‘Huh. I guess our dad was really nice. To be an unprecedented person in this villainous family!’

I was trying to organize my thoughts a bit before the education, but it failed because the masked boy kept talking to me. However, there was some gain.

Listening to the masked boy’s words, I became completely certain.

It seems our dad was truly an angelic being.

‘After being kicked out of the family and barely returning. To think that my dad’s and my death have already become a foregone conclusion to the point that even that kid knows about it.’

Sigh. It’s really one mountain after another.

I, who had tried to ask his name and dig up some information while pretending not to, decided to hold back for now.

Because my heart ached.

‘I’m really upset.’

Because it was sad that dad’s kind heart was at a level ‘unprecedented in family history’.

How lonely must dad have been all this time?

These bad people…

‘How hard must it have been for dad to keep his kind heart in this villainous family all this time? I’m so upset I could die.’

I tightly grasped my heart.

The boy around ten years old, who had been watching me, tapped my shoulder and asked curiously.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“It feels like there’s a thorn stuck in here.”

Thinking about how dad must have suffered alone among these bad guys, my heart hurt as if fish bones were stuck in it, poking me. My gentle dad who removes my fish bones for me every day…

Hearing my words, he muttered as if talking to himself.

“…I guess I made you think of your difficult past.”

The boy, who still hadn’t revealed his name, mumbled quietly, barely audible to my ears.

But I had no time to pay attention to those words.

‘It’s okay, dad. Now I can protect you.’

I clenched my fist, which looked like a ball of white cotton, and puffed up my cheeks. Like a pufferfish inflating its body to emit its powerful poison.

At that moment, footsteps stopped in front of the door.

The teachers had arrived.

***

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am the education officer. Please call me comfortably.”

“I am the discipline officer of the family.”

The education officer had a long, slender body with a long face, while the discipline officer had a broad body with a wide face.

I looked at them and nodded.

“I am Sien, daughter of Matya- ahem, I mean Lord Matthias. What are your names?”

Unlike the discipline officer who openly showed his disapproval, the education officer rubbed his hands together with an apologetic expression.

“I’m sorry. We cannot tell you our exact positions and names due to concerns about potential future issues.”

“I see. I understand.”

I nodded lightly.

But you know…

‘Wait a minute. There’s a problem I didn’t anticipate.’

I had to disguise my skills from my second life appropriately and pretend to be an ordinary child during the education. Pretending to be an unremarkable, ordinary child is the way to reassure everyone!

‘I don’t know what level the children in this world are at.’

There were hardly any children in the rural village where I used to live. So it didn’t matter if I acted like I was on my second life.

But this is different.

‘Well, what level of skill does an ordinary child have?’

I raised my round eyes to look at the education officer standing in front of me. While thinking I should test the teacher first.

“What are we going to do today, teacher?”

I smiled slightly, showing my small rabbit-like front teeth.

The teachers wouldn’t know, but this was actually…

Dad’s favorite Sien-style.

“I’m a very ordinary baby!” smile.

Of course, it was a secret that there was a very wicked intent hidden inside.

I looked at them with sparkling eyes and blinked cutely.

To my question of ‘What are we doing today?’, the education officer with a gentle impression opened his mouth kindly.

“Lady Sien, you’re still young and haven’t been in the capital for long, right?”

I nodded my round head vigorously and answered energetically.

“That’s right!”

He rummaged through some books he had brought in his arms and said kindly.

“Then shall we start by reading storybooks for 4-5 year olds?”

“Goo- I mean, good!”

I clapped my hands lightly. Reading storybooks should be as easy as eating cake while lying down. It’ll be super comfortable!

“Then now-”

“Does that make sense?”

At that moment, the discipline officer’s shout was heard. It was too loud for small baby ears to handle, so I suddenly covered my ears. The education officer looked at my ears with concern and asked.

“You startled Lady Sien. What doesn’t make sense?”

The discipline officer frowned like a wrinkled potato and said.

“She’s a daughter of the Mirmod family, yet at five years old, just storybooks? You should say something that makes sense.”

“No. Lady Sien has only recently come up from the countryside.”

Watching the two men bicker, I glanced at the boy sitting next to me. He was watching the situation with great interest without saying anything. He didn’t seem to want to take either side.

So I had no choice but to ponder.

‘Just what is the average level in this family? There’s no one to ask either.’

As I turned my head slightly to the side with a puzzled face, my chubby cheeks quivered.

