Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I must have been staring at him with my eyes glistening too much.

The Grand Duke immediately turned the subject around. I was excited to hear his secret for the first time.

“Shushu, just eat. It looks like your saliva has fallen.”

Oh, I was with my mouth open now?

It’s fun to hear the story, but I guess I’ve endured what I wanted to eat for too long.

‘Hey, I don’t think you’ll tell me anyway, so I’ll just eat.’

I blinked my eyes and ate the cream puff.

‘I’ve never tasted anything so delicious like this!’

I think I’ve thought about this a hundred times since I came to the Grand Duke’s house, but it’s good enough.

I decided to have an appetite because the Grand Duke especially gave me an ice cream puff.

Don’t tell me it’s going to sound so reassuring, right?

“How does it taste?”

“It’s absowutewy dewicious! Thank you fow thwis dewicious foowd!”

I nodded my head and said loudly, and then I chewed the cream puff firmly.

According to the Grand Duke’s explanation, it is a food that only the Grand Duke can eat. I couldn’t know when I could taste it again, so I had to eat it carefully to savor its flavor.

I was so happy that my limbs also shook by themselves.

“If you like it so much, separate yourself from the other kids and come here alone secretly. I’m only giving it to you.”

The Grand Duke said, trying to make the expression as smooth as possible.

“Wow!”

I got up from my seat. I was so happy that an exclamation came out.

“You’we not sending it to the owphanaje, wight? You said thwat, you’ll give me one of thwis again!”

Above all, I was most pleased that I still had the opportunity to capture the heart of the Grand Duke.

As I opened my mouth and laughed, the Grand Duke nodded.

“Sit back.”

“Yes.”

I sat down again and arranged the frills of my dress.

“I asked about the orphanage because I sent a telegram to the orphanage director. We’re investigating.”

“Ouw owphanaje diwecto?” (Our orphanage director?)

“Yes. So I wanted you to tell me about your life in the orphanage.”

Aha! I nodded in a better mood than before.

“If it is about the owphanaje thwen I know it vewy well.”

I laughed very satisfactorily.

This was one of the meetings I’ve been waiting for.

‘To that who-knows-who-informant, thank you!’

I don’t know who informed the Grand Duke, I wonder if we have a real informant?

Anyway, this was a chance to get rid of the director who’s been bothering me and the kids.

‘Then, I’ll tell you everything.’

I decided to go into detail about the director.

Some may say that this is dirty and cheap, but I can’t do it on my own because I’m so young.

I can’t do it myself, so it wouldn’t be bad to borrow one’s knife.

(T/N: Borrowing one’s knife means making use of other’s resources for one’s own gain.)

“Thwe diwecto is a goowd pewson. He’s wokin hawd so thwat evewyone can eat.”

(The director is a good person. He’s working hard so that everyone can eat.)

“…Ho, really?”

It’s a stupid thing to just say bad things about someone you hate.

Then the Grand Duke might think of me as a scammer!

I laughed at words of bash while trying to make a good expression.

“It was owijinally said thwat gweat people give monewy fow us. Howevew, thewe awen’t many people like thwat.”

(It was originally said that great people would give money to us, but there aren’t many people like that.)

“That’s right. So?”

“So we have to hewlp the diwecto a lot!”

I touched my hands and said in a cheerful voice. Then the Grand Duke’s face frowned again.

“Is there anything young kids like you can do to help?”

“Oh yes. We awr also vewy goowd at wowk. Sewin, cwening, laundy, we do evewythin ewlse.”

“… Is that so?”

The Grand Duke’s eyes became a little darker. I said, pretending not to know.

“Well, once you wern aw to sew and wowk hawd, the diwecto will sell it and buy you a meawl.”

(Well, once you learn how to sew and work hard, the director will sell it and buy you a meal.)

“Sewing.”

I had to move the needle like crazy as my finger would be stabbed several times.

Thanks to that, a lot of stabbed wounds and calluses remained on my young hand.

If the result of the work was even a little crooked, I was often beaten.

“Aftew bweakfass, we do the cwening until befowe dinnew. About a houw ow so?”

(After breakfast, we do the cleaning until dinner. About an hour or so?)

While talking, I was surprised to see how long I worked. Well, it was definitely a tough life.

“I mean, children like you work for eight hours.”

“Yes.”

“So it’s like that. Did our Shushu get beaten often?”

I really liked the phrase “our” that the Grand Duke inadvertently said. So I laughed and nodded.

“Yes, I am a yuswess chwid in thwe owphanaje.”

(Yes, I was a useless child in the orphanage.)

“Who… did that? Director?”

“Yes, so I werned to cwen and do the laundy vewy hawd, so thwat I can wowk as a maid in a nice house.”

The director changed the price raised to the children who had grown up and got a job as a maid.

He would take a part of the salary and send it to the orphanage. Not exactly the orphanage, but to himself.

“I want to wepay you fow wat you did, too. So can I get a job hewe aftew a month as a maid?”

(I want to repay you for what you did, too. So can I get a job as a maid after a month?)

I secretly conveyed my intention to the Grand Duke. Hearing me, I saw his eyes shaking slightly.

