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“As you like.”
Did it show that she kept paying attention to him? It was embarrassing for a while. She excitedly brushed the snow off his cloak.
“Done.”
She shrugged her shoulders proudly and looked up, and the Grand Duke was looking at her. The eyes seemed to be looking at a legendary creature, but they were a little different from the ones she saw when she signed the contract the other day. If it was the eyes that saw the unknown monster back then, now it’s the eyes that see the ginger cookie dancing alone. Embarrassed, she smiled helplessly and lifted the rather heavy leather cloak with both hands. The Grand Duke took the heavy cloak with one hand and slung it over his shoulder.
Now he was holding a fork with a clear mind and asked from the side.
“Am I even supposed to say thank you?”
“Uh…”
“Usually, thank you is heard by the person who did the favor.”
“Yes.”
“It was Miss Hazel who wanted to brush it, not me.”
“…Why is the story like that?”
So, it’s silly. As she was poking innocent peas with a fork, something slid toward her from the side. She glanced at it and saw that the beer was frothing in a beer glass full of beer.
“Thanks, but I don’t drink on duty.”
She politely pushed the beer mug toward the Grand Duke.
“Your employer allows it, so eat it!”
A knight sitting at the table next to him shouted loudly. She was thankful for the favor, but she shook her head, furrowing her nose.
“I’m weak in alcohol.”
Without saying anything, the Grand Duke raised the glass he had offered her and gulped down the beer so that his neck was very excited.
hHmm… He could model for a beer commercial. How could he drink it to look so cool and delicious? It looked delicious enough to quench her thirst. In fact, since she came there, she didn’t even drink alcohol, saying that she would live her life according to her age. But people here drink casually if they were adults. Then there’s nothing she couldn’t drink. However, the problem was that the alcohol was weak.
After dinner, the chestnuts have to wash up, and there’s still a lot of work left to do. The children seemed to be already full, so their chewing speed slowed down. Luna looked around the noisy hall with her eyes round like purple grapes, she asked.
“Why don’t those people follow the table manners?”
Luna’s curious gaze was on the coachman, who held the chicken leg in his hand and tore it apart. It must have been the first time she’d seen him like that, since he wouldn’t have eaten with them if he wasn’t a nobleman in his entire life.
Even in this cluttered and crude place, the Grand Duke, who had been eating only with a fork and knife as if he were sitting alone in a Michelin 3-star restaurant, gave up what he had in his mouth before replying.
“Because he is not noble.”
“Hey, isn’t Sir Victor a nobleman?”
Luna pointed to the knight who slammed the beer glass down on the table with a ‘wahaha’ sound.
“Victor knows manners too. He knows when to use them and when not to.”
“I know…”
As soon as Luna opened her mouth, the Gand Duke raised his index finger and warned.
“You can’t. You need more practice.”
“Chit…”
“Even if Victor looks like that, he perfectly observes etiquette at the dinner in the imperial palace. If you can do that too, you can do it like Victor.”
Tomorrow evening, a New Year’s banquet would be held at the imperial palace. In the grand duke’s family, only the Grand Duke attended. The children went to the imperial palace on New Year’s Day, but they did not attend the dinner. The reason was that the children were young, but in fact, the children’s eating habits and table manners were the problem. Then this year, he decided to take the kids. It meant that they had improved enough to be displayed at official events, so he was really proud.
“If you drive? Then why don’t you talk like Victor?”
Whether the Grand Duke’s words were difficult to understand, or if he was worried about the dinner, Luca asked the wrong question in a timid voice.
“Luca, don’t give up already.”
The Grand Duke reached across the table and stroked Luca’s head.
‘Oh, good bro, here’s your chance to uphold the rule.’
She casted her eyes on the Grand Duke.
‘Good job! Clap clap clap, well done! It’s compliment time!’
The Grand Duke glanced at her, then turned his gaze to the children and raised the corners of his mouth.
“Both Luca and Luna are doing well.”
* * *
It was the time when she was finishing her meal and handing out one by one from the cookie jars in her cabin to the kids looking for dessert.
“Still, you’ve been lucky with a few wagons and minor injuries.”
Behind her, she heard the innkeeper talking with someone in their group.
“I heard that the Pope’s procession was attacked by a herd of yeti this morning. Perhaps the Holy Knights didn’t use their strength, but they said there were casualties.”
