Blood dripped from Nora's forehead as she screamed, but I didn't care and shoved her head a couple more times into the bedpost.
‘It’s been a long time since I’ve held someone’s hair like this.’
“Hey, let go! Let go!”
Nora struggled, but I never let her go as I tilted her head at an angle.
When dealing with people with pain, it was necessary to imprint them up and down to be effective.
“Why is a baby so strong! Ouch!”
The only reason I couldn't let go of struggling Nora as a baby was because I knew how to use mana to maximize my grip in an instant.
'Of course, Nora doesn't know that, so I'll look like a monster.'
Thud-
As I released Nora, she stumbled and fell on her back. As red blood dripped from her blood-stained forehead, she wept in horror.
“Ahhhh!”
For Nora, who was chosen as a tutor for the duke, who grew up as a daughter of a noble, it must be the first time she experienced pain in her life.
I glanced as she wept, and gently brushed the rest of my hair in my hands.
“Pain?”
“Hey, crazy! What’s up with the baby?!”
"Huh? Are you speaking informally?"
Nora’s face turned white as if I was creepy, and started to recede.
“…What?”
She was frightened, so she belatedly forgot her manners.
I jumped off the bed without taking my eyes off her forehead and grinned.
"Now, bring it."
"What?"
“Rice, bring it.”
As I was exhausted from walking to the annex, I heard a rumbling sound from my stomach.
I patted my small stomach and looked at Nora, who was sitting down with a bewildered look on her face.
"You can't hear me? Do you want to get hit again?
AS I stared at her, she stood up biting her lips.
"Wait a minute."
Since I was the daughter of Noel's betrayal, Gaspar could have hated me. Even if Sylvester and Enoch are blunt and open-minded about me, I understand.
'But that doesn't mean I can't live with everyone's scorn.'
Because that would just be a waste.
***
Filling my stomach with food that Nora had brought, I patted my stomach and rolled over on the bed.
'I want to eat sweets.'
Before, Lulu and Lala would bring dessert after the meal.
I was sucking my fingers out of regret, but I poked my head out the door when I heard someone walking in the hallway.
“Lyodeddi?” (Lomberdi.)
"Ugh!"
The familiar shadow belonged to the main building chef, Lomberdi. At my little murmur, Lomberdi stroked the area around his mouth with a brittle beard.
"…Lady! When did you memorize my name?"
Lomberdi looked quite moved that I remembered his name.
"The one who gives jujju is Lyodeddi." (The one who gives juice is Lomberdi)
"Oh my! How can you memorize all the words?”
The reason why I memorized Lomberdi's name was simple. His special strawberry juice was very delicious.
His strawberry juice, made by mixing strawberry grains with sugar, was so famous that other aristocrats visited him sometimes.
"The strawberry that came in today had exactly one glass of juice left."
It was rewarding to follow Lulu and Lala around.
Lomberdi took a bottle of strawberry juice out of his arms, saying that my accommodation was suddenly moved to a separate house and he couldn't take care of the juice today.
"Ah!"
I was craving sweets, but it's good.
With a big smile at Lomberdi's words, I sat quietly by the well-cleaned window like a fruit basket.
"Here, eat."
Lomberdi, who stroked my hair, which is as soft as a puppy's fur, opened the lid of the glass bottle.
Lomberdi, who smiled as I reached for the strawberry juice, suddenly opened his eyes wide.
"Young master?"
When I turned my head to Lomberdi's words, I saw Sylvester with a tired face as if he had just finished training.
"What are you giving Leonora now?"
Leaning obliquely in the hallway, he comes out and looks alternately at Lomberdi and opens his mouth.
I cringed at his cold face, which seemed unfamiliar to me after a long time, and hugged the bottle of juice.
“I thought the lady would like to drink the juice, so I made it in the main building.”
“Did you get permission from the Lord?”
“Oh, no… I did not receive it.”
At Sylvester's sharp question, Lomberdi bows his head with a helpless face.
‘You plan to scold him for taking care of an illegitimate child.’
I felt sorry for the chef being scolded because of me, so I held out the juice I was holding tightly in my arms.
“...Lini won’t take this..” (translator note: Lini is her nickname)
It was the moment Sylvester, who had been staring intently at the juice bottle I had shoved toward Lombardi, reached out his hand.
Clang-!
Frightened by Sylvester's bloody momentum, who was only eleven, Lomberdi flinched and hit my hand.
