The place Lucas proudly took Rosette to was the dining room.
“A good person is one who gives delicious food!”
He babbled words Rosette couldn’t understand, then gave some instructions to the chef with an enthusiastic attitude.
The breakfast brought by the maids shortly after was clearly different from yesterday.
Instead of being served on individual plates, dishes of food were placed in the middle of the table like a buffet, for each person to take from.
As Rosette was gaping at the mountain of pancakes, Lucas, sitting next to her, proudly said,
“When father’s not around, we sometimes eat like this. No need to be formal.”
He took a pancake as big as his face and drizzled a lot of maple syrup on it. Then he cut a large piece and stuffed it into his mouth.
It was unclear whether he was trying to feed Rosette or if he was just hungry himself.
Rosette watched him eat, then looked at the food laid out on the table.
Next to the mountain of pancakes was a plate with crispy bacon and glistening sausages.
Next to that was a thick omelet filled with cheese and chopped vegetables, and next to that were roasted vegetables. There were many other foods like salad and cheese as well.
Swear to God, Rosette had never seen so much food laid out at once in her life, or rather, in her entire previous life.
As Rosette just blinked while holding her fork, Lucas, who had already finished a pancake, asked,
“Why aren’t you eating?”
“I, I don’t know what to eat first.”
“Why don’t you know that? Just eat whatever you want first. What do you want to eat most?”
“Umm……”
Rosette fell into contemplation.
No one had ever asked for her opinion on food in her entire life.
Both at the orphanage where food was scarce, and at the Dallas household, she just ate whatever was given. She had never requested to eat something she wanted first.
In fact, hardly anyone had ever asked for her opinion on anything.
Rosette looked at the pancake crumbs on Lucas’s mouth and managed to answer,
“I’ll have the same as what elder brother ate.”
“Really? I’ll serve it for you.”
Lucas put a pancake on Rosette’s plate with a somewhat smug look.
“What do you want on top?”
“The same as what elder brother put……”
“Alright, I’ll drizzle maple syrup for you.”
After drizzling the syrup, Lucas continued to ask,
“What do you want to eat with the pancake? Cream? Fruit?”
“Fruit……”
“What kind of fruit? Banana? Strawberry? Blueberry? Kiwi?”
She had managed to follow Lucas’s lead up to the syrup. But this time came a question she couldn’t follow Lucas on.
Moreover, there were so many options. Rosette felt dizzy. She felt like she might disappoint Lucas if she answered wrong here.
But she didn’t even know herself what she wanted to eat. In the end, Rosette mumbled,
“I, I don’t know.”
There was a slight wetness in her voice as she answered. Lucas visibly panicked at this.
“Hey, hey. Why are you crying over something like this? It’s not a big deal! Okay, eat everything. You can just eat it all.”
He brought the entire plate of fruit in front of Rosette and served her some of each kind.
Rosette asked with eyes as big as saucers,
“Can I really eat all of this?”
“Of course!”
“Really?”
“Yes! Eat as much as you want!”
Lucas grinned, then put a pancake and some of each fruit on his own plate as well.
“Come on, let’s eat together.”
Rosette finally nodded in relief.
“Okay!”
She carefully put the pancake in her mouth. The pancake, soaked in syrup, was honestly so sweet it made her tongue tingle. It was so sweet that she couldn’t even taste the sweetness of the fruit she ate afterwards.
But it was delicious enough to bring tears to her eyes. Or perhaps what was bringing tears to her eyes was Lucas’s kindness.
As Rosette sniffled while eating fruit, Lucas asked contentedly,
“Is it delicious?”
“Yes.”
“Am I the best?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like me more than elder brother Daniel?”
“……”
Rosette couldn’t answer that question. Because she didn’t have any special feelings to say she liked one more than the other.
But Lucas seemed to interpret her silence somehow and grumbled,
“You still prefer elder brother even though I made you special pancakes? I don’t know why everyone likes Daniel so much.”
“That’s not it!”
Rosette hurriedly swallowed what was in her mouth and denied it. Lucas asked again with a bit of hope,
“Then?”
Rosette mumbled softly,
“I… like you all.”
“So you like me too, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s fine.”
Lucas, whose ears had turned red by now, scratched his cheek.
“Hurry up and eat. When you finish that, let’s go tour the mansion.”
Rosette nodded and started eating the pancakes earnestly. Lucas began wolfing down his food as if in competition.
Only the two siblings were unaware that the employees were watching them with fond expressions.
[This is the timeline separator]Lucas kept serving food onto Rosette’s plate as if he was desperate to feed her.
Not only that, but he praised her when she emptied her plate, saying she ate well.
‘It feels nice.’
Rosette ate and ate because she liked Lucas’s chattering. She only put down her fork when her flat stomach had become round.
“I can’t eat anymore.”
“Really? Try eating a little more.”
“I really can’t eat anymore. If I eat more……”
She couldn’t bring herself to say that she might throw up everything she ate.
