NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16
When I returned to the hall, I tilted my head at the sudden noise of my surroundings. At first glance, it seemed like another start.
‘What’s going on?’
As I was walking, I heard the sound of someone falling along with a loud noise.
However, the person who fell was Diana Ricke.
“Loena. Huwaaaaa.”
As soon as Diana saw me, she had tears in her eyes and a pathetic expression on her face. In front of her was Akid.
Akid looked at me and gave a bewildered expression. I glanced at them alternately.
A fallen Diana and a perplexed Akid. Don’t tell me…!
I ran straight to Akid because it was a situation in video even if I didn’t watch it.
“Akid, are you okay?!”
“Pardon?”
“Did Diana bother you again?”
“No, I…”
I also bit my lower lip as I looked at Akid, who was speechless like a fool. Then I looked straight at Diana, who was sitting on the floor.
How dare you touch my baby?
I glared at Diana with my eyes wide open like a tiger.
“What are you doing?”
“L-Loena! I didn’t do anything! Rather, the Grand Young Lord knocked me down…”
Diana put on a very unhappy expression because she didn’t know I was going to defend Akid.
Yet I didn’t want to believe what she said straight out of her lips.
“My husband won’t just push you all of a sudden.”
“What?”
“You must have done something wrong. Or maybe you tripped and fell on your own.”
Yeah. There was no way our kind-hearted Akid could push anyone down. Obviously, Diana would be framing him.
Diana grabbed the hem of her dress as I took Akid’s side for granted. Her shocked face was quite worth seeing.
“H-How can you do this to me!”
As Diana trembled, the group of people beside her began to defend her.
“We saw the Grand Young Lord push Diana.”
“Yeah! I didn’t lie! Do you know how terrifying your husband was to me?”
Diana got angry and started to cry. She made a gesture as if she was going to die of shame.
I glanced at Akid at their urging.
I looked back at her as she opened her mouth to make excuses with a hardened face.
And like Loena in the original story, I spoke arrogantly while crossing my hands.
“So what?”
“What?”
“Why are you complaining to me that you fell? What are you to say?”
“How can you not be on my side?”
“Those words are weird. Why do I have to stand on your side over my family, Akid? We are definitely strangers.”
“S-Strangers? We are friends.”
“To be exact, we were friends.”
“…!”
“But not anymore. I’m tired of playing with you. So, don’t bother my husband and get out.”
I smiled brightly and kindly pointed a finger at the door.
Loena was very fickle from the beginning. Diana accepted her whim well, thus she only knew her for a long time.
Anyway, there would be no problem in breaking up the relationship a little earlier.
In the first place, my reputation was ruined, so no matter how much Diana talked behind my back, I didn’t mind.
Diana shouted with her face full of contempt.
“Yeah, let’s break up!”
Yes. Exactly what I was hoping for.
I smiled sweetly and nodded my head while wondering if Diana was shaking, then she jumped up and disappeared.
I waved goodbye to the crowd that followed.
‘
It was filthy, let’s not see each other again, guys.’
Then I turned to Akid.
“Are you really okay? Didn’t they bully you?”
How can they cruelly harass one person?
If I had known this would be like this, I’d be right next to Akid!
I put on a gloomy expression on my face, thinking that he must have been in trouble. Then Akid asked with a slightly puzzled face.
“What would you do if I really pushed Lady Riche on purpose?”
There was a bit of confusion in his eyes. He probably didn’t know that I would be on his side.
I grabbed his hand and smiled.
“Did you really push her?”
“No. I didn’t.”
“I thought so.”
Our Akid isn’t the type of person to bully anyone.
When I nodded at once, he gave me a strange look. He muttered as he stared at his gripped hand.
“I wasn’t okay, but now I am. Because Loena listened to me.”
There was no other large dog holding my hand tightly with those words.
I was mesmerized by Akid’s impeccable beauty, and my eyes widened as I pondered what he had said.
“W-What did you just say?”
“Thank you for taking my side.”
“No, you called me something in front of me.”
“You mean Loena?”
Yeah! That one!
I licked my lips at Akid, who suddenly came in with a hook.
“D-Did you just call my name?”
“Yes. That’s right, Loena.”
Akid smiled and fiddled with the back of my hand.
He looks happy somehow, is it really his mood?
What is it? What kind of wind suddenly blows that makes him call me Loena?
