Herald’s gaze was quite sharp, but I didn’t back down and kept staring at him without flinching.
“Just as I thought… a cheeky little brat.”
That cheeky brat happens to be your daughter, you jerk!
“So, what you’re saying is…?”
Herald continued speaking while tapping his fingers rhythmically on his lap.
“You think I still like Adeline, and if you want to reconcile, you want me to quietly listen to you?”
“Yes!”
“You know how to change Adeline’s mind?”
“Yes!”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Herald immediately mocked my suggestion, and I opened my mouth in shock.
“How old did you say you are?”
“…Five years old.”
“Right, just five. Didn’t Adeline teach you that little brats like you shouldn’t meddle in adult matters?”
With his left eyebrow raised high and his lips curling up, he tilted his head as if genuinely curious. If I could, I would slap that neat forehead of his with a red handprint.
“…Relax your hands. You’re trembling a lot.”
“No? It’s just that my hands shake naturally!”
I answered as I tried to loosen my hands.
“Now it looks like you’re tensing up your eyes?”
“No? It’s just that my eyes are really big!”
“….”
Herald sighed heavily, apparently unable to argue with my comment about having big eyes.
“There’s absolutely no trace of Adeline in you. Not in your face, not in your personality…”
Herald grumbled while scanning me up and down.
The impulse to poke those yellow eyes with my finger crossed my mind.
“Hair, eyes, that cheeky personality, even your bone structure…”
Huh? Bone structure?
“Everything about you is just like me.”
“…Hah!”
That was the worst insult I’d ever heard in my five years of life.
“Hey, but your face looks like mom’s!”
“No, I’ve seen a childhood portrait of Adeline, and you definitely don’t look anything like that dumpling.”
“…B-Baang…”
“Dumpling.”
Let me clarify. I wasn’t stumbling over my words because I didn’t hear him properly.
“And Adeline doesn’t have that healthy, rosy complexion like yours. Her skin is so pale… like a white snowflake…”
“…”
Seeing him mutter such embarrassing things without a care, I clicked my tongue without him noticing.
“And you also stand out because your bone structure is different from other kids. Your wrists and ankles are chubby.”
“…Chubby.”
As Herald continued speaking, my expression grew more and more sour. But was he really this clueless, or was he just trying to mock me?
“You’re really healthy. You’ve never been sick before, right?”
“…Yes.”
Unfortunately, his guess was spot on. Maybe it was because I had been sickly in my previous life? This was the first time I had ever had the typical childhood fever that babies get.
“I was only sick once when I was a kid.”
“…”
Ah, was he about to say that I take after him again?
“Really, it’s like looking at a doll that was made to resemble me.”
“No, people always said I looked just like my mom…”
Would you just stop, already?
“They probably never saw me, her husband, so they just made up some random excuse.”
“…”
Damn, now that I think about it, he’s probably right.
The neighbors would always sweat bullets when they said that my mom and I looked alike.
“Haha, Chloe really looks like her mom… definitely… Haha.”
Yeah, I even remember those awkward laughs they tried to fake.
When Herald’s mouth twisted into a mocking grin, I couldn’t hide my feelings of despair. My face, which looked so much like his, looked especially annoying, and I glared at him. Only then did I realize that our conversation had gone off in a weird direction.
“Wait! That’s not important right now!”
It didn’t matter whether I was healthy and looked like Herald.
I had promised to help Herald and mom reconcile, so why was he suddenly saying all this random nonsense?
“Aah… isn’t that already a thing of the past?”
Herald replied lazily.
So, “little brats shouldn’t interfere in adult matters” is your answer, huh?
I couldn’t accept that.
In the matter with mom, Herald was acting more childish than I was.
If I didn’t intervene from start to finish, it seemed impossible for them to ever reconcile.
“Sigh… I’m frustrated.”
“…What?”
Muttering as I tapped my chest with my fist, Herald raised his eyebrow slightly.
“Do you know who my mom loves most in the world?”
“…”
“Me, me!” I pointed at myself with confidence.
“…But.”
Herald frowned, and I continued to speak loudly.
“And I know my mom best!”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Then do you know her better than me?”
“…”
Herald’s mouth closed at my question.
“My mom’s favorite food.”
“…Smoked salmon salad.”
“Wrong! It’s fluffy pancakes! Next, what animal does my mom dislike?”
“…Mice?”
“Wrong! It’s snakes. You know how good mom is at catching mice…”
“…”
Herald’s face stiffened in shock as I spoke.
But it was true that mom was good at catching mice. Whenever mice appeared in the house, she would grab their tails without a hint of fear and toss them far away.
“Adeline… she’s good at… catching mice?”
Herald’s voice faltered, and he asked in disbelief.
“Yes!”
“Hah…”
“Anyway, next, what’s mom’s hobby?”
“Hobby…?”
“Something she likes and is good at.”
“Embroidery?”
“Wrong! The correct answer is… making strawberry jam!”
Herald looked at me with a hollow gaze after a series of wrong answers.
“Sigh… I don’t even know what you’re trying to do anymore. So, what does it matter that you know so much about Adeline?”
This was the question I had been waiting for.
“Because I know my mom very well, I also know how to make her stop being angry.”
“Make her stop being angry?”
“Yes! Because mom is really mad at you, right?”
“…”
Since what I said was true, Herald didn’t deny it and tilted his head as if to hear more.
“Now, here’s the question!”
“Another question…”
“Why did you make mom so angry?”
“…I’m not sure.”
Herald answered indifferently.
I didn’t expect him to give me the answer right away, but would it kill him to at least show some effort in trying to guess?
“Hmm, that’s because you didn’t know mom at all. You kept making her mad because you didn’t understand her.”
“…I see.”
Herald nodded slightly as if he thought there was some truth in my words.
“So, listen to me. I know how to make mom stop being angry.”
“…Hmm.”
“Well, if you never want to be forgiven by mom, then that’s your choice.”
“…”
“I don’t really care whether you’re my dad or not.”
“What?”
He bit the bait, hook, line, and sinker.
“Do you know how popular mom was in the village?”
“…”
“Even though mom kept saying no, people would keep coming with flowers and gifts… Ugh!”
Just as I was about to exaggerate a story about how Eddie kept bringing presents despite mom’s rejections, Herald suddenly stood up abruptly.
I looked up at him in a daze, and when I saw his face, I couldn’t help but gasp.
His face had transformed into something monstrous. If I had encountered him on a dark street, I would have screamed and run away in an instant.
He immediately walked toward the door and began pulling on the thick golden rope in a hurry.
Was the rope going to snap…?
Before long, a man rushed in as if he had been running.
“Yes, Duke! You called for me?”
“Prepare the tea. I’ll have black tea, and the brat will have…”
Herald’s cold eyes turned to me.
What? Was I supposed to say what I wanted to drink?
“Milk tea!”
“…Prepare hot chocolate.”
Damn, why look at me if you’re going to decide on your own?
The servant bowed and quickly left the room.
I watched the servant’s figure disappear in a flash when I suddenly heard a thud in front of me.
“Now, let’s get to the story.”
U-Um… His eyes are really scary…
