CH 41

“Arsene, did you sleep well?”

I greeted Arsene and sat down at the table.

Arsene put a piece of soft bread in his mouth and nodded.

“Ung, I slept well.”

“That’s a relief, today is the day we’re going to Kendrick.”

“…Today? Why?”

I answered, poking the salad with a fork into my mouth.

“He’s going to teach us how to use ability again today… So you forgot about it.”

“I didn’t know it was today.”

Arsene puffed out his cheeks and kept eating. Then—.

“Lady, Young Master.”

Ethan bowed his head as he walked into the dining room. 

Arsene and I were eating and, at the same time, looked up at Ethan.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Ung, good morning.”

“Good morning~.”

Then Ethan laughed as he raised his glasses, which are unusually shiny today.

“Please pay attention while you eat, because today you have to write an invitation to the banquet. The two of you together.”

“…An invitation?

“Invitation?”

We opened our eyes wide at the same time and asked back.

“Because we have to send the banquet invitations to the Young master and the Lady’s friends as well. Kendrick-nim said it would be better to write it yourself.”

Ethan smiled and answered. As I listened to Ethan, I turned to Arsene.

Arsene seemed to be worried for a while and nodded slowly.

“But the invitation… I never write it.”

Because all the invitations to the banquets held in Raniero were written by my father or another adult.

“You can write it comfortably. Rodri will help you.”

After nodding, we quickly finished breakfast and headed to Arsene’s room.

*****

“…Is this how you write it?”

“I don’t think so…?”

I looked down at the paper with the word ‘invitation’ written on it with a confused mind.

Arsene insisted that I do it, so I gave it a try. 

‘Are we really going to send out invitations like this?’

I think I’m just being laughed at. Then I took out another luxurious piece of paper and scribbled down an invitation.

‘I have to say hello first.’

It was hard because I had never written an invitation letter or even a letter. 

I could feel Arsene glancing over my shoulder at what I was writing.

Then. 

“Linsy?”

Arsene called me in a curious voice. I turned my head and made eye contact with Arsene.

“Why?”

“Did you always have this around your neck?”

Arsene’s finger pointed exactly at my spot.

I opened my eyes wide in surprise and covered my neck reflexively.

“This… This…”

“I don’t think it was there before.”

Arsene tilted his head. But how did he know? The spots were so small that I had to squint and look in the mirror for a long time to find them. So I thought no one would know.

I opened my mouth to answer about the spots without realizing it.

But—.

“Ugh!”

Suddenly, something was hot around the spotty neck, making it hard for me to speak.

“Linsy? Linsy? Hey, what’s wrong?”

I covered my neck with a red face and spat out nothing but a cough.

Why, why are you doing this?

‘I didn’t say anything yet!’

I almost cried out of frustration.

Is there a reaction just thinking about talking about spots? With my eyes closed, I tried to shake off spots and thoughts of prohibition.

Then. 

“…Hah!”

The choked throat has been loosened. I felt like the hand that had been squeezing my throat was loosened.

I took a quick breath, and Arsene tapped my shoulder and called me. 

“Linsy, Linsy? What’s wrong with you?”

I tried to shake my head.

“N, nothing…”

What’s wrong?

It wasn’t up to this level last time, but suddenly the prohibition was activated as if it had reacted to something.

“Are you sick? Then Mr. Hern—”

“Why am I sick? It’s not like that— let’s write an invitation.”

I pointed to the paper, trying to clear my cracked voice.

Arsene stared at me suspiciously and soon picked up the pen again. Then I looked at Arsene writing a scribbling invitation.

‘Strange…, I mean, it didn’t react like this last time.’

It didn’t even hurt that much. Besides, I didn’t spit out the words this time, I was just thinking of spitting them out. But the prohibition grabbed my neck so that I could not speak.

I sighed and hit my head on the desk. 

‘What kind of trouble is this.’

I’m still worried about many things, but it would be bad if I got entangled with something strange for nothing. 

I remembered Ester, the Grand Elder, who was strangely hostile to me. 

‘He was the only one who refused when I said I’d treat him.’

One day, he came in with a limp as if he had injured his leg.

So I ran to him and said I’d treat him—.

“I don’t need it, Lady. It seems like you like to poke your nose into something.” 

