On the weekend after the festival ended, Larisa swallowed hard in a somewhat chilly atmosphere.

‘I thought we had gotten closer during the festival, but was I wrong?’

Unaware of what had happened on the last day of the festival, Larisa was perplexed. William and Guinevere were avoiding eye contact and just shoveling food into their mouths.

Guinevere, who would normally have asked William about various things, was quiet, and William was wolfing down his food as if he wanted to finish the meal quickly.

Larisa couldn’t understand the reason for this atmosphere at all and couldn’t bring herself to intervene, so she quietly waited for the meal to end.

As soon as they arrived in William’s room, she questioned him.

“Willy-willy, did you fight with your mother?”

“Yeah.”

Huh? An unexpected answer came back. Larisa’s eyes widened.

“Why, why?”

“She’s telling me to become the Duke of Rodante.”

Larisa asked carefully.

“Willy, don’t you want to become the Duke?”

William couldn’t answer readily. He couldn’t confidently say he disliked it. This was because he remembered lamenting his position of not being considered the heir to the Rodante family.

After pondering for a moment, William answered weakly.

“I don’t know. I’ve never been a duke, so I don’t know if it would be good or bad.”

“Then why are you angry? Are you upset because your mother decided on her own again?”

“…I guess so.”

William thought Larisa was right. It seemed that puberty had finally come to him too. His mother had been forcing things on him for ages, yet only now he couldn’t control his emotions like this.

He felt pathetic. Patting William’s knee as he was feeling down, Larisa said,

“It’s okay, Willy. We’re going to run away later anyway, right?”

‘Ah, right. That’s true.’

William recalled the runaway plan he had completely forgotten. Until he met Larisa, he used to make runaway plans every day, but now he had forgotten about it.

The change in himself was surprising. And suddenly, he felt like laughing.

“Haha, that’s right. We were going to run away, weren’t we?”

It had already been decided since his mother brought Larisa and said she was the child he would marry, so why had he wasted emotions unnecessarily?

‘Was it because I thought Mother had changed?’

It seemed he had been unknowingly holding onto some expectations. The expectation that his mother would respect his opinion.

“I really don’t know why I got so angry.”

Come to think of it, he himself was the strangest of all. The anger that even he couldn’t understand felt like a long-held emotion.

“Willy, how about thinking about it this way? Since she gives you a lot of allowance, you should listen to your mother well until we run away. You have to do things you don’t like to earn money, right?”

“What?”

William was dumbfounded.

“You little… You’re incredibly calculating.”

But it made sense.

*

As William was about to ask Siod about alchemy as usual, he heard something absurd from Siod.

“You want me to take nobility lessons?”

“Yes.”

“From whom, from you, Professor?”

Siod nodded. Before the atmosphere could turn sour, Siod smiled brightly and picked up Larisa.

“Lala should join too. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Yes!”

As William was about to open his mouth to protest, Siod beat him to it.

“You’re a noble. But people in the upper class don’t treat you as a noble just because you have a title. They think you need to have the appropriate dignity and manners.”

“I don’t have a title…”

“Regardless of whether you have a title or not, you were born a noble. Your mother was already the Duchess of Rodante when you were born, right?”

William made an incredulous expression.

“You’ve lived too comfortably until now. So think of it as struggling a bit late.”

“Did Mother order this?”

Siod’s attitude was firm.

“Yes. By the way, if you don’t take nobility lessons, I won’t teach you alchemy either. So you decide. Do you want to learn neither, or both?”

William sighed.

“I’m already taking etiquette lessons at the academy.”

“But it’s not enough, is it?”

It was true. Other noble children already had all the necessary etiquette and cultivation before entering the academy.

William, who had the manners of a commoner despite being from the Rodante family, was like oil floating on water even in the Knight Department.

If James, with his good nature, hadn’t become his roommate, no one would have tried to get along with him.

He wasn’t being ostracized, but he could feel that his peers were all awkward around him and seemed to think he was rough.

“Lala, do you want to learn etiquette?”

“Yes, and piano too!”

“Right, cultivation is essential too.”

Larisa excitedly wiggled her bottom. Siod also started spinning around while holding Lala, as if dancing.

“The teacher will teach you how to dance like a princess too.”

“Wow, really?”

“Of course.”

