The Baby Raising A Devil - Chapter 29

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 29

I was smirking when it happened.

Yuni placed paper and a pencil on the table.

“You’re going to do your homework, right?”

Ah, right. I came here under the pretense of doing homework.

As I reached for the pencil, I noticed there was a wound on Yuni’s hand.

“Yuni, you’re hurt.”

“Oh, I got cut while being clumsy. It’s nothing, so don’t worry about it.”

Then Seria approached us.

“I have medicine.”

“It’s fine though…”

“For employees, their body is their asset.”

She personally applied the medicine to Yuni’s wound, and Yuni said “Thank you” with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“Don’t mention it.”

Jacob slipped in between Yuni and me.

“Shall I help? It’s too noisy here, so in the study…”

“It’s not really that noisy here though.”

“…Actually, I want to look around the study.”

His mumbling appearance looked naive as expected.

* * *

After finishing my homework and leaving the greenhouse, I headed to the Duke’s office.

‘Now that I know who the wanted criminal is, I need to catch evidence and collect the bounty.’

To do that, I need to keep the wanted criminal close and observe them.

I planned to use the excuse of wanting to receive proper lessons from the Duke to make the wanted criminal my teacher.

When I knocked and entered, the Duke was in conversation with his retainers.

On the Duke’s desk was a box I hadn’t seen before. What was inside it was…

‘Etoile!’

It was the sacred relic that had allowed Mina to wield powerful strength.

But this one was different from Mina’s. Mina’s was platinum, but this one was gold.

And there were no gems attached to each corner of the central hexagram.

‘That’s it. The second Etoile.’

The very thing that Turba had tried to obtain even by daring to deceive Duke Dubbled.

‘But how did he get his hands on it so quickly?’

I had heard about waging war, but it couldn’t have ended this quickly.

Then, a retainer spoke to the Duke.

“The people of the other continent, who had been suffering under tyranny, opened the castle gates directly for our soldiers. Thanks to that, it ended easily.”

“Did you send the king’s head to the Emperor?”

“Of course. He said it was the most satisfying gift of the year and that he would send an imperial decree to praise our achievement.”

“How troublesome.”

Viscount Dubois looked at me.

“This is all thanks to the Young Lady. If the Young Lady hadn’t seen through that fraud, how would we have known about the existence of the second Etoile?”

The retainers smiled and agreed.

I was in a good mood too.

‘Duke Valois must be quite upset.’

He put tremendous effort into this year’s birthday gifts.

He even borrowed money from the Duchess’s family.

And thanks to those gifts, he would gain the Emperor’s favor and obtain the tea leaf trading rights he had been eyeing.

He had already prepared his business before even getting the trading rights, so if it falls through, he’ll suffer quite a bit from debt.

I was chuckling to myself when I quickly came to my senses.

‘Oh wait, that’s not the problem here.’

What’s urgent now isn’t other people’s money, but my money.

I found out who the wanted criminal is, so now I need to catch him.

‘I have to catch him by myself.’

That way I can keep the bounty for myself.

I stretched my arms out toward the Duke sitting in his chair.

“Duke, please hold me.”

“….”

The Duke stared at me intently.

‘That’s strange. He usually holds me.’

He said he was in a bad mood, so maybe it hasn’t cleared up yet.

Only after I cautiously read the atmosphere did the Duke finally place me on his lap.

“What brings you here?”

Hmm, seeing that he’s willing to listen, his mood isn’t so bad that I need to run away and avoid him for a while.

“I want to study difficult things too.”

“You should already be learning letters.”

“I know all the letters now. I want to learn difficult things like Henri and Isaac.”

The Duke stared at me intently before speaking again.

“If you start taking lessons in earnest, it will be difficult to spend time with Henri and Isaac.”

“That’s okay.”

“Aren’t they your favorite people? You wouldn’t want to be apart from them for even an hour.”

Huh?

Why is he bringing that up here?

I opened my eyes wide and tilted my head.

But everyone in the room was looking at me with earnest expressions.

I didn’t know what it was about, but my experience gained through various trials was telling me something.

If I don’t handle this well here, things could become incredibly tiresome.

“No. I like Uncle and Isaac just the most in the world. But I like Duke Uncle the most in the universe!”

“….”

I nervously watched the Duke’s expression with an anxious heart.

“…Who taught you to say such things.”

The Duke let out a hollow laugh and slightly turned his head to look at the retainers and administrators in front of his desk.

Then Viscount Dubois quickly answered as if a button had been pressed.

“Where would a child learn to say such things.”

“Is that so.”

“Of course. The Young Lady truly seems to like His Excellency the most. I’ve never heard such words from my own children.”

“Really? So you get no credit.”

The other retainers also loudly agreed, saying “We’re envious!”

“My daughter finds it so bothersome even when I try to hug her once.”

“This one always begs to be held.”

“You are blessed.”

“She always tries to stick close to me, and now I’ve even heard that I’m the best in the universe.”

When another “We’re envious!” response came back, the corners of the Duke’s mouth curved up crookedly.

Since it wasn’t an unpleasant expression, I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand.