Ester hit my hand hard and then limped away. I was embarrassed just to sit there and look at him.

‘First of all, I think it’s clear that Ester is a dangerous person—’

The problem is that I can’t say that. 

‘I think I need to talk to Glene more—’

After writing the invitation, I had to go see Kendrick in the afternoon, so I didn’t have time to meet Glene. Instead, I glanced at Betty sitting next to us.

I thought about going to see Betty secretly, but—.

‘The prohibition will be back again.’

Phew. 

I just let out a sigh.

At that moment, Arsene suddenly held out a piece of paper on which he had been scribbling hard.

“Look at this, how is it?” 

I read the invitation that Arsene had carefully written.

“Ung, it’s good.” 

“You’re just giving me a rough answer.”

Arsene asked with his eyes open.

It stings. 

I read Arsene’s invitation carefully again and praised him.

“No, it was really well written. Great.”

“…Really?” 

Arsene gave Betty a suspicious look and showed her the invitation he’d written.

“Lady, do you write it too?” 

Betty accepted Arsene’s invitation and read it once before saying.

“Uhm… Can’t we do it together with Arsene’s invitation? We were thinking together….”

I poked Arsene with my elbow.

“…That’s right, we thought about it together and wrote it.”

Betty narrowed her eyes and looked at us alternately. Then she immediately got up from her seat.

“Then I’ll bring it to him like this for now. And…do you have a meeting with the Lord after lunch?”

“Ung. It’s today.” 

“I think it would be perfect if you eat first and then go see the Lord.” 

Betty smiled and stood up. 

***** 

“Bring the kid.” 

“That kid, who are you talking about?” 

“A kid from the street. She bumped into Aiden.”

Kendrick looked confused as if he didn’t get it right away. Then Ethan nodded his head, ah, opened and closed her mouth slightly.

“I’ll be right back.”

Ethan left Kendrick’s office.

And not long after, Ethan knocked on the door of the office. 

“Come in.”

With Kendrick’s permission, the heavy wooden door slid open, and Ethan reappeared. 

“I brought her here, my Lord.” 

“Let her in.” 

Ethan brought the girl who was standing outside the door into his room.

The girl who hesitated to enter her room then bowed her head.

Kendrick looked down slowly at the little girl.

She might not have been washed yet because a stream of old water was running down her skin and she was wearing a piece of torn cloth.

Kendrick clicked his tongue.

“Ethan, after the conversation, tell her to wash up and change her clothes. I can’t let her roam the mansion like this.”

Ethan bowed his head.

Kendrick beckoned Ethan as if to go out.

After Ethan left the room,

“What’s your name?”

Kendrick asked the girl again.

He even lightly threatened that if she didn’t answer this time, he would kick her out right away. The girl thought for a moment, then opened her mouth hesitantly.

“Gl, Glene…” 

“Yes, Glene. Please roll up your bangs a bit.”

At Kendrick’s command, Glene pulled up her bangs with a trembling hand.

Blurry gray eyes appeared without focus.

“When did you stop being able to see?”

“….” 

Glene bit her lips tightly.

Kendrick took a deep breath, then glanced back at Glene and thought.

‘It’s strange.’

She asked him to leave it at the mansion for now, so he did it for her. He has no idea what Linsy was thinking when she asked for such a favor.

In addition.

“How old are you?”

“…10 years old.”

Glene’s answer was stuttering. When Kendrick looked at Glene, he furrowed his brows. 

‘You’re that small, but you’re ten years old?’

Of course, she was bigger than Linsy and Arsene, but Linsy and Arsene were a special case. Arsene’s development was slow because of the curse, and Linsy was born small. However, if it was a child of normal wolf blood, it had to grow faster than that.

Kendrick sighed. 

‘Besides, they said she looked like a mutant.’

Kendrick looked slowly at Glene again. Gray eyes and white hair. It’s hard to say what kind of mixed race it is. Kendrick then asked several questions, but Glene shut up each time. Like an idiot who can’t speak. Eventually, Kendrick gave up trying to get any meaningful answers from Glene.

And he called the maid outside.

“Take this kid, wash her, and find something she can do. I have to leave it in her mansion anyway.”

After the maid bowed deeply, she took Glene out of the office.

Kendrick narrowed his eyes and looked at where Glene had left.