Chapter 38
‘We’ve gotten a little closer… right?’
Of course not, and what’s the point of being close, Evelia thought to herself, and opened her mouth.
“Wait, do you have time? I have something to tell you.”
Cassis walked over and opened the door to the office.
“Come in.”
Evelia shook her hand.
“No. It’s not a big deal, I can talk to you here…”
“The air is cold. Come inside.”
His words sent a slight chill through the darkened hallway.
She had no intention of arguing with Cassis over this, so she obeyed and went inside.
Despite her saying that it was okay, Cassis insisted on sending a maid to bring tea.
Evelia remained silent and did not say anything until the maid brought tea. It was the same with Cassis.
There was an awkward silence between the two people. No, to be exact, the only person who felt awkward was Evelia. Because Cassis seemed no different from usual.
When the maid finally poured the tea and disappeared, Evelia spoke.
“I want to hire my own doctor.”
“The doctor is already at the Duke’s residence.”
Cassis, who had been answering without thinking, asked back.
“If you don’t trust the Duke’s doctor….”
“No! That’s not it.”
Evelia explained quickly, fearing that he would misunderstand.
“There is one doctor I would like to support. It’s okay to just sponsor her, but if possible, I want to keep her by my side as my doctor.”
“…….”
“I literally meant that I wanted to hire her as my doctor, not the Adelhard family’s doctor. However, since I will be entering the Duke’s residence, I wanted to obtain permission in advance.”
Cassis was silent for a moment, probably lost in thought.
‘Of course, I didn’t think he would give permission right away.’
Even though she was her personal doctor, not the family doctor, Erin needed Cassis’ permission to enter the Duke’s residence.
Of course, if Evelia went to see Erin directly instead of calling her, there was no need to tell Cassis.
Nevertheless, the reason why Evelia bothered to ask Cassis’ permission…
‘I want to make Aria and Ruth meet.’
I wanted to have Aria and Erin meet at the Duke’s residence, and also have Aria and Ruth become close friends.
It was because I wanted the two to meet sooner than in the original and continue their beautiful relationship.
Evelia felt nervous for no reason and drank the slightly cooled tea.
Cassis, who was staring at this, opened his mouth.
“I see.”
“Yes?”
“Do as you wish, Lady. If you wish, it is possible to hire that doctor as the Adelhard doctor.”
“No, there is no need for that. It’s enough for just being my personal doctor.”
It would be difficult to take care of Aria if she became the Adelhard family’s doctor, so I had no choice but to decline the offer.
“And…”
Evelia adjusted her teacup and started to mumble again.
“I want to go out tomorrow.”
“You don’t need to get permission from me for that.”
“I know that. However, I am planning to go out for 2 days and 1 night. So I thought I should tell you.”
Evelia didn’t think Cassis would be very interested in her work. So I thought he wouldn’t ask why.
But Cassis surprisingly asked the reason.
“Where are you going?”
Evelia answered, thinking it was just an investigation rather than interest in her. It wasn’t something to hide anyway.
“I want to go to my mother’s grave, my real mother. You’ve already heard from Sir Logan, right?”
“… Yes.”
“They said she was buried in the village where I lived. So I wanted to go there once.”
“Alone?”
“Well, not alone. I plan to take Annie with me.”
“The escort….”
As Cassis spoke, he closed his mouth as if he realized something. There was no escort knight assigned to Evelia yet.
“The escort is fine. No one will be targeting me anyway.”
“You are the future Duchess of the Adelhard family.”
What he meant was that there might be someone targeting Evelia.
Evelia once again realized the weight of Duchess Adelhard.
After thinking for a moment, Cassis declared casually.
“I will go with you.”
Evelia was startled and waved her hand.
“You don’t have to do that. It would be better to have an escort…”
“Aren’t you going to see Lady’s mother? As someone who will soon become part of the Lady family, I just want to do my duty.”
But it’s a contract marriage. Those words lingered in Evelia’s mouth.
But she couldn’t say anything and just nodded.
So the two headed to Evelia’s hometown together the next day.
To be exact, it was three people. The next day, Ruth found Evelia preparing to go out and asked her carefully.
“Can’t I go with you too?”
“It’s a long carriage ride. Young master will have a hard time.”
This place where magic was developed had mana portals that allowed for teleportation.
However, Evelia’s hometown was a bit far from the Mana Portal, so she had to ride a carriage for several hours.
Evelia was about to tell Ruth that he shouldn’t keep fussing, but the child grew sullen and slumped his shoulders.
“Yes…”
Rather, I felt weak at that sight.
‘Now that I think about it, Ruth could hardly go out and stayed at the mansion.’
With no close friends and no adults to take him to tea time, Ruth naturally lived in isolation at the mansion.
Perhaps Ruth wanted to take this opportunity to go on an outing.
‘Maybe he can get closer to Cassis this time.’
Evelia sighed once and then gave instructions to Annie.
“Annie, take care of young master.”
Ruth’s face lit up as he raised his head.
“Am I going with you too?”
“Yes. Let’s go together.”
“Okay!”
Ruth rushed to his room and quickly got ready to go out.
Evelia wore simple clothes instead of a formal dress and went out to the first floor with the child.
Cassis, who was waiting first, looked at Ruth with a puzzled look. Evelia explained before he could say anything.
“Young master said he wanted to go too. I feel bad about leaving him alone in the mansion for two days and one night.”
“I see.”
Cassis escorted Evelia without any sign of disapproval or something.
When she got into the carriage, Ruth squirmed and tried to climb in, and Cassis gently lifted him into the carriage.
Ruth’s cheeks turned a little red.
“Thank you.”
“…….”
It would be nice if you could at least answer that it was nothing. Evelia sighed inwardly.
However, Ruth, who was actually involved, seemed to be happy that Cassis had helped him, so he sat down next to her and waved his legs lightly.
Cassis sat down across from the two of us and the carriage started. After that everything went smoothly.
We boarded the Mana Portal safely and changed carriages there again. However, since we had to get a local carriage, the riding comfort was not as good as the Adelhard carriage.
Every time there was a stone on the floor, the carriage shook violently and my body shook.
“Ouch!”
Even now, the carriage was shaking and Evelia and Ruth’s bodies were bouncing. Evelia instinctively hugged Ruth to prevent the child from getting hurt.
“Young master, are you okay?”
Ruth smiled brightly as I checked and asked.
“I’m fine.”
Apparently, Ruth found the whole thing amusing.
“I’m glad.”
After Evelia let go of the child, she looked out the window and was lost in thought.
‘That’s strange. Why do I feel strange when she’s not really my mother?’
It was a feeling that had continued since then. There was no reason to feel this way because she wasn’t really my mother, but I kept feeling like I was missing someone.
It was when Evelia sighed in an unknown mood. Once again, a stone caught on the wheel and my body floated.
‘Uh?’
Was it because I let my guard down? Her body, unable to maintain balance, leaned forward.
Evelia had no idea what to do and was thrown into Cassis’ arms, who was sitting across from her.
Blink, blink, blink. She couldn’t figure out how this happened, so she just blinked.
Then, my gaze met red eyes that were wide open as if surprised.
Oh my 😳