How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love

“Okay.” Noah half-willingly accepted the cookie jar that Sage offered him again. The child, who had been fiddling with the red ribbon tickling his fingertips, hesitated for a moment before looking at Sage. “I think you are the one who should give it to my mother.” “Yes? Why?” “If I tell my mother that I am giving her something as a gift even though I didn’t buy it with my own money, that would be a lie.” “No, that’s not true. The moment I gave it to you, it became yours. You can do whatever you want with it, right?” “But….” “And what if you tell a lie? It’s not a lie that hurts people, it’s a good lie.” “A good lie?” To Noah, those words felt like ‘warm ice’. Lying is bad in itself. How can ‘good’ be added before it? “Sometimes telling the truth can hurt someone. For example,…” Sage thought for a while and then exclaimed, “Ah!” “The marquise is baking cookies herself and asking you to taste them. But what if the cookies aren’t tasty?” “The cookies my mother baked were delicious.” “Huh? Oh, they were really delicious.” Last week, Noah and Raenel baked cookies together, and even the guards and maids ate a few each, so they sent some to the Hiyela Gate where Leonhard was. And the next day, Raenel received a letter praising the cookies, saying they were really delicious. As Noah recalled the letter’s contents, Sage gulped dryly, remembering how delicious the cookies had been. “She said she was going to bake a cake next, and I was looking forward to that too—No, not this.” Sage belatedly remembered what he had originally been talking about and thought for a while about finding another example. “Then how about this? The marquise got a new dress made for her, but it doesn’t suit her at all. What are you going to say to her then?” “I should tell her that it doesn’t suit her. She can change into a dress that suits her.” “Really?” Sage, who had been persuaded, groaned as he tried to think of another example with a puzzled look on his face. It was also the fact that her voice had never once trembled before and that she was so troubled. It seemed that she had lived a life far from lies. Noah, whose shoulders had somehow relaxed a little, put the remaining cookies in his mouth and then suddenly asked him a question that occurred to him. “What kind of lie do you tell to get someone to talk to you?” “Yes?” “Like….” Noah hesitated for a moment, trying to form a statement. “I’ve never left this place. But my mother said Howard territory was a really nice place, so I lied and said I’d been there. What kind of lie is that?” “This is a very difficult question.…Hmm, but it’s not a bad lie, right? You didn’t mean to hurt her.” “If you didn’t mean to hurt her, what was the purpose?” Sage blinked rapidly in confusion. “If you’re asking me that….In that case, isn’t it usually just an attempt to become friendly? Because you said you made it up to make conversation.” “Why would you make up a lie to try to be friendly?” “Well, I don’t know because I’ve never done that before.” “Think about it.” Sage couldn’t hide his bewildered expression as Noah kept urging him on. He looked at the sky with puzzled eyes as if he didn’t know how things had turned out like this, and then said, “Ah!” and clapped his hands. “Could it be that the person who lied is the man and woman?” “How did you know?” Sage flicked his middle finger with his thumb at Noah, whose eyes were wide open. “Then that’s right, that’s because he fell in love with her. After all, it’s easier to get a good feeling from someone if you talk to them about topics they’re familiar with.” “Fell in love…?” Sage thought to himself as Noah muttered with a confused expression on his face. ‘Oh, our young master is only five years old. He probably doesn’t know what the concept of falling in love is.’ Sage opened her mouth, pondering carefully how to explain the word. “What I mean by falling in love is that you like someone and want to marry her. Just like the Marquis and the Marquise.” “Marriage?” “Yes. Marriage means becoming a family and living in the same house. That’s why Marquise came here and became your mother.” ‘The reason my mother left her hometown and came here was because she married my father. But what if she falls in love with Mario? What if she marries him again…?’ ‘She is going to leave this place!’ A thunderous realization shot through Noah’s spine. Noah stared at the floor, unaware that the cookie tin was being crushed in his hands without his knowledge. * * * A letter from Logan arrived from the capital. With a large drawing. “Oh my god! She drew it really well!” At the moment, seven artists are staying in the guest room at the Paul Herbina who are sponsored in my name. There are two painters, three musicians, a poet, and a playwright. The first one to send me a painting was a girl named Pine, whom I sponsored when I was still in the capital. The girl, who bent down to greet me every time she saw me to thank me for my sponsorship, promised me that she would paint a portrait of my family and send it to me. The result of that promise is what I now hold in my hands. “Amy, you’ve never seen my family, have you? Come and look. This is my old brother, my brother, and my sister.” “Oh my God, ma’am is here too?” “She drew my face first. And she practiced hard. She said she wanted to be able to draw without looking at my face.” I carefully stroked the portrait, recalling the face that had been sobbing as it vowed to become a great painter. ‘I miss you. At least I can see my older brother at the wedding, right? Although I don’t know exactly when the wedding will be held.’ “By the way, this is Sir Alexander. From what I’ve heard, he’s really handsome.” “Did you hear that?…Ah, that’s what Mario said.” “Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to….” The servants were supposed to pretend not to see and not to hear, even if they were in the same room as their master. In this way, it was almost taboo to pretend to know what I was talking about with other people. “I’m letting it slide now because no one is around. Be careful next time.” “Yes, ma’am. I was careless. I won’t make the same mistake again.” She nodded vigorously with a nervous expression as if she knew her mistake. I just nodded. I turned my gaze to the painting to lighten the tense atmosphere. “It’s true that my brothers were handsome. I didn’t really know it until then, but I realized it after I debuted in society.” “Weren’t there any other gentlemen who were handsome?” “Not really.…The most handsome man was my husband.” At those words, not only Amy but even Ethan and Leona, who were standing quietly, nodded. Well, it seems my husband isn’t just handsome in my eyes. I suddenly became curious and asked Ethan. “Come to think of it, I’m sure Marquis has received confession letters from several young ladies.” But contrary to my expectations, Ethan shook his head. “I don’t know about before I joined the Knights, but….In the last three years, none that I know of.” “Not at all? Why? He’s so handsome.” Leona was the one who answered that question. “Because he Is the lord of the border. After all, it is not a place where young ladies of noble families can feel comfortable confessing.….” Oh, right. This was especially true when we consider that most of the nobles of the border county were vassals of the Ajas family. In addition, there was a time when Leonhard left the castle to look for his runaway sister, and after inheriting the title, he brought Noah with him. Vassals who didn’t approve of Noah probably wouldn’t give Leonhard their daughter from then on, so they would have never even dreamed of confessing their feelings privately. “Ma’am?” “pfft…Ahem.” Oh, I found myself laughing without realizing it. I avoided Leona’s gaze, who seemed to be giggling at the sight of me like that and just kept looking at the portrait and repeating over and over that it was well drawn. “Amy, have a servant hang this painting on the wall in my office later.” “Yes, ma’am.” “Ah, No. I’ll show it to Noah first—” At that moment, a knock on the door interrupted my words. As I gave permission to enter, an unfamiliar servant entered the office. Not a messenger, nor Lucius. I squinted, unsure of his identity, and as if noticing my gaze, the servant bowed low. “Excuse me, Ma’am. Sir Mario asked me to give you something, so I brought it to you.” “Sir Mario?” “Yes.” The servant came over and handed me a bottle of wine and a letter. What caught my eye was not the letter, or whatever it might have said, but the familiar label on the wine. “Oh my god, this wine is from Howard?” I just had a glass of wine with dinner last night. However, it was a surprise to see it in an unexpected place. But it quickly subsided as I thought of the person who sent it to me. “What did Sir Mario say when he sent this to me?” “He said it was a gift. He didn’t say anything else.” “Really? Hmm.…Thank you, but tell him not to give me gifts like that again. I don’t accept bribes from employees.” “But…” “But?” As I opened my mouth to say something about not accepting gifts from strange men outside of my family, the servant realized what I meant and quickly bowed. “Yes, ma’am. I will tell him.” The servant bowed his head and went out the door. I looked at his back with displeasure, then put the wine bottle down on the desk and opened the envelope. At that moment, Ethan, who was standing behind me, spoke cautiously. “Sir Mario is quite shameless in sending a gift through a private servant rather than through a public messenger.” “It seems that in his eyes, I am not Marquise, but rather the sister of his friend.” “It is extremely disrespectful. I think it would be best to stay away from him.” “Actually, I’ve never been that close to him…” We had tea time a few times, but Noah was with us every time, and there were maids and escorts to keep watch. ‘But since it wasn’t a public meeting, would it seem like we were close to strangers?’ ‘Hmm….I guess it would be better to wait for Peter to come back.’ There’s no way I wouldn’t have known if my brother had a friend close enough to tell him so many details about me. I was going to dig into it a bit because it seemed suspicious, but if it seemed like it would look strange to other people, I should just stop. ‘So what did he write in the letter?’ I opened the paper, hoping that there might be something worth digging up here. But something seemed suspicious, it seemed like Mario Folten had lost his mind. [Dear Lady Howard,] ‘How can he write the first line of a letter like this?’ * * *