‘No, since when…?’
I stared alternately between the wide open office door, and the Duke with my mouth wide open.
What’s even more surprising was that Benjamin and Joan seemed familiar with this kind of scene.
“Benjamin Cooper, you seem to have decided to be late without permission.”
The Duke, who was holding the tray with one hand, glanced at his aide as if to express his feelings.
“Your bravery keeps growing bigger and bigger.”
“When my boss opens a window right in front of me and runs away, my bravery grows bigger.”
“I need to sew your mouth shut.”
Duke Bastion clicked his tongue and turned around.
Fortunately, no one stopped me.
Boom
Joan closed the door behind me and disappeared.
In the meantime, I quickly looked around the office, which was spectacular.
There were only two shiny desks in a place as wide as Duke Bastion’s bedroom, and the rest was all paper mountains.
I felt tired from just looking at the pile of documents stacked on the desks and floor.
The Duke, who had his well-dressed shirt rolled up to his forearms, roughly swept the corner of his desk clear to create an empty spot.
He set the tray down precariously, then he looked me up and down briefly.
“That’s my type?”
“Hyuk.”
“I didn’t know I had a taste for that either.”
Wasn’t he a psychic, and not a demon?
I was startled, and glanced at the office door.
As the doors and walls here were thick, I thought that the soundproofing would be great, so how did he hear me?
‘Now, wait a minute. Then everything I said after that…’
When I looked up carefully at the Duke, one side of his mouth moved up in a smile.
‘He heard it. He heard it all. He heard about the bridal classes, and all the silly things I said about enticing him.’
Since it’s a little embarrassing, I should wink and appeal to him.
“…Is there something in your eye?”
“It was a cute thing to do.”
“Why are you opening your mouth?”
“I can’t wink with my mouth closed.”
No matter how much I look at it, I get hurt when you see it as if I was the king of silliness.
In my entire past life, I’d never been able to close my mouth and wink. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it with Aisha’s body either.
Once again, I feel awful. I couldn’t believe that there were no points of resemblance, but we were only similar on these points.
‘But when I wink like this, all the aunties would faint. It would’ve been the icing on the cake if I could have added a finger heart or a double pistol.’
However, the Duke of Bastion was still too formidable for my silly actions to work.
Silly actions were really good. At first it falters, but once you get a taste for it, it’ll taste great.
I was a little annoyed as I pouted my lips.
I couldn’t just rest on my laurels yet because he wasn’t a regular fan. I didn’t want to wait for him at a time like this and decided to drag him along on the sly. I was itching to get started, and it was going to be as easy as eating porridge.
‘At times like this, someone has to push your back so that you can just jump out.’
So, I prepared for this! A reliable colleague who will push my back!
The more difficult the subject was to break, the more important the support from your colleague was.
Moreover, it was clear that the difficulty would drop significantly if the colleague was someone trusted by the target.
‘Go, Benjamin. I choose you!’
Benjamin nodded resolutely as I winked at him.
He showed his best acting towards the Duke, and it was really amazing.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. Come. Tsk. Huh. Show. Ha. Ha. Ha.”
It was the worst acting I’d ever seen in my life.
“Really. Word. Ear. Lobe. I. Don’t. Wet. You. Peel. Each. Under.”
What kind of troll were you! There was no reason why the Duke of Bastion’s discomfort quotient and the difficulty of his attacks should go up!
I was shocked, and immediately drew my finger across my neck.
‘If you don’t do this right, then there’s no dad jokes!’
Understanding my threat, Benjamin quickly pulled out the tattered pieces between the letters.
“I don’t know who will get this wonderful daughter-in-law, but they’ll be the luckiest family on the continent! Hahaha!”
His way of speaking improved, but his twitchy gestures remained.
Above all, it was too late. Just leave it.
The squinting Duke of Bastion gazed at me and Benjamin, who were huddled together. He gave me a look that said, ‘When did you charm him?’
No! It’s right, but it isn’t! Right now, I wanted to do it without the Duke realizing it
“Just work.”
“…Yes.”
When the Duke spoke coldly, then sat down, Benjamin also slinked to his desk in disappointment.
