TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 171
Today, the Young Lady’s Room is peaceful as always.
In a drowsy afternoon with the warm spring breeze blowing, I came to the Young Lady’s room carrying snacks and saw her sitting at the desk, focused on something.
“Fold it to the left once.”
Muttering to herself while fiddling with a large piece of paper, the Young Lady nodded and moved her hands again.
“Again to the left….”
The Young Lady, pouting her lips and concentrating, gave me the impression that she was creating something profoundly intricate. I held my breath and walked slowly.
Is it that parcel from last time?
-Ricardo, if the parcel arrives, don’t open it under any circumstances.
-Why not?
-Just… it’s my underwear.
I remembered resisting the urge to open it since she mentioned it was her underwear. It felt like just yesterday when I taught her how to order parcels through letters, and now I felt proud that she could order one herself.
The Young Lady was pressing down on the corrugated cardboard with her small, delicate fingers, fully engrossed.
Watching the Young Lady focus on paper folding, I asked her.
“Young Lady.”
“Hm.”
The Young Lady answered without even looking at me.
I waved my hand beside her and made a strange face, but I failed to draw the attention of the Young Lady, who was absorbed in her task.
Is this what they call being a workaholic?
While I admired her dedication, I felt a bit disappointed that she ignored the world’s most handsome Butler standing right next to her.
With a sullen expression, I asked the Young Lady what prompted her sudden interest in paper folding.
“What are you doing?”
“Folding a box.”
“Why are you suddenly folding a box?”
“Well…”
-Press.
Folding it in half and pressing firmly again, the Young Lady pursed her lips tightly.
As the corrugated cardboard began to take shape, the Young Lady’s words dwindled dramatically.
Feeling the limits of her concentration, the Young Lady let out a puff of air and nodded. Watching her avoid giving me a full answer, I sighed.
“Young Lady!”
“Ah…!”
Startled by my loud call, the Young Lady flinched and turned to look at me. She seemed so surprised that her eyes welled up with tears. Seeing her aggrieved expression, I smiled and spoke.
“Why are you folding a box?”
“Ah. Where did I leave off…?”
“You can start again from ‘Well….’”
“Okay. Well….”
The Young Lady resumed folding the box as she spoke.
It seemed she was trying to employ the advanced skill of multitasking. At this rate, I thought I wouldn’t hear the reason for her paper folding today, so I took the cardboard box from her hands and clasped it behind my back.
“Oh…!?”
The Young Lady widened her eyes at the sudden disappearance of the corrugated cardboard. She stared blankly at me with my hands behind my back and tilted her head as she spoke.
“Ricardo, do you want to do paper folding too?”
“No.”
“Do it with me. It’s fun.”
The Young Lady handed me a pile of corrugated paper stacked on her desk.
“It doesn’t seem fun.”
“…”
Struck by the truth, the Young Lady smiled awkwardly as she replied.
“No, it’s really fun! Look!”
The Young Lady picked up a fresh piece of corrugated cardboard from the desk and began folding it again. Judging by the delighted expression on her face as she folded the box, I was certain.
“Ugh…”
The Young Lady wasn’t enjoying folding the box; she just wanted to lie down. Smiling faintly, I propped my chin on my hand and asked her.
“So why are you folding this?”
The Young Lady gave a faint smile and answered.
“I’m doing a part-time job.”
“A part-time job?”
“Yes. Folding pizza boxes.”
“Oh…”
Looking at the box the Young Lady was folding, I thought to myself.
‘A box…?’
Could this masterpiece, brimming with philosophical and artistic sensibilities, really be called a ‘pizza box’? Staring at the Young Lady’s creation, which looked more like a bizarre depiction of Medusa, I gave my honest opinion.
“I think you might get fired for this.”
The Young Lady nodded seriously with a solemn expression.
“I think so too.”
As expected, the Young Lady was quick to objectively assess herself. She handed me another pile of corrugated cardboard stacked on the desk and said.
“Want to do it together?”
“No.”
“Why not!”
“Because it doesn’t seem fun.”
“Do it with me!”
“No.”
“Eeeek!”
Since that day, the Young Lady began taking a keen interest in side jobs. For some reason, whenever she saw a side job advertisement in the newspaper, she would immediately send a letter.
At first, I opposed it because I didn’t want her to go through hardships, but I eventually gave in to her stubborn determination to earn her own money.
