Let’s Make Saving a Habit - Chapter 35

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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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Chapter 35
Satisfied with my promise to start slowly, she released my cheek, which she’d been pinching as leverage, and her eyes curved into crescents.
“But I’ve noticed you haven’t been eating well since earlier. Is there something that doesn’t suit your taste?”
“Oh no. The food is delicious! I eat everything except vegetables. It’s just….”
“Just?”
Seizing the moment, I arranged my expression into one of melancholy and began pouring out the story about Aiden.
“Truth is, there’s someone who took me in and cared for me over the past few months, even though I’m an orphan.”
“Is that so? They must be a good person.”
“Yes. But I feel terrible that I came straight here without even telling them that I won the adoption tournament.”
The Duke opened her mouth with an expression of sudden realization, as though she’d made a mistake.
“I was so eager to bring you to the Duke’s Residence that I rushed things. I’m sorry. I should have heard your thoughts first.”
After pondering something for a moment, she took a light sip of wine before making me an offer.
“After dinner, I’ll have you taken to where your guardian is. How about you spend one night there and return? I’ll send a carriage for you again tomorrow afternoon.”
I bowed my head quickly, afraid she might retract the offer.
“Thank you so much for your consideration!”
“Next time something like this troubles you, don’t keep it bottled up inside—tell me.”
“Yes!”
At my spirited response, she gently stroked the crown of my head as though pleased with me.
“And I’ll invite your protector to the Duke’s Residence soon, so please tell them to visit when they have time.”
I’d harbored a secret hope that if I showed how much I missed the Old Gentleman, she might extend an invitation to the Duke’s Residence.
I was relieved that the situation unfolded exactly as I’d intended.
I smiled inwardly, already picturing a future where the Old Gentleman became my personal knight.
A knight with a mercenary background? What couldn’t he do?
In a world where even a commoner orphan could become a noblewoman, making that happen was nothing at all.

