TBMRB 10

Chapter 10

Had peace finally come to our household?

A large part of the credit went to Dietrich, who had devoted himself to exercising consistently for the past fifteen days. He had worked hard without showing even the slightest sign of struggling.

“This little thing dares to look at her big brother with such a proud expression?”

Dietrich reached out and roughly ruffled my hair.

Although we had become closer than before, I had never received such casual physical affection from him, so I widened my eyes in surprise.

Dietrich cleared his throat several times and composed his expression.

“What?”

I raised my hand, covered my head, and mimicked the way he had just rubbed my hair.

“What was that? You just went like this on my head, Ditty.”

“I-I know how to say thank you, too!”

Did he just say thank you?

Dietrich?

The same Dietrich who stuck out his tongue whenever he saw me, called me Ugly all the time, and always frowned at me?

He was thanking me?

Seeing my startled expression, Dietrich pursed his lips, looking somewhat awkward and embarrassed.

“I went out of my way to thank you…”

As I looked up at Dietrich, whose face had turned red, I gradually started to smile.

“Are you really thankful to me?”

“N-No! I’m not thankful at all!”

“But you said thank you a little while ago.”

“I didn’t! I mean… the other servants! The servants who attend to me were thankful, so I was just passing along their thanks!”

“The servants are thankful?”

“Well, yeah… because I go to bed early now. I don’t keep pestering them to have pillow fights with me.”

I guess that was because he was using up all his excess energy through exercise.

Since Dietrich had stopped causing trouble and become much calmer, it seemed the servants’ attitudes toward him had also become much more favorable.

Before, the servants closest to him had dark circles under their eyes from spending all day chasing after Dietrich, but these days, they seemed much more relaxed.

“Hey, Ditty. Do you still think I’m ugly?”

Dietrich’s shoulders jerked.

He subtly shifted only his eyes to gauge my reaction.

He seemed to know that he had done something wrong, so I deliberately drooped my shoulders dejectedly.

“So Mariella is still ugly? I’m ugly…”

I continued lamenting with an utterly miserable expression, and Dietrich’s restless face gradually turned into a distressed one.

“Life is so hard for Mariella because she’s ugly…”

“You’re n-not that ugly!”

Dietrich frantically waved his hands as he denied it.

I didn’t miss the opportunity and teasingly asked,

“Then how ugly am I?”

“You’re… what was it…? Ah, right! You look like a squirrel. You know squirrels, right? The ones that eat acorns. Their cheeks are all plump, just like yours.”

A squirrel?

Why a squirrel of all things?

The curtain incident suddenly came to mind.

I furrowed my brow and stared at Dietrich.

“Don’t tell me you’re still obsessed with flying squirrels, Ditty…”

“Ugh… Stop bringing that up. Nanny taught me that people can’t fly like flying squirrels.”

Dietrich’s thoroughly embarrassed attempt to explain himself was so funny that I burst out laughing.

When I laughed, Dietrich, who had been watching my reaction, gradually began to pout before bursting out laughing as well.

We laughed together for quite a while, like laughter was contagious.

“Do you like exercising?”

Instead of teasing Dietrich further, I asked him about the exercise he had become so absorbed in lately.

“Yeah, totally! When I run for a long time, I feel like I’m going to die from exhaustion, but it makes me feel so good afterward. You know what I mean?”

Of course I did.

Things I had forgotten for a long time came drifting back like little waves, gently washing over the edges of my memories before receding, only to return again.

I liked exercising.

I also loved making other people healthier and happier through exercise.

When people first came to the fitness center suffering from all kinds of pain, they would receive exercise therapy and come back saying they felt much better.

They would thank me, too.

I loved all of that.

I also loved watching people who had become depressed after getting injured gradually brighten up as exercise helped them regain their physical abilities.

‘That’s why I became a trainer.’

Dietrich wasn’t someone who had injured himself somewhere, but lately, exercising had given him a tremendous boost in confidence.

Whenever the servants praised his exercise form, he worked even harder…

Whenever I watched Dietrich like that, a thrilling sensation would run from my lower back all the way to my toes before I even realized it.

‘A sense of accomplishment.’

The joy of helping someone with something I was good at, and seeing that person become better because of me.

As memories washed over me like waves, the confusion that had lingered inside me slowly began to disappear.

Perhaps this second life wasn’t so bad after all.

