CH 14

“Hello, Teacher.”

A few days later, for her first class, Eleanor greeted the children on the porch. Unexpectedly, Lucas arrived first.

“Hello, Sir Lucas.”

“You don’t have to call me Sir Lucas…, Ma’am. Just call me Luke…, please.”

Lucas opened his mouth, creaking like a broken robot somewhere. When Eleanor made a puzzled face, the Imperial attendant who followed Lucas gave a small hint.

“His Highness the Crown Prince ordered it. It’s a law to be polite to a teacher. We would appreciate your cooperation.”

“I think that would be more inconvenient…”

When Eleanor whispered, she smiled as if she understood the attendant.

“Yes, Luke. come in. Sienna and Demian will arrive a little later.”

“I came first…, Ma’am?”

“Yes, Luke is the first.”

Then, Sienna’s clear voice came from behind.

“Teacher! I’m here too!”

A pink blush appeared on her chubby cheeks, as if she had come running from the carriage.

“Sienna is here. Would you like to sit in the drawing room with Lucas?”

“Yes, I will.”

She thought that some grumbling would follow, yet Sienna obediently headed towards the drawing room. Even small laughter could be heard from the drawing room.

‘Did they really get attached to each other after fighting? I really don’t know what the kids are thinking.’

Just then, there was the sound of heavy footsteps outside the door.

“Huh? Did the duke come in person…?”

The moment Eleanor finished her sentence, the drawing room fell silent for a moment.

“Hello, Duke. Hi, Demian.”

Demian gave a light blink. Eleanor patted his hair lightly and smiled.

“Lucas and Sienna have just arrived and are in the drawing room. Shall we go in together?”

Demian, who was about to nod his head inadvertently, came to a halt with a flinch.

Demian was very quick-witted. The purpose of Kaidel, who was always chased by family affairs until late at night, took a carriage to the Count’s place with him. If he held Eleanor’s hand and went to the drawing room together, Kaidel would have run for dozens of minutes just for these few seconds.

Demian, who quickly finished his calculations, shook his head slowly. Eleanor looked at him worriedly.

“You don’t want to go in?”

“…I can go alone.”

Demian whispered. It was so small that she had to focus to hear it, but it was enough to startle Kaidel and Eleanor. Demian’s ears burned bright red.

“Go in first. I’ll be right there.”

Eleanor, who quickly calmed down her embarrassed inner feelings, patted Demian on the shoulder.

“It’s a good sign that Demian opens up.”

“…Right.”

Kaidel, with a bewildered face, answered a beat late.

As the surprise wore off, Eleanor remembered her mistake in feeding Kaidel a tart at dinner. Her face flushed hot as the thought reached the tip of her tongue as she licked the cream off her lips.

Embarrassed, Eleanor opened her mouth to quickly organize the mood.

“Did you come here today because you were worried about Demian? You must be busy, but…”

“I’m not busy at all.”

Kaidel corrected, interrupting Eleanor. Kaidel’s eyes widened a little, as if he was embarrassed by the answer he had unconsciously spat out.

‘I’m not busy at all, is there any other word that sounds so incompetent?’

Kaidel reproached herself and clenched his teeth.

“No, it’s not that I’m not busy. I meant there was a lot of work to do, but I have enough time to drop Demian off.”

Uncharacteristically, a blush appeared on Kaidel’s cheekbones as he added a gibberish excuse. It was because he realized that his appearance had become more ridiculous.

Eleanor laughed involuntarily. For the first time, he felt like a normal person.

“You don’t worry too much. I will take care of him.”

“Thank you.”

Kaidel stared at Eleanor, who smiled brightly with slightly dazed eyes.

“Are you coming to pick him up later?”

Eleanor asked, tilting her head, and Kaidel gave her a slow nod. It was the moment when another unexpected schedule was created. He doesn’t know why he keeps acting stupid in front of this woman.

“Then I’ll see you later. Have a safe trip, Duke.”

***

“I thought he was a calm cat.”

“It was a fluffy fox.”

Sienna and Lucas, with their arms crossed tightly, stared at Demian, who was sitting upright.

“He was smarter than I thought.”

Lucas said, rubbing his chin.

“This time we were careless. No, I was careless.”

Sienna, who spoke to Lucas like a habit, shook her head and corrected.

“To think that it’s going to come out like this from the first hour… I’ll admit it was a great strategy. The skill to create time for just the two of them was also at a high level. I was honestly amazed.”

Sienna brushed her hair behind her ear, weighing Demian’s actions. Demian, who unintentionally received Sienna’s approval, shrugged his eyebrows slightly.

