“Come to Grandma. From now on, I’ll take good care of you.”
I stepped out from behind Jas and approached her. She hugged me and gently patted my head.
“What a good and well-behaved child you are. Yes, that’s how it should be.”
Somehow, I felt like I understood the meaning behind her words. I had to be a well-behaved child; otherwise, I would incur her wrath.
“Sir Jas, you may leave now.”
Jas shook his head at her words.
“No, I intend to stay with Lady Arcadia until the Grand Duke and Duchess arrive.”
“What are you worried about? I’m right here with this child.”
Her reply showed her displeasure, and Jas wore a complicated expression. I smiled at Jas.
“Jas, Grandma is right. You should go home.”
“But, Lady…”
“I want to stay with Grandma. I’m sure your parents are waiting for you too.”
For my plan, it was better if Jas wasn’t around. As long as he was there, they wouldn’t reveal their true intentions.
In the end, Jas returned home only after I told him it was an order. Immediately after he left, Countess Portman changed her demeanor.
“…You look just like your mother. When you grow up, you’ll have a face that can charm men.”
She seemed to think I wouldn’t understand, as she continued to speak without hesitation.
“Not only did he marry that kind of woman, but he’s going to hand over the Duke’s position to a woman. The Grand Duke must be under some kind of spell.”
“Is it wrong for me to become a Grand Duke?”
I feigned innocence and asked her, putting on a face of cluelessness.
In response, Countess Portman scoffed as if she had heard the most absurd question in the world.
“A woman as a Grand Duke! That’s absolutely out of the question. If the Grand Duke has no son, that position must naturally go to my family’s grandchildren.”
Only then did I realize the old fox’s intentions.
She planned to pass the title of Grand Duke to someone from her family if the Grand Duke did not have a son. This was usually how titles were inherited. However, it seemed she was furious after receiving a letter stating that the title would be given to me.
“Show this child to her room and call her for dinner later.”
Countess Portman left those words and departed first.
I followed the maid down the hallway. The maid had been glancing at me suspiciously, as if she were trying to figure me out.
“What’s your name?”
Startled by my question, the maid stammered, “Ah, it’s Anna, Milady.”
Anna? If it’s Anna, then that’s the name of the maid who bullied my mother the most.
I glared sharply at the back of Anna’s head as she walked ahead.
Her head must be burning by now.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
When dinner time arrived, the maid came to fetch me.
The place she led me to had a large rectangular dining table in the center, illuminated by numerous candles all around. Countess Portman and several children were already seated.
In the novel, Countess Portman had moved her base of operations to the Grand Duke’s residence, and her relatives and children from friendly noble families started visiting frequently.
It was a good opportunity to find a quality tutor, and the boys would have the chance to see the knights up close, fostering their grand dreams.
In any case, these children would grow up to be major nobles in the North. This meant I would eventually have to work with them.
I resolved to become friends with these children as much as possible. Although my relationship with the prince ended poorly, I couldn’t let that happen with these kids. Unlike the prince, whom I would only see occasionally, I would be seeing these children regularly as they grew up.
I approached Countess Portman with a bright smile.
“Grandma, I’m sorry for being late…”
“Go sit over there.”
The spot she pointed to was the farthest corner from the head table. She was commanding me to sit in a lower position than the children from other families.
“…Yes.”
I answered obediently and took a seat where she indicated.
Soon, dishes began to arrive in succession, and the meal started. I quietly put food in my mouth while closely observing the atmosphere and Countess Portman’s intentions.
Not only had she pushed me into a corner where I was hardly visible, but she also didn’t say a word to me throughout the meal. In contrast, she kept asking the other children if they found studying enjoyable and what they were interested in these days.
This was clearly a deliberate action. In some ways, it was quite aristocratic. It meant she intended to completely ignore me by treating me as if I were not even there.
It would have been more human to openly express emotions like the prince did. He might change as he grows up, but at least he was aware of his interactions at that time.
On the other hand, Countess Portman was trying to make me realize my place by treating me as a non-entity.
You are nothing here, so know your place.
Hmm, I see.
With this, I had completely analyzed Countess Portman. I believed she was thinking this way.
She wanted to prevent my parents’ marriage as much as possible. However, she must also recognize that it would be realistically difficult now that the king had granted permission.
That left only one path. To shake my somewhat easygoing mother to maintain her current power. She likely calculated that making my mother a mere figurehead of a Grand Duchess wouldn’t be too difficult.
