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No one said a word, but their eyes were constantly following us.
“Oh my, it’s Marquis Leguier, right?”
“I was wondering if he would come when Duke Valliot came in
 Such a candy to my eyes. Shall we greet him later?”
“By the way, who is the kid next to him?”
“I don’t know? Why is that?”
“Ah
”
A whispering voice came from somewhere.
I eagerly stretched my legs and followed Uncle.
“Stay here a minute.”
The place Uncle took me to was a place where I could avoid people’s eyes a little.
It was a separate space on one side of the banquet hall.
There was a table where people could sit and chat under a dome-shaped canopy.
Although it was open in the form of an arch-shaped door in all directions, it was a structure where you could sit with your eyes closed at any time.
“Huh? Uncle, where are you going?”
“I have something to do for a while, so stay here. Gerard, look after her.”
“Yes, Milord.”
After saying that briefly, Uncle took a sharp look around and then went somewhere.
Left alone with Gerard, I held the hand that he extended.
“Is Uncle busy here too?”
“Well, it’s always like that.”
“I thought we came to eat something delicious.”
“If you stay here for a while, I will bring you something for you to eat.”
“Bring Gerard’s too!”
Then Gerard grinned and hurried to the nearby food table.
There was nothing near.
It was just a few steps away from the reach of an outstretched hand, and Gerard turned his back for a moment.
I dangled my legs that couldn’t reach the floor and looked around.
“It’s so pretty.”
Everyone was wearing colorful dresses and suits, then had conversations.
Of course, wherever I looked, Uncle was the coolest.
People spread their fans and shook them like peacock tails.
They laughed and kissed the other’s glove. And also the ball!
Mommmm!
I saw it and turned my head away.
Gerard brought a plate full of delicious food in an instant.
I asked, holding the fork Gerard was handed to me.
“Gerard, you know.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“Does Uncle have a girlfriend? Just like those kissing people over there!”
“Pardon? A girlfriend?”
Gerard asked as if he had never heard of it.
“Yeah!”
After thinking about it, he shook my head.
“I don’t think there’s any while I’m being his aide. Probably not, even in the future
”
“Why?”
“I’m afraid, his temper
 Ahem, he’s so busy that he doesn’t even have time to date.”
“Hmmm, I see.”
I think I just heard the word ‘temper’, but I’m mistaken, right?
I continued to look at the fruits and jellies Gerard had brought to my mouth.
The people who work here are all strangers, but they are all kind and friendly.
It didn’t take long for Uncle to return.
“Peanut, get up.”
“Where are we going? Uncle, this is so delicious. Do you want to eat, too? The taste is sparkling!”
“You eat a lot.”
Uncle, who went away, suddenly sat down beside me.
At this time, I diligently forked with the intention of putting all the snacks on the plate into my stomach.
“
Did I starve you?”
“Mmm?”
“Don’t spit it out, eat it.”
“Mmph, new spith owt! (no spit out!)”
I emptied all the milk that Zenda gave me before I came, but I eat with all my might because I need strength to protect my uncle.
Well, even if I told Uncle, he wouldn’t know.
“But where are we going? What about Grandpa?”
“To see Grandpa.”
“Really?”
You should’ve told me earlier!
I dropped the fork and jumped off the seat.
Then I pulled Uncle.
“I ate it all, Uncle. Let us go!”
Although Uncle looked at me with an absurd face, I shamelessly urged him.
***
“Grandpa!”
Aika let go of Kassel’s clothes, which she was holding onto like a lifeline, and then, like a lightning bolt, ran towards Duke Valliot.
Kassel, who had put his hands roughly in his pockets, stopped walking and put on a bewildered expression.
His eyebrows furrowed in displeasure. Goodness.
“Your tongue is cut in half.”
(i take it as aika speaks differently depends on who she’s talking to
? perhaps)
The corners of Kassel’s mouth twisted as hard as eyebrows.
You didn’t do that to me.
“My baby. Our princess. How did you come here? Isn’t it time for you to go to bed?”
“I came with Uncle. He said Grandpa was coming!”
“How did you know that this old man wants to see our Aika?”
“I left Grandpa the other day. I was very, very sad.”
“Ah, was our princess like that? It’s all because of him. There is nothing wrong with you.”
Oochie-coochie coo. It’s a tearful family reunion every time.
Even his beard, which he had grown with dignity, had been trimmed neatly every day since he first met Aika.
He did it because Aika might not like it.
Duke Valliot, carrying Aika, walked over to Kassel, who was standing crookedly.
“Did you meet them?”
Kassel lightly nodded his head.
“Yes, well.”
“Say that you will make it right. As long as you bring the right to establish the academy, all we have to do is build the site. If it doesn’t work, just clean it up and take it away.”
The Valliot family was currently trying to obtain the founding rights for the creation of an academy.
Unlike the direction of funds that had been recklessly collected until now, the establishment and operation of an academy was a business that required money to be poured.
The reason for establishing such an academy was definitely for Aika.
[It’s the academy my baby will attend, I can’t send her just anywhere.]
Aika still has a long way to go to an academy, but Duke Valliot thought there was no better time than now.
Coincidentally, the oldest academy in the capital was closed last year, leaving the right to establish an academy floating in the air.
The right to establish a new academy belonged to the president of the academy, which was still closed.
The plan for the day was to bring it in front of Valliot before it fell into someone else’s hands.
Money is money that rots, so the next job was easy once I got rid of all the other competitors.
Fortunately, there weren’t many competitors even if they brought the right to establish the academy because the establishment of the academy cost more money than income.
“How annoying
 Why don’t you just take over where there is one?”
Kassel said dully.
“No. I can’t send her to that rotten academy, can I? First of all, we have to get the right to establish it and make it prestigious before Aika goes to school as soon as possible.”
He said he had no one to trust, and eventually established a long-term plan to establish an academy then align the chairman and faculty.
The word ‘rotten’ is true, but there were already three places called prestigious academies in the capital.
From the academy where the talented people of Warford, including the current emperor, have been produced, to the academy with excellent faculty and good facilities, to the academy that is the second oldest after the academy that was closed this time.
However, all of them didn’t satisfy the eyes of Duke Valliot.
“Grandpa, am I going to school?”
“Let’s go later when our princess is a bit older. Until then, this grandfather will make it very pretty.”
“Really?”
“Of course!”
The logic was that even one brick from the place in which my baby won’t get sick should be new even if it’s in the eyes.
In fact, Valliot has the shortest history among Warford’s major families, so no matter how big they are, they are somewhat lacking in being called a prestigious family.
No one could touch them recklessly, yet nor did they respect them.
Because that remained like a weakness, he was afraid that it would become a stumbling block later when Aika grew up.
Duke Valliot was thinking of eliminating that weakness as well.
“By the way, Grandpa, what do you do when you go to school?”
“You can read books, ride horses, and learn fun things.”
“Can I do everything?”
“Of course. Our Aika can also draw pictures that you like.”
Now that Valliot is on the move, it’s only a matter of time before the new academy stands tall as well.
The real problem is that Kassel has to do it all.
Bringing in famous professors is as easy as eating soup.
In the past, the Valliot did whatever it took to stand tall at Warford.
It was common for them to see blood by pressing with force.
It’s for this reason that until now, Valliot has been called notorious.
However, since Aika was born, they have been using gentlemanly methods in their own way.
Anyway, it was all Kassel’s job to go through that high school.
The Peanut with the crinkly eyes, whether she knew it or not, was clinging to her grandfather with a huge grin on her face.
That brat, really. Who’s doing the hard work, though.