Chapter 08
Chirp.
The sound of birds chirping made Adeline’s eyelids twitch.
For some reason, the outside sounds were unusually clear this morning, pounding lightly against her drowsy mind.
A gentle spring breeze brushed the tip of the child’s nose, small as a cherry.
“Umm…?”
Along with the wind came a strange scent that made Adeline instinctively sniff.
“Nyam.”
Nice smell… no, not really.
Start!
“Already morning? Again?”
A grumpy voice cut through the quiet morning air.
‘Just because of that, this is happening.’
These past few days, she had been sleeping more deeply and longer than ever in her entire life.
Even though several days had passed since she used her power on Amy, sleep kept overwhelming her at random times.
Last night, too, she had fallen asleep in bed without realizing it.
The problem was that even after sleeping soundly all night, her condition was still terrible.
Because her recovery was slow, the remaining energy in her body had become much weaker than before.
“Hm.”
Adeline shook her head slightly, trying to brush away her worries.
Looking beyond the wide-open curtain, the sun was just beginning to rise.
Adeline slowly walked toward the window and stared blankly at the familiar sunrise she saw every morning.
The cool morning air brushing her cheeks, fresh leaves carrying tiny droplets of sparkling dew, and the warm touch left on the window frame.
“…Warm?”
The lazily relaxed expression on her face sharpened instantly.
Someone had been at the window just a moment ago. Now that she thought about it, the window being open itself was strange.
‘That means someone stayed here for quite a while.’
And the strange thing wasn’t only the open window.
Adeline’s sharp gaze moved past the bedside table and toward the tea table in the center of the room.
‘What is this?’
The room was supposed to be cleaned only in appearance by Amy. Adeline had simply watched Amy do that.
But the room now was…
“Where did the carpet go?”
The stained carpet had disappeared without a trace, and the mirror was shining brightly.
Adeline felt awkward seeing her own reflection so clearly in the mirror.
For a moment, her stomach growled.
She hadn’t eaten anything since last night.
“When did I start having such an appetite?”
Her gaze naturally fell on the food neatly placed on the tea table.
“What is this?”
There were no real clues.
‘Well, there’s no one I can ask to make guesses.’
The only certain thing was that someone had quietly finished their work and disappeared.
Just that much.
“It probably tastes good.”
Adeline slowly sat on the sofa in front of the tea table and picked up her fork, tapping the yolk of the soft-cooked egg.
The crispy bacon slowly turned yellow as it soaked in the yolk.
Then Adeline picked up a knife and cut the bacon cleanly without making a metallic sound, putting it into her mouth.
If someone wanted to kill her, they would have stabbed her heart while she was sleeping.
They wouldn’t have bothered cleaning the room before leaving.
“Nyam.”
One bite, two bites, three bites…
A satisfied smile bloomed on her lips as she ate warm food for the first time in a long while.
Was bacon and egg always this good? A dry laugh slipped out.
“Anyway…”
Adeline’s gaze fell on her hand holding the fork.
It was a thin wrist, so thin that it looked like she should be using a cane instead of holding a sword.
Her skin was so pale that blue veins were faintly visible.
“Maybe I should run in the garden.”
It didn’t seem like she should be satisfied with holding only the card called Amy.
Right now, even though the window was how the bacon came in, there was no guarantee it would happen a second time.
‘If this continues, I might die before finding the Grand Duke.’
What exactly was he thinking, making her into this kind of child?
“Ugh, I’m tired.”
She had too many things to think about in a different sense than when she was the crown princess.
At least it was fortunate that she had more than enough time to think.
Adeline finished her meal neatly in a way that was not childlike, placing the fork and knife parallel at the 4 o’clock position on the plate.
Just as she was about to slump lazily back onto the sofa…
“Ha, did you finish your meal already? Your appetite is really good. I told you so many times that you’ll get fat.”
The owner of a familiar voice burst into the room, opening the door without hesitation.
Adeline suddenly straightened her slouched body.
“…Why is Lucy doing useless things too?”
“Lucy?”
“Cough, it’s nothing.”
Amy, who looked dissatisfied at the clean room and empty plate, placed the book she had brought onto the table and said,
“Starting tomorrow, a home tutor will come.”
“…A home tutor?”
“Yes. Well, I persuaded your uncle properly so that you wouldn’t miss the learning period, miss. You can be grateful.”
Amy proudly fixed her hair in front of the clean mirror.
She didn’t know how she had coaxed that man called the uncle, but it was clear that the ability she used that day had worked well.
After standing in front of the mirror for a long time, she finally walked toward Adeline and pushed the book she had placed earlier in front of her.
“Read it before class.”
In a short explanation that was very un-Amy-like, Adeline silently read the book title.
“Everything About the Kingdom of Neria’s Nobility.”
It was a fairly ordinary book for young noble children. The only problem was…
“Up to where?”
“Pfft, miss. What kind of question is that? Of course, everything.”
It was an absurd demand.
Telling a child who was ten years old—or practically no different from a five-year-old—to read everything was too much.
