Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“Young master.”

“Feed me this.”

It was Marie who was embarrassed as she looked at Brielle, who suddenly did something he didn’t usually didn’t do.

‘You’re so childish.’ These days, he hated being treated as a child, but it seemed that his mind had changed.

“Okay, say ah~”

Though she didn’t hate it, Marie gave him a bite. However, Brielle’s behavior continued for several days.

“I want to sleep. I want to sleep with Marie.”

“I want you to read a fairy tale book.”

“I want you to wash my face.”

By this time, she felt that this might be a problem.

“Count.”

“What’s going on?”

So, she went to see Kentrail.

“These days, the young master is acting a little weird.”

“Ah… that.”

He already heard from the butler. At first, Kentrail was worried as well, but there was no reason for that. When Jayden and Brielle were playing together, the escort knight next to them found out the cause. Hearing it, he didn’t realize how much he laughed.

‘That’s why I said that.’

Anyway, both kids seemed to be misunderstood, the one who said such a thing and the one who believed it.

Marie sees the count’s smiling face, and she wonders if it’s all right to allow it to pass lightly.

“Do you know the cause?”

Instead of answering, he just laughed.

“Think of it as a cute tantrum. It’s temporary.”

He could see her tilting her head at his meaningless words.

‘Lover…’ He kept chewing on the words Brielle threw. There was only one person that came to mind every time he thought of it.

Kentrail unconsciously looked at Marie’s fingertips.

***

Marie had been having nightmares, and she wasn’t in a good mood when it rained that day. She felt like her head was going to explode, searching for a solution to this issue. So, after the rain that had been pouring for a few days had finally stopped, water droplets were visible everywhere in the garden as they were sliding down on a blade of grass.

Then, she ruffled the grass and sat down with her knees bent in search of the prettiest flowers. As a refresher, she planned to make bookmarks for Brielle, who reads these days. As she sat among the flowers, Marie felt her head becoming clearer. So, she closed her eyes and enjoyed this moment.

“…”

How long must she have been doing that, Marie, who raised her head, was surprised?

“Count.”

Kentrail was looking down, right next to her.

“Since when…”

At Marie’s question, he was terribly embarrassed.

He didn’t know when he had been looking at her like this. Just in the middle of the road to the training ground, there was a garden, and on the way, he found the nanny. Marie had sat still in one place, so Kentrail stood by her side with urgent steps, worrying if she was in pain.

However, she seemed to be basking in the sun without even feeling his presence. He even forgot that he had turned his head and looked at her. It wasn’t like him. He wasn’t even aware of it until she turned her head and looked at him.

“…”

Marie had awkward feelings towards Kentrail. Whenever she lit the scented candle he gave her as a gift, she remembered him and often thought of him all day long, wondering whether or not to tell him what the recent events.

She saw his hand reaching out in front of her. On Brielle’s birthday, even then, Kentrail stood up on the steps of the hall after the banquet and reached out his hand toward her. Marie couldn’t even make eye contact, and she cautiously got up from her seat, holding his hand in the same way as that day. The heat that she hadn’t yet felt in her drunkenness was finally coloring her fingertips.

***

“Marie.”

Brielle called her. The child was now growing even more. Even so, she felt like his appearance was the same as when he was a baby, but just a little taller.

“Young master.”

“Really?”

“Yes?”

When Marie saw Brielle’s face full of heartache, she couldn’t get a sense of what was being said.

“Did you really give this to him?”

She was wondering what he was talking about and she realized Brielle was talking about the bookmark she gave to Jayden.

When she made the bookmarks, Marie realized that it was too much for Brielle to use on his own. Since whenever she saw the flowers brought from the garden, she remembered that moment again, and as a result, her mind went elsewhere. In the end, she asked the butler to give it to the Count, Brielle’s tutor, and Jayden.

“Young master has a lot anyway.”

“Not enough.”

Talking with his arms folded, it seemed like he was very grumpy.

As a child, Brielle sticks to Marie like a gum, so it was natural that he wanted to monopolize her attention. It was so cute that Marie gently pressed his cheeks with her hands.

“Don’t do it.”

Contrary to his words, his eyes were full of laughter.

And Jayden, who was staring at Brielle, clicked his tongue.

He got close to him somehow, but he still thought it was weird. He was close to the nanny as well, but not that much.

‘He’s not the only one.’

There is another one in this house. Jayden recalled what his father had said.

[ This is the first time I’ve seen such an insensitive and self-centered person, who is never interested in other people, none, to become like this. Besides, what kind of poison was applied to his tongue. ]

It was dissatisfaction with his friend for not sending a letter on his birthday, but it was not a complete lie because Jayden heard the Royal Palace officials sometimes swear when he followed his father there.

