“It’s not too late even now. If you want, I’ll bring the child here.”
“No, Father.”
With a smile on her face, Camilla lightly shook her head.
“He’s wanted this too.”
Rio did not go back to the orphanage. Because it was none other than the Duke of Sephra who had stepped up and said he would adopt Rio.
“At first, I planned to keep him with me...”
Arsian had asked Rio’s opinion first. Whether he would like to come live at his house.
Others were appalled at those words, but Camilla wasn’t particularly surprised.
He’s secretly weak when it comes to kids.
Especially when it came to Rio.
He supposedly hated having people hovering around him, but he’d never once shown even a hint of that toward the boy.
If anything, she had often seen him quietly circling nearby and looking after him.
Kids are a lot sharper than people think.
They can tell right away who likes them and who doesn’t.
You could see that just from how Rio followed Arsian more than Petro.
Come to think of it... they’re a little alike, aren’t they?
Sieer—that child.
Their bright, clear eyes were a little similar. In any case, Rio had not refused the hand Arsian held out.
You could say the whole incident had made them suddenly closer. To a child, someone who appeared in a crisis like that would have looked incredibly cool.
“Even so, that guy’s house is a bit...”
The Duke of Sorpel still seemed to be more worried than anything.
Well, it was the House of Sephra, of all places. It was only natural to worry about a child having to live among those stiff, taciturn men.
But...
“Rio will do well in that house.”
The boy was far more sociable than he seemed, and on top of that, Arsian’s little self-promotion at the time had been very impressive.
Camilla let out a small laugh as she recalled what Arsian had said to lure Rio.
“There’s an empty room in my house.”
At first, she’d been dumbfounded. Was he bragging that he had a lot of spare rooms at home?
She’d been about to say, “We have plenty of empty rooms too!” when she realized what room he must be talking about and closed her mouth.
“Someone else used to stay there, but...”
She’d also understood that he meant to treat Rio like a real younger brother.
“He’ll be fine.”
With that one line, she’d felt certain that Arsian would take better care of the boy than anyone.
****
“......”
“......”
The dining hall was very quiet. As if there were no one there at all.
The Duke of Sephra and Arsian were already seated, but neither of them was the sort to open a conversation.
Not that either of them found the silence awkward. They were both far too used to this kind of atmosphere.
The servants waiting around them were the same. Since their lords kept their mouths shut, their own movements were extremely cautious.
DADADADA!
Just then, small, light footsteps could be heard.
When the sound that had come all the way up to the front of the dining room stopped right before the door, the Duke of Sephra and Arsian’s gazes turned to the entrance at the same time.
But contrary to the expectation that the child would come right in, there was no sign of movement.
Peek.
A moment later, a very small head peeked in.
“Huh?”
Apparently intending to sneak a look inside, Rio cautiously stuck only his head around the door.
Then he met the eyes of a great many people staring straight at him, and ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ his eyes went wide.
“Heh...”
But his surprise lasted only a moment; a beaming smile spread across his face.
“I came to eat!”
With his hands pressed neatly together, Rio gave a quick bow, then scampered forward and blurted out his first words.
“Sit.”
“Yes, sir!”
The boy answered energetically and tried to clamber up onto the tall chair with some effort.
Finding the sight cute, the butler approached carefully and lifted Rio up onto the chair.
“Thank you.”
At the child’s polite thanks, the butler’s smile deepened.
He couldn’t remember the last time—if there had ever been a time—when such a bright, clear child’s voice had been heard in this house.
The late Young Master Sieer had always been so very quiet.
Soon, dishes began to be set on the table in quick succession. When he saw the food, Rio’s mouth fell open slightly, and then he broke into another radiant smile.
“It looks so good!”
Clapping his hands, Rio happily picked up his fork.
As if under prior orders, the meat in front of him had already been cut into small, bite-sized pieces.
“Um...”
But there was one problem. The table was far too high for him, and he couldn’t properly reach his food.
“We’ll have to order a new chair.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Seeing this, the Duke of Sephra gave the order, and the butler bowed his head at once. It was an apology for having failed to think of it.
“Up we go.”
“...?”
The butler, about to step in to help with the child’s meal, had to stop where he was. Rio, who had been sitting in the chair, hopped down to the floor.
The place he pattered over to was...
“Please pick me up.”
There was a collective sharp intake of breath from all around. The butler was no exception.
It was because the child was standing before the Duke of Sephra with his arms stretched up.
“......”
The duke’s expression as he looked at the boy was still as impassive as ever.
On the other hand, everyone watching them swallowed dryly.
Every one of them knew all too well how cold the Duke of Sephra could be.
