Chapter 31
***
Good heavens. Loretta had toddled down the hallway, hand in hand with her brother, to find lody!
lody quickly rose from her spot. She couldn’t just send Loretta away like this.
After all, the kind-hearted child had co looking for her out of concern. It wouldn’t be right to let her leave disappointed.
Moreover, Loretta had already seen lody’s less flattering side nurous tis.
Each ti, Loretta would gently stroke lody with her tiny hands and give her a comforting hug.
lody missed that tenderness dearly, especially today of all days.
Almost running, she moved forward and pulled on the doorknob.
“Loretta!”
But there was nothing below where Loretta should have been.
Could she have already left? As lody lifted her head, she saw Claude standing still in front of the door.
Holding the doorknob, lody asked him,
“Wh-where is Loretta?”
Her voice, mixed with sobs, sounded a bit foolish.
Claude gave a slightly troubled smile and gently shook his head.
“…!”
lody was shocked and embarrassed, realizing that he had deceived her, and slamd the door shut forcefully, with a loud bang!
Tears flowed even more, whether from the realization of the deception or the embarrassnt of having her tearful face seen.
Leaning against the door, lody broke down in tears.
There are acceptable pranks, and then there are those that should never be played.
Knowing how much lody adored Loretta, to use her for a prank was downright cruel. She would never forgive such an act!
“Miss lody, Miss lody?”
From behind the door, where she leaned, ca a continuous knocking.
But lody pursed her lips in defiance. Did they really think she would open the door for them?
“Miss lody, I’m sorry. I apologize.”
As if her feelings could be swayed by such an apology. He had been apologizing to lody almost every day, after all.
“I’m sorry about that. But I can’t help it. I’m jealous.”
Like this.
So, there was no way his apologies held any sincerity.
“I’m sincere. I lied because if you don’t open the door, I can’t co in.”
A voice whispered pleadingly through the crack in the door.
Perhaps he was also sitting outside, crouched by the door, because the voice sounded very close, almost like a whisper in her ear.
“I was worried about you. You seed to be pretending to be alright all day. Of course, Loretta was the first to notice that.”
lody had resolved not to respond to whatever he said, but…
When he ntioned that Loretta had noticed her true feelings, she inadvertently asked a question.
“Loretta did?”
Normally, she should have addressed her as ‘Miss,’ but perhaps because she had cried so much and was dazed, she spoke as if it were just the two of them, like when Loretta was around.
“Yes, she said you looked sad and that she needed to give you a hug.”
“…But why?”
“Are you asking why I ca?”
Exactly. What lody really wanted right now was Loretta’s warm smile.
“It’s a bit embarrassing to say it myself.”
As he hesitated, lody furrowed her brow. What was so embarrassing about it?
She reached up with her arm and slightly pulled open the firmly shut door, still sitting on the floor.
Since he had also been crouching in front of the door, their gazes t imdiately.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? hic”
With tears streaming down her face, lody yelled at Claude.
“You’re just jealous!”
It wasn’t particularly sad, but as she yelled, tears strangely started flowing more, accompanied by loud sobs.
“You know well.”
He calmly responded, offering her a handkerchief.
lody, feeling quite resentful towards him at the mont, replied with a spiteful tone.
“I’m going to blow my nose!”
“Yes, blow it a lot.”
Despite her ssy words, he willingly handed her the handkerchief again.
Hmph, thinking she couldn’t blow her nose properly?
lody blew her nose loudly and thoroughly, almost feeling her heart clear as her nose cleared.
“So, sniff. Where is Miss Loretta?”
Still holding the handkerchief to her nose, lody asked that question. He slightly laughed, perhaps finding the nasal sound of her voice amusing.
“It seems you’ve cald down a bit. Calling her ‘Miss Loretta’ now.”
“It was a mistake.”
“But you don’t mistakenly call
Claude, do you?”
When lody gave him a look that said, ‘What nonsense are you talking about?’, he just lightly played with his hair.
“It’s a joke. Obviously, Loretta is a special child to lody.”
lody vigorously nodded her head.
Loretta is special. She’s so special that the word ‘special’ feels ordinary in comparison!
He seed to smile bitterly. Probably jealous again. Jealous of the sparkling relationship between Loretta and lody.
“Are you feeling a bit better now?”
“A little.”
The words ‘I feel better’ ca out strangely because of her shaky breathing.
“…How cute.”
“What?”
“Um, cute Loretta is eager to see you. She’s been waiting for you.”
As he stood up and offered his hand, lody looked at him suspiciously.