It was nice to be called ‘Wife’, but to be called by my first name was somehow thrilling. Do I feel like I’ve been recognized for something, I wonder.
It was said that names exist to be called by others. I was moved like a tsunami when my name came out of Akid’s mouth.
When I couldn’t say anything with emotion, he tilted his upper body to meet my gaze, then gently lowered his eyes and asked.
“Are you offended? Shall I not call you?”
Is the crackling sound an illusion?
I shook my head quickly.
“N-No! Please call me! I like ‘Wife, and I like ‘Loena’ too.”
When I trembled in fear that he might not call me any more, he grinned as if he knew it would happen.
“Yes, Loena.”
A heart-damaging smile was right in front of me.
***
Meanwhile, the ladies were engrossed in the game of chess at the villa of the Hadellus family. Elena was just about to defeat the king with the bishop.
“Huwaaaa, Mooom!”
Diana Ricke wept and ran into the Countess Rike’s arms.
Countess Ricke asked, cupping Diana’s face rather than playing chess.
“Danna! Why is your face like this? Who bothered you?”
“Huwaaa. Loena… towards the Grand Young Lord…”
Diana gasped for breath, unable to continue her words.
Elena stared blankly at Diana, who broke in ahead of her checkmate.
It was because Loena and Akid were mentioned from her lips. Countess Ricke looked at Elena and hurriedly closed her mouth.
“Because this child is in the place of adults…”
“What happened?”
Elena slapped Diana with a gentle smile. Diana recognized her and had a hiccup.
“
Hicc
!”
“Gosh, you must have been very surprised. May, bring the child some water.”
“Yes, Madam.”
The maid, who was by Elena’s side, assisting her, poured water into a cup and handed it to Diana. She gulped and drank the water.
“Alright. So what happened to the story of the Grand Young Lord and his wife?”
“Please don’t worry, Your Grace the Grand Duchess. Children can fight.”
Countess Ricke grinned awkwardly, but Diana’s mouth was opened.
“Loena told me she’s tired of playing with me and to get out.
Hicc
.”
Diana spoke only in her favor. Countess Ricke’s face hardened at once, not knowing this.
“What?”
She could see at a glance that Countess Ricke was offended by Loena telling her well-raised daughter to get out. As Elena grabbed the bishop, she mumbled quietly.
“What else did she say?”
Then, as if nothing special, she knocked Countess Ricke’s King down with her bishop.
“It’s a checkmate.”
At the words of the maid who was next to her, Elena nodded her head lightly and got up from her seat. Countess Ricke said.
“Your Grace, are you going to go just like this?”
“Didn’t I just say that fights can exist among children?”
“But for education…”
“It’s so bad for even adults to be involved in children’s fights.”
Elena had no expression on her face, the Countess Rike spoke more sternly.
“Still, if you don’t discipline them from an early age, it is easy for them to grow up negligently. No matter how much they’re children, it’s irritating to say something that isn’t polite…”
“Countess Ricke.”
As Elena didn’t put on her robe, she glanced at Countess Ricke and Diana.
Diana stopped crying because of Elena’s dazzling white blonde hair and opened her mouth.
They said that the blood of the Imperial Family was flowing in Elena, and that platinum blonde hair was just as dazzling as the sun. Elena said with a frown on her face.
“Advice comes from someone in a good position.”
“…”
“It’s more like Countess Ricke to be lax.”
“Your Grace the Grand Duchess.”
“Let’s call it a day. My chess opponent is so boring, I can’t do it anymore.”
After saying those words, Elena walked towards the door with an elegant step.
Then for a moment, she, who had stopped at the door, turned around as if she had remembered something.
“Ah, Countess Ricke.”
“Yes. Your Grace the Grand Duchess.”
When Countess Ricke answered with humiliation, Elena said with a bright smile.
“I’ll take care of my children. So, Countess Ricke, why don’t you do it to your child first?”
“I beg your pardon?”
Countess Ricke jumped up from her seat as if she was impatient. But Elena had already left the room.
“
Hiccup
!”
Diana was so startled that the hiccups that had stopped continued.
Her mother’s eyes seemed to catch and kill someone at any moment.
Just as expected, her face turned red, and the sparks were directed at Diana’s back.
“You brat’s hiccups, can’t you stop!”
As if everything was due to hiccups.
this chapter is sponsored by summer-162 (2/3)