Chapter 167
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…It was just a few minutes ago that she was embarrassed about the lace rely touching him.
Now, not only the lace, but her entire body was leaning against him.
And while firmly grasping his clothes at that.
“Are you okay?”
At the question that ca from above right away, lody quickly nodded.
She regretted it imdiately. Sohow it ended up rubbing her face against his chest area.
“See, I told you to be careful.”
There seed to be laughter mixed in the voice that followed.
lody clumsily getting off and falling over like this must have been quite amusing to him.
“…”
Of course, lody didn’t find this situation amusing at all. Moreover, she disliked how she strangely fluttered at each and every thing like this.
‘I had decided not to harbor such feelings…’
lody forcibly furrowed her brow. If she didn’t do that, it felt like he would notice her feeling embarrassed.
Untangling her hands that had been grasping him, she stood with slight force on her tiptoes.
Although a bit uncomfortable, she could stand right away.
As she took about one step back, Claude bent his waist to match his gaze with hers. With a worried expression.
“I’m sorry. My thinking was short-sighted. Let’s stop here for today, would it be alright to ask for next ti if possible?”
Asking for next ti, that was another line unlike him.
To reiterate, he had the right to lody’s ti.
aning, he didn’t need to make such an earnest, requesting expression.
‘Why is he acting like this today of all days?’
Disliking how he was acting unfamiliarly, lody shook her head.
“It’s okay.”
“But it’s difficult for you to walk.”
“I told you, didn’t I? I grew up close to the soil.”
While saying that, lody carefully took off her
shoes that didn’t suit this land.
The soft and warm feeling on her toes was really nice. Co to think of it, she had forgotten this feeling for quite a long ti.
lody let go of Claude’s arm and took a few steps forward first.
“There, it’s fine now, right?”
As lody turned around while saying that, her white ankles were fully exposed under her slightly lifted dress.
“That’s not…okay…”
Claude answered stumbling while striving to lift his gaze upwards, but it didn’t seem to reach lody’s ears.
She turned her body again and started vigorously advancing towards the white fence.
Claude picked up lody’s
shoes left on the ground, thoroughly shook off the sand, and neatly placed them inside the carriage.
Looking back again, lody was already skillfully opening the fence.
“These were all planted by Young Master Jeremiah?!”
At the question asked in a slightly loud voice, Claude answered while walking towards her.
“Of course, as the guardian, I helped too.”
“You directly did this kind of work, Young Master? Farm work?!”
For so reason, lody laughed out loud. It sohow reminded him of when she was young.
When she hadn’t been at the ducal residence for long.
“Why, do I seem incapable of it?”
“Yes. It feels like you don’t work anywhere except at a desk.”
“I think your perception of
is sowhat biased. I’m not that much of a desk worker.”
He answered boasting to the point of being a bit childish.
“When I was at the academy, I received the highest score in swordsmanship exams.”
But that didn’t seem to have much effect. lody shook her head.
“How many years ago are you talking about?”
“It’s not that long ago. Roughly…”
As he counted the period, he put his hand down and sighed.
“Who in the world made ti flow by so quickly?”
lody shrugged and laughed.
“At least it wasn’t , so don’t resent . Heh heh.”
lody entered through the fence and closely examined the dicinal herb closest to her.
“The leaves have a scent.”
It was different from a simple grass sll. There was a refreshingly sharp feeling.
“If you pluck the leaves and rub them together, it becos even stronger. I learned it from Jeremiah too.”
He plucked a fresh leaf, rubbed it, and brought it to the tip of lody’s nose. Surprised by the abruptly strong scent, lody lifted her head.
“It’s true.”
“Since the scent differs by type, it’s quite fun to try them one by one.”
lody also plucked a long-shaped grass like he did and sniffed it.
It was fascinating how a refreshing citrus scent flowed from the green leaves.
“These are gathered to make dicine?”
“Yes, I’ve also been coming often recently to observe Jeremiah’s research.”
lody thought he must be inspecting Jeremiah’s garden for business purposes.
Perhaps planning to mass-produce dicinal herbs in the ducal territory in the future.
Of course, that would be after Jeremiah resolved the issue of the herbs’ performance.
