Chapter 22
***
lody’s mother was left in jail, awaiting punishnt. Now that Loretta’s identity had been confird, her mother was facing severe punishnt.
anwhile, so elders argued vehently that ‘criminal lody’ should be expelled, especially after her mother’s cris were deed more serious.
The Duke, however, did not stay silent on this matter. He ntioned the illegal dealings between the elder and the jailer, effectively silencing them. The infuriated elders returned to the Duke’s domain.
Subsequently, lody was welcod back as a ‘guest’ of the Duke’s house.
Upon her return from jail and stepping out of the carriage, Loretta rushed out of the entrance to embrace her warmly.
“Duke, you are the best,” Loretta declared, throwing her arms around him near his waist.
That evening, a splendid dinner was held, albeit hastily arranged with so purchased items from the city. Despite the simplicity of the al, it was a joyous occasion without the troubleso elders.
After a pleasant bath, lody was treated again for her wounds. The dicines had washed off during the bath.
“Ah, it still looks painful,” remarked the maid, blowing gently on the dicine to help it dry and wincing slightly.
“Does it hurt much?”
“It’s okay.”
“About Miss Loretta,” the maid continued, wrapping bandages around lody’s wounds.
“What about her?”
“She seems a lot like the Duke.”
The maid recounted an incident during lody’s absence, where Loretta firmly answered an elder. Standing with her legs firmly apart, she had proudly ordered, “Bring lody back.”
“Even when the elders said sothing, she didn’t flinch and replied just like that,” the maid noted, admiring Loretta’s bravery. lody felt slightly embarrassed, unsure if she deserved so much love and attention from the female protagonist.
After the treatnt, when it was ti to read a fairy tale and go to sleep as usual, lody decided to ask Loretta a question in the darkness, borrowing a little courage.
“Why do you show
so much affection?”
“lody?”
But asking ‘why do you like ?’ directly felt too embarrassing.
“Uh, no. Let’s go to sleep.”
Noticing lody’s odd expression, Loretta gently covered her ears with her small hands, just as lody had done for her on rainy days.
“lody, were you scared?”
A concerned voice whispered softly into her ward ears.
lody was about to say ‘I was okay,’ but decided against it, choosing to be honest instead.
“Yeah, I was a little scared.”
“Sorry.”
“But you sent the Duke to save .”
“The Duke protected lody?”
lody nodded with a smile.
“Yes, he protected .”
“The Duke is good. And I like lody too.”
Loretta, perhaps worried her expression of affection hadn’t been conveyed, slowly released her hands from lody’s ears.
“Um… you know.”
Encouraged by Loretta’s sweet confession, lody cautiously asked sothing she had been curious about.
“Why do you like , Loretta?”
After all, there were plenty of likable people around lody.
“Huh?”
But perhaps it was a bit of a complex question for the little girl.
“I don’t know…”
Loretta fidgeted with her hands for a mont before breaking into a smile and hugging lody tightly.
“Even so, I really like lody, very much.”
Hearing such heartwarming words, lody quickly nodded and etched them in her heart.
“I really like Loretta too, very much.”
After their shy confessions, the two naturally started sharing other stories, forgetting the bedti rule of ‘close your eyes and mouth when you sleep’.
Consequently, they overslept the next day and as a punishnt, had to munch on carrots instead of apples during snack ti.
Ronny, sitting across the table, glared at them while also eating carrots.
Nevertheless, all three finished their carrots, which was comndable.
***
With ‘Baldwin’ officially added to Loretta’s na, several significant changes occurred in the Duke’s household.
Firstly, Loretta moved her room to the second floor. Initially, she was upset about being farther from lody’s room, but ran happily to her new room on the second floor after lody said, “You should invite
often to see the view from the second floor.”
anwhile, Ronny began to deny reality.
“She’s really my sister? No way. She doesn’t resemble my handso looks at all.”
Watching this, Loretta beca sullen and even asked Butler Higgins.
“Does Ronny hate Loretta?”
