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01. The Second White Night
Episode 2
(Heloise’s pov)
“Hey, Leo…”
I knocked carefully and opened the door slightly.
Leo, an eight-year-old boy with black hair and pumpkin eyes, slowly raised his head while building blocks.
“Can I come in?”
“Yes.”
Leo looked at me insincerely and looked back at the block. I crept up to Leo’s side and sat down.
‘Oh my gosh, you’re so cute.’
Small hands that are as short as maple leaves but moved gently, and soft cheeks that are cute no matter how solemn they are.
‘He’s cute even though he looks like Johannes Noavik. What a wonder children are.’
I pushed back with the urge to pat him and spoke carefully.
“What is this? What are you making?”
Leo sighed and looked at me. His face was full of vigilance.
“Hey.”
Oh, my God. I didn’t expect him to be warm, but “hey” is a little too much.
A light sigh came out. No matter how recently a stepmother came in, he should have at least called out my name, “Heloise”.
Of course, Leo continued to say worse things.
“You don’t have to pretend to be close. It’s uncomfortable.”
“I’m not pretending to be close… I just want to be close.”
I pretended to be depressed, but I thought Leo deserved it.
This was the Duchy of Noavik in the harsh north. The servants were all rough and blunt, as they were northern people who valued force.
I felt this over the years, but the people here seemed to have no idea how to talk softly. Therefore, no matter how much Leo is a Noavik’s young master, he will only be loyal and no one will be nice to him. So it was natural that this approach was unfamiliar.
“Well… If you’re uncomfortable, I’ll go.”
In the end, I stood up carefully not long after sitting like that.
“But let’s be closer. I really want to get along with Leo. No matter how much of a stepmom I am…”
I smiled until the end and added softly.
“Since now that we’re family. Don’t you think so?”
Leo didn’t react to what I said, so I had no choice but to smile and say goodbye with a slight embarrassment.
“Ahaha, then I’ll go. Good night and see you tomorrow.”
At that time, Leo, who was keeping his eyes fixed only on the block, answered bluntly.
“…Carry a sword around.”
“Huh?”
“You haven’t encountered any evil spirits yet, so I don’t think you know, but it’s dangerous in the north. It’s not a peaceful and warm place like the south. Well, I don’t think you know how to use a sword.”
“Oh my.”
Oh my gosh, that’s so cute. I said it while holding back the laughter that leaked out without realizing it.
“Are you worried about me now?”
“No.”
Leo’s reply was embarrassingly quick.
“I’m just saying it because I think you’ll cry and go to the south later. It’s been quiet for the past few days, so it’s time for the evil spirit to appear. As you know, there are no priests dispatched to the duchy right now.”
“Ahh…so it’s like that.”
When Leo brought up the story of ‘evil spirit’, I pretended to be serious, but he still looked cute in my eyes. Leo sighed and shook his head slightly.
“It seems that you still don’t have a real sense of how terrible the evil spirits are… That’s okay. You have to experience it to know.”
“Yeah, I have to experience it to know.”
After putting on a slightly faked smile, I felt sorry for leaving as it is, so I looked at the blocks Leo was making and talked about it for nothing.
“By the way, Leo, what are you making now?”
“Odeni’s broken leg.”
“…Broken leg? This?”
Well… As I was examining the blocks that Leo was building, I suddenly became worried and started asking questions.
“Can such a thing be implemented with blocks? Are you going to omit things like blood and muscle? And who is Odeni? Maybe…”
“What?”
Leo’s face looking up at me was full of absurdity. Then he murmured blankly.
“Odeni…is a small town where the bridge collapsed in an avalanche…”
“Ah.”
I was also perplexed by that. I was not familiar with the north, so I did not know the place name well. Leo sighed and said.
“No matter how rough the North is, it’s not a place where children make such cruel things natural.”
“Ah, yes. Sorry.”
In embarrassment, I hurriedly left Leo’s room. Leo’s absurd eyes seemed to be lodged behind my back. Anyway, getting to know Leo today was a failure.
~*~
“Madam, are you cold? Should I heat it up more?”
On my way back to my room, I ran into a maid named Kate.
“No, it’s okay.”
Kate, a maid, had a large frame and no expression as a northern person. And she wasn’t even kind to me, the new wife from the south a few days ago.
“But thank you for worrying about me. I’ll tell you if I need you.”
When I smiled broadly, Kate flinched as if she were seeing a very strange animal. The north was a place where people would get angry if they were worried about them, so my reaction was not familiar. Kate looked at my wrist and sighed deeply.
“…Why don’t you have an escort, ma’am?”
“Escort? I heard that northern people don’t have escorts or anything.”
I answered back naturally.
“I’m a northern person now, and I don’t need an escort knight or anything like that.”
“That’s because people in the northern part of the country know how to protect their own bodies.”
Kate answered bluntly, but she no longer strongly recommended it as a northern person who values individual territory since childhood.
In addition, the northern part was a place with clear upper and lower relations. The lower person could not force the upper person to hate something.