‘Oh, then what about me? Should I just leave?’
My eyes went back and forth, but neither of the two gave me any indication that I was disturbing them.
While I was standing still next to the Duke thinking that it would be okay.
I suddenly noticed the letters written repeatedly at the bottom of the document near the Duke.
‘A signature? Is that his name? What does it say?’
The temple products, including Aisha, didn’t receive a basic education. All High Priest William taught the children was obedience, submission, and surrender.
Only then would they remain quietly confined to their homes, whether it was in the temple or where they’d been sold to.
They didn’t even teach them basic letters because ‘The blinder they were, the better they sold.’ Aisha had no choice but to learn the arrangement of the letters from over the shoulders of the priests.
I tried to squeeze out that shallow knowledge, and read the Duke’s signature, but it wasn’t easy.
“Du… Duk?”
As I muttered quietly, the tip of the Duke’s long finger touched a letter on the document and passed by it.
Oh, that’s right. I read that as Du. Then…
“Duke?”
The Duke didn’t respond. I guess I got it right.
Even after that, the documents remained there until I read the signature slowly.
“Wul, Wol, Wol, Wolf! Wolfgang! Wolfgang Bastion! Right!”
The document was flipped over, as if it was the correct answer.
He’s Wolfgang! That was the name of the Duke of Bastion!
I was delighted that I was right. The Duke, Wolfgang, handed me one of the cookies from the tea tray without taking his eyes off the next document.
It seemed that he wanted to give me a reward for doing well.
I quickly took it in both hands with a word of thanks. The result of my efforts was sweet.
I waited a little while, and he was nice enough to give me another cookie.
I tried hard to catch the falling cookies as if they were popping out of a broken vending machine, but I heard a breathless laugh in my ear.
Who was it? Who was laughing at me while I was eating my snacks?
Was it the Duke or the aide?
The answer was both.
When I looked upset at being treated like a toy, another cookie fell.
This time, I didn’t eat it right away, but pulled on Wolfgang’s sleeve and made him look down at me.
“It’s not good if I eat alone.”
“So what?”
“So, go ahead.”
Then I put the cookie up to Wolfgang’s mouth.
When I shook it in his face, he took a bite before I knew it, but he seemed terribly uncomfortable.
‘He looks like chewing on a piece of cr*ap would be more delicious than the cookie.’
I tilted my head and asked.
“Do you hate sweets?”
“…Not really.”
“Do you like them?”
“Not really.”
You say you like it, then you say you don’t like it.
At that time, Wolfgang poured out a cup of strong black tea as if he was cleansing his palate.
I knew he didn’t like it, but I didn’t think he hated it…
‘Oh, my. You’re confusing me.’
What was I getting confused about? I could unconditionally learn my letters from repetition.
“Father-in-law candidate, I finally found something I can do.”
I smiled brightly at Wolfgang, who asked “What?”
“Oh, say ah!”
Open your mouth, here comes the cookie.
***
“…What was that all about? Do you like it, or do you hate it?”
I grumbled and walked down the hallway with an empty tray in my hands.
The tray, which had been full of refreshments, was completely empty. From the glass to the plate.
Wolfgang took all the cookies I fed him, and immediately after that, he would frown and rinse his mouth out with bitter tea.
There’s something subtly different about simply seeing this as a negative effect of the adjustment period.
‘I don’t think he really hated it. Of course, he didn’t seem to like it either.’
Yeah. It was easy to get points only when you knew likes and dislikes, but this wasn’t easy.
That was when the old butler, who knew Wolfgang’s mind the best, appeared before me as a light to the troubled me.
“Grandpa Hugo!
“My lady.”
“Hey, just call me Aisha.”
An orphan, who was a bride candidate. A child that was pretending to be a maid. It was uncomfortable to be treated like a superior already.
However, Hugo would just smile at my requests to be more casual.
Apart from being friendly, he spoke and acted politely to me. Just like I was a precious young lady.
Anyway, Grandpa. If you’re here, you could tell me the answer I wanted to know.
“Hey, Grandpa Hugo. It’s about the Duke. Does he hate sweet things?”
