Volume 7 Chapter 3 Part 4

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Translation by burnt.marshmallows
Editing by Team Foxsunes


And so, I returned to the living room slightly earlier and waited on the sofa for a moment. As I heard the sound of the door opening, I spotted out of the corner of my eye, the brightly-colored drapery fluttering. 

「Welcome back, Noct」

「……I-I’m back. I brought my notebook.」

As he answered me clumsily, he held in his hands a notebook with a pretty midnight blue color. The brand name that was imprinted with a gold-foiled stamp was from a stationery store from a purveyor [1. TL Note: A “purveyor” is a person who sells or deals in particular goods ] of the royal family. It seems that my wet nurse splurged quite a bit in giving Noct this notebook as a present. In that case, I should do my best to teach him how to write too. 

There was no way that we could understand everything about Noct through the span of this one week. But every time I came to understand something about Noct, I would strangely think about how he resembled that man, just like in the Stepladder Incident (Beta) that happened just now. And at this point, I couldn’t help but feel like I wasn’t able to leave this young boy alone. 

I had thought about this many times, but it wasn’t just that his face was good-looking or because he was so unfriendly. It was that unerasable glow of loneliness in their eyes that made me think of that man. The glimpses of awkward kindness that he increasingly showed came close to the changes that man had shown from when we first met up till now. Just like fine snow which drifted like flower petals, my positive feelings towards Noct only continued to pile up. 

That was what made it all the more difficult for me. As I smiled wryly in my heart, Noct sat down beside me, with that cloth around his waist dangling. Before he put the notebook in his hand on the table, he looked at the book that I had just put down, and those yellow eyes of his blinked. 

「And this is?」

「It was a present for the baby. It’s a history book, but it’s very easy to read. I thought that it would be just nice for practicing words. And it’ll be good for studying too right?」

The book that I brought from the library, was the first volume of the history book on our country that was meant for children, which I received from Heinrich during my pregnancy celebration party. I thought that it was still pretty early for me to actually read it out loud, but I’d never thought that I would be able to make use of it so early. 

As I stretched my hand out to open the first page of the book, I thanked Heinrich in my heart. He was probably debating with evil spirits in the Purple Peony Court today too.  But I wasn’t able to turn over the page. Noct grabbed my hand and wouldn’t let me touch the book. 

「Noct?」

「You can’t」

「What?」

I tilted my head at the short yet forced words that he left me with. He continued on expressionlessly. 

「If this was meant for your child, I shouldn’t use it beforehand.」

Noct said clearly, before turning his face away from me. I couldn’t see any expression from his face. Since both his beast-like ears and tail were covered by my cloth,I had no way of knowing how he was feeling now. But for some reason, I suddenly got excessively lonely. And even slightly annoyed.

We’ve only spent a single week together. It wasn’t by any means a long time. It flew by in a moment. Although I couldn’t call it a long time, it was not a short amount of time either. Yet here this child was, saying stuff that made us sound like strangers. I was thankful that he was saying that with the baby in mind, but I wasn’t very…… no, I wasn’t happy at all. 

Sigh. I let out a single sigh to calm myself down. Noct’s shook his shoulders. He looked at me, waiting for us to start soon. I wrapped both my hands around that face of his and fixed his gaze on mine. 「Ah!」Ignoring the short shriek that the young boy gave out in response, I gave him a deep, cheerful smile. 

「Hey Noct. Please don’t say stuff like that. This book is meant to be useful for many people. But, you’re right. If you really mind that much, then would you mind reading this book to that child whenever it is born? The thing that we are going to do now, would be a rehearsal for that.」

Whatever I was saying now was more of a joke-like verbal agreement. Whether it will really come true, was something neither I nor Noct knew. But I desperately wanted to see the future in which Noct, who probably will leave this mansion someday, would read books to the child in my belly whenever we get to meet again. 

「Hey Noct. Can’t we do that?」

As I stared straight into Noct’s eyes, he returned with a gaze as if he had just seen something unbelievable. His lips quivered as he gasped silently. Finally, he forced out the words as if he finally figured out how to.

「We can’t, not, do that.」

ーNice, got his word for it. 

「Thank you. Then it’s a promise.」

I did a flamboyant victory pose in my head, and let go of Noct’s face, this time turning open the cover page of the history book. 

And so, the reading-writing lessons that, based on me, were mainly for my benefit, and conveniently for Noct’s benefit too, started. 

If you asked me how I started to teach Noct how to read and write, it actually wasn’t that difficult a method. I started off by making him memorize the basics of the basics, how to write the vowels and consonants. Afterward, we read the history book together and I made him write each word down in his notebook while we read each word out loud. 

Even though I was born in the Adina Household, Governor of Magical Books, the rulers of words, I still found it hard to teach someone else how to read and write from scratch. But compared to I who had taken up the role of an incapable teacher, the student, Noct, really was brilliant. It was amazing that after he finished copying a passage, he could write it out again without looking at it, even if it was a little distorted. With this, he probably wouldn’t have any trouble with reading and writing no matter where he went.

「Noct you really are amazing. Even though you’re already pretty set on reading, I didn’t think you’d be this fast at understanding writing too」

「Not really」

I tightly held the notebook buried in words against his lap and whispered, tracing the words with my fingers fondly. Yet Noct showed no sign of joy and completely denied it, as if he were a conditioned reflex of his. I couldn’t help but smile wryly at his hopelessly immediate answer. 

It seemed that this young boy had a tendency to look down on himself. If only he’d have more confidence in himself. Hm. If my reassurance was insufficient, would it mean that it’d work if I got some help from the others?

「Since we spent all this time, let’s show Edi this notebook when he comes home. 」

As I said that while marking a flower circle [1. TL Note: similar to a gold star awarded to kids for good work at school] with red ink on the notebook that I put back up on the table. But Noct immediately shook his head. 

「I don’t want to. I’ll get made fun off.」

「Ah, Edi isn’t someone like that」

No matter how much he disliked a person, and even if they weren’t able to yield that much of a result, that man would never do anything like make fun of a person who had worked hard the entire time. ……Well, but if that man had really given up hope on someone, he also had a side where he would completely ignore the person through and through, because he couldn’t be bothered to make fun of the person.

But having allowed Noct to stay in this mansion for the past week, there was no way that that man would take that attitude towards Noct. Throughout these two weeks, those two had gotten considerably closer. It was an unusual speed for that man, who fundamentally didn’t really let anyone in. It was very heartwarming and nice for me to see that man care about Noct like that, even with all that he says.

Although Noct wouldn’t like it, I had already decided in my heart that I was going to show the notebook to that man. I wonder what kind of reaction that man will have when I show this to him. I got excited just thinking about it. 


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