Chapter 153
* * *
That evening during dinner, Ronny was in a very good mood.
It was thanks to the thick slices of at served on the nu, which was still lody’s favorite dish to this day.
She was sitting across from Ronny, stuffing the large pieces of at into her mouth and looking imnsely delighted.
Perhaps if no one had been around, she might have even kicked her feet happily.
For so reason, just watching lody’s appearance made Ronny feel a peculiar sensation of being full too.
After finishing the al, the siblings and lody gathered for tea ti.
Loretta showcased her recent piano skills, with Claude accompanying her on the violin.
The young girl’s performance occasionally lost rhythm with the tempo speeding up or slowing down, but Claude never lost his smile, adjusting to match her playing each ti.
(Of course, in Claude’s case, Loretta’s performance likely sounded more splendid than that of any professional musician.)
While they played, Ronny and lody sat side-by-side on the sofa.
They kept a distance of about two palms apart, not too close but not too far either.
Whenever lody moved, Ronny found himself enjoying the scent of paint that wafted from her hair.
How strange.
When he painted, the sll of paints usually gave him a headache…
Yet now, he felt he wanted to bury himself completely in this fragrance.
“Ronny.”
In the midst of the ongoing performance, lody suddenly called out to him in a quiet voice.
“You see?”
It seed lody didn’t want their conversation to disturb the two musicians.
She closed the remaining gap between them and began speaking in a whisper while sitting closer.
At that mont, Ronny audibly gulped down a large mouthful of saliva.
It was partially due to the tension, but more so because the fragrance that had been distracting his mind grew even more intense.
To the point where he could barely focus on lody’s words.
‘No, why am I getting flustered…?’
He tried his best to listen to what lody was saying.
But in the end, he found himself simply staring at her bright green eyes and diligently moving small lips, unable to catch a single word.
“Aren’t you looking forward to it?” he suddenly heard her ask.
Not knowing what exactly he was supposed to be anticipating, Ronny still nodded anyway.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Since the scent might disappear, you’ll probably be glad about that.”
“…The scent is disappearing?!”
Ronny ended up raising his voice slightly without realizing it.
Startled by the outburst, Loretta’s playing faltered montarily, drawing Claude’s sharp gaze their way.
“Oh, um. Sorry, Loretta.”
Ronny offered a brief apology before turning back to lody with an awkward expression.
The idea of her wonderful fragrance disappearing seed far too unfortunate.
“Well, I like it actually. If possible, I want to sll it even more…”
He ant that he enjoyed it enough to want to be surrounded by the scent up close, but of course he couldn’t bring himself to say that outright.
“You like it so much that you want to keep slling it?”
“Ah, no, not in that weird way.”
As Ronny hastily tried to make excuses, lody just shrugged her shoulders while smiling.
“I know. Only Jeremiah is terrified of the cucumber scent. Anyway, let’s test it out once the ‘cucumber scent-concealing spice’ arrives from the Briggs store.”
What an odd product she was talking about.
But lody’s face shone with such delight while discussing this strange thing that Ronny soon found himself smiling along with her.
The tea ti ended later than usual that day, and the siblings each returned to their own rooms.
lody went with Loretta to her room, as they had agreed to brush each other’s hair.
As for Ronny, he flopped down onto the sofa by the window in his own chamber.
Several books were haphazardly stacked around that area, and he picked up the one he had been reading until that morning.
It was titled “My Fiancée is my Childhood Friend,” and the story progression matched the title faithfully – a boy and girl who grew up close together gradually realized their feelings for one another.
Ronny opened the book again while embracing his complicated emotions, attempting to read.
* * *
Around three hours later, he sohow managed to turn to the final page.
It had been an arduous reading session. He couldn’t focus on the story at all, having to re-read the sa sentences over and over.
“Ah, honestly.”
With an audible thud, Ronny set the book down and leaned back comfortably against the backrest.
This was all lody’s fault.
Throughout his reading, a miniature lody had been frolicking around in his mind, distracting him constantly.
A tinge of annoyance towards her welled up inside Ronny.
“Sotis when I see her, she’s really vexing…”
She made him get into fistfights at social gatherings.
She allowed so guy to co visiting the mansion with flowers.
She even fell down the stairs… Truly, it was impossible to take his eyes off her.
‘And then what did she say?’
Ronny recalled lody’s words of gratitude to him that afternoon.
“And thank you again for getting angry on behalf of the Higgins.”
