I played the role of the adopted daughter way too well. Chapter 014: It had nothing to do with Viola’s will.

“Hey, get off…”

My body crumpled down like a house of cards.

‘I’m so sle…epy.’

My consciousness became hazy and I drifted off to sleep.

3:45 AM.

This seven-year-old body just couldn’t keep up.

A seven-year-old’s body is extraordinarily vulnerable to basic human needs.

Eating, excreting, sleeping.

Hunger, the urge to relieve oneself, the need for sleep. Especially those three were its Achilles’ heel.

When too sleepy, too delicious food was around, or too pressing a nature call came, it just couldn’t be helped.

It moved on its own despite my will. Just like now.

Snooze—

Viola fell asleep. As she inhaled and exhaled, her little chest slowly rose and fell.

Zeno gazed at the sight.

“Well, well.”

He scratched the back of his head.

“Is it rude to say this?”

Zeno calmly leaned down and delicately covered her with a blanket.

A few strands of purple hair slipped into Viola’s mouth.

Maybe she was dreaming, but Viola was munching on her own hair.

Zeno gently pulled her hair out.

It brushed against her chubby cheek.

Viola squirmed, perhaps feeling a bit ticklish.

“You look adorable when you’re sleeping.”

That exceedingly Bellate-like princess seemed just like any other kid when fast asleep.

Zeno was serious.

‘Seriously. She’s cute.’

She was much smaller than a typical seven-year-old.

You’d believe she was five.

Looking a bit closer, she was sleeping with her eyes barely cracked open.

With a tenderness a little more careful than when covering her with the blanket, Zeno closed Viola’s eyelids.

He straightened up.

“Ugh.”

He found her sleeping form cute.

But the whole process wasn’t all that cute.

Because Viola was testing him.

And that was precisely why Zeno liked it.

‘Hey, get off…’

That was a signal to take care of it yourself.

‘Someone who can handle mana like that wouldn’t struggle to sleep, right?’

He’d witnessed how she handled mana.

When she threw the quill at Bichen.

When she subdued Tundra in a flash.

When she slapped her own cheek.

Mana was a product of this era that bestowed superhuman strength.

A person who could manipulate mana to that degree wouldn’t be defeated by something as trivial as sleep… or so he naively assumed.

‘You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?’

This was a test set by Zeno, the butler, for himself.

To take care of it yourself.

The fact that a report would go up to the Duke was an indirect way of showing that it was not such a matter of urgency for him. That was so very Bellate-like.

‘The report… I’ll take care of it myself.’

Zeno smiled brightly.

He extinguished the magic lights.

Worried Viola might wake, he quietly slipped outside.

A smile lingered on Zeno’s lips.

Having closed the door without a sound, he muttered softly.

“Let’s see if I can pass this test, Princess.”

There was no one who set the questions, only someone trying to solve them in this strange exam.

*

5 AM.

Time for Duke Heron Bellatu to wake up.

As usual, Heron sat up in bed.

Since losing the first wife he truly loved, ‘Rael’, he had always fallen asleep alone.

To bear heirs, he took two more wives, but he had never shared a bed with them except for that purpose.

As always, the person welcoming the morning with Duke Heron Bellatu was Chief Butler Carlton.

“I’ll prepare your bathrobe and some warm tea.”

Duke Heron lived like a machine. He woke up at 5 AM.

Carlton arrived promptly at that hour to serve the Duke.

Duke Heron took exactly 15 minutes to shower. He walked out of the shower, wearing the white bathrobe Carlton had given him.

Through the open bathrobe, his sculpted muscles and deep, shadowy abs were revealed.

Chief Butler Carlton approached Duke Heron.

With gloved hands, he helped tighten the Duke’s bathrobe.

He pulled the strings at the back and tied a bow in front, covering the Duke’s smooth body with the robe.

“If Lady Rael were alive, she would have disapproved of this.”

“She is dead.”

She always reminded him to come out like this after showering, worrying about his stomach troubles.

Duke Heron nodded with a blank expression.

Rael was always like that.

‘You’re going to catch a stomach bug if you keep it up.’

‘I won’t catch a stomach bug.’

Duke Heron’s body was infused with potent mana.

This mana protected him.

He couldn’t get a stomach bug, nor could it happen to him.

Yet he appreciated Rael’s worry.

He was grateful whenever she came close to him, so he always made a point of loosening his bathrobe.

‘Did I say I was going to catch a stomach bug several times? You really won’t listen, will you?’

‘If you just did it like this…’

To put it simply, that was Duke Heron’s wish.

He hoped Rael would always be by his side.

Please don’t die,

She was the only person he truly loved with all his body and heart.

So he deliberately said such things.