“Then what should we do?”

The education officer, who had been staring blankly at me, clutched his heart and muttered.

“So cute… Those tiny baby-like ch-cheeks…”

Has someone finally appeared in Mirmod who is affected by my cuteness! I tilted my head daintily towards him and made a flower cup face.

“Hmm?”

Then the education officer, who had been in a daze, widened his eyes and shouted.

“No. Let’s quickly read the story, storybook!”

It was then.

“Don’t let personal emotions interfere with your work.”

The discipline officer, holding a large book, quietly took out the book he had tucked under his arm and declared.

“Lady Sien. Originally, storybooks are for two-year-old children.”

“Two years old?”

“Yes. I understand that you are five years old this year. You’re not at an age to read such trivial storybooks.”

He looked down at me coldly. His pupils were frozen cold.

‘My cuteness attack doesn’t work on this person.’

The discipline officer was clearly dismissing me.

It’s understandable. In his eyes, I’m probably just a country bumpkin kid like a wheat bun? To me, it would be stranger if he showed more goodwill.

‘Still, that mister is so annoying for dismissing me so openly?’

“Since you’ve come up from the countryside and don’t know any family laws at all, it would be good to start by reading this book.”

Looking at the thick hardcover with gold embossing that he held out, I narrowed my eyes.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a basic etiquette book of the Empire.”

“No, that’s too-”

“No. Lord Ilred did it all.”

“That may be true, but unlike Lord Ilred, Lady Sien is still-”

“Are you insulting Lady Sien right now?”

“Wouldn’t it be right to help her read it once, and then adjust the difficulty afterwards?”

The obviously gentle education officer seemed to be losing ground.

‘It would be best for me to act like an ordinary child who fits in well with this family. It’s troublesome if I’m looked down on too much or stand out too much.’

One discipline officer, one education officer. And one masked unknown boy next to me who kept looking at my side profile.

After several arguments, the discipline officer finally showed a victorious smile.

He held out the large book to me and smiled, raising only the corners of his mouth.

“Here you are, Lady Sien. Please read it.”

“Mm.”

I tilted my head, looking at the book on the desk. The education officer handed me a small pencil and muttered quietly.

“Just solve one page in front with this pencil. You don’t have to solve it if it’s too difficult.”

“Of course she’ll solve it all.”

“Mm, it seems like it might be very difficult.”

It seemed like I could meet both of their expectations if I solved half.

I hummed a tune as I wrote down the answers, scribbling away.

***

The discipline officer, Rilmi, looked down at Sien, the young child who had recently had her banishment lifted and entered the family, and snorted.

As his expression had been consistently negative, he was internally dismissing Sien.

‘Damn it. I thought I’d be teaching the children of powerful people!’

He was a scholar from a prestigious academy.

When he first heard he was invited to be the discipline officer for the duke’s family, he was filled with ambition for power. He thought he would be teaching young lords at least fifteen years old.

‘But one is the daughter of a fallen former heir, and the other is an adopted child wearing a mask who could die at any time. These are all losers.’

He thought he would at least be teaching the young lords and ladies closest to the line of succession!

To think that he would be teaching such shoddy young things. He was angry.

So it’s not unreasonable to say that choosing a book so difficult that even adults would struggle to comprehend was out of pure spite. If they couldn’t solve it properly, he would ridicule them thoroughly.

‘It’s not their fault, but it’s quite irritating.’

Currently, the most powerful people in the Mirmod family were Axel and Delphia Mirmod, who were tipped as likely duke candidates.

He should fawn and flatter the young children who were close to such powerful people, but he could bully a worthless adopted child and a stupid country bumpkin.

‘That’s how the world of the strong eating the weak works.’

Looking down at Sien’s round head, he decided to take out his frustrations.

‘…But, wait a minute.’

However, at that moment, he flinched slightly as he received the adopted child’s gaze that seemed to pierce his face.

Leonhart or Reinhart or something. Anyway, it was a boy with an ambiguous name. He was said to be gloomy and quiet.

‘Eyes like a snake, full of private thoughts.’

How arrogant for an adopted child.

Rilmi thought he should properly educate Sien to lower her self-esteem and then tackle Leonhart.

But it was strange.

Sien shook the book with a bright and energetic voice, showing her rabbit teeth as she smiled.

“I’m done.”

He glanced down, ready to sneer as much as he wanted.

It was certainly like that, but.

