CH 91

*TL/N: I forgot to include this note in the previous chapter. Count Bianchet’s gender is not specified. However, judging from Siervian’s thought, ‘wearing a tailcoat rather than a dress,’ I’ll refer to Bianchet with feminine pronouns until it is specified otherwise.

—

“I hear you’ve mastered reading.”

“That’s right.”

Count Bianchet nodded sharply as if she liked the fact and immediately got to the point.

There was still no such thing as a friendly attitude toward the royal family.

Even Countess Dixie, who was hostile to her, treated her formally.

“First, we will learn with the ‘Elverdotte Empire History Book’ that I mentioned before.”

“Yes.”

“Because the lessons are short, you will need to work hard to meet the target.”

The count will probably set the same target as before in her previous life.

So Siervian must digest more information in the class.

‘She became even more strict!’

She learned the lesson while being scolded by Count Bianchet. So she naturally assumed that she had a relationship with the empress.

She might use the opportunity in class to bully her.

“I will continue repeating that historical literacy as a royal family is quite important.”

“……Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Maybe she was just a strict person. Now that she thought about it, it was fortunate for her to have studied diligently in her past life.

Suddenly, she saw something strange when she opened the book.

[Bara Bianchet]

Thoughts: She’s just a child, but she is already being strictly supervised.

She was bothered by the empress sending her to spy.

Even Count Bianchet would be in trouble if she behaved like Countess Dixie. Unlike Countess Dixie. Count Bianchet’s family was famous as a noble family full of prestigious scholars.

“That’s a relief. Then I’ll start the class right away. Please open your book. We will begin with the founding of our empire.”

“Yes.”

Responding bravely, Siervian showed motivation.

It was so clear that Count Bianchet treated her neutrally despite the pressure from the empress.

Well, they were different classes!

Therefore, if she showed her willingness to work hard, the count will take good care of her even a little bit.

She had already learned it once, but decided to study hard.

‘There may be something I missed.’

As she lifted her quill pen with enthusiasm, Count Bianchet lifted her eyebrows unexpectedly.

[Bara Bianchet]

Thoughts: She’s more obedient than expected. She’s pitiful, but His Majesty will know about it later. It’ll be a different story if she’s a child with no one to rely on, though.

‘Huh?’

“…It’s good to see your motivation… If you look at the first page…”

Count Bianchet suddenly complimented her.

More than that, her innermost thoughts caught Siervian’s attention.

‘So if I had no one to rely on, she would be nicer?’

It was a strange idea considering the strict character of Count Bianchet. Especially the feeling that she would care more if Siervian was such a child.

In her previous life, she was such a child. She was not very close to her father, the emperor.

But the empress, who seemed to be on good terms with her before, pressured Count Bianchet.

Then suddenly, she remembered something that was said in her past life.

“As you dig through history, you can see the results…… I hope it helps you.”

It was an oddly warm word, an uncharacteristically nice word coming from Count Bianchet.

At that time, Siervian was pressed to follow the class lessons, so she didn’t have time to think deeply.

Siervian had a strange look on her face at the sudden memory. In fact, didn’t Siervian’s life change very much thanks to Count Bianchet?

‘It’s all thanks to her learning history.’

Count Bianchet had always been a scary person from start to the end. But she continued to teach Siervian despite the pressure from the empress until the end.

“It seems a lot at first glance, but you’ll get used to it soon. If you read a book for five hours a day steadily…”

At that time, Count Bianchet went on sternly, perhaps misunderstanding her strange expression.

Five hours a day was ridiculous, but Siervian nodded quickly.

“Yes, I can do it!”

“Then, look at the table of contents from the beginning to the end of the book. This is a good habit to develop to keep track in advance.”

Fortunately, Siervian still retained most of her historical knowledge. She quickly opened the book and looked at the table of contents as the count said.

‘This history book is different.’

At the end of the history book, there was also something about the kingdom of Garambel.

In her previous life, it was clearly written as ‘The Fall of Garambel and the Destruction of the West Coast.’

“You can see the determination of the empire that saved the kingdom of Garambell. If you look closely, there is also a reference to the Princess.”

“…Yes.”

What the Count had noted was the exact opposite of what she knew, from titles to content. There was still no evidence that the endemic disease was spread by a conspiracy, but she couldn’t help but feel strange about it.

“Come to think of it, as a historian, I should thank the Princess. The Mosae Kingdom Royal Library has many rare books. I couldn’t go to the west coast for years.”

