Chapter 51: 51

Chapter 51

 

* * *

 

One day, with only one step left for the weather to reach the final descent into the deep cold of winter.

Despite the cold weather, Duke Valdwin stood at the front door for a long time waiting for the mailman to arrive. Finding him waiting like that, the mailman got off the carriage at the quickest possible speed in the world. He quickly bent his body into a polite bow. The Duke nodded his head to greet him, and then asked him in a slightly anticipating voice..

“The letter?”

There were naturally letters coming constantly from the capital to the Duke, whether it was a personal or official communication. So the bundle of letters the mailman gave him was quite thick.

“I’m sorry to say but, there is also nothing today, Duke.”

The mailman still added, ‘There is no letter, sir.’ The Duke let out a deep sigh as he accepted the batch of letters. He couldn’t believe that there was no answer to the letters he had been waiting for.

“I see. Thank you as always.”

After patting him on the back and sending him back on his way, the Duke returned to his office with a slightly weary face. The clever Higgins brought him tea, saying, ‘It would be better for you to rest for a while.’ The Duke gently shook his head and sat down. He sighed towards the pile of letters in front of him.

“It’s not like I need a break. But I do appreciate you bringing tea.”

The pure white teacup void of any pattern was gently placed next to the Duke. He gently swirled the warm tea in his cup as he held it. The Duke waited for the tea to cool down a bit and slowly lifted the cup. It had a mild scent. Higgins was always the first one to serve him tea when the season got cold.

The Duke realized it was winter again.

“It’s already….”

… winter.

The Duke swallowed the rest of his words along with tea he gulped down. But even so, Higgins fully understood the words he didn’t say.

“Not yet, Duke. We are still between autumn and winter.”

Is it? In fact, there wasn’t even a thin layer of ice on the shore of the lake, so it was too early to say that it is already winter. Though the weather was also too cold to say it was still autumn.

“I thought I would get a reply this time. At least before the first snow.”

The Duke tapped the pile of letters with his fingertips, quietly revealing his innermost feelings. The butler could easily remember who the Duke was waiting for.

Jeremiah Valdwin. He was the Duke’s third son, living away from his family inside the Magic Tower, from age six to age ten. If he was an ordinary child, he might have felt lonely being separated from his family, but Jeremiah felt none of that. No, he was even delighted when he found out that he was going to the tower and looked forward to it. It was also the same until now.

The little boy never returned to the mansion. The Duke would sometimes go to see his little son, missing him, but the boy didn’t even spare him time. Sometimes, he would make him wait for hours without even informing him if he was going to meet the Duke or not. That being said, he didn’t even make the minimal contact by sending them letters. Occasionally, he did contact the Duke when he needed his guardian’s signature for access to the Royal Family. At the very least, it was just a formal request by borrowing the form of an official document so it couldn’t really be considered contact.

After years of having that kind of relationship, the Duke had come to acknowledge one fact – Jeremiah doesn’t like the Duke of Valdwin, and much less that he was from that family. Since he had been completely refusing to talk to the Duke for several years, the Duke couldn’t even ask why he was so distant. The Duke could only guess the answer from his past actions.

‘I wonder if Jeremiah’s actions…’

Is it related to Beatrice? Jeremiah is a child who is sensitive to magic, and his mother is….

As he rummaged through his most cherished memories, a pain naturally ached in the depths of his heart – it was quite painful, but it was a pain of the past and he was used to it by now.

“You’re right. I’d better take a rest for a while.”

Right after Higgins had carefully advised and convinced the Duke to have a rest, a servant came knocking on the door of his office from outside. He said that the guest who was supposed to arrive half an hour later had arrived a little earlier.

The Duke stood up and said, ‘Then let’s go now,’ but Higgins acted very boldly and blocked him.

“Duke, you don’t have to give up your precious rest time for someone who came early. You can have them wait.”

“There is no need for more waiting in this world.”

The butler couldn’t say anything at the Duke’s words that he murmured like a joke.

 

* * *

 

While the Duke was out and meeting the guests, Loretta secretly went to find Ronnie, all the while avoiding Melody’s eyes.

“What is it, little girl?”

Ronnie tried to stop Loretta from entering his room without knocking.

“Inside the Duke’s mansion, you have to follow the rules of the family. How dare you come inside without knocking?”

“But Loretta… keym hewe secwetly.”

“Secretly?”

“Hmm, a wondewful secwet between Loretta and bwother.”

With a tempting offer that anyone would take, Ronnie had no choice but to give in to Loretta. Since it was cold, he put a small blanket over the small child’s lap, cut his favorite cookie in half and shared it with her.

