have to do this?”

But her question was their signal.

It was immediately clear on who would win. Think of it, Ronnie wouldn’t be able to beat Isaiah who is a knight student candidate. Nevertheless, Ronnie tried his best to put Isaiah’s hand under his, giving his utmost strength and the exertion made his face turn red.

“Urgh…”

As the little boy applied all of his strength, the opposite hand trembled and Isaiah’s hand began to move downwards little by little.

In this miraculous scene, Melody recalled an old fairytale of the Rabbit and the Turtle, which she had heard in her previous life.

It was a story about a great match between the rabbit who knew he had many advantages, and the turtle who was slowly but surely heading toward the end. Alas, how did the story end? Yes, it ended with the turtle’s victory after he made a steady and persistent effort. The lesson of that fairytale seems to apply in this world beyond that dimension.

Isaiah’s hand, which was being pushed by Ronnie little by little, was already on the verge of touching the floor. As expected, the diligent turtle….

“I won’t let you win!”

Isaiah put strength to his hand and pushed Ronnie’s arm over in one last push of force – with a loud bang. Melody was woken up from her reverie with a revelation of the truth: that this world where she was born was never a ‘fairytale’.

Isaiah jumped excitedly onto the chair.

“I won!”

He raised his arms in the air in triumph, but Ronnie and Melody began to look at him with cold eyes. The more they thought about it, the more he looked childish. How can he greatly like the idea of winning an arm wrestling against a boy younger than him?

If he was a proper aspiring knight, it was right for Ronnie to offer a suggestion for the next game for their bet in favor of him winning the arm wrestling. But at this rate, it was just bullying a child.

Noticing Melody’s gaze on him, Isaiah felt a little embarrassed so he quickly sat down.

“Well….”

Isaiah fiddled awkwardly with his hair, while sending a consoling gaze to Ronnie. Melody was somewhat relieved by his attitude. Isaiah was a great leader among the village children, so she thought that he would be able to console Ronnie well.

“Since I won, Young Master must not treat Mel as your maid.”

… He isn’t. He just stared intimidatingly at the young Ronnie.

Melody tightened her hold on the catalog again. Surprised by the sight, Isaiah quickly bowed down – in a frightened manner.

‘What are you afraid of?’

Melody thought so and squeezed the catalog one more time. Isaiah’s face now was strangely blue. That wasn’t all. He erased all the signs of any bad attitudes he had ever shown and began to act quite like a gentleman of the capital.

“Wh, when becoming a knight, I can’t duel with the Young Master by arm wrestling.”

His suggestion meant, ‘Let’s pretend this game didn’t happen.’ His expression was somewhat tinged with resentment.

Melody had no way of knowing what Isaiah was upset about. She wondered if this useless competition would end now. But the two boys had a tacit understanding and came up with another duel event.

“A game with cards.”

It seemed that Isaiah made that suggestion because it was a game wherein you compete based on your luck, memory and wit regardless of your physical strength. They entrusted Melody with the role of shuffling and dealing out the cards.

Melody gave each of them cards while looking at them with a dispirited face. She couldn’t figure out what on earth was meaningful about this match and she wondered for a long time about that.

“Enaf!”

Before they knew it, Loretta, who was sandwiched between Isaiah and Ronnie and was taking their cards one by one for fun, suddenly stood up from her seat.

The little girl had bet one pine cone so far, but she suddenly stood up this time and emptied her bag full of heavy pine cones. Clatter~ Numerous pine cones piled up on the table. She was going all-in.

Surprised by her sudden actions, Isaiah and Ronnie looked back at Loretta with pale faces. However, the little girl only smiled and said nothing else. The two boys don’t want to lose against the little child’s momentum. So in turns, they poured their chestnuts and walnuts over the table. The table was now filled with autumn’s gracious gifts. Though it was a bit unfortunate that they were being used as the game money.

“Since it has come to this, it’s better to quickly come to a conclusion. Anyway, this kid here wouldn’t know about the rules of the game and went all-in with her pine cones. It will be either me or the Young Master who will be the winner.”

Isaiah laughed, touching the chestnuts that had piled up in front of him. It was time for their cards to be flipped over. Starting from Isaiah who had his card revealed, Ronnie’s face brightened when he saw it.

“Win!”

Ronnie quickly turned over his cards and dragged the chestnuts, walnuts and pine cones piled up on the table in front of him.

