The Baby Raising A Devil - Chapter 131
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 131
I hesitated for a moment after calling Johan.
Elizabeth Nodelli’s atmosphere was strange.
That child looked at Johan with a dreamy, dazed expression, then turned to look at me with a face like she’d been struck by lightning.
“What’s wrong?”
Johan asked, glancing sideways. The moment his gaze reached her, Elizabeth’s face turned red as a tomato.
‘This is… that thing.’
The gazes of the ladies that had been pouring onto Johan in the hall. Those shy, yearning, fluttering looks of not knowing what to do with themselves.
‘Shall I confirm it?’
“Well, Miss Nodeli keeps saying tha…”
—when I said that much, Elizabeth flinched and froze.
“Tha?”
“…thank you.”
“Why is she thanking you?”
“I wonder. But older brother.”
“Yes.”
“Earlier the noble lady was talking about engagement, will you also get a fiancée?”
“No.”
This time Elizabeth’s face brightened immensely.
‘That’s right.’
Elizabeth was definitely head over heels for Johan. Judging from the situation just now, she apparently didn’t know that Johan was my older brother, that is, a Duke Dubbled’s son.
Well, Elizabeth had only started social activities a year or two ago, and at that time Johan was very busy at the Academy, and even when he rarely visited the Imperial Capital, he didn’t attend parties that young noble ladies would go to.
‘But are tastes hereditary?’
I heard Princess Ingrid also chased after Father before marriage, and now her daughter had fallen head over heels for the son who resembled Father the most.
And this,
‘This is good for me!’
I made a very wicked expression inwardly.
“You know, older brother.”
“Yes.”
“If someone calls me an orphan—”
Elizabeth flinched again.
“Or calls me an impurity—”
Elizabeth twisted her skirt hem tightly with a pale face.
“Or says I’m a disgrace to the nobility—”
Elizabeth reached out her hand toward me, then pulled back, not knowing what to do.
“They can’t become my new sister, right?”
“Absolutely not.”
At Johan’s answer, it seemed like I could hear the sound of lightning striking—crack!! from somewhere.
Seeing Elizabeth looking as if lightning had struck her on the head, I inwardly savored the satisfaction.
“Who told you such a thing?”
“Just in case. If there happens to be someone saying such things.”
“If there is such a person, make sure to tell me.”
“Yes.”
I gave a silent bow to the rigidly frozen Elizabeth, saying “Well then,” and returned to the party venue.
After staying for about an hour, I got up with him around sunset.
“It’s such a shame.”
“Please visit us again next time, Young Lady.”
“Please return safely.”
While receiving enthusiastic farewells from the young ladies and young lords, Elizabeth approached saying “Um, excuse me—!”
When I looked at her, she hesitated and finally managed to speak.
“It’s nothing.”
“I see.”
“….”
Elizabeth looked like she was about to cry.
* * *
Dubbled Territory.
After dinner, sitting together with my family, I held a pen with a large sheet of paper in front of me.
Isaac glanced at my homework and said.
“Why are you writing in old language?”
“Godmother gave me this homework.”
“Why? That was only popular before we were born.”
At those words, Henri corrected my mistakes and said.
“It’s still used quite often among older people these days. If young Leblaine uses old language, they’ll feel she’s being sincere. No one dislikes a child who makes an effort to continue conversations.”
Isaac rested his chin on his hand and muttered “How bothersome.”
‘So becomes …’
I wrote the letters diligently, but since my joints don’t move as delicately as an adult’s yet, my handwriting was crooked.
Unlike when I was five and my writing was completely illegible, it’s readable now but…
‘These child’s hands.’
Looking at my clumsy handwriting with a displeased expression, I wrinkled my nose and pulled out another sheet of paper.
“Why? You’re already done.”
“The handwriting isn’t pretty.”
“What does that matter? As long as it’s readable.”
“At today’s party, Godmother said she likes neat handwriting.”
So if I put in effort and write it nicely this time, how adorable would I look?
You shouldn’t slack off just because you’ve already captured someone’s heart. Aunt said that you need to consistently feed even the fish you’ve caught to make them reliable connections.
And I’m a clever child who knows how to make reliable connections.
“Right, Johan older brother?”
When I spoke, Johan nodded his head.
‘I think we became a bit closer today!’
As I was nodding my head proudly, I heard an ominous voice from beside me.
“Johan older brother?”
“Ol─der brother?”
It was Henri and Isaac who were on either side of me.
Father’s eyes widened slightly, and Aunt let out a thin laugh.
“Why is eldest brother ‘older brother’?”
“He is an older brother though.”
He’s not an older sister.
