***

Prince Rockfels had taught me how to read and write.

Looking back, I realized just how extraordinary that was.

After all, it was a prince who had personally taught an orphan he had taken in.

Perhaps he regarded it as part of his responsibility.

“Iselin, you are the slowest learner of any child I have ever taught. It is truly remarkable.”

I still remembered how deeply those words had wounded me as a child.

“If you learn slowly, you have no choice but to work harder. From now on, wake up an hour earlier and review everything you learned the previous day. You will take a test every morning, and if you answer more than one question incorrectly, you will stand beside me all day until bedtime.”

“Yes…….”

“Do you think that will be difficult?”

“Yes!”

At my emphatic response, Rockfels gave me one of his rare, gentle smiles.

“Then would you rather return to your hometown?”

“……No, I would not.”

“If you wish to remain here, then work hard. No matter how difficult it becomes, you have no other choice if you want to stay by my side. You already started later than everyone else. If you remain at their current level while they continue to improve, no one will ever acknowledge you.”

At the time, I steeled my resolve and nodded firmly.

“I will work as hard as I can so that I may remain by Your Highness’s side.”

“As you should.”

“Therefore, please do not send me back to my hometown. I promise I will never disappoint you.”

“That remains to be seen. After all, you have already disappointed me considerably today.”

A test paper bearing a score of seven out of ten fluttered forlornly between Rockfels’s fingers.

That day, I learned that my master considered anything below nine out of ten unacceptable.

From then on, I gritted my teeth and studied relentlessly to meet his expectations.

In a way, those efforts shaped me into the person I eventually became.

And now, after all these years, I finally understood, if only slightly, how Rockfels must have felt while teaching me.

“Miss Moria, you have less interest in studying than anyone I have ever met.”

I placed the test paper before Moria, who merely blinked at me with an innocent expression.

It had been three days since I began teaching her.

Yet her score remained one out of ten.

I suppressed a sigh.

‘Even accounting for the fact that she is too busy to devote herself fully to studying, she has absolutely no interest in learning.’

Moria looked down at her test paper with a somewhat sheepish expression.

At least she seemed to realize how dreadful her score was.

Should I give up on teaching her?

‘……No. I cannot do that. The word surrender does not exist in my vocabulary.’

Moria was the only person in this wretched castle with whom I might eventually be able to communicate properly.

Therefore, I had to do what needed to be done.

“Do not worry, Miss Moria. Studying is difficult by nature. However, that does not mean there is no way to overcome it. Those who lack intelligence simply need to work harder. I am living proof, so you may trust me.”

I opened the notebook once more.

Ignoring the look of disappointment on Moria’s face, I prepared a review sheet containing every question she had answered incorrectly.

Then I picked up the rag, scrubbing brush and bucket of lye water that she had left in a corner of the kitchen.

“You will study from now on, Miss Moria. I shall take care of your work in the meantime.”

I started cleaning the kitchen thoroughly as it was barely better than a pigsty.

Moria was horrified and immediately rushed over to snatch the brush from my hand.

I promptly sent her back to her chair and gave her another test.

Her score remained at one.

I dipped the brush into the lye water and started scrubbing the floor. Unable to stand by and watch, Moria hurried over to help me pour the water, but I sent her back to her chair.

Once again, I sent her back to her chair and tested her again.

Her score was still one.

When I swept the area outside the kitchen’s back door and returned to test her again, her score rose to two.

Then three.

Five.

Seven.

And finally…….

“Congratulations. You scored nine out of ten. I knew you could do it if you applied yourself, Miss Moria. Well done. The sun is already setting.”

Smiling, I pointed toward the sunset beyond the window before gently patting Moria, who had grown visibly haggard over the course of the afternoon.

‘Did that take approximately three hours?’

It had been a remarkably inefficient process.

Still, I had to be patient until her mind fully awakened to the joys of learning.

Once she became accustomed to the lessons and built a stronger foundation, she would surely learn more quickly. Perhaps she would even begin to enjoy studying.

“I will test you on these words tomorrow. Make sure you memorize them before going to bed.”

Moria could not hear a word I said, so why did her face seem to grow even paler?

I left the kitchen with a spring in my step.

‘At last, I have made some progress.’

After spending three days exploring Will Castle, I realized one thing:

It was completely uninhabitable.

Firstly, there was no one to speak to within its dark and dreary halls.

The castle was surrounded by forest on all sides, preventing me from venturing far, and the nearest city was half a day’s journey away.

‘Worse still, Viscount Will has not shown so much as a strand of hair in three entire days.’

By this point, I had begun to wonder whether Viscount Will even existed.

I had visited the firmly locked room once each day, but the door had never budged.

‘I cannot continue waiting forever. Tonight, I must find a way to inspect that room.’

That evening, after the sun had set, I descended the stairs.

***

I stopped before the door to Viscount Will’s room.

‘Why is it open?’

The door, which had been firmly locked until now, stood wide open.

Without hesitating, I stepped into the suspicious room.

Inside was a spacious bedroom bathed in the soft glow of an oil lamp. The furniture was only slightly better than what Fiona had been given.

It was an entirely ordinary room.

‘There is nothing particularly unusual here.’

Why had Moria forbidden me from entering?

As I surveyed the room suspiciously, a book caught my attention.

At that very moment, I sensed a presence behind me.

Creak—bang.

The door slammed shut, plunging the room into an unnatural silence.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

That presence did not belong to Moria.

Those heavy, unhurried footsteps could only belong to…

“Fiona Fermen.”

An unfamiliar voice, carrying a strange resonance, called my name.