Chapter – 09
“You look tired, Lien-nim.”
“I’m fine.”
“Couldn’t you tell the Young Master and sleep a little longer, just for a day?”
Mary cautiously suggested, but it was no use. As Lien got up, her hair tied messily, Mary approached and began to fix it for her.
“You said you’re not a child anymore. You can’t go around outside looking like this.”
Solitaire closed her eyes at her touch and grinned.
Seeing that, Mary suggested once more that she rest, but Solitaire bowed slightly, opened the door, and left.
The reason she forced herself to get up like this every morning was to wake Heinrich. No one had asked Solitaire to do it; she had taken it upon herself.
It was an action born from her determination that, as his pet rabbit, even if she couldn’t bring him joy, she should at least do the bare minimum.
*Ahem, ahem.* “Young Master, are you awake?”
Solitaire arrived right in front of Heinrich’s room and knocked on the door.
Getting no answer again today, Solitaire counted to three and abruptly opened the door and went in.
There was Heinrich, still lost in dreamland. Half-naked, as usual.
“Wake up. It’s morning, Young Master.”
Solitaire glanced at the bed once, then went to the window and began to draw the curtains.
Being short, she struggled and couldn’t open the curtains properly. Heinrich, noticing this, staggered up and drew them open for her.
“Sol, I told you, you don’t have to come in the morning.”
“I just don’t feel like my morning has started until I see you, Young Master.”
At Solitaire’s cheeky remark, Heinrich shrugged his shoulders as if to say he couldn’t do anything with her. His eyes were half-closed, as if he wasn’t fully awake yet.
Seeing this, Solitaire wiped Heinrich’s face with a damp cloth.
“You need to get changed quickly. If you’re late for breakfast, the Family Head and Madam will be quite upset, you know.”
“Doubt it.”
Brushing off Heinrich’s words lightly, Solitaire reached out to grab the blanket wrapped around him. However, Heinrich held it tight, as if refusing to give it up, and took a step back from her.
Seeing that, Solitaire flinched and furrowed her brows tightly.
“I’ll handle it myself. Wait outside.”
Hearing that, Solitaire hesitated for a moment, then nodded and went out of the room. Leaning her back against his door, Solitaire closed her eyes and listened.
She could hear everything: him washing his face, taking off his pajamas, and putting on his outdoor clothes. Listening to those slow, leisurely sounds, Solitaire recalled something from a long time ago.
—
* * *
—
It was not long after she had entered the Hiruphs estate. Everyone was pondering what to call her.
They tried calling her by her family name, but they couldn’t specify which family or what kind of beast-human she was. Yet, treating her as a mere servant was difficult because she was a girl who received the Young Master’s special favor. Noticing this, Sophia stepped forward and settled on a form of address.
A title that wasn’t too difficult, but also not too casual.
“Everyone, call her ‘Young Lady’.”
But for Solitaire, it was a title far too burdensome, so she waved her hands in refusal.
Hoping to ease her burden, Sophia suggested using a nickname instead.
“Lien. How about Lien?”
“Lien?”
“Yes, it’s a nickname made by shortening your name.”
The title ‘Young Lady’ didn’t feel like her own name, but ‘Lien’ sounded somehow different.
Solitaire nodded shyly, and so she became ‘Lien’ of the Hiruphs.
And around the time that rumor had spread throughout the entire household, Heinrich suddenly came to her and said this:
“Lien, that doesn’t suit you.”
Sophia was startled and asked why he was picking a fight, utterly dismayed, but Heinrich paid no mind and stubbornly said his piece.
“Sol. It means ‘sun’ in the ancient tongue, they say. It suits you much better than the nickname Lien.”
She had liked ‘Lien’ too, but the nickname ‘Sol’ that Heinrich called her was even more pleasing. Solitaire smiled brightly and accepted her new name.
—
* * *
—
“What are you doing.”
At someone’s voice, Solitaire was pulled out of her thoughts.
Heinrich, who had finished getting ready at some point, was looking at her, standing slanted. He had an expression as if something was displeasing him, but she couldn’t ask what it was.
“Nothing.”
“You were thinking strange things again, weren’t you.”
“Of course not, let’s go quickly.”
Rolling her eyes to avoid Heinrich’s gaze, Solitaire clumsily diverted the conversation.
“It’s clumsy. As always.”
Turning her back on Heinrich, who was glaring at her with narrowed eyes, Solitaire moved her steps.
