Adopt 184
by CristaeEpisode 184
The area in front of the academy was a sea of carriages, all there to collect students pouring out after morning classes.
It was mayhem on the street, with carriages sent by every sort of family crowding the avenue, but as always, Leo had no trouble at all finding the Blanche carriage.
After all, only Blanche used so large and dazzling a four-wheeled carriage, drawn by four jet-black horses, just to transport their child to and from school—it was bound to stand out.
“Isn’t that a royal carriage?”
“Idiot, the family crest isn’t the royal one. Maybe it’s headed for the palace and came here by mistake.”
“Heh, you must be a freshman if you don’t know the academy’s local celebrity. Listen up. That’s the infamous Blanche family’s—”
Dodging the boastful prattle of upperclassmen trying to impress freshmen, Leo quickly jumped into the carriage.
“You’d think you’d be used to it by now.”
Ashilly followed Leo inside with a self-assured air, flashing a big grin at the awe-struck freshmen gazing up at the carriage.
“Do they know that’s you, Leo?”
Ian, boarding next, opened his book and answered in Leo’s stead.
It had been nearly three years since Leo began living by Belinda’s side.
Yet even now, Leo still sometimes felt daunted by such luxurious customs and ways of life.
‘I doubt I’ll ever get used to it.’
Stretching his short, seemingly forever unchanging bangs between his fingers, Leo managed an awkward smile.
It wasn’t long before the carriage, carrying the usual academy trio, was rolling toward Blanche House.
“Leo, you said Lady Belinda is going to Delman Sea in a week, right?”
“Yeah. She said she has to check on a new business there. She’s been busy with that lately.”
A new business, huh.
Ian, his nose still buried in a book, glanced up, his eyes narrowing.
The Delman Sea, surrounded by several nations, was a hub of maritime trade—but sea trade had never been the Blanche family’s main business.
Between the Red House casino, the hotel and finance operations built around it, and all sorts of entertainment ventures, their income was already overflowing. There was hardly a need to branch into maritime trade besides.
‘Perhaps she’s not really going there for business.’
Though the thought crossed his mind, Ian chose not to voice it.
At that moment, Ashilly, who had spent the whole ride quietly gazing out the window, suddenly spoke.
“All right, I’ve decided.”
With a determined look, Ashilly balled his fist, turned to Leo, and declared,
“Before this spring is over, I’m going to confess to Lady Terry!”
“Cough!”
Ashilly’s plan, proclaimed with utter composure, succeeded in finally pulling Ian’s gaze from his book.
“I’ll cheer you on!”
Encouraged, Leo clapped for Ashilly, but Ian could make no sense of any of it.
‘Is he serious?’
For all his antics, Ashilly was the son of a duke.
He might be as reckless as a monkey, but this was still a noble—confessing to a commoner, and an older one at that, without even knowing her feelings?
‘He always was simple, but I didn’t think he’d ignore class differences to this extent.’
Ashilly had certainly changed after befriending Leo.
The crudeness and arrogance, that disregard for others’ circumstances—they were gone now.
Well, Ian himself had changed too.
Three years ago, if someone had told him he’d be running with sword-waving monkeys, he would have looked on in utter contempt.
“A bold confession is best!”
“I see! That’s just what the knight said she did.”
“I knew it. Besides, I have a secret line my father taught me, just for this occasion!”
Listening to the two friends chatter so cheerfully, Ian shook his head.
Just hearing them, he couldn’t tell if Ashilly was planning a love confession or an outright assault.
He’d wondered if Ashilly had finally grown up, but the old insensitivity was still there.
Soon enough, Ashilly would pay dearly for it.
Blanche House bustled with preparations for its master’s upcoming three-week journey.
Despite all his brave talk, Ashilly spent ages lurking around Terry’s vicinity, hesitating, until at last, when Terry stepped into a deserted back garden, Ashilly leapt out to bar her way like a bandit waylaying a merchant.
“Young Lord Ashilly?”
Terry cocked her head, bemused at the sight of Ashilly staring at her with such resolve it seemed like he might be challenging her to a duel.
He might have thought he was hidden, but from afar, Leo and Ian’s heads bobbed in the undergrowth.
Though quick-witted, Terry had not a clue what was going on.
Then Ashilly went down on one knee, presenting with both hands a ring he’d scrimped and saved his allowance for.
“You’re the first woman I’ve ever seen with such perfect muscles, Lady Terry. I like you. Please date me with marriage in mind!”
Terry’s eyes widened at this sudden, unreserved confession.
She’d never dreamed he’d be so direct.
She’d thought it was just a childish crush.
Deciding to let him down as gently as possible, Terry put on a warm smile.
