Chapter 17

The next day, before the dawn broke, Diane woke up with a start.

She’d been tense about not being late for breakfast, so she’d slept lightly.

She decided to go down early and wait.

Breakfast was supposed to start at 7:30, but even after washing up and waiting for a while, Diane left her room when it was past 7:20.

It was when she reached the second floor.

“I don’t want to!”

With a shout, Leon suddenly burst out of the formal dining room on the second floor.

Remembering last night’s commotion, Diane quickly turned her head and tried to head to the first floor, but Leon, who had already dashed out of the dining room, spotted her.

“Teacher!”

Leon called out to her.

A momentary look of embarrassment crossed Diane’s face, but she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t heard the child’s clear voice echoing down the corridor.

“Ah, Young Master Leon…….”

Diane looked at Leon with an awkward, faint smile.

And at that moment, she locked eyes with Duke Adrian, who had come out behind Leon.

Diane bowed her head stiffly.

The Duke, for some reason, turned his gaze away with a tense expression, barely acknowledging her greeting.

“Teacher! Did you come for breakfast?”

Leon ran up to her and asked.

“Ah, I was just on my way to the first floor for breakfast……”

As Diane trailed off, Leon, who had come right up to her, grabbed one of her hands.

Diane flinched in surprise, but Leon tightened his grip and said,

“You have to eat with us.”

Faced with Leon’s firm words, Diane was startled, and now both Duke Adrian and Roden had come up to her.

“Leon! Stop it! The teacher eats on the first floor.”

Adrian spoke in the stern voice of a father, but Leon didn’t back down at all.

“No! I’ll only eat if Teacher eats with me. Sons are supposed to eat with their mothers, aren’t they?”

Diane was shocked.

Leon was saying the strange things he’d said yesterday again.

She couldn’t understand why this young master was saying such odd things to her.

“Leon!”

Adrian let out a deep sigh.

But Diane was more concerned with Roden’s twitching eyebrows behind Adrian than with the Duke’s sigh.

Roden’s face was full of displeasure and annoyance.

Diane felt obligated to say something.

“Young Master, I’ll eat on the first floor. You should eat breakfast soon too. Children need to eat well to grow tall and smart.”

Torn between using formal or informal speech with the little master, Diane’s tone came out rather awkward.

“Ah, um……”

Leon made a strange sound as he looked at Diane, as if he was up to something.

Then he added something that made her gasp.

“You say the same things as Dad. I guess moms and dads really do say the same things, huh?”

“……!”

Diane felt like she couldn’t breathe after hearing Leon’s words.

“Come on, Teacher. Let’s eat together.”

Leon, without any hesitation, pulled her hand and headed toward the formal dining room he’d just run out of.

Unable to figure out what to do, Diane was dragged along by the stubborn Leon and ended up having to eat in the formal dining room.

Throughout the meal, Diane felt as if she had caused trouble even though she hadn’t done anything wrong, especially seeing the worried look on Adrian’s face.

* * *

“Duke, why does Young Master Leon call Miss Diane Lina ‘Mom’?”

After breakfast, Roden came to see Adrian and asked.

“It’s because of something I said to Leon a long time ago.”

“What did you say?”

“He believed that if he waited on the tree-lined road, his mom would come. Looks like that teacher walked down the tree-lined road.”

“Ah, that’s true. But is that really the only reason Young Master said such things?”

“I guess so. It seems to be just that… I don’t know. Maybe Leon just likes that teacher. Why did she walk down that road anyway? It’s not a distance you’d normally walk.”

A shadow passed over Roden’s face.

It was an absurd logic.

But it was just Young Master Leon’s thinking—Diane wasn’t at fault.

“I’m sorry. Since there was no set move-in date, I couldn’t send a carriage.”

“Well, it couldn’t be helped. The teacher suddenly appearing on that road is the problem. No, it’s not really her fault either.”

“So what do you want to do? If it’s too uncomfortable, we could send the teacher away…”

“Hmm……”

Adrian closed his mouth, seeming to ponder for a moment.

