CH 46

The next day

I was reading Rico’s reply from Jetty. 

[The friend who needed an antidote has improved a lot now.

When I talked about the Lady, she said that she really wanted to see your face.

Thank you.]

“Hehe.”

I asked about how his sister was, but I didn’t expect him to answer—.

Maybe Rico has a more friendly personality than I think? 

[The ‘Joseph Lüttman’ the Lady was curious about is now in Valtherac estate in the central part of the country.

He lost all his family two years ago, left the Capital and disappeared, but now he’s half crazy.

You’ll find him at the Gambling Hall in Valtherac City because he spends every day there. 

He’s such a loser now, so you’ll have to make some people get his interest.]

What is surprising is that Rico obediently informed Joseph Lüttman’s whereabouts.

Wasn’t information a give-and-take principle?

[It is a rule to pay the transaction price in advance, but since the lady is a special guest, we will handle the credit.]

It was a little touching. I almost cried.

[If you intend to pass on the information to your father, ask Jetty.

And I hope you do well in the horse riding competition.

Happy birthday in advance.]

I finished reading the reply and asked Jetty to cut it from the ‘Horse Riding Competition’ to ‘Congratulations’.

The paper had to be burned to destroy evidence, but that part was a bit of a waste. I’ll keep it separately.

“What should I write to the Duke, my Lady?”

After burning Rico’s reply, Jetty took out a new piece of parchment and unfolded it.

I started talking to Jetty, who was trying to write it down.

“Listen, Duke Enoch Rubinstein!”

“…Yees?”

Jetty squirmed and laughed.

“W, wouldn’t it be too arrogant?”

“It’s okay.”

“Phew, yees.”

Jetty picked up the pen again.

The <Red Hawk> guild members all had one skill point, and Jetty’s skill with multiple handwriting was very useful.

“Wow! It’s perfect!”

In time, I smiled satisfactorily when I saw the completed letter like a revolutionary letter filled with elegance.

“Uhm…”

Jetty looked at the letter for a long time, folded it, put it in an envelope, and stared at me.

“Well… Lady, may I ask you a question?”

The curious look on Jetty’s face made me pause.

‘Well, since you’ve seen the contents of the letter, you may wonder.’

She seems excited.

“Lady, just what is your identity? It’s your second life, right? Unless it’s something magical like that, this would never be… No, more than that. This letter, is what I’m thinking right? Then the Lady, it can’t be—”

“Sister.”

“Yes, Lady.”

Jetty’s eyes, waiting for my answer, sparkled like loyal subjects as if she liked the contents of the letter.

I said with a serious look on my face.

“<Red Hawk>, iron rule number one.”

Jetty, who opened her mouth blankly, immediately drooped her smile.

“If you want information, you should provide corresponding information. Yeah… Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about. All right, I won’t be curious.” 

“Wahaha.”

*****

Duke of Rubinstein, training grounds.

Enoch had a lot of thoughts as he stared blankly at the private corps he was training.

“I just need Dad.”

“Let’s just live happily together.”

Lilith was very quick-witted and mature. She probably would have said that to her Dad, who she worried about.

Until now, he thought that even if she didn’t have a mother, it would be fine if he, as a father, did well…

‘I’m sure there’s something I can’t do for her as a father. It will happen even as she grows up in the future. Especially because she’s a girl.’

He doesn’t know if it’s a son, but it’s a daughter. The absence of her mother, which he felt when he met Selena, came very seriously to Enoch.

“Haa.”

Enoch, who was sitting down and sighing heavily, stopped and looked next to him.

There was Cheshire, who was taking a break.

“….”

Cheshire looked uncomfortable for some reason. He touched the inside of his mouth with his tongue, and his cheeks were bulging.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”

“It’s not like that.”

Cheshire, who answered briefly, immediately put his hand into his mouth. He seemed to be touching his left canine teeth somewhere—.

“H, hey! What are you—”

—he just shook it like it was.

Enoch’s eyes widened.

Cheshire, who mumbled a few times, spat out his teeth with blood on the floor.

“….”

Then he bit the cloth he was holding lightly. It seemed to stop the blood.

Enoch, who was watching the scene with his mouth wide open, soon realized.

“Ah.”

“….”

“You still have a baby tooth, so you haven’t changed everything.”

The tooth seemed to have been shaken out.

