Chapter 101
***
“…Alright.”
“Be careful, lody,” Loretta warned, so lody carefully raised one foot.
“Hmph, not even that heavy… Huff.”
And when she placed her other foot up as well, Ronny gasped and struggled under her weight.
“See? I told you it’s heavy. I’ve been eating three als and three snacks a day lately.”
“It’s ligh… Huff!”
Even though his breathing was a ss, Ronny seed not to want lody to co down.
“Hurry up and find out the secret!”
Urged by his words, lody had no choice but to support herself on the window sill with both hands. It was higher than she expected.
“Can you see anything?”
Ronny asked from below, grunting.
“No, not yet. I think I need to go higher.”
“Ugh! Seriously!”
Ronny then raised his back a little higher.
“Hurry and look! Unless you want to kill .”
It would have been better to stop if it was that difficult. It would be a big problem if he got hurt.
Worried about him, lody gripped her hands tightly and lifted her toes.
Finally, lody’s view reached above the window sill.
“Can you see?”
Ronny asked, but lody just stared silently at what Mrs. Higgins had left on the window sill.
“Hey! Can you see or not!”
Prompted by his urging, lody quickly ca to her senses and answered.
“I can see. But…”
“Is Mrs. Higgins alone inside? Right?”
lody quickly surveyed every corner of the kitchen. Mrs. Higgins was alone, tidying up the dishes.
“Yes, she’s alone.”
“Good, make sure to thoroughly check for any hints. Especially unravel the secret of what’s placed on the window sill.”
“But this is…”
“Even if it looks like nothing, it must be important to Mrs. Higgins! To carefully place it down like that. It has to be sothing precious!”
Doesn’t seem like it.
lody muttered to herself, scrutinizing what was right in front of her eyes, harboring a slight suspicion that perhaps Ronny was right about a hidden secret.
But no matter how she looked at it, it was just…
“An apple pie.”
“What?”
Ronny barely turned his neck to look up at lody.
“I said it’s an apple pie.”
“Are you telling
Mrs. Higgins went through all that trouble to keep everyone away, just to make an ordinary apple pie?!”
“It doesn’t seem ordinary to .”
“Alright. Does it look like there’s a secret?!”
“Umm…”
lody, gripping the window fra tightly, pondered what secret the apple pie might hold.
“A secret… recipe? It looks incredibly delicious.”
“Do you really not want to take this seriously?!”
“I am serious.”
“Don’t joke, bring that pie down here now so I can see it for myself.”
“Bring it down?!”
“Yes. The whole thing.”
Ronny sighed heavily, his forehead resting on the ground. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust lody.
After offering his sturdy back, to not even get a small hint in return was frustrating.
“You’re really no help at all. So frustrating!”
He continued to grumble.
“Hurry up and bring the pie down without Mrs. Higgins noticing! Are you still far off?”
But no matter how long he waited, the heavy lody did not co down from his back.
With a face full of irritation, he suddenly looked up.
“Are you really trying to crush and kill ?!”
The sharp retort, surprisingly, ca from a very high place.
“Are you trying to scare
to death, young master?”
“Ah!”
Ronny thought his insides were about to leap out of his mouth.
Now he saw Mrs. Higgins sticking her head out of the window, watching them.
‘What do I do?’
Ronny widened his eyes, reflecting on the current predicant.
This made it look as if the mansion’s young master was stooping to steal a pie from a servant!
“Ah, this isn’t what it looks like.”
Ronny, still lying flat on the ground, began to make excuses, even though lody had quickly gotten off his back.
“I had a righteous purpose!”
“I’d very much like to hear what kind of justice can be achieved by stealing a servant’s pie.”
Of course, there was no such justice, and so Ronny lay flat in despair. Everything seed bleak.
It was as if it were a sign of his future.
***
The implication hit the mark.
He, alongside Loretta, received a stern scolding from their father.
Above all, they were firmly cautioned against the dangerous act of having soone on their back. It was an act that could have resulted in serious injury.
