episode_0010

Thanks to the creaking carriage, Eleanor’s already sore back now felt like it was about to snap.

Changbaek, observing his daughter’s expression, repeatedly asked if she was okay throughout the carriage ride.

Honestly, it was hard to keep a straight face.

However, fearing that ignoring Changbaek’s inquiries might lead to trouble, Eleanor politely responded while hiding her true feelings.

“Yes, Father. I am truly fine. Have you been well all this time?”

Concerned that harsh words might slip out unintentionally, Eleanor mimicked lines she had seen in historical dramas.

But Changbaek on the opposite side seemed displeased with his daughter’s polite response. It wasn’t just displeasure; his face flushed red, and he kicked Albrice’s shin vigorously.

“Ouch! Ah, Father!”

Albrice’s cries of pain echoed through the previously quiet carriage. Grimacing in pain, he brushed off his father’s blow from his shin.

“Look at this, Albrice! You! You failed to properly take care of our dear Ellie!”

With a voice full of anger, Changbaek glared fiercely at Albrice.

“Our Ellie! Our cute Ellie who always ran to me calling me ‘Dad’! Look how she has changed!”

“Why is that my fault? Ellie probably toughened up after getting sick once.”

“What! This rascal!”

Again, Changbaek forcefully kicked his son’s leg. Albrice’s pained cries filled the carriage once more.

Watching the struggle between the two men, Changbaek’s wife, Etie, turned her head away as if disgusted and looked at her daughter’s face.

Ignoring the commotion, she firmly held Eleanor’s hand and placed it on her lap.

Unlike her mother, Eleanor found the scene quite amusing.

This amusement couldn’t end here.

Suppressing a laugh that threatened to burst out at her brother’s expression, Eleanor watched the verbal sparring between the two men.

In response to Changbaek scolding his son, Albrice opened his eyes wide and exclaimed indignantly.

“Ow! I’ve tried everything too! I even consulted a famous doctor-”

Eleanor interrupted Albrice in that moment.

“That’s right, Father. Uncle has done everything he could, I think the same way. So please stop being angry now.”

It was a line she had read in a web novel once.

Imagining the somewhat arrogant lady who owned that line, Eleanor straightened her back and looked at Changbaek.

And after kicking Albrice’s shin and calming down slightly, Changbaek, upon hearing his daughter’s words, reignited with passion.

“Now! Our child! Huh? She calls me not Dad, not even Father. She calls me ‘Father’!”

“Ouch! Father, it really hurts!”

Once again, Albrice was kicked in the leg.

His cries echoed through the carriage once more.

Seeing his contorted face, Eleanor chuckled inwardly.

Yes, this is how siblings should be, right!

But, Changbaek, even so, isn’t it a bit much for a grown-up to act like a child towards a grown woman?

“Elli, let’s stop playing around now.”

While witnessing the trivial fight between the two men for a while.

At that moment, the soft voice of his wife tickled Eleanor’s ear.

Eleanor gently turned her head to the side.

In the sky-blue eyes, so similar to her own, worry was deeply embedded.

Eleanor, seeing her mistress’s expression, gently lifted the corners of her lips, still tinged red with lingering warmth, and gazed at her mistress, hiding pain behind a broad smile.

“Mother, I’m really, truly fine. Just a bit tired from being cooped up in the mansion all this time and suddenly venturing out into a crowded place.”

“Really? Is there anywhere else uncomfortable for you?”

“No. Except for a bit of stiffness from sitting in the carriage for so long.”

“Well then, that’s good. Let’s make sure to get your back massaged when we return.”

Between mother and daughter, a heartfelt conversation ensued.

Meanwhile, beside them, the atmosphere between the couple remained tense.

“Hah! Our dear Ellie is in this state because of you!”

“No, why is it my fault! Ouch! Father! It really hurts!”

From then on, Albriss’s cries continued until the carriage arrived at the townhouse.

The chaotic day remained dramatic until the very end.

Undoubtedly, Eleanor was no longer a child but a grown young lady.

To Eleanor, as well as to Lady Beornwick, her reflection beyond the mirror appeared just so.

However, to her parents, she still seemed childlike.

As they rode in the carriage, Lady Beornwick declared that she would spend the night in Eleanor’s room, as she had done before.

Though they had playfully responded to the situation inside the carriage, Lady Beornwick’s emotions were indeed heavy. For Eleanor, embodying Lady Beornwick’s feelings was almost unbearable.

She may have been thinking differently in her mind, but her body found itself mischievously frolicking with her mother on the bed.

Despite the tender massage, Eleanor’s slender waist, worn out from the carriage ride, still ached persistently. After dinner, her previously quiet stomach inexplicably began to itch again once she lay down in bed.

Unbeknownst to herself, Eleanor found her hand resting on her mother’s waist and her head nestled against her warm and gentle chest.

Thus, Eleanor spent a warmer night than usual in her mother’s embrace.

And today.

Upon the long-awaited return of the mistress to Beornwick Manor, the grand estate was bustling with a liveliness unseen during her absence.

Lady Beornwick, seemingly dissatisfied with her son’s interior design sense, looped Eleanor’s arm around hers after breakfast and toured various parts of the estate.

Inspecting the dull curtains, faded carpets, and worn-out furniture one by one, she promptly placed new orders with the following merchant.

Accompanied by Eleanor, who trailed along, seemingly bored by the spectacle.

Lady Beornwick detailed everything meticulously to her daughter, from color combinations of fabric trinkets to furniture prices based on materials, and even tips on dealing with merchants, envisioning Eleanor as the future mistress of the manor.

Thanks to the cozy night prior, Eleanor’s condition, which had improved significantly, plummeted once more.

The morning passed by busily.

Having visited the capital after a long time, Lady Beornwick left the manor to meet people in the city, engaging in banter with her son, while lunch was lovingly shared between Lady Beornwick and Eleanor, mother and daughter alone.

And so, now, under the parasol on the balcony, basking in the warm spring sunlight, the mother and daughter were enjoying their tea time together.

Sipping on a somewhat bitter unknown tea to soothe the pain in her lower abdomen, the wife sitting beside her spoke to Eleanor in a hushed voice.

“By the way, Ellie. Someone is coming this afternoon to fit you for a dress.”

“W-what? A dress?”

As her daughter, startled and spitting out the tea she had in her mouth, reacted with alarm, the wife’s brown eyebrows twitched upwards.

“My goodness! Why are you so surprised? The debutante ball is less than two weeks away.”

“Oh, no. It’s not that.”

Accepting the white handkerchief offered by her wife, Eleanor dabbed at her lips.

In truth, being in a fantasy world, having inhabited a woman’s body, Eleanor had already mentally prepared herself to wear a dress. However, in this novel’s world where she was embodied, it wasn’t a place where one wore dresses casually. Thanks to that, Eleanor had been quite comfortable in blouses and long skirts until now.

Of course, wearing lace-adorned blouses and billowy long skirts wasn’t exactly comforting, but that was how she had been managing. Nevertheless, upon the mention of a dress, she involuntarily spat out the tea she had just sipped.

Seeing her daughter’s expression turning cold, the wife interjected with a concerned tone, “Ellie, what’s wrong? Are you still feeling unwell?”

Indeed, while it was about the dress, Eleanor’s condition, which had been deteriorating since the day before yesterday, remained unchanged.

Amidst all this, sitting in the shaky carriage yesterday had exacerbated the pain in her waist. Her body felt heavy overall, especially with a stabbing pain in her lower abdomen.

However, just as she had done all morning, Eleanor hid her expression, lifted the corners of her mouth slightly, and said, “No, I’m fine. I was just a bit surprised that someone is coming to the mansion instead of us going to the dressing room.”

It was a hurried excuse, but fortunately, it seemed to appease her wife.

With a somewhat wistful expression, the wife looked at her daughter’s face lost in memories.

Feeling uncomfortable under her mother’s gaze that seemed to read into her past, Eleanor gently turned her sky-blue eyes away.

Before long, a familiar hand reached up over the blouse adorned with lace on Eleanor’s chest.

“Wait a moment, Mother?”

With a gentle touch, the wife raised her daughter’s chest slightly from below.

Startled by the touch, Eleanor looked at her wife, placing her hand on her chest.

“Seems like it’s grown a bit since I last saw it. Even your height. Back then, we joked about marrying you off. Our daughter, you can really get married now.”

The platinum hair, shimmering silver in the warm spring sunlight, swayed roughly from side to side.

“M-marrying off? I want to stay by your side forever, Mother.”

Yes, I truly mean it, not as your wife, but as your daughter!

I really don’t want to get married. I want to live alone forever. Like that famous person from the island nation, I want to marry into my own family!

Understanding the sentiments of her daughter, the wife shook her head slightly.

“A spinster is enough with just your sisters.”

Smiling softly, the wife elegantly lifted the teacup, still emitting steam, and took a sip.

“Truly. I’m worried about when Elly and I get married later on. How can we send off this adorable baby?”

So please don’t marry her off.

I want to live in my mom’s embrace like a kangaroo for the rest of my life!

With those words she couldn’t bring herself to say, Eleanor kept them hidden in her heart along with the fluttering feeling in her stomach, and she flashed a brief smile towards her husband.