Chapter 10

A few days had barely passed when Diane found herself swaying atop a carriage bound for Upper East Shire in Brooks District.

On her lap sat a large bag packed with just a few clothes, prepared for moving into the ducal residence. Every time the carriage jolted, her arms tightened around the bag.

“The entrance to Upper East Shire!”

The coachman of the carriage running between Center Shire and Brooks District shouted loudly.

“Yes, I’ll get off!”

As soon as the carriage stopped, Diane hurriedly got off.

The carriage only ran to the entrance of each Shire in Brooks District.

From here, Diane had to walk to the ducal residence, but even if it was only to the Shire entrance, she was grateful there was a direct carriage from Center Shire.

She took out a piece of paper with the address of the Wale ducal residence written on it.

[Upper East Shire 7, Brooks, Rettrang]

“Number 7…”

Diane smiled as she read the address.

Number 7—it didn’t seem like she would have to walk very far.

But about 30 minutes later, Diane realized her prediction was completely wrong, and she was utterly exhausted.

It was her first time ever visiting Upper East Shire.

She knew it was a traditional wealthy neighborhood where nobles gathered, but she never imagined the distance between each house number would be so great.

After passing Number 2, no matter how much she walked, Number 3 didn’t appear.

Switching the bag from her right hand to her left, Diane let out a deep sigh.

It was truly fortunate Gale hadn’t come with her.

Gale had wanted to accompany her all the way to the ducal residence, but Diane had firmly refused, insisting she wasn’t a child.

If Gale had come, he would have had to walk back this long way alone.

Ten minutes later, Number 3 finally appeared, but after that, it was a long, winding forest road.

Walking alone on a deserted, elongated forest path, Diane felt a little lonely.

‘I’ll need to go buy books, too. I hope they’ll let me use the ducal carriage then. Without a carriage, once you enter, you can’t get out.’

After about an hour, regret began to creep in.

‘I should have just accepted when James Wharton offered to send a carriage. Why did I refuse?’

When she’d gone to deliver the contract, James had offered to send a carriage for Diane.

But since no one had ever sent her a carriage before, it felt awkward, and she’d had no idea the walk would be this far, so she’d refused without a second thought.

Besides, she hadn’t set a precise move-in date, just allowed two or three days for preparations, so it was hard to arrange a carriage.

Regret was pointless now.

To cheer herself up, Diane began to sing.

She’d just seen Number 6, so if she walked a little more, her final destination—Number 7—would appear.

There were side paths branching off the forest road, and it seemed the mansions at Numbers 4 and 5 were tucked away along those paths.

How many verses had she sung while walking under the long, shaded trees?

“You can’t sing. Really, you can’t.”

Suddenly, a strange voice came from above her head.

Startled, Diane looked up in the direction of the voice.

The owner of the voice was up in a tree.

The first thing she saw was platinum blonde hair down to the shoulders, wavy and shining as sunlight poured through the leaves.

White skin, green eyes, red lips…

“Prince Aed…”

Diane muttered without thinking.

Fifteen years ago, when she was eight—about a year before she left Lina Orphanage—the prince had come to her room while she was crying. Now, he was looking down at her from the tree.

Diane was all grown up now, but strangely, the prince looked just as young as he did fifteen years ago.

No, wait! He’s even younger than the prince.

At first glance, he seemed just like the prince, but looking closer, he was a much younger little boy.

The boy spoke to Diane, who was staring up at him blankly.

“Don’t sing. You’re not allowed.”

“What?”

“Hmm… From far away, I thought you were ugly, but even if your voice is bad, your face is pretty.”

“What?”

What a cheeky kid.

“Where are you going?”

The boy asked.

“Who are you? Isn’t it dangerous to climb a tree?”

Instead of answering the boy’s question, Diane asked back.

“I asked where you’re going!”

“Hey Kid, why don’t you come down first?”

“Kid? Did you just call me ‘kid’?”

The boy’s expression soured.

“What’s your name?”

He seemed offended by ‘kid,’ so Diane asked his name.

“I asked first where you’re going!”

