Chapter 20

‘We’re like a couple then.’

Rüdiger’s words were bound to be misunderstood.

‘But Rüdiger doesn’t believe in marriage.’

He wouldn’t bring up such a conversation because he likes me or anything. He only brought that up because he wanted to raise Luca well.

Although I wouldn’t misunderstand him, I don’t know what others would have thought about this situation. I sighed and added,

“Excuse me, others will misunderstand.”

“About what?”

“I understand where you are coming from, Sir Winterwald, but if you say that to another woman, there will be a huge misunderstanding, no doubt. She will think that you are asking for her hand in marriage.”

Not understanding my advice out of concern, Rüdiger frowned.

“Who else would I talk to about this besides you, Lady Maybaum? Luca only thinks about you as his mother. Therefore, do not worry yourself with such matters.”

No… I don’t worry about other women being treated like Luca’s mom, your statement getting mistaken as a proposal was the real problem.

You did say such words, words that could easily be misunderstood!

But it seemed like Rüdiger had no clue about what I was trying to say.

Anyhow, in Rüdiger’s eyes, I’m not a woman, just a companion, someone like him, to take care of Luca together? That’s the type of person he perceived me as.

That’s probably why he didn’t even think about his wording, let alone being misunderstood like that.

‘You should be lucky that I’m actually not Judith, seriously. If I were the real Judith, she would’ve latched onto you when you mentioned mom and dad, already.’

Rüdiger was a handsome and wealthy aristocrat.

In simpler terms, he was exactly Judith’s type.

The original piece even mentioned how much Judith tried to hit on Rüdiger, so it was, conceivably, a reasonable guess.

Of course, Judith from the original work wouldn’t even have a chance with Rüdiger from the beginning, since he wouldn’t even bother with her…

At that moment, the scenery from the window began to change. The thicket of the forest disappeared, exposing vast rolling fields.

Rüdiger peeked through the window.

“We will soon arrive at Neuhardt.”

“Neuhardt?”

“Yes. From here, we will transfer onto the train. As soon as we get off the train, we will arrive at Winterwald, so before we board, we should do some shopping at Neuhardt.”

Ah, right. The city, where the train station is located, is Neuhardt.

Even if it was one of my favorite novels, it’s been a while since I last read it, so I completely forgot about the names of these areas.

I may have forgotten the name, but the reason why I still remembered Neuhardt was simple, even if it was just a city we passed through to reach our final destination.

Here, there was an episode where Rüdiger completely transformed Luca into a young lad fit to be a member of the wealthy aristocratic family.

This was the moment where the old Luca, in ragged, moth-eaten clothing, became a young gentleman first savoring the life of the riches.

This was one of my favorite episodes, where Luca’s thrill and awestruck continued with the banquets basked in luxury.

I still wasn’t pleased with going to Winterwald; I feel like if I could, I would turn back right now.

But, if I could actually immerse myself in the small scenes that I loved firsthand, I wouldn’t mind as much.

I wonder how eager Luca was since what I read in the novel must’ve felt different from looking at it afar from the sidelines. Of course, you can’t beat the real deal…

Besides, since Luca was like an angel, he would look good in anything he wore.

A navy blue children’s tailcoat, sleek umber equestrian uniform too…

The detailed description of his outfits from the novel came across my mind.

It was essentially picture-perfect… Does this world not have cameras yet? If it were up to me, I would like to capture the images in my head as photos.

The thought of dressing up Luca piqued my ever-growing enthusiasm.

Unable to hide it, my face was flushed with excitement as I spoke.

“It would be nice if we arrived at Neuhardt quickly. I’m looking forward to it.”

***