When I asked Hugo in a whisper, he looked down at the tray, and understood the situation immediately and answered.
“He doesn’t like eating sweets, but you do.”
What does that mean? You drank, but you didn’t drink and drive?
I blinked blankly at the words that I couldn’t understand.
Hugo disappeared toward the kitchen with the empty tray without explaining in more detail.
No, Mr. Butler. If you just confused me like that, and then leave…
Bang!
“Ouch.”
The next thing I knew, I was sprawled out on the floor.
Oh, my knee. I was so young that I almost hurt my knee.
I turned my head to look at what I had bumped into.
There were three young maids that were looking down at me and giggling.
I think they’re about 14 years-old?
They seemed to be servants who took on the role of scullery maids in the house.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“We couldn’t see you because you were so small.”
“Be careful.”
They were pretending to be worried, but what they really meant was that I should’ve avoided them on my own.
When I looked up without crying, the young maids gave me the impression that it wasn’t the reaction that they wanted.
Then they stepped on the edge of my apron and left.
It wasn’t until they’d disappeared that I brushed the footprints off of my apron.
“…Hmm, it’s been a while since that’s happened.”
A child picked up by Duke Wolfgang himself.
That should’ve been enough to give me a place within the mansion, but it was clear that some people would be even more opposed.
Especially if you were a young maid at the bottom, who wasn’t that much older than me.
It would be disturbing to see a parachutist falling from the sky, waving her charms around and intriguing the bosses.
In the first place, their employer’s favor towards me wouldn’t be understood.
I wasn’t some precious lady from another house, and there wasn’t that much difference between my clothing and theirs, so why was I treated like I was special?
‘They’re going to think it’s unfair, especially at such a sensitive age.’
And it was actually unfair.
It’s true that I, who wasn’t from this family nor from a noble family, was being treated like a precious existence.
But there was no way around it. Aisha was cute, had a good personality, and was going to be a part of this family in the future.
In that sense…
“I’ll give you a chance.”
Huhuhu.
I smiled wickedly in the direction where the maids had disappeared.
‘No, since when…?’
I stared alternately between the wide open office door, and the Duke with my mouth wide open.
What’s even more surprising was that Benjamin and Joan seemed familiar with this kind of scene.
“Benjamin Cooper, you seem to have decided to be late without permission.”
The Duke, who was holding the tray with one hand, glanced at his aide as if to express his feelings.
“Your bravery keeps growing bigger and bigger.”
“When my boss opens a window right in front of me and runs away, my bravery grows bigger.”
“I need to sew your mouth shut.”
Duke Bastion clicked his tongue and turned around.
Fortunately, no one stopped me.
Boom
Joan closed the door behind me and disappeared.
In the meantime, I quickly looked around the office, which was spectacular.
There were only two shiny desks in a place as wide as Duke Bastion’s bedroom, and the rest was all paper mountains.
I felt tired from just looking at the pile of documents stacked on the desks and floor.
The Duke, who had his well-dressed shirt rolled up to his forearms, roughly swept the corner of his desk clear to create an empty spot.
He set the tray down precariously, then he looked me up and down briefly.
“That’s my type?”
“Hyuk.”
“I didn’t know I had a taste for that either.”
Wasn’t he a psychic, and not a demon?
I was startled, and glanced at the office door.
As the doors and walls here were thick, I thought that the soundproofing would be great, so how did he hear me?
‘Now, wait a minute. Then everything I said after that…’
When I looked up carefully at the Duke, one side of his mouth moved up in a smile.
‘He heard it. He heard it all. He heard about the bridal classes, and all the silly things I said about enticing him.’
Since it’s a little embarrassing, I should wink and appeal to him.
“…Is there something in your eye?”
“It was a cute thing to do.”
“Why are you opening your mouth?”
“I can’t wink with my mouth closed.”
No matter how much I look at it, I get hurt when you see it as if I was the king of silliness.
In my entire past life, I’d never been able to close my mouth and wink. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it with Aisha’s body either.
Once again, I feel awful. I couldn’t believe that there were no points of resemblance, but we were only similar on these points.