After a few minutes, he finally made up his mind.

“If the teacher is alright with it, maybe she could eat with us for a while. Please ask her. If Leon wants a mother that much, maybe she could cooperate until I find someone who can be his mother. Ah! I’m not asking her to actually act as his mother, just to eat together. Just meals.”

Roden frowned, but managed to suppress his displeasure as he replied.

“Understood, Duke.”

It wasn’t Adrian who hired the teacher or called her to dinner last night—it was Edward.

But now, an unexpected problem had appeared.

Young Master Leon wanted the teacher to be his mother.

She might be a teacher, but she was just a commoner.

To think of her as Duchess was unthinkable, and Roden felt uneasy, but he couldn’t object to the Duke’s decision for Leon’s sake.

* * *

“Keep eating in the formal dining room? With the Duke’s family?”

Diane’s face went pale at Roden’s words, who had come to her room to inform her of Adrian’s decision.

Having barely eaten properly since last night and this morning, she was already feeling weak.

Now she was being told to continue those uncomfortable meals.

The Duke, the Young Master, and President Wale…

Just imagining it made her feel like she was getting indigestion.

“There’s a bit of misunderstanding with Young Master Leon. The Duke is asking you to eat with them for a while. Just for a while. For a while.”

Roden emphasized the words ‘for a while.’

Diane knew exactly why he was stressing that phrase.

It was phrased as a request, but it was really a command to join their meals, and Roden clearly hated the whole situation.

It was as if he was saying, ‘How dare you sit at the table in the formal dining room where the Duke’s family sits?’

Even though she didn’t want it at all.

She wanted to refuse as strongly as she could.

“If it’s just for a while, how long exactly? Please be specific. I’m not comfortable with it either. I’m a reading teacher, not the Young Master’s dining companion.”

Diane asked in a rather cold voice.

Roden’s annoyance finally showed openly on his face.

He didn’t like Diane’s response at all.

But he still answered politely.

“Just until Young Master Leon realizes you’re only his reading teacher. It shouldn’t take long. Don’t worry. As you said, you’re just the reading teacher.”

“Yes. I understand.”

Diane answered, having no other choice.

She couldn’t say she wouldn’t eat with them.

She really was just a reading teacher.

She couldn’t say anything more.

“Young Master’s reading lessons will start today. From 4 to 5 PM, before dinner.”

“Yes.”

As soon as Diane replied, Roden began reciting the schedule for Leon’s reading lessons.

“You may choose the location for the lesson. The Young Master’s room, the study, the library, or even outdoors.”

“Yes.”

“Since it’s the first day, why not start in the library? You can look at what books are available and figure out the young master’s reading preferences.”

Roden added a lesson plan that sounded more like an order than a suggestion.

But Diane had no reason to object.

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

After that, Roden showed her the rest of the mansion that he hadn’t been able to show her yesterday.

Finally, after parting with Roden and returning to her room, Diane realized she had too much free time.

Except for the lesson from 4 to 5 PM, she had nothing else to do.

Aside from Leon’s strange misunderstanding and stubbornness, it was an unbelievably easy job.

And the salary was more than she’d ever imagined.

No matter how uncomfortable she felt, Diane thought she really needed to endure here.

* * *

“Young Master Leon, is there a book you want to read?”

Torn between formal and informal speech, Diane decided to speak casually as she had when she first met Leon.

No matter how much of a successor to the Duke he was, he was still just a little boy.

Even if she was only a reading teacher, she’d been hired as a teacher, so it felt okay to speak informally.

Besides, the boy called her ‘Teacher’ but always spoke to her informally.

“Hmm… Anything is fine. You have to read books properly. If you’re going to be my mom, it’s really disappointing you can’t sing well.”

Leon brought up ‘mom’ again.

“Young Master, why do you keep calling me mom? I’m not your mom.”

“Not yet, but you will be soon.”

“No, I’m your teacher. I’m not your mom.”

“Then why did you come? I don’t need a teacher.”

Leon’s voice became sharp, and his gaze turned piercing.