-Eeeek! I’m going to earn money!
-Don’t I earn enough for us?
-No. I want to earn money too.
-Can’t I just earn twice as much?
-If you overwork yourself, you’ll become a bad person. No.
-Why are you saying this all of a sudden? I’ve always been a bad person. I even extorted someone today.
-…Now that you mention it, that’s true.
-Yes.
Earning money on her own was inherently a good thing, so I decided to let her pursue side jobs to help develop her social skills.
By earning money herself, she would learn the value of money.
When the Young Lady pointed to a side job advertisement in the newspaper and said, ‘This one!’ I nodded, and she finally escaped unemployment.
And she made plenty of mistakes.
She got fired for turning teddy bears into female bears while attaching their eyes.
She ended up spending more money than she earned because she burned her artistic soul while folding paper boxes.
She gave up embroidering handkerchiefs out of sheer frustration, but seeing her persist in trying something new made me nod with pride.
If Darbav were watching this, he would probably shed tears. I wanted to take a photograph and send it to him, but I didn’t have a camera, so I held back.
And now, the Young Lady was sitting on the bed, working on a new side job.
Clumsily sewing a stuffed doll, the Young Lady pouted her lips and spoke to me.
“Ricardo.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t grow your hair out, Ricardo.”
“My hair?”
Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I asked the Young Lady.
“Why do you say that?”
“It looks ugly.”
“I’m so handsome by nature that any hairstyle suits me.”
“No. You look best as you are now.”
As I followed her lead in making a stuffed doll, I smiled faintly and spoke with a playful tone.
“Then, Young Lady. Am I handsome right now?”
At the question that naturally flowed like Fluttering Petals in the Spring Breeze, the Young Lady hesitated for a moment before smiling brightly and answering.
“Yes. You’re handsome.”
Suddenly, my face flushed with heat.
Noticing something unusual, the Young Lady froze, holding the needle and the stuffed doll.
“Hm?”
Realizing too late that she had been tricked, the Young Lady.
The Question Mark floating above her head elongated and turned into an Exclamation Mark, and she quickly shook her head, correcting what she had said.
“No!”
“What’s not?”
“I misspoke. Ricardo is ugly.”
“It’s too late. You’ve already fallen for my charm….”
“Eeeek!”
“Heh!”
“Eeeeeeeek…”
Pouting her lips and expressing her dissatisfaction, the Young Lady exhaled through her nose and let out a long sigh.
“You’re not handsome, just tolerable.”
At the Young Lady’s Whiny Complaints, spoken with a pout, I let out a small laugh and nodded.
“Even that is good enough.”
Even that much made me happy.
A brief silence passed, and by the time the Young Lady’s stuffed doll took its first Footsteps into the world.
-Poke.
“Eeeeeeeek!!!!”
The Young Lady, pricked by the needle, let out a loud Scream and declared her farewell to the stuffed doll.
“I’m done!”
This kind of daily life, as expected, is what I enjoy.
*
A desolate atmosphere lingered in Histania.
Sitting in the dark Office, Rowen sighed as he looked at the Letter placed on the desk.
[Academy Short-term Professor Invitation]
Fiddling with the Letter with a somber expression, Rowen muttered.
“Academy professor….”
Academy.
It was a place of memories from more than 20 years ago.
It was a place where he met his Rival, fought, and first encountered the person he loved.
And through the connections made there, he gained two daughters and a son.
To Rowen, the Academy was like the beginning of his life. It was the only place where he could breathe, away from the suffocating demands of Swordsmanship imposed by Father and the Legacy of the Family.
“…”
Lost in memories that brushed past his mind after a long time, Rowen let out a bitter Smile.
‘Did Hanna feel the same way?’
He never thought of himself as a good Parent to his children. The Household was more important than his children, and he had the duty to continue the Legacy of the Family called Histania.
For a better Future, he had to raise a talented Next Head of the Family, and to do so, he had to sort out the promising from the withered, which is why he acknowledged that he was not a warm Father to his children.
Even so, the one Stubbornness that remained in Rowen’s heart was this: ‘I had it worse.’
That kind of excuse must have been what led to his daughter’s death.
Rowen sat in the chair for a long time, lost in thought.
Should he go to the Academy?
Or, as always, should he respond with Neglect?
One thing was certain—Rowen, at this moment.
He missed his Youngest Daughter.