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They say that the line between happiness and misfortune is paper thin.

I was feeling this truth clearly with my entire body two weeks after the incident.

As for my happiness, there was no shortage of expensive food that I wouldn't normally dream of eating.

After always eating leftovers as a maid, now I am served spaghetti with gruyère!

The misfortune?

That I was sitting together with the Grand Duke that I used to work for.

The sound of me eating my spaghetti filled the otherwise, silent dining hall.

As all that I knew about aristocratic etiquette was from what I saw out of the corner of my eyes, I was disregarding it altogether and just eating however I wanted to.

"I heard that you caused a disturbance."

Cough!

The spaghetti that I was swallowing got stuck in my throat.

The Grand Duke who had been sitting diagonally across from me, kindly handed me a gla.s.s of orange juice.

"Yes……"

I nodded my head slowly as I drank my orange juice.

He must have heard about that incident.

Half a month ago, there was a fainting incident in the morning.

Fortunately, I was told that Hanna regained her consciousness that afternoon.

The maids still firmly believed that I had cast a curse.

I had never expected to hear this from the Grand Duke himself, though.

"I heard you caused a maid to faint this time?"

He seemed amused as he said this.

I twirled the spaghetti noodles with my fork, my head facing down. I raised my head.

I said without even swallowing the noodles in my mouth.

"I didn't mean to."

He didn't scold me even though my actions went against etiquette.

He seemed to be observing how far this cheeky child would go.

"I have also, although I didn't mean to, killed many people."

Thud.

The fork that I had been holding fell down onto the floor.

Before I could even try to pick up my fork, he glanced at the servant who was waiting on the table.

The Grand Duke's face was expressionless as he issued his order.

The servant immediately placed a new fork and knife in front of me.

"Would you be able to go to Visenna if you're so faint-hearted?"

My hand holding the fork that was about to find its way to the spaghetti stopped short.

I stared at him with a somewhat dissatisfied expression.

Of course, I fixed my eyes back onto my plate as if nothing had happened the moment they met his eyes.

"I'm not going."

I'm sorry, Perse.

No matter how many times I think about it, I just can't go to that Clan.

He smirked at my determined words, as if he was at a loss of words.

It seemed that I'm not really given a choice.

"I will die here as a maid."

"I have heard you say that exactly thirty-two times since you opened your eyes as a child.”

Did I?

I awkwardly scratched my cheek.

It turns out it wasn't Perse who was obsessed with power, it was me who was obsessed with the head maid position.

But I can't find such great conditions and generous pay I get here anywhere else.

"Can't you talk more like a child? You use language that's extremely materialistic for a child."

Oof, materialistic.

When did that become my image?

He was royalty since he was born—to be more precise, he was the emperor's cousin. As the Duke of Yekart, he was affluent, but I wasn't.

And just a few days ago, I thought he told me to stop saying dumb things and talk properly when I mumbled like a child.

After I opened my eyes as a six-year-old kid, I have had more face-to-face time with him.

"Because I'm not really six years old……"

I muttered to myself.

The doctor visited briefly before the meal. It was to diagnose why I had suddenly become young.

When the butler told the doctor that my age is unknown, the doctor gave his opinion that I looked like I was six years old.

He said that my physical age was six, but there may be side-effects of the poison.

When asked what side-effects, he said vaguely,

'Her mental age may be a bit……'

But there was something I really didn't understand.

It was that Perse was making time in his busy schedule to come and see me, when could simply give commands through the butler.

'He doesn't seem to think that I'm an a.s.sa.s.sin.'

At first, I couldn't focus on eating because my hands were shaking so much.

Two weeks later, I'm adjusting quite well.

Contrary to the rumors that he was a cruel villain, he didn't lay a finger on children.

He didn't flick my forehead for being a disobedient child, either.

But, I couldn't say that he was kind, either.

Normal adults would look at a child and smile at her, but his expression was always dry.

He didn't show the tiniest bit of interest to young and weak things.

But I had no idea why he comes to visit me everyday.

'If I had to guess, maybe to keep an eye on me?'

Since he's repeatedly mentioning the Visenna clan, it seems like he's planning to send me to the northern region, but I have no intention of going at all.

At the Grand Duke's mansion, the only villain was maybe Perse, but there were at least three in Visenna.

