WBWB | Chapter 7

I placed the writing tools and test papers in front of my student.

Lady Ana looked back and forth between the test papers and me, then bit her lower lip, her expression showing distress and helplessness. She hesitated, not even attempting to look at the test papers. 

I tilted my head.

‘Is she trying to rebel? To break my spirit from the start?’

But unlike the attitude of the Viscount’s daughter, who had argued with me, ignored me, and picked fights until she learned about my connection to her grandmother, Lady Ana seemed extremely timid.

She looked at me as if asking for help, then turned her gaze to the test papers, fidgeting with the corner of a page.

“Teacher, I… I can’t solve these problems.”

“Why not? You haven’t even read them yet.”

“I…”

Lady Ana bit her lower lip so hard that all the blood drained from it.

“I can’t read yet, Teacher.”

Looking at the girl’s expression, I realized she was telling the truth.

‘What? Why? How?’

I stood frozen in place for a moment, my mind filled with bewilderment.

‘She’s thirteen, isn’t she?’

Thirteen was the same age as Young Master Mael when I first met him. At that time, he possessed a surprisingly high level of knowledge. Of course, he was a special case, but… unable to read?

‘Something’s strange.’

I had let it pass at the time, unable to understand the situation, but looking back, there were several strange things. First, the current Duke had an older brother until recently. Noble families usually passed their titles and estate on to the eldest son. If they didn’t, it wouldn’t take many generations before there were too many titled nobles and estates became hopelessly split apart.

‘That’s why I thought the older brother might be an illegitimate child.’

Even if that were the case, children who were acknowledged by their fathers would have received a high-quality education along with legitimate children. And a duke, in particular, had the power to bestow lower-ranking noble titles on his half-siblings. As long as they didn’t threaten the line of succession or inheritance rights, siblings could be close even if they had different mothers.

‘There’s no way he would have taken in the child of an enemy-like brother as his adopted daughter. And even gone so far as to personally select a tutor for her.’

But if all these assumptions were correct, shouldn’t she have received an education before being adopted into the Duke’s household? But she knew nothing?

“So… you can’t read at all? Not even a single word?”

The girl in front of me nodded at my words, her expression even more timid.

“Hmm, then what’s your favorite thing?”

“Huh?”

I sat next to Lady Ana and asked. She seemed flustered by the sudden question.

“I thought we could spend the morning getting to know each other. I’m curious about what you like, Ana. Can you tell me? Then I’ll tell you what I like too.”

Lady Ana’s face turned bright red.

“I… I… Teacher Jeanne.”

“Yes?”

“Teacher, can you keep what I say a secret?”

“Of course. Don’t worry and just tell me. I don’t have any friends here anyway.”

At my words, her face suddenly brightened like sunshine.

“…Me neither. Teacher, I…”

She leaned closer, almost embracing me. Lady Ana placed her small hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear as if sharing a secret.

“I really like making butter. It’s hard to churn the milk until it thickens, but on the days I make butter, I can eat buttermilk until I’m full. Have you ever had buttermilk, Teacher? It’s sour, but really delicious.”

‘…Buttermilk? Did she just say buttermilk?’

Buttermilk was the leftover liquid from making butter.

‘What did I just hear?’

A noble’s daughter shouldn’t even know about the existence of buttermilk, let alone how to make butter…

I couldn’t begin to comprehend what I had just heard.

* * *

Duke Baldr de Skadi, despite being a noble himself, held prejudice and animosity towards his fellow nobles, believing them to be arrogant, extravagant, and utterly incompetent. 

This prejudice only deepened when the royal court in the capital city of Franc sent him exiled nobles who had lost political battles, ostensibly under “royal orders.” Ironically, the nobles who arrived in exile to Skadi were of lower status than he was as a grand duke, yet they subtly looked down on him, claiming his barbarian roots disqualified him from true nobility.

However, in the early days of his reign as duke, he had considered the circumstances of the exiled nobles and showed them mercy. His mercy consisted of assigning them easy and simple tasks and providing them with food and lodging at the mansion. But instead of gratitude, what he received in return was outrage and criticism.

‘How dare you make me work!’

They threatened revenge upon their reinstatement and criticized him for making fellow nobles work, claiming he wasn’t a true noble.

‘Did they really expect to live in luxury and idleness in their place of exile?’

Fed up, Baldr responded by assigning those who complained to forced labor, building fortresses on the border. Only then did the nobles, finally understanding the situation, reluctantly submit to him. He assigned them tasks like writing land surveys and transcribing ledgers.

As for why he offered better treatment to the woman exiled this time, it wasn’t because of the heartfelt letter from the King’s illegitimate son, whom he had never met. It was because he suddenly had an adopted daughter. 

The explanation of how he came to adopt his niece is a long one. In any case, Baldr decided to raise her niece as a proper member of the Duke’s household. Since he had adopted her, she might even become a queen someday.

However, a major problem arose when he brought her to the mansion. The child couldn’t even read, let alone write. Feeling the urgency of the situation, Baldr hastily sought tutors, but none of the ones he hired met his expectations. Moreover, some of them even went so far as to spread cruel remarks, claiming that the child was dyslexic or an imbecile.

And just then, as if falling from the sky, someone was exiled to his territory. A tutor who had experience teaching a prince, albeit an illegitimate one.

‘Finally! They’ve sent me someone useful.’

He looked at the list to see what crime she had committed.

Her name was Jeanne de Toulouse, and her crime was spreading subversive ideas.

‘Subversive ideas?’

That wasn’t a problem for the Duke. 

So what if she had subversive ideas?

‘It’s not murder, assault, arson, robbery, theft, or infanticide, is it?’

Criminals who deserved to be executed immediately were also dumped here, along with political prisoners. Baldr sent these criminals to build fortresses, making them work until they were near death.

In any case, the letter from the prince, the tutor’s former student and son of the King’s mistress, which arrived before the exile herself, described in detail what an excellent teacher she was and how she came to be exiled. Reading the letter, Baldr realized it was a common case of someone inadvertently caught up in a political fight.

‘She worked as a tutor for a prince, even if he was an illegitimate child, so she must be competent. She might be be unbearably arrogant, but that’s something I can deal with. Being an exile is actually better; I can hold all the power and control her however I wish.”

He eagerly awaited Jeanne’s arrival as an exile.

However, Jeanne didn’t arrive on the scheduled date. A day passed, then two, three, five, fifteen, and then a whole month.

‘What happened?’

Wondering if she have been attacked by a group of bandits, he sent out a search party. They found the woman at a shabby inn, having arrived in Skadi territory a few days prior but in poor health, resting until she recovered.

As soon as Baldr found out about this, he immediately went to the inn himself. That’s how he first saw Jeanne.

‘She’s younger than I expected?’

Usually, a prince’s tutor would be an older lady, but the one who arrived was an unexpectedly young woman. She was lying in a state of disarray, covered in filth, barely clinging to life. Seeing her emaciated form, he became enraged.

‘How dare they torture my tutor?’

Even though she hadn’t agreed yet, in Baldr’s mind, she was already his adopted daughter’s tutor. He assumed she had been tortured before being exiled. But after hearing the escort’s explanation about the delay in their schedule caused by caring for her, he facepalmed.

‘She became this ill just from the journey here, without even being tortured?’

Apparently, she was in this state simply from the strain of riding a horse all the way here.