Chapter 8
A little while later, there came the sound of knocking at the office.
Knock knock.
“Lady Rierusha has arrived, Your Grace.”
“Let her in.”
At Ackmund’s permission, the office door opened.
To see his granddaughter, he turned his gaze straight ahead.
But there was no child to be seen anywhere.
……What?
“Just where is the child you say is…….”
“Hello!”
At that moment, a resounding voice filled the office.
The duke’s red eyes slowly lowered to the direction the voice had come from.
…There isn’t.
Lowering his head further, he saw Rierusha, standing stiffly.
‘She’s too small.’
How could such a tiny living creature even exist?
The way her hair was bound into two round coils on either side looked rather petty.
The child appeared, dressed up cutely, her face full of tension.
Ackmund could not take his eyes off that child.
Heirs who inherited Arakrene blood fundamentally grew at an unusual rate.
Even at the same age of four, they grew quickly enough to look about seven.
Because of that, to be honest, Ackmund was taken aback by the sight of Rierusha, whom he had to lower his head so far to see.
“I am Rierusha Arakrene!”
Holding the hem of her dress delicately, the child bent her knees and greeted him, showing the round pink crown of her head.
Then, as if she lost her balance, her body wobbled.
It was such dreadful etiquette that he couldn’t even grasp where to begin pointing things out.
Silence settled over the office.
“Hic, I practiced so hard with Ttona.”
“…….”
Perhaps she knew she had ruined the greeting; Rierusha made a teary face.
Everyone in the office watched Rierusha, lips puckered and trembling as if she might cry.
‘Why do all her emotions show so plainly?’
Seymour, another aide who had been making a report to Ackmund just now, nearly dropped the documents he was holding.
For reference, Seymour was the one who had treated Rierusha’s wounds while she was unconscious.
‘Since Lord Oberon is calm… it seems he has already adapted on the way here.’
Quick-witted Seymour finished grasping the situation.
The only ones flustered here were Seymour and Ackmund.
Unlike the children raised in the main castle, Rierusha was not calculating, and her inner thoughts were plain to see; Ackmund was left speechless.
“…H-hadabuji.”
A lisping voice that didn’t suit the office rang out again.
Ackmund blinked slowly.
‘Grandfather……?’
At the sight of the child looking up at him with desperate eyes like a dog needing to relieve itself, Ackmund’s eyebrows rose like mountains.
“Can I greet you one more time?”
It was pitiful, the way she held up one tiny index finger, begging for a chance.
At a form of address he had never even properly heard from his grandsons, in seventy years of life Ackmund felt a sensation he could not put into words.
* * *
Rierusha felt miserable.
Because she had completely ruined the etiquette Sona had worked so hard to teach her for days.
On top of that, she had stumbled over her words, too.
‘He might think I’m a hopeless granddaughter who can’t even do a simple greeting properly.’
Rierusha grew anxious.
She was holding her hands above her navel like a child who had done wrong, fidgeting and staring at the floor, when—
“Alright. Try again.”
“R-really?”
“Then would I, a duke, speak with one mouth and two words?”
“No!”
Rierusha’s resounding voice rang through the office.
At Ackmund’s permission that she could greet again, her gloom vanished at once.
Rierusha’s red eyes sparkled.
Soon, with a resolute expression, she pressed her lips together as if concentrating.
“Rierusha Arakrene. Hadabuji!”
This time, she successfully finished the greeting without making a mistake.
Her stance and the angle of the dress she lightly held up were all perfect.
Just as she lifted her head with proud relief at having succeeded.
Ackmund began to wave his hand.
“Go back a bit.”
“Yesh?”
“You are too small, so I cannot see you properly.”
Rierusha sucked in a sharp breath and quickly stepped back.
It seemed that because she was so small, the closer she came, the more only the crown of her head could be seen.
However, Ackmund shook his head as if that still wasn’t enough.
“More.”
“Th-this much?”
This time, she stepped back about two big steps more.
Ackmund’s brow furrowed deeply.
“Too far!”
“……Th-then should I come a little closer?”
“Just what have you been doing all this time, not growing!”
Ackmund’s rebuke suddenly flew at her.
……Even Rierusha felt this was unfair.
‘It’s not like I don’t want to grow.’
When Rierusha flinched, her face scared, Ackmund’s stiff expression loosened ever so slightly.
But his stern expression remained.
“Rosinante found you awakening in the forest and brought you back, they say. Is that correct?”
“Yesh.”
Rierusha answered as she gulped down dry saliva.
Even so, she couldn’t help feeling hurt that he went straight to the main point without even a simple greeting.
‘It seems Grandfather isn’t happy that I awakened.’
She had dressed up as much as possible to look nice, but not even a light compliment came back.
‘As expected, Grandfather definitely hates me…….’
Rierusha recalled the admonition she had heard from Sona before coming here.
“You must answer honestly what the duke asks. Even if you’re scared, you must never lie.”
The problem was that even if she wanted to answer honestly, she couldn’t remember a single thing.
‘…He’ll know through Oberon’s ability that I’m not lying.’
Rierusha glanced sideways at Oberon.
For a while now, Oberon’s gaze had not left Rierusha.
To grasp the essence of the other party was his ability.
“Rierusha, what is your ability?”
“I…….”
Hesitating, Rierusha shook her head.
“……I don’t know.”
In that moment, bang! Ackmund slammed the desk.
Startled, Rierusha hunched her shoulders.
Her tightly shut eyelids trembled pitiably.
Enraged, Ackmund began to shout.
“How dare you!”
“……!”
“In what safety do you dare speak falsehoods, Rierusha Arakrene!”
She had been scolded by Grandfather many times, but she had never seen him this angry.
‘Scary.’
Her mind turned white.
Originally, when an Arakrene awakened an ability, they could know it themselves.
So it wasn’t strange for Ackmund to shout like this.
It was so natural that he could believe Rierusha was deceiving him.
“Speak your ability at once!”
“G-grandfather, truly I…….”
Rierusha’s small body trembled.
When she thought she might be hated by Grandfather again, fear seized her.
Her two eyes filled with sorrowful tears.
‘Why is it always only me…….’
Why was it that she, too, couldn’t awaken normally like the other direct line?
At the duke’s red eyes glaring sharply, her body stiffened on its own.
The solution Sona had taught her didn’t work at all.
Ackmund’s furious aura began to fill and surround the office.
‘Scary……!’
Rierusha panted, breathing out raggedly.
Her fragile body couldn’t withstand Ackmund’s oppressive presence.
From the lack of any other action, it seemed he was simply pressing her for an answer, but Rierusha’s thoughts seemed to go numb from fear.
It was more frightening than when she had met a monster in the forest.
Ackmund’s shout just now had stimulated Rierusha’s trauma.
‘What if I really can’t use my ability?’
If recognizing one’s ability was the normal awakening process, then Rierusha was clearly a mutant.
If she lived her whole life unable to know her ability like this?
Extermination. With the fear that she might lose her precious family again, Rierusha couldn’t breathe.
“Hic……. Hadabuji.”
That was when it happened.
Mana began to flow out around Rierusha, and fluffy soap bubbles began to pop into being.
Seeing Rierusha’s ability, Ackmund sprang to his feet with a shocked face.
“This ability is…….”