If she added unnecessary words to him now, it was clear she would spill out emotions she herself didn’t understand. To think that just because he sent her outside, her thoughts would follow her this far…
A slight sense of self-reproach and a feeling of regret settled in a corner of her heart. Shaking her head, she tidied up her emotions and pulled up the corners of her mouth.
Then, a thought suddenly occurred to her.
_’It’s upsetting.’_
When he first saved her, she was just endlessly happy. She had engraved in her mind for four years that it was fine even if she was just a pet rabbit. But greed was endless.
When she received the nickname ‘Sol’, it felt like they had become special to each other. When she was allowed to enter his room without permission, she secretly felt like they had become close, without formalities. But now, all those things had turned into scraps of paper.
The bigger her head got and the more she learned about the Hiruphs, the clearer the distance between them became. He was the successor of the Hiruphs, the most special and powerful family on the continent, and she was, at best, his pretty pet rabbit—a relationship that was nothing more and nothing less.
“Ah.”
“Are you going alone? Shouldn’t I hold your hand?”
Heinrich, who had quickly caught up to her as she walked ahead, took Solitaire’s hand in his.
Heinrich was always like this. Everything was easy and light for him.
That’s why it was better to abandon expectations of him. Closing her eyes tightly, she recalled the mantra she repeated every day.
_’Pull up the corners of your mouth. If you don’t want to be discarded, you have to smile more, Solitaire.’_
—
* * *
—
When they opened the dining room door, Sophia and Eremus, who had arrived first, were already seated. Seeing their faces, full of anticipation for something, Solitaire paused for a moment.
Whenever they made those expressions, it usually meant a conversation had ended with one side in a bad mood, so her reaction was natural. But she soon returned to a clueless expression and took her seat.
Before taking the first spoonful, Eremus spoke up, as if he couldn’t hold back any longer.
“Heinri, the schedule for your coming-of-age ceremony has been set.”
“Is that so.”
Unlike Sophia and Eremus, who were full of anticipation, Heinrich seemed to have no particular thoughts about it.
Heinrich’s gaze was fixed solely on Solitaire’s mouth. It was as if he intended to check everything that went in.
Feeling burdened by him, Solitaire swallowed a mushroom whole and reacted to Eremus’s words on Heinrich’s behalf.
“Wow, so the Young Master is becoming an adult now? For a coming-of-age ceremony, a huge number of beast-humans will come, right?”
“Well, that’s right. Sol, you need to eat your carrots too.”
At Heinrich’s pointed remark, Solitaire’s mouth stiffened momentarily. It wasn’t that he was displeased because she had answered his question insincerely.
The problem was that the food he was urging her to eat was carrots.
For a moment, she made such a serious face that she almost forgot who was in front of her. Seeing this, Heinrich let out a stifled laugh and muttered.
“For a rabbit, why do you hate carrots?”
“……It’s possible to dislike them, you know.”
Glaring at him intensely, Solitaire nonetheless opened her mouth and ate the carrot. Heinrich smiled contentedly and waved the next carrot in front of her.
Distracted by the carrots, the conversation about the coming-of-age ceremony had been buried without her realizing it. Sophia and Eremus seemed anxious and tried to add more, but it was useless.
“Heinri, couldn’t you show a little interest when we’re talking about your coming-of-age ceremony?”
“You handle the proceedings. I’ll just make an appearance that day and that’ll be the end of it.”
“What kind of main character in the world says they’ll just make an appearance?”
Sophia opened her mouth in disbelief and retorted to Heinrich, but in the end, she couldn’t get the answer she wanted. As their opinions remained far apart, Sophia eventually stood up and left the room.
Eremus let out a sigh, told Heinrich to think about it a bit more, and followed his wife out.
As if he wasn’t bothered by their anger, Heinrich calmly placed the dessert in front of him into her mouth.
Watching him, completely unperturbed, Solitaire also let out a sigh.
“The Madam was very angry.”
“If we have that coming-of-age ceremony, everyone will bring their partners… *Sigh*.”
Heinrich closed his eyes tightly, as if unpleasant scenarios had come to mind. Wondering if he wasn’t concerned about such a Heinrich, Solitaire chewed her food and turned her gaze towards the dining room door.
Seeing this, Heinrich furrowed his brow and asked.
“Why are you looking over there? Are my mother and father more on your mind than I am? Do you want to see me get a partner and get tossed around here and there?”
“That’s not what I meant!”
