It Was Me, Not You

“To prepare for the Spring Sword Contest, we need to increase Edwin’s training.”

“What? Oh, yes.”

Poor Edwin. As Rowoon was comforting Edwin’s future, the Grand Duke’s steps suddenly stopped.

“Your Highness?”

Rowoon suddenly noticed that the Grand Duke, who stopped walking, was looking at something.

As I moved my gaze along the Duke’s gaze, I saw a small child in a white dress.

It was Diana.

As Rowoon narrowed his forehead to Diana’s backside, the Grand Duke could not take his eyes off Diana’s backside.

“Were you wearing what the butler prepared?”

Seeing that it was a new dress, not the last one I saw, it seemed that the butler carried out his orders properly.

“But, where are you going?”

There was no trail for the child to walk to where Diana was going.

When the suspicious Duke looked behind Diana, she stumbled heavily because she had lost her footing.

With a thud

In the end, the Grand Duke involuntarily flinched at the sight of Diana falling.

“…”

“Oh, my…”

Rowoon was surprised by Diana’s quite big fall and spoke out, Diana stood up from her seat, shaking off her skirt.

Diana disappeared quickly, moving her little feet hard where she was going without showing any pain.

After Diana disappeared around the corner, Rowoon turned to the Grand Duke.

The Duke did not take his eyes off the place where Diana disappeared.

‘Why does His Highness care so much about her?’

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand the Grand Duke and Diana.

Diana was Leah’s daughter who drove the Duchess to death.

Even the child of the duchess had no sympathy for Leah’s daughter, Diana.

But how on earth did the Grand Duke accept that child.

It’s already been 15 years since Rowoon took the Grand  Duke as his master.

It was even more difficult to understand because he had been serving the Grand Duke for a short time and seeing the Grand Duke’s cool-headed appearance.

The Grand Duke is never a man to be shaken by such things.

However, Rowoon had to put up with it even though he had a lot to say because he was warned not to talk about Diana anymore.

When Rowoon was holding back the words he wanted to ask, the Grand Duke murmured softly.

“It seems dangerous to go around alone.”

“…”

“Should I give her a maid?” “

What do you mean by a maid?

Which aristocrat gives a maid to an illegitimate child who has not even reached the family tree?

Rowoon’s lips were filled with words up to his throat, but he closed his mouth at the moment when he encountered it.

The Grand Duke gently smiled at Rowoon.

“You seem to have a lot of complaints.”

“No.” 

Rowoon looked down and said no, but the Duke knew Rowoon still hadn’t accepted Diana.

“Rowoon, Ariel said  it to me. Don’t sacrifice an innocent child for an adult fight. Diana has already gone through a lot of hardships and I want to keep Ariel’s word.”

“…I didn’t know the Grand Duchess had said that.”

Rowoon was able to understand a little bit of the Grand Duke’s mind, which he had not understood until now, when he said he wanted to keep the words of the Grand Duke.

I know how much the Great Duke loved the Grand Duchess.

Let’s not sacrifice a child in the adult fight.

It was a remark that was truly of a very high-ranking official.

– Rowoon, sometimes it’s important to look around. Sometimes only what you see is not true.

And suddenly I remembered what the duke had said to him.

Why does this word suddenly come to mind?

Miss Diana.

He ignored all the surroundings related to Diana and despised her only because she was Leah’s daughter.

I still felt the same way, but…

“Rowoon, aren’t you going?”

“Oh, yes.”

Rowoon followed the Duke, giving up Diana’s thoughts.

***

“It’s bigger than I thought.”

Diana, who arrived at the library after being guided by a maid she encountered in the hallway, looked around the interior of the library, which was wider than she thought.

The two-story interior was filled with books.

Perhaps because I was born here and grew up without seeing a book, it was fascinating to see a place full of books.

“I love it.”

While looking around the bookshelf in admiration of the unfamiliar sight, Diana could not tell what kind of books these were or where the books she was looking for were, even though there were numerous books.

Diana couldn’t read the title of the book because she didn’t know how to read.

Diana, looking around at the curly letters, let out a small sigh and put the book in place.

In addition, there were too many books out of her reach due to the height of the bookshelf.

“That’s why I can’t find a book.”

‘Is there anyone who manages this place?’

Diana looked around the library, but no one seemed to be a librarian.

“What should I do?”

Should I go back to my room like this? Or should I catch a maid passing by?

