Episode 15
Today, Betty came along with me.
After exchanging a brief glance, Betty and I simultaneously began running toward the direction of Dietrich’s scream.
A few of the other servants who were in the garden had already reached Dietrich before us and surrounded him.
That white figure sitting on the ground—isn’t that Dietrich?
“What happened? What’s going on?”
“Oh, young miss, you’re here too.”
“What’s going on?”
One of the gardeners, whose face I recognized, kept muttering ‘Oh no’ as he examined Dietrich’s ankle closely before replying.
“The young master seems to have hurt his ankle…”
“Did he fall? Is it bad?”
“Yes. Judging by the swelling, it’s best to call the physician and have him check it properly. Oh dear, what should we do?”
He fell?
It was already afternoon, and it hadn’t rained recently, so the riding track was completely dry.
His shoes were brand new, made just a month ago, and they had been properly broken in to fit his feet perfectly.
The path wasn’t slippery, and his shoes were in perfect condition, so…
“Dietrich, are you okay?”
“This is nothing.”
For something that’s ‘nothing,’ he sure screamed loudly earlier.
Trying to act tough in front of everyone, huh?
“Someone, go call the family physician sent from the main household. Another person, carry the young master to his room immediately.”
Betty quickly took charge of the situation, and the largest man present gently lifted Dietrich onto his back.
I bit my lip as I followed them from behind.
***
After Dietrich was laid down on the bed, I finally had a chance to examine his ankle before the physician, who was out on a visit, returned.
I’m not a doctor, but in my previous life, I worked with people who injured themselves while exercising—it was part of my job.
His ankle was not only swollen and red but also starting to show a faint bluish tint, which made me think the injury might extend to the bone.
“I told you, it’s nothing. My knee just hurt a bit today, and I slipped.”
Even though he was breaking out in a cold sweat from the pain, Dietrich continued to act tough.
Your knee hurt?
“Why does it hurt?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you fall or bump into something?”
“No. I haven’t gotten into any trouble lately. But my knee has been hurting for days.”
His knee hurts, but there’s no visible injury?
If he’d had a sudden growth spurt, I’d suspect growing pains, but Dietrich hadn’t grown significantly recently.
And it’s not like I’ve been pushing him to overdo his exercise routines either…
I alternated between looking at Dietrich’s knee and his unusually round, shiny face.
‘This is probably what I think it is.’
There’s only one reason I can come up with.
“Dietrich, have you been eating something behind my back?”
Lately, Dietrich’s weight changes had been hard to ignore.
I didn’t have an exact scale or body composition analyzer to confirm it, but based on my own observations, it looked like he had gained at least 4 kilograms in the past month.
‘Gaining that much weight so quickly would definitely put strain on his knees.’
For a seven-year-old boy to gain that much weight in such a short time, there’s only one possible explanation.
He must be secretly eating something.
For Dietrich to have gained weight this quickly, it was definitely due to consuming large amounts of sugary foods.
“What? What do you mean I ate something?”
So, he did eat something.
Dietrich flinched and tried to move his leg, but the pain in his ankle made him wince. Meanwhile, I crossed my arms and refused to back down.
Desperate, Dietrich looked at Betty for help.
“Betty did it?”
“No, young miss! I’ve been by your side the entire time!”
That’s true.
Was it one of the servants assigned specifically to Dietrich? Or the kitchen staff? Someone must have taken advantage of the nanny’s absence to feed Dietrich calorie-heavy, nutritionally imbalanced treats.
“Are you going to tell me or not?”
“Uh… well… Yasmin gave me pies, cakes, and cookies. She said you’re too young to eat too much of that stuff, so she gave it all to me in secret and told me not to tell anyone…”
“When did this happen?”
“Every night before bed. But I saved some cookies for you! Open the drawer over there!”
When I opened the bedside drawer near Dietrich, I found several dry-looking cookies.
