Chapter 36
***
“What brings you here so early in the morning?”
“What else? The young master of the Duke’s house said he’d teach
how to write a letter.”
“You ca all this way just to learn that?”
“Of course. I promised to write the letter quickly. It’s a big deal if a future knight breaks his promise.”
He slightly boasted, “This too is a lesson from my master.”
“What to do.”
But lody seed troubled, lightly touching the tips of her hair.
“The young master ntioned yesterday that he would be extrely busy from last night until this evening. He has to send sothing to the academy.”
He said he’d be holed up in his room until evening to finish everything before the postal carriage arrives.
“Oh, really?”
However, Isaiah didn’t seem much troubled by the news.
“It’s fine by . Today’s my day off anyway. We can just spend the day together, just l and . We have a lot of catching up to do.”
In fact, he seed rather pleased by the prospect.
lody didn’t have classes today either, so it wasn’t really a problem, but…
“Uh… Is that going to be a problem? Are you busy too, l?”
“Hmm, I’m fine. But the young master is really busy. We might have to wait a long ti. He might be too tired to teach.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Even if he can’t teach you?”
“So what. As long as I can be with l.”
He gently tickled lody’s nose with the dandelion puff, making her laugh.
It was incredibly ticklish, so lody squealed and ran a few steps back.
Indeed, Isaiah and lody could spend the whole day from morning till evening together without getting bored.
Waiting for Claude wouldn’t be dull at all.
“Hehe, okay. I’ll stay with you…”
She was about to finish her sentence when, without a knock, the drawing-room door opened.
Startled, she turned around to find Claude standing there, panting slightly.
Dark circles under his eyes indicated he had hardly slept, probably due to the busy work for the academy.
“Young master?”
lody looked at Claude in surprise.
He caught his breath and looked around the drawing room, his eyes searching for sothing.
After a mont, he sighed in relief and murmured sothing like ‘thankfully’.
lody pondered what he might have been worried about.
Considering his character, it wasn’t hard to figure out.
“Lady Loretta hasn’t co here, has she?”
Claude must have been worried about the brash Isaiah eting Loretta.
Considering how he rushed to the drawing room, abandoning his busy work.
Claude nodded in response to lody’s thoughts, confirming she was right.
“That’s indeed… a relief.”
“However, you don’t need to be so wary of Isaiah. He was once the smartest kid in our village. He won’t be a significant harm to the lady.”
Isaiah had received extensive higher education from a young age, though it was enforced by his mother, the doctor.
At one point, he was the subject of expectations, being touted as ‘the child who will grow up to be a smart doctor.’
lody believed that deep within Isaiah, there was a layer upon layer of various cultures and knowledge taught by the doctor.
“Is that so?” Claude replied, though his expression didn’t quite agree with lody’s description.
As lody intently stared at his slightly distorted eyes, Claude moved his blue pupils and gestured with a side glance, as if pointing at ‘the reason for his non-agreent.’
lody turned around following his gaze.
At the end of that gaze was Isaiah, licking the lted sugar at the bottom of his teacup. With his tongue out and eyes flickering, he seed ready to plunge his entire face into the small teacup.
“…,” lody couldn’t muster a defense and just stared blankly.
After Isaiah had neatly finished off the sugar in the cup, he finally detached his face from the teacup, his lips covered in sugar granules, forming a satisfied smile.
The inside of the teacup he put down was unusually shiny.
To an onlooker, it would seem like ‘a very neatly cleaned teacup.’
lody and Claude, staring in astonishnt, heard the voice of the butler behind them.
“Young master, Miss lody. Lady Loretta is curious if she can et today’s visitor.”
lody finally understood why Claude had rushed here, looking pale.
She would have done the sa if she were Claude.
Loretta was at an age where she was learning etiquette by imitating those around her. It was impossible to expose her to Isaiah’s strange antics.
“No!”
“No way!”
Claude and lody shouted simultaneously.
It was nice to see their intentions perfectly aligned, but there was one downside.
Loretta, who was coming down the stairs, heard their fervent cries and started to well up.
“Loretta… not allowed?”