Furthermore, she would try to prevent me from inheriting the title of Grand Duke by any means. To do that, she was currently shoving me into a corner and ignoring me. Later, she would coax me gently, telling me to say I didn’t want the title of Grand Duke. It would make things easier if I gave up first.
Indeed, I couldn’t just leave that old woman here. I had to drive her out within a week.
After finishing the meal and returning to my room, I began to ponder how to get rid of Countess Portman.
In truth, I hadn’t been completely without thoughts until now. I had one idea in mind: to steal Countess Portman’s secret ledger and make it public.
Countess Portman was secretly siphoning off small amounts of the Grand Duke’s wealth while controlling all the household affairs.
Once, my mother noticed something strange and questioned Countess Portman about it. Countess Portman had flown into a rage, scolding my mother for being a lowly concubine who dared to question her. After that, my mother never brought up the topic again.
It would be good to use this to my advantage, but the problem was how to get my hands on the ledger. If I got caught snooping around her room, it would only make things worse.
Wouldn’t it be better to entice someone familiar with the situation here? Ideally, someone who could best betray Countess Portman.
My instincts suggested that person was Anna.
According to the novel, Anna was the type who was loyal only to money and power. If you were to pick the employee with the least loyalty to Countess Portman, it would undoubtedly be her. Moreover, she was the one who had wronged my mother the most.
Among the employees, some had reluctantly participated in the bullying due to Countess Portman’s orders. I had no intention of punishing them.
But Anna was different. She envied my mother, who was of the same status as her, for receiving my father’s love, and thus, she deliberately bullied her more maliciously.
Because of this, I actually planned to start lightly tormenting Anna tomorrow.
“Bring me water. This water is too hot, so bring me another. This one is too cold. Bring me another.”
I intended to make her run up and down the stairs countless times, like training a dog, but I decided to hold off on that for now.
Since even dog poop could be useful, I should make good use of Anna for now.
With a proud smile, I noticed something white falling outside the window.
“It’s the first snow!”
I threw open the window and watched the snow pouring down.
So, this was the first time I was seeing such snow since my previous life.
Perhaps because it was cold in the north, the snow had piled up thickly on the ground without melting. Despite the chilly wind, I was enjoying the snow when I saw the children from the dining room playing in the front yard.
Should I take this opportunity to get to know them? After all, children usually become friends by playing together.
I quickly threw on a thick coat and dashed out of my room. When I arrived in the front yard, I saw five children divided into teams, rolling around and having a snowball fight.
“I want to join the snowball fight too!”
When I shouted, the children simultaneously stopped moving and looked at me. Smiling brightly at the kids who were just glancing at each other, I approached them.
“There are five of you right now, so the numbers don’t match anyway. If I join, it’ll be three against three. So let me join in.”
The children whispered something to each other, and the tallest one stepped forward to speak.
“What if you get hurt while playing with us? Then we’ll be the ones getting in trouble.”
I shook my head vigorously.
“No way, why would you get in trouble? Even if I get hurt, it’s just from playing with friends, so it can’t be helped.”
In reality, those kids were around eight or nine years old, so if we had a snowball fight, I was likely to be the one getting hit the most.
But so what? It’s just snow; how much could it really hurt? As long as they didn’t stuff snow down my clothes, I could forgive anything.
“…Then, you won’t tell any adults if you get hurt?”
“Yeah!”
“Can you swear on your family and your father’s name?”
That question was so childlike that I barely held back a laugh.
“Of course! I swear!”
Finally, the child nodded. We divided into teams and started the snowball fight.
It had been so long since I had a snowball fight that I became completely absorbed in the children’s game. I was pouring my soul into this snowball fight.
As I dodged the flying snowballs better than I expected, the kids on the opposing team began to get frustrated.
I felt like the training I had done with my dad on the way here was paying off. He had told me that to dodge a sword, I needed to practice watching it come at me until the last moment, and I had been training hard.
Thanks to that, I adeptly avoided the snowballs coming at me. I also eagerly packed snow and threw it at the kids in front of me.
While we were having this chaotic snowball fight, suddenly, instead of coming from the front, a snowball flew in from the side. It was an unexpected direction, and I had no time to dodge. It hit me right on the side of my forehead, making a loud thud, unlike a typical snowball.
“Ow….”
I cupped my hand around the side of my forehead. It hurt too much for being hit by snow.
Why does it hurt so much? Just as I thought that and looked down, I saw a small stone on the scattered snow.
Then, red droplets of blood began to fall onto the white snow. Something warm was trickling down from my forehead. When I wiped it with my hand, it was blood.
