I Became the Daughter of a Disgraced Duke - Chapter 28

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 27
It was my first time at the Playground since I’d met that man.
“(Which equipment do you like best at the Playground? I like the seesaw.)”
“The seesaw’s boring. Swings and slides are more fun. The best is the spinning centrifuge thing.”
“(I don’t like scary things. What if I fall off the swing?)”
“You’re a coward?”
I was a coward, true enough, but hearing it said so bluntly still stung.
There was a reason I hated scary things.
Once I’d fallen off a slide and smacked my head on the ground so hard I saw stars, and ever since I’d flinched without meaning to.
Adrian didn’t know any of this and just kept talking.
“Besides, I’m your older brother. You should call me Adrian, your older brother.”
“(You’re not. I’m the older one.)”
“Don’t say weird things. You’re just a baby.”
While we bickered, the Playground came into view.
It wasn’t as nice as the Sunlight Orphanage, but watching the children running around shrieking filled my chest with a wild, racing joy.
The moment we arrived, someone recognized Adrian.
Boys came swarming over, circling Adrian and me.
Unfamiliar faces made me nervous, so I slipped behind Adrian and hid.
“Adrian! Where’ve you been all this time!”
“I told you—I can’t come to Uncle’s House much.”
“Your uncle’s an unemployed bum, right?”
“Being an unemployed bum means he’s busier. He’s out playing every day.”
So the father I’d barely found was nothing but an unemployed bum who just played all day.
‘I hate him. He’s filthy, not princely at all, and doesn’t work.’
The father in my imagination had been a charming prince.
“Who’s that in the back?”
“This is Iris.”
Adrian grabbed my wrist and showed me off to the other boys.
“She’s my sister.”
“You have a sister?”
“Please take care of my sister.”
My eyes went wide.
A halo of light seemed to shine down behind Adrian.
‘Take care of me!’
I’d been asked to be taken care of by other children’s older siblings before, but no one had ever asked me to be their responsibility.
‘So I have an older brother now!’
My heart bubbled with warmth.
Like soap bubbles rising and popping endlessly.
All at once Adrian seemed truly precious, cool, and amazing.
I felt like I would come to love him very much.
“Hehehehe.”
“Huh? What’s that laugh, Iris?”
I grabbed Adrian’s hand tight, startled.
A little sister was supposed to hold her older brother’s hand.
Adrian didn’t pull his hand away from mine.
Instead, he took my head in his hand and studied my face carefully.
So this is what it feels like to be a little sister! My joy doubled.
“What were you guys playing?”
“We’re about to play tag. Want to join?”
“No. I’m a big brother, so I have to play with my sister. Iris, let’s go!”
Adrian stressed the word “brother,” then grabbed my hand and led me toward the slide.
A long line of children waited to go down the slide.
“Hmm. Let’s go on the seesaw first. With a line that long, I can’t wait.”
So much for the seesaw being boring—Adrian and I climbed on anyway.
I sat on the outer end and Adrian on the inner, yet my side shot up with a whoosh.
Adrian, sitting across from me, grinned mischievously.
“Iris! Let me show you the fun way to play.”
“(What? Huh? Ahhh!)”
The moment Adrian suddenly lifted his weight, my side plummeted with a lurch.
Before I’d even hit the ground with a thud, Adrian dropped back down with a plop.
My body shot up into the air again with a whoosh.
“Aaahhh!”
Adrian. Do you want to be a bad brother?
Whether I screamed or not, Adrian just laughed and teased me even harder.
After noticing the slide line had moved forward a bit, he caught me as my backside stung and joined the queue with me.
“Isn’t it fun?”
“No, it’s not.”
“Come on. Just a few more times and you’ll think it’s fun.”
Before long, it was our turn.
Adrian nudged me forward, telling me to go down the slide first.
Just then, some boy came over and huffed indignantly.
“That’s my turn. Why are you cutting in?”
“It’s our turn. You’re the one cutting in.”
“I was waiting first! You pushed in and bumped me back. You two go after I slide!”
“You weren’t even in line.”
“I was on the swings waiting for my turn. It was supposed to be mine after Jack finished.”
If you weren’t in line, you don’t have a turn. Get back. My sister goes first.
Adrian shoved the boy backward.
The boy huffed and grabbed my arm.
“I said move!”
“Don’t you dare be mean to my sister!”
Adrian shrieked and glared at him as though he were about to throw punches any second.
The boy stared back just as fiercely.
