# 10
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"Are you okay, Diana? Are you in any pain? Were you really scared?"
While Leia, who had a tired look on her face, patted her cheek affectionately, Diana rubbed her cheek like a kitten.
Elad's family members who were watching this looked surprised, forgetting that the situation was serious.
“I can't believe a girl who's usually so picky is so nice!”
Leia, not knowing why, tilted her head at their reaction and made eye contact with the Duke, who was looking at me with an expressionless face.
At that time, the Duke spoke in an unexpectedly friendly voice.
“Diana, come here now, we have to go home.”
The Duke picked up Diana, who was jumping excitedly at these words, with one arm.
“I was going to scold you, but it seems like you stayed strong and didn't cry, so I'll just look at you this once, instead. Will you listen to me now?”
“Hmm.”
Diana rolled her eyes and looked the other way.
Then she smiled brightly, as if she was being kind.
Even though her hair was oily and her face was full of dirt, she looked beautiful.
“Ha, I will do it, no one will recognize you.”
Although the Duke recognized his daughter at a glance, he made an interesting comment, and the knights who were watching also added one word after another.
"This is correct."
“Do you think your wife and the princes will be surprised if you go like this?”
Little Diana puffed out her cheeks, not even realizing it was a joke.
The Duke found this cute, so he pinched Diana's nose lightly and shook it while laughing.
It also brought a smile to the knights' lips.
She felt that all the fatigue of struggling to find the young lady had completely disappeared.
Leia blankly looked at the scene from the side and made eye contact with the Duke again.
For no reason, my heart sank.
Like a kid caught doing something bad.
When I saw his indifferent eyes, as if he were looking at an inanimate object, instead of the compassionate look he had when looking at Diana, I felt as if I had somehow discovered his secret intentions.
Fortunately, the Duke turned his head towards Diana instead of saying anything else.
“If I go straight back like this, I will be ridiculed for the rest of my life, but I can’t bear to hear dissatisfaction later. I will have to stop at an inn on my way back. First, prepare the carriage.”
It was truly time to say goodbye to Diana.
It wasn't that she didn't know, but Leia lowered her gaze, feeling somewhat disappointed.
then.
“Dad, what about Noona?”
“…If you want, it would be good for you to go together.”
At these words, Leia raised her head and looked around with puzzled eyes.
said the Duke, who was looking at this with narrowed eyes.
“If you are later going to look for that child from earlier, don’t worry, when you come back to your senses, you will be sent to the same orphanage as the other children.”
Oops, Leah thought.
'Shall I go with you?'
“Jack should go with you, not me!”
“Hmm?”
“Jack was hurt because he was trying to save Diana.”
Even after those words, there was no change in the Duke's expression, so Leia became anxious.
When the Duke saw Jack saved from being trapped in the attic with Diana in her previous life, he took him to the Duchy without a second thought.
So I thought they would accept him back if he told them how he threw himf to save Diana.
Then the Duke's mouth opened again.
“I see, let's talk after the baby wakes up, but you don't want to go with us?”
“Well, I...”
While Leah hesitated to answer, not knowing what to do, the adults around her looked sad, as if they were still young and did not know what the world was like.
But Leah knew too.
Needless to say, following Duke Elad was a better option than going to the orphanage.
‘Originally, with my status, I couldn’t join an ordinary noble family, but if I could be appointed by Duke Elad….’
It was a very rich opportunity for an insignificant orphan.
However, Leia was still hesitant to answer that she would go willingly.
I had only vaguely considered going with the children from the orphanage, but I had never considered the option of following Duke Elad.
“Noona, isn’t it worth it?”
At that time, Diana looked at Leia with an expression like an abandoned puppy.
Tension rose among those around him as he looked like he was about to cry.
Leah, who kept her mouth shut, didn't know what to do, but nodded.
'First, let's appease Diana and make sure Jack's status is restored to its original state.'
I thought it would be good to mind my own business later.
* * *
While Duke Elade was giving instructions regarding the disposal of the nursery, the carriage with Diana waited in a corner of the nursery yard.
I was feeling sleepy because I had just finished eating the bread and soup that the knights had distributed.
At that time, Fares suddenly approached me.
Without a moment's hesitation, he knelt down on one knee, placed his hand on his chest politely, and bowed his head.
“Miss, thank you very much for your safety, little one, I would like to thank you for taking such good care of her.”
The man spoke with serious eyes and bowed his head again.
“I will pay the full price for my inability to properly protect the young lady.”