At that moment, the Grand Duke, who was holding a beer mug, hesitated.
“Is His Holiness all right?”
However, it was not the Grand Duke who asked this question, but Sir Daniel, who sat at the table next to him and ate quietly.
“Unfortunately, I know nothing. I’ve only heard that they stay at an inn in a village to the south.”
The Grand Duke winked at Sir Daniel, who quickly turned pale.
“Go see.”
Sir Daniel stood up as soon as his words fell, and he hurried out. Immediately the sound of his horse’s hooves hurriedly kicking the ground was heard, and then they moved away.
As she looked back at the door where Daniel had disappeared with bewildered eyes, the Grand Duke said to her,
“Daniel was originally a paladin who served His Holiness.”
“Ah, so the holy power I felt before in the cabin and in the carriage today was Sir Daniel’s.”
“…Don’t tell Daniel about that.”
Why not? She looked at the Grand Duke with puzzled eyes, but he only drank beer.
“Sometimes I forget Miss Hazel is a witch.”
Then he let out a sigh and muttered an incomprehensible sound. She didn’t know what the Grand Duke meant when he said that, but it sounded right. Because she kept forgetting that she was a witch too.
* * *
The room they were assigned was clean and had an attached bathroom. The inn staff brought warm water to wash the children and her too. Now was the time to put the kids to bed.
“I just want you to sleep on a big bed.”
“Why? Isn’t it big enough for the three of us to sleep together?”
The room had a large bed and a single bed.
“Majah. It’s worth sleeping here.”
It was the moment Luca climbed onto the big bed with Lulu in his arms. There was the sound of a key being inserted into the door, and then, without a moment to say anything, it burst open. The Grand Duke who opened the door, and she, who met him in my pajamas, stood still for a moment and were at a loss for words.
“I came because it was my room…”
“It’s my room and the kids’ room.”
On the way home, the children always slept with her. So she thought it was her room if it was the kids’ room. Again, while she was speechless, the innkeeper, passing through the corridor humming her lilting song, stopped behind the Grand Duke.
“Why is that? Do you have any problem…”
“Are there any other rooms?”
“Ah… There isn’t…”
Even though the entire inn was rented, it seemed that it was not enough because there were so many members of the Grand Duke’s family.
“If…”
A woman with a warm impression laughed at the Grand Duke, and then she winked at her. She wanted to know why, but it turned out that it was better not to know.
“If you want your children to sleep separately…”
They mistook her and the Grand Duke for a married couple. Nonsense! Both of their faces contorted at the same time. The owner quickly read their faces, and she was embarrassed, so she shuddered.
“Ah, he is so handsome and you are so beautiful, and the children are so pretty, so I thought you were a family, hohoho…”
“Ahaha, I’m a bit of a beauty. It’s true that the chestnuts are pretty.”
She might be misunderstood. She also agreed not to be too embarrassed.
“It is an indisputable fact that my employer is handsome, haha…”
At the same time, when the employer left, she added another word, but the Grand Duke rolled his eyes and waved his hand at the owner.
“I’ll take care of it, so let’s go.”
After that, an awkward silence began between the Grand Duke and her. Embarrassed, she turned her gaze to the bed where the children were playing, and the Grand Duke followed her and looked at the children.
“I don’t even look like those guys, so why did you mistake me for their mother?”
She felt like she knew why. They may have looked like a couple when they quarreled over the clothes of the Grand Duke in the restaurant earlier. But the Grand Duke wrongly blamed her clothes.
“Ah, I see the answer.”
The Grand Duke’s gaze was on the dress hanging on the wall. A dress decorated with frills and ribbons.
“I was told to order something that stood out…”
It seemed that Lady Valeria had greatly misunderstood the Grand Duke’s order for a babysitter. It means that she shouldn’t mix in with the servants, but seeing as she ordered a bunch of dresses that a rich girl would wear. Then he should have been specific with his order.
She couldn’t be bitten because she only got her clothes right before she came to the capital, and since she was a servant of the Grand Duke’s family, she couldn’t come wearing the commoner’s clothes she always wore.
“Then, even if it’s a maid outfit…”
Madame Valeria suggested this, and the Grand Duke responded.
“You can’t recognize Miss Hazel at a glance, even from a distance.”
At that moment, Mrs. Valeria’s face turned red. It was also clear that she had a huge misunderstanding.