‘Keeping my health in check is your duty. Never forget that duty.’

It meant, please don’t leave me and die.

From the moment he first met Rael, he knew she had limited time.

She was suffering from an incurable disease that even the priests of the temple couldn’t heal.

Yet, Heron loved Rael.

She was his everything.

‘You should be able to take care of this much by yourself.’

‘I’m busy. I can’t afford to worry about these trivial matters.’

He deliberately let his bathrobe hang open.

That had now become his habit.

This habit was also Duke Heron’s way of remembering Rael.

“Let’s discuss today’s schedule.”

However, today held a special agenda.

“Zeno will be reporting in person in about 25 minutes. He’s currently waiting outside. Apparently, it pertains to the 6th princess.”

*

Duke Heron drank tea while listening to Zeno’s report.

After hearing the entire report, Duke Heron smiled faintly.

“What an interesting report.”

The most intriguing part involved Isabella and Viola meeting.

“So Isabella is on guard, you say?”

The Duke does not love Duchess Isabella. However, he recognizes her ability as a mistress.

Duchess Isabella was an essential figure in this Duke house. It was surprising that Isabella was on her guard against a mere seven-year-old.

Zeno, looking a bit troubled, said, “I didn’t say she was on guard, Your Grace.”

Isabella tells him most of the matters within the household.

The reverse is true as well. Duke Heron often discusses many matters with Isabella.

They were in a political marriage where they aided each other based on mutual interests.

“However, she didn’t mention anything regarding Viola.”

That meant she was unwilling to discuss Viola with him. It could be interpreted as being on her guard.

Carlton, standing by, cautiously inquired.

“Could it be that she deemed it not worth discussing?”

“From what I hear in Zeno’s report, it doesn’t seem that way.”

Carlton cast a glance at the Duke sitting in the chair.

‘It seems after a long time, someone has caught the Duke’s interest.’

Fifteen years had passed since Duchess Rael’s death. The Duke had buried his emotions.

He simply lived immersed in work.

The Duke charged forward like a person chased by something.

And that was how the current Bellatu Duke House was established.

He could become a king but chose not to.

He became the great lord, Heron Bellatu, who guards Winter Castle.

Heron asked.

“When is the welcome banquet?”

“In three days.”

“What time can I have before that?”

“Tomorrow from 3 PM to 5 PM, the official schedule is clear.”

“Good.”

Duke Heron decided to meet his adopted daughter.

“That feels very Bellate-like, but also seems like an advanced version of Bellate.”

An advanced Bellate. At first glance, it sounded unpleasant.

It implied that the current Bellate was stagnant Bellate.

“A seven-year-old adopted daughter who can thoroughly wear a mask and use others.”

“I assure you, you won’t regret meeting her.”

“My time is precious, Zeno.”

“Of course.”

The Duke’s time equaled gold. Stealing that time with meaningless affairs would be a far greater crime than robbing gold.

Zeno was well aware of this fact.

“It seems you requested a face-to-face report out of a sense of confidence.”

“Yes, the princess gave me a test.”

“A test from the princess to you.”

Duke Heron smiled faintly.

Butlers are always suspicious of the qualities of heirs.

If the heirs don’t grow properly, the butlers fall out of favor. Hence, they always doubt and continually test the heirs.

That is the way of survival for butlers.

But this time, a Bellate who tested the butlers appeared.

Zeno smiled brightly.

“If my meeting with you goes well, I could perhaps score some points with the princess as well. Of course, if that meeting doesn’t go splendidly…”

He scratched his head.

“You wouldn’t actually kill me, right?”

“I will come to see you tomorrow at 3 PM.”

“Yes, understood.”

Zeno bowed and straightened again.

“Oh, there’s one more thing I want to mention. It’s not part of the official report, but… this is something Zeno the butler personally wishes to express.”

“Speak.”

Carlton listened attentively.

Zeno was someone the Duke had personally recruited.

It was the first time he had seen him add a personal opinion.

“Princess Viola is actually quite cute.”

…..”

He had seen her sleeping soundly, munching on her own hair.

That sight was adorable.

“That she’s cute? That’s rather un-Bellate-like, yet in a way, more Bellate than anyone else. It’s a truly intriguing sensation.”

“That’s a frivolous sentiment.”

Carlton, who had been listening intently, felt a bit disappointed.

‘Cute, you say?’

Even more than enough with the Lord’s charisma, Bellate being described as cute?

‘That’s a frivolous virtue.’

Now it made sense why it hadn’t been included in the official report.

What use is it to say Bellate is cute?

Cutness was a virtue utterly irrelevant to Bellate.

Until that moment.

Duke Heron felt the same way.

“I’ll see you at 3 PM tomorrow.”

A day has passed.