"...A test, you say?"
"Yes. So if I pass the test, I would like to continue receiving lessons from Head Butler."
"......!"
Rigreen's poker face crumbled.
Watching his change in expression, I fell into thought.
'If I want to get what I want in the future, I need Rigreen's help.'
The Duke's secretary, the head butler of the Rodbel Estate, and even the education teacher for the direct line of descendants.
As he juggles such a demanding schedule that even multiple bodies wouldn't be enough, his influence within the ducal family is truly immense.
In terms of influence alone, he held a more important position than Aen.
If I could win him over to my side, the area in which I could operate would expand much further.
And above all else.
'If I am recognized as Rigreen's student, I can definitely take the qualification exam.'
Because he only teaches Rodbel's direct line.
Just taking his classes would grant me similar rights.
For various reasons, I had to make Rigreen my own before the qualification exam.
However...
'I was struggling because there was no justification to start a relationship.'
But unexpectedly, the Duke gave me a chance to make one wish.
So at first, I tried to do as Rigreen suggested.
I tried to forcibly tie him and me together using the Duke's orders.
'But then I would be no different from the other children.'
I had to create something more intimate and special.
Not a relationship bound by coercion and obligation, but a strong driving force for him to maintain this relationship himself.
Because that is the only way for me, an illegitimate child with a weaker position than the other direct descendants, to survive.
But if you want to get something-
"...Then what do I get in accepting the offer?"
"I'll go back to how it was."
-you have to be prepared to lose as much.
"Go back to how it was?"
"Yes. I'll end the lessons with Commander Rixus and change my room back to where I used to live. I won't be noticed by Head Butler and the others again, and I'll live as quietly as a mouse."
It's a statement of giving up everything.
'Isn't this what you wanted?'
To Rigreen, I was like an element of instability shaking up the stable Rodbel ducal family.
'So you must have given warnings continuously.'
Don't act up. Know your place.
'I'm saying I'll do that.'
For Rigreen, it would be quite a tempting condition that he wouldn't need to refuse.
However, contrary to my expectations that he would accept immediately, Rigreen's reaction was cold.
'What's wrong?'
Is this not enough?
I glanced at him and added a word.
"And I'll leave this place."
"......!"
Rigreen's eyes widened at my words.
His green eyes shook violently.
"...Leave, you say?"
"Yes."
I nodded firmly.
"Huh..."
Rigreen exhaled as if he was dumbfounded.
Well, I guess he would be.
'After begging for affection so much, suddenly saying I'll leave.'
It might seem like a lie.
"Are you serious?"
He asked as if testing my intentions.
I answered without hesitation this time as well.
"Yes. I'm serious."
"......"
Rigreen closed his lips and watched me silently.
I met his gaze without avoiding it.
After a long silence, Rigreen was the first to part his lips.
"Ha."
He let out a rough laugh and looked at me with cold, hardened eyes.
"Alright. Since you're going that far, I'll value your will."
Rigreen smiled cynically.
"But you must keep your word."
"Yes. I will."
When I answered lightly, Rigreen's expression became even colder.
He said.
"I will set the questions. There will be a total of 10 questions."
He spread out his ten fingers.
Folding two of them, he said.
"If you get 8 or more questions right out of 10, I will consider that you have won."
"8 questions..."
Certainly, the cut-off was high.
Well, it's to be expected.
Rigreen would want to kick me out of this family no matter what.
There wouldn't be an opportunity like this for him either.
'I expected this level of difficulty.'
I readily agreed.
"Yes. Okay."
But for some reason, Rigreen seemed dissatisfied with my answer, looking at me with a disgruntled gaze.
But that was only for a moment. He stood up and said.
"I will make the test and come back in an hour. In the meantime, study with this book."
With those words, he slammed the textbook he had brought in front of me.
"Oh, thank-"
Bang.
Before I could even finish speaking, Rigreen stormed out of the room.
He was originally an unpleasant person, but he seems to be in an even stranger state today.
Anyway.
"Saying to study means he's going to take questions from here, right?"
It was unexpected.
I thought he would make the questions ridiculously difficult to make me fail.
'I like it.'
I composed myself and opened the book.
I immediately concentrated.
Clack.
Rigreen, who returned to his room, put down what he was holding and collapsed into the chair.
Hoo. He let out a long sigh and took off his glasses that were getting in the way.
Rubbing his somehow stiff eyes, he noticed the things on the desk.
Rigreen's lips slowly parted.
"......Seriously."
A stifled voice leaked out, choked with emotion.
Rigreen pressed his lips together again.
His gaze was fixed on Lucia's one-on-one lesson textbook.
'Why did I accept that ridiculous proposal?'
Rigreen recalled the conversation he had with Lucia earlier.
At the same time, he became quite unpleasant.
Clearly, the decision-maker in that conversation was Rigreen.
Listening to the proposal and accepting the proposal were all Rigreen's responsibility.
But while only Rigreen had the decision-making power, the person who led the conversation from beginning to end was Lucia.
...It seemed to be Lucia.
'I don't understand.'
What Rigreen couldn't understand was himself.
'Why did I accept the offer?'
Even if he had heard it, there was no reason to accept the proposal.
Lucia made a condition that she would not only return to her previous life but also leave the ducal residence, but that was only desperate from Lucia's point of view, and it wasn't very tempting for Rigreen.
'It was annoying, that's true.'
As the head butler managing the mansion, as the aide assisting the Duke, and as the teacher teaching the direct line, Lucia was like a thorn stuck in his fingertip.
It would be easier for him if she just stayed quiet, but she always stirred up trouble.
That seemed so foolish in Rigreen's eyes.
All of that looked like a child's struggle to be loved.
'Without knowing it's useless.'
Ego, Duke Rodbel, and Lucia.
Rigreen knew the emotional currents between the two better than anyone.
Only one-sided affection.
It would be more appropriate to say that she was begging for affection.
'Pathetic.'
Rigreen thought Lucia was so pathetic and stupid.
Why doesn't she know that nothing will change no matter what she does?
After all, the person she wants will never look back.
Stupid, pathetic, foolish. Just the kind Rigreen hated.
So Rigreen was so annoyed by Lucia.
And recently, the degree of annoyance had gone too far.
But she's going to disappear on her own.
'It's better that way.'
Rigreen changed his mind and picked up the pen.
He felt uncomfortable because he seemed to have been swayed by Lucia, but it's better to go back to before at this opportunity.
Before Lucia shook Rodbel. To when her presence was close to nothingness. To before she was this annoying.
The method was so easy.
'I don't know what she was thinking when she made this offer.'
He won this game anyway.
With that conviction, Rigreen moved the pen.
Exactly one hour later, Rigreen returned.
"We will begin the exam. Close the book."
Rigreen, who returned, spoke with an even more aloof attitude.
"Yes."
I closed the book and looked at him.
Thump, thump.
My heart is pounding.
I think I'm more nervous than when I asked the Duke to disown me.
"As I said, if you get 8 or more questions right out of 10, you win. The exam time is..."
He checked the wall clock and said.
"I'll give you 30 minutes. Start."
Clack.
Without giving me a chance to answer, he immediately picked up the pen and turned over the test paper.
How difficult will it be? He must have made it very difficult, right?
'But it's still based on a child's standards.'
To Rigreen, I'm an ignorant 10-year-old, so he must have made it difficult based on that standard.
But even though I didn't have learning, I have the knowledge up to the age of 20.
'I have a certain chance of winning.'
That's why I made the offer, believing in it.
Even so, I couldn't help but be nervous.
I swallowed hard and scanned the questions with trembling eyes.
'...What is this.'
I was momentarily taken aback.
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