Chapter 14

“Why?”

Edward asked Diane brusquely, staring at her as if surprised.

“Ah! No, I didn’t know your nickname was ‘Ed’….”

But as soon as she spoke, Diane’s face flushed red.

She realized, just after speaking, how foolish her words sounded, and that they might even come off as odd.

“My name’s is Edward! You don’t even know my name? Or do you want to call me by a nickname?”

As expected, Edward, who was already angry at the friendly conversation between Diane and his older brother, seized on her words to embarrass her, even though his nickname really was Ed.

“N-no, I’m sorry.”

Diane’s face turned even redder as she mocked herself inwardly.

The moment she heard the nickname, she’d thought of ‘Prince Aed’ from her childhood, and now she felt ridiculous for it.

No matter how similar the nicknames were, it was strange that, even for a moment, she’d been reminded of that older boy when looking at this fierce and unfriendly President.

‘Ah! Is that why?’

Suddenly, a thought struck her, and she glanced at Leon Wale, who was sitting beside her.

‘Yes, that’s right! Didn’t I mistake Young Master Leon for Prince Aed before?’

Maybe, when Leon was looking down at her from the tree earlier, she’d mixed him up with that older boy from her childhood, and now she was remembering him again. Even now, the feeling was still strangely similar.

How odd. Why did this little Young Master remind her so much of that older boy?

Back then, that boy had said he was thirteen, five years older than her.

She was twenty-three now, so that boy would be twenty-eight, certainly no longer a child—he’d be about the age of Adrian Wale, Leon’s father.

‘……!’

At that moment, Diane’s eyes widened as she looked at Duke Adrian.

Bright blonde hair, green eyes, a handsome face….

‘Adrian Wale. Adrian, Ed….’

Diane repeated the Duke’s name silently to herself.

Perhaps feeling Diane’s gaze, the Duke raised his head and looked at her.

When their eyes met, he gave her a gentle smile.

Seeing his smile, Diane couldn’t help but blurt out,

“Duke Adrian Wale, did you ever visit a place called Lina Orphanage when you were young?”

Clink!

At that moment, Edward’s fork dropped onto his plate.

Everyone’s eyes turned to Edward.

Edward stared at Diane as if he could bore holes into her, ignoring the fallen fork.

But Diane soon turned her gaze back to Adrian.

Adrian, who had been watching Edward’s fork, felt Diane’s gaze and turned to her.

“Lina Orphanage? Hmm… Well, I don’t recall.”

“Oh… I see.”

Diane’s face and voice were thick with disappointment, impossible to hide.

Adrian furrowed his brow as if pondering something.

“Ah! I did go. I remember watching a performance there that day.”

Adrian spoke with satisfaction, recalling a distant memory.

At that moment, Diane’s eyes grew tremendously wide.

‘So it really was this Duke who was that prince!’

“You really did visit!”

“Yes, I did. But why do you ask about Lina Orphanage all of a sudden?”

“Then, perhaps….”

Adrian’s question made Diane want to say more, but she stopped herself.

She wondered if the performance he meant was the one she’d shown him, but since he didn’t mention anything else, he must only remember the show in the auditorium. It seemed he’d forgotten meeting her again at the orphanage afterward.

Well, the memory of the prince returning that night was so faint, even to her, it felt like a dream.

She remembered talking a lot with the prince after meeting him in her sleep, but when she woke, she was in her bed and the prince was nowhere to be found. Yes, maybe it really had been just a dream.

The fact that the Duke before her was her prince was itself almost dreamlike.

Still, she felt a little sad that he didn’t remember her. But perhaps that was only natural.

To her, he was a special prince, but to Duke Adrian, she must have been just one of many orphanage children. The memory of returning to the orphanage that night, even if it wasn’t a dream, might not have been a pleasant one for him.

She’d once hoped to meet him again someday, but if he didn’t remember her, maybe it was better not to bring it up.

For the Duke, it probably wasn’t anything important, and if an orphan girl told him she remembered and sometimes thought of him, he might find it absurd or laughable.

No, he would certainly think so.

“Teacher?”

Adrian called Diane, who had paused as if lost in thought.

“Oh, I just happened to hear about it. That the Wale Duchy sponsored the orphanage.”

Since sponsoring orphanages was so common among nobles that there was hardly any who hadn’t visited one, what she said wasn’t really wrong.

“Oh… I see.”

Adrian thought Diane’s words and attitude were a bit odd, but he nodded and turned his attention back to his plate.

At that moment—

“I went there too, Miss Diane Lina.”

Edward spoke in his most sarcastic tone yet.

