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(t/n : Hello everyone! As you see I change ‘Rovel’ to ‘Lobel’ since the author put the name in English in this chapter. So from now on our fl name will be Lobel instead of Rovel, thank you, and enjoy the new chapter! ^^)
Oliver Tudor was a man who looked somewhat strict from the first impression.
He put all his glossy black hair back to reveal his straight forehead without any baby hairs, and the high-quality suit that fits his body didn’t even have small wrinkles. There was no expression.
He had never seen a man like this in a slum or a mansion.
The fact that he had to spend more than a day and a half with this unfamiliar and uncomfortable man in the future was difficult and overwhelming.
But, because it was his decision, he vowed to himself that he would endure.
“There is something the Young Master must do first.”
Oliver neatly arranged the paper silently and then put it out on Edric’s desk.
“You just have to read it and write down the meaning.”
Edric looked down at the paper.
But soon his expression hardened.
The letters drawn in black on white paper were simple word sequences. Things that even children can solve without problems even if they are not aristocrats and become commoners.
But he couldn’t recognize it because he didn’t even have the really simple basics.
Even if he had dedicated his life to it, it seemed like a code he couldn’t solve on his own.
‘….’
He looked down at the paper with embarrassed eyes, and Oliver hinted that a fountain pen was on the right.
From day one, he couldn’t do anything, so Edric took the fountain pen in his hand.
Oliver raised his eyebrows in that clumsy and ridiculous gesture as if he was holding a fork.
However, Edrick, who is struggling with the blank paper, has not yet seen it.
He tried to put the fountain pen on the paper at the very least, but the ink leaked and black spots appeared.
Not being able to watch it any longer, Oliver stepped forward and retrieved the paper.
A glimpse of emotion is reflected in Oliver’s smooth eyeglasses.
It was familiar to Edric.
It was contempt and disregard.
“For the time being, let’s learn the spelling first.”
‘The ancient stone plate… I’ll be able to read it only after I learn this.’
It’s difficult, but he can go beyond this stage. So he was determined to make it happen again.
Oliver adhered to a somewhat businesslike attitude and taught Edrick how the spelling.
However, he couldn’t put it in his head easily because he was more nervous than usual.
Do you know? the tone that seemed to be arguing at the end of every word made his mind even more rigid.
After a tortured moment, it was finally 4 o’clock, the end of the class.
Oliver looked at his wristwatch and gave a brief greeting. All he was left with was the tension and the wrong pile of papers.
Soon, a gentle voice was heard in front of him.
“…He left, right?”
When a familiar face popped out behind the decorative box, it became easier to breathe.
But it was for a while.
He was so nervous that he had forgotten that Lobel was hiding inside.
He was unbearably ashamed when he remembered that he had heard and seen all that he had acted like a fool.
Not once, but twice, he had been helpless in front of him again.
Edric couldn’t properly face the approaching Lobel as he stretched his legs.
He turned his head towards the door.
“You go, too.”
“Yes? Me?”
“….”
“I didn’t sleep because I wanted to talk to the Young Master, so I waited behind—”
Lie.
He saw the magpie nest standing up on the back of his head again.
But, ignorant of that fact, Lobel pretended to be pitiful.
“You promised me that I could stay. Can’t I?”
Yes? Yesss? Yessssss?? And he even pretends to cry.
—Thinking that he couldn’t help it because of the noise, he put his head back to the original position.
Then his eyes met Lobel’s eyes.
Before he knew it, Lobel was already smiling with his chin on his desk.
“But Young Master. Do you know the names of the people living next door? That’s right. A red brick house.”
It seemed that Lobel had a smart brain unlike himself and that he had even memorized the bricks of that filthy neighborhood.
That fact made Edric depressed at least today, if not at other times.
However, he nodded as if he were indifferent.
He’s not stupid, and of course, there’s no way he doesn’t know.
They had known each other from birth, had seen each other’s faces, and had greeted each other.
“I don’t know anything.”
Lobel, who answered shamelessly, added with a laugh.
“I don’t know everyone at first. How do I know what’s in the Young Master’s village and who lives there? It’ll only change after someone tells you properly.”
“….”
“So, what are their names? Young Master, please tell me kindly and slowly. The first thing I hear is someone who speaks quickly, so I can’t understand it right away.”
He knew this was Lobel’s own way of comforting him.
