K-Eldest Daughter Possessed a Childcare Novel

A few days had passed since I met Killian.

Now, I was descending the stairs leading to the basement, relying on the faint light of a lamp.

‘The winter banquet ended without issue.’

There were three areas in the mansion’s basement.

The wine aging cellar.

The underground prison where the family’s wrongdoers were judged.

And the storage room for miscellaneous items.

This staircase led to the storage room.

‘I should start preparing to clean it up soon.’

Step, step.

I descended the long staircase and soon arrived at the storage door, adorned with small amethysts.

These amethysts contained a security spell, but I didn’t need a key. The spell would temporarily deactivate if it sensed the bloodline of the Alton family.

‘It’s just a place to store miscellaneous stuff, so there’s nothing of great value.’

As I grabbed the doorknob and turned it, the heavy, crude door creaked open. Inside, magic lamps were installed, so it wasn’t hard to make out my surroundings.

The room was filled with unused or broken furniture, old curtains, and outdated decorations, all neatly stacked.

Usually, we would donate unused furniture, but sometimes things got left behind. Before my mother passed, she had been storing these items here, and they had gradually accumulated.

‘It’s a mess. I should take a day to clean everything out.’

But today wasn’t that day. I slowly made my way past the furniture, heading deeper into the storage room.

As I continued walking, inspecting the items, I stopped in front of a chest of drawers.

A dark, antique mahogany piece.

‘As described in the novel, the right handle is missing.’

Luckily, I spotted it faster than expected. I didn’t want to spend too much time in this stuffy, dusty room.

I slipped my hand into the gap where the handle used to be and pulled the drawer out. Inside laid a small, rabbit-shaped plush toy.

I took out the plush and squeezed it, feeling something hard inside, along with the stuffing near its stomach.

“I found it.”

Holding the toy in my hand, I calmly left the storage room. As I ascended the stairs, I glanced at the plush toy.

It was a high-end rabbit doll with a pale pink floral design, the kind you might find displayed in a department store’s toy section.

In the original story, it was Nesia who found this doll.

After being adopted into the duke family, Nesia grew close to Meldor. One day, the two of them played hide-and-seek in the mansion.

During the game, Nesia discovered the stairs leading to the basement and arrived in front of the storage room door. Not wanting to be found by Meldor, she decided to hide inside.

‘Even though there’s a security spell on the door… it wouldn’t activate against Nesia.’

Once inside, the curious child became fascinated by the various items stacked up.

Forgetting about hide-and-seek, she began exploring and eventually found this plush rabbit in the drawer with the missing handle.

‘Thanks to the original story, I was able to find the doll easily too.’

With confident steps, I left the basement and headed to my room on the second floor.

Upon arriving, I laid the doll on my desk and grabbed a paper knife, the kind used to open letters.

Slash-!

Without hesitation, I cut into the plush toy near its stomach. As the fabric tore, cotton spilled out, along with the hard object I had felt earlier.

I quickly grabbed it without a second thought.

It was a ring, engraved with intricate patterns.

Made of gold, the ring had a large piece of glass embedded in the center instead of a gemstone.

I looked at the ring for a moment before slipping it onto my right middle finger. It fit perfectly.

As I turned my hand back and forth, admiring the ring, I let out a small laugh.

“Grandfather sure liked to pull pranks.”

Or maybe it would be better to call them unnecessary gestures?

There was a reason the heroine, Nesia, found this rabbit plush.

To explain it, we had to go back quite a few years.

‘The one who put this ring inside the doll was none other than my grandfather.’

Now, Grandfather had already passed the title of duke to my father and was living a peaceful retirement on a warm southern island. In the original story, he was portrayed as someone who deeply loved his granddaughter.

‘Although, I’ve only met him a few times myself.’

Unlike my cold and stern father, my grandfather was a cheerful man who loved pranks and grand gestures. This plush rabbit had been part of one such grand gesture for my late grandmother.

At that time, it had become popular in high society to hide rings inside dolls or cakes and reveal them later as part of a surprise.

Grandfather had planned to give Grandmother this plush rabbit and surprise her by magically revealing the hidden ring.

‘The problem was that my grandmother was just as cold and rational as Father.’

As a result, Grandfather’s success rate with his surprises for Grandmother was close to zero.

In the original story, Grandmother had criticized Grandfather even before he could show her the rabbit doll.

