Chapter 52: 52

“…Uh.”

Nodding her head once more, Loretta heard Melody shout ‘Lady Loretta!’ from afar. Listening to her voice, she thought that she must be feeling embarrassed because she couldn’t find her as easily as she usually could.

“Then, tell me what happens later. I have to go back now because my teacher will be arriving soon.”

Just in case Melody might catch him talking to Loretta in her hiding spot, Ronnie lowered his voice to a whisper before he quickly went back towards the mansion. He ran into Melody, who was walking around, near the front door. She asked him for help with a desperate expression.

“Young Master, have you seen Lady Loretta?”

Ronnie managed to hold back the laugh that was about to escape from his lips. If she finds her hiding spot out here, he would betray his cute little sister’s heart after she had wholly depended on him.

 

“Oh, I didn’t see her.”

“… That’s strange.”

He flinched when he saw Melody tap on her lips and speak. He was wondering if he had been caught.

“Wh, what’s strange about that!” Ronnie quickly screamed and turned around. “I’m not free enough to meddle in your game of hide-and-seek.” He said defensively as he quickly went back to his room.

Melody stared at his back and thought of a question, ‘How did he know we were playing hide-and-seek?’

Dark clouds began to form in the sky above Melody’s head as she thought about that.

 

* * *

 

Loretta tightened her grip on the hem of the robe that was wrapped around her shoulder with her little hands. She began to feel slightly scared.

It was very strange. In fact, Loretta loves carriages. It was nice to have the people she likes the most, Melody, her father and her brothers, close to her. Carriages have a small amount of space unlike the big mansion, so everyone is within reach in a carriage. It goes without saying that after passing through amazing sceneries, they always arrive at a pleasant place after riding together.

So,

“Am not scawed….”

Loretta thought hard in her own way, came to a conclusion, and peeped out of the window. There was no one.

Where is Melody? I think I heard her voice coming from the garden a while ago. I hope you can find me here soon.

“No.”

Loretta was surprised with herself and shook off that idea. You can’t wish for Melody to find you so soon. You managed to hide thanks to your older brother.

“Melody, yu will be surpwised.”

She will be surprised if she knows that Loretta was able to hide perfectly like this. She would say, ‘That’s amazing!’ and maybe even give her a hug.

As she thought of that warm hug, her small lips curved into a smile.

‘I layk yu so mach… Melody.’

When she thought of being praised by Melody, she felt invincible. Nothing in this world could frighten her now.

At that moment, something knocked on the carriage. Loretta raised her head with twinkling eyes.

“Melody!”

Contrary to her previous thoughts of hiding well, she felt so happy and there was a bright smile on her face.

“…?”

But there was no one outside the window of the carriage.

Weird. Someone definitely knocked on the carriage.

When she tilted her head again with her finger on her lips, she soon heard a ‘tuk’ again. it was coming from the carriage’s ceiling. Loretta’s face became pale in surprise. Her little eyes turned to the ceiling of the carriage.

The pattern drawn above in the shape of the cross section of the tree began to spin around, as if it was a huge tornado. She was afraid to look at it. Somehow, Loretta couldn’t take her eyes off of it, as if her whole body had frozen.

「No matter how scared you are, you have to be patient and squat under the window and wait. Remember, practicing patience is how to be an excellent noble child of the capital. 」

Ronnie’s words came to her mind at that moment.

“No matter if I am scawed, I nid to be peytient…”

Loretta slowly repeated her older brother’s words, as if it was a small resistance to the tornado-like pattern on the ceiling that seemed to be aimed at her.

Did her courage work? She could feel the strong wind fading away.

Loretta gave strength to her legs and stood up straight, looking up at the ceiling with determined eyes. Tuk. But she was startled when she heard the sound again.

What on earth is that sound? She wondered as she looked outside of the window for a moment, and saw the traces of water on the edge of the glass window. When she realized that it meant it was ‘raining,’ tuktuktuktutuk, the rain started to pour heavily on the ceiling of the carriage and it made a sound as if it was about to collapse.

“…!”

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Loretta turned back her gaze at the ceiling. The tornado that had almost vanished, was revived, and it was spinning frantically – getting closer and closer to her. Loretta took a few steps back. But she only hit the carriage chair, and her body collapsed.

She hit the chair pretty hard, but she didn’t feel any pain. Loretta sat down on the floor as she stared endlessly at the ceiling of the carriage. Her sobs began to escape from her slightly open mouth.

The sound of the pouring rain grew louder as if erasing her cries. She covered her ears tightly with both of her hands. It was an instinct.