“Unbelievable! Even when I played with the other squires, I’ve always won…!”

Isaiah put his head in his hands out of genuine indignation. That humiliated appearance made Ronnie even more arrogant. He clasped a handful of pine cones and shouted triumphantly.

“You can’t say a word to me about how I ask Melody to work in the future!”

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While Ronnie was yelling at him excitedly, Loretta began to flip over her cards one by one with her small hands. At first, no one cared about her cards except for Melody but each time she flipped a card, the two boys focused more on Loretta’s cards as well.

“… I, impossible.”

Understanding the situation first, Ronnie covered his mouth with two hands. A fantastic combination of the same color, and a perfect sequence of the numbers – the very result that neither of them could beat was neatly lined up in front of Loretta.

Loretta looked alternately at Ronnie and Isaiah, their expressions were so shocked, as if they would faint at any moment. She smiled broadly and spread out her arms.

“I’m going to gib all of dis to Melody!”

Loretta excitedly presented Melody with all the autumn fruits obtained from this match.

“Loretta is a smart angel!”

Melody held Loretta in her arms, not caring about the two boys. There’s nothing our Loretta can’t do. She’s so smart and pretty, what should I do?

“These kinds of cards really do appear sometimes.”

(T/N: I don’t know much about card games, but as Mr. Google showed me, they must be playing a rummy card game. It is a game where players put three or more cards in sequence of the same suit (e.g 1, 2, and 3 of red diamonds, or 1, 2, and 3 of black hearts etc.). Though I am not entirely sure if this is really the game. Anyway… )

Still enraptured by Loretta’s cards, Isaiah muttered in admiration.

“I heard that if this combination comes out on your board, it means that your life is in danger because you’ve spent all of your life’s good fortune….”

Melody was startled by his words and ran to Isaiah.

“Don’t say anything bad!”

“H, huh?! No, it’s just a superstition the knights talk about.”

“I said don’t!”

Don’t you feel uncomfortable when you say such ominous words? Of course, Loretta would be able to overcome all of the difficulties with her wisdom and the help of her three older brothers. But she didn’t want to hear that her life would be in danger, even if it was only hypothetically.

… Moreover, when there was such a similar event like that in the original.

“Uh… okay, sorry.”

Isiah scratched his head and apologized to Melody, bowing and saying, ‘Alright.’

Now that the sun had set, it was now time for Isaiah to go back, and this strange duel would come to an end – with Loretta’s complete victory.

 

* * *

 

Of course, it was only Melody’s wishful thinking.

Isaiah and Ronnie immediately went straight to war again, so they just continued marching ahead as if they could not back down. Now, Ronnie took the initiative and made Isaiah an overnight guest in this mansion. As she watched the two boys saying that they could play all night somehow looking as if they liked hanging out with each other. Melody wondered why they suddenly got along so well.

‘I think they act like friends ’ kind of thought came to her mind. But of course, she imagined that the two of them would jump up to deny it immediately if she told them this.

“This is the deciding match.”

In the guest room given to Isaiah, Ronnie offered a final bet that would finally determine the winner of this ridiculous game.

“There are treasures in this mansion.”

Melody had a bad feeling.

“The person who brings what is described to him wins.”

And that foreboding feeling precisely hit the bullseye. Melody immediately picked up the catalog.

“That’s stealing! You are crossing the line!”

“Even if it’s a treasure, it’s just a record of the history of the mansion.”

Ronnie wasn’t talking about glittering things, so he must have thought those records in the library aren’t that great. But Melody didn’t think it was the case- because no gold or treasure could compare to the value of those old records.

Melody said in a worried voice, “They are actually very precious. What if the record gets damaged?”

“But anyone can get it if you just sneak into Grandpa Higgins’ office. If it was a really precious record, would it have been left around inattentively like that?!”

I think I’ve heard that kind of logic somewhere else many times before.

“If it was a record that was really valuable. One that no one should see, it would have been well hidden.”

Melody looked at Ronnie who said it so convincingly with his cold eyes. Although he obviously shrank back at the sight of the catalog, it was impossible to take back his claim. Instead, he added the following words carefully.

“So, this – even if it’s going over the line, it’s just a little tiptoe.”

Melody seemed to be able to confidently determine who Ronnie had learned this way of thinking from.

(T/N: I think it’s Claude hahahaha)

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