“That’s very sweet, young lord. But could I suggest you look at it this way?”
Click.
Contrasting with her gentle tone, Terry firmly snapped the lid shut on the ring’s case.
“I’d rather not say my exact age, but let’s just put it this way: while you were still in diapers, young lord, I had already come of age.”
“…Then your age is?”
“Don’t try to do the math.”
Noticing Ashilly’s eyes trembling, Terry quickly continued with a small cough.
She helped him to his feet, brushing the grass from his knee as she spoke.
“What I mean is, no matter how much you grow up… hmm… you’ll always be, to me, like a toddling baby in diapers.”
“…!”
Thunder crashed over Ashilly’s head.
Leo, watching it all, unconsciously slapped a hand over his mouth at such a brutal blow.
“That was… harsh.”
Even Ian could not help but comment.
Not that Terry’s words were wrong, but to call someone a walking diaper to his face…
It was the sort of rejection to drive a spike straight through a twelve-year-old boy’s heart.
Ashilly, face drained white, could only trudge away in silence.
So perish all who dare aim for the heart of the slum’s deadliest assassin.
Ashilly made a show of composure, but the moment he reached Ian and Leo, his eyes welled up as he cried out,
“Sob! Curse this age gap! I loved her! It was spring!”
“Oh… you idiot.”
Leo’s comfort could do little for a heartbreak that had been nurtured over two years.
Five days later. Only just recovered from his heartbreak, Ashilly gulped down orange juice and sighed,
“I wanted to dote on Lady Terry, join the Royal Knights at nineteen, become captain at twenty-three, and get married around twenty-five…”
“…”
“I’m the third son, so I’d have only as many kids as Lady Terry wanted… sniff.”
Leo, hearing all this, looked astonished.
“You were already thinking about your adult life?”
“Leo, that’s not a real life plan.”
“Why not! Why is your plan to start a company the only plan that counts?”
“You blew up the first step of your life plan not even a week ago.”
“Yo—you little…!”
Ashilly, at a loss for words, glared and shook with indignation as Leo glanced back and forth between him and Ian, then ventured cautiously,
“So you both already know what you want to do?”
To Leo’s question, Ashilly and Ian answered without hesitation.
Ashilly’s goal was to become the Royal Knight Captain; Ian, rather than inherit his father’s entertainment ventures, meant to start a new trading company under his own name.
But Leo still hadn’t moved beyond wishing to be Belinda’s servant.
No, more accurately, after it had become clear he could not remain Belinda’s servant forever, he hadn’t found what he wanted to do next.
“You’re both so grown-up.”
And I still don’t know what I should do in the future.
“Grown-up, nothing. Ashilly’s the third son, so he’s free of inheritance duty. And me? I’ll just end up managing a tiny fief, that’s all.”
Leo tilted his head, not quite understanding what Ian meant.
Seeing Leo’s obvious confusion, Ian hesitated.
But words, once spoken, cannot be taken back.
“I mean… you’re going to inherit Blanche House in the end, aren’t you…?”
Since Belinda had never said anything like that, Leo couldn’t answer with certainty.
But one thing he did know.
If he said the word, if he wished to inherit it, Belinda would hand over everything she had to him without a moment’s hesitation.
“I don’t know.”
Leo trailed off, twisting his bangs between his fingers.
He knew, someday, he too would have to grow up.
But for now, rather than prepare for adulthood and think about the future like his friends… embarrassingly enough, he just wanted to remain a child by Belinda’s side.
“Don’t cause trouble, all right?”
“Yes. You have a safe trip too, Lady Belinda.”
Maybe it was because I’d told them a week ago where I was going, when I’d be leaving, and when I’d return.
Leo, seeing me off, looked perfectly stoic.
I pressed a quick kiss to his forehead, then turned to Sir Cherie, who stood beside him, and asked in a joking tone,
“And what about you, sir? No answer for me?”
Sir Cherie, who would nod at anything I said, now stubbornly refused to answer.
He was clearly none too pleased that I would be leaving him behind.
But it couldn’t be helped.
I didn’t intend to take Leo on this journey, not for a moment.
I’d decided to leave him in the capital instead, but then the worry for his safety rose afresh.
Ordinarily, I would have left him in Terry’s care, but…
‘If someone connected to the royal family—the only ones who know about the First King’s prophecy book—were to target Leo, only Sir Cherie would be able to protect him.’
No safer haven than House Valuashten.
Cherie alone knew everything: the purpose of my journey, the First King’s prophecy book—he was the only one I could trust so completely to leave behind.
“I cannot make any promises.”
Not that he meant to acquiesce gracefully.