-I hear it’s trendy these days to hide rings inside dolls and present them as gifts.

-Haha! Yes, I’ve heard that too.

– What a ridiculous thing to do. If you’re going to give a ring as a gift, just give it. What’s the point of showing it only after disappointing the other person?

– Is that so?

– That’s just playing with people’s emotions, isn’t it? Honestly, I can’t understand how young people think these days.

– I… I think so too!

Grandfather put the doll away in a drawer after that and eventually forgot all about it.

Time passed, and the drawer, with its handle broken, was sent to the storage room.

‘And that’s how Nesia found it.’

For reference, Nesia had been playing with the doll when she found the ring inside and showed it to Grandfather, who happened to be visiting the mansion at the time.

My grandfather, feeling nostalgic upon seeing the ring, told Nesia she could keep it.

‘And then Nesia gave the ring to the eldest brother as a birthday present.’

So, in the end, the final owner of this ring was the eldest brother—me.

Wouldn’t it have been cleaner if I had discovered it myself instead of receiving it through Nesia, considering it was always meant to be mine?

More importantly, this ring was no ordinary ring.

‘If it were just an expensive item, I wouldn’t have bothered going down to the basement to retrieve it.’

I called for a maid, who was waiting outside, to test the ring’s power.

“Did you call for me, Lady Belladi?”

The maid stood there, bowing politely.

I glanced at her and spoke casually.

“Tell me a lie.”

“Pardon?”

I extended my hand, now wearing the ring, toward the puzzled maid.

“Any lie will do. Just say something.”

“H-how could I lie to you, Lady Belladi? I… if I’ve done something wrong, please forgive me!”

The maid, pale with fear, began trembling.

I clicked my tongue softly as I watched her.

‘Why is she so scared? Have I been too strict with the maids?’

That couldn’t be right… though I was a demanding master, I’d never deliberately frightened them.

… well, that was how I saw it, but perhaps the servants felt differently.

I twitched my finger wearing the ring and spoke in my usual tone.

“You like the one with brown hair among Meldor’s servants, don’t you?”

“No!”

The moment I finished speaking, the maid, who had been trembling, jumped in surprise.

And at that instant.

The glass on the ring turned green.

“Hmm, so you do like him.”

I retracted my outstretched hand and examined the glass.

The maid frantically shook her head at my words.

“N-no, Lady Belladi! I don’t have feelings for anyone!”

Yet every time she saw that servant, she blushed. Perhaps it was because she was the youngest of my maids, but she certainly wasn’t good at lying.

I glanced at the glass, which was still glowing green, and spoke again.

“Have you noticed any suspicious behavior among the servants recently?”

“Suspicious behavior?”

“Yes.”

The maid pondered for a moment, then shook her head.

“No, I haven’t seen anything like that.”

As soon as she spoke, the green glass returned to its original transparent state.

I nodded at the sight.

“Good, you may leave.”

“Y-yes, milady.”

The maid gave me a curious look, bowed, and left the room.

As soon as the door fully closed, I chuckled to myself.

“I was a bit worried, but it works just as it did in the original story.”

Grandfather was quite a bold man. There was no way someone like him would have gifted Grandmother a ring with an ordinary glass ornament. After all, this ring was the .

In the past, the spirits had offered their treasures to humans in exchange for a peace treaty.

Over the years, those treasures passed through many hands and spread across the continent.

‘The spirit sword I possess is also one of those treasures.’

This ring was the same. It contained the power of the Earth Spirit, allowing the wearer to discern truth from lies.

It was clearly a useful treasure, but to forget about it just because an event was missed? My grandfather was certainly an extraordinary man.

‘… though, to be honest, I almost forgot about it as well.’

If it weren’t for the need to root out a spy, I might have forgotten entirely.

In any case, after the winter banquet, I immediately started by checking the servants’ employment dates.

My mother collapsed around last summer. I assumed that the spy would have been hired around that time.

However, after reviewing the records, I found that no one had been hired during that period.

So, that meant all the current servants had been loyal to our household for quite some time…

‘To think someone would betray the Alton family.’

It was clear that there was a spy among the existing staff.

After all, with the incident involving William, it was only natural to suspect there might be another.

But still…

‘A dog of the Crown Prince hiding in my estate?’

It was simply unthinkable.

Nevertheless, with this ring, it would be quite easy to catch the spy.

I tilted my head slightly and stroked the ring.