How can I persuade her? Aeli gazed down at the child fiddling with her hands, fingers interlocked.

It seemed strange that despite being so against the former Count and Countess coming to the capital, the child was overly excited about going to the Maison estate.

‘She must have missed her grandparents.’

Thinking about it, it made sense.

Although meeting strangers could be burdensome, Aeli had already told the child.

Not many would dislike having people who cherished and loved them as much as anyone could wish for.

‘Just because Adi opposed her parents’ trip to the capital doesn’t necessarily mean she’s reluctant to meet them.’

In the first place, it was the child who first brought up going to the estate.

If she didn’t want to meet them, she would have just said not to come, there’s no way she would have suggested going directly.

‘I… misjudged. Right.’

Recalling that fact, Aeli couldn’t understand why she had made such a judgment.

They say if you don’t use your brain, it rusts. Was her brain not functioning properly after lying down for 4 years?

Aeli, habitually biting her lower lip, pondered.

‘But no matter what, that outfit is a bit,’

It was too intense to just let it slide.

Of course, it didn’t matter much if she was just staying at the mansion. It’s her freedom to do as she pleases at home.

Lutis would give her a look asking what the hell that was, but he wasn’t the type to force her to change if that’s what she wanted.

However, Noel.

‘…He’ll probably tease her, right?’

She couldn’t help but feel uneasy, although his personality seemed to have changed a lot from what she remembered.

The image of the child going out in that outfit, running into Noel, and arguing loudly flashed through Aeli’s mind.

“……”

“Mommy?”

If things went as expected, they would take separate carriages, so even if they fought, it wouldn’t last long, but…

Looking again, the fabric seemed oddly out of season. Aeli finally laughed hollowly and picked up the child, who was wearing clothes suitable for the dead of winter and perspiring profusely.

“Adi, let’s change clothes. And let’s pack a different blanket and pillow.”

“Ehh? But I like this one……”

“But the pillow and blanket have gotten all dusty. This one is too dirty, it won’t do.”

“But…!”

“-Besides, it will take several days to get there, so even if you wear those clothes today, by the time we arrive at the Maison estate, you’ll have changed into different clothes long ago?”

At Aeli’s words, the child suddenly looked up.

The momentarily met eyes sparkled in a way that felt quite unsettling.

The child lifted her head confidently and opened her mouth.

“I’ll learn the Clean magic, so it’s okay! I can keep wearing this!”

“……”

“Really!”

“For a week?”

“Um, yeah. Yes!”

“……”

She was pretty sure that wasn’t a good idea.

Aeli’s eyes trembled at the gaze looking up at her with pride.

That personality didn’t seem to come from Lutis. Then in the end, all that’s left is herself.

How long had it been since she personally took the child to the bedroom through the secret passage and came back up, only to face this trial.

‘I’m pretty sure parenting wasn’t this difficult before, what’s going on…?’

Strange.

Somehow, as time passed, the image of her own childhood that she had heard from her parents was getting stronger and stronger.

Not in appearance- but in personality.

At the very least, Adi had Lutis’ blood mixed in, so she was more obedient than Aeli, which was fortunate.

She couldn’t tell whether to cry or laugh at this.

[Do you know how disobedient you were?] [Suddenly? All kids get into trouble, it’s all the same.] [Huh… I don’t remember, but when you were just learning to walk, you disappeared while playing in the garden. We found you- somehow you had climbed up a tree taller than an adult’s height and were taking a nap.] [……] [When we told you to come down, you cried that you didn’t want to. If someone tried to climb up and bring you down, you tried to climb even higher. Your father coaxed and persuaded you, and finally brought you down.] […Let’s not make up stories that never happened between two people.] [Does my story sound like a lie? This is on the normal side. You really-]

You really need to have a child like yourself and raise them. The voice of her mother, who had sighed at Aeli in disbelief with an absurd expression, echoed in her head.

‘Mom… was I really like this too?’

Aeli suddenly felt a deep sense of guilt.

Parenting was too hard.

[This is the timeline separator]

By the time she had coaxed and persuaded the child to change clothes and come out, they had already long passed the expected departure time.

It wasn’t just because of the clothes, there were many reasons for this.

[Adi. Shall we eat just one piece of bread? Let’s have a little soup too, okay?] [Don’t wanna eat.] [Are you worried about getting motion sickness? Having too empty of a stomach can make you feel worse. Plus, you need to take motion sickness medicine, and it’s not good for your body on an empty stomach.] […Still don’t wanna.] [You barely ate last night too, saying you had to go to bed early. If you really insist, then just two bites, no, exactly three bites!]

After finally getting her to change clothes, Aeli had to beg the child to please eat something because she closed her mouth tight, refusing to eat.