‘But when I wink like this, all the aunties would faint. It would’ve been the icing on the cake if I could have added a finger heart or a double pistol.’
However, the Duke of Bastion was still too formidable for my silly actions to work.
Silly actions were really good. At first it falters, but once you get a taste for it, it’ll taste great.
I was a little annoyed as I pouted my lips.
I couldn’t just rest on my laurels yet because he wasn’t a regular fan. I didn’t want to wait for him at a time like this and decided to drag him along on the sly. I was itching to get started, and it was going to be as easy as eating porridge.
‘At times like this, someone has to push your back so that you can just jump out.’
So, I prepared for this! A reliable colleague who will push my back!
The more difficult the subject was to break, the more important the support from your colleague was.
Moreover, it was clear that the difficulty would drop significantly if the colleague was someone trusted by the target.
‘Go, Benjamin. I choose you!’
Benjamin nodded resolutely as I winked at him.
He showed his best acting towards the Duke, and it was really amazing.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. Come. Tsk. Huh. Show. Ha. Ha. Ha.”
It was the worst acting I’d ever seen in my life.
“Really. Word. Ear. Lobe. I. Don’t. Wet. You. Peel. Each. Under.”
What kind of troll were you! There was no reason why the Duke of Bastion’s discomfort quotient and the difficulty of his attacks should go up!
I was shocked, and immediately drew my finger across my neck.
‘If you don’t do this right, then there’s no dad jokes!’
Understanding my threat, Benjamin quickly pulled out the tattered pieces between the letters.
“I don’t know who will get this wonderful daughter-in-law, but they’ll be the luckiest family on the continent! Hahaha!”
His way of speaking improved, but his twitchy gestures remained.
Above all, it was too late. Just leave it.
The squinting Duke of Bastion gazed at me and Benjamin, who were huddled together. He gave me a look that said, ‘When did you charm him?’
No! It’s right, but it isn’t! Right now, I wanted to do it without the Duke realizing it
“Just work.”
“…Yes.”
When the Duke spoke coldly, then sat down, Benjamin also slinked to his desk in disappointment.
‘Oh, then what about me? Should I just leave?’
My eyes went back and forth, but neither of the two gave me any indication that I was disturbing them.
While I was standing still next to the Duke thinking that it would be okay.
I suddenly noticed the letters written repeatedly at the bottom of the document near the Duke.
‘A signature? Is that his name? What does it say?’
The temple products, including Aisha, didn’t receive a basic education. All High Priest William taught the children was obedience, submission, and surrender.
Only then would they remain quietly confined to their homes, whether it was in the temple or where they’d been sold to.
They didn’t even teach them basic letters because ‘The blinder they were, the better they sold.’ Aisha had no choice but to learn the arrangement of the letters from over the shoulders of the priests.
I tried to squeeze out that shallow knowledge, and read the Duke’s signature, but it wasn’t easy.
“Du… Duk?”
As I muttered quietly, the tip of the Duke’s long finger touched a letter on the document and passed by it.
Oh, that’s right. I read that as Du. Then…
“Duke?”
The Duke didn’t respond. I guess I got it right.
Even after that, the documents remained there until I read the signature slowly.
“Wul, Wol, Wol, Wolf! Wolfgang! Wolfgang Bastion! Right!”
The document was flipped over, as if it was the correct answer.
He’s Wolfgang! That was the name of the Duke of Bastion!
I was delighted that I was right. The Duke, Wolfgang, handed me one of the cookies from the tea tray without taking his eyes off the next document.
It seemed that he wanted to give me a reward for doing well.
I quickly took it in both hands with a word of thanks. The result of my efforts was sweet.
I waited a little while, and he was nice enough to give me another cookie.
I tried hard to catch the falling cookies as if they were popping out of a broken vending machine, but I heard a breathless laugh in my ear.
Who was it? Who was laughing at me while I was eating my snacks?
Was it the Duke or the aide?
The answer was both.
When I looked upset at being treated like a toy, another cookie fell.
This time, I didn’t eat it right away, but pulled on Wolfgang’s sleeve and made him look down at me.
“It’s not good if I eat alone.”