I looked up toward him and ate my spaghetti with the most pitiful face I could make.

I'm doing all this to make a living, so I might as well keep my stomach full when I'm acting.

When I was full, I put down my fork.

I didn't forget to rub my dry eyes with the back of my hand.

Although I might have had some talent for needlework, I had no apt.i.tude for acting whatsoever.

I didn't even wish for tears to come out. I just wanted my eyes to look red.

Rub rub.

He gave me a weird look and lifted his hand toward me.

Surprised, I lifted my head to see him softly grab my hand.

He then put something in my half-open hand.

It was cold and it rustled. When I glanced at it, it also s.h.i.+mmered gold.

Is that……

"Here, it's a cookie."

He held out an almond cookie.

Not just any cookie, a sh.e.l.ling cookie?!

It was so expensive that a commoner like me could never buy one in my entire life.

On my occasional visits to the capital on the butler's errands, I remember I envied people who walked into the store selling sh.e.l.ling cookies.

And he's giving me that cookie!

'Sh.e.l.ling cookie!'

I stopped my crying act and extended both my hands out to carefully receive the cookie that he had given me.

Don't belittle me for falling for it so fast!

Maybe it's because I've become a child. I've become greedy about snacks, so if someone offers me snacks I ended up taking them right away.

"Thank you."

I was trying to get the cover off, but my hand was slippery and I couldn't get it to open.

Perse gave me a pathetic glance as I wrestled with a piece of cookie and took the cookie from my hand.

I put on the facial expression that he often made and made a fuss.

"If you give it and then take it away again, you'll be punished."

"Do I look like a bully who steals cookies from little kids?"

I tilted my head at his question and said.

"A little bit?"

Maybe I gave the wrong answer.

I should have just honestly said 'a lot.'

Contrary to my expectation that he was going to be angry, I removed the wrapping and put the cookie in my mouth.

The moment his smooth hand touched my lips, I froze up.

He looked down at me and said indifferently.

"Make sure you chew it well before you swallow."

Of all things, I remembered what happened before I turned little.

Was it when I knocked the gla.s.s out of his hand to save him……

He grabbed my chin and ordered me to swallow.

His expression was also indifferent then, but it felt somewhat different.

Was it because he gave me a sh.e.l.ling cookie.

Feeling touched, I looked at him with grateful eyes, and he frowned his handsome forehead.

Ah, right. You just gave me a cookie that was lying around.

I take back being thankful.

As I was looking at Perse with big eyes, he gave a meaningful smile and said something strange.

"You should eat well so that you'll grow faster."

Where are you trying to send me when I grow up?

You're not going to send me to the Visenna clan filled with evil people, are you?

When I questioned him with my eyes, he pulled out a bundle of paper in front of me.

When I glanced over at the paper, my face turned to stone like the Moai statues of the Easter Island.

Perse rested his chin on his hands and was looking at me as if to say he knew this would happen.

"Read it."

I picked up the first page from the stack of paper in front of me.

The letters which were so straight that they looked as if they had been printed formed a word that I didn't expect.

"Contract?"

Unsure if I had read it correctly, I rubbed my eyes and looked again to find that the letters did not change.

They say that you shouldn't enter into contracts carelessly.

I felt a sense of apprehension just from looking at it.

When I couldn't easily turn to the next page, he got up smoothly and stood next to me.

He wrapped his hand around my shaking hand holding the first page.

His hand looked three times as big as mine.

It must be because I've become a child?

When I paused reading the contract and turned my head around, he was reviewing the doc.u.ment with downcast eyes.

I saw his sharp chin and his strangely sensual lips, and his long silver hair tickled my cheek.

When I got scared as he drew close to me, I let out a deep sigh.

"If someone saw, they'd think I'm some sort of a monster who eats children."

"But……"

He stared down at me and put the back of his hand on my cheek.

When I felt the warmth from his hand, I felt relaxed in spite of myself.

"Shh—."

The warmth lingered for only a short moment.

He pulled away his hand and picked up the doc.u.ments.

This is more like a dangerous butler trying to kill the mistress, not the Grand Duke.

That would have been scarier. As I mulled these thoughts over in my head, he gently turned the page.

When he turned the first page over, I immediately saw the second page.

The sentence written on the first line was very clear.

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