‘You will let me work here, right?’

I slowly blinked my eyes and made a begging expression to the Grand Duke.

Then I heard a screaming sound somewhere.

When I looked to the side, I saw the arch of the Grand Duke’s chair broken.

“Oh my gosh! Are you huwt Gwand Duke?”

I was frightened and looked at the Grand Duke. A piece of the armrest protruded from his hand.

‘You’re not hurt, are you?’

He looked at his hand, but Gon did it smoothly without any cuts. Rather, my hands felt much rougher than the Grand Duke.

‘Ah, I had something else here!’

I gently squeezed the palm of the Grand Duke and then took my hand off.

“What’s wrong, Shushu?”

“Ser, my pams awr too dwy. Gwand Duke, it huwts.”

(Sir, my palms are too dry. Grand Duke, it hurts.)

At my words, the Grand Duke grabbed my palm and looked closely.

“Cwening and washing meyd my hads cowld. So my pams have tuwned wike sand.”

(Cleaning and washing made my hands cold. So my palms now feel like sand.)

It is still a child’s hand. Like any other child, the hands that would be full and thick were bare like bones.

Calluses and all sorts of wounds were full on those bare hands. I couldn’t even tell if it is skinny or not.

“… Is that so?”

Well, I told you to see it openly, but I’m a little embarrassed

I tried to get my hand out, but the Grand Duke held my hand and didn’t let go.

“I can only see very good hands in my eyes.”

He said, gently patting my hand. As if the calluses and wounds were invisible.

‘What is this, somehow….”

It was clearly meant to show me as poor and to accuse the director of being such a bad person.

I felt strangely lonely.

I couldn’t conceal the stiffness, so I bit my lips firmly, and the Grand Duke touched my lips.

“If you bite your lips, it will hurt.”

“Y… Yes.”

I was trying to hold back for my comfort.

Why? I felt that the Grand Duke was touching the wound I had buried without knowing it.

‘The body is crying. I’m not the one crying.’

I am nothing.

This is the feeling of the real ’Shuelina’.

However, feelings continued to flow helplessly.

My heart was shaken and I felt like tears would fall. I felt my pronunciation slowly wavering.

“Combining your stories, the director is a very bad man, and him breathing in this world is a waste.”

“Is the diwecto bad? He’s a good pewson who waised me… Then, he disappeaws fwom the owphanaje?”

I looked up at him and asked.

Tears swept under my eyes and shook his head. As the Grand Duke’s finger passed, the world looked clean again.

“The orphanage was essential to the Grand Duke. So I’ll have to change the director and bring in someone else to take charge of it.”

In fact, what I really wanted to ask was whether I would go to another orphanage.

But I couldn’t ask and nodded.

♧♣♧

After telling the Grand Duke everything about the director, I foresaw that sooner or later the orphanage would be bleeding.

‘But why did this happen?’

I had cold sweat watching the director standing in front of me.

The director looked like she was trying to make a good smile.

However, the thin eyes that can be seen through the chubby eyes were bitter, and they only looked bizarre.

“Diwecto….”

I bit my lips and stared at her.

‘How the hell did you know about this place?’

Today was my first time out of the mansion since I arrived.

‘I was really happy that Deleign told me to go for a walk in the park.’

Although Wyndert couldn’t come out because he was busy, going out with Lucy and Deleign was very fun.

Central Park was where many families gather and have a good time on weekends.

This park was a symbol of a harmonious family, and all the children of the orphanage want to someday visit.

I was asked if there was a place I wanted to go to, so I told him without thinking, but I didn’t know that it would be the destination.

‘I don’t even know how I met the director here like this.’

Is there anybody in the mansion who is slipping my schedule?

Deleign said to the whole mansion and said, ’We are going to go to the Central Park with Shushu!’

It would have been a simple task to find out where I was going. But….

‘The director has no power to do that. This is the Empress’ doing.’

The Empress’ secret group was treated very carefully in the original novel.

There is the fact that this secret group is helping the Empress but nothing has been revealed further.

‘The name was Salvation of the New Day.’

The founder of the organization, the head of the organization, the delivery of sewage, and the proper purpose were all unknown. Nothing was revealed until the end.

The director must have been ordained by the Empress, so it wouldn’t have been difficult to receive information within the mansion.

I glanced behind the director’s back, feeling my cold fingertips.

What have I been dragged to? Is this the dead end of an alley?

Deleign stared at Lucy, begging her to buy her a drink, and she was dragged away without a moment to scream.

I felt like something was pulling me, and I was whisked to the floor.

And when I opened my eyes, I was here. Maybe he used magic. There was no time for the knight who followed us to respond.

‘Who is that person?’

There was a person who covered his face by pressing the hood deep behind the director’s back.

The director doesn’t know how to use magic, so that person must be the person who helped the director.

My tongue seemed to be drying up. My voice cracked again when I called the director again.

“Oh, yes. Shuelina, I see that… you’ve been very well.”

Her eyes lit up when she saw the luxurious dress I was wearing.

The corduroy dress full of the rose embroidery was warm and pretty, which were the clothes I chose for today’s outing.

‘I wasn’t wearing it to show it to you.’