Then he cut the jewel ornament on my sword exactly in half.
For a moment, my eyes widened.
“Please accept the memento my father left behind. Even if he is stripped of his knighthood, he will do his best to protect the young miss...”
At that time, Duke Elad hit his fist on the back of the head of the man who was holding a half-jewel decoration.
“The ignorant man.”
"this . … ".
“Maybe you're the only one who uses your parents' possessions as proof of their wrongdoing.”
I was convinced when I listened to Duke Elad's rebuke that I should go back and worry about the probation.
Mr. Sadian.
A knight wearing a jewel adorned with a sword split in half.
He was Jack's adoptive father and later became Vice-Commander of the Rexion Knights.
Regarding the ornaments he wore, many of the knights who admired him made countless predictions bordering on fantasy, such as that it was torn during a battle between life and death, that it was a jewel that saved his life, and that it was a symbol.
Shared with a deceased lover, etc.
I can't believe there is a behind the scenes story like this.
It might be a bit pointless, but it was a time when I thought I might be able to l this information at a higher price later.
“The car is ready, let's go.”
Diana held my hand as if waiting for the Duke's words.
He seemed worried that he might change his mind and come with me.
Even though we only spent a few days together, I felt a little embarrassed that they were more desperate than the family I had met through hardships.
In addition...
“Can I ride this car too?”
A nice looking carriage caught my eye, although it was clear that it had been bought in a hurry to get to this mountainous area.
Since I couldn't ride a horse like the knights, I thought I'd take a ride in the carriage with the advisors and wizards parked at the back.
“Noona, come with me!”
Diana and Leia holding hands...
“It's more than enough for a little kid like you, so stop protesting.”
When she heard the Duke's indifferent voice, she hurriedly entered the carriage.
The seats in the carriage seemed comfortable, it was very clean, and it smelled nice.
On the other hand, my hair was dirty and my clothes were dirty, so I doubted my ability to sit comfortably.
But I couldn't stand, so I ended up sitting awkwardly in the chair.
Soon I felt the carriage leaving.
As I looked out the window at the daycare center as it pulled away, I noticed children standing in line and getting into different strollers one by one.
'In my previous life, I saw Jack riding in a carriage among these children.'
I felt unfamiliar sitting in the carriage as it left like that.
Realizing that the future had changed, I wondered if I too could live a new life.
I, who had been shaking my fingers mysteriously and frightened, suddenly raised my head.
Diana, who was very excited when she left the carriage, quickly fell asleep in the Duke's arms.
And at that moment my eyes met the Duke of Elad, who was examining Diana.
He asked me as if he was waiting.
"What is your name and how old are you?"
“Lea—I’m Lea, no last name, and I’m eight years old...”
Since he is an orphan, it is natural that he has no family name.
I was so stiff and nervous that I added unnecessary words, internally blaming myf for my stupidity.
I was worried that his face might have gotten hot, but the Duke's mouth opened again.
"Do you know who Diana is? You don't even know who I am."
My eyes widened at the unexpected question.
'You think I'm weird, do you have any doubts?'
In contrast to his indifferent tone of voice, his piercing eyes made my heart beat violently.
* * *
Duke Elad was confused and strange about Leia.
The kid in front of me was a kid with nothing to pay attention to.
A dirty-looking child, pale-skinned, wearing shabby clothes like the children I saw in the orphanage a moment ago.
If I had not seen her in the attic, if she had been mixed in with the crowd of other orphan children, she would have been an ordinary child I had passed by.
But when the child came to her senses and screamed in fear for her life, he became dizzy, as if he had been hit in the back of the head.
While he was frozen and hesitating about what to do, like someone who had been attacked completely unexpectedly during a war, the child held up the evidence that had been stolen before him, as if he knew that someone would solve everything.
His problems will come.
Evidence that could completely destroy the orphanage director.
In terms of common sense, it wasn't something a kid in a small orphanage could recognize, and even if he did recognize it, stealing it wasn't something he could do easily.
Only then did the Duke begin to see the child again.
The body covered in loose clothing was as thin as a spit, and the bruised and cut face was so pale that veins showed.
Her brown hair, cut haphazardly, was stiff and rough at the ends, and her shallow, breathing cheeks were not as plump or rosy as Diana's.
Did you notice that she was being watched?
— said the little girl, lowering her head.
“I realized that Diana was a precious child.”
As he watched the little girl avoid his eyes, the Duke became angry for some reason.
The strange thing is that I felt frustrated, as if my chest was blocked.