Chapter 58

***

That evening, the Duke gathered all three of his sons. Jeremiah ran to his father faster than anyone else.

His father was an upright man, so Jeremiah was certain he would tell him the truth.

“I have something to tell you all.”

Jeremiah’s heart began to race as his father started speaking calmly.

“It’s about Beatrice, your mother.”

Jeremiah’s expectations were not misplaced. He continued to listen intently to his father’s story.@@novelbin@@

“Your mother had some circumstances that made her live outside the mansion for a while.”

At this revelation, all the Baldwin boys tilted their heads.

“How come…?”

Claude, the eldest, was the only one who managed to ask a question after a long pause, holding Ronny’s hand, who had his head bowed low.

“That is…”

The Duke hesitated in his response, and Jeremiah felt like he knew the answer.

‘It must be because Mother tried to… kill me.’

“Your mother’s health is… not very good. It’s difficult for her to live in this bustling capital.”

But the Duke’s answer was quite different from what Jeremiah had thought.

“Last night, her condition suddenly worsened, and she had no choice but to leave like this.”

Moreover, his words were far from the truth Jeremiah knew.

It wasn’t Mother who was unwell last night; it was Jeremiah who had hurt his forehead.

“Is she… sick?”

Therefore, Jeremiah asked his father again with a trembling voice, hoping he would tell the proper story.

“Yes.”

The Duke nodded simply and added other comforting words.

“Don’t worry too much. Eventually… she will be alright.”

Why…?

Jeremiah asked the Duke just with the shape of his mouth, wondering why he was telling a completely different story.

Unaware of this, his father continued,

“Until the last moment she left the mansion, your mother was worried about you all.”

…A lie.

The other brothers might not know, but Jeremiah did. His mother didn’t particularly like him. She barely visited him, leaving him mostly in the care of the servants. And ultimately, she tried to kill him. The scar on his forehead was the proof.

“She promised to pray for your health and safety from afar.”

‘It’s another lie!’

As the Duke’s story continued, Jeremiah couldn’t properly hear a single word of it. It was all lies, so he blocked his ears.

While Ronny was crying loudly and Claude was unable to accept reality, Jeremiah silently screamed from the back.

The sound of shattering glass from the previous night started to painfully ring in his head.

Was that sound, which he thought was just glass breaking, actually the sound of Jeremiah’s beautiful world shattering?

“Jeremiah.”

Suddenly, the Duke approached and embraced him.

Jeremiah, completely frozen, couldn’t show any reaction.

His mother tried to kill him, and his father spoke nothing but lies.

His vision blurred.

It was because of the tears, but to him, it seemed like his precariously maintained world finally collapsed entirely.

It was around that time that the Magic Tower stepped in to take care of him.

Jeremiah decided to leave the house himself, and no one could change his mind.

On the day the Duke took him to the Magic Tower, Jeremiah coldly looked at the bag of belongings the Duke had packed and said,

“I don’t need it. Dispose of it.”

The Duke looked at him with a shocked expression, which slightly stifled Jeremiah. By what right?

“Leave.”

The boy offered a brief farewell and turned around. His steps toward the Magic Tower were filled with joy.

Finally, he began to distance himself from the name Baldwin.

If these steps continued, maybe someday,

He could remove the ‘Baldwin’ attached to his name.

“If you solve this problem, I will bestow upon you the title of a magician.”

And now, he was right in front of that goal.

Once this mission was over and he left the mansion, he would truly and forever sever ties with this detestable name.

***

Early the next morning, Melody woke up and immediately started to worry.

‘I need an excuse to visit Loretta.’

If Jeremiah was not with Loretta, perhaps Melody could spend some time by her side.

“Ah, I’ll offer to read her a fairy tale.”

Such a reason would please the adults, and Loretta too would be happy to know about it when she woke up.

Melody finished preparing and hurried to the library. She began to search the quiet shelves for a suitable book.