It’s not scary, he did it with his own hands at once.

‘W, wait. My princess too….’

At that time, single daddy Enoch Rubinstein recalled the touching moment when his daughter’s two lower teeth rose cutely.

It was so amazing and pretty that he cried—.

Susan and Joe, who were neighbors, complained that the young father was lazy and that they might collect all the baby teeth that fell out later.

‘Our princess will lose her baby teeth soon!’

“Y, you, Cheshire. Did you pull out your teeth like this?”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you scared?”

“…What’s scary about this?”

“You’re brave, aren’t you? No, more than that.”

Enoch grabbed Cheshire’s chin in a hurry and looked in his mouth.

“When was the first time you lost your tooth? How many did you lose?”

“….” 

Cheshire thought for a moment and said.

“When I was six years old, my lower front teeth were the first to fall out. Now, it looks like most of them are missing except for a few things on the inside.”

“I, is that so?”

Six years old? Enoch held his dazed head.

*****

Srrrrk.

The bookshelf moved quickly.

Back at the office, Enoch’s desk was piled high with parenting books.

! Parenting Common Sense!

~The time when the baby teeth fall out~

– Usually, at the age of 6 to 7, the baby teeth start to fall out and become permanent teeth.

It is normal for all baby teeth to fall out around the age of 12.

More than ten parenting books all said the same thing. Enoch was in despair.

Even after he moved to Capital, Enoch still brushed his daughter Lilith’s teeth when it was time, so he knew more about her teeth condition than anyone else.

Lilith didn’t show any signs of losing her teeth, and she even had baby teeth that hadn’t fallen yet—.

‘My daughter is already seven years old….’

She is a daughter whose development has been worryingly slow. She even spoke late. 

Still, he was glad that she was a daughter who, at one point, had a better vocabulary and clearer pronunciation than her peers—.

“Slow.”

He had to admit it. Considering the individual differences in each child, Lilith’s development condition was clearly not good.

What’s the reason?

There were a lot of things that came to mind.

Of course, he couldn’t breastfeed her, and he didn’t baby-feed her until more than five months ago—.

Is that all?

He tried to make her food healthy, but when they lived in Xenon, she didn’t eat as well as she does now.

Bang.

A sense of shame came over him, and he hit his forehead on the desk. 

“Stupidly…” 

He was worried about her future because he thought about all the things he couldn’t do for Lilith because of her mother’s absence.

The fact that she hadn’t been doing particularly well up until now, Enoch was sorry.

“As expected, baby food is too late….” 

When he lifted his buried head with a sigh,

“…Ah, you surprise me.” 

Rem, the butler, was in front of him. 

“Rem, why don’t you show some signs?”

“I think about 10 times? I knock until the door broken. Young Lord.” 

Rem added with a smile.

“And I wondered what was going through the mind of the person who should have seen all the signs even if I had sneaked in.”

Just as Rem smiled, he picked up the parenting book Enoch was reading and shook it.

<Raising my child beautifully>

“Young Lord, you may think that it is presumptuous to say it as a mere butler, but….” 

“Then don’t do it.” 

“…The Young Lord no longer has to take care of children. There are maids specializing in childcare in this house, and they take care of the Lady very sincerely.”

“….”

“The Young Lord is responsible for the Young Lord.”

Bang. 

Rem put down the papers and mail he had brought on the other side of the desk and added.

“You have to do everything. Aren’t you the type of person who doesn’t have enough 24 hours a day to see all of this?” 

“Whoo, Rem. “

Enoch stroked his hair.

“Rem is also my father. Don’t you understand me? Can you feel comfortable leaving your children in the hands of others?”

“Before being a father, you are the head of a family. Leave the young lady to us and get to work, work.”

“No, it’s not that I don’t….” 

“You have to take care of all these things within today. Please check all the mails that have been delayed. Then I will go.” 

Rem said calmly, then left in a hurry with all the parenting books.

Enoch, who was left behind, looked at the pile of work piled up like a mountain and brushed his cheek weakly.

“Why am I doing this when I don’t have time to see my child…?”

Enoch, who was sighing and flipping through some papers, hesitated.

A stack of papers spilled out and an envelope poked out.

A red wax seal with the initial L clearly visible.

‘This…’

L., who had informed Enoch of his whereabouts while searching for Cheshire.

It was him.

Enoch hurriedly opened the letter.