CH 16

Translated by EunEun

Edited by Slowday

Before the short-tempered Beatty could protest about the ‘Tiny Kid’ title.

“Ah!”

Johanna let out an exclamation as she had just remembered something. She then spoke.

“I delayed conveying this to you because you seemed to be concentrating earlier, but the servants said that Young Miss’ room is done.”

“My room?”

Beatty’s eyes lit up.

‘Did they prepare the guest room?’

Compared to the things she had imagined, like being rejected after coming to the North, the current situation worked out very well.

‘No, I can never imagine being welcomed like this.’

She expected to be sprinkled with salt outside the entrance, yet as soon as she arrived, a knight ran out with only his socks on. They even served her with a sumptuous feast filling the dinner table, not cold water.

(t/n: Sprinkling salt is said to keep out a bad fortune. Beatty thought that she was the ‘bad fortune’ of the Duke of Aslan family and was abandoned. That’s why she assumed that when she came back home she would be sprinkled with salt, as she was not welcomed and they were kicking her [the bad fortune] out.)

People didn’t furrow their eyebrows when they saw her, rather, they were smiling from ear to ear.

It was something she never expected.

“?”

Beatty felt a strange tingling feeling inside her chest and glanced down.

“I’ll take you there.”

“Oh, could you please do that, Young Master?”

Listening to the two, Beatty pondered.

What would the Duke’s Castle’s room be like?

‘As long as the room isn’t like the annex where I was locked up, I can keep up with everything, even if it’s small and dirty!’

As she was locked up for over a decade at the annex, she was confident that she would be happy with any room given.

‘But, is there a room like that in the Duke’s Castle…?’

She could even still appreciate a leaky semi-underground room in the corner of the basement, but—

‘Considering the dining room or drawing room I was guided to when I first arrived here….’

It seemed like there was no such thing as an old and dirty room inside this castle where everything was big and shiny.

“Hoho. It’s nice to see you two have such great siblings’ affection.”

At Johanna’s delightful laughter, Beatty’s nape warmed up for no reason.

“Let’s go.”

Creak.

The boy was already standing in front of the door beforehand.

It tickled to see her older brother holding the doorknob and waiting for her.

Beatty tilted her head at the throbbing feeling that welled up inside her chest.

***

“Huff... Huff…”

Beatty painstakingly followed her brother’s big stride with her little legs. She finally could catch her breath after the boy stopped in the end.

“You….”

Beatty’s shoulders went up and down harshly as she tried hard to catch up with his steps, considering their great lower limbs’ length difference.

“… are really weak.”

The boy said it as if finding it amusing.

“Or was it because of your short legs?”

The boy tilted his head. His expression implied that he couldn’t understand why she was out of breath.

Yet all of sudden.

Saying her legs are short since his are much longer!

‘He’s not even thinking about his height!’

Beatty glared at her older brother whose legs basically made up half of his entire height.

‘I’m not small either….’

At this age, she had an average height.

‘It’s because Older Brother is a lion shapeshifter! He’s just strangely tall, it is absolutely not because I’m short!’

As she thought like that, Beatty’s cheeks swelled up.

The boy looked at her sour look amusingly, then took a step back and stretched his arms out.

“Here’s your room.”

‘Here? The hallway…?’

Was he by any chance, trying to beat around the bush, saying there’s no room for her to stay?

The boy dragged Beatty, whose eyebrows furrowed and had a serious expression on her face, along with him.

“Here’s the playroom.”

It was a room full of cute dolls and toys.

“Here’s the dressing room.”

Inside the opened door, there was a room with three closed doors.

“The library.”

Then a library full of books and even stairs that lead to the second floor.

Carlitos told her about the room behind each door in the dark, long hallway and stopped at the end of it.

“The last one, the bedroom. It’s up to here.”

Looking back at the boy who oddly had a proud face, Beatty opened her mouth in confusion.

“Um, so, my room is….”

Is he saying that they’re giving me one out of these grand rooms?

Beatty blankly gazed around the gorgeous rooms.

‘Ah!’

At that moment, she opened her eyes wide and realized something.

‘This could be a test.’

Isn’t there a fairy tale like that?

The ‘Humble Traveler’ chose the shabbiest seat when he visited the Spirit’s House, and returned after receiving the Spirit’s gift.

The ‘Arrogant Traveler’ picked out the seat of the Spirit, and got chased away for not knowing his place….

‘Right. I was unexpectedly able to do something that can be of help for the Duke today, but…’

They accepted her words much more positively than she had originally thought.