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After the meal with the Papiope Ducal Family, Tania was permitted by the Duke to visit Aiden’s House.
“Old Gentleman!”
Tania leaped from the carriage before the servant could even help her down.
She then dashed straight toward Aiden’s House.
Pitter-patter-patter!
“Young Lady, you’ll take a tumble at this rate…!”
The escort knight and maid the Duke had sent along grew flustered by Tania’s sudden outburst and called out to stop her.
At their concerned tone, Tania halted her sprint and turned to look back at them.
Perhaps because she’d grown up on the streets, their trivial worry felt unfamiliar to her.
Though Aiden cherished her dearly, he’d raised her to be strong, saying children were meant to grow through their scrapes and falls.
Once she’d grown to a certain age, there were few people who bothered to worry about her stumbling.
Tania flashed them a bright smile to assure them all was well.
“Thank you for escorting me. Since my guardian’s house is right there, you’re welcome to return now.”
“No, Young Lady. It is our duty to attend to you. …And, Young Lady.”
“Yes?”
“Now that you have become a noble lady, you should speak more casually to those beneath your station.”
“That’s right. When speaking to us, please feel at ease.”
Tania’s eyes rolled thoughtfully.
Other children might have found it uncomfortable instead…
But she had already kept servants in her previous timeline, so she understood that the freedom to speak casually was itself a form of power.
She might as well enjoy what she could.
“Got it. And you heard I’m staying the night here, right? Just come back tomorrow. I’m counting on you.”
The casual speech flowed from her lips more naturally than expected—it wasn’t bad at all.
Seeing that Tania’s formal tone had apparently made them uncomfortable, the knights and maid’s faces brightened.
“Yes. Then we shall have the carriage waiting here again tomorrow afternoon.”
“Please have a pleasant evening, Young Lady.”
After waving goodbye to the departing carriage, she was about to head inside when—
“…Tania.”
At the sound of her name, she turned and found Aiden watching her with a complicated expression.
Aiden had rushed out upon hearing Tania’s voice and witnessed the tall men bowing respectfully to the child before departing.
He’d also noticed the Papiope Ducal Family’s seal emblazoned on the carriage.
From the circumstances alone, Aiden instantly grasped that Tania had won the adoption selection tournament.
He’d been about to visit the Talent Cultivation Institute, worried that she was taking so long.
But whether fortunately or unfortunately—
The daughter he’d been worried about had come to find him herself.
As the Duke’s daughter.
It was certainly something he had permitted.
He’d even taken her directly to the Talent Cultivation Institute, telling her to enter the adoption tournament.
Yet now, seeing Tania transformed into another man’s daughter, his breath caught in his throat.
A sordid jealousy surged within me.
Becoming the Duke’s daughter was undoubtedly a tremendous honor, an opportunity that would never come again.
She would live a far more prosperous and comfortable life than she ever could as my daughter.
Perhaps she had instinctively yearned for the position she’d lost and found her way back to where she belonged.
Yet despite all this, an intense urge to stop her welled up inside me.
To ask if she truly had to go. To beg her to remain my daughter.
…But did I have any right to ask that of her?
I hadn’t even known that Tania had been abandoned by my younger brother until I heard it from the child’s own lips.
To ensure no one would discover that Tania and I were mother and daughter, I deliberately refrained from visiting her after she turned five.
I had consistently sought out my brother over the years, checking whether the child was doing well and if there were any signs of abuse, before reaching my conclusion.
Perhaps the mistake was giving my brother a large sum of money all at once, saying it would be difficult for me to visit anymore.
I never imagined that the moment my footsteps ceased, he would abandon Tania on a forest path teeming with monsters.
Before I left the Golden Silver Mercenary Company, I made certain that my brother—who had abandoned my daughter and fled to another country with the money—paid a proper price for his sins.
But no matter how much I took my revenge on him….
I could not deny that this entire catastrophe stemmed from my own misjudgment.
How terrified must that little child have been, abandoned in the forest.
How much she must have suffered, wandering the streets.
Even without me, she was a child who would have easily entered the Papiope Talent Cultivation Institute and become the Duke’s daughter.
Just as she has now.
As Aiden remained silent, lost in complicated thoughts, Tania carefully opened her mouth first.
“Old Gentleman, I… won the competition.”
Then, at some point, her expression crumpled and tears began streaming down her face like raindrops.
“I’m sorry. It seems I won’t be able to become your daughter.”
My good daughter was watching my expression rather than rejoicing in and celebrating her victory.
This couldn’t continue.
If I had any shred of conscience left as her mother, I should genuinely congratulate her on her victory.
She had always behaved so maturely, but how much burden must she have felt to shed tears like this.
Aiden immediately embraced Tania tightly.
“What on earth do you have to apologize for? You should be proud and receive congratulations for something worthy of celebration—don’t cry.”
I felt ashamed of the sordid jealousy I had felt, even for a moment, toward a Duke whose face I didn’t even know.
“Tania, don’t worry about me. Go to the Duke’s Residence and live happily without any lack.”
In the first place, my request for Tania to become my adopted daughter had been a last desperate act.
I had thought it better for her to live a happy life, even if it meant facing danger, than for her to become lonely and unhappy once more.
I had already made the mistake of severing ties for the child’s safety once before.
I had intended to stay with her twenty-four hours a day and protect her.
But now things were different.
Now that Tania had become a lady of the Duke Papiope’s Mansion, her growing environment and safety had improved beyond comparison.
Now I only needed to ensure that ‘that person’ never discovered that Tania and I were mother and daughter.
If Tania and I severed our connection and lived as strangers, everything would be resolved.
Tania, who had been crying in my arms, opened her mouth with a hiccup.
“Old Gentleman, I have a favor to ask of you.”
“…Yes, go ahead and tell me whatever it is.”
Today might be the last day I could spend with the child, so I was prepared to grant any request within my power.
Yet the child’s plea was something I could never have anticipated.
“Would you be willing to become my escort knight when I’m adopted into the Duke’s Residence?”

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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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