It wasn’t entirely uncommon for her to pick at her meals even on a regular basis- but that was mostly due to overeating snacks and losing her appetite or being full.

But even without that, she absolutely refused to open her mouth, her mind occupied with the departure.

Belatedly realizing this fact, Aeli was able to persuade her to eat by explaining that if she didn’t eat, it would only delay the departure time.

‘And it’s not like I completely removed the outfit from sight either.’

Saying she would wear it on the day of arrival, the child stuffed it into her luggage.

It was too thin a deception to lie that there was no space to load luggage, the child wasn’t one to fall for that.

She felt a prick of conscience trying to secretly remove the clothes. What was even more problematic was that Adi was watching with fiery eyes.

Maison had warmer weather than the capital, so those clothes would be quite hot.

But she didn’t try too hard to dissuade her.

‘I had a strange conviction that no matter how much I persuaded her, it wouldn’t work anyway.’

She expected the child to give up on her own, saying it was too hot, if she let her do as she wanted for now.

‘If she wants to, let her do as she pleases, just…’

She had half given up.

Sitting in the carriage, Aeli silently watched the child spread out a small child-sized pillow and blanket in her seat.

The carriage was spacious, so there was still room even with that, but just in case, Aeli asked. The child replied, pouting her lips.

“Adi, are you sleepy?”

“No.”

“Then why are you laying out the blanket already?”

“I’m not sleepy, but I’m preparing in advance….”

“…Huh?”

“You said I shouldn’t sleep because I get motion sick, elder brother.”

Even while stubbornly refusing to eat, she diligently had dessert.

What was she even talking about? Not understanding the answer, Aeli blinked her eyes.

Then she belatedly remembered.

‘Is she talking about when we came up from the Rattlerf estate?’

There was definitely a time when Lutis had bluntly given the child only one cookie because she got motion sick, and handed the rest to Sioren.

She had kept that in mind.

Sioren didn’t even come along, saying he would train.

Aeli turned her head towards Lutis, who was sitting in the front seat.

Meanwhile, the child, who had placed a rabbit doll dressed exactly like herself next to her at some point, mumbled loudly as if to be heard.

“If you get motion sick again, you won’t get snacks? I’ll just eat cookie crumbs then….”

“……”

“If you think about it, that’s too much, right? Yeah, I think so too.”

“……”

Wow, she’s my child, but she’s really good at sarcasm. Aeli, who admired this for a moment, firmly closed her mouth.

It seemed like laughter would burst out at any moment, her cheeks twitching.

‘No matter what, it’s really not good to laugh at someone to their face.’

Endure it. With that resolution, the corners of Aeli’s mouth kept twitching.

Lutis glanced at her and the child with narrowed eyes and sighed, holding his forehead.

“…Just laugh.”

“Ah, no? I- ah, I wasn’t laughing.”

“……”

“…Really so- haha! Really sor- aha! Sorry, haha!”

“……”

Lutis let out a groan at Aeli, who couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter. It seemed he was quite perplexed even though he tried not to show it.

“…Hmph.”

When Lutis’ gaze fell on her, the child flinched, rolled her eyes, and retorted.

For someone who worked hard to read the room, she seemed to care quite a bit about her father’s mood.

“…When we return from Maison, I’ll tell the head chef to bake cookies. Okay? Now stop and sit properly before you get motion sickness.”

“…Then I want a hug.”

“You have your own seat. It won’t be good for motion sickness here since it’s facing backwards.”

“…I want a hug!”

“……”

“Hu- hug me please……”

“…Come here.”

Lutis sighed and stretched out his arms to the child. The child, quickly embraced in Lutis’ arms, laughed cheerfully.

Aeli watched the scene and thought.

‘I wonder if she knows that the seat we were sitting in is the top seat.’

To say it now, she was a little surprised when she first got on the carriage.

Because from the beginning, Lutis had been sitting, leaving the top seat empty.

A spouse who voluntarily gives up the top seat for a child who gets motion sickness and a wife whose health has not yet recovered and whose physical strength is weak.

‘…Thinking about it again, I think I married well.’

No regrets.

Anyway, for the trouble since morning, it wasn’t a bad start.

[This is the timeline separator]

Knock knock.

As the sound of knocking on the wide and luxurious door echoed, the woman spoke.

“Come in.”

The door slowly opened.

The person who entered the room with restrained steps went in front of the woman and bowed his head.

“So, did you finish the task I ordered well?”

“Yes. There will be no problem.”

“That’s a given. You should have taken care of it before I instructed you to.”

“…I apologize.”

“You don’t need to apologize for that. You’re not in charge of that side.”

“……”

“Don’t apologize for every little thing. The more you carry, the heavier your head should be.”

Otherwise, it looks like an easy tree to climb.

There’s nothing better to cut down than that, isn’t there?