“…!”
Claude seed quite flustered by his words that made his little sister cry.
He imdiately rushed to her, consoling and cajoling her.
More ‘brother fool’ than usual, spouting a series of pathetic sounds.
For instance:
“Who’s my cute and lovely little sister!”
“What is there in this mansion that you can’t do!”
“As many tis as you’ve shed tears, your brother will grant whatever you wish!”
lody, standing a step away, heard all these doting words.
At that mont, Isaiah, who had just stepped into the hallway, nudged lody’s waist with his elbow, pointing out an important fact.
“Looks like your young master is spoiling the child rotten, huh.”
Quite a valid point coming from Isaiah, who had just been part of a pitiful display.
So, lody didn’t really have a retort.
***
Loretta’s appearance aligned the interests of Claude and Isaiah for the first ti.
Isaiah wanted to learn how to write the letter quickly, and Claude wanted him to leave the mansion as quickly as possible.
Their common goal of ‘quickly’ hastened their actions, and soon ‘Claude’s Letter Writing Class’ began.
The kind Mr. Claude explained the basic format of a friendly letter and even provided suitable examples.
Fortunately, Isaiah proved that he once held the title of ‘the smartest child in the village.’
He grasped the knowledge and techniques passed on to him without any trouble. Furthermore, it didn’t take long before he started writing the letter on his own.
Scratch, scratch.
The sound of Isaiah’s pen gliding across the paper filled the room.
Claude then offered a beautiful sheet of stationery to lody, suggesting, “Why don’t you write one too, Miss lody?”
“?”
“Yes. One can only master sothing by actually doing it.”
lody looked at the white paper he handed her.
Normally, she never paid much attention to how vast the white space of the paper was, as she only had to transcribe texts from books or records.
But this was a letter.
The thought of having to fill it from start to finish with her own words made it seem quite challenging for lody.
“Don’t think of it as difficult.”
Perhaps sensing her hesitation, Claude smiled and pushed the paper a little closer.
“You don’t have to fill the entire paper. The empty spaces can be left to the imagination of the reader.”
Despite his encouragent, lody still looked troubled.
“Miss lody, do you not like the stationery? Shall I bring you a different one?”
“No, it’s not that.”
lody accepted the paper and replied awkwardly.
“I can’t decide who to write to.”
His slight smile indicated that there was nothing to worry about.
“Choosing the recipient is quite simple.”
“Simple?”
“Yes.”
He turned and opened a small drawer on the wall cabinet. The ink bottles inside clinked and jostled.
“Think of a few things you’ve experienced recently.”
He picked an ink bottle and slightly lifted it into the light pouring in from the window, checking its color.
lody watched him carefully choose the ink while recalling various events she had experienced recently.
Especially since there had been nurous happenings after her arrival at the Duke’s house.
“Among those events, didn’t you receive help from soone?”
He asked, checking the color of another ink bottle.
Help… she had indeed received it.
“There are too many people who have helped .”
“Then think about the most recent incident.”
Claude placed the ticulously chosen ink bottle in front of both lody and Loretta. “Actually, I’ve been saving it because the color is pretty,” he said with a smile.
“Most recent?”
“Yes, sothing recent that happened close to Miss lody.”
He paused intriguingly mid-sentence.
Then, leaning slightly over the desk from across, he intently looked into lody’s face.
“Very close.”
The repeated emphasis and the aningful gaze seed to suggest he had sothing specific in mind.
“Isn’t there soone who helped you?”
“Uh…”
lody gazed intently at Claude’s face, hesitating for a mont. He didn’t blink, patiently waiting for her answer.
“You an soone who helped
closely?”
“Yes, closely. Very close.”
He repeated the word ‘close’ in his rephrased question, as if it were a significant hint.
Soone close to lody.
“Ah!”
Once she thought about it simply, following Claude’s advice, choosing the recipient for her first letter wasn’t difficult at all.
“Why did I even worry about such a simple problem?”
“Right?”
He straightened up from his leaning posture, smiling lightly.
“Of course, it should be written to Lady Loretta!”
Reviews
All reviews (0)