However, Edric has never learned from anyone how to respond to such consolation.
He spoke bluntly, giving strength to his bloodshot eyes.
“There were Peter and Lake in the house.”
“How was it compared to the village chief?”
“…I don’t like either of them.”
As he mumbled his true intentions without realizing it, Lobel laughed much louder. It was a pleasant sound that made even the listeners feel better.
Why are there so many questions to ask in that dirty slum—?
Lobel, who had been asking hard about this and that for a while, reached out to him.
There were several mistakes in today’s written paper.
“I, I want to see that too. Show me.”
No!
With an action stronger than a hundred words, Edric quickly hid the paper behind his back. He didn’t want to show the paper with only the red diagonal line drawn on it.
Of course, it didn’t work on Lobel.
Like a servant who didn’t listen to his Master’s orders, he walked behind his back with agile steps and took the paper easily.
“Give it to me! Give it to me!”
“Yes, yes. Here you go.”
In an instant, Lobel, which looked through all four sheets of paper, returned it to him.
He looked at him with anger, but Lobel didn’t care.
“Now, this much. Just tilt it up to here. When you use it like this, you can’t hear the sound of scratching.”
“….”
—Somehow, he couldn’t concentrate more than when Oliver was there. His face was burning, and he was conscious of his breathing.
Whatever Edric’s condition was, Lobel gave him a proper look at how to use his fountain pen.
Then he secretly touched his hand a couple of times but pretended not to notice.
Edric hasn’t felt that bad lately either. Lobel’s overall skin was flawless, and so was his hand.
‘…And it’s warm.’
After that, Lobel taught him things that he could easily learn.
But there was nothing that Edric really wanted to know.
He told Lobel, who was struggling with something, what he wanted to know the most.
*****
Hey, are you kidding me?
I wanted to grab Oliver’s collar and spit it out.
The whole time I eavesdropped on the class, my anger swelled up.
I felt like I was watching a scene where a baby who couldn’t even walk yet was recommended to run a marathon.
‘Who said that the Duchess brought him here?’
In the first place, he wasn’t here to teach him.
He intended to discourage our Young Master.
Even darker insides will be hidden.
‘Before this happens, I… Should I stop him… Our Young Master is surprisingly timid…’
I leaned against the wall and rubbed my back hair to swallow my frustration.
Time didn’t go by that badly.
This is how I feel, but the Young Master must have felt far worse. So I tried not to show my frustration.
I smiled as if nothing had happened and approached him and talked to him. I relaxed by asking and talking about things he already knew.
At first glance, it seemed that he had learned some spellings.
But he’ll forget soon.
Who remembers when they were being so coercive? Olive won’t even touch his mouth for a while.
‘Still, I have to tell you something—’
If he doesn’t know anything and take another class tomorrow, he’ll die even more.
I thought of things that would help him for a moment.
‘Usually, when learning vocabulary, we start with Mom and Dad— But this is a bit. I’d rather tell you the sky, the ground, the wind, the stars, and so on. Or your favorite crutches?—’
I was thinking more carefully than usual, but the Young Master spits out a question.
“Lobel.”
“…Yes?”
“How do you write your name?”
Pure curiosity overflowed in the eyes that were raised towards me.
I was a little embarrassed, but there will be no one in the world who won’t tell him with that face.
I put my clenched hand to my mouth and, after coughing heavily, moved the fountain pen as if possessed.
“L, o, b, e, l. This is Lobel.”
He stared at the words I wrote as if he were looking at the most important words in life—.
‘You work very hard. Should I write it a little prettier?’
I regret it deep inside, but he seems to have a strong desire to study, so he gripped the fountain pen and wrote along.
However, he was about to tear the paper apart with how much strength he gave.
“Young Master, the strength in your hands. You have to relax and use it. And then the nib bends.”
“…Okay.”
Surprisingly, he didn’t get annoyed once and took it seriously.
It was written crookedly, but there was no problem in recognizing it.
The master looked at my nickname, which he had written, without blinking an eye.
In case he made a mistake, he looked at what I wrote and what he wrote several times.
“…Lobel.”
He even read it aloud once. It’s amazing.
I didn’t know when he was playing hard to get, but the Young Master’s voice was very pretty.
After looking at him several times trying to memorize my name, I slowly got up.
He waved a hand to me as if asking where I was going.
“I’ll be right back, so please wait for a moment.”