Episode 77
She wanted to go to Isaac imdiately to confirm whether it was true, but reading the entire letter ca first.
Just in case, don't follow soone you're eting for the first ti even if they offer you sothing tasty, and if a stranger asks for help, ask other adults for help instead. Don't forget that adults don't need a child's help.
'Who does he think is a real child?'
Don't go around alone; always have soone with you.
'So if Basi hadn't left, we wouldn't have to worry about this, right?'
I worry that soone might try to take you away because you're so pretty. I'll get stronger quickly and return. Please wait for just a little longer. I'll end the letter here. Goodbye.
Anyway, he couldn't even properly say she was pretty to her face, but in a letter, he says all sorts of things.
Flora skimd over the sentence containing the complint about her being pretty, as if she hadn't been holding a grudge over the letter that never ca.
From Basilian, who misses you.
'Instead of just missing , why doesn't he just co back quickly? If he doesn't co back really soon, I won't see him.'
After finishing the letter, Flora neatly folded the letter paper and put it back in the envelope.
Then she opened the last drawer of her desk, where she kept only her treasured things, and carefully placed it inside.
'Right, now that I've finished reading the letter...'
No sooner had Flora ticulously closed the drawer and finished getting ready to go out than she dashed out into the hallway.
"Young Lady, I must go with you!"
Daphne hurriedly chased after her, but today's Flora couldn't wait for her.
Even as the servants passing through the hallway greeted her with bright smiles, and even though she was so out of breath her chest felt like it would burst, Flora's running didn't stop.
And finally, she arrived at Atanas's office.
"Isaac, why do you look so terrible?"
When she arrived at the office, Isaac, whose complexion had grown pale and hollow in the few busy days since she'd last seen him, greeted her.
"Ah, Young Lady. You've co."
"Your face looks weird."
"Tell about it. Why have I ended up in this state, I wonder. Am I being punished because the Ducal House is trying to monopolize the business rights without sharing them?"
Buried in piles of docunts, he glared at the ceiling for a mont before burying his face in his desk as if choked up.
"I don't know what you're talking about, so explain it from the beginning so I can understand. Is it true they made a rcenary Guild in the South?"
She might have comforted him seeing his pitiful state, but Flora, pressed for ti, brought up the main point without paying that any mind.
"How did you hear that news? Our Young Lady, you're more well-inford than I thought."
"Isaac, we don't have ti for word gas."
At her serious tone, Isaac roughly wiped his face with one hand.
"Yes, it seems a rcenary Guild managed by the Ducal House has been established, led by Duke Deshimo."
"How did that happen so quickly?"
"Tell about it. The Imperial Family is really going too far, too."
His voice, filled with resentnt, continued, saying it was clear they were interfering knowing full well this business was the North's new hope.
"The Master has also stepped out for a mont to gather related information. They say business is all about competition, but I've never seen a case this shaless. To anyone looking, it's clearly an attempt to completely trample our business..."
Isaac, who had been continuing his speech, firmly closed his mouth. He judged that nothing good would co from saying more, and he thought it wasn't a topic for discussion in front of a child.
"For now, I plan to wait and see. It hasn't completely failed yet, so don't worry."
His words, spoken with the assumption it would fail, were filled with gloom.
Seeing him looking ready to kneel down in frustration any second, Flora patted his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Isaac."
"Huh?"
"There's no way the results can be the sa between soone who jumps into a business without preparation and soone who starts a business with full preparation."
Even if the Duke Deshimo side had more money and higher credibility, their goal wasn't the developnt of the rcenary Guild but to block Lucifer's path.
How could sothing done with such wicked intentions possibly go well?
"And we have an amazing business item, don't we?"
Above all, the North had the Shalias fruit.
If they created and provided excellent self-defense items through this fruit, the rcenaries would be more interested in Lucifer's guild than Duke Deshimo's guild.
Of course, not just the rcenaries, but ordinary people too.
"I believe our territory will do well. So it's too early to give up yet."
"...Young Lady."
A faint moisture appeared in Isaac's eyes, which had been colored with feelings of fatigue, irritation, and resignation.
Since his moved expression was quite burdenso, Flora waved her hand, saying she should get going.
"Anyway, we're almost at the finish line. Let's hang in there until then!"
Still, she didn't forget to add one last word of encouragent before leaving the office.
Seeing her clenching her small fists tightly and cheering him on earnestly, Isaac regained his vitality and nodded vigorously.
However, it didn't take long for even this expectation Flora held to be shattered.
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"...Why isn't he coming?"
She waited for Count Vittora in the garden where they had t last ti, quietly eating snacks, but even long past the appointed ti, he did not appear.