Not knowing that the cookies he served to her as snacks were precious, Loretta quickly ate them.

“How can you eat like that!”

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Ronnie handed all the leftover cookies to Loretta with a look of desperation.

“I mean, eat slowly. Little by little, as it dissolves in milk.”

He poured her a cup of warmed milk and held it up to Loretta’s lips.

“What do you say? Isn’t it more delicious to eat it like this?”

“Yep! Bwother Ronnie is a jenius!”

Ronnie lifted his chin up slightly out of pride while the little girl gave him a thumbs up. In fact, he thought that the word genius suited his older brother Claude, or his younger brother Jeremiah more.

“So, what’s the secret you want to tell this genius brother?”

Ronnie put down the glass of milk and quickly asked about why Loretta came. As if imitating a ‘cool older brother’ whom his little sister could depend on, while embracing her in a serious manner.

“You know,” Loretta clasped her hands together with the cookie crumbs still on her lips, “Loretta’s life had been hard.”

“What?! Is another strange maid tormenting you?!”

Ronnie quickly grabbed Loretta’s two small hands, recalling what had happened before.

“No, no.”

The little girl shook her head quickly.

“Or, did that stupid Isaiah Mullen harm you?”

Loretta shook her head again this time as well. Ronnie was starting to get worried. What was it that was making his younger sister’s life hard?

“What’s going on? Say it quickly.”

He put aside all the calm maturity he showed a while ago as a ‘genius older brother,’ and acted with urgency.

“About that,” Loretta swallowed down a bite of cookie with the milk once more, and confessed her worries frankly, “I hab no place to hayd.”

“What?”

“Loretta is pleying hayd-and-seek wid Melody, but life is hard becos I hab no place to hayd.”

Are you kidding me? Ronnie wanted to ask her that. But looking at Loretta’s mournful expression, it looks like the little girl was greatly concerned by it.

“Loretta wowked hard to hide, but Melody still finds me kwickly.”

That’s true. Ronnie nodded. He had also played hide-and-seek with Loretta, but it was so boring that it was impossible for him to continue playing the game with her. This little kid couldn’t hide her whole body at all, and she somehow always showed the long hem of her dress or the brim of her hat poking out from behind her hiding spots so that he could easily see her.

“So, you looked for this brother because of that?”

“Yep! Becos brothew Ronnie is a jenius!”

His heart was tickled when he heard Loretta’s words, and he burst into laughter. Isn’t it praiseworthy that this little girl thought of him first while in a difficult situation?

“Then I have no choice.”

He jumped up from his seat.

“This older brother is busy with his studies, but I will help you for a moment. How much time do you have left to hide?”

Loretta held out the pocket watch she had in her pocket after his words. It belonged to Butler Higgins, but apparently, he lent it to the two children to play hide-and-seek.

“Wen da long stick comes here, Melody will look for Loretta.”

You mean, she will start searching for you when the minute hand reaches 30 minutes? If so, then she had less than three minutes of time left. Ronnie regretted wasting her time with eating the cookies.

“Get up quickly!”

Ronnie grabbed Loretta’s hand and opened the door wide.

“Because this genius brother will take you to a place where no one can find you!”

Loretta looked up at him with admiration in her eyes, and Ronnie’s shoulders raised high as if he was going to ascend to heaven.

The children walked through the hall and down the stairs at a rapid pace, and headed out of the mansion. He was a little concerned about the cold wind as they had rushed out without putting on a coat. But Melody should have started searching by now, so Ronnie hurried to the back of the mansion without hesitation.

It happened that there were large and small carriages used by the Duke’s family standing side by side. Ronnie stopped in front of the smallest carriage among them.

“Listen, Loretta,” he opened the carriage door, lifted Loretta under her arms, and brought her inside, “Melody will never find you if you stay here.”

The child was a little afraid of the unfamiliar carriage, so she opened her eyes wide and looked around.

“You, if you are afraid of these kinds of things, then you are not an excellent noble child of the capital.” He threatened to prevent Loretta from complaining and saying, ‘I don’t like this place.’

“No matter how scared you are, you have to be patient and squat under the window and wait.”

Because what he was saying sounded pretty plausible, Lorretta slowly nodded her head. After all, she was thinking that she also wanted to be an ‘excellent noble child of the capital.’

“Hmm.”

“You can do it, right?”

‘And just in case,’ Ronnie said as he took off his thin jacket and wrapped it around Loretta’s shoulders. Of course, he looked just like a model of an educated noble child of the capital. Though Loretta didn’t seem to know that.

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