…Getting angry on behalf of the Higgins?
At the ti, his mood had been good so he brushed it off lightly. But thinking back on it now, he felt rather irked.
Didn’t her words sound like if lody wasn’t a Higgins, he wouldn’t have gotten angry at Stewart Middleton?
“What does she take
for?”
Ronny abruptly stood up from his seat.
If he didn’t clear up this misunderstanding right away, it seed he wouldn’t be able to sleep properly.
So he decided to go see lody imdiately and lay out all the facts.
That his actions had been entirely for her sake.
Even if she didn’t belong to the Higgins, Ronny would have gotten angry for lody’s sake regardless.
With heavy, thumping footsteps, he made his way all the way to his room’s door.
But the mont he gripped the cold tal doorknob to pull it open, he found himself freezing in place.
It was because the miniature lody frolicking in his mind throughout the reading session posed one question to him.
‘Ronny got angry for my sake? Why?’
Why, you ask? Well, it’s because I…
“……”
The answer naturally ca to Ronny’s mind, but he ended up just biting his lip instead of voicing it.
* * *
anwhile, lody, who had headed from the reception room to Loretta’s chamber, ended up lingering there much longer than expected.
After brushing each other’s hair as promised and solving newspaper puzzles together, they sat side-by-side on the bed, conversing.
Most of their talk was trivial chitchat. But the two listened attentively to each other’s voices, occasionally giving serious responses as well.
Their ti together stretched late into the night, until finally Loretta, unable to fight off her drowsiness any longer, began nodding off.
“Loretta, you should lie down and sleep.”
Despite lody’s suggestion, the child vigorously shook her head, trying to forcibly wake herself up.
“Mmm, not sleepy.”
Contrary to her words, Loretta had already closed her eyes halfway at this point.
lody quietly watched the fierce battle between the girl and her eyelids.
No one in this world could withstand the powerful eyelids that relentlessly advanced downwards.
In response, the Baldwin princess who disliked losing poured all her strength into her eyes.
It was a mont showcasing her unwavering will to not surrender to any re bodily organs.
“See, I can keep playing so more.”
Seeing Loretta’s solid determination, her eyelids seed to change tactics, slowly inching down bit by bit instead.
“So you know? When I said I wanted a real sword instead of a wooden one…”
As Loretta struggled to continue her story, her eyelids slid down slightly without her noticing, taking advantage of the brief pause.
“Brother Claude asured my height and arm length.”
Loretta blinked her eyes sluggishly. In that instant, her eyelids stealthily added more weight, preventing her from opening them more than halfway.
“…If Brother allows
a real sword…”
Now her eyes were nearly shut, so lody carefully laid Loretta down on the bed.
“I’d be so happy…”
With those final words, the child imdiately fell into a deep slumber.
Having held off sleep for quite a while, she soon began snoring loudly. Once asleep like this, Loretta wouldn’t wake up even if soone carried her.
“Sleep well.”
lody placed a kiss on the girl’s forehead, as if caressing it.
“May you have sweet dreams.”
It seed her wish was granted, as Loretta’s face broke into a bright, adorable smile when lody looked again.
* * *
As lody exited the room, Loretta’s maidservant happened to be waiting outside.
“No matter how hard the young miss tries to stay awake, she can’t make it past this hour.”
“Yeah, she just fell asleep now.”
lody stepped aside with a casual shrug.
The maid briefly bowed before entering Loretta’s room. She seed to be preparing to tidy up and place a glass of water by the bedside.
Left alone in the hallway on the second floor, lody let out a small yawn.
It appeared Loretta’s drowsiness had rubbed off on her as well. At this rate, she felt she might collapse into bed the mont she returned to her own room.
She started heading towards the stairs.
But then, she noticed a bright light seeping out from the duke’s study, which had remained dim lately.
‘Could Father and the Duke have returned?’
lody shook her head, dismissing her own conjecture. If they had co back, the mansion wouldn’t be this quiet.
They would have at least prepared a small welcoming ceremony.
‘But still…’
What if the duke had returned late at night and decided to omit any noisy procedures out of consideration for the sleeping Loretta?
‘Even so, it wouldn’t be this quiet.’
Despite her thoughts, lody still found herself drawn towards the study, dimly hoping to reunite with her beloved family mbers.
Reaching the doorway where the bright light spilled out, lody raised her hand to knock.
“Eugh.”
But an odd sound from inside the study made her halt before her fist could strike the door.
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