Slide.
But defying everyone’s expectations, he lifted the child without a word. Then he calmly settled Rio on his own lap.
“Thank you!”
Once he’d confirmed that he could see all the food laid out on the table, Rio smiled brightly again.
Taking that as his cue, the duke gave a slight, indifferent nod, and the air around them began, little by little, to lighten.
Since the Duke of Sephra had simply accepted the child’s sudden request, everyone let out silent sighs of relief.
But that relief did not last long.
“Ah.”
Rio was staring straight at the Duke of Sephra, his little mouth opened as wide as he could make it.
The way he begged for food to be put in his mouth was completely natural.
To Rio, it was something familiar. At the orphanage, the teachers had always sat children who struggled to eat on their laps and fed them.
“......”
For a while, the Duke of Sephra said nothing at all. He just looked at the child with a flat gaze.
Everyone standing around them swallowed hard again.
Slide.
“......!”
And then their eyes flew wide. Because he—the Duke of Sephra—picked up a piece of meat and put it in the child’s mouth.
It was something he had never done even for his own children.
“It’s delicious!”
After chewing the meat for a while, a smile bloomed on Rio’s lips again.
“Hey.”
From one side, Arsian finally opened his mouth, his eyes fixed on the whole scene with a look of blank disbelief.
“I’m the one who’s seen you a lot more.”
He couldn’t understand why the child was cozying up to that man he was seeing for the first time rather than to himself.
Normally, you’d ask help from the person you were at least a bit familiar with, wouldn’t you?
“Big Sis told me to.”
“Big Sis? Camilla?”
“Yes!”
The boy nodded vigorously and repeated what he had been told.
“She said, ‘When you get there, stick right next to the strongest person in the house and don’t let go.’”
“...The strongest person?”
“Yeah! She said life will be easier that way too.”
What on earth had she been teaching this kid? He couldn’t decide if it was absurd or just very much like her.
Arsian let out a short, incredulous laugh and asked,
“So you stuck to him instead of me?”
“Yes, Big Sis said he’s the strongest one in this house!”
“......”
Caught off guard and soundly defeated, Arsian could only open and close his mouth for a while.
He wanted to argue it wasn’t true, but his opponent was... a kid like that. He couldn’t very well start laying into him...
Slide.
Meanwhile, the Duke of Sephra picked up another piece of meat and put it in the child’s mouth.
“She’s always right.”
“Yeah! Big Sis is always right!”
The two of them were getting along extremely well.
...Shit.
In the end, all Arsian could do was silently swear to himself over and over again in front of the child.
****
DING-A-LING!
“Welcome... Camilla!”
Laila, who had been busily setting desserts down in the display case, looked up at the person coming in and broke into a bright smile.
“Welcome.”
“How’s the work? Managing okay?”
“Yes!”
The place Camilla had come to was a dessert café that had opened not long ago.
“The café is so pretty.”
“Of course it is.”
She’d put a lot into it, after all.
This dessert shop was the second business Camilla owned, after the Ghost Trading House. There wasn’t a single part she hadn’t been involved in, from the interior to the menu.
Especially the interior.
She’d gone through hell trying to decorate it in a modern style.
Naturally, they didn’t have the same variety of materials as the other world, so she’d worked herself to the bone trying to recreate that feel as closely as possible.
“I’ve never seen a shop decorated like this before!”
“Right?”
From the large, seamless glass windows that were rare here, to the glass display where customers could pick their desserts—
Even the way the place was run was different: instead of staff taking orders directly, the basic principle was self-service ordering.
“How are the customers?”
“None yet.”
Worry filled Laila’s face.
“Manager, relax your face. You’ll scare off any customers who do come.”
Camilla joked lightly and patted her shoulder.
When she’d decided to open this café, the first person she’d thought of was Laila. She’d been impressed with Laila’s diligence and quick, efficient way of working during their volunteer activities.
Maybe because she’d done a lot of part-time jobs, her math was good and she was very capable with this kind of work as well.
And especially when it came to desserts—
No one knew Laila’s skills better than Camilla herself. Working with her to develop the menu had made her quietly marvel all over again.
“The macaron colors came out really pretty this time.”
“Yeah, they look great.”
She’d wanted to sell, in this world, the desserts that had been hugely popular in the other one.
But having eaten them didn’t mean she knew the recipes. So she’d assumed it would be impossible to make them exactly the same—but Laila had done it.
Camilla had only explained the rough ingredients, the taste, and the texture, and Laila had reproduced them just like that.
“You’ve worked hard, Laila.”
Looking at the macarons lined up in all their different colors, Camilla felt deeply proud.