“Are you thinking of becoming even richer here, Young Master?”
At lody’s question asked with a smirk, he nodded.
“Yes. Because then I’ll be able to do anything for my beloved family.”
“Young Master. ‘Anything for family’ doesn’t include shopping for strange items.”
“No, it does.”
He solemnly declared and quickly found an error in her words.
“And I never buy strange items.”
“…Let’s talk about that again when items are delivered from the Briggs Company. Together with Loretta.”
“That’s a good idea. And to add, I’m not observing this work simply for money-making.”
“…Then?”
At lody’s question, he fiddled with his chin for a mont before giving an answer.
“I hope dicine and dicinal herbs beco more common than now.”
The amount of dicinal herbs that had to be collected from nature was extrely small. On top of that, the amount of dicine produced after being processed through excellent mages was even less.
So good dicine always beca a rare commodity, and there were quite a few cases of fake dicine with no efficacy being circulated.
“As a result, if anyone can easily obtain dicine in the far future, that would be great.”
He gently stroked the leaves blooming next to him and quietly smiled.
“Any dicine, to the extent that even the girl who treasured her only pair of shoes…can easily get her hands on it. Of course, I only started thinking this way very recently.”
He imdiately added an apology, saying “I’m sorry.”
“I sotis thought arbitrarily. Wondering if lody’s feet that lost her shoes as a child…might have gotten injured. Now it’s a problem I can’t do anything about.”
“…Thank you.”
lody quietly answered while fiddling with the leaf she was holding several more tis.
Actually, she wanted to say a few more things.
That she really hoped a day would co when anyone could easily obtain dicine in the future.
That lody would cooperate with that as much as possible.
But for now, she didn’t say anything.
Because she was sohow happy to see him at a loss for what to do while talking about lody’s childhood.
“But when I heard from Sir Mullern later, he said his mother took good care of Miss lody. I was relieved to know I had worried unnecessarily.”
“Ah, that’s right… There were village elders who worried about .”
Of course, not all adults were favorable towards her.
There were many people who disliked the slave trader and her daughter roaming around the village in the first place.
When she was young, such people were simply scary, but now she could understand their reasons to so extent.
And amidst such an atmosphere, lody felt deeply grateful to the adults who sincerely worried and cared for her. It must not have been easy.
“It’s fortunate that good people were close by.”
“But even so… I couldn’t always use dicine on my wounds.”
“Is that so?”
She nodded slightly.
“Because dicine was even more precious back then. The doctor also studied and picked dicinal herbs or made dicine in her own way, but…”
“It wasn’t enough to care for the entire village. Right?”
“Yes. But still, when I left for the capital, she packed so of that precious dicine for .”
She must have been worried that lody might not be able to tell anyone she was sick in the cold capital. Because she was a kind person.
“Actually, I felt sorry for always receiving treatnt from that doctor for free, so there were tis I hid my wounds.”
“…”
He moved his lips as if to answer sothing, but ended up staying silent.
Disliking the sohow gloomy atmosphere, lody slowly started walking next to the dicinal herbs that grew side by side.
About half a step behind, Claude followed her.
Each ti she walked along the soft soil, the shape and scent of the dicinal herbs in her sight changed.
Among them, there were so that grew excessively to the point where leaves were entangled with each other, and so that drooped powerlessly with a yellowish color.
lody blankly looked down at a small plant sprawled on the ground and carefully brushed its leaves.
“You’ll…need to look for new land too. It might be an environntal issue.”
“Yes, Jeremiah said he’s already looking into it.”
“Young Master Jeremiah is having a hard ti.”
“He’s having a very hard ti, while I leisurely sit at a desk and just sign the docunts that child prepares.”
He seed to still have so lingering feelings about the conversation they had a little while ago.
lody rose from her spot while laughing.
“Even though you received the best score in swordsmanship exams back in your pri.”
“Wow, what do you an pri! I said it’s not that long ago.”
Seeing him make a sad face was amusing, so lody laughed out loud again.
Sohow, she felt like she now understood why Claude used to bully her.
It was fun to see such a lively reaction to a single word.
“I should prove that I’m not a desk worker and go back.”
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