“So what?”
“So, go ahead.”
Then I put the cookie up to Wolfgang’s mouth.
When I shook it in his face, he took a bite before I knew it, but he seemed terribly uncomfortable.
‘He looks like chewing on a piece of cr*ap would be more delicious than the cookie.’
I tilted my head and asked.
“Do you hate sweets?”
“…Not really.”
“Do you like them?”
“Not really.”
You say you like it, then you say you don’t like it.
At that time, Wolfgang poured out a cup of strong black tea as if he was cleansing his palate.
I knew he didn’t like it, but I didn’t think he hated it…
‘Oh, my. You’re confusing me.’
What was I getting confused about? I could unconditionally learn my letters from repetition.
“Father-in-law candidate, I finally found something I can do.”
I smiled brightly at Wolfgang, who asked “What?”
“Oh, say ah!”
Open your mouth, here comes the cookie.
***
“…What was that all about? Do you like it, or do you hate it?”
I grumbled and walked down the hallway with an empty tray in my hands.
The tray, which had been full of refreshments, was completely empty. From the glass to the plate.
Wolfgang took all the cookies I fed him, and immediately after that, he would frown and rinse his mouth out with bitter tea.
There’s something subtly different about simply seeing this as a negative effect of the adjustment period.
‘I don’t think he really hated it. Of course, he didn’t seem to like it either.’
Yeah. It was easy to get points only when you knew likes and dislikes, but this wasn’t easy.
That was when the old butler, who knew Wolfgang’s mind the best, appeared before me as a light to the troubled me.
“Grandpa Hugo!
“My lady.”
“Hey, just call me Aisha.”
An orphan, who was a bride candidate. A child that was pretending to be a maid. It was uncomfortable to be treated like a superior already.
However, Hugo would just smile at my requests to be more casual.
Apart from being friendly, he spoke and acted politely to me. Just like I was a precious young lady.
Anyway, Grandpa. If you’re here, you could tell me the answer I wanted to know.
“Hey, Grandpa Hugo. It’s about the Duke. Does he hate sweet things?”
When I asked Hugo in a whisper, he looked down at the tray, and understood the situation immediately and answered.
“He doesn’t like eating sweets, but you do.”
What does that mean? You drank, but you didn’t drink and drive?
I blinked blankly at the words that I couldn’t understand.
Hugo disappeared toward the kitchen with the empty tray without explaining in more detail.
No, Mr. Butler. If you just confused me like that, and then leave…
Bang!
“Ouch.”
The next thing I knew, I was sprawled out on the floor.
Oh, my knee. I was so young that I almost hurt my knee.
I turned my head to look at what I had bumped into.
There were three young maids that were looking down at me and giggling.
I think they’re about 14 years-old?
They seemed to be servants who took on the role of scullery maids in the house.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“We couldn’t see you because you were so small.”
“Be careful.”
They were pretending to be worried, but what they really meant was that I should’ve avoided them on my own.
When I looked up without crying, the young maids gave me the impression that it wasn’t the reaction that they wanted.
Then they stepped on the edge of my apron and left.
It wasn’t until they’d disappeared that I brushed the footprints off of my apron.
“…Hmm, it’s been a while since that’s happened.”
A child picked up by Duke Wolfgang himself.
That should’ve been enough to give me a place within the mansion, but it was clear that some people would be even more opposed.
Especially if you were a young maid at the bottom, who wasn’t that much older than me.
It would be disturbing to see a parachutist falling from the sky, waving her charms around and intriguing the bosses.
In the first place, their employer’s favor towards me wouldn’t be understood.
I wasn’t some precious lady from another house, and there wasn’t that much difference between my clothing and theirs, so why was I treated like I was special?
‘They’re going to think it’s unfair, especially at such a sensitive age.’
And it was actually unfair.
It’s true that I, who wasn’t from this family nor from a noble family, was being treated like a precious existence.
But there was no way around it. Aisha was cute, had a good personality, and was going to be a part of this family in the future.
In that sense…
“I’ll give you a chance.”
Huhuhu.
I smiled wickedly in the direction where the maids had disappeared.
