TYHL 149

~Chapter 149~

Even the faces of friends who’d never really paid me any attention were now all turned my way…

Far off in the hall, Sortier entered, covering his mouth with a grin as if to say, “Oh my. Is the game of hide-and-seek over?”

Feeling embarrassed, I buried my face into Dad’s shoulder.

“Ah, ah! So that’s it! Oh dear, Duke! Good day! Haven! Come say hello!”

“Huh? What? No, I mean—why… why is she over there…?”

Haven still looked completely out of it.

Count Abelus, who just moments ago was so stern, was now sidling up to us with a totally different energy.

“Lady! You’re the Lady! Oh my goodness!”

Dad ignored him and asked me quietly,

“So, did you write down the names?”

Suddenly, I felt a sharp gaze at my knees. My skirt had ridden up a bit, showing a small scab—obviously from a recent fall.

‘Hmm… Looks like Dad noticed.’

I looked at Haven’s pale, trembling face, then at the Count standing beside him.

And then, smiling, I answered,

“Nope! I got along really well with everyone!”

Haven’s shoulders gave a visible twitch.

“See! I even made friends—like Zerdin!”

I pointed at Zerdin, who bowed with a flour-pale face.

“Ah, ah, hello… D-duke…!”

“I see. Zerdin, is it? Thank you for being friends with my Ruby.”

“N-no, not at all… L-Lady helped me so much…”

Zerdin stammered.

Watching him, I glanced back at Haven.

‘Haven’s behavior was bad, but…’

In the end, he was just a kid too.

Even if it was because of penalty points, he did apologize to Zerdin.

And it’s not like he actually did anything dangerous to me.

‘If he’s got a brain, he must have learned something from all this.’

Isn’t that what school is for?

And, honestly, I did have fun pranking him and getting some petty revenge…

So I felt a little guilty about tattling.

“By the way… What happened to your name tag?”

After talking to Zerdin, Dad frowned at my name tag dangling from my chest.

“I really don’t know what my youngest has been up to at the academy.”

“Heheh…”

I just laughed it off.

Right then, Count Abelus—who had been hovering, waiting for his chance—spoke up.

“Haha… Lady, your hair color and unique name tag threw me off, I didn’t recognize you!”

“…”

“Anyway, looks like you and Haven got closer during camp. Why not come over and chat for a bit—?”

I just stared at the Count, then turned my head away.

“Dad, is it okay if I write down the name of someone who bothered me now?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Dad held out his palm.

“Go ahead.”

I carefully traced out the letters on his broad, sturdy palm.

후진 백작
Count Abelus

“…Count Abelus… regressing?”

“Noooo!”

Grr!

In the end, I drew a big arrow—pointing straight at Count Abelus.

“Aha.”

Dad’s eyebrow arched.

“That man just now kept calling me and Zerdin ‘commoners’ and glaring at us… He pushed us aside and acted scary.”

I whispered near Dad’s ear—but loud enough for everyone to hear. Count Abelus’s face turned chalk white.

Just because he wasn’t openly sneering, he thought nobody would notice—but I saw everything, mister.

‘Telling Haven to get close to me? Using kids like that is just… low.’

“N-no, that’s not what I—”

“I see.”

The air around Dad went cold.

Count Abelus gasped, swallowing hard, as Dad placed a heavy hand on his shoulder.

Blue veins stood out on Dad’s hand as he gripped that skinny shoulder.

“Let’s have a private talk later, Count.”

A black shadow stretched over the Count’s frail body. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

“Wha—now that I think about it, it’s really not a big—”

“Wasn’t your family’s workshop getting ore from the north?”

Dad smiled coldly and held out his hand.

“Let’s see if we can shrink that business together.”

“Aaaah!”

Well…

That’s an adult problem.

They’ll work it out.

I got down from Dad’s arms (I am a fall camp graduate!) and walked confidently across the hall.

Heading for my seat, the crowd parted for me like the Red Sea…

Dad acted like he was completely used to it.

“She was the Lady all along…”

“No way… Why pretend to be a commoner?”

Feeling everyone’s attention turn to me…

‘So embarrassing!’

All these eyes on my unmasked face—like I was naked!

I instinctively tried to hide behind Dad’s arm, but then I felt a strong gaze.

I looked up, and Dad was staring at me.

“Huh? Why are you looking at me like that?”

He parted his lips, then closed them again.

Then he ruffled my hair with a soft laugh.

“Stop! I’ll look like a lion!”

“I haven’t seen you in ten days, let me look. Don’t get in the way.”

“Well, I’ll just look at you too, then!”

I stared at him, not backing down.

I expected him to tease me or say, “Go ahead, look all you want!” But instead, he hesitated and closed his mouth again.

‘What’s up with him?’

He was being strangely quiet today.

Dad bent down and straightened my ribbon tie, saying,

“Ruby. Later this evening… let’s have a little talk.”

His voice was gentle.

“Okay! About what? Wait, did I do something wrong? Did you find out I didn’t eat my bell peppers?”

“It’s not that.”

He laughed, brushing the hair off my forehead.

“Not eating bell peppers isn’t a mistake.”

“Huh?”

“You never do anything wrong.”

Hmm…

Is it just that seeing your family after a while makes you softer?

‘Honestly, even if Dad pinched my nose right now, I wouldn’t mind!’

So what was it? Was he going to talk about his business trip? Something fun that happened?

Whatever it was, I just smiled.

Then the A-Class kids came into the hall. On the last day, both classes attended together, so there were lots of kids!

“Khaaal! Over here!”

I waved at Khalid as he came in the entrance.

As soon as he spotted me, he came right over.

“You’ve grown again.”

Dad stood up and patted Khalid on the head.

Khalid touched the top of his head and, as always, replied flatly,

“Not really.”

“You have.”

Dad laughed and nudged him.

‘Right. Since Khalid has no parents, I’ll look after him extra well today!’

I resolved, moving closer to Khalid.

“What? Why?”

“Just because. I’m going to stick close to you today!”

“…I don’t get it.”

But even as he grumbled, he didn’t move away from my side.

A little while later—

The doors burst open and a lion came roaring in.

“SNOT-NOSEEEE!”

Oh my goodness.

Grandpa’s here?!