"Are you sure you delivered the letter properly?"
「Yes, I clearly heard him answer that he would see you a little later after confirming it.」
Janet made a face that said she was wronged, stating there had been no issues in carrying out her duty.
At the look in her eyes that seed to ask if she didn't trust her, Flora, saying it wasn't that, hurriedly stroked the small bird's head.
'He received the letter well and said he would co, so why can't I see him?'
Could it be that the interim results were not good, and he's too ashad to show his face?
'That can't be. He clearly said it was going smoothly until yesterday. Wasn't it the Count himself who said he could probably show a sample today?'
Unable to overco her impatient heart, Flora sent Janet to the Count. She felt she needed to find out imdiately what he was doing that kept him from coming.
How much ti passed like that? Before she knew it, she could see the sun, which had been high in the sky, beginning to set.
But there was no news of the Count, and even Janet hadn't returned.
'The walk ti will be over soon.'
No sooner had she thought that than she heard Daphne's voice from not far away.
"Young Lady, it's almost dinner ti."
After the kidnapping incident and guests started coming and going to the castle, ti alone had beco rare and precious.
Having her unilaterally cancelled appointnt and losing her free ti caused Flora's mood to beco uncomfortable at once.
'If he didn't show up for a pointless reason, I won't let it slide.'
Already angry about Duke Deshimo snatching her business idea, she couldn't help but be more sensitive.
Outwardly pretending nothing was wrong, but inwardly grinding her teeth, Flora took the hand of Daphne, who had co to fetch her.
And it wasn't long before she received unexpected news.
「Master, no matter how much I search, I cannot find that human male. He has vanished as if he erased his traces from the castle, disappeared without a trace.」
Just before bed, while drinking warm milk, Flora spat out her milk at the shocking news.
"Oh my goodness, Young Lady! What's wrong? Is your stomach upset?"
Elena, who had co to put Flora to sleep again today, was startled by the child's sudden action and began checking on her.
Despite her worried actions of wiping her mouth and stroking her belly, Flora couldn't easily say she was fine.
No, right now, the child couldn't hear any sound except for Janet's voice ringing in her head.
「Could he have run away? Aren't humans fundantally untrustworthy beings?」
'There's no way...'
She wanted to think it wasn't true, but the timing was bad.
'Of all tis, just when the news spread that the Duke Deshimo side established a guild.'
It was perhaps natural for the Count, who was very ambitious about business, to turn his attention to a place that could yield a bigger jackpot.
Upon reaching that thought, the light vanished from Flora's eyes.
Even though she showed kindness to a stranger she didn't like, all because he could be helpful to Lucifer, all she got in return was betrayal again.
How dare he run away after she gave him the chance to grasp everything he wanted?
As rising anger made it difficult to keep her wits, her breathing naturally grew rough.
"I'll call a doctor right away."
At the unusual reaction, Daphne, who had been waiting nearby, rushed out, and Elena continuously stroked Flora's back with a worried expression as her complexion worsened.
A doctor was urgently summoned, but he couldn't give a proper diagnosis other than saying the Young Lady seed to be overexerting herself.
"Flora!"
Sohow, word had spread that she had just spat out the milk she was drinking, and Atanas ca running to Flora's room with his hair disheveled.
"Are you alright? I heard your stomach was upset, and your complexion is bad too."
A warm hand touched Flora's face.
Then, Flora's consciousness, which had montarily drifted away due to anger, returned.
"...Dad."
"Yes, Flora. Dad's here."
Separate from the anger that had risen to the top of her head, hearing Atanas's voice strangely brought a wave of self-pity.
A pout naturally ford on Flora's face, and Atanas, unable to stay still, hurriedly picked the child up.
Held in his broad, large embrace, Flora couldn't hold back and reached out to hug him tightly.
"It's okay, Dad's here. You won't feel any pain at all."
"Hic, Dad."
"Yes, yes. You'll be fine."
Our kind dad, who rushed over the mont he heard his daughter was sick even amidst the chaotic situation of a competitor suddenly appearing. If I don't protect him, who will?
The fact that she had a protector who would prioritize his child in any situation provided more comfort to her heart than she had thought.
Flora had nearly been consud by the anger that surged like a rough wave, but fortunately, thanks to Atanas, she quickly regained her reason.
'If he ran away, we just have to catch him.'
She didn't know what he was thinking by disappearing, but it was ti to show him what happens when you ss with a person, no, a Great Demon.
"I'm okay now."
Held in Atanas's worried embrace, Flora smiled brightly with a perfectly fine face and then fell asleep.
No, she pretended to be asleep.
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