When I looked at them with a bewildered expression, Isaac scowled fiercely.
“Older brother… Even I haven’t heard that from Little One.”
Aunt Javelin shrugged her shoulders and turned the page of her book.
“Is there really a need to hear it? There are many siblings in the Empire who don’t use titles for each other. How anachronistic.”
She was right. While there are titles used for brothers and sisters in the Empire, only commoners would still care about ‘older sister, older brother.’
Since nobles receive titles, their forms of address naturally change, and even among siblings, their status can differ as they age, so titles are usually omitted when young.
‘Aunt also calls Father His Excellency.’
At Aunt’s words, Henri’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“But titles are proof of intimacy. What other reason would there be for Marchioness Nodelli to still call His Imperial Majesty ‘older brother’ in public?”
“Right! Loving siblings use them!”
‘That’s true.’
When I nodded casually, Henri and Isaac’s eyes seemed to burn more and more intensely.
‘This is burdensome…’
Having already been pelted with stares like heavy rain at today’s party, I hugged my pen and paper and quietly stood up.
* * *
After Leblaine left, Theodore and Javelin also stood up.
Henri and Isaac glared at Johan, who was drinking tea with an indifferent expression.
“What.”
“What did you do to Little One?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why did Little One only call you…!”
Just then, Johan’s adjutant approached.
“Young Master, we’ve completed the investigation on Lady Nodeli.”
“Let me check.”
Johan, who had put down his teacup, stood up. As he was about to leave through the door, he paused and looked at his two younger brothers.
“Leblaine seems to like me more.”
“Why do we and big brother have different titles? Well, it seems like the little one likes us more!”
While his younger siblings trembled with rage at getting a taste of their own medicine, Johan left the room leisurely with a crooked smile on his lips.
Isaac ground his teeth with a grinding sound.
Why were all his brothers so insufferable? The only lovable person in this household was the little one.
“Why does she like big brother more?”
Was it because he got angry when she knew how to eat carrots?
Did she dislike how he kept fiddling with her hands because he found her small wiggling hands fascinating?
Maybe she didn’t like being called little one!
Isaac looked at Henri with a dejected expression. Henri didn’t respond, wearing an unusually subdued expression.
Henri’s mind was equally complicated. The idiot next to him was probably thinking about trivial things like carrots, but he had truly made a mistake.
He shouldn’t have said that no one really thinks of an adopted child as real family.
He wanted to kill his younger self who had spoken with thorns because he was afraid of Leblaine constantly worming her way into his heart.
“…Still, she probably doesn’t hate us.”
Leblaine was a child with clear likes and dislikes. She would never keep people she disliked close to her.
But in the current situation, it was undeniable that Johan was ahead among the brothers.
“Isaac.”
“Cooperation?”
“Yes.”
It was the moment when the second war over Leblaine broke out.
At that time, Leblaine was…
“Why are my ears so itchy?”
“Your ears are itchy?! Doctor! Doctor!!”
Her vision blurred from the maids’ excessive doting.
* * *
At the mothers’ association party, I made a decision.
‘Since I have handsome brothers, let’s use them!’
I wasn’t an innocent child who simply thought my brothers’ good looks were amazing. I was a cunning child who knew how to use everything available.
“Butler.”
“Yes, Young Lady.”
“Let’s invite the young ladies from families that own abandoned mines. Starting with the abandoned mines that Nodeli is targeting.”
“Many families don’t have estates in the Imperial Capital. Would they want to come all the way here? The family heads would probably be cautious since Nodeli has already been keeping watch. Even if not, they’d probably try to play both sides to raise the price.”
“Tell them my brothers will be there.”
“…Pardon?”
I had seen it in my past life while living as a beggar. When a minstrel famous for his beauty across the continent visited the Imperial Capital, provincial nobles flocked like a pack of dogs.
Fan devotion sometimes surpasses filial devotion.
If I mention that my brothers are coming, the young ladies would climb over walls just to attend.
‘Of course, there will be parents among them who are eyeing a marriage alliance with Dubbled.’
“Then will you hold the party at the mansion?”
“Most likely. The Imperial Nobles wouldn’t like us renting a salon for a gathering of provincial nobles.”
“Then I should discuss this with Master.”
“Yes!”
Looking at the clock, it was almost time for Father to return home.
I went down to the central courtyard to greet him upon his return. But something was strange.
‘Why is it so noisy?’
People had gathered in the central courtyard. Medical doctors were even pouring in through the open doors.
‘What’s happening… the smell of blood.’
The smell grew stronger as I descended to the first floor. Suddenly, an ominous feeling crept up on me.
I squeezed through the crowd of people gathered there.
“Father…!!”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
