Chapter 19
“Roland!”
Karina shouted sternly but she couldn’t control her beating heart.
‘Maybe it was because of me that he helped Roland.’
Her face is burning. A child’s eyes are pure. Roland wasn’t the kid to joke with or lie to Karina in this situation. That very fact made Karina suffocate. After all, what if the impossible happened?
“Don’t say those words. And it’s not what you think it is.”
“Why?”
“Your Grace the Duke has a very, very high position… You can be arrested just by saying that.”
“Is mom going to report me?”
“Mom, are you going to report Roland?”
Karina ended up laughing at the children’s chorus.
“No, but someone might hear it.”
“Why are you arrested if anyone hears you?”
Karina was speechless for a moment and stared at Roland. It made her wonder if this was the moment of the ‘why’ disease that came to children at least once.
“People like the Duke should marry people like princesses. It’s all decided.”
“But mommy is as pretty as a princess.”
It was Melissa who stepped in. Karina hugged Melissa with a smile. She was glad to finally be freed from Roland’s baptism of questions.
“I’m dying to thank you. But it’s not me who’s pretty, it’s you guys. Do you understand?”
Suddenly Melissa started to touch Karina’s hair and ruffled it, then asked with a serious face.
“Mom, then you’re not getting married? With the Duke?
Karina burst out laughing.
“Never, it’ll never happen.”
“That’s a relief…”
“Huh?”
It was an unexpected answer.
“I don’t want my mom to get married.”
“I won’t, I won’t.”
Now, it seems like Melissa was worried that Karina would really become the Duchess and abandon them both.
It’s a ridiculous worry but a child’s. She didn’t want to hurt her delicate heart, so Karina repeatedly denying it to reassure Melissa.
Karina laid Melissa down who breathed out with a relaxed expression on her face, and casually looked into the small hand mirror she placed on the table next to the children’s bed.
‘…!’
For a moment, Karina almost made a clumsy scream. The woman in the mirror was neatly dressed, but her hair was all scattered with dust.
“Ah…”
A long groan came out of Karina’s mouth. She was so busy cleaning the house and preparing the children that she didn’t really care about what she looked like.
Karina let out a laugh. It was because she was ashamed of herself, who was fluttered for a while by the children’s words. Claude was amazed by the look of Karina’s messy appearance, so he continued to stare at her and even laughing.
‘Yeah, I would have laughed too.’
She dresses the children neatly and herself very hard as well. But her hair is all messy. Karina looked back and forth at Roland and Melissa, who quietly entered their blankets.
“Guys, if my head is like this you need to say something.”
“What’s wrong with mom’s hair?”
“Messy, it’s a mess.”
“It doesn’t look like that at all.”
Claude aside, even Melissa who could understand Karina’s feelings with her curly hair grinned.
“Mom’s hair isn’t messed up. She’s so pretty!”
“Really?”
Karina sighed. The past is in the past. Whoever becomes the Duke would consider her a stone on the side of the road. It’s a bit complicated so maybe just a stone that caught your eye.
‘Then, he wasn’t only watching Roland all the time so maybe it was just my misunderstanding… No.’
It was certainly true that the Duke continued to observe Roland.
‘Then he was keeping an eye on me and Roland… me aside, why Roland?’
Karina’s eyes widened.
‘Yeah, why didn’t I think of that?’
The Duke loved talent so much that he tried to recruit Roland more than ten times in the novel. So it wouldn’t be surprising if he recognized Roland’s talent right away.
‘…’
Karina swallowed her dry saliva. If things had been a lot different, she might have been happy. It was a chance for Roland to learn magic properly.
But Roland is only eight years old now. Still, he had a strong reluctance to magic because of the abuse. For Roland, the Duke’s attention could only be poisonous.
‘And, seems like it got caught.’
The Duke of Tors didn’t play an important role in the novel she had read in her previous life. Rather, he was more of an extra that highlighted just how great Roland was.
But the fact that he and Roland weren’t compatible with each other remained impressive even in the vague memories.
‘I’m sorry, but it’s better to stay that way.’
Melissa looked up at her sullenly.
“Mom, what are you thinking?”
“I’m not thinking about anything.”
“You’re lying. You’re still thinking about your hair. It’s not a mess at all.”
