Mom's Possessed - Chapter 58

“Are, are you saying His Grace is going to do it himself?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Oh, no. I was just thinking that His Grace seems to be a very good father. Haha.”

After saying those words, Hindley belatedly became afraid that it might have sounded too much like flattery.

His brown eyes rolled around.

However, Luke turned his head instead of getting angry.

“Hmm. Does it appear that way?”

Although his expression didn’t change, the atmosphere was clearly softer than before.

‘That’s the right answer!’

It seems the rumors about the Duke being an incredible doting parent were true.

Hindley quickly replied.

“Of course. You immediately created a separate study room as soon as you got your child back, and promptly invited me here, didn’t you?”

“Well, that’s only natural.”

“There are many nobles who don’t care much about educating their sons or daughters below the second son. They think they’ll be married off anyway- Eek!”

Hindley, who had been talking enthusiastically, suddenly inhaled as he felt the killing intent.

“Watch your words.”

Luke warned.

“Bonita will succeed me as the Duchess of Lisianthus. Unless I decide to hire a professional domain manager, I have absolutely no intention of adopting a son or taking in a son-in-law to inherit the title.”

“Haha… Of course. I understand well, Your Grace.”

“Good.”

Luke raised one corner of his mouth as he looked at Hindley smiling obsequiously.

“If you make even the slightest mistake with my precious daughter, I won’t let it slide, so behave accordingly.”

“Ye-yes, of course.”

Hindley nodded, shrinking at the smile that looked like it could draw a sword and cut someone down at any moment.

He was a person who was infinitely weak to strong people. Especially with this type of powerful figure, the answer was to bow down on his own.

[This is the timeline separator]

‘Is it this way?’

Following the Duke, he saw a door that was a bit brighter in color than the others.

Before opening the white-painted wooden door, the Duke glared at Hindley one more time.

“Well then, I’m counting on you.”

‘That’s not the look of someone counting on me!’

Rather than counting on him, he looked like he was about to swallow someone whole.

However, contrary to Hindley’s expectations, Luke was simply nervous.

He was very worried about whether Bonita would be able to follow the lessons well.

‘I hope Bonita likes it.’

‘How scary! He must be imagining eating me alive in his head right now.’

It was truly a case of different dreams.

Under Luke’s watchful gaze, Hindley politely knocked on the door.

“May I come in, Lady Bonita?”

“Yes.”

A young voice was heard from inside.

Hindley slowly opened the door and stepped into the room.

The room was wallpapered in a calm green color.

Inside, there was a luxurious wooden desk and chair with rounded corners to prevent the child from getting hurt, and even a footstool to help climb onto the chair.

Bonita was sitting holding a quill pen. Her short legs were dangling.

The desk was made for an adult teacher to sit with her, so the chair was much taller than the child’s height.

Bonita, who jumped down from there, greeted politely.

“Hello, teacher.”

She spoke clearly with her head held high, which was adorable. Hindley blinked unknowingly.

‘Is this child really the Duke’s daughter?’

To say she was the Duke’s daughter meant she was the biological daughter of the Lisianthus Duke he had just seen… but she didn’t look alike at all!

Having taught children for 8 years, he had seen countless children. Not all children were just cute and pretty. There were so many unruly noble boys and girls who were troublemakers, shooting slingshots at teachers because they didn’t want to study, doing whatever they pleased.

At least the first impression was… very good.

“Ahem.”

He cleared his throat softly and introduced himself.

“I am Hindley of the Rotler Baronial family. I came today at the Duke’s request to teach Lady Bonita.”

“Yes.”

Bonita nodded obediently.

“Then should I sit in the chair again?”

“Ah… That would be good.”

When Hindley said that, Bonita really did sit in the chair.

Hindley was surprised for the second time seeing that. It was already rare for children to sit quietly in chairs. Especially for a child having their first lesson ever.

“Lady Bonita, have you ever been educated by a tutor before?”

Bonita shook her head.

‘It’s been about a month since they found the Duke’s daughter.’

She had lived apart from the Duke before. Probably based on public rumors, the Duke’s daughter must have lived among commoners.

‘If so, she might be able to read the alphabet a little.’

It could be quite difficult.

He discarded the 7-year-old level textbook from the materials he had prepared, and took out a letter practice book for 3-year-old babies.

“First, we need to find out what Lady Bonita’s skill level is, so please answer some simple questions.”