Loretta’s breathing began to be quicker and more uneven with a slightly muffled sound. As if it was drenched in the heavy pouring rain, even though not a single drop of rain could seep inside the sturdy carriage.

Tuk, tuktuk!

Hence, when the rain occupied more than half of the sky, Loretta completely collapsed on the floor of the carriage. She held out her hand in the air as if she was searching for something warm in her hazy sensations.

 

* * *

 

‘Did she find her?’

Ronnie couldn’t stop grinning as he attended his history class. This was because Melody’s expression as she was urgently looking for Loretta was quite funny. It was quite impressive that Melody, who was always relaxed, looked so helplessly frazzled at that time.

Melody would definitely not be able to find Loretta so easily. Besides, she wouldn’t think of going outside of the mansion now when it is raining heavily like this.

After they finished playing, Loretta would tell him again, ‘Dis is because it is Loretta and older bwothew’s secret.’ As he thought of this, while he should have been very happy his heart felt somewhat stiff somewhere.

In fact, Ronnie had been of no great help to anyone in his family. It was his older brother Claude’s job to help his father, so he thought that his job was to take care of his younger brother Jeremiah…. But the younger brother, who was rumored to be the favorite of the Magic Tower ever since he was born, doesn’t particularly need his older brother’s help. Moreover, they hadn’t seen him at all in recent years. That’s why he was so happy that for the first time he had someone to take full responsibility for.

(T/N: Middle children problems… your help isn’t much needed because there is the eldest; you are not the favorite because you are not the youngest… in short, middle children mostly are just decorations even though you know your parents must have loved you all equally… like myself [smiling through the pain])

‘I’ll have to help Loretta play hide and seek from now on.’

I will teach you to study and swordsmanship when I grow up. He had so many things he wanted to do with Loretta.

“Lord Valdwin.”

Then, the terribly fearsome professor called his name.

“Huh, yes?”

He looked up in surprise. Come to think of it, he didn’t hear his explanation at all as he was too busy thinking about Loretta.

“Can I take it that the reason you’re not paying attention to this class is because anyone would know what we are talking about here?”

Ronnie couldn’t answer the question he asked with a fearsome look, and only shook his head. Impossible. History is something difficult to understand no matter how much you study about it. Because you need to memorize the basics and most of it needs to be understood further.

“I’m glad that you have such confidence. It’s time for you to take your periodical exam.”

“E, exam?”

Ronnie’s shoulders shook when he said the world’s heaviest word.

The professor would take the results to the Duke after the exam. The Duke isn’t the kind of person to show up immediately after he takes an exam and check the results. But he used to scold Ronnie, telling him that he still didn’t know things he should have learned by now.

‘Th, that.”

He barely managed to open his mouth, thinking that he needed to try to postpone the exam somehow. But the professor already wrote the word ‘exam’ in big letters on his already full class schedule for right after their current lesson.

It was around that time that the rain, which started weakly, started to pour more heavily. Ronnie thought that the rain seemed to interpret what he was feeling now….

At that moment, his door was suddenly swung open by someone without even knocking. Never before had someone come in during his class like this, so Ronnie turned towards the door with a bewildered look.

“…?!”

Melody was standing there. She seemed to be drenched from the rain. There were maids behind Melody who were fiddling with towels. They seemed worried about Melody, who they thought had messed up big time, and the Young Master whose door was suddenly opened in the middle of his class. Because his instructor’s class was treated with so much respect, even the Duke couldn’t interrupt.

What, can’t you see I am in the middle of my class? Ronnie was looking at Melody with eyes that expressed that thought. But when he noticed Melody’s eyes and her ragged breathing, he choked back his words. An unfamiliar uneasiness rose inside his heart.

He jumped up from his seat. He was in class right now, but the thought of excusing himself to the professor never crossed his mind. His head was filled with thoughts of Loretta….

As he ran outside his room, he grabbed Melody’s wrist and pulled her along with him. She meekly followed after him and they ran down the hallway together. The servants behind them started running after them with umbrellas and towels, and the mansion quickly became noisy.

 

“Young Master, don’t run outside without an umbrella!”

Soon after, they ran into butler Higgins on the second floor who started to hurriedly run down the stairs. He seemed to come out knowing about the commotion. At his resolute cry, even Ronnie had to stop for a moment.

“Young Master!”

But Melody, who was standing next to him, grabbed his arm and pulled him. Looks like they needed to hurry.

“Quick… the rain, it is raining!”

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