Lucas seemed to catch her unspoken words and didn’t push further. Instead, he quickly ate the food he had served for himself and stood up.
“Alright. Now I’ll give you a tour of the mansion!”
It was then. A disapproving voice was heard from the entrance.
“Where do you think you’re going looking like that?”
It was Isabel Adrien. She smelled of floral soap, as if she had just washed up after her dawn training.
Lucas pouted his lips.
“Why? What’s wrong with how I look?”
Isabel retorted sharply.
“You smell.”
Lucas made an aghast expression and sniffed his arm. Soon his face turned bright red.
“I don’t smell!”
However, contrary to his words, he slowly backed away from Rosette and Isabel.
“Little one, wait here, no, wait in your room! I’ll come get you soon after I wash up!”
Then he ran out of the dining room like an arrow. Rosette was watching him leave and laughing quietly when she suddenly felt a gaze from the side and turned her head. Isabel was staring at her.
“Why…, why are you looking at me like that?”
“Just.”
She muttered indifferently.
“I was wondering if you’ve already become close with that fool. Did you have breakfast?”
“Yes. With elder brother Lucas.”
“I can imagine without seeing that he ate like a mountain, crudely.”
Rosette quickly shook her head, but Isabel clicked her tongue as if she knew.
“By the way, what’s with your appearance?”
“Ah……”
Rosette mumbled, looking at herself in clothes that anyone could tell were borrowed from an older sister.
“I wore the smallest one, but……”
Isabel instructed her personal maid standing behind her.
“Call Mrs. Wide. As soon as possible. We need to have clothes fitted.”
“Yes, I understand.”
As if that instruction wasn’t enough, Isabel came a little closer and grabbed Rosette’s hair.
“Even if we can’t help the clothes for now, you should at least keep yourself tidy. What’s with this hair? It’s like a bird’s nest.”
Rosette felt a little intimidated and smoothed down her hair with her palms. Rosette’s natural hair texture was quite good, but it had become rough towards the ends due to lack of proper nutrition and care.
Even though she had the best hair at the orphanage, it was clearly different compared to Isabel’s silky hair.
While Rosette was feeling awkward, Isabel combed through her hair with her fingers. Then she braided it quite skillfully and finished it with the ribbon she had been wearing.
After letting the braided hair down on one side, Isabel nodded.
“There, now you look a bit more presentable.”
She left those words and sat at the table to start eating.
Rosette unnecessarily fiddled with her braided hair. Though she was aloof, Isabel seemed to be just as good a family member as Lucas or Daniel.
[This is the timeline separator]Daniel headed to the imperial palace early in the morning with Duke Adrien. It was to see Joshua, his longtime friend and the prince.
When his father, Duke Adrien, said they should go to the imperial palace early in the morning, Daniel thought he had misheard. But he was quite surprised by his father’s following words.
−The prince was startled by a nightmare, you say?
−Yes. He urgently asked about you and my well-being, though I don’t know what kind of dream he had.
−He’s not the type to be affected by mere dreams. How strange.
−He didn’t tell me what kind of dream it was, but it seems to have been quite a terrible nightmare. He said he would come to see you soon, but how could I, as his subject, tell the prince to come and go as he pleases?
That was the reason the two of them entered the imperial palace at the crack of dawn.
Although Duke Adrien wasn’t the type to exaggerate, Daniel thought his father was overstating things. This was because the Joshua he knew wasn’t someone who would be shaken by mere dreams.
Joshua Earnhardt was arrogant and cynical. As befitting someone who had learned the art of kingship from a young age, he wasn’t swayed by personal emotions.
For such a person to be shaken by something like a dream, and not anything else. It was hard to believe. So until he actually saw Joshua, Daniel thought he might have made a light joke about wanting to see him.
But…
“Daniel!”
As soon as they met, Joshua ran over and hugged him tightly. Even though it had only been a week since they last met, Joshua acted as if he was meeting someone after a long time.
“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
Joshua held Daniel’s shoulders and looked him up and down. Daniel shrugged his shoulders.
“As you can see, I’m fine, Your Highness.”
“What about your legs? How are your legs?”
“Did I hurt my legs in your dream or something?”
Daniel joked with a smile, but seeing Joshua’s serious face, he became serious as well.
“As you can see, I’m fine.”
“Really? Walk for me once.”
Though he thought it was an absurd request, Daniel walked across the room as Joshua wished. As expected of an aspiring knight said to be unmatched among his peers, his gait was brisk yet disciplined.
Watching this while stroking his chin, Joshua said nonchalantly,
“No problem then.”
Daniel, who had sat down again, laughed it off.
“Were you teasing me?”
“You only realized that now? Your perception has dulled a lot.”
Joshua snickered as he picked up his teacup. Only then did the Joshua that Daniel knew appear. Daniel felt relieved and changed the subject.
“By the way, what kind of dream did you have to worry so much about me and my father?”
__________
“Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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