Chapter 41: Chapter 22.1

Count Cilliard sighed loudly.

Grown-ups found it challenging to deal with children, especially when a boy of his daughter’s age pushed the poor girl to the ground.

The Count winked at the Countess, and the Countess lifted Yernia.

“Princess, aren’t you hungry?”

The Count approached the toddler and stroked the top of his head.

Blocking Cassian from his daughter’s sight, the Count crouched down until they were eye-to-eye.

“I am hungry.” Cassian snapped his lips, and his honest stomach confirmed it.

*RUMBLE*

Cassian hasn’t eaten well since his mother, Lily, died.

As usual, the food was served in their household, but Cassian didn’t eat and skipped his meals.

Lily wasn’t strict whenever Cassian skipped his meals.

Visil, on the other hand,  was too engrossed in his grief after losing his wife that he couldn’t bring himself to care for his son.

“Yernia must be hungry, as well.”

“I’m not hungry! I’m sleepy!”

The Count noticed little duke’s ears turning red.

The innocent child got embarrassed, unaware that he had fallen for Yernia’s tricks.

“I’d like to have a simple meal with you. Yernia had said before that she couldn’t get food in the restaurant if there weren’t any customers.”

“I’ve never said that, Papa. Yup! Yup!” Yernia wanted to refute her father’s words even further, but the Countess had covered a small mouth with her hand.

“Ugh! You lie, Papa! SCAM!  UHAHA—”

The countess entered the mansion as littleYernia struggled in her arms.

“Yernia is a timid child.  That is why she had denied being hungry earlier.”

“…….”

“Would you like to eat with me? You might starve otherwise. I will have to wait for you, too, even if I’m not that hungry.”

Cassian looked away from Yernia to stare back at the gate, but his father wasn’t there.

No carriage with the emblem of the Lecardo Family was there to take him back.

Little Cassian hadn’t even mastered the route to where he previously lived, so it might be hard for him to return to their mansion alone.

With clenched fists, Cassian lowered his head and murmured. “ I wanted to go to my father.”

Despite being a child, Cassian understood how dangerous a battlefield could be, and he would find himself in the same scenario if he followed his father.

Cassian ignored the Count’s outstretched hand and entered the mansion.

“What’s your name? Mama and Papa call you ‘little duke’, but I know that isn’t your name.”

With her short legs dangling on the sofa, Yernia shook her bare feet as she scooped lemon sherbet from her cup.

After dinner, Cassian was about to enter a vacant room where he was supposed to stay for the meantime, but the earl caught him by the elbow.  “Please play with Yernia, little duke.”

He found Yernia annoying, but there was nothing he couldn’t do.

Yet, why did her presence bother him so much when she was just sitting there right next to him?

Yernia didn’t talk to him at the beginning.

Instead, she kept peeking at him while she ate her lemon sherbet.

That was all the attention he got.

“I am Yernia.”

Yernia, seated at the farthest end of the sofa away from Cassian, had crept up next to him without warning.

Cassian couldn’t ignore her anymore, so she glanced back at her with a frown.

“Yena.”

“Huh? Yena?”

“I heard everyone here calling you ‘Yena’.”

“Oh, that is my nickname! My complete name is Yernia Cilliard.”

It was summer, the first time she met Cassian, and she had just turned eight years old.

She hadn’t returned from her past life during that period yet.

Before she had figured out that the boy she grew up with was  Cassian, as the Countess often referred him to, they had spent their childhood together at the Cilliard Mansion until he was four years old.

Yernia hated him when he pushed her to the ground during the first meeting. But she quickly decided to forgive him because the lemon sherbet she had for dessert was delicious.

“I asked you what’s your name, but you didn’t answer me.”

“Why are you curious about that?”

“Because we are friends!”

“Who?”

“Since you are staying at my house now, I’m going to be your friend.”

Cassian stared at Yernia’s face for a moment.

‘Strange girl.’ That was Yernia’s image imprinted in his young head.

“Tell me your name.”

“I don’t want to be friends with you.”

“Why?”

Cassian, who had been on edge lately, blurted out. “I hate people like you.”

He shouldn’t care whom he had hurt with his harsh words since he wasn’t that friendly from the start.

Since Cassian was the Duke’s son, many children his age had tried to be close to him in this method, so it irritated him that Yena approached him in the same manner.

This time, she pretended as if she wanted to be his friend.

Like any other child, Yernia’s jaw had dropped when she heard those words from him.

Also, the lemon sherbet in her hands fell and ruined the sofa.

“I don’t like you either!”

Yernia took no offense when he had ignored her earlier, but now, she was hurt when he told her that he hated her.

“That’s great. I don’t like you either. So don’t stick to me.”

“…….”

“Stay away from me.”

Cassian thought he was unfortunate to be in this bad girl’s vicinity.