These snacks, filled with chocolate, marshmallows, and dried fruit, looked like they could spike anyone’s blood sugar just from the sight of them.
‘So, Yasmin’s been feeding him this kind of stuff every night before bed?’
No wonder Dietrich had been listening to Yasmin so obediently lately.
Even though he’s a good kid, he’s not the type to follow orders to sleep early without a fuss.
“The nanny said no to all this.”
“Yasmin said the nanny worries too much. She also said all the cousins who live at the main household eat these kinds of things just fine.”
“Was it the kitchen staff who made these?”
“Yeah. The new servants said it’s popular in Calena Castle where the main household is, so they kept giving me delicious snacks, and before I knew it…”
It seems like there’s a bigger issue with the employees from the main household.
Yasmin, aware that the nanny had already scolded her, was secretly using snacks to win Dietrich over behind the nanny’s back.
“This is unacceptable. It’s completely disregarding the nanny’s orders. I’ll report this to her immediately!”
Before I could react, Betty burst out in anger.
“She’s always going on about the main household’s customs, looking down on us branch household staff! Even when the madam passed away, she…”
Betty, who seemed ready to launch into a tirade, suddenly stopped and looked at us, gauging our reactions.
Now that I think about it, something similar happened before.
‘That time, when they came to collect the madam’s coffin…’
She started to say something back then too, but the nanny scolded her harshly.
What had happened?
When my mother passed away, both Dietrich and I were in such shock that we left the details to the staff. Grieving was already overwhelming enough.
All I knew was that someone from the main household had come to take my mother’s coffin and enshrine it in their family mausoleum. I didn’t know any of the details.
“What happened when Mother passed away?”
“Oh, no, I misspoke.”
“Tell us. If it’s about our mother, both Baby Ella and I have the right to know.”
Dietrich, who usually had a silly expression, furrowed his brows, and suddenly his sharp gaze made him look much more intimidating.
Under Dietrich’s piercing glare, Betty hesitated, her eyes darting nervously, but she eventually began to speak.
“Well… back then… the staff sent from the main household were a bit disrespectful.”
“Disrespectful how?”
“They made a few remarks belittling the master and the madam… That’s why the rest of us don’t like the staff from the main household.”
I wanted to know exactly what they said, but Betty refused to elaborate further.
As if trying to prevent us from pressing her any further, she desperately changed the subject back to Dietrich’s snacks.
“Young miss, what should we do about this? Should we report it to the nanny?”
Dietrich’s face turned pale at the thought of getting scolded by the nanny, but there was no other choice.
If he secretly enjoyed sweet treats, he’d have to endure the consequences too.
“Yes. Tell her everything—don’t leave anything out.”
When Betty and I turned away from him in unison, Dietrich slumped his shoulders, realizing no one was going to take his side.
“Everyone hates me…”
“I wouldn’t say we hate you.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
Even though it was his fault, he started squishing my cheeks as if to take out his frustration!
***
As expected, the nanny was furious when she learned the truth from Betty.
She summoned Yasmin and all the kitchen staff to the first-floor foyer, and her eyebrows shot up so high they could’ve touched the ceiling.
“Yasmin.”
I watched the scene from the top of the stairs.
“You brought sweets I specifically forbade to the young master. Was that your way of trying to win his favor?”
“…I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“No, this wasn’t a matter of you ‘not thinking.’ You deliberately disregarded me to manipulate the young master and treat the young ones here however you pleased.”
“That’s a misunderstanding, Nanny. I only wanted to bond with the young master quickly—”
“Yasmin, your duty is to look after the young miss. Why were you so intent on bonding with the young master?”
Exactly. As expected of our nanny, she gets straight to the point.
From what I could gather, Yasmin had initially planned to get close to me.
She’d even tried to alienate the other maids by scolding them and ensuring she was the only one by my side.
‘But that’s not what I wanted.’
I had clearly warned her not to disregard my maids and the nanny.
