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The eyes of the Grand Duke Estin were suddenly fixed on me, so I bowed 90 degrees.
I can’t get used to his charisma since it’s been a while since we met.
“……?”
There was no return answer, so I slightly raised my head to check the expression of Grand Duke Estin. The face that looked down at me looked somewhat unhappy.
Did I do something wrong?
……I can’t even act ignorant because there are so many things that I feel guilty about.
Deep inside, I was carefully thinking hard about why Grand Duke Estin’s expression was bad, but suddenly Grand Duke Estin lifted me up.
“Ack?”
“I don’t think you’ve gained any weight.”
Suddenly my field of vision became so high that I made a strange noise because I was surprised. However, as if he did not hear my reaction, Grand Duke Estin merely expressed his feelings after carrying me.
“The Lady, she’s been working hard…….”
“She doesn’t eat a lot.”
“Is that so?”
Bonita tried to make a careful excuse for me, but Gilbert quickly added as if he agreed with Grand Duke Estin.
Grand Duke Estin, who heard Gilbert, frowned as if he did not like it.
“It’s almost the same weight from the last time I carried you.”
Then he carefully put me back on the marble floor.
“Increase the amount of her food. Mostly meat based.”
“There is a diet for the Knights to build up their bodies when they first join. I’ll take that into consideration and hand it over to the chef.”
Am I going to join the Knights?
Grand Duke Estin and Gilbert, who are talking seriously about my diet, looked a little funny.
“How have you been?”
I wondered if I should bring up Baron Bruno in the regards of Grand Duke Estin.
After hesitating, I just nodded cautiously. Gilbert will take care of it.
“Did you cause any accident?”
Well, Gilbert’s gonna take care of it, right?
“Were you really okay without me?”
Lucas popped out of the back and stroked my head and asked in a cheerful voice. His cheerful voice reminded me of the man named Logan, who was said to be the aid of Baron Bruno.
If Lucas is harmless, the Logan guy was kind of contrived.
Is it just my preconceived notions?
“Big brother Gilbert took good care of me, so I had a really comfortable time.”
I answered with a smile as bright as I could to make the heart of Grand Duke Estin and Lucas feel at ease. But Grand Duke Estin said with an expression of disapproval.
“Big brother?”
No, then what should I call him?
When Grand Duke Estin murmured low, Lucas laughed as if he understood. When Grand Duke Estin looked slowly, he pretended to look at Chandelier, saying that the intensity of illumination seemed to have decreased, which is ridiculous.
“Was everything okay with you, Rex?”
“Oh, yes, Grand Duke.”
Grand Duke Estin also greeted Rex and took Gilbert to his office to hear the detailed report.
Double shots of Grand Duke Estin and Gilbert…… It was better than I thought.
Their elegant and noble atmosphere would make court painters run away because they couldn’t hold a brush.
If there’s a camera, I’d like to take their picture.
“How have you been, Mary?”
In such a welcoming voice I hugged Hestia tightly around her waist. Hestia’s refreshing laugh tickled my head. Then she hugged me tightly.
I’ve been dying to say hello to Hestia!
“Why aren’t you happy to see me?”
I heard Lucas’s curt voice, but I was hanging on Hestia’s waist regardless. Then Lucas’ whining grew louder and louder.
“Oh, Mary! You knew me before Hestia! I’m really upset.”
“Haha.”
“Oh? Master Rex, are you laughing at me?”
“Lucas, be quiet.”
“You guys are so mean!”
Listening to Lucas and Hestia’s bickering made me laugh. My tension was relieved because the castle became a little noisy.
I stared blankly at the stone steps where Grand Duke Estin and Gilbert had just disappeared.
***
“Our father is too mean. How can he only call big brother?”
Even when Theodore brazenly stormed in and took his bed, he did not take his eyes off the book he was reading.
He wondered why a guy who likes to walk around outside came all the way to his room outside of class, and this was it after all in the end.
“One or two times?”
St. Reinhardt’s Nobel Academy.
It was the pride of the Britina Empire, the people who come to study there was not only from Britina Empire, but also from the royalty and nobility of the Larvian Empire.
