Chapter 06
The carriage ran for two hours before arriving at the ducal estate. As soon as I woke Lewin, a servant outside opened the carriage door.
While the duke said something to the servants, with his younger brother beside him, I was led to the room I would be using.
It was definitely a guest room, yet it was bigger than the dining room of my entire house.
Sitting on the couch beside the bed, I looked around the room.
What did Lewin think when he saw my house?
At the center of the chandelier on the ceiling was a glowing stone shining brightly. From there down to the dangling crystals, everything glittered with white light.
Perhaps because of that, the ivory wallpaper and cream-colored furniture all looked bright and vivid.
“…How much would that cost if I sold it?”
Probably enough to buy a house—even ours.
The unexpected journey had left my whole body feeling drained.
I raised my hand to dry-wash my face, then smacked both cheeks with a slap!
This isn’t the time to lose focus!
A sharp sting I had never felt before spread from my cheeks throughout my body.
Earlier, when we got off the carriage, the duke had called over a servant to bring our luggage.
He also said he would send word to the students at the training school that it would be closed—something I stopped him from doing.
They were still my students, so I should be the one to tell them through a letter.
I walked over to the desk near the door. Thankfully, there was paper and ink in the drawer, and a pen on the table.
There was plenty of paper, so I quickly wrote the letter to the kids and then organized everything I knew about the secret mastermind.
The mastermind… what was his name again?
In the original story everyone just referred to him as Duke Brecht, so I never learned it.
The story definitely said his whole family had died, so why was his younger brother alive?
Just then, I suddenly remembered the crown prince who had enrolled last year. While preparing my graduation thesis, I recall going to take a quick look because the crown prince was enrolling.
Using the prince’s age, I tried to estimate the timeline for the start of Part 2.
Rembrandt Academy had a four-year curriculum, just like a university in the real world.
The prince was two years older than the main characters, and the protagonists graduate in Part 2…
So, the protagonists must have enrolled the same year I graduated. That means there are roughly four years left until Part 2 begins.
How old was the mastermind again? Probably four years older than the protagonists. So… the same age as me?
I recalled how the mastermind had looked when I saw him in the carriage.
Thinking back, he still had a youthful air about him.
And his behavior was gentler than the villain in the original. What on earth could have happened for someone to change so much in five years?
I tapped the pen against the paper, and ink slowly spread from the tip. Then I wrote a name.
[Lewin]
And suddenly realized—
Lewin must have died sometime in between.
The story said the family died, but it never specified they died at the same time.
And given he’d been kidnapped…
I drew a question mark next to Lewin’s name.
Then who? Who was trying to kill Lewin, and why?
I pictured Lewin again.
All children are cute, but I had never seen a child whose smile was so innocent.
A child who was somehow pitiful yet lovable.
The duke seemed to care deeply for his younger brother. Considering how baselessly he suspected me, even more so.
And his personality didn’t seem bad—at least for now.
Even though I acted rude, he apologized and didn’t nitpick.
Honestly, with a difference in status like this, he could have executed me on the spot without issue.
I drew several circles around Lewin’s name.
Then the cause of the mastermind’s descent into villainy… must’ve been losing his brother.
There was clearly something I didn’t know yet.
I stood from the desk, tore up all the papers except the letter, and burned the scraps in the fireplace.
If I didn’t have reliable information, the priority was to not get caught.
I briefly considered writing in Hangul like other transmigration novels… but if there was no good hiding spot, a strange language might draw more suspicion.
I organized only the letter, held it, and went downstairs.
“I brought the letter I want delivered to the children.”
“Perfect timing. I was about to call for you.”
Lewin was nowhere to be seen; only the duke stood near the door with a servant. I nodded briefly to him and handed the letter to the servant.
“Please… tell them I’m sorry.”
I grasped the servant’s hand tightly before turning away. The duke was watching me with one eyebrow raised.
I looked straight at him.
“You said you were going to call me. So there’s something you want to talk about.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go, then. I also have plenty of questions for you.”
At that, the duke smiled. He extended his hand toward me as if escorting me. I firmly took the hand he offered.
When we entered the drawing room, a maid approached with tea and refreshments. The scent was familiar. Jasmine tea.