Maybe living while helping other people with the things I was good at…

After remaining silent and lost in thought for a long time, Dietrich cautiously looked at me.

“Ella, are you upset because I said you look like a squirrel? Squirrels… are cute, aren’t they?”

Perhaps Dietrich didn’t dislike me as much as I had thought.

That realization was so funny that I kept smiling.

Phew.

I repeatedly inhaled and exhaled, putting on a solemn expression.

In my right hand, I held a sky-blue outfit, and in my left, a white one.

‘Which outfit suits Kiki better, sky blue or white? That is the question.’

Kiki was the name of the rabbit plushie I slept with every night.

I had named her after the “kki” in the Korean word for rabbit.

Right now, I was facing one of the most serious dilemmas of my life:

Which outfit should I dress Kiki in today?

The problem was that Nanny, who was skilled with her hands, had made far too many pretty clothes for her.

I had narrowed it down to the two outfits that I thought would suit Kiki best, but I simply couldn’t make any progress beyond that.

But they were both so cute!

“Hmm…”

“Young lady, are you dressing Kiki? Would you like me to help?”

“No. I hab to do dis myself.”

I firmly drew the line, and Betty, who was sitting beside me organizing my clothes, gave a small laugh.

“I think this white outfit is prettier.”

“Really?”

After hearing Betty’s opinion, I looked at the white outfit again.

It was decorated with countless little rhinestones that sparkled beautifully.

I usually maintained the thoughts of an adult.

However, whenever my emotions were stirred by seeing something cute or being startled, the thoughts and feelings of a three-year-old baby tended to surge to the surface.

Perhaps it was because my brain was still underdeveloped…

“Ugh…”

As I remained unable to make a decision between the two outfits, the maids, including Betty, giggled around me.

“You girls, really. How long ago did I tell you to help the young lady change her clothes?”

Even as Nanny scolded them after entering the room, the maids remained defiant.

“But Nanny, just look at the young lady. How could we interrupt her when she’s being so cute while thinking?”

“Young lady, what are you thinking about?”

“Dis. Kiki’s clothes…”

Nanny barely managed to suppress a laugh through her nose.

Then, perhaps remembering the reason she had come into the room, she finally composed herself.

“You can worry about Kiki’s clothes later. Right now, you need to greet the new employees first.”

New employees?

I gently placed both outfits I was holding on top of Kiki and turned my whole body toward Nanny.

The maids brought over a pretty dress they had chosen beforehand.

“The employees sent from the main family have already passed through the main gate.”

“They came already?”

“Yes. It seems the Duke has shown us considerable favor.”

Nanny reached out and carefully curled my hair into neat little rolls.

“Don’t worry. If those people dare to bother our young lady, this Betty will step up and—!”

“Betty.”

Hmm?

Did Betty not like the employees coming from the main family?

Even when Nanny warned her sternly, Betty merely pouted her lips and refused to back down.

“But the employees from the main family might act arrogantly. How much have they looked down on our household all this time just because you’re on bad terms with the Duke? Even when they came to take Madam’s coffin last time…”

“You’re really saying more and more things in front of the young lady!”

Only after Nanny sharply cut her off did Betty finally close her mouth.

Madam’s coffin?

Did she mean my mother’s coffin? What happened back then?

I wanted to ask more, but Nanny didn’t give me the chance.

“Now then, young lady. It’s time for you to greet them as the mistress of this household.”

By the time I stood at the entrance with Nanny beside me, several employees from the main family had already arrived.

The moment they spotted me, they promptly bowed at the waist.

“Greetings, young lady.”

Apparently, Dietrich had already come out to greet them, because he turned his head and acknowledged me with a look.

It was an afternoon when rain was falling in sheets.

The new employees were all soaked through, probably because they had been busy carrying in all the luggage they had brought and hadn’t even had room to hold umbrellas.

Most of the new arrivals were guards, but there were also ten servants and maids who would be working inside the mansion, including a butler and a resident physician.

“I am Gerard Meyer, the newly appointed butler. I will do my utmost to serve the two of you from now on.”

The butler stepped forward and bowed once more.

The razor-sharp angle of his bow, along with the silhouette of his body faintly visible beneath his rain-soaked clothes…

There was a piercing light in the eyes of the butler, whose entire body looked solid and well-built.

I quietly hid behind Nanny.