After all, Demian had never asked his brother to accompany him, that’s why it was unfair to treat him as if he was a fox. It is almost an hour’s drive from the duchy to the Count’s. During that time, which was by no means short, he had to sit face to face with his older brother and endure the awkward silence. It was uncomfortable.

However, Demian wanted his brother to be happy. It’s too early to rate a person on just two occasions, but Eleanor seemed like a decent person. The most important thing for him was that Kaidel seemed to enjoy himself when he was with her.

‘Also… I don’t think they’ll kick me out or abuse me. If the two of them get married.’

It was obvious what Lucas and Sienna had done. He thought it was a little childish, but he got it. A person who is good in one’s eyes is also a good person in other people’s eyes.

‘Still, my older brother has the advantage.’

Demian, who recalled the faces of Kaidel, Izmel, and Adrian one after another in his head, made a decision. He shrugged his shoulders when he was sure his brother was getting ahead.

“Don’t let your guard down, Demian. We’re not going to just watch.”

“That’s right. We don’t lag behind in slyness.”

“Of course.”

Lucas and Sienna, who had become a well-matched pair before they knew it, were in harmony.

“What are you talking about, with so much fun?”

Then Eleanor entered the parlor with a wad of paper.

“Can we start class now?”

“Yes!”

“I don’t want to…”

Leaving behind Lucas’ grunts, Eleanor stood in front of a large blackboard. It was a bit awkward to see the clumsy lump of plaster rather than the familiar marker pen, but she quickly got used to it when she thought it was something similar to chalk.

“I need to get things sorted out first. About the purpose of our study.”

Eleanor made eye contact with the three children in turn.

“This is where we will prepare for the Academy entrance exam. Of course, some people haven’t made up their minds about the exam yet…”

Eleanor’s gaze briefly fell on Demian.

“Classes will be conducted three times a week, faithfully to the purpose of getting a high score in the entrance exam.”

Turning around, Eleanor wrote down test subjects on the blackboard. Every time she wrote, there was a sound, click, clack.

“This is the writing subject. The subjects we will study mainly.”

“I feel like throwing up just looking at it…, Ma’am.”

“But there are still more.”

“And these three subjects are practical skills… Not a major subject. I just want you to have some kind of bonus point.”

Maybe they should find another teacher for these things…

Eleanor, who was staring at the practical subjects, blurted her words. Because she was terribly insecure in all three subjects.

She was really bad at dancing. She stepped on her partner’s foot so violently that Dwight got fed up with her, and neither did she have any flexibility.

Her physical strength was also poor. Eleanor would gasp from time to time just because she went up and down from her room on the second floor.

She didn’t have much to do with art either. Eleanor’s sense of beauty must have developed only to distinguish between good-looking men and not-so-good-looking men.

At that time, Sienna, who had been listening with her eyes sparkling, raised her hand and asked a question.

“Teacher, by the way, what are all those bundles of paper?”

“What do you think it is?”

A sinister smile spread across Eleanor’s lips.

“It’s a test paper.”

The three children’s faces turned muddy in an instant. At that moment, the long-forgotten thrill ran through her body.

‘Yeah, this was the feeling. I became one for this feeling.’

Moments like this were one of the few joys of boring instructor work. Strangely, when she listened to the students mixed with frustration, she laughed.

It wasn’t a good thing, but the fellow teachers used to tell similar stories, so it wouldn’t be an unusual symptom at all.

“It’s a simple test. It’s just to understand how far you guys understand, so don’t be too pressured and do it with a comfortable mind.”

Eleanor handed out test papers to each one. Demian politely accepted and nodded to her, and Sienna read the test papers with her face burning with enthusiasm. Lucas…

Let’s not talk about him.

“You have 20 minutes for each subject. You just need to choose one of the four options that comes closest to the correct answer.”

Eleanor glanced at the watch and clapped her hands to get their attention.

“Are you ready? Then start!”

***

“Hmm.”

This was an interesting result in several ways. After quick grading and sorting out the grades of the three children by subject, Eleanor let out a long breath.

Better than she thought, worse than she thought.

Of course, Demian and Sienna were better than expected, and Lucas was worse than expected.

[1st Period Imperial Language Section]

Demian: 90 points (Very good)

Sienna: 85 points (Very good, mistakes in the grammar part)

Lucas: 45 points (…Weak in the beginning, but will be great in the end.)

Demian and Sienna’s scores in the Imperial Language were very high. Although there were mistakes in the difficult problems planted to gain gaps, this was good enough.

She had foreseen this when she read the invitation. What can Lucas’ Imperial Language skills be? He was very free-spirited.

“It’s okay. There may be subjects that they can’t do well.”

Not the worst if you know how to  read!

Eleanor murmured softly as she opened the next page with her fists clenched.

This time it was the mathematics section.