Siervian smiled awkwardly and nodded because it was like reading her own achievements.

“Now let’s look at the founding myth again.”

Perhaps thinking that the Count had said something useless, she glanced sideways at the magic watch on her arm and took a closer look at Siervian.

Siervian obediently returned to the first page and started focusing.

“The first emperor and great mage, Elverdotte…”

She had already heard it once, but she focused on the class. In a moderate tone, Count Bianchet proceeded without hesitation.

“The first emperor was acquainted with the elves.”

After a long while they finally reached ‘the beginning of the war’ part, which was the start of the founding of the empire.

Reading about the elves reminded her of the traces of them she saw in the Mage Tower. It felt different than when she read it.

“His great friend, the grand King Kasselov of the Elves, led the reinforcements in a dramatic moment…”

‘Huh?’

Siervian had been lost in thought and suddenly raised her head.

The letter did not change even when she looked at it again in surprise.

‘Kasselov?’

Her eyes popped wide at the unexpected name and remained that way until the end of the class.

***

“……I don’t have to eat all of this, do I?”

“Do you want a macaron?”

“Ah, no…”

A few days later, Siervian sat face to face with Karmen in the drawing room of the Imperial Palace.

They also prepared a mountain of cakes for Karmen, who was busy training and could not eat sweet snacks to his heart’s content.

[Karmen Kasselov]

Thoughts: Cake is nice.

‘Looking at his thoughts, I think cake was the right choice.’

But his thoughts were a little strange so Siervian tilted her head.

There’s no one in the world who doesn’t like sweets!

“……Delicious.”

“Right?!”

Concentrating on the thread and needle in her hand, Siervian couldn’t look at Karmen’s status window and answered.

Originally, they were supposed to meet at the hideout again. However, because Siervian couldn’t finish her embroidery homework in time, she invited Karmen to the Imperial Palace.

Siervian could reply to his magic letters now, so a sudden schedule change was possible.

“Why are you doing that?”

“It’s homework. Wait. Um, here, do it like this, then…”

Originally, she had not taken embroidery classes in her previous life. To be exact, the embroidery class that she had tried to take an interest in during her previous life had ended quickly.

After finishing the first assignment, she told the empress that it was so much fun, but the class was ended for some reason.

And until the day of Siervian’s death, there was no further embroidery class. On the contrary, the number of etiquette classes were increased.

‘I’m sure she did it on purpose. She’s mean!’

It was an incident she still remembered.

At the time, it had been a wonderful experience for Siervian to produce something with her own hands. She had forgotten how it felt since then because her life had been so hard.

“You don’t have to learn embroidery, do you?”

As Karmen said, the royal family usually did not learn embroidery skills.

It was only necessary for the children of aristocratic families. In the first place, the hands of the royal family only needed to move well for magic.

“Yes. But I wanted to do it!”

However, in this life, she became interested when she saw Jane embroidering. She wanted to make something herself and give it to her precious people as a small gift.

“Well, alright…”

Karmen said in a bitter tone.

Siervian raised her head in reaction to his tone and scratched her cheek awkwardly when she saw what Karmen was looking at.

In her hand, there was a pattern that became more and more random the more it was embroidered.

“But it isn’t going well…”

When she held the needle, she felt her fingers move freely.

When she confidently inserted the needle thinking it would work, only strangely disorganized patterns were created.

“…….”

Karmen couldn’t bear to say anything.

[Karmen Kasselov]

Thoughts: If I ask her whether she was embroidering worms, will she get mad?

Reading his status window, Siervian glared at Karmen.

“This is a Cassia flower.”

“……I know. I thought so too. Wow, it’s obviously a Cassia flower.”

Siervian burst into a smile as she looked at Karmen, who spoke calmly.

In fact, after she looked at it she realized.

Her dexterity was really terrible.

“Does it look like a worm?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Hmm…”

Karmen turned his head to avoid Siervian’s gaze while she squinted as if questioning him.

Karmen grew taller every time she saw him and was wearing a nice mage robe again today.

The robe, which at first looked big, now fit him.

“So, how long do you have to do it? Let’s play.”

Before asking, he took a bite of the cake then put down his fork.

“You said I’m not old enough to play with you!”

When she repeated what Karmen had once said, he smiled brightly.

“But here I am waiting to play with you.”

Siervian watched his wonderful smile for a moment then also smiled.

By the way, she had just seen him in the morning for magic class, but then he called her again to the hideout. What was going on?