Of course, Kate was not the only servant worried about Heloise Noavik, the new duchess from Renault’s house in the south.
Sparkling golden hair, calm yet gentle speech, sweet and friendly expression, and blue eyes that look so nice because they’re a little droopy…
Even when I looked in the mirror myself, it was a typical figure of a southern aristocrat who grew up so beautifully.
Everyone complained that they could not figure out what the owner of the castle and Leo’s father, Duke Johannes Noavik, had in mind in choosing such a woman.
Why on earth a little chick-like woman who doesn’t fit in with the North at all?
Of course, it was not a situation where I could ask Johannes just because I was curious.
This is because Johannes remained in the capital to track down the first-class phenomenon “Blue Ruby” even after having a wedding in the capital with me, and I came to the North by myself a while ago.
“It’s time for a superior evil spirit to appear. Of course, even if it can’t get inside the castle because it’s usually taken care of by the gatekeeper, sometimes it’s really dangerous.”
“Oh, Leo said something similar.”
“In addition, there are no priests dispatched from the temple now. They sent a divine beast, but it’s another thing I don’t know, so if an escort knight is uncomfortable, keep a maid from the north…”
Pls read only at pinkmuffintl.
“Thank you for caring, Kate, but it’s okay.”
“Still…”
She sighed and turned around for the last time.
“When the duke returns, he will be the first one to put an escort around you.”
There is no one to force me to keep an escort knight next to me now, but it means that it will be inevitable when my husband, Johannes, returns to the castle.
“I’ll think about it then.”
I smiled with an easygoing face. Johannes never came here anyway.
“Kate, good night.”
The cold and blunt northern people, who are fighting evil spirits every day, were quite unfamiliar with my relaxed personality.
Kate couldn’t even say good night because she was embarrassed, so she bowed her head vaguely and moved away.
Of course, I didn’t care about that, so I hummed while walking into the room. After coming to the Duke of Noavik, I chose my own room.
I didn’t tell anyone, but in fact, there was only one condition for me to choose a room. Leo’s room window will be visible from the window of my room.
After washing up, I changed into comfortable clothes and sat on the window frame leisurely. All I had to do was wait.
When the night gradually deepened and the crescent moon just rose, it was past midnight.
“Hmm. As expected…”
I felt a strange energy from far away. As soon as I sensed the familiar yet terrible feeling, I quickly locked the door. After that, what I took out of the large teddy bear in the room was none other than a long gun.
“As everyone expected, I thought you’d show up around today.”
Then I quickly opened the window, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
Foosh!
There was no rupture sound because it was energy going out instead of bullets.
At the same time as I pulled the trigger, the black smoke that tried to break into Leo’s room, the evil spirit, lost its shape and scattered.
My power penetrated the evil spirit’s ‘heart’. Guns were the best weapons to fire quickly and accurately.
The quiet duchy became noisy again. I skillfully put the gun back in the teddy bear and closed the window. This large teddy bear, a device made by Vincent himself, was perfect for hiding long guns.
There was no need to see if my shot was accurate or not. I was a sniper who was born with natural talent and trained for a long time, so my shots never missed.
My current name was Heloise Noavik. Not long ago, I married Duke Johannes Noavik and became Leo Noavik’s stepmother.
Before marriage, my name was Heloise Renault, the southern noble Renault, and I was known as the only sister of the southern noble Viscount, but in fact, it was a fake status.
And in some cases, I was called an exceptional illegal evil spirit hunter, a first-class bounty designated by the temple, ‘Blue Ruby’.
There was no one in the present temple who could exorcise evil spirits as accurately and quickly as me. That was also the reason why I got a first-class bounty ticket.
“Madam!”
Not long after I unlocked the door I had locked and laid down on the bed, Kate hurriedly knocked on the door.
“Madam, madam?”
“Come in. It’s okay.”
At my calm words, Kate suddenly opened the door.
“Are you okay? Is there anything wrong?”
“Ah… I’m okay. But what happened?”
I got up from the bed and asked, blinking my eyes as if I didn’t know anything.
“There has been an evil spirit attack! Fortunately, the divine beast sent from the temple this time is good, the young master is safe, but I wonder if the evil spirit was attacked…”
Kate rubbed her forehead and muttered.
“Indeed, when it’s so dangerous… You are a duchess who has no fighting skills and you don’t even have a proper escort, the Duke has no sense of responsibility…”
As I quietly listened to Kate’s concerns, I just smiled with a gentle smile.
Without any sense of responsibility, Johannes was never such a man before his return and even now. I wonder if he was raising his child, who was not his own, by deceiving him as his son.
“When the Duke returns soon, I’ll ask him to seriously consider what the ‘blue ruby’ he is chasing after with all his heart and soul, and his marriage with responsibility!”
I just smiled because I didn’t have anything to say to Kate, who was not like me.
Still, the situation was terrifying all by itself.
Can Johannes imagine that the ‘blue ruby’ he is pursuing is now in his castle?
Before my return, I never imagined that I would also marry Johannes Noavik, the most annoying chaser after me, who I always inwardly called a ‘temple dog’.