‘But, if I don’t know my place and ask for too much credit in solving the supply problem….’

Won’t people who didn’t know about it misunderstand? Although all that she wanted was permission to stay until her coming-of-age ceremony.

By any chance, if this was a justification for her status as the Young Lady, somehow, it’s just like giving her a worthless power….

‘I might get kicked out in my birthday suit instantly, just like the ‘Arrogant Traveler’!’

Gasp!

Beatty gasped as she was surprised by her imagination that was likely to happen.

“Um, O-Older Brother!”

“Hm?”

“You don’t have to give me such a luxurious room like this.”

Beatty opened her mouth in a hurry and tried hard to plead.

“If you give me a room you don’t use well or even the location was unknown to you, I’ll  quietly—”

She was someone who could be easily satisfied.

A person who is satisfied and comfortable enough with what they have.

(t/n: It’s written as 안분지족 [anbunjijok], and it’s an idiom from 安分知足. The meaning of it is exactly just like what I wrote above.)

Isn’t it such a good expression?

Even if they gave her a room as big as a dog house, it would be wide enough once she transformed into a squirrel.

Carlitos listened to Beatty who was babbling hastily and wrinkled his forehead.

“What are you saying?”

He pondered for a moment then asked her again.

“Is my explanation confusing?”

“Um, about that….”

What did he say?

Does it mean that it wasn’t a test?

“Look.”

The young boy saw Beatty’s face was full of tension and doubt. His head tilted sideways as he clarified things.

“Do you see that statue there?”

“Yes? Yes.”

“Starting from the door there.”

From the door located at the beginning of the hallway, to the place they were currently standing…

Swish—

Carlitos drew a horizontal line with his finger then spoke.

“To here.”

“…?”

“Your room.”

“?!”

That’s impossible!

‘This is not a room!’

That was the entire floor!

‘No, even if it counts as a room, still, saying that this huge space is my room?’

So you’re telling me that the Aslan Family prepared the whole floor as the guest room?

It’s scary!

‘This is the wealth of the Great Duke….!’

It’s incredible!

‘It’s a distribution, giving the entire floor to a guest!’

Her mouth was wide open in astonishment and admiration.

Overwhelmed by the Duke Family’s scale, Beatty stiffened like a stone.

The boy stared blankly at the stiffened Beatty and suddenly with one hand!

“!”

He lifted and held her.

‘I’m being hugged again!’

Following the first hug in the afternoon at the first meeting—the one when the traitor Ritter’s arm around her body was an assassination attempt, so it didn’t count—this was Beatty’s second hug.

It was a friendly touch she couldn’t get used to.

“I-I’m… heavy.”

Struggle.

Beatty was struggling in his arms and replied with her face burned.

Somehow, the never-ending tickling feeling in her heart felt awkward.

“This?”

The boy asked back with a serious look as if saying his younger sister didn’t know anything.

“Heavy is when you weigh ten times more than this.”

“….”

Then she would no longer be a squirrel.

That’s a pig-quirrel.

Beatty was speechless by the absurd remark.

Creak.

The boy carried her to the brightly decorated bedroom.

‘Woah.’

An intense sunset filled the room as the sun still hung in the sky, just like a long summer day.

The harmoniously placed furniture and the richly decorated jewels sparkled under the light.

‘A lake?’

More than anything else, she could see a garden with a lake outside the large window.

“Pretty….”

She was genuinely astonished by the crimson sky that was reflected on the lake.

Carlitos gave Beatty who can’t take her eyes off the lake enough time to appreciate it.

“Now.”

This time, the boy laid her down on top of bedding with a huge canopy.

“Go to sleep quickly.”

“… But the sun is still up.”

“You wander around a lot today.”

He spoke indifferently as if the words were slipping away on their own.

“Also, they said you came all the way here all alone. You must’ve had a hard time because you’re still small.”

“Ah….”

Touched.

As she discovered an unexpected kindness in her older brother’s words, for a moment, a calm and touching feeling stirred up in Beatty’s heart.

“You’ve done well, walking all the way here with those short legs.”

“… I rode on a stagecoach though?”

Beatty choked up in a different sense this time.

She swallowed back the emotion as he brought out that short legs topic again. Instead, anger rose within her.

Seeing Beatty’s eyes were burning with irritation, the boy spoke calmly.

“Hm. Looks like you’re not sleepy?”

He looked around, grabbed something, and put it down in front of Beatty.

“Then, do you want to do this?”

“….”

Beatty glared at the object in front of her and narrowed the gap between her eyes.

‘This is….’