William couldn’t help but smile. He couldn’t show his dislike because young Larisa was so happy. Siod quickly said,

“Oh? You smiled. You’ll learn, right? It’s decided?”

William nodded. After all, he had already talked with Larisa and decided to at least pretend to do whatever his mother ordered.

His attitude wasn’t entirely willing due to the subconscious rebelliousness he couldn’t suppress.

‘I need to cultivate myself.’

Look at Larisa. Doesn’t she seem to really want to learn, smiling brightly and wiggling her bottom…

‘Does she really like it that much?’

“Well then, since it’s the first day, shall we go out?”

“Where to?”

“Let’s go shopping.”

Siod pushed the children’s backs.

*

When the three of them appeared in the shopping district via teleportation, exclamations erupted from here and there. It was partly because teleportation was such a high-level magic that only a few could perform, but more so because of their beauty.

Someone who recognized them shouted softly.

“Look over there, it’s the Rodante children.”

Upper-class people all know each other’s faces. Of course, Guinevere and William didn’t memorize all the nobles, but ordinary nobles usually did. It was because the upper-class society was small.

“I think it’s my first time seeing them here. Are they here to shop?”

“That child is Larisa Rodante, right? She’s like a doll…”

“Shh, I heard she’s not a Rodante yet.”

The shopping street in the center of the capital, catering to the wealthy, was bustling with people. Noticing the attention gathering on them, William loosened his collar, feeling uncomfortable.

“Now, if we walk straight from here, we’ll come to a delicious dessert cafe, so let’s walk there.”

“Why don’t we just go directly…”

“It’s no fun if we just go directly. Take a look at what the stores are selling.”

What does this have to do with nobility lessons? William sighed inwardly. He wasn’t in the mood to leisurely look at items under the pouring gazes.

But Larisa was different.

“Wow, look at that. The entire wall is made of glass!”

Larisa felt like she was in a different world. To think that an entire wall was made of precious glass.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Originally, people from the back alleys get chased away if they come to this street.”

This was news to William.

“Chased away?”

“Yeah. The officers don’t let us in. They say we’re dirty.”

He didn’t know such discrimination existed. Unaware of William’s serious expression, Larisa was completely absorbed in the bead decorations, clinging to the window of a nearby store.

“Wow, it’s so pretty.”

“Should I buy it for you?”

“What? No!”

Larisa was already burdened by receiving the house deed. Not wanting to owe the teacher any more, she quickly shook her head and said,

“I just want to look!”

“Alright. Let me know if there’s anything you want to buy.”

“Okay~”

Because Larisa spent a long time looking at each store, William had no choice but to look at the items too.

“The items displayed here are usually the latest trendy items, but not the best ones. They show the best ones separately only to people who say they want to buy.”

“Did you come to teach us how nobles buy things?”

“Oh, that too.”

Siod was glad that William had started talking.

“High nobles like the Duke of Rodante tend to call merchants to their mansion rather than visiting stores like this. It’s too busy and tiring to go around shopping in person.”

The idea of being able to call them to the mansion separately, that was one thing William liked. He was certain that he had no taste for shopping. But it seemed Larisa did.

“William, look over there. There’s a rabbit on top of the hat!”

“It’s bizarre.”

“It’s so cute!”

Siod laughed at the contrasting reactions of the two children. Personally, he agreed with William’s opinion. Larisa was still young, so she probably didn’t realize that rabbit was taxidermied.

“Look at the people too, William.”

At Siod’s words, William observed the appearance of people walking around. Everyone wearing fine clothes smiled when they made eye contact with him.

“Should I smile back?”

“That’s up to you. It’s okay to be a bit rude.”

Phew. William inwardly sighed in relief. He had just tried to smile back, but his lips only trembled and it didn’t work well.

“So, can you tell who among the people walking here are nobles?”

“Aren’t they all nobles?”

“As I said earlier, nobles prefer to call merchants to their mansions. So who are these people here? Most of them are foreigners, merchants, or employees working in noble mansions. But they’re all well-dressed, right?”

“I thought they were all nobles.”

“There are many nobles, but also many who aren’t. As Larisa said earlier, this is an area where you can’t enter unless you’re well-dressed. It’s not easy to distinguish at first glance.”

Was he trying to teach how to identify nobles? William thought it was all meaningless. What difference did it make whether you recognized them or not?