Diana shook her head.

If you ask someone for help, there could be rumors that Diana was trying to learn to write.

But there was nothing I could do in this big and spacious library to do on my own.

I thought it would be easy to find a textbook, but it wasn’t even easy to find it.

‘I wanted to learn how to write.’

I don’t want to cry, but I was sad for no reason in this large space without anyone, and tears began to form in Diana’s big eyes.

This is because I felt that the future was just hopeless as I twisted from the first step of being alone.

“If I don’t know the words, how can I become independent?”

I was about to burst into tears.

“Who is it?”

At the sound of footsteps in the quiet library, Diana hid behind the book window holding her breath.

Come to think of it, there was no reason to hide, but it was instinctive.

She poked her head from behind the bookshelf to examine the visitor.

“Uh…”

I could see the familiar sky blue hair.

At this, Diana rose up, smiling, hiding behind the bookshelf.

“Edwin.”

When his name was called, Edwin, who was heading to the bookshelf, turned his head toward Diana.

His green eyes grew as if they were surprised to find Diana.

“Miss?”

Diana darted to him in amazement.

Then Edwin bent one knee and lowered himself.

“Edwin, how are you?”

It was the first time I’ve seen him since the day of the raid.

Edwin’s eyes curled gently as he smiled with delight.

“I’m always doing well. Are you all better now?”

“Yes, I’m all better now. It’s fine. Thank you for saving me then.”

“No, I just did what I had to do. By the way, miss, what brings you here? Are you here alone?”

Edwin rolled his eyes around to see who else might be behind Diana.

“Yes, I came alone.”

“… I see.”

“Edwin, are you busy?”

“No, I’m free for a few hours after training.”

“Then can you help me?”

As I asked him carefully. There was a wonder on his face.

“What can I do for you?”

“I want you to find me a book to learn letters.”

“You mean letters. Are you trying to learn?”

I nodded straight to Edwin’s careful question.

“Yes.”

“Oh… yes.”

Edwin tried not to show, but his green eyes looked completely embarrassed.

It was a natural reaction.

It’s not common for a 10-year-old child, who grew up in a noble family, to be illiterate.

It was quite strange that Diana did not know the text, as even the maids of the Grand Duke knew the text.

Perhaps if Leah were a normal mother, of course, Diana would have known how to read as a child.

Edwin’s green eyes examined Diana’s expression.

Looking at him as if nothing had happened, Edwin immediately smiled and rose.

“Well, if you’re learning to write for the first time, you’d better look at it as a picture book.

“But I don’t know if there’s a book like that in here.. Lady, shall we go over there?”

Edwin pointed to the sofa in the middle of the library.

“Yes.”

Edwin put Diana on the sofa and moved to a place lined with bookshelves.

Looking around as if looking for a book, he returned with a troubled face.

“As expected, there are no picture books here.”

“Really?”

“The library is designed for maids and knights working in the Grand Duchy, so there are few books for children.”

“Uh…”

Diana tried to pretend to be okay but could not hide her disappointment.

The moment I saw Edwin in the library, I was delighted that it was solved, but it was not easy.

“I can’t help it.”

I think Edwin’s gonna be in more trouble if she keeps feeling down

I came down from the sofa pretending to be okay.

Then Edwin’s green gaze, which was agonizing over something, turned to Diana.

“Miss.”

“What?”

“I’m going to find a picture of a letter book outside. I’ll get something.”

“Edwin?”

“Yes, and if you don’t mind… Can I help you learn how to write?”

Diana stared at Edwin with her eyes wide open at the unexpected suggestion.

‘Thank you for buying me a picture book.’

I can’t believe you’re going to teach me how to write. It was a great thing, but it’s great right away

I couldn’t answer that.

“… But isn’t Edwin busy? And it wouldn’t be good if Edwin told me the story.”

Last time I saw Edwin as a trusted knight to the Grand Duke.

If he hung out with me, I thought Grand Duke would hate it.

The Grand Duke is now being nice to Diana, but it’s something else to do with his knight.

I didn’t want Edwin to suffer because of me.

“Well, if I tell you that you don’t have to worry about that, will that be okay ?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Contrary to Diana’s heavy expression, Edwin smiled brightly.

“Lady, don’t worry. It’s never too much for me to look after the lady.  Rather, it is a glorious thing. As a junior knight, I can teach you how to read”