What he took out was an alphabet book with consonants and vowels scattered individually. He pointed to A and asked.

“How do you read this?”

“……”

Bonita kept her mouth shut.

Seeing that, Hindley revised the plans he had initially made.

He would have to teach the alphabet from the beginning.

“This is read as ‘A’. Repeat after me, A.”

“A.”

“Now let’s try writing it while reading.”

The good thing was that at least she wasn’t the type to throw a tantrum saying she didn’t want to do it from the start.

But he couldn’t let his guard down.

‘It must be interesting for now.’

Because he didn’t know how long that curiosity would last.

He quickly taught six alphabet letters, then assigned homework to repeat them several times until the next lesson.

“Next is math. Can you do addition or subtraction by any chance?”

“Addition?”

Bonita tilted her head.

“That is……”

He opened the book.

There was an apple drawn in it.

“Lady Bonita, there’s one apple here, right?”

Bonita nodded.

“Then if we draw one more next to it……”

He drew a circle and added a line that looked like a stem.

“How many apples are there?”

“……There’s only one apple though?”

“No. There’s one here, and one I drew. So there are two like this.”

“This isn’t an apple……”

Bonita was about to argue but just nodded instead.

She understood what he was trying to say anyway.

“Let’s move on to the next problem.”

Hindley turned the page.

There were five apples there.

“Now, there are five apples here, right?”

He said that while observing Bonita’s reaction.

Sometimes there were children who couldn’t count numbers at all. But judging by her nodding expression, she seemed to understand the concept of numbers itself.

“Then if we eat two of these, how many will be left?”

Hindley picked up the pen.

He was going to count together while marking X’s on the apples.

But there was no need for that.

“Three.”

“Well done.”

Unlike letters, she seemed to understand numbers and concepts of addition and subtraction to some extent.

Hindley then asked a few more single-digit addition and subtraction problems. Bonita answered them correctly without much difficulty each time.

‘I wonder if she can do two or three-digit numbers too?’

Flip flip flip.

He flipped through the pages to the back. There were numbers written there now instead of pictures.

11+5=

12+5=

13+5=

“Lady Bonita, can you solve these problems?”

“No……”

When Bonita shook her head, Hindley smiled as if thinking ‘I thought so.’

‘Well, at least I don’t need to teach all the numbers from the beginning. I can slowly progress while having her solve some practice problems.’

He turned the page.

“Then I’ll explain, so let’s start with some easier problems-”

Just then, the wind blew.

Due to the spring breeze flowing in from outside, the pages flipped again.

4.

Cindy went to the store with a 1000 kron bill to buy five loaves of bread for 180 kron each.

How much change will be left after buying all the bread?

It was an advanced problem that 10-year-old children could solve.

“Oh my, I’m sorry. Then let’s go back to the previous page and……”

“I know this one!”

“Pardon?”

Hindley blinked.

Bonita exclaimed confidently while looking at the problem, as if happy to see a problem she could solve.

“100 kron will be left!”

“Uh……”

Did she just say anything?

Hindley blinked again and calculated in his head.

180 times 5 is 900.

It’s the correct answer.

“Huh?”

Wait, she couldn’t do two-digit addition, so how did she solve this problem?

Is it a coincidence?

Amidst the confusion, Hindley couldn’t let go of his curiosity and turned to the next page.

5.

Wendy decided to buy coconuts for 130 kron each.

When Wendy handed over a 1000 kron bill, the owner gave her 350 kron in change. How many coconuts did Wendy buy?

“Five!”

This time too, she was faster than Hindley’s calculation.

After confirming the answer, Hindley opened and closed his mouth for a while, then flipped all the way to almost the last page.

This problem was difficult even for him to solve mentally.

112.

Charlie has 1500 kron.

Charlie wants to buy 13 coin chocolates for 80 kron each and two lollipops for 120 kron each to share with friends. And he wants to buy as many strawberries as possible with the remaining money.

Strawberries cost 30 kron each.

How many strawberries can Charlie buy?

“You can write it down on paper to solve it.”

Hindley said as he took out a pen.

But Bonita looked at the problem for a moment, then confidently shouted the answer.

“The answer is seven!”

5 seconds later, Hindley also arrived at the same answer.

He rubbed his eyes with a dumbfounded expression, then went back to the previous page.

13+5=

“My lady, this problem……”

“……I don’t know this one……”

What is this.

Really, what is this.

Hindley rubbed his eyes several times.