He had never felt or used the word anywhere other than a novel.

He was a precocious child, but he was only nine years old.

Such words were rarely related.

Still, he felt vain about Rieta. That was pretty embarrassing, too.

What is the reason?

On that day, Noel could hardly read his book.

*****

Rieta picked up some fairy tales and returned to her assigned room.

It was also for a while that she was enthusiastically reading a book on an oversized chair.

Soon, she began to nod off.

To be honest, she hardly slept the day before.

Recently, her life had been a series of changes.

Perhaps this was how a balloon released in the air felt, just floating along with others who pushed and pulled.

She fell asleep quickly.

In her hazy dream, she was in the Kingdom of Liz.

She never thought she wanted to go back, but she was glad for some reason.

The maid dipped the sugar into the girl’s lips.

She said ‘It’s a secret, Princess.’

The licked sugar was very sweet.

As if pure happiness was refined into taste.

She rolled a little powder in her mouth until the end, slowly savoring it.

Knock, knock.

She opened her eyes at the sudden knocking.

The first thing she saw was luxurious furniture.

‘Oh, there you go.’

It wasn’t until she completely fell asleep that Rieta remembered where she was.

Knock, knock.

The careful knocking came again.

She seemed to have kept someone waiting.

She came down from her chair and answered in a hurry, “Yes!”

Although she spoke the Kingdom language, she couldn’t recognize her own words.

Soon, the door began to open.

“….!”

Rieta, nervous, gulped before her visiting opponent could be revealed in his entirety.

It was because of his enormous height in her eyes.

The only person so generous in this mansion was the Duke of Mayer, who protected her.

“Princess.”

Receiving his polite greeting, Rieta quickly bent her knees.

It was difficult to distinguish the status of a princess and a duke.

The Duke governed the Mayer territory and was completely independent from the imperial family, so technically, he was not one of the reigning royals.

However, people still revered him like a prince, and the emperor cared for him.

Thus, Rieta was willing to be polite to him.

“Are you reading a book?”

When asked, Rieta looked down at her hands.

She held a fairy tale book.

It seemed that she didn’t put it down somewhere else because she was in a hurry.

“It seems like I interrupted your rest. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s oka–”

Rieta, who answered naturally, stopped talking in surprise.

Come to think of it, the Duke was speaking to her in the language of the kingdom.

His pronunciation was relatively natural.

“The language of the kingdom… Are you speaking it?”

“As a guardian, I only learned what I needed to. Does my pronunciation sound strange?”

Rieta shook her head quickly.

It was not perfect, but it flowed smoothly.

“Fortunately, then, I’d like to ask you a few questions, Princess.”

“Yes.”

Was it such a welcome thing to hear familiar words?

Rieta took a step closer to the Duke and nodded.

She felt somewhat familiar with the stiff face that only looked scary yesterday.

“Can you tell me what you have learned and how far you have learned in the kingdom?”

“…Pardon?”

“Oh, my pronunciation must have been terrible.”

No, it wasn’t.

She was just surprised to see him come and ask about her studies.

Unaware of Rieta’s thoughts, he rummaged through a large book he was holding in his hand.

The sound of the thin paper fluttering was heard, and he stopped at a point.

Then he slightly held out the part and showed it to Rieta.

On it was written ‘Teacher’ in the Kingdom’s language.

She stared at the letter and looked up at the Duke once again.

“… For me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

She felt like she was asking a stupid question.

But there was nothing else to say.

“There’s no other reason. I thought you might need it.”

He answered calmly and looked at her face quietly.

She responded by… waiting.

She hesitated for quite a long time, and he didn’t say a word of her silence.