“Oh! Yes. I see.”

Diane glanced at Edward briefly, but soon turned her eyes back to Duke Adrian.

Edward had no place in her mind as she searched Adrian’s face for traces of the older boy she’d met long ago.

The Duke’s platinum blonde hair, green eyes, and pale skin.

The more she looked, the more he seemed just like that boy from back then.

Of course, Edward also had blonde hair and green eyes like Adrian, but Diane simply couldn’t see Edward in the same way.

In truth, it was unfair to Edward, but Diane couldn’t remember the subtle difference that her prince had platinum blonde, not just blonde hair.

Besides, while the brothers had looked quite similar as children, as adults, Adrian had grown more delicate and gentle, while Edward’s appearance had become sharper and more angular, giving them completely different impressions.

Unfortunately, the prince in Diane’s distorted memory was gentle and kind, even though he hadn’t really been that way.

As Diane studied Adrian, her face gradually filled with clear admiration and longing.

It was more and more amazing to her that she was meeting that older boy from her childhood again.

Meanwhile, Edward, watching her, was so exasperated and angry he wanted to grab her face and turn it toward him.

She remembered him, who had visited Lina Orphanage, and even recalled it now.

But why was she looking at his brother like that? He was the one who’d met her that day!

Edward was about to explode from irritation and anger.

‘It was me! I was the one who met you that day, woman!’

The words rose up to his throat.

But Diane’s face was still turned only toward Adrian.

“Was your childhood nickname Aed, Duke?”

She was even asking strange questions.

Adrian nodded.

“That’s right. It was ‘Aed’, but later Edward was called ‘Ed’, so people often got confused with the pronunciation. Well, now no one calls me by a nickname anymore, so it doesn’t matter. And I’m the only one who calls him ‘Ed’ now.”

Adrian spoke cheerfully, glancing at Edward with a smile in his eyes.

“Oh… So ‘Aed’ was your nickname.”

Diane didn’t even register the Duke’s last words about Edward’s nickname being ‘Ed’.

Only the fact that Duke Adrian’s nickname was ‘Aed’ thundered in her ears.

Her face flushed as she nodded and finally dropped her gaze to her plate.

Seeing this, Edward couldn’t stand it any longer.

Annoyance boiling over, he stared at her and began to sneer in a twisted voice.

“Why do you keep asking about other people’s nicknames? Miss Diane Lina, don’t you think you’re a bit presumptuous? Just because we’re eating together, do you think we’re friends?”

“……!”

Diane was struck dumb by the sudden attack, staring at Edward with a face that turned red and pale by turns.

Adrian had thought Diane’s question was a little odd, but Edward’s words were so harsh they were almost insulting.

“Edward! What’s wrong with you? Don’t you think you’re being too rude?”

Ignoring Adrian, Edward just glared at Diane.

“Uncle, why are you yelling at Teacher? Her face is all red.”

Even Leon tried to speak up, but Edward’s fierce gaze remained fixed on Diane.

Diane was now so uncomfortable sitting there she felt she could die.

She couldn’t understand why the president kept picking fights and getting angry with her.

He was the one who’d hired her as the family tutor for this mansion.

If he was going to openly despise and dislike her, why offer her the job at all?

She wanted to get up from the table right away.

No, she wanted to quit the tutor job entirely.

The President, whom she’d thought might be a decent person, clearly had no respect for others at all.

But she couldn’t bring herself to stand up from the table.

She couldn’t afford to throw away the job just because she was upset, and the only odd one at the table was the president.

After all, the person she had to deal with was Young Master Leon Wale, not the President, so she just had to get through this unpleasant moment.

Besides, ‘Aed’, the person from her beautiful childhood memories, was here at the table.

Diane suppressed her emotions, bowing her head and staring at her plate.

Thinking calmly, she realized she’d been so excited to see her childhood prince again that she’d overstepped and asked the Duke an inappropriate question.

She’d even asked about his nickname. She’d made the first mistake.

Of course, even so, she couldn’t understand why President Edward Wale was humiliating her and glaring at her so much.

But as she tried to calm herself and reflect on how out of control she’d been, she suddenly heard something so strange she doubted her ears.

“Uncle! Don’t yell at Teacher or glare at her! She’s going to be my mom soon!”

It was the voice of little Young Master Leon Wale.

In an instant, not only Diane but also Duke Adrian and Edward turned their eyes to Leon.

“Leon, what?”

Adrian, thinking he’d misheard, asked again.

But Leon repeated himself without any hesitation.

“Mom, I mean. Teacher came here to be my mom.”

With Leon’s words, an awkward silence fell over the table.