Worried about the brewing tension, I was about to yield my turn to him when—
“Evan! Time to eat!”
A woman standing at the edge where the playground sand met the pavement called out, and the boy’s body flinched.
“Evan! Hurry!”
“You two got lucky.”
The boy, Evan, threw out that boast and bolted down the steps toward his mother.
Evan’s mother laughed, brushing the sweat from her son’s hair.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the sight.
‘I want to see my mom……’
You never saw something like that at the orphanage.
None of us had parents.
Just watching made my heart prick and pang, and I felt sadness creeping in.
“Wak!”
Adrian jumped in front of me and thrust his face close, letting out a loud shout.
“Ahhhhh!”
I yelped in surprise and fell backward on my rear, and Adrian burst out laughing with delight.
“Do you miss your mom?”
“Yeah. But I don’t remember where her house was.”
“That’s okay. I don’t know either.”
Adrian opened his eyes like me — had he been at Uncle’s House?
“Don’t you have a mom either?”
“I do, but I don’t.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Adrian lifted me up and brushed the sand from my backside.
“My mom abandoned me. Said I was worthless.”
His face was bright despite confessing to being abandoned.
I couldn’t look away from Adrian.
So many friends I’d met at the orphanage drifted through my memory.
“Your mom sounds strange. But I like Adrian.”
Rough-and-tumble as he was, playing with him was always fun.
Bright like the sun, I couldn’t help smiling whenever we were together.
Best of all, he’d told the other kids to please look after me.
Right now he was brushing the sand from my backside.
Suddenly, love for Adrian surged up and burst inside me like fireworks, shooting toward the sky.
So I hugged him tight and clung to him.
Adrian held my body up and asked softly.
“Really?”
“(That’s right. Really! Adrian is my ‘older brother’ after all!)”
Having an older brother was the greatest thing.
Barelomore was kind, and Adrian was warm.
The golden eyes across from me sparkled with delight.
“R-right? ……Yes! Of course! I’m an older brother too! Not just Barelomore!”
“(That’s right! Now I’m a younger sibling too!)”
We clenched our fists together and shouted.
I’m an older brother!
I’m a younger sibling!
Hooray!
After we’d carried on like that for a while, Adrian peered at my expression uncertainly.
“I’m your older brother, so am I your favorite too?”
“Hmm?”
“I really love my older brother. Because he’s my older brother. And younger siblings always love their older brother the most, don’t they? But me…… don’t you?”
Whether Adrian loved Barelomore or not, the feeling I’d had just moments before was light as a feather—my body felt as though it could float up into the trees.
So I nodded with all the force I could muster.
“(Of course!)”
At my answer, bright laughter burst from Adrian.
It was a crystalline laugh—the kind that made anyone who heard it happy.
“Whoa!”
Adrian suddenly squeezed me in an embrace so tight I could barely breathe, then pulled a candy from his pocket and pressed it into my hand.
My eyes went wide.
The man had confiscated my entire bag earlier, saying not to eat snacks—how on earth had Adrian hidden this?
“This is a secret from Uncle. You have no idea how painful Uncle’s flicks are. My head nearly splits in two,”
“(Really?)”
“Yeah. It really hurts. So eat it quickly. If he smells it, we’re caught.”
In the meantime, Adrian sat me down at the top of the slide and gave me a push.
Whoosh!
My hair streamed behind me.
Orange flavor bloomed on my tongue.
Adrian came sliding down right after and collided with me at the bottom of the slide.
It should have hurt enough to scowl, but Adrian was laughing, so I laughed too.
* * *
After playing with Adrian to our hearts’ content, we headed home—and Uncle Baron was there for the first time in ages.
“H-hey, big brother! What’s this little runt doing here?”
“This little runt?”
“Yes?”
“This. Little runt?”
“L-little…… runt, sir?”
“Not a little runt. That’s Iris. She’s my daughter.”
“Y-yes? Surely you’re joking?”
Baron, stumbling over his words in confusion, straightened up and bowed as the man’s eyes widened.
“W-well then, I should be going.”
“If you don’t show up for work by nine tomorrow, you’re done for.”
“No, I mean, I’m the one who should be receiving my capital, but I have to work to earn back the capital…… Never mind. Please, get plenty of rest.”
After Baron left with a dazed expression, a blond-haired man appeared next.
Adrian’s father asked,
“Why is the house like this? Have we gone from unemployed bums to beggars now?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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