“…Isn’t it? Were you guys dying from thinking about how pretty I am?”
Melissa burst into laughter, and then she had a serious look that didn’t fit her age.
“Mom is the prettiest in the world. The prettiest person I’ve ever seen, prettier than a fairy tale princess.”
“Melissa, did school teach you how to flatter?”
“What’s flattery?”
“It’s not true, but it’s a compliment.”
“I’m not…”
Melissa pouted her lips. Karina laughed and helped the children change into their pajamas. The very nervous children fell asleep as soon as she patted their blankets.
Karina was also lying on the bed. The children fell asleep deeply and breathed out. But Karina can only look at the ceiling with her eyes wide open. She couldn’t sleep at all.
* * *
“I think you should have told me who Sir Deviathan was.”
Karina grumbled, wiping the dust off the display case.
“At least I could have prepared my heart, and then…”
“Lies.”
Wilder uttered in a clear tone.
“You probably wouldn’t even want to meet him in the first place.”
“…”
“Mrs. Bloe, think about it. Just because the other person is that kid your gratitude didn’t change right?
“…That, yes.”
Karina admitted. Whatever his goal was if it wasn’t for Claude’s name Roland might have gone terribly wrong. Even if he helped Roland only for his talent that doesn’t mean Claude wasn’t Roland’s benefactor.
“I already gave the lady a chance. It’s the lady who went for it. So don’t argue with me.”
“…I didn’t mean to blame Sir Wilder.”
“Didn’t you just do?”
Karina eventually stopped mopping and buried her face in her forearm.
‘It’s my fault.’
It’s nothing less of a poor commoner being hostile to the Duke from Wilder’s point of view. She felt guilty when she realized that she unintentionally blamed Wilder for helping Karina with all his heart.
“I’m sorry. It’s just… I’ve been having a hard time lately.”
“You don’t have to be sorry.”
Wilder opened some drawers with a grumpy face.
“Come on, stop struggling with the dust that’s been around for over a decade and come here. I’m going to teach you the real thing.”
Karina blinked her eyes. She learned quite a lot in the meantime. It seemed there was something more than Lenque’s warning regarding magic stone in particular.
“I mean young people want to ask for opinions from someone of their age. No matter how much he chooses they ignored the old man’s eyes…”
Wilder frowned. It seems like the young couple who made a fuss a while ago saying they couldn’t trust Wilder’s eyes still came to mind.
“It would be good for Mrs. Bloe to develop her eyes.”
Karina was greatly embarrassed. Wilder has given her various kinds of jewelry so far, he taught her how to distinguish fake jewelry and have an eye for jewelry. Lord Lenque was a baron who couldn’t afford luxury and was only interested in magic so Karina had no sense of beauty at all.
“Mrs. Bloe has a good sense… Let’s try it this way first. Which one of the two is better?”
Wilder lifted two brooches that look both equally flashy. One is an amethyst in the form of a caterpillar-shaped gold ornament eating fresh cabbage. The other is amethyst with a butterfly-shaped gold ornament that just came out from the chrysalis.
(T/N: I’m not sure if I describe the brooches correctly but I gave up, both my Korean knowledge and MTL didn’t help much either lol.)
“It looks similar.”
“Similar?”
Wilder looked disappointed.
“This is much better!”
He pointed to the butterfly-shaped gold ornament that just came out from the chrysalis.
“No, who likes caterpillars? Mrs. Bloe, was there a scent I didn’t know about?”
“That’s gross too.”
Karina frowned. The butterfly-shaped had just come out from the chrysalis and its wings are droopy, so it’s as gross as the caterpillar.
“Mrs. Bloe, this has a meaning. On the other hand, this one… it doesn’t mean anything.”
Wilder tapped the cabbage caterpillar brooch.
“What does a butterfly brooch mean?”
“Growth. Metamorphosis. Emergence. Change. Evolution…”
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Wilder gave various meanings then paused for a moment.
“Is this expression more familiar to Mrs. Bloe? Magic.”
“…!”
* * *
(T/N: Karina is a cutie and can be an overthinker but this chapter just takes the crown to prove her best feature of all, questionable. She reminded me of these two memes so I decided to make both.)