I’m a Villainess but So Popular

Editor: Aru

Side Story 8. Winter passed, Spring comes (2)

It’s been two days since the child came to the castle.

“I’ve been looking into it and the rumours said that she ran away at night. There’s no one in the house where the child lived right now.”

After hearing the butler’s report, Eugene thought ‘that should be the case.

“Are there any leftovers from the child’s use?”

“Yes, I already brought it. It’s not that much.”

Eugene didn’t expect to find the mother in the first place.

Eugene drank black tea, thinking, ‘Where did she find some of the things the child used to use?’.

“Okay, you may go.”

At Eugene’s words, the butler briefly bowed and left the room.

Ricktuanis, who was chasing Eugene’s movements with his eyes, dropped his words when the butler left the room completely.

“So, what are you gonna do with the child?”

“I’ve decided to take the child away from Frederur’s nursery after a week.”

Eugene put down the teacup and talked.

“And I promised to make sure to the nursery to have him adopted by a good family.”

“You have to bribe them.”

“Let’s just give it as a small token of sincerity.”

Ricktuanis swallowed the red jasmine tea without hearing.

“I’ve seen the child for a while.”

“Yes, I heard.”

“I wonder how you’re looking at the kid.”

Eugene’s hand, which was lifting the teacup, paused.

“What do you mean, how do I look at him?”

“Don’t you know that?”

Ricktuanis bright blue eyes were fixed on Eugene.

‘In the end, the thoughts flow that way.’

Eugene quickly realized that his father wanted to talk about his successor.

The child happened to be a descendant of the Ace family and had the appearance befitting the Ace family.

If he had outstanding magical powers, he could have been appointed as his successor.

It was clear that Ricktuanis was asking Eugene if he had found any potential related to magic in the child.

“I just saw the child for a while, how could I know?”

Eugene had no intention of being swayed by his father.

Until the day the child was taken to the nursery, this was the only way to avoid naturally relevant topics.

“I’ll take care of the child.”

Eugene got up from his seat, putting down a cleanly empty teacup on the table.

“So don’t worry too much, Father.”

Towards Ricktuanis, who looked at him with sharp eyes, Eugene spoke in a calm voice.

* * *

At midnight, Eugene was getting ready to go to bed early after a long time.

He usually finds himself asleep at three or four o’clock, or maybe at one or two in the morning.

So today was a very exceptional day.

‘It’s been a while since I fell asleep before midnight.’

As he walked out of the office and headed for his bedroom, he saw a maid walking out of the temporary child’s room.

“Oh, my lord.”

“How’s the child sleeping?”

Although he was an unknown child, he was a child with a high possibility of being a descendant of the Ace family.

And somehow listening to the story of a child who seemed to have lived a rough life, Eugene thought that he wanted the child to be comfortable until he went to the nursery.

“Well, he can’t sleep well.”

“What? It’s so late and he’s still up?”

“Yes, so I thought I’d get him some honey-flavoured milk.”

Eugene nodded after listening to the maid’s story.

“Okay, go ahead. I’ll be watching the child in the meantime.”

As Eugene opened the door, he saw a room where darkness had fallen.

The only light was a ray of moonlight flowing through the window where the crescent moon was floating.

The child was sitting upright on the bed staring at the moon.

“Little boy.”

The child looked back at the voice calling for him.

Looking down at the child turning toward him, Eugene opened his mouth first.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?”

The thin silver hair in the moonlight shone.

“I can’t sleep, master.”

“Master?”

When asked after narrowing the gap, the child tilted his head and asked.

“Master, it’s not……. That’s what everyone calls you…….”

“Ah.”

It was understandable to be mistaken.

Everyone except Ricktuanis called Eugene by that.

“You don’t have to call me Master.”

“What do I call you then?”

Clear eyes without a single speck turned towards Eugene.

“Well…….…”

“Oh, can I call you Duke?”

Eugene nodded at the child’s words.

“Call me with that if it’s convenient for you.”

“Yes.”

Just then, the maid arrived with honey-flavoured milk.

Skillfully milking the child, she put him back on his back, tucked him in and left the room.

“Are you going to take a closer look at the child, master?”

“Yeah. Go ahead.”

“Yes, I’ll be on my way.”

As the maid closed the door and left, Eugene looked at the child lying on the bed.

The child’s eyes were still sparkling.

“Why aren’t you sleeping.”

The child, who had been wary for a while, gave the same answer as before.