This ti, both he and Loretta ended up having to write letters of reflection.
The already thick file of ‘Ronny’s Reflection Letters’ seed destined to grow even more substantial in volu.
The ‘Loretta Reflection Letters’ file was hot on its heels, which was a small comfort in not being alone.
However, there was one point that puzzled him.
“What about lody?”
Ronny mustered the courage to ask his father.
It was a valid concern since, after the incident and upon returning to the mansion, lody had been separated from the Baldwin siblings and taken sowhere by Mr. and Mrs. Higgins.
With a look on her face as if she was being led into hellfire.
‘Could it be… she’s being sent away from the mansion…?’
The Higgins were the chief stewards of the mansion. If they strongly insisted, lody might have no choice but to leave.
‘That can’t happen.’
Without lody, his life would beco dull once again.
He anxiously paced back and forth.
He then rembered how lody was preparing to be adopted into another family last ti.
He had been happy then, thinking they could go out and play together anywhere, but now it seed like a foolish thought.
He hadn’t considered how boring the ducal house would be without lody.
“I was actually about to discuss sothing about lody with you kids.”
The duke’s response gave Ronny a bad feeling, making the hair on his head stand on end.
“Don’t tell .”
Unconsciously, Ronny took a step back.
“She’s really being adopted?!”
“Did you know about this?”
“Ah!”
Ronny frantically waved his arms and exclaid.
“No, that can’t happen!”
There was a desperation in his voice. The duke’s response remained calm.
“However, it’s a decision made by Mr. and Mrs. Higgins, and we cannot interfere. Anyway, congratulations… Ronny?”
Before his father could finish speaking, Ronny had turned and started running down the corridor.
He raced down the stairs at full speed, bursting open every door where Mr. and Mrs. Higgins and lody might be.
“lody! Hey! lody!”
But in neither the butler’s room nor Mrs. Higgins’s room could he find the three of them.
‘Could she have already been thrown out of the mansion?’
He pushed open the door to a nearby tea room. Since it was unlikely they were leisurely having tea, he didn’t hold much hope.
“Master Ronny?”
Contrary to his expectations, lody was standing right in the middle of the tea room, looking perfectly fine.
Ronny, feeling an overwhelming sense of relief and happiness at seeing lody, rushed over and hugged her tightly.
“I was wrong! You can’t leave the mansion! Absolutely not!”
He quickly apologized for his past mistake.
“?”
lody asked back, but he just hugged her tighter, as if he couldn’t bear to let her go.
“You have to play with !”
“…But I want to play with Miss Loretta.”
“What?!”
He pushed lody’s shoulders away slightly in shock and yelled.
“What about ?!”
Finding his unjustly aggrieved face amusing, lody couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Okay, I’ll play with you. After all, you and I are forever friends.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
Ronny, relieved, finally noticed what lody was doing in the tea room. With Mr. and Mrs. Higgins nearby and a maid bringing over a tea set, it seed they were about to have an important discussion.
Probably about the adoption.
‘No, it can’t happen! lody can’t leave!’
Ronny, anxious and unsure what to do, suddenly had an idea and clapped his hands together, saying, “Ah, right!”
He grabbed lody by the arm and led her in front of Mr. and Mrs. Higgins.
“I’ve got an amazing idea! I’m a genius!”
He boasted with considerable swagger. Of course, Mrs. Higgins didn’t seem to give much credit to Ronny’s words.
“…I doubt anything could be more astonishing than the young master attempting to steal a servant’s pie.”
At her pointed remark, Ronny’s face reddened slightly, but he lifted his head proudly.
Now was not the ti to be disheartened by such trivial matters.
“It’s not that! lody will be adopted by the Higgins family! That way, lody can continue to stay here and play with ! How about it?!”
He looked around with great anticipation, his expectations ballooning.
For so reason, Mr. and Mrs. Higgins started laughing together at the sa ti.
Reviews
All reviews (0)