☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
Two days later, the reception room of the Grand Duke’s residence was bustling with unexpected guests. Five children and their parents had come to see me all at once.
Among them, a man who introduced himself as a member of the Creedner family spoke up after a polite greeting.
“Milady, I apologize for meeting you under such unfortunate circumstances. The truth is, these children have confessed to the wrongdoing they committed against you last time. We have come to offer our apologies in person.”
So now, there were a total of 15 people lined up in front of me, all with expressions as if they had committed a grave sin.
“What on earth is this…”
Countess Portman, who was completely unaware of the situation, stood beside me, looking utterly confused.
Before the parents of the children could speak again, I spoke first.
“Grandmother, this is my matter, so I will handle it myself. Please have the children stay, and everyone else, including you, leave the room.”
Until now, I had been responding to everything Countess Portman said with simple agreements. I nodded eagerly even when she told me, “You won’t be able to take the Grand Duke’s position. When your father returns, there’s no way you’ll be able to,” as if I understood completely.
But now, as I suddenly acted as if I had developed a sense of self that I didn’t have before, she looked at me in shock, as if the command to leave was too much to bear.
“…Arcadia?”
In any case, as of yesterday, Countess Portman’s secret ledger was in my hands, and my parents would return to the Grand Duke’s residence tomorrow. This meant I no longer needed to act in front of Countess Portman.
I cast a subtle glance at the parents of the children.
“We can’t let a children’s fight escalate into an adult conflict, can we?”
This was a terrifying warning: if they didn’t comply with what I wanted, my fearsome father would learn the whole story, and then they would all face disaster.
Who was my father? The greatest villain in the novel. A man who dedicated his life to revenge. He had a nasty temperament and would never tolerate being wronged, returning the favor tenfold!
While he might have been indifferent during our first meeting, he had officially recognized me as his heir now. Would he just stand by after the children deliberately threw stones at me, his officially acknowledged heir? It would be better for them to resolve this at my level.
One of the parents who understood my intentions quickly addressed Countess Portman.
“Countess Portman, I think it would be best for the adults to leave, as the Lady suggested.”
“I need to hear an explanation of what’s going on first!”
She seemed angry, perhaps because she had been left out of the loop. It bothered her that she was the only one who knew nothing.
In fact, this was somewhat intentional on my part. Being left out of information meant being excluded from power. Countess Portman would know this well.
I directly commanded Anna.
“Anna, take Grandmother out.”
“Yes, Milady.”
Anna responded as if she had been waiting for this moment and quickly stepped forward to support Countess Portman. Countess Portman looked utterly astonished.
“You…”
It wasn’t just Anna. The parents of the children moved in unison, pushing Countess Portman out the door. The once powerful figure of the Grand Duke’s residence was now being swiftly ushered outside by my single command.
Unlike the united parents, the children seemed terrified at the thought of being left alone with me in this space. One of the children grabbed the hem of their mother’s dress as she was leaving.
“Mom! Don’t leave us here!”
“Derek!”
She shot a stern look at her almost crying young son.
“Don’t show such a pathetic face. Remember what we practiced at home and apologize to the lady”
“Mom…”
Derek’s face was filled with despair, as if to say, “How can you leave me here in a lion’s den?” But ultimately, the baroness released her son’s grip and firmly closed the door.
As the situation settled down, it grew quiet. I turned to the frightened children and spoke.
“What do you mean by an unfortunate incident?”
One of the children cautiously answered my calm question.
“…To apologize directly for what happened last time…”
“What happened last time?”
“…Well, we threw stones at you on purpose…”
“Is that so? I had no idea.”
As I smiled, the children’s faces fell into confusion. They looked as if they had no idea what I was thinking.
“So, you’re saying that the stones in the snow were definitely intentional?”
“That is…”
“I didn’t even know that, and I kept my oath with you. I didn’t tell anyone.”
The children exchanged glances. It wasn’t that I had spoken first; they had confessed themselves, so they had nothing to say.
“Why did you put stones in the snow? Were you trying to kill me?”
“N-no, that’s not it!”
The children jumped up and shouted in unison.
Though they were still young, they knew what it meant to try to kill the heir acknowledged by the Grand Duke. And being young made that meaning an even greater threat that weighed heavily on them.
“I swear! We weren’t trying to kill you! You wouldn’t die from a stone like that!”
“Then why were you all running around desperately when there were rumors that I was going to hit you with this stone? It’s not like you would die.”
I picked up the stone from the table and stood up.
“Ugh!”
As I approached, the children completely panicked and huddled against the wall, looking like people trying to escape from a monster. They were that desperate.
“Do you know what it means that your parents left you here with me?”
The children were already too frightened to answer, so I provided the answer for them.
“It means they entrusted your lives to me. It means that I could kill you right now and it wouldn’t matter.”
Fear filled the children’s eyes. They were probably imagining a horrific scene straight out of a horror movie, envisioning themselves lying on the ground, bloodied and broken.
“Ahhhh!”
As I raised the stone high in my hand, the children screamed and buried their faces in their arms. A boy named Derek even started to cry, his size not matching his sobbing.
I waited without doing anything. As time passed with no incident, the children cautiously began to lift their heads one by one.
“Am I scary?”
At my question, the children barely nodded. They were sufficiently soaked in fear. By now, they must have learned the lesson that they could face the same consequences for misbehavior.
As I stared at the children with red noses, I suddenly threw the stone behind me.
The stone flew in an arc and landed silently on the soft carpet. The children’s heads followed the stone down and then back up again.
“Why are you scared? I’m not someone who threatens or harms you. I’m someone who protects and cares for you.”
The children looked at me with blank stares and murmured.
“Protects and cares for… us?”
“Yes, that’s my duty, and it’s what I have to do when I become the Grand Duke.”
Having given them a painful injection of fear, it was now time to offer them sweet candy.
“If I’m in the Grand Duke’s residence, I will protect every single blade of grass without exception. Why would I harm you, my people? Even if I had a knife in my hand, I wouldn’t stab you.”
Only then did the children straighten up and look at me fully. I smiled gently at the hesitant kids.
“So, when it snows next time, let’s have a snowball fight again. This time, let’s really have fun. Got it?”
The children began to sniffle a bit. They wiped their tears with their fists and soon nodded one by one.
“Mm-hmm.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too.”
“We were wrong.”
“We won’t do it again.”
Apologies followed one after another. While I felt relieved at the expressions of regret and reflection on the children’s faces, I also felt a great sense of responsibility.
This incident clearly ingrained in the children that they should fear me. However, from now on, I needed to instill trust in them, showing that I was someone they could believe in and follow.
This had to be proven through my own abilities, not by leveraging my status as the Grand Duke’s daughter.