Higgins, recalling the second young master’s dishonest nature, shook his head.
“Of course not. He must find you very cute.”
Really?
Loretta wanted to verify Butler Higgins’ words. So, she imdiately ran to Ronny’s room.
Knocking on the door, Ronny opened it grumpily, asking “What?”
Loretta decided to try a ‘cute act’ lody had taught her on her brother, putting extra effort into it. First, she took a deep breath until her stomach was full and then exhaled deeply. A long ‘phoo’ sound ca from her small mouth. After breathing, Loretta looked up at Ronny expectantly.
“…?”
Ronny, of course, did not understand why Loretta had suddenly co to show him her breathing.
“What are you doing?”
“Loretta is cute even when just breathing. Ta-da.”
A brief silence followed.
Then, Ronny’s face turned red with anger, and he yelled loudly, “Stop it, it’s not funny!” And with a bang, the door closed. Loretta looked sowhat dejected.
anwhile, the Duke also had his worries, particularly about Loretta.
“The Duke is the best.”
Now that their relationship was clear, Loretta shouldn’t call him ‘Duke’ anymore.
‘If I suddenly ask her to change how she addresses , she might feel uncomfortable.’
Rushing wouldn’t be a good idea, especially in a case like Loretta’s, where there had been drastic changes in her environnt.
“Duke, by any chance.”
One day, lody followed him in the hallway and whispered behind him, “Are you worried?”
“…?”
As he turned around in surprise, lody clasped her hands and smiled, as if saying, ‘I know everything.’
“It’s about the honorifics, isn’t it?”
Before the Duke could even ask how she knew, lody quickly added, “Well, whenever Miss Loretta calls you ‘Duke,’ everyone in the mansion flinches and looks at each other.”
This was an incident from the original story that briefly plunged Loretta into a sea of sadness. As everyone was considerate and didn’t point out the issue with the honorifics, Loretta felt, ‘Maybe everyone dislikes .’
Recalling the content of the original story, lody was asked by the Duke, “Did I flinch?”
“Not noticeably.”
Maybe it was obvious to the keen eyes of children.
“I see.”
The Duke nodded.
“…Thank you.”
Following lody’s advice, the Duke soon had an honest conversation with Loretta about the honorifics.
Luckily, Loretta readily accepted the term ‘father.’
“Dad.”
Of course, understanding the honorific ntally and actually using it were two very different things.
Loretta would instinctively start to say ‘Duke’ but quickly switched to ‘father.’ Consequently, for a few days, the peculiar term ‘Daduke!’ echoed around the mansion.
Although Loretta’s honorific was ‘incorrect’ just like in the original story, no one gave her a strange look. Everyone rely tried to contain their laughter.
The Duke himself enjoyed ‘Daduke’ quite a bit. He even playfully wrote ‘From Daduke’ on notes he left for Loretta.
Thanks to this, Loretta did not fall into sadness over the honorific issue.
“Loretta’s got it!”
Moreover, she made an excellent adaptation.
The diligent girl, wanting to demonstrate her good realization, imdiately ran to Ronny’s room.
Knocking on the door, Ronny again opened it grumpily, asking, “What now?”
Loretta jumped forward and exclaid loudly,
“Big brother!”
“…!”
Taken aback by the sudden impressive honorific, Ronny foolishly responded,
“Why am I your big brother?!”
“Well, since Loretta is the daughter of the father, Ronny is the big brother.”
It was an irrefutable perfect answer.
Ronny grumbled, “Just until recently, you were calling him ‘Daduke.’”
“Loretta likes calling you big brother, right?”
“What choice do I have? We’re family.”
“Right. Father, big brother, Loretta, and lody are family!”
Ronny crossed his arms and chuckled at the response.
He seed pleased to finally find sothing to point out.
“Why is she our family? lody is just an outsider. A total stranger!”
Ronny emphasized the word ‘stranger’ with his eyes.
Loretta, seemingly frightened and frozen, watched as Ronny, satisfied at last, slamd the door and went back into his room.
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