‘That was good flattery.’

The Duke gave permission for me to properly receive noble lessons.

“Tell North about this.”

“No!”

I shouted in surprise, then quickly came to my senses and smiled awkwardly.

“North has this many documents. I want to do it with someone else.”

“Fine.”

“Trainee admin sisters and uncles are smart smart. (The trainee administrative officers are smart.)”

When I spoke as childishly as possible, the administrator in the office nodded and said “Ah.”

“I heard she had a pleasant time with the trainee administrative officers in the greenhouse, so it seems they won the Young Lady’s favor.”

After hearing the story, the Duke nodded, and I succeeded in making the wanted criminal my teacher as planned.

* * *

The next day, morning.

Lea and the maids surrounded me in a circle. Each held a wrapped box in their hands.

“These are Children’s Day gifts.”

“Aren’t you curious what they are?”

“Right?”

Handmade gloves and scarf, ribbon, fountain pen, sketchbook.

I had known everything since they whispered about it so much yesterday, but I pretended not to know and protected the adults’ childlike hearts.

And I didn’t forget to jump up and down with great joy each time a gift was revealed.

The maids squealed and hugged me tightly.

“How adorable.”

My joy wasn’t entirely an act.

I was truly grateful for their thoughtfulness in carefully selecting these gifts for me, and for braving the cold to personally go out and buy them.

‘I’ll have to take this with me when I flee.’

I carefully put the gifts in my elephant bag, took out just one notebook, and headed to the greenhouse.

Charlie, Seria, and Jacob had already arrived.

“It’s an honor to teach Young Lady. Though I may be lacking, I’ll do my very best.”

Seria greeted me and explained how the lessons would proceed.

“Jacob and Charlie will teach you Imperial Language, and I’ll teach you history.”

“Yes.”

“Today, you’ll first learn language from Jacob and Charlie, then I’ll take you around the castle to experience Dubbled’s history!”

Seria was very enthusiastic. Her eyes sparkled with excitement.

When I nodded, the lesson began. The maids watched our lesson from near the greenhouse door.

Perhaps feeling their persistent gazes, Jacob looked nervous.

“I heard you memorized the letters in just two days. Now we’ll, we’ll combine those letters to make words and—”

“Let’s do foreign language first instead.”

Charlie suddenly interrupted and placed a thick book with a thud on top of the lesson materials Jacob had brought.

“But Young Lady can’t even speak Imperial Language yet, so how could she learn a foreign language…”

“Anyone who isn’t an idiot naturally picks up their native language.”

He pushed Jacob aside and looked at me.

“At that age, I could memorize and write scripture. You should be able to learn Imperial Language on your own, right?”

Oh my.

What are you, one of the Dubbled Young Masters? Memorizing and writing scripture at four years old.

Even after being so humiliated yesterday, his attitude hadn’t changed at all.

If anything, he seemed even more arrogant.

“I don’t know where His Grace heard rumors about me, but choosing me as a teacher was an excellent decision.”

He thought being selected as my teacher was purely due to his own abilities.

“Honestly, I think I should be in charge of the Young Master’s education. But well… I’ll consider this a rehearsal and look forward to the future.”

For someone who says that, you’re a terrible teacher.

It was completely different from North’s lessons, which focused on key points and encouraged my active participation.

This was just a lesson where he showed off his knowledge. If I had really been just a child, I wouldn’t have understood anything.

After the first lesson ended, I left the main castle to receive Seria’s lesson.

I could hear the maids who saw me off chattering quietly as they entered the castle.

“This year’s administrators are all creepy except for Lady Seria.”

“I agree about Lord Charlie, but why Lord Jacob?”

“I don’t like how he keeps saying Young Lady is small whenever he looks at her.”

“But our Young Lady is small and cute, that’s true.”

“But his eyes look like he’s appraising an animal or something.”

“You’re probably just being too sensitive.”

When everyone had left and only Lea remained, Seria came running over calling “Young Lady!”

In her hands was a thick bundle of materials.

She seemed to have been running as she was breathing heavily, her eyebrows drooping.

“I should have come out earlier, I’m sorry. I stopped by the library briefly to do a final check…”

“It’s okay.”

“You’re so kind.”

Seria smiled brightly and walked closely beside me. Naturally, Lea stepped back.

What I realized during the lesson was that Seria was truly a good teacher.

‘She’s used to teaching children.’

None of her explanations were difficult, and she would bring topics that children would find interesting into the lesson to increase focus. On top of that, she handled children well.

“Ah!”

When I tripped while concentrating on her explanation, Lea came running over in surprise.

“Young Lady, are you alright? Oh my, your knee is all red.”

Unlike Lea who was upset and didn’t know what to do, Seria simply brushed off my skirt and said casually.

“You’re fine, aren’t you?”

When adults get startled, children think something terrible has happened and burst into tears.

So she knew that in times like this, it’s better to casually say “It’s okay.”

She stood up after brushing off my skirt. As she did, her skirt hem rode up and revealed the top of her foot.

On the top of her foot was a scar that looked like it had been burned with fire.

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