Chapter 46

“I’ll be back, Princess.”

“Well, you don’t always have to greet me with this oath of allegiance.”

“I’m sorry.”

He turned his head with a bit of melancholy.

“Why must you swear loyalty to me every time?…. I can’t stand it.”

Rieta sighed, “You have this personality already. Oh, well, do as you wish.”

“Since you’ve given me permission, I’ll do as much as I want.”

“Yes, be careful. I’ll wait while studying. Oh, and Noel decided to guide you on my behalf.”

“Yes, I’ve heard.”

He straightened up again.

Just as Noel came out to the front door, Rieta greeted him gladly.

“Good morning, Noel!”

Alicia also bowed politely behind Rieta.

“I’m sorry I asked you all of a sudden, is it difficult?”

Rieta put her hands together and frowned slightly.

Noel pulled his sweatshirt slightly and bragged for the first time in a long time.

“I can’t help it. You can’t send a guest from the kingdom alone, can you?”

Noel, speaking so, held a dictionary of the kingdom language.

He borrowed it because he asked the Duke.

“Thank you for being so sweet to Alicia.”

“It’s a gentleman’s virtue.”

“That’s right, Noel is a kind gentleman.”

“Because I have eyes for squirrels.”

Feeling a little better, Noel patted Rieta’s head slightly, the soft and pleasing texture of her hair intermingling with his fingers.

Ha, really. He felt like he would be addicted to it…..

“….?”

A chilling gaze struck Noel as he patted Rieta, the kind of “obsessive” gaze that Noel Meyer, as a young master, would usually never encounter.

As he turned his head, tracing the feeling, he saw Alicia gazing icily.

‘W-what?’

Was it that bad for him to put his hand on Rieta’s head?

‘You always pressed Rieta’s hand to your forehead too!’

Anyways, Noel was not afraid of Alicia.

…although he quickly stopped stroking Rieta’s hair.

‘It’s not because I’m scared of him.’

Since Rieta’s guest hated it, he just showed generosity as an heir to the Meyer dukedom.

***

Moreover, why Alicia had looked at him like that was something he couldn’t quite understand.

Noel figured he would have felt uncomfortable if someone had acted that way towards His Majesty the Emperor or Her Majesty the Empress.

Because it seemed as if he’s touching the hair of a loyal subject.

‘Since I am a gentleman, I should be considerate of that.’

So, Noel decided to overlook Alicia’s disrespectful gaze.

Soon, the butler said, ‘I’m ready,’ so Noel and Alicia got into the carriage.

“Noel, are you going to be okay? The… I mean the language.”

Rieta stood outside the carriage, worrying for a while about their language barrier.

“Don’t worry, haven’t I also been speaking with the Princess?”

“Hmm… is that so?”

Come to think of it, other than the Kingdom language, Rieta was worse at speaking back then than she is now.

And Noel had used all sorts of methods in order to be considerate of others’ feelings.

Maybe he’s trying to do the same for Alicia.

“Thanks, please take good care. Have a safe trip, both of you!”

Taking Rieta’s lively waving as a sign, the carriage with the two riders began to move.

*****

It took about 5 minutes after the carriage departed.

So little time had passed, but Noel was already in trouble.

‘Don’t worry. I have also spoken with the Princess.’

Aside from all his boasting, Noel had not been able to say a single word so far.

To be honest, he thought, ‘It’s nothing like the flat pronunciation of the Kingdom.’

He had been confident that he had gotten quite used to listening to the language after hearing his father and Rieta.

However, he couldn’t say anything when he was left alone in an enclosed space with a native speaker.

“Uh…”

That was all he could say in five minutes.

There were several Kingdom words in his head, but they never made sense, so he felt frustrated.

‘You can’t get to the military academy like this.’

It was clear that it would be even more awkward if they reached their destination without speaking.

Noel opened the last chapter of the dictionary of the language of the kingdom.

There was a basic conversation titled “Practice in action! Making friends in the language of the Kingdom,” which was included as an appendix to the dictionary.

It was a great addition by the witty publisher.