I closed my eyes as I looked down at the pale pink liquid that stained the white marble floor.
'That bastard is aiming for juice and ends up wasting food!'
Of course Sylvester was still a child…
I narrowed my eyes and began to stare at him.
‘Are you doing this with shameful food?’
Not so long ago, Sylvester and Enoch liked me, their younger sister. Memories of my past life started to come to mind one by one, and it wrapped around me, who was acting strangely.
“If you send Leonora to Asylum, I will never forgive my father for the rest of my life.”
Sylvie was the first child to step forward for me after hearing the vassals murmuring that they should entrust me to a specialized agency.
‘It seems that Gaspar had no plans to send me to a psychiatric ward in the first place.’
Sylvie, the second son, was not as friendly as the third son, Enoch, so it was difficult for him to express it, but I knew that Sylvie liked me very much.
'But not anymore.'
Because you would have known that I was nothing less than the duke's shame.
"Huh.”
I turned my head to see Sylvie, who was staring at the broken glass bottle, as if to break it.
“Leonora.”
Sylvie, who softly called my name, tenaciously entered my field of vision.
It wasn't until he lifted my little foot that I realized that a small piece of glass had been lodged in the back of my foot.
“Are you hurt?”
Now saying that he must have hated me, Sylvie hugged me tightly, as if his kindness was still evident.
He carefully pulled the glass out of the back of my foot, and then pressed it down with his sleeve to stop the bleeding.
“Lomberdi, call the main doctor.”
“Yes, young master.”
‘It’s a shame…!’
It was unacceptable to me, who was once called a mad dog, to be helped by such a child.
Besides, the gentle touch that comforted me was so kind that I pushed him away with an unexplained cry.
‘It’s useless to be kind!’
It's only been 3 years since I've been living as Leonora. The only thing I can remember properly was the few months when I was aware of my past life.
‘How can you still make people so weak?’
Now, what was unfolding in front of me was a very rough thorny road, and I could never survive with the fragile mind of a baby.
“Nu!” (No!)
"What?"
“Go awyah!” (Go away!)
Sylvie, who was looking at me with a somewhat blank face at my violent refusal, asked.
“…Go away?”
It was only then that I realized that it was the first time I had rejected Sylvester so openly.
'But it's better to let go now.'
It was a hundred and thousand times better to not even expect from the beginning than to expect and be disappointed.
Because I am only a weak human being, if I do not give up my desire to depend on my family, I may have hopes that they might take me out of the Imperial Palace, that they might save me instead of the female lead, Aines.
In the end, the adoptive fathers of the past life and the families of the present life were nothing but an illusion.
‘It’s a little late, but let’s break up our relationship from now on.’
I turned my gaze away from Sylvie, who was standing with his mouth wide open with an unbelievably stupid face, making a firm resolve without others knowing.
“Are you mad at me?”
Sylvester began to sneak a glance at me, who was only a three-year-old child.
Unlike my pale purple eyes, his red eyes, which were transparent like a ruby, shimmered at me.
“Leonora.”
“Donut call.” (Do not call.)
"...Huh?"
“Sippi is no longer Lini’s brothar.” (Sylvie is no longer Lini’s brother.)
"!"
Sylvester's eyes widened at my declaration.
That was not the only surprise. I heard the gasps of Lulu and Lala's breathing behind his back.
“Now, what did you say?”
Sylvester approached me, clinging to the window, and sweared wildly.
As a genius who can already use the aura on a subject who is only 11 years old, he showed a sharp aura.
“No! Young master!”
They thought Sylvie was going to hit me, so Lala rushed forward and shielded me.
“Shut up, Lala. I need to hear from Leonora.”
“…Huh, by trying to use the aura on a baby?”
"Answer me."
I hesitated to speak, a little embarrassed by Sylvie's reaction, which was more intense than I expected.
Sylvester's aura wrapped around me was as cold as a winter dawn.
‘You’re going to freeze my whole fragile body!’
I cried at the sudden drop in temperature, and my whole body started to tremble as if I was locked in a freezer.
“...It’s cold.”
"What?"
“Cold!!!”
At the sound of my exclamation, Sylvester seemed to have realized that he was using the aura.
"Ah."
Sylvie diminished his aura with a pale face. My body, shocked by the sudden change in temperature, started to lose strength gradually.
'Also… He wasn't supposed to be friendly.'
Even while my eyes were blinking, I raised the corners of my eyes towards Sylvie.