Chapter 34

From the moment when I had arduously ground stones among the grass in the backyard of the mansion, and when my heart was pounding as I had been caught by a passing knight, to the moment when my hand was so sore and red that I had hurriedly soaked it in a cold pond to calm it down…

It’s a stone that I made with much difficulty and sweat and tears, so it should not be stolen like this!

So right away I stood up and tried to shout ‘no!’.

If Nina hadn’t intercepted me first.

“What? That’s not allowed. Lord Cedric. Come on and give me that stone.”

“Huh? I wasn’t taking Your Highness’, I just stole his stuff.”

Cedric disobeyed Nina’s orders with a dissatisfied expression, rolling the stones in his hand back and forth and joking around. I took the opportunity to shout.

“That stone, I made it! It’s not Jake’s, it’s mine!”

“Oh, was it yours? Hmm.”

Cedric shrugged his shoulders.

Then he handed me the stone.

“Come on, take it.”

No, for some reason Cedric is so obedient?

Somehow I felt suspicious even though I got it back easily.

And not surprisingly, Cedric walked over to me with an impatient expression, looking down at the five stones held in my hand.

“But why do you pick up and keep the stones rolling on the street?”

Crunch, can you hear it?  The sound of my teeth grinding.

What the hell, didn’t you hear what I said? I didn’t pick it up, I made it!

Eventually I sighed and asked Cedric a question.

“It’s not just a stone. Have you ever heard of gonggi?”

Of course, it is natural that he hasn’t heard of it. Because I’m the first to play gonggi in this world.

Of course, Cedric tilted his head.

“No. What kind of game is that?”

“If you come here, I will teach you.”

I beckoned him, smiling devilishly inside.

Now, I will immerse you in gonggi.

After a while, as expected, Cedric’s eyes glistened at the new game I had taught him.

“What, this is pretty fun.”

“Look. Oh, if everyone can do well, then let’s do a competition together!”

“Oh, competition is good.”

Like the sprout who will become an adult and become a swordmaster in the future, his gestures are so quick, so Cedric learned how to play at a speed as fast as Nina.

Actually, it seems that this precious kindergarten marble floor was slightly scratched as Cedric grabbed the stones on the floor.  I have to pretend I don’t know…

“Everyone, what are you doing there?  It will be class time soon.”

At that time, I saw a shadow of someone who was disturbing the four of us, who were playing gonggi together, with the sound of sudden footsteps trudging in.

It was Nicholas looking down at us with cool red eyes, with a quill on his right ear.

“Would you like to try gonggi, Your Highness?”

I did not give in to the indifferent gaze of a 7-year-old and motivated Nicholas by showing him the gonggi demonstration for the fourth time already. Don’t just read books, let’s hang out together too!

“…..No. I don’t care about that.”

But it failed fiercely.

With my hands in the air, I was embarrassed, as Nicholas immediately returned to his seat and sat down.

And since the teacher came in, unfortunately, our gonggi game had to be over.

Every break in class we didn’t even talk, but as promised, we gathered on the plain marble floor at the back of the classroom.

Ninaina pulled a carpet cushion from her chair and sat down on the cold floor. Cedric complained that he wanted to continue, but there were only the five gonggi stones that I made.

“I can’t help it. I made only 5. Then, the Lord has no choice but to bring 5 stones that can be used as gonggi stones.”

I shrugged my shoulders. Oh, of course, it’s easy to say, but it won’t be easy to try to find a stone like this. I felt like I was going to lose my neck walking through the garden all day and looking for a stone that met both the right weight and the right size!

Then, Cedric pouted out his mouth and bluffed that he could do it.

T/N: gonggi – a Korean children game with stones or pebbles. You can read more about it here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonggi