Chapter 37: Tea Party for the Ladies is Very Enjoyable Today As Well!

“Is this really okay….”

A few days had passed since the news of Heine’s kidnapping and confinement was delivered to the head of the Rubel family, James Rubel.

Since Lin had sent a letter with the maid who accompanied Heine, it was clear that he would learn in detail how Lin was treating her.

Nevertheless,

For some reason, Heine’s father, maintaining an incredibly leisurely attitude, had shown no particular reaction so far.

“M-Miss Heine, perhaps you don’t want to have a pajama party with me…?”

“No. It’s not that….”

“…Ah! You don’t have to worry at all, Miss Heine. …Well, if things don’t work out, there’s always the option of becoming my personal maid, you know?”

“…I’ll have to decline that one.”

James Rubel cherishes and loves his daughter, Heine.

Lin, claiming to prove this herself, was ‘confining’ her in her own mansion for a while.

She just couldn’t leave the mansion.

In reality, she faced no restrictions no matter where she roamed.

Though Lin always followed Heine around like a puppy.

‘No matter how I look at it, it just seems like she wants to play….’

Though she said everything was a ‘plan,’ Heine found such a Lin quite unreliable.

And for good reason…

“Miss Heine. Look at this.”

“Pant pant pant.”

“Now, paw!”

“Woof!”

“Not my head! How many times do I have to tell you to put it on my palm here!”

“Woof?”

“Don’t pet your master!”

The child named Lin,

Was looked down upon even by the wolves she was raising.

Watching this,

Heine wondered if Lin’s Raphael Inc., currently under construction, was actually planned by her father, Governor-General Edwin.

No, rather, it was probably correct to see it that way.

“Miss Heine, have you ever ridden in a car?”

“No. Never…”

“Then I’ll give you a ride!”

Lin, excited at the thought of playing with her first friend her age, rushed to the garage.

Watching such a Lin, Heine considered it all to be merely her own arbitrary misconception.

The Governor-General’s daughter, who smiled foolishly whenever their eyes met, was neither as great nor as mature a person as she had imagined.

“Haa….”

Realizing that the expression and determination she had shown while ‘confining’ her,

Were actually nothing more than a child’s tantrum, the strength drained from her shoulders.

“Pant pant pant.”

“Heek…!”

One of the Lycan Wolves that hadn’t followed Lin tilted its head as if asking what was wrong.

The Lycan Wolf was so large that even when all four paws were on the ground, it was about eye level with

Heine.

Heine, having spent several days with Lin, knew that despite their appearance, they weren’t dangerous.

Nevertheless, she was momentarily frightened and stepped back.

Vrooooooom!!

Just then, the sound of a car from afar.

“Who told you to bother Miss Heine!?”

Soon after, with a loud thud!

Lin came rushing in her car and rammed into her own pet dog.

“Whimper…!”

The Lycan Wolf, severely hit by its pack’s youngest sibling, whimpered.

Heine covered her mouth with both hands at the shocking traffic accident scene.

However, the Lycan Wolf soon shook its body and walked off as if nothing had happened.

To a Lycan Wolf, whose essence was that of a monster, a slow car’s body slam was merely a slight sting.

“Miss Heine. Are you hurt anywhere!?”

“I-I’m fine, but….”

Lin, who naturally knew this fact well, didn’t even glance at the puppy she had rammed, and immediately checked on Heine.

“No. I’m still worried.”

Lin, who had already learned the Lycan Wolves’ mischievousness firsthand, and painfully.

Worried that Heine, her first friend, might also become a victim of pranks like herself, she turned the steering wheel back.

Before long, she returned from the warehouse with a disciplinary tool she used to favor in the past.

And Lin, placed it firmly in Heine’s hand and said.

“If our puppies approach Miss Heine, hit their heads hard with this. Understood?”

“……A pipe?”

Heine, who had acquired a brass pipe with a strangely good grip.

When Heine made a reluctant expression,

Lin, seeing that, thought ‘oops’ and took the pipe back into her own hand to personally teach her how to use it.

“If it’s just one or two, hitting their heads is fine, but….”

Lin slowly waved the pipe in her hand so the puppies could see it.

“When too many of them swarm, like this…!”

As she threw the pipe as far as she could with all her might,

All of Lin’s puppies rushed out as if competing with each other.

“Do that! And you can immediately escape the crisis!”

“……It just looks like you’re playing with them.”

“No, Miss Heine. I’m the one, playing with them.”

“Huh? Well, of course…”

The puppies quickly retrieved the pipe and brought it to Lin.

As soon as Lin received it, she threw it far away again with all her strength.

And as Heine watched, Lin was smiling as if she was having a great time.

‘She’s such a picture-perfect young lady. I don’t even feel tricked anymore….’

Heine, who had learned Lin’s true nature in just a few days.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t disappointed at all, but she couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh inwardly at the 100% pure innocence.

However, that didn’t mean she found her childishness pathetic like other noble young ladies.

No, rather,

Heine thought that such unadorned actions were perhaps her unique virtue that other young ladies dared not possess.

“Now, Miss Heine! Shall we take a drive around the garden in the car!”

Her father, who still hadn’t even sent word, despite the letter stating his daughter was confined already being delivered.

But why?

That fact, which had been bothering her until just a moment ago,

At this very moment, Heine felt as if it had all scattered and disappeared in the wind.

‘Why this person is so loved…. I think I understand a little now.’

Lin, looking extremely excited, drives the car around the garden.

Watching Lin from the side, Heine smiles without pretence.

How much time had passed like that?

That face she had momentarily forgotten, faintly appears beyond the main gate of the Rose Manor.

“Lady Lin.”

“…It seems you’ve finally arrived.”

The head of the Rubel family, Heine’s father.

Lin’s expression, somewhat serious at his appearance.

Heine momentarily doubts her own eyes, wondering if this is the same child who was grinning foolishly like an airhead just moments ago.

“Welcome, Baron Rubel. It’s been a while.”

“Lord Leonard.”

Meanwhile, in the Governor-General’s office of the Rose Manor.

Leonard, who was handling affairs in place of his father who had gone to inspect other regions, welcomed Baron Rubel.

Noble society is solely about titles, so the Baron respectfully bowed his head to Leonard, who was of his eldest son’s age.

“Fufu, my apologies. Our Lin is a more mischievous child than we thought. It seems we’ve unintentionally caused you concern. Ah, of course, Miss Heine is doing well and enjoying herself.”

“No. I received a report regarding that matter, so I wasn’t particularly worried.”

‘Of course, you wouldn’t be.’

‘Is that why you came so late even after receiving a letter saying your daughter was confined?’

‘Even if you did receive a report on the actual situation, to be this indifferent to Miss Heine….’

Leonard didn’t voice that thought.

Not only was there no reason to interfere, but he wasn’t particularly interested in other people’s family affairs in the first place.

“So where is Heine now….”

“Miss Heine is right here!!”

Baron Rubel, trying to get straight to the point without flowery language.

Lin, as if this was what she had been waiting for, boldly opens the door and appears.

“You there. Are you Baron Rubel, Miss Heine’s father?”

“…That is correct.”

“As I thought!”

Lin, looking at Baron Rubel as if he were utterly pathetic.

However, Baron Rubel doesn’t seem to take Lin’s gaze too seriously.

“Baron Rubel. You, man…! How could you make such an adorable Miss Heine anxious!?”

Lin, undeterred, sharply criticizes Baron Rubel.

Using her own father as an example, she begins a long sermon on paternal love, saying that love must be expressed directly.

“Even my father, who was so taciturn at first! Now, before I go to sleep, he wishes me goodnight and strokes my head!”

“……Lord Governor-General Edwin seems to be quite a doting father, doesn’t he.”

“Fufu. Indeed.”

“So. Where is my daughter, Heine?”

“Huh? Where is Miss Heine, you ask…. Right here! Isn’t she standing right next to me…! Have you reached the point where you can’t even recognize your own daughter standing before you…. …Huh? Miss Heine?”

Lin, who had been fuming, looks for Heine.

Heine, who should have been standing right next to her, had disappeared.

Heine, who had been hiding in a corner behind the door,

Resists desperately, trying not to show her face to her father as Lin forcibly pulls her.

“Uh, uh uh…!?”

Lin, finally using the levitation magic of her necklace to slightly lift Heine, then pulls her.

Soon, Heine in princess mode, adorned with dazzling jewelry and a dress—naturally, Lin’s maid did it—reveals herself.

“Now, how is it? If you were a proper father, could you still maintain that indifferent attitude towards such an adorable princess!?”

“Hmm, Lin. The remark about being a princess could easily become treason, you know.”

“…Eh?”

That’s right.

A princess is, after all, a king’s daughter.

This, in other words, was enough to be taken as a rebellion, declaring independence from the Empire and proclaiming oneself king.

Fortunately, thanks to the ears that heard them being favorable, Lin and Heine kept their heads.

“Then, like a princess…?”

“Hmm… that’s also quite dangerous.”

While the Rosegarden siblings exchanged banter.

Beside them, Heine, her face flushed red with embarrassment, tries to avoid her father’s gaze.

Yet, she peeks glances, curious about his reaction.

“So…. This is….”

Baron Rubel, seeing his daughter dressed up uncharacteristically, seems to have realized something and quietly rises from his seat.

He then slowly approaches Heine, strokes her head, and says softly.

“It suits you well.”

Baron Rubel, realizing he had been too stingy with his daughter.

However, he too had his reasons.

First, Heine was not the type to act cute towards her parents or crave affection like other children.

Second, he thought Heine was overly mature for her age and wouldn’t like being treated like a child.

And so.

Heine clearly realizes that her father loves her,

And holding her longed-for father’s hand, she steps outside the door to return home.

“Lady Lin.”

Before getting into the carriage,

Heine approaches Lin, smiling.

“Thanks to Lady Lin, I realized. That feelings, must be expressed clearly….”

“Fufu, yes. That’s exactly it.”

Expressing her gratitude, she gently takes Lin’s hand and clasps it.

“That proposal Lady Lin made. Is it still valid?”

…Proposal?

Lin tilts her head at Heine’s words.

After desperately racking her brain, she guesses it must be related to a tea party or a pajama party.

“Yes! I’ll be waiting anytime!”

Lin smiles.

Heine smiles back at Lin.

However, the fact that their smiles held entirely different meanings.

Lin, at this time, doesn’t notice at all.

“Father.”

“What is it?”

Inside the departing carriage,

Heine conveys to her father the proposal Lin had made to her.

James Rubel, who had been listening quietly, respects his daughter’s opinion with a smile.

‘Then… please wait a moment, Lady Lin.’

And so.

Heine resolves, watching the receding Rose Manor.

‘Soon, I will return as a maid worthy of you.’

To become Lin’s,

Closest personal maid.