And…
“Oh dear, our miss. You probably can’t even read properly.”
It was impossible for a child who had not yet received proper education to understand the content.
Of course, unless it was Adeline.
“Well, you must work hard, right? I’ll be leaving now, so focus.”
Amy left the room as if she had nothing else to do besides handing over the book.
Adeline struggled to open the large book that was bigger than her body.
“It’s been a while since I saw this. Is Neria Kingdom usage a bit different?”
It was a familiar yet unfamiliar book.
The book Adeline had grown tired of reading before was “Everything About Nobles of the Tawnyport Empire.”
Of course, she had already memorized the major noble families of the foreign country as well.
Naturally, she also knew quite a lot about the Kingdom of Neria.
“Let’s see… I at least know these faces…”
Adeline, starting from the page about small families she didn’t need to know, lay back on the sofa with the book.
“Hmmm—”
After quickly flipping through the book for a while, her small hand returned to the table of contents at the beginning.
Her finger moving downward stopped at one point.
‘…Here.’
Osphier Cox was a somewhat famous home tutor in his field, but the children he taught usually belonged to a certain category.
Illegitimate children, or noble children disliked by their families.
What the noble ladies who sought Osphier wanted was not real education.
They wanted their children to learn how to live submissively.
How to avoid unnecessary behavior that adults disliked.
The child is a bit ill-mannered. You understand what I mean, right? Please take good care of them.
His job was to teach them things like how they should lower themselves and what useless behaviors adults hated.
With years of experience, Osphier knew very well how to make children obedient.
Fear and submission. If he planted these two well, everything was easy.
A whip swung well alone had already made him the best home tutor that they wanted.
Anyway, since they were noble children, if he simply trained them properly, they would sometimes bring useful information.
“Alright, let’s relieve some stress today too.”
Standing in front of the classroom door prepared for the lesson, Osphier grabbed the doorknob without hesitation.
‘The first lesson is psychological domination.’
He didn’t need any special preparation since it was always the same method.
Inside the room, which only had a table and a chair, sat a child smaller than he expected.
‘They said she was ten years old. Must be a child who was disliked. No personal maid either?’
If he were even slightly systematic, he would have skimmed information about his new student, but unfortunately, Osphier considered such things only for beginners.
Adeline jumped down from the oversized chair and folded her hands in front of her stomach.
“Hello, teacher.”
At Adeline’s greeting, Osphier unconsciously opened his hand before freezing slightly.
“Hm.”
He awkwardly moved his hand to his forehead and brushed his bangs aside.
‘I almost started wrong from the beginning.’
Accepting a greeting from the first meeting? Absolutely not.
A scary first impression was the most important thing for the lessons he would give later.
Of course, being polite from the beginning wasn’t bad. The child was cuter than expected too.
“Let’s start the lesson right away.”
Osphier said as he sat across from Adeline.
Adeline tilted her head and asked back with wide round eyes.
“Right away?”
“Huh?”
Taken aback by the unexpected reaction, Osphier made a strange sound.
Normally, the children he taught were already intimidated even before the lesson started.
Not looking at him with innocent rabbit-like eyes and asking questions like this.
He deliberately spoke in a stricter, more commanding voice.
“Sit down quickly. Give me the book too. Today we’ll do a level test first.”
Of course, the level test he planned was not about knowledge but about endurance.
Adeline climbed back onto the large chair with effort, saying nothing.
“Also, I hate noisy children, so answer only my questions.”
Osphier, pouring out his own words like a waterfall, didn’t even open the thick book Adeline handed him and immediately asked a question.
“Could you tell me about the Tanya family’s young lady?”
“Tanya… family…?”
Adeline looked at him silently for a moment.
‘There’s no way she would know. She probably hasn’t even properly learned to read, so what book?’
Osphier misinterpreted her gaze and silently mocked her.
Even if she had read something, she wouldn’t be able to answer.
Tanya was a small family located at the very end of the book, more than five hundred pages long.
Just something he memorized to use during class.
He picked up the whip he brought and tapped it on the table.
“If you can’t memorize it, come here and lift your legs. Now, here—”
“Madeline Tanya. Age six. Born five years after Sophia Madeleine and James Tanya were married.”
Osphier, who had been tapping the whip on the table, stopped moving for a moment.
“You must have… studied in advance. Hmm.”
It was a bit unexpected, but Osphier decided not to waver. It was a rare but not unheard-of case.
‘She probably just looked at the back pages. Surprisingly clever. But it’s meaningless.’
Osphier tapped the whip on the table again and asked.
“Who is the fourth child of the Count Kali family?”
This was a truly malicious question that only people who knew it could answer. After all, the Count Kali family officially had only three children.
There was a fourth child of unclear origin, but people kept quiet about it.
It was mentioned very small in the footnote section of the page about the Kali Count family.
But then—
“You didn’t properly read the footnotes. I clearly told you to read everything, yet you didn’t. Come here and lift your legs—”
“Edenfeld Kali.”
“…!”
Hearing the correct answer that naturally cut off his sentence, Osphier froze slightly.