However, the Count, talking to that nanny, was a completely different person. No, seeing how Kentrail and the nanny chose Brielle’s book together, it would be difficult for anyone to believe that.

When Jayden first saw it first hand, it was enough to rub his eyes. He told his father and even got scolded for lying. That’s how unbelievable it was.

Jayden sighed and thought he would rather not witness this, so he left Brielle’s room to go home.

***

“Young master.”

“Ellie.”

The friendship between the two was still the same.

Ellie started taking off the children’s shirt little by little. However, perhaps because of her short stature thus, it was vague to say that although she was taller than Brielle, so it was ambiguous to say there was a significant height difference compared to their age.

“Did you grow again?”

She went behind Brielle, measured their height, and got upset.

“What the hell are you eating without me knowing.”

She asked her sister, but he didn’t seem to be eating more than her.

Although they couldn’t be together at the dinner table between the Young Master and Count, the food served there, and the food served to them were not entirely different. Ellie knew that because when the Count wasn’t eating, the Young Master insisted he didn’t want to eat alone and was with him.

‘But why… Is it genetics?’

Next to her, she looked back at her sister, who was cleaning up the toys Brielle was playing with. ‘Yes… That’s for sure.’ Her older sister is also less than the average female height.

Ellie got upset and tiptoed up, pretended to be taller than Brielle.

***

Brielle glared at the opponent in front of him.

‘Why is he holding that again?’

It was Eujes, the tutor, who was holding the dried flowers bookmark from Marie.

…Yes, he failed his second management exam again. This time, he was late for studying all night, and at this point, the Count condemned him, saying that he was not eligible for office.

Brielle was again taking lessons from the best talent for another year, but he only grew dissatisfied.

Eujes kept blushing whenever he saw Marie.

Ellie said. When you like someone, you can’t help but keep looking at them and remember their face. So, when he told Ellie about this, she said, it seemed that his tutor liked Marie and Brielle got even angrier.

“W…What about the nanny?”

Every time he visits this place. When Marie, who usually guards the door, could not be seen, he asked Brielle. Eujes was a really tactless person and even encouraged him to be angrier.

“Why are you looking for our Marie?”

Brielle’s vocabulary was so strong that he was able to use the word ‘you’ with the tone he learned from his uncle, the Count.

[ T/N: this makes sense in the Korean raw, so he used a ‘you’ pronoun equivalent of that usually used by an older person to a younger person. Brielle asserting dominance XD ]

Whenever the Count’s officer was scolded, Brielle was there by chance.

“No… I just didn’t see the person who was always there, so…”

Brielle didn’t like what Eujes said in a depressed voice.

‘Our Marie cannot be given to such a timid person. Never. No, I can’t give her even if you’re not timid.’

***

“Barry.”

Brielle’s next class was swordsmanship. The Count sponsored Marie’s brother. It was an opportunity to learn swordsmanship with Brielle.

This was an unconventional treatment, but for Barry, it was a golden opportunity.

The title was to attach Barry as Brielle’s escort, but that was only an excuse, as there were many outstanding knights in the mansion, but neither the knight leader nor the other knights thought that this opportunity was unfair to Barry. It was the result of the child’s sincere errands to the Knights. The final conclusion was to test his skills once in order to become a regular knight in the future.

“Young master.”

Berry greeted him, and Brielle clung to his side.

It was because he was glad to see Berry after a while. The swordsmanship class was held twice a week, so it was only three days.

However, it was no help because Brielle was busy doing various classes, and Barry and Ellie do things separately. In order not to be a nuisance, Barry moved his feet more diligently than before, attending the knights, and Ellie planned to do what she could do in the mansion when she would be a little bigger.

“Cough.”

And the knight, who was appointed to teach the lesson, watched the two and coughed in vain. It indirectly meant for them to get away and get ready for class.

Becoming Brielle’s mentor, he was the Count’s most promising knight.

“Then, let’s start.”

Class finally began, and Brielle had to cut across motion dozens of times, and Barry had to repeat a hundred strokes at a straw. For the two who are still novices, this was a lot of work.

And when the two were done, Marie appeared with something to drink.

“Good job.”

After giving the drinks to the two children, she even wiped their sweat with a towel. Then, she handed a drink to the knight, and Brielle witnessed that scene again.

‘Who are you looking at and smiling!’

The nanny, who was so pretty in his eyes, was also pretty in the eyes of others.

As he looked at the knight, Brielle looked at him with a sense of hostility that could not be seen by the teacher.