The boy had no intention of coming down or telling her his name, just kept repeating his question.

Diane decided to play along with the boy’s mood, which seemed a bit twisted.

The branch he was sitting on looked sturdy and thick enough to be comfortable, but still, she worried because he was up in a tree.

Anyway, if she wanted the boy to come down, she needed his cooperation.

“I’m Diane. I’m looking for Upper East Shire Number 7. The Wale Duchy. I’m almost there.”

“Why are you going there?”

“That’s my workplace.”

“What do you do there?”

“I read books to the Young Master.”

“……”

“Will you come down now?”

“So it was real, you really came…”

The boy muttered something Diane couldn’t understand.

He seemed to be staring at her even more intently.

After that, he fell silent.

Diane carefully asked him again to come down, but he acted as if he didn’t hear her and spoke about something else.

“You’re just reading books, right? Not singing or anything like that? Not with that voice?”

“Yes, anyway, come down. How did you even get up there? Can you get down by yourself? Did you climb up alone?”

Now that she’d asked him to come down, Diane realized she had no idea if the child could even get down from such a height on his own.

“Are you silly? How could I climb up here alone? If I try to get down, I could die.”

Diane was dumbfounded by the boy’s words.

There was no one around the tree, just the boy.

“Then how did you get up there?”

“Roden will bring the ladder. He should be here soon.”

“Roden?”

“Yeah, the butler grandpa.”

“Oh…”

Diane nodded, then suddenly felt something strange.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Leon Wale, the brave warrior atop the tree!”

At Diane’s question, Leon suddenly mimed drawing a sword and declared in a dramatic voice.

Leon Wale!

That was the name of the Young Master she’d heard from James.

“You… really…”

Diane’s mouth hung open and didn’t close.

The young master she was supposed to read to was this little boy up in the tree.

As she spoke, Diane wondered if she should be using honorifics with him.

Even if he was a child, he was a noble of much higher status than her.

“What were you doing up there… Sir?”

“Why are you talking so weird? ‘Up there… Sir?’ Adults can be so silly.”

The boy was so confident and cheeky, it was hard to believe he was only six.

Just then, someone appeared at the end of the path, pushing a cart.

“He’s here now. Roden.”

It seemed to be the butler he’d mentioned earlier.

And there was a ladder on the cart.

“Roden!”

Leon shouted, and Roden nodded and hurried over.

Finally, Roden arrived right in front of the tree.

His eyes turned to Diane.

She bowed and quickly introduced herself.

“Hello, I’m Diane Lina, the reading education teacher for Young Master Leon, hired by President Wale.”

“Ah, hello.”

Roden relaxed his cautious posture and greeted her, then put down the cart.

“I heard you’d be coming. Did you walk all the way here, or did you take a carriage and get off here?”

Roden glanced down the long road and asked.

“Ah, the carriage…”

“She walked. She walked all the way from far away. I saw her the whole time.”

Diane was embarrassed to admit she’d walked, so she was about to say she’d taken the carriage, but Leon interrupted.

“It must have been tough. It’s a long way to walk. Please give me your bag. We’ll put it on the cart and go together.”

“It didn’t seem that hard. Do you know how loudly she sang the whole way? But she really can’t sing. If she was ugly, it would’ve been a disaster.”

Leon kept saying whatever he wanted, making Diane more and more embarrassed.

“I’m coming down now. Put the ladder up.”

When Roden set up the ladder, Leon climbed down and started walking ahead.

Watching Leon walk ahead, Diane wondered why the young master had been sitting alone up in a tree on a deserted forest path.

“Miss, shall we go?”

As Roden started pushing the cart, Diane tried to help push from behind.

“No need. I’m not that old yet. This is always my job.”

‘Always?’

“Does the Young Master climb trees often?”

“Every three or four days.”

“It looked pretty high. Alone…”

“We carved out a seat in the tree for him to sit.”

“Oh! No wonder…”

Diane swallowed her comment about how stable he’d seemed up there and simply nodded.

But soon, she grew curious.

‘Why did they even make him a seat up in the tree?’