It sounded like he was offering to take her to Loretta now.
But it was hard to trust Claude Baldwin’s words, especially when it concerned Loretta.
“You seem to be looking at
as if you can’t trust .”
“You once complinted , sir.”
“About being a good learner?”
lody nodded, determined not to be fooled a second ti.
“You know
too well, Miss lody. Get up quickly, I’ll help you.”
He extended his hand again.
“Hurry up. Promises must be kept.”
A promise? lody wondered if there had been so promise between him and Loretta, as she took his hand.
Led by his pulling, she stood up.
He let go of lody’s hand and started walking a few steps ahead.
“Co this way.”
At his beckoning glance, lody moved her steps, albeit slowly.
“Sir.”
“Yes?”
“What was the promise?”
“Oh, have you forgotten?”
“Forgotten what?”
“Miss lody, you made a promise with
at dawn.”
lody naturally recalled the conversation they had had early that morning.
The mission of offloading the laundry under the guise of consideration was completed.
She didn’t forget to ask the maid in charge to clean not only the beverage stains he pointed out but also the filth from her ribbon.
And another promise they had made.
“Then co to my room tomorrow without being late. There are still many records that Miss lody needs to transcribe.”
lody stared at him with her mouth slightly open.
Could this person really be human?
To call her to work on such a day? And at such a late hour?
lody regretted her past life for having favored the eldest brother the most. She had not known he was such an exasperating person.
“It’s okay. There isn’t much work for today. If you finish the work well, I’ll send you back to Loretta.”
“I kind of hate you, sir.”
In truth, she hated him a lot, but she toned it down a bit, feeling it wasn’t right for soone living and eating for free in this house to say so.
Unbothered by her dislike, he simply acknowledged with a smile, “I know.”
He took lody to the large library at the end of the first floor. Usually, they would transcribe records in his personal bookcase.
lody wanted to ask, ‘Why here today?’ but stopped herself.
She was too tired from crying too much. The tears had stopped, but she felt sleepy and exhausted.
She wasn’t sure how much work he would give her, but her only thought was to finish quickly and go back to sleep.
“Well, then.”
He pointed to a nearby desk where lody’s notebook, in which she had been transcribing records, lay.
He flipped a few pages and pointed to a spot.
“Write your na here, Miss lody.”
“My na?”
“Hurry. Write the date here too.”
lody did as he instructed, writing her na and the date. He waited for the ink to dry before folding the notebook.
Then, he handed it to lody with both hands.
“You’ve worked hard transcribing the records, Miss lody.”
It felt like she was receiving an award.
“Is this for
to keep?”
“Of course not. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have cast a preservation spell on it.”
“Magic?”
Intrigued by the unfamiliar term, lody’s eyes sparkled as she examined the notebook.
It looked no different from an ordinary notebook on the outside.
“The Ducal family values records highly, Miss lody.”
He said this as he moved through the rows of bookcases, with lody naturally following behind him.
“Even records that seem aningless can be valuable research material for an exceptional intellect who may change the era.”
“Even things like the weather?”
lody recalled that many of the records she had transcribed ntioned the weather.
She had thought it a bit trivial.
“The weather is particularly important. It determines a lot.”
He stopped at a certain bookshelf. It was filled with notebooks similar to lody’s, ticulously organized by region and period.
“I may not be an intellect who will change the era, but in so generation, such a person will surely erge.”
The Ducal family has been preserving a variety of records according to certain rules for the sake of such future individuals.
“Neatly organized records of the past will definitely be helpful.”
He spoke with a sowhat resolute expression on his face.
“Well, then…”
He pointed to a section of the bookshelf. It seed he ant for lody to place the records she had diligently transcribed there.
lody slid her notebook, filled with her ti and effort, among the thick stack of other records.
A sense of pride welled up in her, feeling like she had accomplished sothing significant.
She would be truly happy if her records could assist so genius in the future.
“Do you know?”
“…?”
He leaned slightly on the bookshelf, bending forward a bit, bringing his face closer.
“If soone conducts research using the records you’ve left now, do you know what will be written at the end of their research paper?”
lody shook her head, and he, as if he had been hoping for that, smiled gleefully.
“This research paper references records organized by lody of the Baldwin Ducal Family…”
“What?”
“Of course, that’s assuming these records prove useful to soone.”
“But, I’m not lody of the Baldwin Ducal Family?”
“Hmm, can’t help it. Once stored here, it’s recorded that way. If that bothers you so much…”
For so reason, he looked at lody with a face like a white devil.
“You could always get married.”
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