It was not a place where anyone could come in simply because they were high aristocrats or had a lot of money.
Even the qualification test was difficult because it was a place where only the elite could come in among the elite.
The family of Cornering, where all three of the brothers entered the academy, displayed great dignity even within the academy. In particular, it was more amazing because they have the “power” that the magic tower hated.
Among them, Gilbert Conler, the eldest son, was called the pinnacle within the academy and the next head of the Conler family.
Despite not being a senior at the academy, rumors have circulated that he has already been chosen as the next president.
He stands out the most in magic. Having studied not only natural magic but also theory, he was already able to talk to a professor about his thesis.
“That’s how great he is.”
Aiden, the second son of the three brothers, who has a cold and intelligent atmosphere, has a rumor circulating around him about his heart being black among academy students. Aiden, the least known mystic of the three brothers, was haunted by oddly ridiculous rumors. But the only true story was that within a year of his admission he had read all the books of the National Library within the Academy.
“I want to see the youngest member, too!”
Theodore, the youngest of the three brothers, was the only one famous in the academy for his “unlike” Conler personality. He had better magic than the general public, but he was also interested in swordsmanship, and he had a surprisingly bright personality.
But they sink whenever they see him concentrating or when things don’t go his way. In times like that Theodore was also like Conler.
The academy students were amazed at how the same color “black” could create a different atmosphere for the three brothers. The three are making outstanding achievements despite their young age in various fields. So even the royal family could not carelessly do anything to these three black brothers.
“Mary Conler.”
Aiden, who took his eyes off the book he was reading, murmured the youngest’s name low. It was a strange but not unfamiliar name. After nearly a decade of searching, Aiden reasonably thought that the child had died. His father knew it too, but he thought he was looking for her as a duty.
Their mother died after suffering from the guilt of losing her child.
Watching her mother’s death, Aiden wondered if he had to find the child. As he thought about it, he didn’t feel any shallow guilt.
When their mother died, the three brothers were tacitly reluctant to talk about the child’s existence. They knew their father was constantly looking for the child’s whereabouts, but they naturally concluded to themselves that he can’t find her because she’s dead and they don’t think their father was looking for her because he loved her.
Even though they didn’t talk to each other about it, he thought Gilbert and Theodore were also thinking the same thing.
However, when they heard that the child was growing up in an orphanage on the outskirts, Gilbert breathed a strange sigh of relief and Theodore was happy that he finally had a younger sister.
Only he sat there feeling crumpled.
Aiden did not like why even Theodore, who lived as the youngest for a long time, called the child “our youngest.”
He doesn’t blame the child for their mother’s death. Thinking about it calmly, he knows that the biggest victim is Mary Conler, who was kidnapped as a child and grew up not properly enjoying what she should be enjoying.
I know.
Yeah, I’m sure we all know……
“I guess Aiden doesn’t want to see the youngest.”
Aiden snorted at Theodore’s sharp words and turned to the book again.
He knows it’s not Mary Conler’s fault, but he didn’t bother to correct his thoughts about what would happen if the child wasn’t born at all.
“Oh, but I want to go back home.”
Theodore’s voice changed to murmur as if his face was buried in the pillow. Theodore sometimes acted childish like the “youngest” but he never did that in front of their father.
It was then.
Someone knocked on Aiden’s door in a hurry.
“Come on in.”
It was Rowen, the assistant of the three brothers, who remained to clean up things while Gilbert was away from the academy for a while. Seeing Rowen’s pale face he seemed to have quite an urgent task.
“What’s going on?”
“Aiden-nim, the First Prince is going to see, Gilbert-nim.”
Aiden’s face hardened as Rowen straightened out the main point.
“Cameron?”
“After learning that Master Gilbert is resting in the castle, he wanted to go see his friend…….”
Friend?
Since when did you two get so close?
As well as the reclamation project, Mary Conler also returned, so it was clear that the royal family was trying to send him for surveillance.
What a good excuse.
Aiden swept his hair roughly and told Theodore, who was sitting on the bed and looking at him with a bad expression.
“Pack up, Theodore.”