CHAPTER 15………………………………………………………
“Teacher, let’s wear the same thing! I mean… that… couple look! Couple look!”
From behind Kaelrus, a staff member smiled warmly. It seemed she had explained what a “couple look” was.
Yurenia gave up thinking too hard and gently stroked Kaelrus’s hair.
“Shall we?”
“Yeah!”
Kaelrus replied with a bright smile. Then he picked a light green ribbon from the ones around his neck and held it out to Yurenia.
“This one is the same color as my eyes.”
“That’s true! Should we do a couple look with this color?”
“Hehe. Yeah!”
Kaelrus answered energetically. It was nice to see him so cheerful after the nanny had disappeared.
So, Yurenia spent a while in the reception room, helping the child try on dozens of outfits.
Like any other day, it seemed to be going smoothly.
“I don’t want to!”
She thought it would be smooth sailing.
Somehow, she had thought it would be too easy.
“I said no! I don’t want to! I said I don’t want to!”
Kaelrus’s firm cry struck like lightning.
Crash!
He even slammed the door shut.
“What am I going to do…”
Yurenia sighed deeply as she looked at the closed door before her.
A little earlier, before Yurenia was struck by lightning from Kaelrus… in the mansion’s training hall.
“A new tutor?”
Kiernan, arranging wooden swords, said to his friend.
Because he had sparred with the lord since dawn, the knight commander’s strong upper body was glistening with sweat.
“How many has this been? The twentieth?”
“Sixteenth.”
Enzo answered Kiernan indifferently as he wiped his sweat with a towel. He figured it was pointless to remind him, since Kiernan would probably forget again anyway.
“Sixteenth or twentieth, what does it matter? He’ll get fired soon anyway, so whatever.”
“This one’s different. It’s almost been a month already.”
“You’ve lasted a while, huh? So?”
“The Duke’s been acting strange.”
Kiernan chuckled as he shook the sweat-soaked hair from his towel at Enzo’s cryptic comment.
“He seems the same as always.”
“That’s because you’re oblivious.”
“What do you mean?”
Kiernan, suddenly cast as the “oblivious one,” shouted indignantly. But Enzo ignored him and continued seriously.
“First, the tutor had the nanny removed, and the Duke redecorated the young master’s room. Then he bought a bunch of new clothes too. He asked Madame Prudence herself.”
“So what? Buying some clothes for his nephew isn’t a big deal.”
“He even bought them for the tutor.”
“What?”
Kiernan, who had been shrugging off Enzo’s news, froze.
He set down his towel and leaned against the training hall’s railing.
“The Duke himself? Are you sure?”
“Do I look confused?”
“Your memory is annoyingly accurate… Huh. That’s definitely not like the Duke. Contacting the tailor himself?”
Duke Chester never spared money for his people.
But that only meant he allocated a generous budget. He had never personally looked after someone. That kind of delicate attention was far from his style.
And now the recipient was a woman.
Kiernan crossed his arms and said,
“This tutor is a woman, right? And the Duke bought her clothes? That’s weird.”
“Exactly.”
It was definitely strange.
Duke Chester Valerio hated women in general.
It was well-known in high society that the handsome, capable young duke would never treat a woman with such care.
He would attend balls alone, where partners were mandatory, and dance with no one.
The only reason he attended was to fulfill his duties as a member of the aristocracy.
No matter the temptation, he never gave even a glance.
Last year at the royal ball, he even stepped on a handkerchief intentionally dropped by the young Countess Lennox as he walked by.
Because of this, rumors spread for a time that the Valerio Duke was impotent.
For such a puritanical man to personally buy clothes for a woman… it was hard to believe.
“Why would he do that?”
Kiernan muttered seriously after some thought.
“Does the tutor not have clothes?”
“You look worse off than her. Aren’t you cold? Why are you always half-naked? Put something on.”
“It’s hot because of mana. Do you think fireballs are easy to shoot?”
Kiernan answered his friend’s teasing with a cheeky grin. Enzo clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Enzo was the brainy type, Kiernan the physical type.
They had been famous for their opposite personalities since their academy days.
But being so different made them understand each other well, and they became inseparable friends.
After graduation, it was natural that they would end up serving the same master.
“Still, it’s indecent. If the commander is like that, all the knights must be running around half-naked too.”
“The Duke doesn’t say anything. If you envy him, just say so, Enzo.”
“Who…!”
Clang!
Just as Enzo replied, a window somewhere in the mansion shattered loudly.
They exchanged a glance and ran toward the source of the sound.
Finding it wasn’t hard.
As soon as they entered the East Wing, the boy’s loud cry reached them.
On the second floor of the East Wing, right next to the lord’s bedroom…
The window that broke was…
“I don’t want to!”
Kaelrus’s room.
It had been a normal day.
Yurenia woke up before sunrise and headed to the nursery.
The child struggled being alone in a dark room. Even with a nightlight, he said he was scared.
The memories of abuse by the nanny seemed to cling stubbornly.
Adults could resolve things easily, but for a child, such memories could not be easily erased.
So every night, Yurenia read fairy tales to Kaelrus until he fell asleep, and in the morning, she would go to his room and wake him gently.
Today, too, Yurenia quietly opened the child’s door.
The warm morning sunlight filtered through the half-open curtains, filling the cozy room.
Kaelrus’s new room was decorated in a harmonious blend of light green and ivory.
Furniture made to his height had rounded edges, and the floor was covered with a soft rug.
It was far more delicately arranged than what the Duke had requested.
Yurenia entered and gently looked at the face of the deeply sleeping child.
‘It’s about time to start lessons, right?’
She had postponed lessons while waiting for Kaelrus to adjust to the new environment.
Now it had been nearly a month since she arrived, and Kaelrus had gradually opened up.
Since she was the tutor, she should start her work.
But if she suddenly started lessons, he might resist. So today, she thought, a light level test would suffice.
…Or so she thought.
“I don’t want to.”
That was before Kaelrus’s firm refusal.
After breakfast, when Yurenia suggested starting lessons, Kaelrus threw a tantrum.
“I’m not studying! I won’t!”
In a normal family, a child throwing a tantrum would be disciplined strictly.
But Kaelrus was different.
The abusive nanny issue had been resolved, but he still believed his mother had abandoned him.
The Duke’s explanations were insufficient to make him understand.
He was told “no” without any reasons. How could a child trust that?
Even Yurenia would have doubted it, thinking her mother abandoned her.
So Kaelrus needed to be treated with care.
“Why don’t you want to study? May I ask why?”
At the gentle teacher’s question, Kaelrus lowered his head and stubbornly said,
“Because I don’t want to.”
“I see…”
Yurenia answered seriously. She thought for a moment, then calmly tried to soothe the child.
“Young Master, to become a great adult, you need to study. Your mother would want that too.”
“My mom…?”
Mentioning his mother piqued the child’s interest.
