CH 10

Duke Elgrandark was the vice-minister of the Ministry of Justice at the royal palace. He was also the ruling lord of Nelgrandy, a territory on the eastern edge of the Kingdom. Because of these titles, he was called the Margrave of Nelgrandy.

He assigned the land management of these territories to his younger brother, Viscount Elgrandark, but the duke would go inspect his lands regularly to check up on the land conditions and discuss and plan financial policies.

Duke Elgrandark had finished the spring inspection of his lands and had come home for the first time in a month. Before he could even take off his overcoat, he was met with a request for a new servant from his wife, son, and daughter.

“Let me get changed first,” said the duke, “I’ll hear your request over tea.”

The duke, who had been welcomed back in such a bustling hurry, smiled bitterly as he headed to his room.

The chamberlain who had accompanied the duke during this tour of territories informed Elise that they had brought back various sweets from the Nelgrandy region, and asked if he should serve them immediately with the tea.

“Diana, let’s go to the tearoom. It sounds like we’re going to have some sweets from Nelgrandy,” said Cain.

“Sweets! If we eat sweets, we will have to brush our teeth afterward, Brother!” said Diana.

“That’s right! You’re very smart, aren’t you, Diana? That’s very good. After we’re done eating, let’s brush our teeth together, okay?”

They clasped hands and headed to the tearoom to enjoy the sweets and a light meal. Diana knew that once the tea and snacks were prepared, Elise would arrive shortly, and so she made sure to walk calmly alongside Cain.

Once they arrived in the tearoom, Cain took an apron out of a drawer and put it on Diana. She was three years old, and still not very good at eating neatly. Cain had her wear an apron, since the sweets that the duke had brought back may have been of the crumbly type. It was very possible that Diana would make a mess.

When he put the white apron with frills over her fluttery, light blue dress, he was reminded of a children’s story from his past existence, and thought to himself – She looks just like Alice in Wonderland.

As they sat waiting quietly, Father and Mother came into the tearoom.

“Cain. It’s been a while since I was last home. Aren’t you going to let me have Di for a moment?” asked Father, who had entered the room, and looked upon his two children with a furrowed brow. Cain was sitting on the two-person sofa with Diana propped up on his knees. 

“Let me have, that’s… Father, please don’t talk about Diana as if she’s an object. That’s a human rights violation,” said Cain.

“Human rights violation – that’s a rather difficult term you’ve used… But never mind that. I want you to let me adore Diana, too, you know?” said Father.

“Diana won’t be any less adorable to you with a table in between you two. Please, sit opposite her and cherish her all you want from there,” said Cain.

“I want to give Di a hug and pet her hair,” said Father.

Cain tightened his grip around Diana. She was looking dazedly from her brother to her father, comparing them. Then, white hands slipped under Diana’s arms from behind Cain and lifted her up.

Elise pulled Diana away from behind the sofa. With that, she handed Diana over to her husband to let him hug her, and she gave Cain a light slap on the top of his head.

“Enough already,” said Elise, “You’ve been with her this whole time, so you need to let your Father have her. He hasn’t been home in a month.”

“…But,” said Cain.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

“They haven’t had enough time together. Don’t you feel any sympathy for your father when Diana says things like ‘Who’s this old man’?” asked Elise.

Cain had heard that this had really happened, once, when one of Father’s territory inspections had dragged on longer than expected. As Cain was reminded of that incident, he had no choice but to give her up.

The tearoom’s maid had prepared the tea and sweets. Once everyone was seated and together, the duke began to speak.

“So, you want to hire one more servant? You didn’t have to wait for me, you know. I’ve left house matters up to Elise, after all.”

“We want to hire him as Cain’s chamberlain,” said Elise. As the mistress of the house, Elise commanded power within the premises, to a certain extent. 

If necessary, she could fire and hire servants using her own judgment. However, in practice, she always discussed such matters with head maids and head butlers and based her decisions off their various views. She had never acted completely on her own. 

This was an event with no precedent. She felt it was necessary to consult with the duke, her husband since this was a matter of hiring a personal attendant to a member of the household. This would be an important role with duties that included participating in house governance.

“Cain’s chamberlain – I see. Cain’s not old enough for tea parties or evening parties, yet, so did something happen?” asked the duke.

“Well, actually…”

Elise explained how Ilvalino was brought in while Duke Elgrandark was away from home. She told him that Ilvalino could speak in a proper tone, eat with good manners, and how thanks to his reading to Diana, her reading comprehension skills had improved. She also told him that he was an orphan.

The duke heard about how Cain and Diana had grown attached to him, and Elise had taken a liking to him, as well. He folded his arms over his chest and grumbled, “Hmm.”

“He’s six years old, like Cain, right?” he asked, “I think he may be a bit too young to hire as a chamberlain.”

“A child that well-suited for the job would be hard to come across,” said Elise, “If we stall for too long, some other family will snatch him up.”

Cain was thinking to himself that it wasn’t actually very likely that another noble family would offer an orphan a job. No one would even think that there might be an orphan who was trained to serve a noble house, in the first place. He imagined that it was possible that a noble family might take on an orphan as an employee of one of their merchant companies, fisheries, or farms, as an act of benevolence.

“He can be Di’s chamberlain, too, Father,” said Diana, “Brother Ilu is very good at reading books!”

Diana was eating a cream pie while sitting on the duke’s lap, and she looked up at him to tell him about Ilvalino’s reading skills. The duke looked over at Cain.

“Brother Ilu, she says! Brother!” said the duke. He remained watching Cain’s frowning face and burst into laughter. Elise looked at Cain, too. Cain had tried his best to stop Diana from calling Ilvalino “Brother Ilu”, but to his horror, he had failed. 

Elise covered up her mouth with a handkerchief and turned to the side, but her shoulders were shaking with laughter, as well.

“…That matter has already passed, so it’s fine!  If he were to become a chamberlain, though, I would have to tell Diana that his official position in this house has changed and that she would have to start calling him by a different name, once and for all!”

Cain may have been a grown man in his thirties on the inside, but certain things frustrated him, regardless of his age.

It was always possible to gain new little brothers or sisters, but one could never gain an older brother. That fact was Cain’s point of pride and it held his spirits up.

“All right, then – here’s what we’ll do,” said the duke, “Bring this Ilvalino here, and I will make a decision after interviewing him.”

He clapped his hands, and the duke had concluded the matter. After finding an opening in his schedule and coordinating the meeting, the duke was to decide whether Ilvalino would be hired.