<Chapter 13>
“Stepmother is weak when it comes to your cuteness, Chersion. So I’ll leave that matter to you.”
“Okay! I’ll do my best, hyung!”
As Chersion’s eyes sparkled, Euphemina tilted her head with a blank expression.
“Then… what am I supposed to do?”
“You…”
After a moment of thought, Kardiel spoke.
“Think of a way to drive the private tutors out of this house.”
“We’re going to kick out the tutors?”
“As if the ones Viscount Baden is trying to plant here would be proper tutors. You haven’t forgotten how the previous ones treated you, have you?”
When he said that, a shared memory surfaced in the siblings’ minds at the same time.
“…Mm.”
“……”
Instead of sending them to the academy, their father had assigned them private tutors in the past.
Even before Lieselotte became the Duchess of Daiern, those tutors had all been people influenced by Viscount Baden.
Every single one of them looked down on the duke’s children.
Corporal punishment wasn’t even considered unusual.
They must have thought that since the duke himself abused the children, such treatment was acceptable.
Among those memories, one stood out in particular.
“I’m scared…”
Chersion, having dredged up a certain memory, clutched his chest as tears welled in his eyes.
Just recalling it made it hard for him to breathe—the boy carried that incident as trauma.
“What if… I get locked in the closet again…?”
It happened when Chersion was only five years old.
A tutor introduced by Viscount Baden and hired with their father’s approval had locked Chersion inside a wardrobe in the corner of an old storage room.
The excuse had been, “The young master needs some time to reflect,” but in truth, all he had done was get a multiplication problem wrong.
That afternoon, a torrential downpour accompanied by thunder and lightning had poured down.
The tutor, however, didn’t know that the old storage room where Chersion was locked would flood halfway whenever it rained.
If Lieselotte hadn’t cut her schedule short because of the rain and returned home early…
Chersion would have surely died, trapped inside the fallen wardrobe and submerged in rainwater.
“To make sure that never happens again, we must never accept tutors recommended by Viscount Baden.”
Even if they had no choice, they needed to find a reason to drive them out as quickly as possible. It would be even better if they left on their own.
“So stop crying. This isn’t the time to cry.”
“Mm… sniff…”
“Crybaby Chelsea. You’re still a baby.”
“I’m not a baaaby!”
Just talking about it seemed painful enough—Chersion trembled in fear.
Kardiel did feel sorry for his younger brother, but he wasn’t the type to approach him gently and comfort him.
Strangely enough, it seemed Euphemina’s teasing helped Chersion calm down a little.
Meanwhile, Kardiel was thinking about the complicated matters of the adults.
The tutors will definitely be hired.
But things wouldn’t always work out like before, when their stepmother had been able to help.
To be blunt, Chersion’s survival back then had been pure luck.
At the time, neither Kardiel nor Euphemina had known what was happening to him, as they had been elsewhere with their own tutors.
So this time, we can’t just sit back and be victims like before.
They couldn’t wait forever for their stepmother to come save them. He was already fifteen years old.
At that moment, Euphemina suddenly tilted her head in the opposite direction.
“By the way, is there a man among the new tutors?”
“What?”
“Is he handsome? Do you think he might propose to Mother?”
“……”
That, he didn’t know. They hadn’t met yet.
Kardiel was about to scold her for asking such a ridiculous question, but then he realized something he had overlooked.
A handsome tutor?
At least as far as Kardiel knew, no one fit that description better than Sir Josef.
In fact, he doubted anyone ever would.
It wasn’t common to encounter a face so striking it felt almost awe-inspiring, regardless of gender.
Moreover, the man he had first met at the duke’s funeral hadn’t been some immature young noble, but a rather impressive adult.
His relaxed demeanor, yet subtly unapproachable presence—it was, honestly, something Kardiel found himself wanting to emulate.
So he must already be married.
He hadn’t attended the funeral with a wife, but neither had Baron Landgritz nor Viscount Baden.
Several other nobles had come alone as well.
Since it was right at the start of the social season, it wasn’t strange at all.
More importantly, Stepmother didn’t seem to dislike Sir Josef.
Lieselotte, who had managed the duchy alone for a long time, had a keen eye for people.
The reason none of the tutors hired at the Daiern estate had lasted more than a week was because they failed to meet her sharp standards.
For reference, the tutor who had tormented Chersion had remained longer for a reason.
At the time, Lieselotte had no authority to interfere in the children’s education.
After a major argument with the duke over that incident, she began to involve herself in raising the siblings.
Only then did the tutors hired through Viscount Baden finally come face-to-face with the lady of the house.
…They were all dismissed within three days.
Some were thrown out without even exchanging a few words.
And the tutor responsible for the wardrobe incident?
He was sent straight to prison without even a trial.
So Sir Josef must at least be someone who knows how to behave.
If he allowed himself a hopeful thought—
Even if someone approached Lieselotte with ulterior motives, they would likely lose the will to act the moment they stood before Sir Josef.
Unless they were extraordinarily shameless.
“No way that would happen.”
Kardiel replied indifferently to Euphemina’s question.
“But if it really did, I’d have to teach them a lesson.”
“You mean kill them?”
…No.
“Euphemina. You really need to stop jumping to killing people.”
“Yupi noona is scary…”
Chersion, who had just stopped crying, began to sniffle again.
Ignoring the scolding directed at her, Euphemina simply blinked innocently.
“It’s the easiest method,” she muttered.
“Anyway, to summarize.”
Kardiel cleanly ignored her nonsense and issued instructions.
“If someone shows signs of presumptuously proposing to Stepmother, I’ll handle it. So you two focus on your own tasks for now. Ask for support if needed.”
“Okay! I’ll act cute so Mother won’t remarry…!”
“For the tutors, I just have to drive them out, right?”
“Right. Absolutely no killing. I’ll give you three days—come back with a plan.”
“We have to do that too?”
“Listen to me. Chersion, you refine your plan over the next three days as well.”
“Okay! I’ll try!”
“Big brother always makes things so complicated…”
“……”
That’s because you try to make everything too simple.
After confirming that Euphemina nodded in agreement, Kardiel felt satisfied and recorded today’s strategy meeting.
They could plan further after meeting the new tutors.
“Hey… Kard hyung, Yupi noona.”
It was then that Chersion, his voice still slightly damp with tears, called out to them.
Before they could even meet his eyes, he hopped off his chair and gently took both their hands, overlapping them together.
“Don’t you think… we’ve been a bit happier lately?”
As Chersion bounced lightly, their arms swayed along with him in the air.
“Mother smiles every day now, and we can laugh out loud together like this, and… walking around the mansion isn’t as scary anymore.”
“……”
“And after meals, we even get ice cream for dessert!”
“I like pudding more than ice cream.”
“Hehe, I like pudding too. What about you, Kard hyung?”
“…I prefer sherbet.”
“That’s good too!”
Just moments ago, the mood had been heavy.
Now, a warm atmosphere seemed to bloom in the study like soft cotton candy.
All because of Chersion’s gentle smile that tickled the heart.
“Let’s become even happier from now on. With Mother, with Grandpa Butler, with the tutors and the nanny, with all the servants, and also…”
‘The Angel of Daiern.’
It really was a nickname that suited Chersion perfectly.
Kardiel believed that this bright, kind-hearted nature was a talent unique to Chersion alone.
And so—
It’s my role as the eldest to make sure you can keep speaking of happiness.
He wanted to protect his siblings so they could continue to feel happy, just like now.
And Stepmother too.
She was someone he now had to protect as well—someone he had to be able to protect.
Because he had received far too much from her.
I should learn swordsmanship after all.