“Uh…”

Suddenly, Melody heard someone groaning in pain. Was someone feeling the pains of study this early in the morning?

Curious, she approached the direction of the sound.

“Wow.”

Then she saw Ronny, leaning on the windowsill, seemingly engrossed in some deep thought. It was surprising to see him, who disliked studying, so diligently engaged in something so early.

If the Duke saw this, he would surely be pleased.

Melody approached quietly, careful not to disturb him.

“…Hmm?”

And soon, he let out a sound of confusion.

“Aaaah?!”

Startled by the sound, Ronny screamed and stumbled back from the windowsill, landing on his bottom.

“What, what, what?! How can you just appear out of nowhere?!”

“I’m sorry. I just intended to watch you study hard.”

Despite her honest words, he didn’t seem to believe her.

“Don’t make me laugh.”

Moreover, he began to regard Melody with incredibly wary eyes.

‘Why exactly…?’

***

Ronny hurriedly picked up the paper that had fallen to the floor.

“You were planning to sneak a peek at this, weren’t you?”

“Of course not. I don’t even know what it is.”

Melody extended her hand to him. Ronny took her hand and stood up.

“Hmph. You think just because you’re flattering me, I’m going to show you this paper?”

“It’s okay if you don’t show me. I wouldn’t be able to read it anyway.”

Surprised by Melody’s indifferent response, he asked,

“How did you know? You saw what I was reading, didn’t you?”

He accused Melody. It’s very rude to look at someone else’s things without permission, after all.

“I didn’t see it. But you had a dictionary open on the windowsill. That must mean it contains difficult words.”

Melody knew how to read but still didn’t understand complicated words well. She was learning diligently.

“There’s no way I would know words that even you don’t know.”

Ronny’s face reddened a bit at the girl’s observation, seemingly embarrassed.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You think I don’t know any words? The dictionary is just there for… confirmation! It’s a scholarly confirmation process.”

Despite using a complex term he had learned from a professor, Melody just shrugged nonchalantly with an ‘Oh, is that so?’ look. Ronny felt a sudden surge of irritation.

If this continued, wouldn’t Melody think of him as an idiot who can’t even properly speak his own language?

‘That can’t happen.’

While he didn’t mind others, he didn’t want to be considered a fool by Melody.

The reason was unknown.

“Well, can’t help it.”

As if making a grand decision, he nodded and then spoke to Melody as if doing her a favor,

“If you ask me earnestly, I might show you what I was reading. Though I don’t really want to.”

Melody, with her hands neatly folded, began to stare intently at him. She seemed amazed that his mind had changed.

“Of course, that’s only if you ask me sincerely! I don’t want to show this to you, but if I don’t, you’ll probably wonder about it all day…”

“It’s okay if I don’t see it.”

Ronny was dumbfounded by Melody’s abrupt response after his rambling excuses.

It’s okay?! How could she say that?!

She had tiptoed over out of curiosity about what he was doing, yet how could she respond like that?!

“Then I’ll go pick out the book I need.”

As Melody turned around, he hurriedly grabbed her arm.

“Wait a moment.”

“Yes?”

When she turned back, he was looking at Melody with a face trying to swallow his humiliation.

“Look, look at it. If you see this, you’ll understand why I was looking at the dictionary.”

Looking up words in the dictionary wasn’t something Melody found particularly embarrassing, but it seemed to be a different case for Ronny.

Since he said to look at it, Melody attentively observed the paper he proudly handed to her.

It was a letter with the Magic Tower’s seal.

Below it was writing so terrible it seemed the worms would want to make friends with it immediately. It was extremely bad handwriting.

As Melody stared at the messy writing for a while, Ronny finally relaxed his shoulders.

Now Melody would understand why he was consulting the dictionary.

To read such horrific handwriting, anyone would need the help of a dictionary.

“You received a letter from the Tower  Master? Oh. Did you ask what Master Jeremiah likes?”

“…What?”