The environment felt like déjà vu, and I kept digging my nails into my palm. I needed to stay alert.
I recalled the priorities I had set upstairs.
Don’t forget:
My first goal is to avoid getting involved with this novel.
If it were a romance, maybe. But—
Drugs collapsing public order, supernatural abilities appearing, murders everywhere—a political mystery tragedy is not something I can survive.
Lewin tugged at my heart, but if it came down to it, I would run.
Even if I was being held back now with the sponsorships for the training school, it was still better to die from a lack of mana than by getting caught up in some incident.
And if escape turned out impossible… then my second goal was to stop the mastermind from turning evil.
“It’s jasmine.”
The moment I recognized the tea, irritation bubbled up—remembering how he had taken away my teacup earlier.
I couldn’t show it, so I lifted the cup and spoke casually.
I took a sip.
It tasted expensive enough that I could immediately tell.
There was none of the bitter, grassy flavor—only a smooth, fragrant floral aroma.
I must have shown surprise without realizing it because he smiled.
“I thought you might like it.”
“As if. You just picked something that looked appropriate.”
My pride was pricked, but I set the cup down as if unaffected.
Apparently that annoyed him, because one eyebrow rose again.
“Then what tea do you like?”
“I don’t know. I’m not well-off enough to choose between teas. Anyway, shouldn’t we discuss something more important?”
I pushed the cup aside. I didn’t know why he called me here, but I had my own questions—like who was targeting Lewin.
It would be nice if he brought the topic up first, but…
I waited for him to speak. His expression grew more displeased, but he soon composed himself.
“I intend to hire you as Lewin’s nurse and private tutor.”
“Does Lewin know I’ll be coming to the estate under that title?”
“…I thought about it. Given what you said earlier, I agree we should tell Lewin you’re his mother.”
I nodded. At six years old, a child would know the difference between a nurse, a tutor, and a mother. But they might not understand how similar those roles could appear.
“Then will you also call me ‘mother’ in front of Lewin?”
It might’ve sounded like I was teasing, but it was important. I opened my mouth, prepared for him to be angry. Honestly, I still felt the sting from the morning and wanted to irritate him a little.
Well, if he threw me out, that’d be great for me.
But the duke seemed unbothered by the question.
“I will not. The three of us will not be together.”
“Really?”
“Yes. So I ask that you also avoid situations where all three of us are together. Regardless of your words, you wouldn’t want a grown man calling you ‘mother,’ would you?”
Well… if you include my past life, I’m in my mid-forties. In this world’s era, it’s not strange at all to have a twenty-year-old child.
Of course, I only thought this—I didn’t say it aloud.
My combined age meant nothing; my current body and that reality were worlds apart.
“That’s true, but… If Lewin truly wants it, I can accept being called that. How about you, Your Grace?”
I rolled my eyes as I spoke.
I planned to stop teasing him there, but he reacted unexpectedly strongly.
He slammed his teacup down loudly.
“That is exactly the problem.”
“What is?”
“You’ve only known Lewin for four days. Yet you act as if you’re already close.”
“And why shouldn’t I? Lewin is cute, kind, and anyone who sees him would fall in love with him.”
“That… is true. But I still cannot fully dismiss my suspicions of you. Even if you didn’t kidnap Lewin, you might still be trying to profit off him. That is what I suspect.”
I closed my mouth at that.
In this world, children were considered “lesser adults.”
It wasn’t as bad for nobles or gentry, but commoner children were pushed into labor from an early age.
Even if I ran a training school, from the duke’s perspective, it would be hard to believe that a commoner like me genuinely took Lewin in out of pure intentions.
Even if I felt sympathy because he seemed like an orphan, I was still a commoner too busy trying to survive.
“So you brought me to the ducal estate… to monitor me?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t even bother denying it politely.”
“You would have already known anyway.”
I nodded.
True. I was suspicious the moment he offered to support all of my students.
Of course, I had nothing to lose and no reason to refuse, so I accepted immediately.
I opened my hand toward him.
“Well, it’s your right to distrust me. And you’ve provided more than enough support to the training school, so I can’t complain. But that means… you won’t tell me who tried to kidnap Lewin.”
“Correct.”
“But you do have someone in mind.”
