CH 40

“One step. two steps”.

Dianna walked down the stairs. The difference between one step and the next is too big for her body, so she goes down step by step, one foot at a time, standing on her side.

From the corner of the corridor, Ilvalino was secretly watching her. She descends slowly, one step at a time, but the occasional swaying of her body keeps Ilvalino on his toes.

His hand almost comes out and retracts, and he mumbles in a low voice, “Oh, my God”.

When they were only three steps away from the staircase landing, Dianna stepped on the hem of her skirt and lost her balance.

“Watch out!”

Ilvalino immediately rushed and jumped from the top of the stairs, caught Dianna in mid-air, held her in his arms, spun around in the air to kill the momentum, and then rolled forward another time on the stair landing to make her stand backward.

Then he jumped up from his crouched position, stretched out his knees to put his feet on the railing once, and jumped noiselessly downstairs.

“Ilu-kun?”

When Dianna almost fell and closed her eyes, she felt as if she was spinning but then she was standing upright. Also, she thought she heard Ilu-kun’s voice, so she turned around, but no one was there.

“Hmm?”

Dianna tilted her head but decided it was okay and started walking again.

One foot at a time, one step at a time, she crab-walked down the stairs. This time, she lifted the hem of her skirt with both hands to prevent stepping on it before going down.

She doesn’t mind that the pumpkin pants with the bunny on them are now in full view.

From the corner of the corridor on the lower floor, Ilvalino continued to watch her with apprehension while she took her time to descend to the first floor.

Dianna walked out the front door and peered into the flower beds in the front yard. She noticed an old gardener sitting and working a little ahead of her.

“The gardener Uncle,” Dianna said.

“Oh, young lady, are you taking a walk?”

The old man stood up, took off his hat, and nodded. He turned his friendly face to look at Dianna, but when he saw her, he rolled his eyes.

“Why are you holding the hem of your skirt, young lady?” he asked.

“I don’t want to fall down the stairs!” Dianna said.

She kept her skirt up even after she finished walking down the stairs just because, and of course, her pants were in full view.

“There are no stairs in the garden, so I think you can leave your skirt down.”

Surprised at the gardener’s words, as if she had just heard the discovery of the century, Dianna took her hands off her skirt. The hem of her skirt fell down, guided by gravity, but the hems on both sides, which she had been holding all along, were wrinkled.

The old gardener reached out to adjust the skirt but pulled it back when he realized that his hands were dirty with dirt. Then he swept his gaze behind Dianna. He thought that the maidservant should be with her.

But when he saw Ilvalino peeking out from behind the hedge, holding his index finger in front of his lips and gesturing “Don’t say it,” he nodded and returned to his usual calm expression.

“The gardener Uncle. Do you have any unnamed flowers here?”

“Hmm? There are only flowers with names here…”

“I see…”

When she heard the gardener’s reply, Dianna’s shoulders slumped.

The gardener hurriedly pointed to a flower bed in front of her and explained, “These are very rare and not yet well known flowers.”

“But it already has a name, doesn’t it?” Dianna asked.

“Yes, it’s called a zabout,” the gardener said.”Zabout is not good enough,” Dianna said.

Bye-bye! She waved cheerfully to the gardener and started walking again.

Ilvalino walked right behind her crouching position, placing himself across the hedge.

Looking at this situation, the gardener tilted his head saying, “What on earth is he doing…?”

“Oops. You can’t go outside the gate, young lady.”

“Did you come all this way by yourself, young lady?”

Dianna walked through the garden and came to the front gate. The gate was barred, and Arnoldia and Sarasinia came out of the guardroom by the gate.

Arnoldia kneeled down in front of Dianna and made eye contact with her. Sarasinia scurried around and behind Dianna, looking for something.

“My Lady. What are you doing here? If you want to go on an errand, I can do it for you,” Arnoldia said.

“Arnoldia, do you know where I can find a flower that was never seen before?” Dianna asked.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

“A flower that’s never seen before? Hmmm. If it’s a flower that’s never seen, then it can’t be a flower you’ve seen before. Does that mean predicting the future? That’s a difficult thing to say, young lady,” Arnoldia said.

“Arnoldia says more difficult things than I do.”

Sarasinia nodded as if she had found what she was looking for behind the hedge behind her, and moved next to Arnoldia and crouched down as well.

“It’s our job to keep an eye out for suspicious people, scary dogs, and wolves. We don’t really know much about flowers,” Sarasinia said.

“That’s true. I can’t tell if I’ve seen a flower before or if it’s my first time,” Arnoldia added.

“I see…” Dianna said.

“I’m sorry I can’t help you.”

When Sarasinia lowered her eyebrows and scratched her head, Dianna buzzed and shook her head.

“Thank you for your work! Bye-bye!”

She waved and walked away, and when Sarasinia looked toward the hedge, she saw the red tips of his hair swaying and moving behind the hedge.

Arnoldia is smiling and waving at Dianna.

“Is Young Ilu acting as a chaperone because the Young master is under house arrest?” Sarasinia said.

“In that case, why doesn’t he just walk around with her?” Arnoldia said.

“I don’t know what he’s doing.” Sarasinia said.

Dianna treads along the walls of the mansion.

Kaaah! and a loud bird’s voice came from above, and she stopped, shaking her shoulders. When she looked up, she could only see the branches of a large tree, but could not see the bird.

The large tree, which blooms with small white flowers in the spring, was now covered with leaves that blocked the sunlight.

From time to time, she could hear the sound of large feathers rustling in the branches, but she could not see them.

The image of a fearsome monster began to form in Dianna’s mind. When Ilvalino looked at Dianna, who was half in tears, and was about to approach her, she lifted her head.

“gh…gho…”

She looked forward crisply and began to sing a song in a loud voice about how there are no ghosts.

Dianna walked forward on shaky legs, one step at a time, singing as she went. It was the same song that Cain had sung to Dianna when she had cried one day about her fear of going to the bathroom at night, holding her hand as they walked to the bathroom together. It was an original song of Cain’s that Ilvalino had never heard from the singers who came to comfort the orphanage, nor from each of the orphans from various families.

As Dianna made her way forward little by little, her hair ornaments shone in the sunlight through the trees. A bird in the tree caught that, flapped its wings, and flew out at Dianna.

Ilvalino picked up a pebble at his feet and threw it at the bird. Pigyaa! The bird gave a high-pitched cry and went back into the tree.

Eventually, Dianna made her way through the large trees and reached the back gate. The back gate was tightly closed, but not locked during the day, as the servants would be coming and going. Arnoldia or Sarastinia came to patrol the gate at regular intervals, but there was usually no gatekeeper.

Ilvalino lurked in a position where he could get up at any time to jump out if Dianna tried to go outside.

Dianna was crouched by the back gate when she grabbed something and stood up abruptly.

“Yes! I found a flower with no name!”

Dianna jumped up and down with a small white flower in her hand. Ilvalino didn’t understand why she was so happy to have a small flower that looked like a weed.

While Dianna was jumping up and down with joy, the back gate opened and a maid on her way home from shopping came in.

“Dear Dianna! What are you doing here?”

The maid took Dianna by the hand and walked into the mansion.

Dianna’s adventure was over. Ilvalino let out a sigh of relief and sat down on the spot, feeling exhaustion wash over him. He had been more nervous than he thought. He didn’t want anything to happen to Cain’s beloved sister. Maybe it was the pressure of having to protect her.

Ilvalino was told by Dianna, whom he would meet again in the evening, what the treasure was that Dianne had obtained after her great adventure.