“I can’t sleep……….”

The upper body of the child who said so was out of the blanket before he knew it.

Eugene kicked his tongue and pushed the protruding child’s arm back under the blanket, covering the child’s neck with a blanket.

“You’re going to catch a cold.”

The child lay silent and looked up at Eugene.

In that condition, Eugene sighed and talked to the child, thinking he would stay up all night.

“How do you think you’re going to fall asleep?”

The child, who was blinking still, answered in a small voice.

“I don’t know.”

“Think a little more.”

At Eugene’s words, the child began to ponder.

A few minutes later, the child raised his hand and spoke out.

“I remember, Duke.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Can you read me a book?”

“Uh…….”

Eugene had a difficult look on his face.

It sounds like he asks him to read something like a fairytale book, but Eugene has never read a children’s book for children.

He grew up alone without siblings, so he didn’t even know how to read fairy tales for the children to like them.

“……can’t you?”

Looking at the strangely sullen child, Eugene urgently took care of it.

“Oh, no. I’m not saying I couldn’t read…….”

Eugene talked awkwardly scratching his head.

“I didn’t enjoy reading fairy tales.”

Parents who usually read books to their children seemed to have fun reading them while putting in the lead and imitating their voices.

Eugene was simply not confident of doing such things well.

He read a fairy tale in the same tone as when he read a political book, so who would like it?

“You know, it must be very boring.”

“It’s okay.”

Eugene could not take a look of doubt at the child’s words.

“.…….really?”

“Yes.”

The child who rolled his blue eyes added a word.

“And I think it’s going to be fun. The story that the Duke reads.”

Finally, Eugene decided to listen to the child.

“You, don’t regret it later.”

“I won’t regret it.”

He put the spare chair next to the bed and headed to the study.

He then returned to the child’s room, searching for some old fairy tale books that had not been remembered since he was two years old.

The child greeted Eugene with sparkling eyes, and Eugene plopped into a chair and opened a fairy tale book.

“Then let’s get started.”

Eugene said, turning over the bookshelf with a slightly nervous hand.

The story started like this.

A child let go of his mother’s hand in the snowstorm.

The child went on an adventure in the middle of winter to find his mother.

It seemed to be a story about finding a mother at the end as he went on an adventure.

Like a fairy tale book in the North, it was full of paintings of white snowfields.

At first, he couldn’t remember well, but as he turned the page, Eugene suddenly remembered a few things.

“Jack, who broke up with such a red muffler snowman, arrived at a large ice lake…….”

“The Duke.”

Eugene raised her head at the sudden voice of the child.

“Why?”

“Will Jack be able to meet his mother?”

It was a fairytale he read a long time ago, but Eugene couldn’t remember the whole plot.

So he couldn’t think of the ending.

“Well, wouldn’t they be able to meet?”

The child turned his head slightly to the side and gazed at Eugene.

His eyes, which usually looked a little blank, were lively.

“I see.”

Eugene’s heart somehow ached.

Because he knew why the kid was asking that question.

Eugene then read a fairy tale book again, pretending to be fine though.

“Jack, who broke up with the snowman with the red scarf, arrived at a large ice lake.”

Jack in the fairy tale kept moving forward.

He travelled through the empty snowfield and asked if he had seen his mother.

Until he turned the last page, Jack did the same thing over and over again.

“……ah.”

When finally reached the final page, Eugene let out a sigh without realizing it.

On the last page of the fairy tale book, which was full of white, there was a feast of beautiful green, yellow, red, and pink.

Jack was dancing in the feast of fresh colours.

With a spring fairy who looks lively.

In the end, it was not his mother that Jack met, but the spring fairy.

At that time, Eugene heard the colourful sound of breathing.

He looked up and the child was asleep before he knew it.

‘Oh……’

When he wondered so much if Jack would be seeing his mother again, he seemed to have fallen asleep.

And the child’s arms were sticking out of the blanket like before.

‘He’s going to catch a cold. Really.’

Eugene covered the child’s arms again without saying a word.

‘I can’t believe you’re sleeping like that without crying or whining.’

He only read him a book.

‘Why is the child so calm……….’

A bad idea sprang up.

Eugene himself was also a quiet child.

He knew very well what happened to the unchildly adult children and what was going on.

“You must have had a hard time, too.’

Looking down at the sleeping child, he murmured in a low, subdued voice.

“Good night.”

So the next night passed.

A quiet, slightly warm night.