***

In fact, the book he handed out wasn’t that difficult for me, a reincarnator, to read.

I reincarnated with my memories intact, and I read for a very long time with the god who sent me to this world. So that I could blend naturally into this world.

But I couldn’t reveal all the knowledge I knew, so I decided to show only half of it.

“No-”

The two who were looking at the book I handed over were frozen silent.

‘What, ominously?’

I bit my lip slightly.

“Did you… solve all of this?”

“No. There were things I didn’t know.”

Actually, there’s nothing here I don’t know. I’m on my second life, and I was given the merit of knowing the settings in the book along with the penalty from the god.

-But I can’t say that

“It’s amazing that you solved even this much.”

“How can this be possible.”

“If we had let you read a storybook, we wouldn’t have seen such a precious sight. If you really were alone in the countryside, at this level, could you perhaps be a genius?”

The education officer was looking at me with wide eyes.

‘Genius? Something is going wrong here?’

I hurriedly opened my mouth to deny it.

“No. Not smart at all.”

“You really are brilliant.”

I decided to add denial upon denial.

“I guessed everything.”

At my words, the kind education officer uncle quickly shook his head.

“What? How can you guess and get subjective questions right? You’re so modest.”

Your eyes are sparkling!

You’re smiling so brightly, your mouth is split like Jaws!

That uncle, he’s kind but burdensome!

‘I’m in a dilemma? Should I have prepared to be dismissed as a fool and pretended not to even know the letters?’

Sweat was dripping down my back due to the unexpected situation, but I tried to appear calm and pulled up the corners of my mouth.

“How happy Duchess Lucella will be when she hears about this!”

The discipline officer, Rilmi, who had come to his senses, opened his mouth, breathing heavily.

“Hmph, even if the Duchess knows, she’s already a back-”

“Already what?”

Is he itching to say that the Duchess is already a has-been?

But no matter how much of a has-been the Duchess of the villainous family is, she could easily throw away a mere heir’s discipline officer, couldn’t she?

Perhaps realizing this fact belatedly, Rilmi coughed a couple of times and said.

“That… is to say, isn’t that excessive praise? After all, others have solved these problems too, even Lord Ilred. I’ll have to bring a more difficult book tomorrow.”

“What? Isn’t Lord Ilred a once-in-a-millennium genius?”

I managed to knock down the arrogance of that discipline officer person, which was good so far. But seeing the flush on their faces, I was a bit flustered.

‘I tried to hide my strength, but did I stand out too much?’

The boy who had been silently watching this situation tapped my desk.

“Chestnut.”

I glanced at him and paused.

It was quite a fiery gaze.

I think I’m being checked by this villainous character-

“So cool.”

He grinned as he handed me a small notebook and a pen.

“Autograph.”

Cancel what I said earlier.

I think I’ve gotten into trouble.

While the two middle-aged men called education officers exchanged surprised looks, the boy around ten years old, who didn’t know my heart, smiled brilliantly at me and said.

“You. Come see me for a bit later. I have something to do.”

I stared at him blankly.

“No. I won’t.”

“I’ll give you something good.”

Leonhart’s beautiful lips curved up slightly.

‘…What could that smile mean?’

I swear, it was the first time in my life that the smile of a kid whose name I didn’t even know was this unsettling.

***

A few hours later. Duchess Lucella was in the middle of receiving reports about every move of the children from the direct bloodline families. Her son Matthias was also there.

The Duchess pushed up her glasses and muttered softly.

“The honey pot wrapped in a cloth said I was the best?”

Matthias’s expression twisted.

He opened his mouth.

“There must be a misunderstanding in those words. Servant.”

“La-Lady Sien clearly defended the Duchess-”

The servant’s stammering words were cut off by the Duchess’s quiet voice.

“So, that honey pot was so worried about me?”

“Yes. Moreover, she showed remarkable achievement in her first education session this time.”

“I see.”

Duchess Lucella glanced at her son Matthias. Matthias showed no expression. However, a faint tremor could be felt in his voice.

“She is my daughter after all.”

Looking at Matthias, the Duchess spoke with a seemingly displeased face.

“I suppose I should give a very small reward.”

The servant thought.

Well… Perhaps she would give some trivial sweets or such.

“As a reward, I shall give —–. It’s not too grand a reward, so it should suffice. Prepare it immediately.”

At that moment, the servant’s mouth fell open.

The report he had been holding in his hand rolled and fell to the floor.